The Godwulf Manuscript (Spenser #1) (audiobook) by Robert B. Parker

Going back for a second read - this time as an audiobook

Published in 1988 by Books on Tape
Read by Michael Prichard
Duration: 5 hours, 12 minutes (unabridged)

I've long since read all of the Spenser novels but I am enjoying a second time around with the older ones as audiobooks - I listen while commuting.

The Godwulf Manuscript is the first in a very long line of Spenser novels. The most essential parts of Spenser are here - wisecracks, details about cooking, his mostly unused office and a healthy interest in the opposite sex, Lt. Quirk (I'd forgotten he was Spenser's first "buddy" in a long line of buddies) and Spenser's self-deprecating inner voice.

The Godwulf Manuscript is a much more "noire" style book than most of the rest of them - but then again it's not much of a surprise really - authors change over time.

Spenser, however, does not change. The book is set in 1973 and Spenser is 37 years old. He makes more references to feeling the effects of age in this book than I ever remember throughout the rest of the series.Yet, Spenser remains ageless, like James Bond, which is good - otherwise the last Spenser book would have featured a 70 year old Spenser. While it might have been interesting, I like the ageless (or very slowly aging) Spenser better.

Robert B. Parker 
(1932-2010)

The audiobook was well-read. Michael Prichard's interpretation of Spenser is always interesting. He read several of the early Spenser audiobooks. He delivers everything very "matter of fact" - no matter how funny Spenser's comment is, no matter how many punches are thrown. Sort of like a faster version of Jack Webb in Dragnet. He makes the story go very quickly.

I give The Godwulf Manuscript 5 stars out of 5.

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

Reviewed on January 5, 2007 (edited June 27, 2012).

Friday (audiobook) by Robert A. Heinlein

 

Published by Dh Audio in 1982.
Read by Samantha Eggar
Duration: approximately 3 hours.
Abridged

Many years ago, in the early 80s, I was a devoted reader of all things Heinlein. Somewhere along the way I guess I lost interest (I don't remember), but I found this audiobook version of Friday and thought I'd re-live the old days a bit.

From the product description on the back of the box I did not remember having read the book, but soon enough, I vaguely remembered the plot a bit. So, how was it re-visiting Heinlein? It was okay. The story line was not nearly as interesting as the backdrop (a fragmented United States - how I'd love to see a short history of this vision of earth plus a short description of the technology - Heinlein accurately describes the internet - not bad for 1982).

Friday is a genetically modified human being created from bits and pieces from all around the world. She lives in a remarkably open society that openly discriminates against such Artificial People (APs). Heinlein builds the book on the themes of wanting to belong and being rejected for things that you cannot control.

Robert A. Heinlein 
(1907-1988)

Heinlein's free love world (nearly sex-crazed) is, in my mind, a bit of wishful thinking on the part of Heinlein. However, I'll give him his due - the multiple-partner marriages are a controversial idea to toss out there - and part of the job of a good sci-fi writer is to toss out new ideas and cause some discussion.

Overall, I was not over-impressed with my audiobook version of Friday. Part of it has to do with the fact that it is heavily abridged (the unabridged version of the book lasts 13 hours, this one is a mere 3 hours). The story suffered from the abridgment. Secondly, the choice of reader was disconcerting. She was very British and she never shook that accent, no matter where the action was taking place. Sometimes that worked out well, but usually it was jarring to hear residents of New Zealand, Winnipeg, Southern California and Vicksburg, Mississippi speaking with any number of British accents (sometimes Cockney, even!).

I give this audiobook version of Friday 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Friday by Robert A. Heinlein.

Reviewed on January 9, 2007.

NOTE: In the 2023-2024 school year this book was challenged in a school district in Indiana. I do not know the district, but this is a list compiled and published by the Indianapolis Star.

Leaving the Left: Moments in the News That Made Me Ashamed to Be a Liberal by Keith Thompson

Thompson's original essay was much better

Published by Sentinel HC in 2006

For those of you who do not know, Keith Thompson's first draft of Leaving the Left was a column in the San Francisco chronicle (found here).

I thoroughly enjoyed the original essay. I printed it out, read it to my wife, forwarded it to friends. A copy of it has set on my desk for the better part of two years - mostly in the way, but also as a reminder of my own personal journey away from the Democrats (my first 4 votes in any sort of Presidential race were proud votes for Jesse Jackson, Michael Dukakis, Paul Tsongas and Bill Clinton). Really, though, it's not so much that I've moved from them as they have moved from some of their core values to new core values.

