Dan's Reading Journal

The Illiad by Homer (translated by Samuel Butler)

There are some serious gaps in my education.  I never finished Joyce's Ulysses, I had huge problems with Faulkner, and choked on Flannery O'Connor.  I was not an English major, thus did not confront Milton or Sir Walter Scott.  I managed to get to Steinbeck, Hemingway, Styron, as well as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky but really fell down on the classics.  Thus, I decided to load my Kindle with The Iliad and give it a go.  Well, I gave it a go, and I am gone.  First, what led me to expect I would be reading about the Trojan Horse?  Because I am an ignoramus, that's why.  The Trojan Horse shows up in the Aeneid by Virgil (I think) -- Yup, that's right, I haven't read that either.  What a dummy.

Second, no one warned me that the Iliad's closest literary rivals (at least in style) are either the Book of Lists or the generations section of the Book of Genesis.  My guess is that fully 50%  of the Iliad is made up of the litany of who killed who, with what weapon, by what gruesome wound, and what lineage just got cut short. Not a few, not tens, but hundreds.  With a sword though the jaw, with a sword through the stomach, with a sword through (or above, below or next to) the nipple.  I think Homer (or his translator) has a thing for nipples -- it is the most frequently mentioned location for where swords (or pikes, or staffs, or whatever) puncture the human (male) body.

Achilles is an arrogant sort, supremely confident but only focused on himself and his due. Just a bit of an ego, to say the least.  Agamemnon is apparently a grasping, pecuniary sort -- abusing his position as King to enrich himself.  Homer also does not lack for ego, sees himself as a hero, and plays to the part   right up until he ends up mano-a-mano with Achilles which prompts Hector to run like hell around the walls of Troy with Achilles in hot pursuit.  Paris appears only in a supporting role, portrayed as a lover, not a fighter (a coward, in fact) and a kidnapper to boot.  Helen plays a bit part...beautiful, but little else.  Odysseus (Ulysses) appears as a courageous fighter, wise counsel, albeit with a temper.  The Gods flit in and out, playing favorites with the humans, determining their fate, influencing human behavior, and arguing, scheming, and fighting amongst themselves

There is more, but I must admit I was not engaged.  I am truly sorry.  I know it is a tremendous story. I would like to blame it on the translation, but that would be unfair.  It is me. I'll wait awhile and try The Odyssey - a story I adored as a child.

Wanting: A Novel by Richard Flanagan

The practitioners of (good) historical fiction are a multi-talented lot.  They possess the ability to write plot and character, a deep knowledge of their chosen period, and a creative spark and insight to tie the two together in a way that intrigues but does not stretch the readers' credulity.  Richard Flanagan demonstrates his virtuosity in Wanting: A Novel.  Flanagan gives us two very different stories of the nineteenth century:  In Tasmania (Van Dieman's Land); an aboriginal tribe fights for its existence and one of its daughters, Mathinna, is adopted by the new Vice-Regent (Governor General) and his wife - the explorer Sir John Franklin and his wife, Lady Jane.  Years later, Lady Jane implores Charles Dickens to write a defense of her husband (lost in an Artic expedition) that Dickens turns into a play where Dicken's plays the main character.  In the casting and presentation of the play, Dickens meets, falls in love with, and then must deal with his marriage and his desire for the actress Ellen Ternan.

Flanagan does a magnificant job of asking the question (and answering it with his plot creations and his prose) of what is savage and uncivilized and what is cultured and civilized.  The cultured Franklins, particularly Lady Jane, are enthalled by the aborigine Mathinna and tear her away from her people and her culture to live with them in Hobart (the capital), where Lady Jane embarks upon her "education".  When she fails to become the cute, black, Christian child Lady Jane envisions, Mathinna is, at the end, abandoned. As the Franklins leave Tasmania (forced out by politics), they leave things worse than when they arrived.  Mathinna's people are  mistreated, their culture unappreciated and dismissed, with their aspirations and desires as a people demeaned and disregared by the civilizing British.  If anybody had ever thought to ask, they would have discovered that neither Mathinna nor the Aborigines have seen fulfilled any of what they might have wanted.

Years later, as Dickens writes his impassioned defense of John Franklin and his Artic expedition (without any evidence accused of cannibalism), burying himself in his work to take his thoughts away from the death of his daughter Dora, he recognizes that his marriage is empty; unfulfilled and unfulfilling.  He meets Ms. Ternan
while casting his play and falls in love -- but can not fully remove himself from his marriage.  He loses himself more and more in his play, in his acting -- where he has written John Franklin as the conquering hero, the civilized (and civilizing) British gentleman; erudite and cultured who would certainly die honorably if the choice were between that and resorting to cannabilism to survive in the unforgiving Artic.

In the end, Flanagan has given us a terrific insight into desire -- the cost of possessing it and the cost of its lack of fulfillment.  Lady Jane wants, but can not have, the conversion of Mathinna she so desparately wants. Just like she must work so hard to ensure her husband's (and thus her own) reputation.  Mathinna desires a return to her people, but she has been changed and cannot go back.  The result is a devastation of the individual.  John Franklin wants greatness, but is defeated in politics, and ultimately is killed by his ambition.  Dickens can not have his daughter back, nor can he produce (nor receive) the love and affection in his marriage he so fervently desires.  Nor, once he finds love, can he have it and share it with the world.

Flanagan is incisive and powerful.  He intrigues us and creates strong emotions.  This is worth reading.

Public Enemies by Brian Burrough

First, an admission.  I could swear I have reviewed this book before....I just can't find the writing anywhere.  So, at the risk of repeating myself or, alternatively, here is what I imagined I said.

It is hard to imagine making Bonnie & Clyde, John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, and J. Egdgar Hoover boring, but Brian Burrough manages the task in Public Enemies.  Made into a movie starring Johnny Depp (as Dillinger), the book reads more like a PhD dissertation than an exciting piece of writing. 

Now, it is possible you wanted to research the FBI's 1930s flowering as a crime-fighting institution and/or wanted all the facts on the various travel activities and lodging locations of the era's most wanted criminals.  If so, Burrough has nailed it for you.  The research underlying this book is extensive, exhaustive and impressive. The recitation of minutia is often overwhelming.  While Burrough does provide information on the key players, I often found myself thinking he could have provided more interesting insights into the personalities, motives, and/or back-story on the characters.  Lots of facts, little excitement.  Peeking out in between all this detail, on occasion, are interesting events and occurances, but they are not enough to lighten the load.

One thing that Burrough did a very good job of was illuminating the incompetence, puffery, buffoonery, and althogether unsavory beginnings of the FBI as the nation's crime-fighting force.  Exposing J. Edgar Hoover for the paper tiger that he really was is the one major saving grace of Public Enemies.  Hoover's posturing machinations to make himself and his institution look even remotely effective is unnerving because it worked in the 1930s and up through the 70s.  It is so patently obvious that the man was a phony, malevolent, power-hungry incompetent in retrospect that is easy to forget how much damage he really did while in power.  Burrough does a good job of reminding us of both the charade and the unfortunate result.

Burrough writes, "but while the FBI's "socially positive" role was on public display during 1933 and 1934, so too can the seeds of the FBI's later abuses be seen:  the beating of suspects, the "kidnapping" of Verne Miller's girlfriend, Vi Mathias; tbe conviction of Adam Richetti on perjured FBI testimony; and the arrest and trial of Roger Touhy for the Hamm kidnapping.  The War on Crime bestowed upon Hoover's FBI something close to absolute power, and the day eventually came when Hoover's FBI was corrupted absolutely by it.  The Bureau wrestles with its legacy to this day". 

I would add that the hypocrisy that Hoover represented personally would almost by definition create an institution that reflected the glaring deficiencies of its leader.  The FBI is much better off out from under the leadership and legacy of J. Edgar Hoover.

For no other reason than Burroughs documentation of the FBIs reality at its beginning, it is worth wading through some less than exciting details in Public Enemies.

The Professional by Robert B. Parker

Spenser, Hawk, Susan Silverman, Sgt. Belson, Captain Quirk, Vinnie Morris and Bernie Marcus -- after 36 Spenser novels, these characters are good friends that I very much look forward to visiting.  The Professional is Parker's best Spenser novel of the past few years. Quite frankly, the plot hardly matters.  Spenser and Hawk live by their very unique codes of honor and conduct, trade quips, and outwit the bad guys.  Susan continues her career as a therapist, loves Spenser unconditionally, and trades quips with the guys. Quirk and Belson keep Boston safe from the bad guys, grudgingly lend a hand to Spenser when he needs it (because he has earned their respect) and trades quips with each other and with Spenser.

Oh, yeah and in The Professional, Spenser tries to figure out how an apparently sex-addicted good-looking nebbish name Gary has managed to successfully blackmail a significant number of rich women.  The plot thickens (well, at least there is a noticeable increase in viscosity) when some of the women start turning up dead.  Spenser discovers that not all the women are rich, Gary isn't all that bad a guy, and some of the husbands are dodgy.  Susan lends a hand by contributing her insights and Hawk watches Spenser's back.  

