The List by Steve Martini

Good vacation book

Published in 1997.

Written in the wake of the Milli Vanilli music scandal , Steve Martini's The List features an unsuccessful female author (Abby Chandlis) who has written a book that under a male pen name (Gable Cooper) in order to make the book more marketable.

So far, no big deal. Lots of authors use pen names. Several female romance authors have used pen names to write detective books and thrillers. In this case, the author actually hires a person to portray himself as the real Gable Cooper - not just in public appearances, but also in all negotiations with the agents, the publishers and Hollywood studios interested in turning the book into a movie. The reason she goes through such elaborate steps is her belief that male authors, especially handsome, charming ones, are marketed much more aggressively.

Steve Martini

The problem comes in the man chosen to portray Gable Cooper. He is a loose cannon, a frustrated author and, even worse, the real author comes to believe that he may be trying to hijack her book for himself. When the only people who knew about the Gable Cooper pseudonym start to die the real author finds herself in the middle of her own real life action thriller.

The List is a great beach or vacation read - it is not too complicated but the characters are sufficiently interesting to keep the reader involved. Throw in a little romance and a whole lot of danger and it fits the bill.

On a confused note, this is the second Martini book I've read this year and the second Martini book with a title that has nothing to do with the book. What list?

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The List.

Reviewed on April 10, 2011.

The Roar by Emma Clayton

There's a lot of meat to this "tween" novel. Quite enjoyable and discussion-provoking

Published in 2009.

The Roar is a more "kiddie" book than I normally read. This one is aimed at the tween crowd (the book says down to grade 3 but I can't really imagine anyone under the age of 10 getting into it) and I found it to be quite compelling despite being aimed at the younger set and the occasional clunky simile and/or phrase. The Roar has a sequel called The Whisper.

The book is set in a dismal future in which religion is gone (not really mentioned but people say, "My odd!" rather than "My God!") and the environment has been destroyed by mankind in order to kill of the animals. 45 years before the story an animal "plague" caused all of the animals to attack people in a crazed frenzy. So, people retreated to just a few countries (UK, Canada and a few others), became part of a highly stratified society with lots of urban poor forced to live in nasty, poisonous slums and the government wiped out all of the animals by laying waste to the environment and making it a giant desert.

Emma Clayton

Well, that's the official story anyway.

Potential spoiler alert****************************

What we have here is an excellent book for a classroom discussion of the need to investigate for oneself, the dangers of totalitarian government and the dangers of oligarchy.

You also get some Adam and Eve religious themes and a few jabs at the modern environmental movement. Some may read it otherwise but I couldn't help but notice that the main bad guy is a government minister named Mal Goreman (Al Gore?) who helps to manipulate the media to convince everyone that the animals were dangerous and uses the TV and schools to push his agenda. 

Everyone lives in slums in poverty rather than touch nature, which has to be protected for the enjoyment and use of the enlightened elite.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: The Roar

Reviewed on March 22, 2009.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

"What can happen to a people whose youth sacrifices everything in order to serve its great ideals?" - Adolph Hitler, October 1932

Published by Listening Library in 2006.
Read by Kathrin Kana.
4 hours, 26 minutes
Unabridged

Susan Campbell  Bartoletti's Hitler Youth demonstrates how the Nazis separated children from the parents, their churches and their senses in an effort to make them loyal to the German state and Adolph Hitler.

Starting with the story of a member of the Hitler Youth who was killed in a bloody street fight with Communist youths, Bartoletti shows the chaos in the streets that enabled Hitler to take over Germany. She also details every step that the Hitler Youth took to monopolize the lives and the attention of its young people in order to completely dominate their lives and their loyalties. The reader is introduced to a number of former members of the Hitler Youth and we are told generalities of how the Hitler Youth operated and the specifics of how these actions affected these young people.

Step by step, the schools, churches and families are infiltrated in order to allow the German state to control these young people through seemingly benign activities such as school, weekend outings, rallies and a sense of belonging to a larger purpose.  Did it work? We hear the disturbing story of a young woman who turned her parents over to the police for being critical of the Fuhrer. Another former member notes: "I was carried away by it all."

As World War II progresses and Germany starts to lose, thousands of Hitler Youth became air raid wardens. Some operated air raid bunkers and others were taught to operate Anti-aircraft guns. Others operated giant searchlights and still more were involved in body recovery efforts after air raids. Later, others were brought directly to the front lines, given rudimentary training and put into the fight. Some were so young that they were not given the cigarette ration given to regular soldiers - instead they were given candy!