Political parties, like people, evolve in their thoughts. Keith Thompson, like many others, discovered that the political party of his youth (he was the youngest delegate to a Democratic national convention in American history in 1972)  had become something different. (Can you imagine Harry Truman working better with John Kerry or George W. Bush?) Thompson describes the values of his youth, how they matched up with Democratic Party policies and positions and then tells how he believes the Democrats have moved away from those policies. His assertion is that he is still a liberal, but not liberal with a capital "L". Rather, he is a traditional political liberal, the type of liberal that Adams, Jefferson, Washington and the rest of the Founding Fathers were. (If you do not know the difference, write your college poli-sci professors a nasty note for neglecting your education - you paid a fortune for it, they should have done a better job! - and then start brushing up on the political philosophies of the Enlightenment.)

Thompson's book is an elaboration on his original essay. I think it would have been better if Thompson had included his original essay as a starting point, but he does quote from it in an unnecessary picture section in the middle of the book.

His 10 chapters cover a variety of topics:
1. Affirmative Action;
2. Eminent Domain;
3. Neo-Feminism;
4. Clarence Thomas;
5. Abortion;
6. Bill Clinton's Perjury;
7. Columbine;
8. the Extreme Left's reaction to 9/11;
9. Displaced Dads (fathers in divorce);
10. Euthanasia.

Some chapters are very strong (Clarence Thomas, 9/11, Eminent Domain and Affirmative Action) but others feel hurried and underdeveloped - almost like the publisher thought the book was too short and asked him to add a couple of more chapters in a hurry (Euthanasia, Displaced Dads). For example, the Euthanasia chapter focuses on Terry Schiavo but does not include a back story explaining the situation.

I give the book 4 stars out of 5.  Mostly good, but there are weak spots, especially towards the end. It leaves a poor impression - especially when the start was so strong.

But, I do heartily recommend reading his original column. If you love it, you'll like this book.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Leaving the Left: Moments in the News That Made Me Ashamed to Be a Liberal by Keith Thompson.

Reviewed on January 17, 2007.

Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum #11) (audiobook) by Janet Evanovich

Long stretches of tedium punctuated by episodes of laugh-out-loud fun

Published by Macmillan Audio in 2005.
Read by Lorelei King.
Duration: 7 hours, 48 minutes

Unabridged.

Eleven on Top is my fifth in the Stephanie Plum series, having previously read 1-3 and 8. Technically, 1-3 were enjoyed thoroughly as books on tape. The fact that I heard them all as audiobooks is a source of my frustration with Eleven on Top.

You see, the first three that I enjoyed were read by the actress Lori Petty. In my mind, Petty accurately nailed the Jersey Girl attitude and accent of Stephanie. Lorelei King, a veteran reader does a good job with all of the characters but Stephanie - she plays Stephanie fairly accent-neutral. While the dialogue works without the New Jersey accent, it crackles and zings with it. I know that King is the choice for Evanovich to read, but I think that she is a letdown after listening to Petty's work.

Secondly, the fact that I 'read' this book as an audiobook really accentuated some of Evanovich's more irritating, space-filling writing habits. For example, she is a list maker. Several times she lists off all of the clutter that surrounds Morelli as he nurses a broken leg (used Kleenex, dirty plates, empty glasses, and so on). Or, she lists the clutter on her desk at work. Or, she lists the clutter in her apartment. As a book reader, I would have skimmed over the list and not thought twice about it. As a listener...well, I've got to sit and listen to the lists.

Thirdly, this book has a tendency to drag. Stephanie's indecisiveness about the men in her life is not a fresh topic anymore. Her family scenes were interesting until they were repeated several times throughout the book. Like I said in the title to this review, the story was long stretches of tedium punctuated by episodes of laugh-out-loud fun.

So, what kind of grade do I give this one? I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich.

Reviewed on January 18, 2007.

Truman (audiobook) by David McCullough

Published by  Simon and Schuster Audio in 1992.

Read by David McCullough, the author

Includes parts of recordings of speeches by Harry S. Truman and Douglas MacArthur

Duration: approximately 6 hours

Abridged

The unabridged version won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize.

I am a history teacher, with my favorite times in American history being the Revolutionary War Era, the Civil War Era and an interest in the Frontier as it moved across the United States. While I knew a great deal about Truman before listening to this audiobook, I really felt that I needed to know more.

