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It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell with Tony Koltz

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Published in 2012 by Harper Colin Powell updates his 2003 memoir My American Journey with It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership . The book is really two books. The first part is an expansion on an article that was written about him for Parade magazine in 1989. In that article he listed 13 rules he had for life: It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. Get mad, then get over it. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. It can be done! Be careful what you choose. You may get it. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours. Check small things. Share credit. Remain calm. Be kind. Have a vision. Be demanding. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. Colin Powell speaking at the United Nations Powell then expa...

The Last Man (Mitch Rapp #13) (audiobook) by Vince Flynn

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Published by Simon and Schuster in 2012 Read by Armand Schultz Duration: Approximately 6 hours Abridged In The Last Man , Vince Flynn takes a break from the Mitch Rapp prequels and puts Mitch right in the thick of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. He is brought in to investigate the disappearance (a presumed home invasion kidnapping) of Joe Rickman, the head of the CIA's clandestine operations in Afghanistan. In fact, he's been involved in so many clandestine operations that he could singlehandedly gut the intelligence agency's efforts in multiple countries around the world. But, as Rapp and his team start to investigate they find that all of the pieces don't quite fit together. Add to that an FBI agent that believes that Rapp and Rickman have pocketed millions of dollars intended for intelligence efforts in Afghanistan and the reappearance of a deadly man from Rapp's past and you have the basis for a good story. While the action is solid, there is...

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (audiobook) by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

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Published in 2012 by MacMillan Audio Duration: 8 hours, 25 minutes Unabridged Read by the author, Bill O'Reilly I was a little reluctant to listen to this audiobook because of the author. Not Martin Dugard. This is the third book I have read or listened to that he has written or co-written and I know he can really tell a story. No, it's Mr. "No Spin Zone" that I cannot stand. Our politics are similar but I just find O'Reilly difficult to stomach. That being said, I enjoyed this audiobook quite a lot. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) O'Reilly narrates Killing Kennedy , which means it's a mixed bag for me. He speaks for a living so he reads it well and knows what phrases and words he wanted to emphasize but, like I said above, a little O'Reilly goes a long way for me. Also, his frequent use of dramatically read foreshadowing that alludes to the date of JFK's assassination got very old very fast. But, the positives are the way the bo...

The Sheriff of Sorrow (#1 in the series) (audiobook) by Jack Bates

Published in 2012 by Mind Wings Audio Read by Joe Barrett Duration: 1 hour, 6 minutes Technically, The Sheriff of Sorrow is not a western because it takes place in northern Michigan. However, the story has all of the traditional pieces of a Western: a wild town, miners, rich guys manipulating the town, card games, people accused of cheating at card games, saloons, prostitutes, gun play and a new sheriff in town. Let's face it, in the days of the Old West, most of the rest of the country was not particularly settled, either. This short story serves as the introduction to a new series about Sorrow, Michigan. Cal Haskell has been brought to town to be the new sheriff. The short story introduces most of the characters, give the listener a feel for the situation and establishes the new sheriff as a no-nonsense tough and smart guy that takes his job seriously - no matter who is involved. The reader is Joe Barrett. I like Barrett's folksy midwestern voice. He does a good job ...

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America (audiobook) by Steven M. Gillon

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Published in June of 2006 by Random House Audio Read by Stephen Hoye. Unabridged Duration: 8 hours, 51 minutes. The book and audiobook for  10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America  are companion works for a History Channel series of the same name. They cover the same ten days but are independently researched and written. These dates are not the super-obvious ones like July 4, 1776 and December 7, 1941. One could quibble with the choices (it is part of the fun of a project like this one) but his choices are good ones. Here are the ten days and a few comments: 1) May 26, 1637 The date of a Puritan massacre of Indians at Mystic. He argues that King Philip's War is the model of American/Indian relations for the next 250+ years. 2) January 25, 1787 Shay's Rebellion and its influence on the Constitution. Emphasized the need for a more centralized government. 3) January 24, 1848 California Gold Rush. Focused on environmental degradation and not so much on the e...