This book offers a dramatically different take on the Nazi movement and World War II. Listening to this audiobook gave me a whole new reason to loathe the Fuhrer, the Nazis, and too much concentration of power in the hands of the state. This is a disturbing, difficult and important book.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here:  Hitler Youth

Reviewed on April 9, 2011.

Note: This book was put on a book ban list in Tennessee in 2025. The article has a searchable database because the list has more than 1,100 unique titles. I don't know what it says about a person that wants to ban a book about how the government can brainwash a whole generation of young people into hating certain groups of their fellow countrymen.

A Painted House by John Grisham

The unabridged audiobook is excellent

Published by Bantam Doubleday Audio in 2001
Duration: 12 hours, 7 minutes
Read by David Lansbury
Unabridged

I am not a giant fan of Grisham's latest legal thrillers but I am becoming a fan of his non-lawyer books, such as Bleachers and A Painted House. Grisham's non-legal novels are wonderful "slice of life" views of rural/small town America.

A Painted House is a rite of passage novel about a 7 year old boy (Luke Chandler) growing up on an Arkansas cotton farm in 1952 with his parents and grandparents. His uncle is off fighting the war in Korea.

It is the beginning of the two month long picking season and his family hires some hired hands to help pick the cotton. They hire a combination of "hill people" (poor whites from up in the Arkansas hills) and Mexicans who are literally trucked into Arkansas in the trailer of a semi as if they were cattle.

Luke learns a lot during this season, including about love, baseball, violence, cruelty, sacrifice, bravery, family pride, television, hard work, floods and failure. If you have worked on a family farm at any time this book will bring back a flood of memories. I was reminded of my grandparents, the massive Sunday meals, putting up hay, shoveling soybeans, riding on the tractor and plenty more. I doubt Mr. Grisham will ever read this, but I'd still like to thank him for refreshing those memories.

The author, John Grisham

The audiobook is about 12 hours in length and is read very well by David Lansbury who gives distinct and realistic voices to everyone. I especially enjoyed the grandmother's voice - it reminded me of plenty of the older ladies' voices at my church as I was growing up.

Kudos all around.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Painted House by John Grisham.

Reviewed March 27, 2009.

1942: A Novel by Robert Conroy

Some really good parts but...

Published in 2009 by Ballantine Books

 1942: A Novel follows up on a simple "What if?" from history. What if the Japanese actually invaded and conquered Hawaii rather than simply attacked it on December 7, 1941?

Conroy's book is very strong up until the point where the Japanese invade. The premise of the book is historically strong, the strategies seem logical, the personalities of the real historical figures are consistent with what we know of them nowadays.

But..

Once the invasion happens, Conroy indulges in exploring the depravities of the Japanese secret police with too much vigor. Yes, I know that the Japanese were brutal, cruel, heartless conquerors that literally raped cities like Nanking, China. He shows a similar brutality in the invasion of Hawaii, which is fine and appropriate - there is no reason to assume the Japanese would have acted any better in Hawaii than they did in China, Korea and the Philippines. But, Conroy insists on showing one brutal act after another - multiple rapes, guttings, hands chopped off, heads chopped off, genitalia mutilated and so on.

It becomes a parade of atrocities and, in my opinion, the story starts to drown in it all, which is too bad because it started so well.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 1942: A Novel.

Reviewed on March 27, 2009.

The Babysitter's Code (kindle) by Laura Lippman

Published in 2009 by William Murrow.

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.

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

This Civil War buff thoroughly enjoyed it

Originally Published in 2004 by William Morrow

To Make Men Free, like an epic feature from the 1950s, features a cast of thousands which is both its strength and weakness.

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.

George B. McClellan
 (1826-1885)

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 is quite enjoyable - he flows effortlessly from one character to another while moving the story along at a quick pace. There's enough detail to give the Civil War novice a good grounding in the basics and enough focus on small parts of the battle to keep a serious student of the war like me interested. Humor and tragedy often go hand in hand in this book - none illustrates this more than page 301 of my paperback version. I chuckled out loud at a neat turn of phrase and then felt as though I'd been kicked in the gut four paragraphs later. I was so moved that I had to close the book and do something else.

Croker noted that he researched this book for three years. He includes many antecdotes that are left out of most histories. As a born and bred Hoosier I was proud of determination demonstrated by the story of the Hoosier soldier who was shot in the belly early in the battle - a fatal injury in those days. He was ordered back to the medics but he refused, saying, "Well, I guess I'm hurt about as bad as I can be. I believe I'll go back and give 'em some more." (p. 267)

Robert E. Lee (1807-1870)

Croker has another novel about the Civil War entitled No Greater Courage: A Novel of the Battle of Fredericksburg. They are stand alone novels (I read them out of order) but they would probably be more enjoyable in the order that they actually happened. I hope that Croker is working on a Chancellorsville novel. Croker's command of the Union political situation is very strong and these three battles are, in reality, intricately related to each other. Chancellorsville's bold maneuvers are a response to the mindless forward attacks of Fredericksburg which were a response to the hesitancy of Antietam. I would love to see Croker get into the head of Hooker at Chancellorsville.

