The Forgotten Conservative: Re-Discovering Grover Cleveland by John M. Pafford

Published by Regnery History in May of 2013

Grover Cleveland. Quick! Name me any fact about Grover Cleveland that you can think of!

Was he the one that was so fat that he got stuck in the bathtub? No, that was Taft.

Is he on the Mount Rushmore? No, those are Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and T. Roosevelt.

Was he a famous Civil War general that became president?

No, that was Grant, Garfield, Hayes and Harrison.

Grover Cleveland,
the 22nd and 24th President
(1837-1908)

Was he the president who was elected, got beat running for his second term but ran again and then won so that you have to learn his name twice if your teacher makes you learn the presidents? Yes. That's him.

But, as John M. Pafford demonstrates in The Forgotten Conservative, Grover Cleveland was a man  of contradictions. He was a uniquely principled man who was also mired in a sex scandal (the famous taunt went: "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"  "Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!"). His presidency is tucked in among all sorts of men who made their reputations in Civil War while he paid for a substitute because he was the breadwinner for his family. While the Progressive movement led by William Jennings Bryan was sweeping over the Democrat Party, Cleveland stood firm to his beliefs about sound money and the proper role of government and was the last Democrat who was also a true Conservative.  He also vetoed more than twice as many bills as all of the presidents that preceded him combined because he took his political principles seriously.

This biography is an overview of his life. If you are looking for an exhaustive re-telling of his life, this is not your book. But, let's face it, how many people want to read a thousand page tome about Cleveland? For me, this filled a relatively empty spot in my knowledge of American history and did a solid job of telling the story of his life, his presidency and explaining  the political movements that made him the last of the Conservative Democrats.

This biography also includes several full color political cartoons. Displaying them as they were meant to be seen is a nice touch.

Note: This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this biography 4 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland

Reviewed on June 2, 2013

A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger by Steve Peifer with Gregg Lewis

A Very Moving True Story

Published in April of 2013 by Zondervan

The hardest book reviews to write are for the books that truly touch you. A Dream So Big had me spellbound from the first and I cannot even attempt to write a proper review.

If you have ever had the scary meeting with a "genetic counselor" at the OBGYN office than you can feel for the Peifer family. In my family's case, the meeting was unnecessary - our daughter was born with no complications. For the Peifer family, this was not the case. Their son was born with severe disabilities and only lived a few days.

Peifer describes the devastation to his family and how he and his family come to join the faculty at a boarding school for the children of missionary families. He describes how a one year gig has become a mission to feed and educate as many Kenyan children as possible.

Peifer's good humor is visible throughout the book and he is a natural self-deprecating storyteller. He balances his tales of the larger mission with lots of stories about the school and his family.

I have included a video so that you can see what he is trying to do in his own words:



If you are moved to help (and he emphasizes that a little bit really does go along way in Kenya), here is the website for Peifer's organization: http://kenyakidscan.org/how-you-can-help/

Note: This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book an enthusiastic 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger

Reviewed on June 1, 2013.

Coolidge (audiobook) by Amity Shlaes

Book Marred By The Author's Insistence On Including Everything and Analyzing Nothing

Published by Harper Audio in February of 2013
Read by Terence Aselford
Duration: 21 hours, 8 minutes

Amity Shlaes' previous book was a history of the Great Depression called The Forgotten Man. In his own way Calvin Coolidge is also a forgotten man. He sits midway between two presidential giants (Wilson and FDR) who vigorously expanded the power of the federal government and the executive branch. His term was not marked by wars, but rather by a general rise in America's prosperity. Coolidge is not remembered as a great president but as an oddity - Silent Cal who took naps every afternoon.

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), 
president from 1923-1929

This is unfortunate. While hardly a perfect president, Coolidge has some important lessons to offer. I feel that I have to offer some bona fides at this point. I am not a fan of this book but I do find Coolidge interesting, On my blog you will find 2 Calvin Coolidge quotes. I am a big fan of his "economizing" and thought his interesting experiment in cutting taxes to increase revenue to be an wonderful confirmation of the Laffer Curve. He had things he was short-sighted on but this book largely ignored them or explained them poorly, such as the Billy Mitchell air power vs. sea power controversy and the damage his support of tariffs caused in the long term.

In fact, that is the crux of the problem that I have with Amity Shlaes' Coolidge. It tells the story of his life thoroughly but offers no analysis. 