Needless to say, all's well that ends well.  Parker and Spenser provide much entertainment.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

There have been a rash of books purporting to explain everyday human behavior and its consequences.  Nassim Taleb has shown us that most of the stock market performance that creates a following is more randomness than actual performance (see Fooled by Randomness) and that most of the real money made on Wall Street is due to the rare and unpredictable rather than "playing the odds" (see The Black Swan).  Malcolm Gladwell has become a staple on The New York Times bestseller lists with The Tipping Point, Outliers, and Blink, each of which explains some aspect of human performance or human phenomena.

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein wrote Nudge...discussing how our psychological quirks can be exploited by government policy and businesses to nudge us in the right direction and correct (or prevent) some of the damage inherent in totally free markets.  They call it "libertarian paternalism" -- they favor "nudges" over laws, bans, and edicts.

Where Thaler and Sunstein focus on the political, Dan Ariely focuses on the more mundane, more everyday reality of human behavior and its implications for public policy in Predictably Irrational.  Ariely, an Israeli behavioral economist now at Duke University, shows us how our perceptions of reality, our expectations, emotions and acceptance of social norms all combine to help us make irrational decisions.  By bringing hard science and hard facts to the study of human decision-making, Ariely demonstrates that our irrationality is truly predictable.

Want to stop teenage pregnancy and/or prevent coerced sex?  Well, Ariely's research will conclusively demonstrate that "just say no" is worthless because male decision-making under conditions of arousal is dramatically less rational than when not aroused (i.e., like when answering a survey).  For example, when aroused, almost half of men say they would keep trying to have sex even when their partner says "no" - up from only 20% when not aroused.  Slip a woman a drug to increase the chance of having sex?  Only 5% of men said yes in the survey....but 26% said yes when aroused.  So, if you are a woman and want to ensure that you won't be pressured into sex....never put yourself in a position where you are negotiating with an aroused man..because he will not make rational decisions.

How about this --  everyone cheats...Ariely proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt (the experiments Ariely designed and executed to determine this are just plain fascinating)...but if you want to significantly reduce the incidence of cheating or stealing...just have people try to write down as many of the 10 Commandments as they can remember.  It works even if hours in advance of the opportunity to cheat.  We humans have strange minds, eh?

Ariely and his team does it again and again...why we would pick a beer laced with balsamic vinegar rather than regular beer...why we will cheat less when cash is at stake, but more when things that can be used as cash are at stake...why the price of the painkiller influences our evaluation of effectiveness...and on and on.

Ariely writes with a terrific sense of humor, an entertaining sense of wonder, and occasionally with tongue firmly in cheek.  Predictably Irrational is readable, entertaining, and incredibly interesting.  Have fun and learn something, give this a try.

How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy

How Rome Fell:  Death of a Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy is definitely NOT light summer reading. I am in awe of Goldsworthy's scholarship and his grasp of the material.  The book addresses two major questions:  first, why Rome "fell" and second, do any of the myriad of current tomes about the lessons to be learned by the United States from the fall of Rome hold water?  (this second question, as you have no doubt already guessed has been rephrased by this reviewer -- Goldsworthy is much more eloquent).

This is not light reading - and, in some cases is mind-numbingly difficult to remember - the speed at which emperors are created, rule, and discarded is often faster than I could comprehend.  Covering the period from Marcus Aurelius (161 C.E.) to the fall of the Western Empire (roughly 600 C.E), there are probably more than 50 Emperors (for the combined empire and then following the Western Empire once split), and at least that many defeated usurpers if not more.  We have the Huns, the Goths, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, and the Vandals, not to mention the Persians, Parthians, and others.  Truth told, I could not retain it all. 

However, the "simple answer" to the first question is that Rome beat itself and devolved into tribal kingdoms.  No enemy really ever rivaled Rome's power, not even the Persians (who were by far the closest).  By devoted so much of its energy and resources to maintaining the safety of the Emperors - though dividing responsibilities to avoid creating rivals to the throne, civil wars, defeating numerous usurpers (and sometimes losing) and being stretched very thin, Rome became unable and unwilling to mass its power.  The decline started in the third century and by the sixth, power had devolved to the kings - the senate had been effectively emasculated, and there simply was no longer the centrifugal force to keep the empire together.  The loss of the power of the senatorial class also meant that rivals to the Emperor now could arise from almost any source - the military mostly, but also the civil administration.  As Emperor after Emperor tried to keep his throne, he weakened the very forces that supported the Empire - strong, centralized armies, strong centralized politics (the senate), and stong battle-hardened Emperors.  More reliance on "foreign" sources of manpower as the Empire's need's grew. Bureaucracy and corruption increased, Emperors became more isolated, armies became localized and eventually, slowly, but inexorably, the fabric of empire (institutions, traditions, fealty, and purpose) was worn down.

Lessons for the today's only superpower...only a few and some of them surprising.  First, a reliance on other than regular army (mercenaries for Rome, and private companies for the US) weaken the regular armed forces capabilties...and what was once "a choice then becomes an unavoidable necessity and alongside this goes a loss of control". And, Goldsworthy adds, a loss of purpose, loyalty, and the risk of personal gain superceding the wider needs of the country.  Interesting, eh?

Rome never had a true competitor, and thus the growth of bureaucracy (at the expense of the armed forces) does not necessarily reward talent or efficiency and effectiveness - and Goldsworthy notes that "it is very easy for a large institution to lose sight of its real purpose ...government can all too easily become a question of trying to stay in power under any circumstances...real success or failure is hard to measure, especially in the short term.  Targets and personal gain are attractive alternatives".  Message received...remind anyone of standardized test results and body counts?

Finally, it took a very long time for Rome to decline, "from the third century onwards Roman emperors lost a sense of their wider role and instead concentrated on survival...the rot began at the top....sheer size meant that for a very long time the Romans either kept winning, or at the very least, did not suffer defeats that were catastrophic....the empire was in decline, but able to continue for many lifetimes".  Message received...remind anyone of our two political parties? 

Goldsworthy ends by saying "decline is not inevitable, but the risk is always there", and then quotes a urbane student of his discussing schisms within the Church in the fifth and sixth centuries...{in a fake rural accent} "you know, people are kinda stoopid".....no truer words have ever been spoken.

A Terrible Splendor by Marshall Jon Fisher

A Terrible Splendor:  Three Extraordinary Men, A World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played by Marshall Jon Fisher is the story of "Big" Bill Tilden, Don Budge, Baron Gottfried Von Cramm and the beginnings of professional tennis....and the beginning of World War II....and what it was like to be homosexual in Nazi Germany AND in the pre-war United States...and what it is like to play and beat a legend.  Fisher tells a very engaging story with a tendency to hyperbole (just check out the title, but then this was published before the Nadal/Federer or the Roddick/Federer finals).  He does however, provide a fascinating and engaging look into a past world - when tennis was dominated by talented and dedicated amateurs.  It is also an interesting look into the conflict between the German aristocracy and the rise of Nazism and the impact of anti-Semitism on German sports.  Von Cramm is the gracious and dedicated player, the penultimate sportsman (he argues points that his opponent should have been given), and has a Jewish lover.  Bill Tilden is the consummate player, but also lives dangerously close to (and more than occasionally crosses) the edge of what was then considered acceptable behavior.  Don Budge is the new guy with the astounding serve. Tilden serves as von Cramm's coach (pardon the pun) and Budge and von Cramm meet in the deciding game of the 1937 Davis Cup match (then the biggest event of the sport) between Germany and the United States.  Having been caught in the Nazi machine, winning is one of the few things that can keep von Cramm out of big trouble. 

Clearly tilted towards the fascinating characters of Tilden and von Cramm, Budge pretty much gets the short shrift in terms of the narrative.  Between them all, but mostly falling on Tilden's shoulders, is the beginning of the professional tennis we know today.  If you are into tennis, or just a pretty good story, this was quite entertaining.

Last of the Summer Reading

Looking back, the last of the true summer reading have clearly been (mostly) a search for escapism. Not that I have a lot to escape from, mind you, but I have always been able to waste time on good junk -- so, here are three places for you to waste your time.

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child - When you really need to blow a couple of hours with no mental exertion and the latest Robert B. Parker (Spenser) or Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch) is not available, reach for one of the 11 Jack Reacher novels written by Lee Child.  As I have noted before, many times the plot device is not believable and Reacher is definitely a strange bird.  Jack Reacher is a 13 year MP veteran who, having been cut loose due to the peace dividend, is now a drifter with no fixed address and a paranoiac fear of any hint of permanence, i.e.,  he owns nothing but the clothes on his back and a toothbrush.  He does, however manage to save the world from really bad guys, has a mean streak that won't quit, and enjoys his revenge as a dish served hot or cold but demands to be served.  Bad Luck and Trouble is no less (or more) believable than any of the others, and that is not a bad thing.