David McCullough's treatment of Truman is friendly, but not overly rosy. The audiobook version I listened to was abridged. I assume that the areas that were not focused upon in the abridged edition are more fleshed out in the unabridged edition. (Note: this abridgement was not sloppily done - I didn't even notice it was abridged until about 3/4 of the way through the book - it just seemed like he was glossing over the activities of the New Deal Congress rather quicker than normal)

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

Areas of particular focus in the abridged edition include Truman's family background and childhood. His World War I experiences, early political jobs, his association with Kansas City machine politics, Bess (of course!), his mother, how he was chosen to be Vice President, the decision to drop the atomic bombs, the Korean War, the decision to fire MacArthur and eulogies for Truman.

The printed version of this book includes pictures, I am sure, which is a disadvantage of the audio version. However, that deficiency is more than made up for by the inclusion of real audiotaped quotes from Truman himself when possible. It is one thing to see a picture of Harry Truman, it is quite another to hear sections of his speeches in Truman's own voice - the way most Americans did at the time when they were delivered. It gives you a different sense of the man. A section of MacArthur's "Old Soldiers Fade Away" speech is also included, to the detriment of MacArthur, in my opinion. He sounds very snobbish and patrician. When compared to Truman, it makes you root for the Man from Independence all the more.

David McCullough

A second strength of the audiobook is that it is read by the author himself. McCullough has a voice that I envy and enjoy to hear and he makes even the most slowest portions of the book flow by quickly and easily.

Bravo!

Find this edition at Amazon.com here: Truman.

I give this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on February 3, 2007.

Note: This is a profound, but skillful abridgment - the original audiobook clocks in at 54 hours and this version lasts about 6 hours. I appreciate the way that they made an exhaustive biography something that everyday people would listen to.

The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind (audiobook) by Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval

Published by Audio Literature in March of 1998.
Read by Nick Ullett
Duration: 3 hours
Abridged

I picked up The Message of the Sphinx on a whim. Having already read and reviewed Hancock's Heaven's Mirror several years ago, I knew what I was getting myself into - lots of alternative, well-researched ideas that cause you to think, "Well...maybe..." before common sense comes roaring back.

The first half of the audiobook was just that. Questions about the weathering on the Sphinx. Unexplained unwillingness to research into what lies below the Sphinx (is it a cavern? a room? a geologic anomaly?), challenges to the orthodox Egyptology's interpretations.

This is mostly just lots of good fun and as a history teacher I encourage challenges to Orthodoxy - for example, until fairly recently the Maya were considered to be wise sages of the rain forest who abhorred violence (turns out they readily engaged in human sacrifices all of the time), the Assyrians of Nineveh were considered to be a fantasy of the Bible and the city of Troy? - a figment of Homer's imagination. So, putting pinholes in orthodoxy has its place.

However, Hancock and Bauval lost me when they began to use Edgar Cayce's psychic readings from the 1930s and 1940s as a legitimate source. Star charts and weathering are legitimate sources, even if they are misinterpreted or misread. They are facts that anyone can access. The ramblings of mediums are not facts! Come on!

To make it worse, Hancock, and Bauval launch into an extended discourse on the movement of stars across the sky over the centuries (called procession). While this had a legitimate point, one that Hancock fleshes out even more in his book Heaven's Mirror, he goes on and on with it to the point where I couldn't hardly stand to listen to it any longer. 

The reader, Nick Ullett, did a superb job with the material he was asked to read, but there is no way that listening to nearly an hour of facts and figures about star charts and mathematical equations will be anything but mind-numbingly, eye-crossingly, stupefyingly boring. I listen to audiobooks to perk up my long daily commute. I actually had to turn off the relentless march of the equations just to stay awake! Hancock's points were made in the first 15 minutes - yet he continued on and on and on and on and on...

So, this is really two books - the first half is interesting and full of legitimate points. The second half is buttressed by facts from the mouth of a psychic and then becomes an endless lecture on procession that should have been edited.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Message of the Sphinx.

Reviewed on February 8, 2007.

Blowback: A Thriller (Scot Horvath #4) by Brad Thor

Based on some dubious assumptions

Originally published in 2005.

Brad Thor's thriller Blowback delivers as far as the international thrills and chills go. Main character Scot Harvath is a counter-terrorism expert on the tail of an Al-Qaeda operative who catches wind of something new - a plague that is being resurrected from the ancient past to be used against all non-Muslims.