What Shlaes does in this self-described  "mammoth project" is line up every possible fact she could find and lay them all out in chronological order with almost no discussion or analysis at all. It makes for a fact-filled but not very informative book.  Billy Mitchell, the "economizing" and Coolidge's attempts to "outlaw" war by way of multi-lateral peace treaties deserve more than the mention as they go by on the timeline. They deserve discussion

Shlaes thrills to include little details from Coolidge's life and this book was an almost un-ending stream of factoids. We hear about Coolidge's college life, including an almost week-by-week look at his first semester, including his living quarters, how much rent he paid and lots of quotes from letters about his indecision about joining a fraternity. This book quotes Coolidge's letters frequently, which can be a nice touch. Oftentimes these quotes are used to illustrate a point that was already made and add nothing new. Or, they are rather pointless altogether like his letter to a tenant farmer on his land with unsolicited and unremarkable advice about farming (save some seed back in case of drought).

There are multiple ongoing touchstones in this book that serve as themes - emblems of ongoing important ideas in Coolidge's life. For example, the book continues to look at Amherst College as it tells the story of Calvin Coolidge. We hear about the ongoing struggles and successes of professors and fellow alumni and their reactions to changing times as a way of talking about how the philosophy he learned at Amherst served him throughout his life. She does the same with the limekiln plot back home in Vermont. This was a piece of hardscrabble farmland that symbolized his New England roots. Unfortunately, these touches were done rather clumsily and so often that I grew weary of them.

The official White House
portrait of Grace Coolidge
(1879-1957)

The discussion of Coolidge's family life was quite well done and stands out throughout the book. Shlaes does a good job of incorporating his family life in with the rest of the story. The reader (or, in my case, the listener) gets a strong feel for his father, his step-mother and his wife, Grace.

There are also long discussions of Charles Lindbergh and Gutzon Borglum (the designer and carver of Mount Rushmore) that were intended to add a little flavor of the times to the biography but mostly succeeded in dragging out this already overly long book even longer.

This audiobook tips the scales at 21 hours and 8 minutes. I think it would be safe to say that editing out a full one-fifth of this book would do nothing but make it better. It is full of extraneous details such as the cancellation of a state dinner by the leader of Cuba costing the White House $32 fill the book (he cancelled because of a controversy that is mentioned once and never mentioned again - apparently it was brought into the biography discuss the $32 charge to the kitchen in a time of economizing). Or, how about the story of Coolidge paying the property taxes on the limekiln plot and how he included a self-addressed stamped envelope for the receipt.  It is not noteworthy that Calvin Coolidge of all men paid his property taxes.Of course he paid them that is exactly the kind of man he was.

Part of the problem I had was that this was an audiobook. It is difficult to skim an audiobook. It is divided into 10-12 minute sections that are not separated by topic. So, I was forced to listen to stuff that I would have just skimmed right over in a print book. My frustrations with the audiobook do not include the reader Terence Aselford. His voice was just about  a perfect voice for a book about Calvin Coolidge. I especially liked that he created a voice for Coolidge that he used when he read from his letter, columns and speeches.

So, for a book that is about a man who was famous for being succinct and was nicknamed Silent Cal, this book was way too wordy. Throw in an almost complete lack of analysis of Coolidge's decisions and policies and you end up with a rating of 2 stars out of 5. for this audiobook.

This audiobook was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Coolidge by Amity Shlaes.

Reviewed on May 31, 2013.

Trouble Comes to Sorrow (#2) (audiobook) by Jack Bates

Published by Mind Wings Audio in 2012
Read by Joe Barrett
Duration: 1 hour, 9 minutes

The Adventures of Cal Haskell Continue

Cal Haskell is the main character of a western series with a twist. He is the new Sheriff of Sorrow, Michigan. Westerns, of course, should take place in the West. But, this is Michigan's frontier and there are plenty of similarities to make it work. I reviewed the first book in the series in December of 2012. You can read my review by clicking here.

Sorrow is a troubled town. Cal Haskell and his motley crew of deputies keep an eye on things but sometimes things get out of control. Just recently, a jury has quickly found a black man guilty of killing a white prostitute. But, Cal is told by one of the town's most respected citizens that the wrong man was convicted. Once Cal starts to look into it things start to get real dangerous. Clearly, someone does not want him to look into this and they are willing to do anything to keep their secrets hidden.

Be prepared, the story does not really end once you get to the end, this is just part one of a multi-part tale.

Joe Barrett's midwestern twang rings true while he voices this town full of characters. Men, women, old and young - they all come through with a distinctive voice.

Note: I received a free download of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

The kindle format of this book can be found on Amazon.com here: Trouble Comes to Sorrow.

Reviewed on May 25, 2013.