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross is a very clever sci-fi adventure with some very neat twists and turns. The initial premise is pretty cool and quite definitely intriguing -- sometime very far into the future the universe has been populated for some time by androids who have done and continue to do the heavy lifting.  Oh, yeah, one complication -- all the humans have all died off, leaving a very robust and active android society complete with unfulfilled pleasure models (programmed to love humans)and a caste hierarchy that at its bottom rung holds the majority of the population as slave-chipped serfs.  Replete with plenty of sex and violence, this may not be (or on the other hand....) everyone's cup of tea.  Like most good sci-fi, Stross has created that alternative universe....but also successfully mirrors the human condition and frailties.  Identity politics and philosophy do not merge all that seamlessly with cruelty, sex, and violence, but the kernel of the idea is strong and pretty much carries the book.  With the main character Freya reminding us of characters past written by Heinlein, Varley, Asimov and others, it was an enjoyable read.  Probably not for everyone.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman presented this reviewer with two problems.  First, I had previous read Gaiman's American Gods which, by the end of it, I thoroughly detested.  Second, this is fantasy and typically I have a huge allergic reaction to trolls, witches, warlocks and their compatriots.  However, Gaiman is a prodigious author, acclaimed by many (a Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker award winner as well as a Newbery Award winner) and multi-genre - children's books, sci-fi, comics (now known as graphic novels) as well as fantasy and film screenplays.  I thought it only appropriate that I give Gaiman another try. 

Neverwhere was Gaiman's first solo novel and it was entertaining. The plot (the protaganist, Richard Mayhew, a resident of London, learns that being the good Samaritan often carries a heavy price.  In this case Mayhew is drawn into the world of "London Below", a shadowing city of mysterious, dark, and oft-disappearing people and places.  Magic abounds as he helps Door find the who and why of the assassins that murdered her family.  Other colorful characters abound and the pace does not tarry.  If you can tolerate fantasy (and not just a little whiff of Dungeons and Dragons), this could be some fun.  It also motivated me to try some more Gaiman -- but I haven't done so yet.

Joker One by Donovan Campbell

Reality war stories are often harrowing, haunting, and incredibly intriguing.  The experience is not unlike the observation of a car wreck....you don't really want to, but can't help but look.  I heard Donovan Campbell interviewed by Terri Gross (the NPR Fresh Air program) and was totally fascinated by this young man's understanding of leadership, his exercise thereof and his accounts of how he learned how to lead while serving as a platoon leader (as a Marine Corps lieutenant) in Iraq.  To quote from the Harvard Business Publishing, " Donovan Campbell is currently a Zone Sales Leader Designate working for Frito-Lay in Dallas, Texas. He returned to Frito in September from a year-long involuntary military recall, during which he helped Special Operations Command Central start its Tribal Engagement Initiative in Afghanistan. After four years as a Marine Corps infantry officer, intelligence officer, and sniper platoon commander, including two tours in Iraq, Campbell graduated from Harvard Business School. His book about his Marine platoon and their 2004 Iraq tour together, Joker One, [was] be published in 2009."

The book, Joker One (the name of his platoon) is no disappointment.  Campbell was assigned to Ramadi in 2004, which turned out to be one of the hottest spots of insurgent activity in the entire country.  Campbell describes his introduction to Iraq, his getting to know and then getting to lead the members of his platoon, and the action events in which the platoon participated.  While not totally objective (who could be?), Campbell does an outstanding job of introducing the laymen to modern urban anti-insurgency warfare, concisely and incisively describes firefight action, and brings the heat, terror, fear, and physicality of war very much into the reader's consciousness.  I will not belabor the aspects of fighting and attack - suffice to say that by the end of his tour he has pretty much decided he will die (and has moved on beyond that) and that his (and his even more experienced gunnery sargent) hands shake continuously.

What is most fascinating about Joker One is how Campbell describes his job relative to both his superiors and his subordinates, the men in his care.  The leadership lessons, examples, and teaching/training (both on-the-job and that provided by the Marine Corps) is extraordinary to read.  The fact that he came home in one piece - and that is platoon suffered only one KIA (many wounded) is astonishing.  That all of this happened when he was about 24 or 25 years old is testimony to the kind of individual he is and the kind of training you get as a Marine officer.  I was hard pressed not to be incredibly impressed with the thoughtfulness, composure, compassion, and commitment demonstrated by Campbell and his men.

You can read the transcript of his interview on NPR at Joker One/Donovan Campbell on Fresh Air.  The book and the interview are very much worth your time.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I may the the last person you know to read Team of Rivals and I probably am a bit of a contrarian with some of my reaction.  Let me say up-front that it is a terrific store of information and I learned a lot that I did not know.  The premise of the work is interesting -- Abraham Lincoln has not been given his due as a political genius nor a leader (manager) of people.  Goodwin sets about and very successfully makes her point. And doing huge injustice to her scholarship, those points are simple and straightforward.  First, Lincoln's nomination as the Republican nominee and his subsequent election as President was no fluke, no accident, and anything but lucky.  Rather, Lincoln's election was the direct result of his own political acumen and the application thereof to the situation as he saw it (better than most) and his execution (better and more sophisticated than almost everyone).  Second, his process of selecting, attracting, and managing the key members of his cabinet - all of whom were his rivals for the Presidency (William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates) was an unparalleled demonstration of superior knowledge and understanding of human behavior and motivation.  Her exploration and demonstration of her thesis is interesting and the politics of the US from 1844 - 1864 is indeed fascinating.  While I am certainly no expert, Goodwin's scholarship appears exhaustive and detailed.

The book suffers from two flaws in my opinion.  First, Goodwin has sharp insights, but is constantly asserting as fact what she believes Lincoln was feeling or what his motivation or thinking must have been.  I do not question her analysis, but it was occasionally noticeable that conjecture was presented as fact. Second, the story is not told linearly, but jumps vertically through the experiences of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and Bates.  It took me a while to get it  - until I did, it was a bit confusing.  Once I got it, it worked rather well. 

Goodwin is a thoughtful writer, but her prose is not exciting nor inventive.  As a small example, Salmon Chase's daughter Kate is describe numerous times....and always the same way, "beautiful".  Minor perhaps, but it was telling. However, these are small flaws. In the whole the scholarship overwhelms the narrative deficiencies.  More important, there is so much to learn and Goodwin lays it all out for us. 

As a final note, while the book centers on Lincoln, I found the descriptions of Seward and Chase to be very, very interesting (Bates was less a focus, or left less of an impression on me).  Chase turned out to be a self-centered, colorless and while effective in his technical role he was endlessly and quite annoyingly blind to his own impact on others.  Seward, in contrast, came across as a terrific ally who subjugated his own interests (after losing the nomination to Lincoln) to the betterment of the country.  Not only was he a tireless worker, he showed extraordinary judgment, tact, and commitment.  Seward, unfortunately, paid a much higher price for his loyalty than Chase paid for his lack thereof and comes off decidedly as the better man.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's Abraham Lincoln is a terrifically complex, interesting, fascinating, and absorbing character.  I truly enjoyed getting to know him, his style, his way of thinking and acting, and his ability to understand the American people both writ large and individual by individual.

While a bit of an effort, it appears to be worth the work of reading Team of Rivals. No question you will learn something new.

Defiance - The Bielski Partisans by Nechama Tec

Summer Reading.....

The movie, Defiance is based on Nechama Tec's Defiance - The Bielski Partisans.  Make no mistake, the devastating terror and heart-stopping danger is very real, but the story telling was much improved by the Hollywood script writers.  Having said that, Tec has none-the-less done the world a huge favor in putting together the interviews, research, and chronology of the Bielski partisans.  Led by the Bielski brothers, this Belorussian Jewish group became part of the Soviet resistance against the Nazi aggression.  While there were many Russian, Polish, and other resistance groups, few were Jewish, and virtually none of them other than the Bielski group welcomed unarmed men, women, children, young or old.  Even less than that accepted unarmed Jews.  From 1942 through 1944 (until the Soviet liberation) the Bielski partisan group created a community that lived deep in the forests and swamps of Belorussia and kept more than 1,200 Jews alive.  "Liberating" food from local peasants, cooperating with armed Soviet partisan groups by sending fighters and providing services (like gun repair and tailoring), the Bielski partisans represented one of the largest rescues of Jews by Jews in World War II.

The history is important, no doubt.  Tec's book, however, reads like a college paper.  Comparing and incorporating differing perspectives (some collected from survivors) and different attitudes is always difficult and Tec has the intellectual honesty not to judge, but the result is a very academic treatment of the situation - little emotion, little tension.  This is a telling, not a novel.  It sets the historical record straight and gives an appropriate recognition to some people who sought no honors and no glory, but deserve a tremendous amount of both.

Tuvia Bielski was interviewed by the author some weeks before he died.  He sought no fame and no aggrandizement.  I doubt seriously that he looked much like Daniel Craig.  Perhaps the times make the man, but after reading this historical record you will have no doubt that, in this case, the man also make the times.

Summer Vacation Reading

Most of my vacation reading is escapist stuff....and this vacation was no exception. I will review the important, heavier, mostly non-fiction stuff individually.  Here is the "junk" reading....