Harvath pursues his leads across Europe and the Middle East - that part is lots of fun. I have issues with Thor's treatment of Muslims and his main thesis.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Every Muslim in the book, with the exception of two, is either a brazen hypocrite or a crazed religious fanatic. One of the good Muslim is killed by the virus being spread the fanatics and the other is shot by the hypocrites. There are literally dozens of Muslims in the book - and only two are decent people?

Thor's book rests on the premise that the Ottoman Empire is trying to resurrect itself by using fanatics like Al-Qaeda and the Wahhabis to weaken modern Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia. The problem with that is this: most Muslims openly hated the Ottoman government. Why? The Sultan (head of the secular government) also gave himself the title of Caliph (head of the religious structure). That is a giant no-no in Islam - Islam must not be subservient to a government. Also, there was a bit of ethnic dislike thrown in since the Ottomans were Turks and there has often been a pro-Arab stance in Al-Qaeda and the Wahhabis.

****END OF SPOILERS****

So, great thrills marred by laughable conspiracy and hopeless stereotyping of Muslims.

I give this one 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Blowback: A Thriller by Brad Thor.

Reviewed on February 21, 2007.

The Lake House (audiobook) by James Patterson

Yikes!

Published in 2003 by Hatchette Audio
Read by Hope Davis and Stephen Lang.
Duration: 7 hours, 35 minutes.

Unabridged

The Lake House is the story of six bird/human hybrids who are created as the result of genetic experiments. They all can fly and all have superhuman strength.

 This book is very poorly paced. Great chunks of action happen with shorthand writing and then Patterson spends nearly an hour of the 7 1/2 hour book describing two of the characters' first sexual experiences. The Lake House skips over scenes and parts of the story moves in fits and starts. For example, the children all "run" away to live in the woods and eat grubs just to get away from regular human society. Next thing you know, they're back at home without any sort of explanation. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and many of them are abridged so I am used to odd fits and starts by poor editing. I checked the packaging several times while listening to this book to see if it was abridged. Sadly, the herky-jerky nature of the book cannot be blamed on poor editing during the process of abridgement because this is an unabridged reading.

Technical things made the book just seem silly like:

-The smoke detector that goes off only after the house is up in flames struck me as stupid. Just this morning 2 smoke detectors went off in my house because a toaster waffle got a bit burned.

-How about the Subaru that holds 8 people, including 6 of them with wings?

-Why does the bad guy want the kids so badly. He keeps mentioning them as a source of money, but how much money does this guy need? He just performed 30 surgeries at the rate of $100 million each. That's $3 billion!

-If you were going to fight a winged person with a 10 foot wingspan and superhuman strength would you bring a gun? A big knife? A spear? A rocket launcher? Well, the genius supervillain brings a scalpel!

-How about the bemoaning of the fact that no one was talking about the Resurrection Project in the media but then it is brought out in testimony during the custody trial of the century and no one questions it because they knew all about it?

-Can you measure IQ when someone is asleep? No, but the evil genius does anyway.

-Hey - if you are going to write sci-fi get your terms right! Clones are not robots. Robots are not made of flesh. Cyborg is the term you were looking for. Get the terminology right or don't use it, please!

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This book is bad, especially when compared to other works by Patterson, such as any of the early Alex Cross books. Patterson needs to have an editor really jump all over him and demand the better quality that he is capable of.

The audiobook was read by Hope Davis and Stephen Lang. Both are veteran readers who did a good job with the reading. But, even the best readers in the world could not have done anything to save this stinker of a book.

Note: This book and When the Wind Blows were re-worked to make the basis for Patterson's Maximum Ride series aimed at young adults.

I rate this book 1 star out of 5. It can be purchased at Amazon.com here: The Lake House by James Patterson.

Reviewed on March 2, 2007 (edited on June 26, 2012).

Four Blind Mice (Alex Cross #8) (audiobook) by James Patterson

Good but not great

Published by Hachette Audio in 2002.

Read by Peter Jay Fernandez and Michael Emerson.

Duration:  8 hours and 7 minutes.

Unabridged

I am glad to get back to the world of Alex Cross. I have read or heard 3 other Patterson books this year and have been sorely disappointed with two. I only liked one (Jester) and I was looking forward to getting back to comfortable ground with Alex Cross.

After reading a few reviews, it sounds like the audio version actually helps Four Blind Mice a bit. The two narrators are both quite good, with the exception that some of the bad guys sound too much like one another.