UR (audiobook) by Stephen King

My new favorite Stephen King short story

Published by Simon and Schuster in 2010
Read by Holter Graham
Duration: 2 hours, 20 minutes

Normally, I am not a fan of short stories - they end just about the time I get comfortable with the story. But, Stephen King has a gift for short stories. He is able to get the reader comfortable with the characters very quickly and pack in a lot of weirdness very quickly. I can get tired of Stephen King in the novel format, especially in audiobook format where they books can last longer than 50 hours! But, Simon and Schuster's decision to issue his short stories as short audiobooks is perfect for me.

UR is the story of a small college Literature professor named Wesley Smith who decides to buy a Kindle after experimenting with a student's kindle. When this book was written, the only choice in Kindles was the Kindle 2. It came in off white, had no color and 5 years ago it was top of the line cool technology and I have one.

The author

Wesley's Kindle is pink so he knows that there is something a little weird about it  they're all supposed to be off-white. The Kindle 2 has a menu choice called "Experimental." The Experimental setting has a few choices like internet. Wesley's Kindle has even more choices, including one called UR. And, once Wesley starts experimenting with the UR function, nothing will be the same again...

I liked Holter Graham's low-key reading of this short story. It hit the right note for a story about a low-key man whose life is in a bit of a rut and who loves books more than anything else.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: UR by Stephen King.

Reviewed on May 22, 2013

Rogue (audiobook) by Mark Sullivan

Published by Macmillan Audio in 2012
Read by Jeff Gurner
Duration: 10 hours, 59 minutes
Unabridged

Mark Sullivan is yet another author who is working with James Patterson as a co-author in the hopes that Patterson's name will serve as a midwife to an ultra-successful career in books. I have not read the Patterson/Sullivan collaboration but I did enjoy the audiobook version of this solo effort by Sullivan.

Rogue starts with CIA operative Robin Monarch breaking into a Turkish research lab to steal a series of files called "Green Fields." Green Fields is supposed to be the collected archives of Al-Qaeda, but when Monarch gets curious, goes against his orders and opens a few of the files he discovers that he was being used to steal something altogether different and he decides to walk away from the CIA in mid-operation without saying a word in explanation. Time passes and Monarch uses his skills to become a professional thief (of the Robin Hood persuasion). Eventually he is snared in a complicated web of deceit that has him going after Green Fields yet again.

Robin Monarch is an amalgam of other legendary characters. I already mentioned Robin Hood. The traumatic death of his parents reminded me of Batman. He has a bit of Oliver Twist, James Bond (of course, it's a spy book!) and an extra large helping of Jason Bourne. The story follows the James Bond template - meet the bad guy in an elegant environment, get invited back to his place, get threatened and go after some sort of secret item stuck in some secret castle in some unheard of place while bedding the pretty women all over the place (except for the girl on your team who probably has a crush on you).

That being said, the book worked. It is not great literature but it is a solid summer read - perfect for a mental vacation.

Jeff Gurner did a great job as the reader. In fact, I would not say that he read it, I would say that he performed it. He created a multitude of accents and characters and made the reading sound like it was a multi-cast performance. He was even strong with female characters, usually a weak area in books read by males. Great job!

This audiobook was provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Rogue by Mark Sullivan.

Reviewed on May 18, 2013

Johnny Rutherford: Indy Champ by Hal Higdon

Kids Book, but still an interesting read for Indy 500 fans

Published in 1980 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

Johnny Rutherford: Indy Champ is a short biography aimed at elementary/middle school aged readers. It has 123 pages of text and 2 pages of end notes and is part of the extensive series of sports biographies known as the Putnam Sports Shelf.

Rutherford (by rear wing) and his car
at the 1975 Indy 500.

Even though I am long past the targeted audience for this book, I found it to be entertaining and informative. Higdon's roots as a magazine writer shine throughout the book - the text is lively throughout.

For those who do not know, Johnny Rutherford is a three-time winner of the Indy 500 with wins in 1974, 1976 and 1980. He was known as a hard luck driver until he broke through and finally started to win. His wins are even more remarkable when you consider he raced and won against all three four-time winners of the Indy 500 (A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Sr. and Rick Mears) and other legendary Indy 500 drivers such as Mario Andretti and Tom Sneva.

The book emphasizes Rutherford's humble beginnings in racing and his struggle to get quality equipment and to even finish the Indy 500. He used to joke and say, "If I ever finish this race, I'm going to win it." That is exactly what he did in 1974.

This book captures his approachable manner and "good guy" personae very well. The on track action is described very well. It also covers his 1963 appearance in the Daytona 500. It was published just before he won the 1980 Indy 500.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Johnny Rutherford: Indy Champ.

