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Showing posts from March, 2011

The Babysitter's Code (kindle) by Laura Lippman

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I think it was Stephen King who once commented that his short stories (or novellas) were books that just never took enough shape and form to become a book. He tried to tease out more out of the story but there was just nothing more to pull out of the story. Laura Lippman The Babysitter's Code is not that. There is plenty more to add to this story. It just builds up to the point where the reader is getting in to the story and then it just.............................ends. Why? Don't know . Frustrating? Very. I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. You can find this short story on Amazon.com here: The Babysitter's Code . Reviewed on March 21, 2009.

To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam by Richard Croker

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This Civil War buff thoroughly enjoyed it This sweeping novel, like an epic feature from the 1950s, features a cast of thousands which is both its strength and weakness. George B. McClellan (1826-1885) A lot of reviewers complain about the lack of depth in the characters, which is fair to say about the book. Unlike Shaara's The Killer Angels , the gold standard of Civil War fiction, there is not much character development. But, to be fair, Shaara focuses on precious few personalities of the War while Croker includes Lincoln, many cabinet members, Lee, McClellan and at least a dozen of the generals, not to mention colonels, sergeants and even a couple of privates. The inclusion of so many characters does contribute to a lack of character exploration but it also contributes to a wide view of the mayhem of the battlefield. Croker also delves into political intrigues that went hand in hand with this bloodiest day in American history. Croker's writing style

The X-Files: Ground Zero (abridged audiobook) by Kevin J. Anderson

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Duration: approximately 3 hours Read by Gillian Anderson   So, how can I say this succinctly and clearly? The abridged audiobook of The X-Files: Ground Zero is not good. It is bad. It is not well read. It has few of the best qualities of the TV show. Gillian Anderson Read by Gillian Anderson, the abridged audiobook clocks in at about 3 hours and read unenthusiastically by Gillian Anderson. One of the reasons I picked this one up is that I figured she'd read it well. It says it was recorded in Vancouver in 1995 (where the show was filmed) and it sounds like she read it between takes. She sounds tired and completely uninterested in the text. Then again, when you look at what she was reading, I cannot blame her for being uninterested. This book has none of the zip of the show. Mulder's lines are almost non-existent. No smart-alack lines or observation. No wry sense of humor that makes even the weakest of the TV shows watchable (I love the X-Files but let

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Lane Petry

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Well-written biography of a true American hero Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad is a fantastic little biography of Harriet Tubman. Tubman has always been one of my personal heroes and this book does her story justice. Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) I would say this book can be easily enjoyed by 4th graders and up. It also could serve as a great starting point for adults that don't know much about slavery and the American Abolitionist movement. While telling the story of Tubman's life, Petry also includes at the end of nearly every chapter historical tidbits about the slavery and the Abolitionist movement at the national level. The discussion of her service in the Civil War as a scout in the coastal areas of South Carolina spurred me to do some further research. Her commanding officer in the raids was Colonel James M. Montgomery, the nutty commander in the movie Glory with this memorable line: "You see sesesh has to be cleared a

Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century by Hank Hanegraaf

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Important book but in serious need of an editor Hank Hanegraaf Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century exposes the serious flaws in the theology of most of America's famous TV preachers, especially the cavalcade of larger than life ministers that appear around the country on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). Basically, the doctrines are called "prosperity" and "faith". The faith doctrine is the most insidious because it sounds so harmless. Shouldn't all Christians have faith? Well, this doctrine is something quite different and odd. Joel Osteen may be the most famous teacher of this doctrine right now. It's easily searchable on the web and this book does a great job of exposing its flaws as well. Suffice it to say that it is not a Christian idea, but much more like the New Age stuff taught in books like The Secret . Prosperity theology is more famous because any viewer of a TBN program can watch its preachers telling viewer

Jesus Says So (kindle) by Mass. Sabbath School Society

A 19th Century Inspirational Story Printed in 1851, "Jesus Says So, or A Memorial of Little Sarah G----" is a great example of a witnessing tool from the 19th century. The title derives from the saying of a little girl who quotes the promises of Jesus and proudly proclaims that she believes them because "Jesus says so." Modern witness tracts typically include the story of a person who has sinned in a big way but has turned their life around thanks to a conversion. This tract features an 11 year-old girl who is practically without sin, lives a poverty-stricken life and dies from an unknown illness after a long period of being bedridden. This type of tragic story was very common in the 19th century. This is a very short story, perhaps a 10 minute read. It was printed by the Mass. Sabbath School Society. Even if you are not interested in the religious content it does provide a window into American culture in the 19th century and invites comparison w

Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land

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Loud and strong, this book goes at it hard William Shatner once commented that the results of his directorial efforts in Star Trek V were "loud". One could easily say the same thing about Jon Land's Strong Enough to Die . Jon Land Strong Enough To Die comes at you with a gunfight on the first page, has lots of gunfights throughout and ends up with guns and explosions as well. Does it work? Well, yeah. This is not fine literature, mind you. It is loud, lock and load, over-the-top Texas Ranger action. There's some attempts at trying to tie in Bush administration anti-terrorist policies and discussions about living with the aftermath of violence but those get overwhelmed by the gunfire. But, that's okay because too much thinking about the internal incongruities of the text on these matters just spoils the fun. It's the famed Texas Rangers and a bad guy who might be a good guy against the Mexican Mafia and an evil American super-corpo

Black Evening: Tales of Dark Suspense (audiobook) by David Morrell

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David Morrell's Black Evening: Tales of Dark Suspense is a collection of horror short stories. This is a change of pace from Morrell's normal fare of action/suspense/thriller novels, but this is a strong collection that is a great read and will be especially rewarding for Morrell's fans. David Morrell There are 7 short stories in this collection. The weakest by far is the first one, "The Dripping". I'd rate it 3 stars. But the rest are 4 or 5 star short stories which is high praise from me since I am not normally a fan of the short story format. Of especially high quality are "But At My Back I Always Hear" and "Orange Is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity." Those stand up with the best short format horror stories that you can put against them, from Poe to King. Each story is introduced by the author who includes plenty of details about how he started writing, what was going on in his life when he wrote the stories. Th

America: A Jake Grafton Novel (Jake Grafton #9) by Stephen Coonts

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Solid, but not an exceptional thriller The strength of a Stephen Coonts novel is that he provides a thriller like Tom Clancy but not all of the techno-speak. Instead, he provides just enough to give the reader a taste but not enough to overwhelm. The weakness of Stephen Coonts is that Jake Grafton, likable as he is, makes Star Trek's Captain Kirk look like an underachiever. Grafton is everywhere in this book (like all of them). Who needs specialists, like Navy SEALs or  an expert for a rocket launch? Instead, Jake Grafton is your man. Need someone to finagle a Russian spy? He's your man. How about someone to go on a raid, find a spy, fake an attack, go undercover to capture an international super-criminal? He's your man. And then, he gets to beat up the bad guy and pretty much save the world all by himself (and his faithful sidekick Toad Tarkington) - again. Stephen Coonts Beyond that, America is a perfectly readable and entertaining book. The premise is that A

Pete & Pickles by Berkeley Breathed

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Fantastic - and yes, I did read it to my children Pete and Pickles is the story of a lonely, widower pig and an exuberant, outgoing elephant that escaped from a circus. According to the back flap, it was inspired from a drawing that Breathed's five-year old made in a restaurant. She drew an elephant hugging a pig in its trunk. Breathed asked why the elephant is holding the pig. "The pig's sad." "Why?" "Because he's lonely, Dad...But he doesn't know it," she whispered. Pete is indeed lonely. He misses his wife who has died. Pickles comes into his life unexpectedly and turns it all over and, in a way, saves it. Or, at least makes it worth living. I cannot imagine the adult that does not tear up at the end of this book (I've got no qualms with it - this 40 year old Republican darn near cried!). Berkeley Breathed On top of a great story you've got great pictures. The art is top-notch. Careful observat

Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment by Clinton Cox

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Comments from a history teacher Okay - so hear I am once again reading a kid's book. However, it is for my classroom library - I try to read them all so I can make recommendations. Sgt. William Carney  of the 54th  Massachusetts, the first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor For those not in the know, Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment   is a brief history of the 54th Massachusetts - the first official regiment of blacks in the American Civil War. The unit was immortalized in the Academy Award winning film Glory , starring Denzel Washington. Cox has the great majority of his facts straight (I have some quibbles, such as when he claims that a good soldier could load and shoot a civil war rifle in about 45 seconds, when the reality was that a competent soldier could do it up to 3 times per minute.) The larger problem goes from being factual to the problem of being written in such a way that young people would be int