The strength of Patterson's Cross books is the realistic conversations - the rhythms, cadences, colloquialisms and vocabulary sound right and this was certainly accentuated by great audio performances by Peter Jay Fernandez and Michael Emerson.

Their voces sound so right that I am reminded of a personal story. Way back before Patterson's picture was plastered all over the back of every one of his books, I used to work in a used book store. The Alex Cross books started filtering in and Mrs. Rivers, the assistant manager and an elderly African-American woman (also an avid mystery/thriller reader) placed Patterson's books in the African-American authors section because the characters felt so right to her. She was shocked when a book came in with his face on the back. She commented that she never would have believed that a white man could have pulled that off so well. He still pulls it off.

However, the story flows in a herky-jerky manner. Sampson and Cross gleen clues from things that should not provide clues. For example, while in Raleigh, NC investigating an old ritualistic multiple murder, they hear that a single prostitute was killed. No details are provided of the prostitute's murder, but still they know it is connected. How?

Patterson is intent on moving the personal lives of Cross and Sampson forward. That is appropriate. At times, though, it felt as if that was the only part of the story he really put a lot of thought into. The rest seemed to be rather sloppily tossed in there - the connections were loose, characters are introduced than dropped.

So, my grade: 4 stars out of 5.

Good conversation. Like the characters. My suggestion: Slow down "James Patterson, Inc." and take the time to work out some of the kinks and make these books better.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Four Blind Mice by James Patterson.

Reviewed on May 3, 2007.

JSA: The Liberty Files (Justice Society, Elseworlds) (graphic novel) by Dan Jolley and Tony Harris

It was good, but not great.

Published by D.C. Comics in 2004.

I am not the biggest comic book fan. I have barely set foot in a real comic book shop, so I don't even know if the 'Comic Book Guy' on 'The Simpsons' is realistic or not. Continuity means nothing to me. Being a history teacher, I was more intrigued by the history part of the story. (Speaking of continuity, I know for a fact that Superman was fighting Nazis during WWII, just like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck - I've seen the movies!)

However, I've read some of the big stuff (Dark Knight I and II, Red Son and a few more). I was dimly aware of some of the heroes featured in this one, which makes sense since JSA was originally intended to promote the lesser known heroes). This one was interesting, but in the end, not as good as I had hoped.

Learning the new characters was fairly easy, but telling them apart in their street clothes was darn near impossible with the exception of Clark Kent, thanks to the trademark cowlick. Also, even though it was a JSA book, the focus seemed to be Batman. Batman vs. "Jack the Grin" (Joker). Batman vs. Scarecrow. Batman making his teammates mad. Batman's introspection. And, finally, Batman vs. 'Superman'. The last one has been done umpteen times, I know, even though I am, as already stated, a casual fan. Heck, I've seen it done in Frank Miller's Dark Knight I and Mark Millar's Red Son, and to be honest, they both did it better (especially Millar's).

An interesting observation - I appreciated the fact that at the WWII Battle of El Alamein, the artists included two well-known fictional characters of this time period in the two page spread (pp. 116-117): Sgt. Rock and PFC Ryan (from Saving Private Ryan).

So, while not a waste of my time, it certainly did not do the job as well as others.

I give this one 3 stars out of 5.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: The Liberty Files.

Reviewed on June 17, 2007.

Indiana II by Darryl L. Jones and James Alexander Thom

Beautiful pictures, wonderful essay
  
Published in 1996 by Graphic Arts Press.
142 pages.

Darryl Jones captures Indiana's beauty like no one else. Jones has made several books filled with wonderful shots from all over Indiana, although he tends to focus on Southwestern Indiana hill country most of all. These are not all nature shots, like some of his other books. There are shots of small towns, grain silos, barns, the Colts, the Indy 500 and Conner Prairie.

Jones' work is paired with James Alexander Thom's essay on Indiana history, character, and its possible future. Thom's writing is not just mindless boosterism, but rather a thoughtful commentary by a Hoosier who is in love with his state, warts and all. The essay is just as wonderful as the pictures, if not better!

I am considering this as a gift for a relative who moved out of state just to remind her of home and its unique character.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Indiana II by Darryl Jones and James Alexander Thom. 

Reviewed on July 2, 2007.