Thrillers, Mysteries, and Such

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson is really worth reading.  For whatever reason, I have been drawn to Swedish mystery and cop stories for some time. Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo wrote ten Martin Beck police procedurals from 1965 to 1975 and while they were clearly reflections of the times (the authors were pretty determined to show how their socialist country was exhibiting many of the same problems as capitalist countries) these 10 novels were wonderful minimalist mysteries.  Stieg Larsson has written a very interesting action story though the action is somewhat muted by Larsson's style.  The style does not detract, however, but seems to mirror my recollections of the "Swedish style". No punches pulled, but there is a bit of minimalist in Larsson as well and that sharpens some of the prose.  The title character is not the lead character, and while she is integral to the main mystery, her own backstory is equally absorbing. 

The quick synopsis -- Mikael Blomkvist is given a chance to redeem himself from professional misconduct when he is employed by a Swedish industrial tycoon (and head of a strange and dysfunctional family) to spend a year writing the family history as the cover for investigating the disappearance of the tycoon's grand-niece some years before.   In the course of events, he is introduced to and hires Lisbeth Salander (her of the tattoo) to assist in the investigation.  Lisbeth has her own story and her own style -- she is more than modestly anti-social and is an absolute wonder in her ability to ferret out information.

So, an interesting crime story, a pretty good mystery, a couple of terrific characters, a fabulous recrafting of the closed-room crime story (all the family lives on the same island -- calling Mrs. Marple!!), and a true anti-hero in the character of Lisbeth.  Enjoy.

Only bummer was finding out that Stieg Larsson - an investigative journalist in Stockholm - died in 2004, leaving behind a trilogy of which The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first published in the the US.

Bad Elmore Leonard is better than most people's best.  No one typically writes a better gritty, more real than reality story about crime, criminals, and damage than Leonard.  In Road Dogs, Leonard brings back Jack Foley, the star of Out of Sight (played by George Clooney in the movie of the same name) as well as Cundo Rey, the Cuban gangster who first appeared in La Brava and Dawn Navarro, the psychic from Riding the Rap.  Foley and Rey befriend each other in prison by watching each other's back (the prison term is "road dogs") and when Foley gets out he heads for Rey's homes (he owns two) in California (at Rey's request) to stay for a while and check in on Rey's wife, Dawn.  Dawn is a temptress who has been waiting 8 years for Rey to get out of prison so she can get his money.  Rey is a borderline psychotic with a temper and an imagination that focuses on infidelity.  Foley is a bank robber and con man and ladies man and there we go.  While Leonard throws in some pretty good tricks, Foley comes off a bit too smart -- he is never fooled and he's never without a comeback or response.  Rey and Navarro seem more contrived and less possible with each passing page.  The witty dialog is good, but the plot seems pre-ordained and a bit tired.  Still fun to read - as I said, Elmore Leonard on his worst day is a pleasure, but this is certainly nowhere close to his best.

  

Persuader; Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child are only two of some 14 Jack Reacher action novels.  Jack Reacher was an Army MP for 13 years (in the early stories, Jack is still in uniform) and is now a happily unemployed drifter who just happens to end up in some outrageous situations for which he is more than adequately prepared to act.  Think Spenser without the civilizing accoutrements of girlfriend, apartment, sidekick helper and the ability and desire to cook and eat good food.  Reacher has commitment issues...like he take clothes to the cleaners because he just isn't sure he will be in the same town when they are finished.  Like he trusts no one - not the government, not the cops, not the crowds, not the bad guys -- no one but himself.  At six-five and 250 pounds of all the MP training the Army could provide, he is a whole lot of skill waiting to happen...and Lee Child gives him the opportunity in every book.

Often, that opportunity is really contrived.  In Persuader (#7), Reacher just happens to be in Boston and just happens to spot a guy who was murdered 10 years previously (on a case Reacher was investigating).  Trying to get some information on the guy's limo lands Reacher in the middle of an unsanctioned FBI sting on what the FBI believes is a drug tycoon.  Fur flies.  Reacher to the rescue!

In Gone Tomorrow, the opportunity is (if you would consider this possible) even more far fetched.  Reacher is in New York, on a subway at 2 am and is one of 5 passengers -- when he looks at one of them, he goes through the entire Israeli 11 point list of what makes a suicide bomber and she nails all 11 --  but he is wrong about the bomber part....as he approaches her she pulls out a gun and kills herself.  And we are off to the races as Reacher gets hip-deep into the war in Afghanistan, a Senatorial election, and a major babe whose mother is an ex-Soviet political commissar looking for an American soldier.  PS, it turns out that of the 5 people on the subway car at 5am, one is Reacher, one is the suicide, one is the Congressman who wants to be Senator's chief of staff, and two are FBI agents. 

So, other than the fact that the story origins are completely unbelievable, Lee Child can write tight action and create very good mystery stories.  The Reacher novels are wonderful in their ability to suck the reader in and help waste a couple of otherwise perfectly usable hours.  Lot's of tight scrapes, twists and turns, feats of incredible physical activity, bad guys getting what they deserve, and Reacher's dry, skeptical, ironic, and totally sarcastic view of life in America (and some other places).

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis is the second collaboration between the father (Dick) and son (Felix).  Dick Francis has written some 40 mystery stories and unlike Robert B. Parker (whom I adore, but must be honest with myself) Francis does not write the same book over and over again. Quite the opposite, in fact.  While all of Francis' books involve horses and horse racing of one sort or another, they also always include some other area of professional and technical expertise.  In Dead Heat (2007) the protagonist is a chef and we learn a lot about what it takes to be a professional chef and own and run a restaurant; in Banker (1982) the key character is a merchant banker.  In Silks, our hero is an English barrister (lawyer, but the kind that try cases) working towards becoming a Queen's Counsel (a status conferred by the Crown).  The double entendre is that while all race horses and their jockeys were specific silks, so are the Queen's Counsels required to wear silk gowns to distinguish their status.

In Silks, barrister Geoffrey Mason is an amateur jockey who takes on case of a professional jockey accused of murder.  Under threat already by former client he begins to be pressured to lose the case by parties unknown...and off we go.  Francis has never written a boring book, he is always interesting, his research is always good, and the mystery has enough to it to keep the reader interested and anticipating what comes next. If you have not read any Dick Francis, pick any one of the 40 up and you will not be disappointed.

   

Science Fiction

Joe Haldeman writes intriguing sci-fi. I reviewed The Accidental Time Machine back in March (see Spring Break 2009 Reviews) and I also very much enjoyed The Forever War.  Haldeman has the really good ideas and the story telling knack that puts him very close to the Robert Heinlein/John Varley school of science fiction.  Camouflage is no exception. The idea here is a really good twist on and combination of the "we have been visited before" theme and the "they walk among us" theme of science fiction.  In Camouflage, an egg shaped artifact is found on the ocean floor and all attempts to communicate with it, open it, or even scratch it fall way short of success.  In parallel, we are made privy to the fact that not one, but two different alien intelligences are (and have been for quite some time) on earth observing us.  One, known as the changeling, has been on earth a very long time, but only recently has it taken human form.  The other, known as the chameleon, has always been in human form.  The changeling has the capacity to learn and to love.  The chameleon is a conqueror, looking for victory and delighting in war and its process.  The Changeling and the Chameleon are ignorant of each other's presence, but with the discovery of the artifact, that is about to change.  Haldeman writes a good story, and shows really good character development in our aliens (and others).

Jack McDevitt is also a good story teller.  I really like his Alex Benedict/Chase Kolpath series (Polaris, Seeker, The Devil's Eye, A Talent for War) and branched out beyond those with Ancient Shores.  It was worth the risk.  Simple premise, big impact -- a farmer in North Dakota uncovers a sailboat on his property.  Interesting given that there has been no lake in the area for about 10,000 years.  Even more interesting is the material of the boat and sail has an atomic number on the periodic table well beyond what we currently have identified.  A search for other artifacts (along the shores of the ancient lakebed) turns up a building made of the same material as the boat -- and it is on Sioux land. The building houses a transportation device that links instantaneously to other habitable planets.

McDevitt takes us through some interesting suppositions and possibilities like what will the US government do about something like this when it sits on Sioux territory?  What happens to the world economy when industries like transportation (air, rail, ship) start to be questioned as to viability?  Or what happens when oil is discovered on one of the planets -- what happens to the power politics in the middle east?  How do governments and media coexist in such situations?

An interesting story with some cool sci-fi tidbits. Only bummer was the ending which comes straight out of nowhere and is pretty damn ridiculous.  Other than that....a good waste of time.

Time travel...of all sorts is a constant sci-fi theme.  Parallel universes...ditto.  Paul Melko combines the two themes in Walls of the Universe and turns in a really nifty story.  A high school kid named John Rayburn is tracked down and tricked into changing places with John Prime -- a parallel universe version of Rayburn who just happens to have a device that allows the user to travel to parallel worlds.  Only problem is that this device is busted....Rayburn can't return home.  Turns out there are many travelers and many planets, but not all of them are nice and comfortable.  Melko takes this traditional track and makes it interesting and most important, personal.  We get to know both Johns and the whys and wherefores of what makes them tick.  Personal ethics get confronted and bad guys are met and friends get made.  The story of how and then if John can return to his original universe is well written and engaging.  Melko (a new author for me) does a very good job of personality development and writes a very readable story.  I look forward to reading more by this author.