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

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A history teacher's perspective Avi You may wonder what a high school world history teacher is doing reading a book by Avi. Well, here's the deal - I am searching for high quality historical fiction in a variety of reading levels for a future project for my class. Avi's Crispin: The Cross of Lead fits the bill perfectly for my students with lower level reading skills. Set in Medieval England, Avi creates an interesting story and accurately depicts the toil of a peasant's life, pointing out some of the more interesting aspects of that time in history, including the plague, the power of the church, the massive amount of illiteracy, the filth, and more. What I like about it is that Avi writes a simple book without talking down to his readers. This book fits my classroom's need wonderfully. For all of you teachers out there I strongly recommend it. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Crispin: The Cross of L

Fall Down Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn't Tell Nobody by David L. Lander

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        A great read As a kid, I always thought of Lenny and Squiggy as the two dolts that live upstairs from Laverne and Shirley. I've been watching the DVD collections of the show with my kids and I've noticed something. Usually, I grade papers when I watch TV (one of the perks, lots of papers!) and I find myself listening to Laverne and Shirley, but I stop and WATCH Lenny and Squiggy. Squiggy, in particular, is in constant motion and always doing something weird/quirky/downright odd and inappropriate! Squiggy So, I was inspired to go out and find Fall Down Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn't Tell Nobody and read more about Lander's struggle with MS. Plus, it's always interesting to see how someone made it to the big time. Both parts of the book are interesting and a pleasure to read. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and blasted through the book in no time. Landers' stories about his early career, how he hid his MS and how he deal

The Watchmen by Alan Moore

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Originally published in serial form in 1986 and 1987. I was interested in seeing the movie. The reviews sounded interesting so I thought I'd read the book first. And with reviews like, "The greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced" and "One of Time magazine's 100 best novels" on the cover, how could I go wrong? I dabble in comics. I read the big collections. I have no figurines, no stickers on my car. I see the movies, but usually on DVD. I own precious few comic books, mostly borrowing what I read from friends or the library. On the other hand, I am a voracious reader and I like to think that I know a little about books. I appreciate the fact that this book was groundbreaking in its day. It offered a bleak, jaded and, frankly, more realistic look at the whole concept of superheroes. When it asks, "Who watches the watchmen?" that is an important question. Showing the Comedian committing atrocities in Vietnam is a nice

Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe by William Rosen

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  This Could Have Been So Much More. The title of Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe promises so much - the last great Roman Emperor (or first Byzantine Emperor, if you prefer), the Bubonic Plague, how the plague helped create the series of nation-states that have made up Europe for centuries. Throw in the Silk Road and how Europe was able to get its own silk worms, Justinian's multi-faceted wife Theodora, Belisarius and a discussion of how the Bubonic plague may have paved the way for Islam by weakening a resurgent Roman Empire under Justinian and you should have an amazing book - one that fills a void in most history books - the void left where "ancient" history ends and medieval/Dark Ages history begins. But, this book will not fill that void except for the most dauntless of readers. Justinian is not dealt with in any organized fashion after the first few chapters - he becomes an office rather than a person. Belisarius is described in o

Holes by Louis Sachar

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Louis Sachar A literary phenomenon Published in 2006 Read by Kerry Beyer Duration: 4.5 hours Unabridged I teach high school Spanish and history but even if you don't have much interaction with young people, you'd have to live in a cave not to have noted the literary phenomenon that is the novel Holes . Although my students don't read Holes in my class, they have mentioned it so I decided to listen to it as an audiobook during my drive to and from school. The plot itself is fairly unique in that there are literally no loose ends. Nothing is introduced that does not have a consequence later on, be it the prison guard quitting smoking and chewing sunflower seeds instead or the references to peach preserves, it all ties together. All of that makes the story less believable, more like a dark fairy tale but all of the more enjoyable. The story itself is pretty solid. There's a mystery, a sense of camaraderie and an awful tale of injustice in the flashbacks.