Power Plays: Win or Lose--How History's Great Political Leaders Play the Game by Dick Morris

Interesting, even if it is a bit simplified

Published by Harper Perennial in 2003

Dick Morris, Washington insider turned political analyst, knows all about political strategy. He was once an advisor to Bill Clinton and is credited with coming up with Clinton's famed "triangulation" strategy. In Power Plays: Win or Lose - How History's Great Political Leaders Play the Game, Morris identifies six political strategies that can lead to political success. Interestingly, he provides 20 splendid examples of how these strategies have been misplayed and have led to failure.

The six strategies are:

1. "Stand on Principle"
2. "Triangulate"
3. "Divide and Conquer"
4. "Reform your own Party"
5. "Use a new technology"
6. "Mobilizing the Nation in Times of Crisis"

Sometimes, Morris oversells his explanations. For example, he places Lincoln in the "Divide and Conquer" category, since the Democrats split themselves into three parties in the election of 1860 and allowed Lincoln to win the Presidential election. That makes sense, since the Democrats divided and the Republicans conquered. However, Morris makes it sound like Lincoln maneuvered the Democrats into their crisis as part of his master plan that began with comments and questions raised during the Lincoln/Douglas debates in 1858, rather then simply taking advantage of the split. Lincoln was a political genius, but Morris oversimplifies here.

I am a history teacher. I am also a Spanish teacher and Morris quotes George W. Bush speaking Spanish in a campaign speech: "Muchos espanos viver en ese estado". That's not Spanish. That's not even Spanglish. I've heard Bush speak Spanish. It is nothing to brag about, but it is definitely serviceable. It threw the rest of Morris' research into doubt since he had obviously not even bothered to talk to any Spanish speaker to see if his attempt to write down Bush's Spanish words were even correct. Double checking research is always important. By the way, it should have been "Muchos hispanos viven en ese estado."

So, I give this one a 4 stars out of 5. The grade was not really reduced because of the Spanish thing, although it left some nagging doubts and was a major pet peeve.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Power Plays.

Reviewed on July 2, 2007.

String Quartet Tribute to John Mellencamp by the Vitamin String Quartet

Does it work? Yes, oddly enough it does!

Released in 2003 by Vitamin Records

I am a dyed-in-the-wool Mellencamp fan and I have been since American Fool came out in 1982. Fans like me could either love projects like this, or absolutely hate them and view them like a desecration. The attitude taken towards the project has a lot to do with it and this album has taken a respectful attitude towards Mellencamp's work.

The songs have been adapted for String Quartet but have not been radically altered - you can sing right along with them if you'd like. Most have been thoughtfully chosen - for example, if it featured a strong fiddle component, such as "Paper in Fire" than it was worked in to this album.

"Peaceful World" is achingly beautiful in this adaptation. "Small Town" has a more melancholy tone than the original song, but it is not at all inappropriate. It is also quite beautiful and it is respectful reinterpretation of this anthem to small town life.

John Mellencamp

The only duds in the group are "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane." Unlike the other songs which seem to have been carefully chosen for their string quartet friendliness, these had to have been chosen because they are two Mellencamp standards - you cannot have a collection of his work without them. Heck, the first song I cued up was "Jack and Diane". It just did not translate well.

 Most are strong, two are tremendous, two are weak.

If you are a true Mellencamp fan (a Mellenhead, if you will) this one is one to pick up. I rate the entire collection 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: String Quartet Tribute to John Mellencamp.

Reviewed on July 20, 2007.

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank

Entertaining but fails to live up to the title

Published by Metropolitan Books in 2004.

Thomas Frank's stated purpose in What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America is to tell how Conservatives won the hearts of the working class, the middle class and the rich all at the same time. His answer is that rich, Republican elites throw up red herring issues (abortion and gay marriage are two that he mentions frequently) that bamboozle the working poor and the middle class into supporting them and their greater cause of Free Market Capitalism and International Free Trade even though Capitalism and treaties such as NAFTA inevitably beat the little guy into a pulp (his thought, not mine).

Thomas Frank

Yep. That's about it, although Mr. Frank says it much better than I just did. He also never goes into detail about why Capitalism and Free Trade are both evil (he just assumes you agree, I suppose), although he is very critical of Bill Clinton for supporting NAFTA throughout the book. Big business, especially Wal-Mart, are also to blame for de-populating the Kansas countryside. Apparently, Wal-Mart has some larger agenda in which they plan to drive their customers away from the stores they build in the country...