The Death of a Friend: Reflections

I lost a friend last week.  My friend Steve was a neighbor for many years when we lived in Cleveland, a racquetball companion, a house project assistant (and we often reversed roles), a brilliant craftsman of his art, and an all around good guy and buddy. His wife, my wife, he and I got together regularly, cooked meals, chatted. Our wives were friends and had many mutual friends. They rented the house across the street from us for a year or two, then moved a couple streets away when they bought their first house in town.

Steve and his wife were around when both our children were born.  My eldest loved to visit Steve and their dogs (including a Newfie that she could ride like a horse). Steve and I dug gardens and built fences together. He was a California guys' guy...that means we talked talked cars, motorcycles and politics as well as cooking. He introduced me to racquetball and whirlpool at the Y and I introduced him to the old schvitz (steam bath) in what used to be the Jewish neighborhood and was by then pretty much in the center of the ghetto. Where else could guys go to get steam, get beaten with birch branches and then sit, wrapped in nothing but a town, and eat an enormous steak covered with garlic (in a room with linoleum floor, dinette sets and pictures of Moshe Dayan and Benito Mussolini on the walls) and then take a nap?  We had a great time even though he worked like crazy and so did I.

We moved first and we kept in touch - sort of...occasional emails, a couple of visits back.  But we were guy friends -- which meant we could pick up the conversation after 9 months of no communication like it was yesterday -- which is what we did for a few years.  Then they moved back to California and contact dwindled to occasional and brief emails and then mostly nothing. 

Steve is dead, now, at the age of 48 from an apparent heart attack.  I found out a couple of days after the event and could not make the funeral. The loss of Steve is a tragedy - for his family, for his friends, and for those who loved his art.  He had so much more left to give us, to do, to accomplish. 

I am so damn angry about Steve's passing....much more angry than sad.  I am 5+ years older than Steve and for the entire time I knew him he was in much better shape, ate healthier, worked out more, and was generally more physically active that I ever was.  I smoked, he didn't. I was 30 pounds overweight, he wasn't.  I sat on my backside all day and then ran though airports.  His craft required physical stamina and incredible lung capacity.  He's dead and I am not.  I know life isn't fair, but quite frankly, God has some real explaining to do on this one and the lack of answers or logic makes me furious.  But - pause for thought -- I was brought up knowing that life is not fair so what was the source of this anger?   I have thought about this for some days and think I have the answer.

When my sister died some 40 years ago, we made a family pact - on two issues.  First, we were never to say goodbye to each other without certain knowledge that we were all "current" -- that we had said everything that needed to be said -- that if anything were to happen that not one of us would look back and say, "if only I had told them or if only I had said..."  Second, we were never to let communication lapse for any reason - not for conflict or disagreement or geography or job or kids or whatever.  For 40 years, we have done a reasonably good job of keeping that commitment. 

Only thing I did not do was to extend that commitment to the few true friends I had -- and Steve was one of those friends.  I let communication lapse, I did not pursue and continue, I did not say everything that needed to be said.  Maybe I am the unusual and unique guy, but when I look around, I don't see many guys my age with tons of close guy friends...a few at most.  Lots of casual acquaintances, but not many hard and fast friends.  Steve was one of those friends and I let it go, did not work hard enough to maintain contact, made the wrong efforts.

So, in addition to being sad, I am indeed angry ... at myself.  In addition to being a great guy and good friend, Steve has, in his passing, also served as a teacher.  He has re-taught me the lesson of 40 years ago.  Family and close friends are few, rare, and very much worth working very hard to ensure not to lose contact. 

Thanks, Steve, for one last act of friendship.

The Death of a Pet: Reflections

Almost 3 years ago, my youngest daughter and I went off the the pet store to buy an aquarium and some fish and came back with a baby ferret and a ferret condo for it to live in.  Don't ask, it just happened that way.  My spouse was both aghast and unhappy with my judgment -- as in, "what in your 17 years of marriage to me would allow you to think that I might want a ferret in my house?"  My daughter, always on the lookout for a potential furry, cuddly pet was delighted as my allergies (both to animal fur and pet maintenance activities) had so far prevented any in-house pets other than the random turtle.

Funny thing happened, though -- over time, my wife and I fell in love with this 2 pound pea-brained animal who was always happy and glad to see us (read: be let out of its cage) and was so dumb that everything was new each time she was let out -- explored the same places, took and ferreted away the same stuff my wife and I had retrieved and put back last time she was out.  Not really dumb, though..just amazingly persistent.  My daughter named her Julie because we bought her in July.  We let her play in our TV room when we were watching TV or took her into a bedroom and let her run around.  She was expert in getting into drawers (from the back), stealing anything small off the bedside table and exploring anything that she could climb up on or in to.  Behind the love seat in our bedroom corner was her treasure trove -- consisting of a half dozen knotted up plastic shirt-bags, all of my wife's hand creams, pens, pencils, paper trash from the trash basket, anything in a plastic bag, and my loafers.  Take the stuff away and put it back where it belonged -- it was back in the corner the next time Julie got to play.

In January Julie was diagnosed with cancer -- we brought her in after she had lost 40% of her already meager body weight. We actually paid for intestinal surgery to remove a tumor, but later found out that it was in her lymph nodes.  We brought her home and she gained some weight back and continued to be her normal life playful, curious, and cute.  She then started to lose weight again, and a week or so ago began to get the shakes and fall asleep on the floor when we let her out.  Last night we took her to the vet who told us the shivering was a signal of inexorable decline and perhaps pain.  We decided to spare this little creature any more pain and had her gently and quietly euthanized. The whole family was there -- holding her, saying goodbye.  The family left after she was sedated and I stayed behind with the vet for the euthanizing shot.

It is my reaction that has me baffled. I know that admitting this will put my He-Man club membership in jeopardy, but I left the vet's office and walked home in tears -- all this little dumb animal ever did was give us joy and laughter and now she was gone.  I cried again before going to sleep...I am going to miss Julie.

I know that the loss of a pet is a momentary sadness -- particularly compared with the loss of a friend (which also happened to me earlier this week -- see my other posting on this date).  However, I don't remember losing a pet and feeling this way.  I never felt close to the dogs we had growing up, and our cats lived so long that I was away from home when they died.  The corny old adage of "walk a mile in someone's moccasins" comes to mind -- I can assure you that I will have a lot more empathy for my friends' stories about losing a pet from this point forward.

Spring Break 2009 (and some books, too!)

We have a family split when it comes to vacation activities.  We have one action junkie daughter who needs constant things to do and places to go 24/7.  We have another daughter who is content to lie on the beach or poolside and occasionally rouse herself to read a book (or more prevalently now, do Facebook, Twitter, or its ilk on the computer).  My long-suffering wife is (now) somewhere in-between - she does get bored with sitting around and baking in the sun and feels the need to visit the sites both small and insignificant (the cheese factory, the beer-drinking pigs) and the important and interesting (the castle, the mountain peaks, the national parks).  Then there is me -- content to sit in the shade (I burn like an SOB even with gobs of SPF 30) and read.  The only constraint on my incredible appetite for this was the number of books I could convince myself to lug along.  Then came the Amazon Kindle and no more constraint.  In a mere 6 ounces (or less), I can possess tens of books -- and if Sprint is available, I have access to thousands more.  Problem (though not always marital bliss) solved.

In between books, we managed to see most of the sites that Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands offered and they were, for the most part, delightful.  This trip was booked and mostly paid for before the current market collapse, so we felt duty-bound not to lose even more money by canceling.  Once again a lesson learned....book in advance so you can't back out --  a respite from the world is a good thing.  Virgin Gorda is quiet, the beaches virtually deserted (and beautiful), and the distractions minimal.  If you do not care to pay the exorbitant costs of flying there from somewhere else, the ferry from St. Thomas is about 90 minutes out (no stops) and about 2 hours plus going back (a stop in Tortola so you can pay your $5 per person exit fee and have your bags pass through a search -- although the more experienced travelers simply left their bags on the ferry).  The Baths is a gorgeous national park with huge boulders that create caves sitting right on the beach and a don't miss attraction. The Copper Mine was almost worth the drive and has the advantage of taking very little time to traverse the grounds. 

Food is expensive if you eat out -- we were a bit surprised at the cost, but there were a couple of interesting and good places;  the onion rings at the Top of the Baths were outstanding, the pasta was quite good at The Rock Cafe, and mostly everything, including the New Orleans Rum Punch, the tuna and salmon sashimi, and all the other seafood and salads were very good at Chez Bamboo.  Groceries were only to be had a one rather sorry dockside store -very expensive - and one look at the meat selection made restaurant-goers out of us.

The sun and stars are big attractions and were spectacular.  Unfortunately for us, the surf was a bit rugged for snorkeling, but it is reputed to be terrific.  All in - a very good time.