Deadly Appearances (Joanne Kilbourn #1) (audiobook) by Gail Bowen

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Published by Post Hypnotic Press in 2012 Originally Published in 1990 Read by Lisa Bunting Unabridged Duration: 8 hours, 43 minutes There are a dozen or so Joanne Kilbourn mysteries. They are set in Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada. Kilbourn is a middle-aged political party worker. She works behind the scenes helping to craft policy positions, write speeches, plan campaigns and the like. Deadly Appearances literally starts with the murder of Andy Boychuck, a successful politician. Kilbourn has worked with him for years and he is suddenly dead from a poisoned glass of water he drank from as he began a celebratory speech. As the book proceeds there is another murder and only Joanne has the key to solving the mystery as she struggles to put together her shattered professional life and deal with her own issues as a recent widow (her own husband died a couple of years earlier). Lisa Bunting does a great job with the narration. She delivers on all of the emotions of Kilbourn – the ...

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book: The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Ugly On by Brian Miller, Adam Paulson and Kevin Wool

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Published in 2011 by Abrams Image Miller, Paulson and Wool (better known as Team Ugly) maintain the website uglychristmassweaterparty.com  which is a re-seller of Christmas sweaters - the gaudier and more covered with Christmas bling, the better. This book tells the reader how to organize an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, including ideas on how to turn it into a charity event, special adult beverages, games, ideas for gift exchanges and decorations. But, the bulk of the book is "The Ugly Christmas Hall of Fame." There are nearly 100 pages of pictures of Ugly Christmas Sweaters that are named and delightfully described with a snarky paragraph or two. This is really more of a holiday coffee table book than a serious read. This is something to pick up and read for a couple of minutes and then move on. But, those few minutes will be amusing, the pictures of those atrocious sweaters are high quality and you'll find yourself wondering if you should pick one of these things...

Conqueror: A Novel of Kublai Khan by Conn Iggulden

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Published in 2011 by Delacorte Press Conn Iggulden continues his historical fiction series about the Mongols with Conqueror: A Novel of Kublai Khan . This is the fifth book in the series, but you can easily jump in here, like I did, and not be lost so long as you have a rudimentary idea about the Mongols and their lifestyle. Iggulden comments that he was interested in writing another trilogy focusing on Kublai Khan but decided against it when he realized that while Kublai's life and reign were interesting (Marco Polo, attempted invasions of Japan, etc. ), they were not nearly as dramatic as his early life and would be rather anti-climactic in comparison. Kublai Khan (1215-1294)  as a young man Kublai is a grandson of Genghis Khan and he comes of age in a time of great political turmoil. The Mongols are undoubtedly the most dominant military force in Europe, Asia and the Middle East but they have no clear leader. Various relatives of Genghis Khan have a claim to the thron...

The Girl Who Ran Off With Daddy (Stewart Hoag & Lulu #7) (audiobook) by David Handler

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Published in 1996 by Sunset Productions Read by Gene Corbin Duration: Approximately 3 hours (abridged). Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag is a retired novelist and semi-retired ghost writer who, like the novelist Jessica  Fletcher in the old TV show Murder She Wrote , has a remarkable ability to be around when someone gets killed. In The Girl Who Ran Off With Daddy  we find Stewart and his on again / off again relationship with his celebrity ex-wife in an on again phase. They have a baby and Hoagy is still adjusting to this reality. His basset hound Lulu is not happy having been removed from her position as the de facto child of the couple to being merely the family dog. But, this small family's routine is thrown into an uproar when Hoagy's old literary mentor Thor Gibbs arrives on his motorcycle with his 18 year old stepdaughter on the back. Thor Gibbs is a an Ernest Hemingway-type  character that is really into the mythopoetic men's movement -type stuff, except his ve...

The Templar Chronicles: This Cleansing Fire (audiobook) by Joseph Nassise

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Published December 2011 by GraphicAudio Multicast Performance Length: 52 minutes. Unabridged. This short audiobook was originally a short story in a larger collection but author Joseph Nassise has expanded on this story with several other books. GraphicAudio has adapted it to a radio drama format with multiple cast members and plenty of special effects. The Templar Chronicles: This Cleansing Fire features Captain Cade Williams, a member of the hidden Catholic order the Knights Templar. They are charged with fighting supernatural forces. One would think they might be a bunch of priests, but they are an elite commando unit carrying modern combat weapons and special swords. In this story, the team is sent out to find and destroy a group of Asian vampires. They are not Asians, per se, but this type of vampire originated in Asia. Another team was already sent in but they are not reporting back and Captain Williams and his team fear the worst. GraphicAudio's high production qu...