Seriously, the book would have been helped by further explanation as to why Mr. Frank is such an opponent of Capitalism. He has another book on just that subject, according to a tiny bit of research on my part. It might be a help if readers read that book first, especially in light of Mr. Frank's view that all politics is based in economics: "Most of us think of politics as a Machiavellian drama in which actors make alliances and take practical steps to advance their material interests." (p. 121)

Mr. Frank's fails to properly tell us "How conservatives won the heart of America" because he does not really believe, deep down, that people will vote in ways that he sees that are economically disadvantageous (Free Trade, etc.) unless they are tricked into doing so. People really believing in other issues, such as abortion,  and voting for them are foreign to his way of thinking. Frank may be from Kansas but he certainly does not understand his state and he demonstrates precious little respect for its inhabitants, treating them more like cultural oddities to be put on display.

Thomas Frank really fails to adequately address the thesis of the book, as expressed by the title. Interesting reading, nonetheless.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank.

Reviewed on July 7, 2007.

Windtalkers DVD

Directed by John Woo.
Released in 2002.

With the title Windtalkers you'd think it would be centered on the Windtalkers, those Navajo Code Talkers who served in the Pacific Theater of World War II. I'd purposely ignored this movie until I had the time to watch it since I was interested in the topic and have an interest in the Navajo culture, having visited the Four Corners area several times and having read a bit about them.

I was hoping for a movie that focused on the Windtalkers themselves - why they fought for a society that had conquered them and now scorned them, what their motivations were, how their culture dealt with the separation from the Navajo lands, the death and destruction of the war (briefly touched on) and so on. That would have been much more interesting and important.

Instead, we get a movie that should be called Messed Up In the Head Windtalker Babysitter - a movie about the white guy who minds the Navajo Windtalkers. A movie full of cliche characters and soliloquies that just does not work. 

For that matter, neither do most of the action scenes. The first rule of a war movie is to make you love the character and then put him in all sorts of dangerous situations so you can worry if he's going to die. It's simple - the viewer is emotionally invested in the story. It never happened for me in this one, despite the massive amounts of explosions. War stories are not about the amount of explosions - the great ones are about exploring characters (and by extension, you and me) during a time of extreme duress.

I was glad to see Christian Slater get some work, though.

This one will not be staying in my collection - it is just not good enough.

I rate this movie 2 stars out of 5.

This movie can be found on Amazon.com here: Windtalkers. 

Reviewed on July 25, 2007.

Saint Patrick's Battalion: A Novel by James Alexander Thom

A disappointment

Published by Ballantine Books in 2006.

To start, let me establish my bona fides as a fan of Mr. Thom's work. Three of his novels sit on a shelf less than two feet from this computer. I have the featured review on Amazon.com one of his novels ("The Red Heart"). One of his books is on my Favorite Books List on my profile page. I actually designed a long-term project for my world history classes using historical fiction with his books in mind, and I told him so when I met him at a state-wide conference for social studies teachers.

So, I approached St. Patrick's Battalion with much hope. Instead of his usual quality, I found this book to be simplistic, with less detail and bent on beating two points home time after time: the Irish were treated brutally and shamefully by the U.S. army during the Mexican War and the Mexican War was an unjust war.

James Alexander Thom

Thom makes it clear in the opening dedication and acknowledgments that he is against the Iraq War and quite clearly he is drawing analogies between the two. However, Thom never really gets off of his twin focuses on the unjust war and the unjust treatment of the Irish. He never gets to his real strengths in his other books - bringing the reader into another world and teaching us about larger movements in history, but also about the day-to-day lives and goings on of our ancestors. Thom rarely gets beyond the superficial and develops the characters and that is a shame - and a loss to Thom's loyal readers because when his books are good they are fantastic.

Thom's format is the main cause of the failure of this book to be as excellent as his others. His chosen format is a diary of a 10-12 year old Irish-American boy (Quinn) with the U.S. Army and the remembrances of a Mexican man (Juvero)about his experiences during the war as a young boy 16 years later. The diary entries are the better of the two, but are often sketchy. The remembrances are very repetitive and full of Spanish phrases that must be annoying to readers who don't know any Spanish. He often comments about Manifest Destiny, the Irish and America's arrogance. It gets old - not that he wasn't right, but he made his point early and often - it's time to move on. I must admit that I started skimming his sections. I think that Juvero says it best on page 256: "Que Rollo! My preachings are a bore!"

So, to sum up: not his best work. I recommend you read any other Thom book before this one.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Saint Patrick's Battalion: A Novel by James Alexander Thom.

Reviewed on July 30, 2007 (edited June 24, 2012).