Reviewed on May 17, 2013

The Innocence Game by Michael Harvey

Taut Thriller - Until the End

Published in May of 2013 by Alfred A. Knopf

I have read three of Michael Harvey's five books. I read two in his Michael Kelly series. One of them was gritty and solid. I was disappointed in another one when it went over the top with a man-made plague devastating Chicago. But, when I saw this one was not a book in the Michael Kelly series I jumped on it because I think this author has real potential. Just to let you know, Michael Kelly is in this book, he just is not the main character.

The book is based on a real-life class at the Northwestern Medill School of Journalism that re-investigates criminal cases in which they believe that the defendant was wrongly convicted. Three students are brought in to this summer's program and they change the parameters a bit. Rather than re-opening a case, they decide to solve an unsolved murder. Once they start digging they start to be pressured from all sides - their professor is against it, the police are using very dirty tricks and it looks like there is a cover-up in the works when key evidence goes missing or gets stolen.

This one seemed to be a solid mystery thriller until the end. The final reveal of the conspiracy was so over the top that it just ruined the book for me.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Innocence Game by Michael Harvey. 

Reviewed on May 16, 2013.

Locked In (Jessica Daniel #1) by Kerry Wilkinson

Solid first step by a self-published author who later went on to win himself a publishing contract

Published by Thomas and Mercer in 2013

Kerry Wilkinson has done what almost all of Amazon's self-published authors have dreamed of - he has published a Kindle e-book, outsold the established names and got the attention of mainstream publishing houses and won himself a publishing contract.

And it all started with this book: Locked In. I read Locked In in paper form and found it to quite a good mystery. While this was not life-changing literature, I found it to be much better than the latest offerings that I have read by much more established authors such as Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson.

Wilkinsin is helped by the fact that he was a working journalist (he recently quit in order to focus on being an author) so he has the ability to write for the everyday reader. His journalistic background helps with one of his main characters, a reporter for a local newspaper. His police characters are also solid and believable.

The story revolves around two characters. The first is Jessica Daniel, a relatively new detective whose mentor has suddenly retired from law enforcement and refuses her calls. The other character is Gerry Ashford, a relatively clueless newspaper reporter who works for a slowly-dying newspaper and is getting the tips of a lifetime from an unknown source about a series of murders of people in their own homes. The houses have not been robbed, the doors are not broken, the windows are not jimmied and the doors have been locked behind the murderer, even doors that can only be locked by a key. Interestingly, all keys are accounted for so no can figure out how the murderer has gotten in and gotten out of the house.

Disclosure: I was given an advance uncorrected proof copy of this book by the publisher through the Amazon Vine Program in exchange for an honest review.

This is an enjoyable mystery. I rate it 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Locked In.

Reviewed on May 11, 2013

Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Birth of the Indy 500 by Charles Leerhsen

A Total Joy 

Published in 2011 by Simon and Schuster

Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of the Indy 500. I have been to every 500 since 1986 and I live within earshot of the track. I have whiled away many a day at the track watching qualifications, practice or just going through the gift shop during the winter when the track is silent.

Charles Leerhsen's recounting of the first few years of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an interesting, fun and controversial book.

What is interesting?

An ad from a San Francisco newspaper bragging that the
Marmon Wasp won the Indy 5000. Note the inclusion of the
riding mechanic even though Harroun did not have one.

Leerhsen tells the story of early 1900s Indianapolis, the beginnings of America's automobile culture, auto racing and the construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a nearly seamless manner so that it all becomes one large story. It is a story of inspired (crazy?) businessmen, a fascination with what is "modern", and a growing fascination with cars in a time when life was comparatively cheap (auto racing was extremely dangerous for drivers and spectators).

What is fun?

Leerhsen has a knack for finding the humor in any situation and keeping the story moving along in a fact-filled and entertaining way. It was truly enjoyable to get his take on life in Indianapolis around 1910.



What is controversial?

Leerhsen dares to challenge the conventional story of the first Indianapolis 500 and asserts that in the confusion of this very long race (200 laps in a time when 10 laps was considered a long race) Ray Harroun and his Marmon Wasp did not win. I remain unconvinced (as does the hugely-respected Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian Donald Davidson) but freely admit that the scoring system was flawed.

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Blood and Smoke.

Reviewed on May 4, 2013

No Way Back: A Novel by Andrew Gross

Not Up To The Standard Set By His Other Books

Published by William Morrow in April of 2013

This is my fifth Andrew Gross novel. Unlike in his other novels, the characters in No Way Back failed to connect with me. The hallmarks of an Andrew Gross novel are all present here: an easy writing style, a quick-moving plot and some sort of shocking event that causes the main characters' lives to spin out of control. But, unlike the other books, I found myself to be lukewarm to all of the "good guys" and the sinister plot that held the bad guys together to be forced.