Time for books too -- here goes (in order of seriousness of literature):

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz -- This is a wonderfully written, funny and disturbing novel about life; life in the Dominican Republic; life for Dominican immigrants who settle in New Jersey; life being a nerd in a culture where nerds are even less highly regarded than mainstream America.  It is also a devastating simple and effective expose and condemnation of the Trujillo dictatorship (and its only slightly less equally awful successors) in all of its brutality.  Oscar Wao is a misplaced teenager and then young adult -- a sci-fi loving, video game playing, fantasy-writing fat to the point of ridicule guy in a macho culture and Junot Diaz does a masterful job showing us how losers lose and still (sort of) survive being teenagers.  Oscar's family comes from Santo Domingo - having fled the Trujillo regime and believing themselves somewhat cursed (his mother's legacy). The backstory is at least as interesting, if not perhaps even more so, than the current events and Diaz weaves the two together exceptionally well.  Characters abound as family members are described and the life of the dictator held tropical island is made apparent.  My only complaint was my lack of Spanish -- it would have been helpful to catch some of the jokes.

The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg -- Bragg has written two other novels about his family - All Over But The Shouting is a moving tribute to the character and toughness of his mother who managed to survive an alcoholic and abusive husband to raise 3 boys under the toughest conditions imaginable - extreme poverty, no skills, and no way out.  It is also the story of Bragg's hardscrabble youth and his overwhelming attachment to the hardworking, no luck, no future people that inhabit the Southern mill towns like the one he grew up in.  In Ava's Man, Bragg shows us and tells us where his mother got her grit, determination, and ability to love -- from his maternal grandmother Ava and his grandfather, Charlie.  Charlie is Ava's Man and Bragg's tribute to this product of the Appalachian foothills along the Georgia-Alabama border is terrific.  Hard working, hard drinking, hard fighting, hard loving -- Bragg describes a people and a place that most of us either never knew or didn't care to -- but should have and one having read his work, are glad that we now do.

The Prince of Frogtown returns to his father - the man that Bragg would like to but cannot forget. Charles Bragg was known to his middle son as a mostly absent drunken abusive and uncaring man -- but who also left memories when he as a small child he simply can not forget, nor (until this book) understand or explain.  Rick Bragg asks his older brother Sam, "Can you remember one good thing Daddy ever did?".  That answer, and a few others, are what make up this book about his father - the man and motivations that Rick Bragg never knew.  Interwoven with the story of his father are wonderful little vignettes of Bragg's encounters with a boy who will become his stepson as Bragg falls in love with a woman who has a nine-year old son.  Dealing (at age 46) with a young boy brings Bragg back to his own childhood and his relationship with his father and Bragg is simply terrific in bringing his own upbringing (good and bad) and his relationship with his father to his relationship with the boy.

To know the father he really never knew, Bragg goes back and talks to his father's friends and acquaintances and the result is touching, surprising, and a terrifically told story.

Fooled by Randomness:  The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb -- This book by the author of The Black Swan has an interesting and perhaps even fascinating thesis - most of what you see and believe as success may really be nothing but luck.  Reading this book today is a revelation -- first published in 2001, Taleb successfully predicts the market meltdown we are experiencing. However, that is neither the core nor the purpose of the book, nor does Taleb claim any prescience but it is the inescapable conclusion that Taleb leads you to in his work.  He also does a terrific job of explaining why most of the statistics you see quoted about market performance are complete nonsense.

Now having said all that - and believing there are some very, very insightful and cool ideas in this book, Taleb is a load to read.  He is clearly incredibly well educated and well-read, and smart as hell, and...well, to quote from his own bio, "Part literary essayist, part empiricist, part researcher, part no-nonsense businessman, he spent eighteen years as a mathematical trader, and was the Dean’s Professor in the Sciences of Uncertainty at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst"  -- and boy, does he let you know it.  He often says he was not well liked by his fellow traders and after reading him for a while, you can easily imagine why.  He is, as we used to say, a bit over done.

However, you can also easily look beyond that as he describes why much of what we call success is random, how what we are told is performance is so often the result of surviorship bias, and why a lot of other financial secrets of success is only so much hot air.  Put up with the pinky-raising flowery language, the classics quoting, and the hardly believable self-deprecation and read the really insightful stuff that Taleb has to offer.

Fear Itself by Walter Mosley -- I have reviewed Mosley before -- see Blonde Faith and I think he is a fabulous writer.  Mystery, science fiction, short stories, social commentary ... Mosley is versatile, creative, innovative and he makes you look at an America that most of us don't see, haven't seen, and probably should see.  In Fear Itself, Mosley continues the "Fearless Jones" series that features the headliner (Fearless) and Paris Minton.  Paris is the normal guy -- trying to make a living, educate himself and get ahead.  Fearless is the energy, the moxie, and the aggression - the Korean War vet that can not read well, but that you want by your side for his loyalty and his street smarts.  Mosley is showing us Los Angeles in the 1950's and 60's -- let me rephrase - Mosley is showing us black Los Angeles in the 1950's and 60's as he does in the Easy Rawlins series.  The twist for this story is that Mosley is showing us the stuggle for financial independence in the black community at this time.  Paris Minton owns a used book store and dreams of owning more and bigger stores.  Kit Mitchell leases land north of LA and grows watermelons and trucks them in to LA (and sells them as Texas Watermelons); Henry Orkan distributes beauty supplies; Milo Sweet is a disbarred lawyer and bail bondsman looking for ways to expand his scope and reach.  Other people own bars, restaurants, and boarding houses (black people can not stay at LA hotels and motels).  They all want to meet and get close to Winifred Fine, who owns the beauty supply company and the fruit market, three gas stations, two hardware stores, and Nathan's bakery -- she's the first black millionaire they have ever heard of.  What Mosley is doing is showing the reader the reality of how hard it was and how hard people, black people had to work to make it -- but he is also showing us how absolutely just like the rest of (most of) us that is like. 

As always, Mosley is both entertaining (a good story, more than credible mystery, great characters)and thought provoking.

Rough Weather by Robert B. Parker - I really adore Parker and I really adore the Spenser series.  After 30 years and 36 novels (just on Spenser), Spenser, Hawk, Susan Silverman, Chollo, Bobby Horse, Teddy Sapp, Martin Quirk, and Frank Belson (among others) are old (and appreciated) friends.  I still laugh at the corny conversation between Spenser and Hawk.  I like the exchange between Susan and Spenser as they try to understand their relationship and the rules that Spenser lives by.  I like the bad guys going down and sometimes even the bad guys who aren't so bad.  Like I said, its like being with old friends.

Rough Weather stars Spenser, Hawk, Susan, and reintroduces Rugar (the Gray Man), a very bad guy who once almost succeeded in killing Spenser.  Hired by a very rich woman (to do exactly what is not quite sure) to attend her daughters wedding, Spenser is witness to Rugar (and his team) kidnapping the bride and killing the groom.  And off we go.

It is Spenser at his familiar best and although I must admit there is now a sameness to many of the books, I really do look forward to each and every one.

The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Halderman -- No vacation reading list would be complete without some total flights of fancy (i.e., Sci-Fi) and Joe Halderman is an author I have just recently discovered.  I liked The Forever War and picked this up as well and enjoyed it thoroughly.  While the theme has been done before, Halderman throws in enough humor, reality (what its like to be a graduate student and post-doc), science (he actually tries to explain string theory), and nifty ideas (at one point in the future all economic activity becomes barter based -- because all the basic needs are taken care of) to make the traditional time travel story work quite well.

Matt Fuller is slaving away as a post-doc in physics at MIT when he accidentally invents a time machine.  Each time he pushes the button the machine jumps into the future -- and each time it jumps 12 times the distance into the future.  When he loses his job, he begins to experiment and...well, off he goes.  Haldeman does not just reinvent H.G. Wells, though he does a bit.  See, once again, the future ain't what its all cracked up to be.  So Matt goes to jail (and is somehow bailed out by himself), visits a future where Jesus has returned (and MIT is now the Massachusetts Institute of Theosophy); where Earth suffers an ecological disaster, where Australia is the only populated continent, where the Moon has been turned into an amusement park, and where humans have fled the planet to populate the galaxy.  Haldeman deals well with the science, the time travel paradox (i.e., what if you went into the past and changed it), and along the way tells an highly entertaining story.

Savage Stories of Conan by Robert E. Howard -- Every single Conan short story ever written all in one volume....for less than a dollar on Amazon for Kindle.  What can I say?  Every man needs a way to be 13 all over again.....and for less than a dollar, who could resist?

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

If you have been the brave, attentive reader of The Reading Journal that I presume, you know that I am a big fan of Neal Stephenson.  You can review most of his work in my review of (CRTL-Click on the link) Neal Stephenson.