The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family by Mark I. Pinsky

An interesting premise and lots of fun
  
Published by Westminster John Knox Press in 2001.

Google this book and you will find some criticism from people that have entirely missed the point of the book. The point of The Gospel According to The Simpsons is NOT to tell how the Simpsons preach the Gospel. They don't.

The Simpsons

Even though The Simpsons always goes for the sarcastic and biting joke, it is also a remarkably spiritual show. It is the only show in which the main characters go to church on a regular basis. No one thinks it strange that people pray. Prayers are answered. God exists and he acts. From time to time, organized religion is skewered with their wickedly clever satire. Then again, so is everything else, from rock stars to public education to family life to just about everything else. Pinsky's point is that religion is treated remarkably well on the show that has a bad reputation.

Pinsky focuses on each of the main characters (Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa) and also on Ned (evangelical Christian), Apu (Hindu)and Krusty (Jewish) in order to show how religion and morality are treated in the show.

He also details several plotlines - two or three of them are explicitly based on a religious theme -and shows how they relate to his overall thesis. He backs it up with several interviews and quotes from the creators and writers of the show.

I saw this book's author interviewed on PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly in conjunction with the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. I'm glad I saw it and I'm glad I picked this book up.

Note, the show has managed to put about many, many more years more worth of shows out since this book was written in 2001, but this fan thinks that the premise of this book is still correct.

Note: since this review was written the book has been expanded and a Bible study has been created.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Gospel According to the Simpsons.

Spare Change (Sunny Randall #6) by Robert B. Parker

A strong addition to the Sunny Randall series

Published in 2007 by Putnam

In Spare Change, Sunny joins with her retired cop father on a serial killer case that went unsolved 20 years before. It seems the killer has come back again after a hiatus and the elder Randall is chosen to head an all-star task force to catch him. Sunny is brought in as his assistant since she's a former cop and her father trusts her instincts.

As the jacket liner tells you, Sunny gets noticed by the serial killer and he starts to send her notes in the mail...

Just to be clear, this is not a police procedural. The reader does not have to read through the drudgery of endless questioning of possible witnesses, etc. Sunny still acts as a private detective and the smart comments and witty dialogue prevail throughout.

Sunny makes a lot of progress with her psychologist (Susan Silverman) in this book and a great portion of it is about her numerous issues and the progress she makes towards resolving them. She makes so much progress that I wonder if this is the last Sunny Randall book. I hope not, because this one was a fast-paced, witty. welcome addition to Parker's lengthy list of books.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Spare Change (Sunny Randall)

Reviewed on August 7, 2007.

Live from Middle America: Rants from a Red-State Comedian by Brad Stine

 

Up and Down throughout the book

Published in 2006 by Hudson Street Press

In Live from Middle America Stine comments on any number of popular culture items, including tobacco, abortion, God in public schools, baseball, Las Vegas, banning guns, bumper stickers and Wal-Mart. Each little rant comes in short chapters averaging around 4 pages each.

Now, my review:

I wanted to love this book (since I am  the exact target for this book: a Christian, a conservative and I am a proud resident of Indiana - a red state since LBJ in 1964 with the exception of Barack Obama in 2008) but I could barely get myself to like it.

Brad Stine

First and foremost, I quickly grew tired of the publisher's decision to pull little tidbits out of the text and highlight them with a box right next to the text that contains the exact same sentence? What was the point of that?

Secondly, Stine blames everything in the world on liberals (even for bumps in the road). He assumes that liberal automatically means atheist (well, I guess my dad, the church elder is not going where he assumed when he dies) and assumes that conservative automatically means Christian (what about Milton Friedman?).

Thirdly, Stine seems to confuse "Red State" with "Redneck" at many points, saying things like Red State parents make their kids smoke and they eat animals they run over with their cars. I think I've heard all of this before and it the routine always ends like this, "...you might be a redneck."

I've never seen Stine in person, so perhaps knowing his act really would juice up a lot of this - I don't know. His funniest comments are about Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, "God is my co-pilot" bumper stickers, turn signals, gay marriage (he's remarkably middle-of-the-road on this) and abortion. The abortion commentary isn't particularly funny but it is a much more coherent argument than the rest of the book presents and really is the best piece in the book. On the other hand, his commentary on foreign-made goods is not terribly coherent nor is it conservative.

So, I give this one 2 stars out of 5. It would have been worse except for the strong section on abortion.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Live from Middle America : Rants from a Red-State Comedian by Brad Stine.

Reviewed on August 8, 2007.