Highly recommended.

Pet Peeve note: On page 136 of my paperback edition Croker refers to "Indianians." There have never been and never will be Indianians. We are Hoosiers. Always have been, always will be.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam.

Reviewed on April 6, 2009.

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

Published in 1995 by HarperAudio.

Duration: approximately 3 hours
Read by Gillian Anderson

Abridged.

 I am going to 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.

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's face it - every episode is not being shipped to the TV Hall of Fame...). This book is a tired and pale imitation of what the show was. You can see the ending coming and you wish it would just hurry up and get here. Perhaps the abridgment gutted the book but I was glad it was abridged.

Gillian Anderson

The science behind this audiobook is laughable. Not the supernatural stuff - that's what the X-Files is all about. I mean the atomic science. Does the author really think that anyone can explode an atomic bomb without radiation detectors picking up on it? Remember Chernobyl? The West knew it had gone wrong long before the Soviets admitted to it because it was detected by Western atomic sensors. Atomic blasts show up on seismographs. That's how we knew India and Pakistan had them. But, let's ignore facts like that and roll right along with a silly premise.

I rate this audiobook 1 star out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The X-Files: Ground Zero.

Reviewed on April 8, 2009.

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

Well-written biography of a true American hero

Originally published in 1955.

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad is a fantastic little biography of Harriet Tubman (1820-1913). Tubman has always been one of my personal heroes and this book does her story justice.

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 away by the hand of God like the Jews of old. Now I will have to burn this town." Interestingly, Montgomery also served with John Brown in Kansas. Harriet Tubman also knew John Brown although she was not comfortable with his violent tactics.

I rate this biography 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Reviewed April 8, 2009.

Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century by Hank Hanegraaf

Important book but in serious need of an editor

Published in 2012 by Thomas Nelson

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.

Hank Hanegraaf

Prosperity theology is more famous because any viewer of a TBN program can watch its preachers telling viewer things like this, "When you tithe, God gives to you. When you don't tithe God takes it away from you." (p. 46) The promise is that you will get stuff from God if you tithe. God is like a divine bank account. Preacher Jesse Duplantis noted that God is a comforter "because when you get some stuff it brings you comfort." (p. 198) Wow, as great a perversion of the concept as I've ever heard. Joyce Meyer notes that giving to God is like getting a "receipt" or an IOU from God that you can draw on later on.(p. 222)

So, who cares? Can't these people worship as they please? Well, of course they can. But, when they take the Christian name and use it to teach non-Christian doctrine on a worldwide broadcast it hurts the Christian brand. Plus, most Christians don't even know what these people are really saying, they just assume it's the same stuff they hear in their own churches.

Positives:

The book is hyper-researched. The bibliography is 16 pages long with teeny-tiny print. There are more than 1,000 endnotes for a 347 page book. Hanegraaf knows his stuff.

Negatives:

The book is repetitive. I read some of the same quotes more than half a dozen times. The point was made - no reason to state it so many times. The repetition hurt the overall argument because it began to feel like there must be a shortage of quotes since some were used so many times. In retrospect, with more than 1,000 endnotes, the repeated quotes were a very small part of the whole. But, still, an editor would have helped the book by helping it to become leaner and meaner. The overall quality of the book was hurt. You could cut 50-100 pages from this book and only help it.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century.

Reviewed on April 14, 2009.

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

A 19th Century Inspirational Story

Originally 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 with 21st century evangelical techniques and sentiments.

I rate this kindle book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Jesus Says So (kindle) by Mass. Sabbath School Society.

Reviewed on April 17, 2009.

Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel (Book One) by Jon Land

Loud and strong, this book goes at it hard

Published by Forge Books in 2009.

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.

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-corporation. Don't think too much, just enjoy the show.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land

Reviewed on April 18, 2009.

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

Originally published in 1999.
Audiobook cassette version published in 2001.

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.

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. These introductory pieces are, in some ways, the most enjoyable parts of the book. I very much enjoyed his tales of what inspired him and of the authors who pointed him along the way to being one of just a handful of authors in the country that completely make a living by writing.

Audiobook details:

Approximately 6 hours. Each story is read by a different narrator. The introductory pieces are read by David Morrell himself and are quite good.

Highly recommended - 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: 
Black Evening: Tales of Dark Suspense

Reviewed on April 20, 2009.