Now, having said that, I did have trouble finishing his last effort, The Baroque Cycle, Stephenson's massive three-volume fantasy-cum-swashbuckler-political thriller-mathematics history lesson bounce through 18th century Western Europe. I ended my review of Stephenson with Volume 1 (which I loved) with the prophecy that Volume II was on its way and it was "probably worth it".  Volume II was -- sort of.  Volume III however, nearly killed me and by the time I had choked my way through it, I was done with Stephenson for a while. So, when Anathem came out to some terrific raves, I succumbed to the temptation and ordered both the book and the Kindle version.  When this massive 935-page tome hit my mailbox I was convinced that Stephenson had caught a bad case of authorial-extension disorder -- that terribly debilitating malady that strikes some writers causing them to substitute volume for quality.  Think of it as "Dickens Disease", though Dickens had an excuse -- he got paid by the word.

I hated the first 25 or so pages (perhaps it was the first 50 -- hard to tell on the Kindle) -- where Stephenson commits all the sins (as far as I am concerned) -- he introduces a whole new planet, a new language with new meanings but close enough to what you understand for it to be monumentally confusing; he gives things weird names (like in a bad sci-fi story); he spends pages describing arcane features of a society's architecture (this for me a torture - my ability to conceive of three-dimensional space is limited at best); and worse -- he begins to describe the integration of philosophy and meta-physics.  To top it off, he introduces the novel with a review of a made up 7,000 year history and starts the reader off with trying to understand the practices of his made-up religious order.  I was ready to throw in the towel.

But Stephenson is nothing if not a practiced artist, so I stuck with Anathem and I am glad that I did. Anatham finally succeeds for me in creating a different world in a different place. and the world of Fra Erasmus is very definitely different.  The "mathic" world is separated from the "saecular" world.  The world of higher math and philosophy has morphed into what we would see as quasi-religious orders - different orders with different orientations towards math, physics, and philosopy and the integration thereof.  The orders live in a concent (co-ed monastery) and are removed and separate from the outside world.  Stephenson ultimately succeeds in delivering these separate worlds/lives to us - thought the use of new words to describe things is always something akin to irritating.

Once every 10 years (or once every 1, 10, 100, or 1,000 years depending on which "order" you belong to) the concent is opened for 10 days and the "mathic" and "saecular" worlds are allowed to co-mingle.  It is on the eve of one such 10 year "apert" that our story begins and we get to know Fra Erasmus.

Fra Erasumus was "collected" to the order 10 years ago as a child - and now as a teenager he is about to get his first look in a decade at the world he left behind. It is the beginning of a grand adventure - one that puts him, his friends, his order, and his world in the midst of a global drama with potentially cataclysmic consequences.  It is Stephenson's skill as both a story-teller, researcher, and futurist that kept me engaged and interested (after I got through the architecture) and after a while, I was simply fascinated.

Like his work in The Diamond Age, Stephenson is a master at combining history and future - creating a world at the same time familiar and wildly different, combining real science with science-fiction, and creating characters that we can identify with mostly - but not totally.  Anathem turns out to be a terrific mystery story, an intriguing exploration of philosophy and mathematics, a pretty cool sci-fi concept (or perhaps more than one) with good dialogue, real humor and warmth, and some decent action. Also, it contains a couple of really good twists that are both entertaining and surprising. 

Warning - you must be patient -- this story takes a while to grab you.  Now, to be honest, if you don't like sci-fi, or have no interest in math, science or philosphy you might find Anathem to be dull and uninteresting. A number of other reviews have remarked that Stephenson is not for everybody and that is certainly true.  But if you liked The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon or are a big fan of William Gibson or perhaps even Larry Niven (e.g., Ringworld), give Anathem and Neal Stephenson a try.

Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

Let's get this over with quick -- Warren Buffet, while apparently a moral and, in some ways ways, wise man, may have very little to teach you and me about "the business of life" based on his personal life in general.  Then again, maybe he does.  Warren Buffet is a mass of contradictions.

In addition to being the 1st or 2nd richest human being on the planet is/was also mono-maniacally focused on money-making, incapable of sustaining a monogamous relationship with his spouse;  mostly a miser, but not quite; at best an indifferent parent - at worst, perhaps incapable of really caring about his children; absolutely cold and cruel to his adopted grandchildren (he couldn't quite see them as real family); pathologically incapable of dealing with stress or crisis in his family (and not all that prepared to do so in business either); a man with limited tastes to the point of dysfunction or autism (he only went to China with Bill Gates when he learned that Gates had taken along a chef that would make Buffett hamburgers and fries for every meal). Even recognizing the dysfunction of the family he was raised in, he rarely spoke to his mother after he left home.  He attended neither his mother''s funeral nor his wife's.

However, Mr. Buffett has had an interesting life and has taken some surprising courageous stands.  Brought up by (and marrying into) ultra-right wing Republicans (his father was so extreme that the Republicans eventually dumped him) and more than simply casual anti-Semites (his father-in-law forbid Warren's eventual wife-to-be from pursuing a romance with a Jewish man), it is a testimony to his personal values that he has become attached to a number of liberal causes and has been proven right more than wrong.  He asked, and became the first non-Jewish member of the Jewish country club in Omaha (at a time where religion determined where one could be a member).  Once a member, he turned around and sponsored the first Jewish member of the Omaha Club. He has always been somewhat of a philanthropist (although up until his startling announcement of giving 85% of his wealth to the Gates foundation, always hitting a bit below his grade-level) and the causes he supported were surprisingly liberal, i.e., women's reproductive rights.

That he has integrity in business dealings is beyond doubt and that in and of itself is noteworthy in these times.  That he has been upfront and out-spoken about the need for self-restraint on Wall Street (decrying the culture of greed and the danger of over-leverage, derivatives, and "irrational exuberance") is a mark of reason and business wisdom.  The fact that he has been a quiet force for dumping over-paid, underperforming CEOs who were enriching themselves at stockholder expense is laudatory.  He has been consistent in his opposition to the dismantling of the estate tax -- he has always believed that dynastic wealth is a anathema to democracy.  His investment record is still unchallenged.  No one has out-performed the market as consistently as Warren Buffett.

However, when the Right-to-Life movement threatened to boycott one of his companies, he had the companies in question quit making donations to the charities that Right-to-Life objected to.  After deriding derivatives as an evil (and after pulling Salomon out of the activity, and refusing to assist Long-Term Capital Management in their pursuit of derivatives) he has issued derivatives based on Berkshire-Hathaway.

His story is interesting - and remains so despite Alice Schoeder's daunting level of detail.  Some of that detail is fun and interesting (e.g., Buffet's purchase of the Omaha Furniture Marta and his dealings with its obstreperous, Eastern-European Jewish mother owner/operator) while some of it, particularly some of the family detail, seemed overdone.

All in, Buffet ends very much on the plus side of the ledger -- perhaps the price of genius is weirdness,  hard-to-understand focus, and dysfunctional families.  Buffett's family may have suffered and he may have very weird habits and idiosyncrasies, but his vision regarding investing and money-making has been relatively consistent and moral.  His integrity is mostly intact, and he is still - after 50 years - regarded as an oracle.  For a guy who has been worth as much as $60-70 billion dollars, that is quite an accomplishment.  So is the amount of wealth he has created and promised to give away.

The Whiskey Rebels (and more) by David Liss

I am feeling badly that I have let my readers down.  Having just finished The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss, I looked back into The Reading Journal archives discovering to my enormous embarrassment that the only other novel that I have reviewed by David Liss is The Coffee Trader - (CTRL-click to jump to that review) a highly recommended read.  Unfortunately, that means I have neglected to tell you about a number of other terrific books by David Liss that your really should not miss.

Let me start with my most recent - The Whiskey Rebels.  Liss's MO is to take a significant historical economic event and make it a major character in his novels.  In this novel, the event is the Whiskey Rebellion - a populist insurrection in 1791 precipitated by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's tax on whiskey.  With the Articles of Confederation recently succeeded by the US Constitution in 1789, The Federal government took on the state's Revolutionary War debt and a very straightforward way to raise money came immediately to Hamilton's fertile mind (demonstrating the power of the Federal government and a bit of temperance moralizing also played a big role in this tax). Read more about The Whiskey Rebellion on Wikipedia.

Liss introduces us to the western frontier (think western Pennsylvania here) where the recently free indentured servants, the poor, the adventurous, and those ready and willing to prey on the dreams of such people are drawn to the promise of a new life and cheap land.  Liss creates a couple of terrific characters in this novel.  Ethan Saunders, late of General Washington's espionage group, is living in disgrace (which will be a key element in the story) in Philadelphia.  He is engaged by his former fiancee (lost to him by his disgrace) to help look for her missing husband. In the midst of that mission, Saunders gets involved with Hamilton's Treasury Department and the battle over the Bank of the United States - including direct confrontation with the supporters of Thomas Jefferson.

Meanwhile, Joan Maycott marries a War veteran and they are forced by circumstance to seek their fortunes on the frontier.  Fleeced by the rapaciousness of the powerful who happen to be Hamiltonians, their subsequent inventive success in the Whiskey Trade both attracts the predators even more and is threatened by the Whiskey Tax -- and Joan sets about seeking redress.