Listening Woman (Joe Leaphorn) by Tony Hillerman

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#3 in the Leaphorn series and one of the best Like most fans of Hillerman, I've read them all. I'm sporadically going back through them and re-reading ones that I read more than a decade ago. I've grown used to the older Leaphorn, the one that uses his head and thinks through problems and mostly avoids the physical stuff. This one is a younger Leaphorn that uses his head but gets involved in a lot of physical action. This one would make a great movie, but since I've not been happy with the few adaptations that I have seen I guess that I would prefer that no one make the attempt. Tony Hillerman (1925-2008) Lots of Navajo culture is introduced in Listening Woman . This one lays the groundwork for a lot of the future books, including introducing multiple characters and does a lot of exploration into Leaphorn's quirky sense of interested agnosticism in regards to Navajo religious beliefs. The plot centers around a couple of murders and lots of discussion of Na

All Clear (audiobook) by Connie Willis

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A sci-fi book for lovers of history 20 CDs 23 hours, 56 minutes Read by Katherine Kellgren 43 hours of audio listening later (read wonderfully by Katherine Kellgren who handled a wide variety of accents and aging characters with real skill), I am finally done with the Blackout/All Clear saga. These books are intended to be one giant book, not a series, although you would never. ever know that from the audiobook's cover. To her credit, the author, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Connie Willis introduces the second half of this audiobook with a warning that you had better listen to the first half first. Indeed you should and you should listen to the second installment as soon as you can after hearing the first one because there is no review, no scenes where the characters re-hash everything for the benefit of the listener. This is literally the second half of a very large book and she starts out exactly where she left off. See my review of Blackout here . All Clear

Curiosities of the Civil War: Strange Stories, Infamous Characters, and Bizarre Events by Webb Garrison

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Too scattered for this student of the Civil War. Webb Garrison's Curiosities of the Civil War: Strange Stories, Infamous Characters, and Bizarre Events is a well-researched , hefty book that does deliver what it promises - a collection of odd things about the Civil War. I read a lot of history and it seems to me that there are two main ways to organize a book about history. You can go with the more traditional timeline approach - tell the story in the order that it happened (narrative history). Or, you can go with themes - study the themes of the history as the writer sees them. For example, a Civil War historian can look into the evolution of military technology and techniques or focus on civil rights in the North and the South. Most historians try for a combination of the two and pick several themes and follow them as they tell a narrative history.  John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865)  Curiosities of the Civil War goes with the less popular "bathroom reader"

The Corruptible: A Ray Quinn Mystery by Mark Mynheir

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Interesting Characters. So-so mystery. The Corruptible is the second in the Ray Quinn mystery series. It is written by now-retired police officer Mark Mynheir who adds a touch of authenticity to his work (although he misses the most obvious clue at the beginning of this mystery). Ray Quinn is a former Orlando police officer turned Private Investigator who was forced to retire due to disability as a result of being shot through the hip. His replacement hip is painful and he needs to walk with a cane and he often deals with the pain (physical and emotional) with a few stout shots of Jim Beam. He has a partner named Crevis who is trying to pass the entrance exam to be a police officer and a parochial school teacher that also helps him keep his business records straight. In this story, Quinn is hired by an investment company to recover stolen client information by downloading it onto a portable hard drive. The number one suspect is a an acquaintance of Quinn, an employee of the co

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

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The controversial winner of the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for fiction Here we are, decades years later and The Confessions of Nat Turner is still in the news. Recently, Henry Louis Gates, Jr made comments (positive ones, now. Originally negative impressions, years ago) about the book. The primary controversy is quite simple - how can a white man, a southerner, and the descendant of slave owners write a novel about one of the few slaves who actually stood up and demanded his freedom by leading a rebellion? Some have even asserted that he did not even have the right to write the book in the first place - after all, it is not HIS history. But, is Nat Turner to be forever held apart? Is African-American history to be held apart? Can an African-American write about the Japanese Shogunate? Can an Asian-American write about the Alamo? Of course and of course. Gates makes this point in his comments (correctly). History is human history. Nat Turner (1800-1831) Styron's fictionalized