The Efficiency Expert by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Written in 1919 and first published in All-Story Weekly magazine in 1921, The Efficiency Expert is a rare non-science fiction book for Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. I read it on my kindle but if it were a paper book it is estimated to have been about 130 pages. The Efficiency Expert features Jimmy Torrance, a talented young college student who is a great athlete and natural leader and all around great guy to have at a party but  does not take his studies seriously. When he is almost tossed out of college during his senior year for having no apparent hope of completing the curriculum in four years, Torrance buckles down and somehow passes. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) Having turned over a new leaf, he turns down the opportunity to manage the family factory and decides that he will move to Chicago and make it on his own. Jimmy's expectation that the world will come knocking at his door because he has a college degree i...

Adam by Ted Dekker

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Published in 2008 by Thomas Nelson Ted Dekker is a stalwart member of the Christian publishing world. He usually offers up a large helping of action, mystery and suspense with a Christian flavor. Dekker's strengths are maintaining a quick pace and the creation and development of interesting characters. In Adam  an FBI psychology expert named Daniel Clark is on the trail of a serial killer nicknamed "Eve" (he writes "Eve" on the walls above each of his victims) who kills twenty-something women every dark of the moon. He leaves no clues behind except that he drives a stolen white van, eats candy bars, drinks cherry Cokes, kidnaps his victims with an ether-like medicine that knocks them out. he kills with a form of meningitis and his rituals have strong religious overtones. He always leaves those clues and no others. Clark is obsessed by this case and it has wrecked his marriage and threatens his career. One night his team almost catches "Eve" bu...

Empire (Book 1 of 2 in the Empire series) by Orson Scott Card

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Published in 2006 by Tor. Danger: Spoilers follow. I am torn when it comes to this book. It starts out with a clever premise: What if the super-heated political debate of the last few years was actually being created by a third party that was trying to get red-staters and blue-staters to start fighting. Once the bullets start flying a seemingly disinterested third party might be able to step in and assume the powers of government in the form of a dictatorship that promises to stop the insanity. So, when the President, Vice-President and most of the cabinet are killed by commando terrorists of unknown origin the country gets very unstable very fast as the finger pointing and the political spin machines start to crank up. Great premise. Strong start. But, when the mechanized walking tanks and the hoverbikes, led by a George Soros-type character (who has unlimited funds, apparently) start to attack New York City the action is first-rate and gripping but the believability facto...

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (abridged) by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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Published by Simon and Schuster in 2005 Read by Richard Thomas Duration: 9 hours, 29 minutes Abridged This is technically a re-read of Team of Rivals for me. I read the original 944 page hardcover book (see my review by clicking here ) and I have marveled when I have seen the 41+ hour unabridged version at the library. I love audiobooks but that is a commitment that I am not prepared to make. William Seward (1801-1872), Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State But, this abridgment is a very reasonable length and gives the listener a solid grasp of the political talents of Lincoln and some of what he faced. While the book does not cover all of his difficulties, it does a solid job of  presenting the relationship between William Seward and Lincoln, George McClellan and Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Lincoln and Salmon P. Chase and Lincoln. Those were his most important relationships in the cabinet and they were all very different. Two became great allies (one after...

Thirst: A Novel by Mary Donnarumma Sharnick

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Published by Fireship Press in 2012 Set in 1613 Venice, Thirst: A Novel is a story of family secrets, racial purity, religion and raw power. This is the first novel for the author, Mary Donnarumma Sharnick . As a first novel goes, this one has potential, but also has issues, which is not uncommon.  The scenes throughout the book are very vivid and easy to imagine with fully fleshed out characters (which is usually the hard part for first-time novelists) but there just needs to be more detail to tie the scenes together to make the story flow, more explanation of Venetian society and the way it worked so that the story moves more smoothly and the reader can fully appreciate what everyone is doing, why it matters and the risks that certain characters take when challenging the powers-that-be. This is a very female oriented work with lots of details about menstruation, fears of first-time sex, rape, child rape and a very detailed childbirth scene with lots of d...