The lives of Saunders and Maycott (as you might guess) become intertwined, and Liss creates an intriguing patriotic mystery story out of the immediate post-Revolutionary War period.  Once again, it helps if you are a bit of a history buff - but the history does not overwhelm, it makes it very interesting.  Not quite as good as The Coffee Trader or A Conspiracy of Paper, but The Whiskey Rebels is good for a strong recommendation.

A Conspiracy of Paper was actually Liss' first novel (I read The Coffee Trader first), and it is a terrific book, fun to read, inventive characters, and (to me) a fascinating subject.  Set in 18th century London, we are introduced to (again, or in this case the beginning of the trend) both a personal mystery and a national mystery.  National in scope, London in 1719 was fixated on what came to be known as the South Sea bubble -- a cycle of unfettered speculation on the stock shares (new concept) of the South Seas Company - a monarchy-chartered enterprise to exploit England's dominance in sea-faring and exploration (not to mention colonization and exploitation).  Liss leads us through the ins and outs of stock trading, insider trading, and shady brokers (timely, huh?).  The personal story is carried by Benjamin Weaver, ex-pugilist champion turned thief-taker and strong-arm man.  Weaver is an unusual man for his time - a Jew who is estranged from his family and community, a boxer turned bandit cum Robin Hood.  Weaver gets involved in two seemingly unrelated cases -- the first is that he suspects foul play in the unexpected death of his father and the second is a client quite anxious to reclaim some very important papers.   His involvement brings him into contact and conflict with Jonathan Wilde -- the king of London's "Thief-takers" -- head of a gang that offers to reclaim property stolen from the owners, when in fact committing the crimes in the first place.

All of this activity gets intertwined - Weaver, his father, the lost papers, and speculation in the South Sea Company, and Weaver's unique relationship to his heritage.  Liss introduces us to the top-and-bottom of London society -- the rising rich merchant classes, the Lords and Ladies, and the thieves, whores, and cut-purses.  They all converge in incredibly well drawn salons, coffee-houses, brothels, and gin joints.  Liss makes this world come alive - and as this novel was an outgrowth of his Ph.D. dissertation, I am assuming the details are correct.  Regardless of accuracy, Liss provides an action-packed world and an relatively unforgettable main character.  A Conspiracy of Paper was every bit as good as The Coffee Trader.

A Spectacle of Corruption is the sequel to A Conspiracy of Paper and in the way of most sequels, while interesting and entertaining, it is not as good as his two previous (and one subsequent) efforts.  in Spectacle, Benjamin Weaver is back, this time accused of murder and thrown into the infamous Newgate prison.  With the help of an unknown (to Weaver) accomplish, he manages to escape (in terrific style, I must say) only to find himself hip-deep in the political machinations of the Jacobites who are agitating for the overthrow of the King George I in favor of the recently de-throned James II, a Catholic.  The most exciting parts of A Spectacle of Corruption involve Ben Weaver in action - in disguise as a wealthy plantation owner, in courting a key adversary's sister, or as muscle in the head-bashing that accompanies the political rivalries.  Less successful is Liss' attempts to explain the details of the Whig/Tory rivalries and the abundance of deux-ex-machina situations and coincidences that appear just a bit too contrived....however, once through the political details and suspending disbelief on the other stuff, Liss provides a pretty good action novel that is, once again, rich in details about a life long past.  Still worth the effort and it is fun following Benjamin Weaver wrestle with both his heritage and his love life.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of March, a book I disliked so much I declined to review it.  However, my spouse and I agreed that our Hannukah gifting this year would be limited (for the adults) to one moderate gift, and her gift to me was a limited edition replica of the Sarajevo Haggadah.  The real story of the Sarajevo Haggadah is fascinating and stirring (CTRL click to see the Wikipedia entry). Geraldine Brooks wrote People of the Book and mostly fictionalized the story.  The combination of getting a replica of the Haggadah and the fact that my wife's book group loved the book prompted me to put my past experience with March behind me and give Ms. Brooks another try.  Another impetus to give Ms. Brooks another try was my discovery that she is married to the author Tony Horwitz, author of Blue Highways, one of the most intriguing (and hilarious and educational) travelogues cum history lessons I have ever read.  So, I began.

I could not put this book down.  I fell asleep on it on a Friday night, woke up Saturday morning, made coffee, and finished the book.  Brook's fiction is virtually complete - there are only a few real facts on which she builds her novel, but that is really OK.  There are really good invented backstories - and while there is a very real manuscript and manuscript conservation expert as well as a couple of heroic Bosnian Muslim librarians in the novel and in reality, Brooks is quick to point out that the novel's personalities are in no way based on the historical figures.  With that, you are off to the races as Brooks intertwines a personal and family mystery with a fictionalized explanation of how this 500+ year-old manuscript was created, sheltered, and finally brought into the limelight following the Bosnian/Serb/Croat war that reduced most of Sarajevo to rubble.

The personal family story includes a tip-of-the-hat to old adage that all families are dysfunctional in their own special ways.  In this case the Austrialian manuscript restorer, Hanna Heath, deals with her single parent domineering and hypercritical neurosurgeon of a mother (incredibly well drawn) and on top of that an affair with a Bosnian Muslim whose child was made comatose by a sniper, and professional betrayal.

Alernating chapters bring progess on the Hanna Heath personal story and explanations of how the Sarajevo Haggadah got to be where and what it was.  Following a few clues - an insect wing found in the binding, a set of missing silver clasps, a wine stain, a tiny few salt crystals, a white hair and a couple of historical recreations, Hanna's personal adventures advance with our understanding of how this manuscript was treated, transported, and working backwards, created.

Brooks' main characters are interesting and believable - though some of the explanations of their behavior and motivations are a bit contrived.  Brooks pulls it off however by making the situations (both "real time" with Hanna and historically with the Haggadah) intriguing and the dialogue crisp - humor applied sparingly but quite effectively.  By using the backdrop of the actual Bosnian war as  informative background, modern-day parallel of the religious strife that accompanied the Haggadah's semi-miraculous survival, and a reflective look at the unfortunate paucity of elapsed time exhibiting the peaceful coexistence of Muslims, Christians, and Jews (of which Sarajevo, after WWII but prior the the war in the 90s seemed to represent).  Fictional history well told.  Personal and family adventures interesting and well-drawn.  Have fun with People of the Book and you will learn a few things along the way.

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer

Unless you are on either extreme fringe of today's American politics, you are probably somewhat conflicted by US policy towards Iran.  Are they a threat?  Will they really try to create a nuclear weapon?  Do they really sponsor anti-American terrorists?  Should we confront them militarily or will diplomacy work?  Are they really an existential threat to Israel?

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer should answer any number of those questions - not through political exegesis by through the subtle exploration of one family's experience with post-revolution Iran.  Here is a picture of the day-to-day erosion of basic civil liberties and civil behaviors that the Iranian revolution put in place and has kept in place since the Islamic regime took over.  Sofer's family escaped this darkening place in 1982 (when she was 10 years old), but her tale of what happened to her Jewish family is harrowing and telling.  Without warning, without legal foundation, and without mercy, her father is visited by the Revolutionary Guards and taken away to prison.  It is fairly clear that his only crimes are being Jewish in an Islamic state, and having had a once thriving jewelry store whose assets are now coveted by others.  Success, wealth, and having once served those who served the Shah are enough reasons for loss of liberty, property, and dignity.

Sofer tells her story in three tracks.  First, the story of how her mother tries to keep her family together and free from harm.  This is complicated by Dalia's theft of some very important papers (regarding her father) from the Warden of the prison that holds her father (the Warden's daughter was a playmate).  Second, the story of her non-religious brother's life in New York where he is struggling to make a living, but falls in love with the daughter of his Hasidic landlord.  Third, through the story of her father's experience in prison.

Sofer is best when describing a character's feelings - though she tends toward a bit more introspection and perhaps self-pity than is always comfortable.  Her dialog is not spectacular (and occasionally a bit contrived) But much more often than not, she is terrifically accurate in her descriptions of the emotional impact of events on people.  How she feels being deprived of her father, her playmates, her school.  How her brother feels being stereotyped and profiled in New York, how he feels about his European devout landlord, how he feels being poor.  Best drawn, perhaps are her mother and father - both suffering privations they never contemplated and both figuring out how to survive.  In the mother's case, being deprived of her husband, her security, and her whole world view.  In the father's case, being exposed to random terror and torture, to constant threats and the loss of any standing.  Sofer makes the reader feel each hurt, each slight, each small (and large) stripping away of comfort and dignity.

Moreover, Sofer's account reads eerily and scarily like anything you have ever read about the coming of the Nazi's to power and the implementation of the Nuremberg laws. Are the Iranians a threat?  Perhaps not the people, but any government that would perpetrate upon its own people what this one has is very definitely a threat.  Yes, of course, the Jews come (and came) first as targets...but then come the liberals, the educated, the Christians, and so on.  We have seen this before and we know where it ends.  Pastor Martin Niemöller reaction to the inaction of Germany's intellectuals is quite germane here:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

George Santyana said so correctly, " Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it".  Dalia Sofer has shown us the present threat and reminded us of the past threat in The Septembers of Shiraz, and we should heed the warning.