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

Solid, but not an exceptional thriller

Originally published in 2001.

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 (his faithful sidekick Toad Tarkington joins in, too!) - again.

Stephen Coonts

Beyond that, America is a perfectly readable and entertaining book. The premise is that America's newest submarine, the America has been stolen. America is remarkable in that it is the quietest submarine ever built and it has the most sensitive sonar of any sub as well. So, it cannot be found easily and it can easily see everyone who is searching for it. It also comes with a detachable mini-sub as well

Why was it stolen? Well, I figured it out right away, but no one else does until the end of the book. The book starts out with the attempted launch of an advanced "Star Wars" type satellite. The launch fails and the satellite disappears into the Atlantic. Can you figure out why someone would want a submarine with a mini-sub now?

Anyway, America is chock full of advanced computer hackers, corrupt currency investors, mercenaries and advanced weaponry and it makes for a very readable thriller.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: America by Stephen Coonts.

Reviewed on March 22, 2011.

Pete & Pickles by Berkeley Breathed

Fantastic - and yes, I did read it to my children

Published in 2007 by Philomel Books.

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 observation will show you that Breathed previews most of the book with the art on the walls of Pete's house. It's something fun to go back and look at with the kids.

As for those reviewers that claim that this is inappropriate for kids, I say, "Phhphhtt!" (to quote Opus, Breathed's beloved Penguin character from Bloom County.) I talked to my children all the way through the book as we read it. I talked about how Pete misses his wife like their Grandpa misses their Grandma who has passed on. Is it sad? Sure it is, but life's full of sadness. This book deals with it and shows you can move on. I talked about how Pete gets angry when Pickles messes with his wife's things, I talked about how they were still friends and how he is much happier at the end than he was at the beginning. Guess what? I talk with my kids when we watch TV, too. That's part of the job of being a parent.

Highly recommended for all ages. I rate it 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Pete and Pickles.

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

Comments from a history teacher

Published in 1991 by Scholastic.

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 interested. Cox tells the story, but rarely in a narrative form. From time to time it becomes merely a series of facts written in a plain, simple style rather than a gripping tale of history.

I give it a rather high score as I am grading on a curve today. 4 out of 5 in this case means that it is readable, factually correct book, but written in a rather uninspired manner that is unlikely to spur on a reluctant reader.

Reviewed on November 7, 2005.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment by Clinton Cox.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

A history teacher's perspective

Published in 2003 by Scholastic.
Winner of the 2003 Newberry Medal

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 Lead by Avi. 

Reviewed on November 2, 2005.

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

     

A great read

Published in 2000 by Tarcher.

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 deals with it now are told with all of the grace of a natural born storyteller.

Lander has done voice work in his later years.  Lander voiced Henry, the persnickety penguin in the Oswald series. Henry is known for not being particularly athletic with the slogan "sl-o-o-w and steady." Very appropriate for Lander.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Fall Down Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn't Tell Nobody by David L. Lander.

Reviewed on April 21, 2009.

The Watchmen by Alan Moore

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 with The Watchmen?

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 twist on those Superman cartoon movies that show Superman fighting the Germans. Showing an all-powerful Dr. Manhattan literally not caring about the little people is an interesting but barely explored theme - what happens when the superhero realizes he doesn't care about the little people anymore because he is not one of them?

But, the relentless dark nature of the book and the insistence on highlighting nearly every single watchman with his or her own volume just wore me down. I lost interest with the volume on Dr. Manhattan. He's just plain old boring. The parts that concern him feel like they were written by an unsure college freshman who is trying to sound philosophical. Tedious is more like it. 

 Rorschach is interesting and along with the Owl their combination of cool tools and psychological dysfunction comprise the modern-day incarnation of Frank Miller's vision of Batman in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Laurie is interesting, to a point.

Veidt is tedious because his plan to unite humanity has no basis in history, which is a real hoot! The smartest man in the world does not know the history he claims to have studied? Invasions from aliens have happened, figuratively, of course. The Persians caused the Spartans and Athenians to unite. But, in two generations the Spartans worked with Persians to defeat the Athenians. Cortes had the help of several Indian groups to defeat the Aztecs. American Indian groups worked with the United States government to subdue other groups. This plan is comic booking at its worst - adolescent political theory applied to a big picture idea.

Anyway, I won't be seeing the movie. I skimmed the end of the book. I'm glad the Owl gets the girl. Good for him, at least someone got something out of this overly-pretentious, overly-hyped read.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Watchmen by Alan Moore. 

Reviewed on April 21, 2009.

Note: This book made it on a "book ban" list in Florida. Ugh. I'm not fond of this graphic novel, but I don't want to ban it.