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter

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I Expected So Much... Published by Alfred A. Knopf in July of 2012 I love Stephen L. Carter - the essayist. He writes brilliant essays. He makes me think and I learn a lot. I have now determined that I just don't care much for Stephen L. Carter the novelist and I will stick to the essays. When I saw the topic of this book I was thrilled. Carter is a law professor so he knows all of the legal angles. I am an enthusiastic student of the Civil War so I was already very familiar with all of the politics, legal issues and personalities that would have been involved with an impeachment of Lincoln. The premise of the story is that Lincoln was not killed by John Wilkes Booth, although he was gravely injured. Vice President Andrew Johnson was killed and Secretary of State William Seward was injured so badly that he has not been seen publicly since the attempt on his life. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (1814-1869) plays a key role in this alternate history novel. In real life,...

Frozen Heat (Nikki Heat #4) (audiobook) by Richard Castle

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Performed by Johnny Heller Duration: 11 hours, 6 minutes Published 2012 by  Hyperion Audio Last winter I listened to audiobook #3 in this series, Heat Rises , and I was initially struck by the absurdity of a book written by a fictional author in a television show. I thought it would be a joke. We have a book written by a writer who was created by a television show writer. You would think that this would be a recipe for disaster - a mere cheap marketing ploy to generate some publicity for a television show. However, if you thought that, you would be wrong. Whoever is in charge of the "Richard Castle" franchise at Hyperion books has taken this quite seriously. Frozen Heat is a great police thriller. The story is about a murder case that homicide detective Nikki Heat's squad is investigating. Evidence points to a connection with the murder of Heat's mother 10 years earlier. As they investigate this connection, Heat and her writer boyfriend Jameson Rook travel ...

The 1990s: A Brief History [Kindle Edition] by Vook

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Published in July of 2011 by Vook Vook is a publisher of e-books enhanced with video clips ( V ideo + B ook = Vook ). This history is short (Amazon estimates it would be about 32 pages on paper) so it is unlikely to satisfy a history purist. However, for a 32 page history of the United States in the 1990s, it is pretty solid (but admittedly lightweight due to its short length) and very readable. The most famous image from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The topics covered include: -A New World Order/Fall of the USSR; -Clinton's Impeachment; -Creation of the World Wide Web; -Cloning/Genetic therapies; -David Koresh/Oklahoma City bombing/First Twin Towers Bombings; -The 1992 NBA Olympics "Dream Team"; -Grunge Music. I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5. This e-book can be found on Amazon.com here: The 1990s: A Brief History Reviewed on November 6, 2012.

Tempting Yerva (kindle) by Chris Turner

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Published in 2011 by Innersky Books Tempting Yerva is a Kindle short story. If it were on paper it would be about 13 pages long, according to Amazon. An adolescent girl named Dore is a young nun in the Yerva sect. Like monks and nuns across most faiths, her life is a lot of hard work, meditation and discipline and this young girl is miserable. She hates it. She is bored and her raging hormones make her think an awful lot about sex. The religion seems to have a superficial similarity to Buddhism in that the goal of the aspirant is to achieve "bliss" - a sense of nothingness. Dore has no interest in any of this. One day, alien (literally from another world) voices start to whisper to her and promise her powers, sex and more in exchange letting them use her. She agrees. Her wildest fantasies come true, she is granted magical powers, no temptation is left unsatisfied and the entire sect is endangered. My takeaway? Dore has been untempted in her life, but once she is al...

Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency by Mark K. Updegrove

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Published by Crown Publishers in March of 2012 Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency is a biography composed mostly of snippets of interviews edited together to tell President Lyndon Johnson's story. The book is designed to give the reader a view of Lyndon Johnson - the man. Johnson was a controversial man  - easily one of the most controversial of the 1960's. He is easily caricatured and mis-characterized. This ambiguity is odd considering that he was one of the most successful presidents of all time when it came to pursuing and passing a legislative agenda. If not for the Vietnam War, his legacy might be much different today. Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) While I learned a lot more facts about Johnson than I knew before reading this book, I did not get a better read on the man himself. His motivations were so mixed and his outbursts so frequent that I could not (and still cannot) tell if he put himself behind legislation like the Civil Rights ...