In No Way Back the reader meets Wendy Gould, a married suburbanite who almost has a one night stand with a handsome  piano player after she has had a horrible fight with her husband. She stops it before they progress to the actual deed and while she is in the bathroom re-arranging her clothes a stranger enters the room, argues with the piano player, tosses a gun to him and then kills him. Wendy steps out, picks up the gun  and then kills the attacker. Then she flees and is framed for both murders.

As the bodies start to pile up, Wendy digs into her case and discovers connections that lead her to a Mexican nanny with a dangerous past.

Nothing about this book was particularly bad, but nothing was particularly great either. The plot moves forwards at a relentless pace, but it is sometimes unclear as to the why and how of how it all comes together. The characters are interesting people but there is nothing there that makes the reader really want to connect to Wendy or to the nanny, Lauritzia Valdez. I read to the end to see how the story ended up but not to see what happened to the characters themselves.

Pet peeves:
#1) the Spanish is atrocious, and this is a recurring problem in Andrew Gross books. I like the fact that he tries to offer some Spanish to lend some authenticity. But, all pretense of authenticity is destroyed when the Spanish is this bad. There are literally millions of native Spanish speakers in this country - please vet your Spanish with any one of them before you publish it.

#2) There is no GMC Explorer. The Explorer has been manufactured by Ford since 1990 and was never ever manufactured by GMC since it is a completely different corporation.

#3) the AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle, not a submachine gun. A submachine gun is a completely automatic weapon (hold down the trigger and it keeps shooting) that is the size of a large pistol (or a little bigger). Think Uzi. The AR-15 is a semi-automatic (you have to pull the trigger every time you shoot) rifle (long gun).

So, in the end the book is 3 out of 5 stars because the characters failed to resonate with me and the plot comes together so suddenly that it isn't remotely plausible. Good beach reading but I suggest any of these other Andrew Gross books instead: Click here.

Reviewed on April 27, 2013.

This book can be purchased on Amazon.com here: No Way Back.

I received this book from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

Titanium Rain, Volume One (audiobook) by Josh Finney

Great Near-Future Sci-Fi Military Action!

Published by The AudioComics Company in 2012.

Multicast performance

Duration: 1 hour, 28 minutes
Unabridged.

Titanium Rain is a near future military adventure story about a group of physically enhanced American and British fighter pilots and their missions against an Imperial Chinese government over mainland China. This AudioComics production of Titanium Rain is an adaptation of the 2010 publication of volume 1 of a graphic novel series of the same name by Josh Finney. Finney adapted the graphic novel for this multicast performance done in the style of the old-time radio show, complete with multiple actors, top-notch special effects and a soundtrack especially written for this production.

The listener discovers that China has suffered a military coup thanks to their Communist leader being killed by an Islamic terrorist. The general who took over China has proclaimed himself to be a new Emperor, has started a de-Westernization of China campaign and sneak-attacked several ships in a Japanese harbor with a submarine. This starts World War III.

America is winning the war but it has come at a terrible cost when it comes to pilots. Quite simply, America is losing pilots for its new ultra-high tech planes faster than they can replace them. So, the American government has come up with a plan called the Phoenix Squadron. They recruit pilots who almost qualified to fly these planes and give them an injection of nanobots that rewire their nervous systems and make them physically and mentally tougher. They go from being “wash outs” to being the best of the best.

The audiobook bounces back and forth from military action to interactions among the pilots on the airbase. Both are very well done and a nice ensemble feel develops. The action is especially gripping and Finney is not averse to killing off characters, which keeps the drama heightened. This is war, after all and people die.

Be warned, Titanium Rain is an audiobook about war and there is a lot of explicit language.

This enjoyable first installment is a strong foundation for what is intended to be a series of stories about the Phoenix Squadron. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Titanium Rain, Episode One (Dramatized)

Reviewed on April 20, 2013

Note: I received a copy of this audiobook without charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I honestly thought it was very good.

The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War (audiobook) by Daniel Stashower

Published by Macmillan Audio in 2013.
Read by Edoardo Ballerini
Duration: 13 hours, 45 minutes

Unabridged.

Most history books mention the plot to kill Lincoln as he was travelling to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration in February of 1861 with just a sentence or two, if they mention it at all. This is unfortunate because a more in-depth look like this book provides can give the reader a real feel for the fluidity of the situation when Lincoln took office.

Daniel Stashower's The Hour of Peril begins with a solid biography of Pinkerton's life (about 2 hours or so) that may just be the most interesting part of the book. The book eventually moves into a discussion of the Presidential election of 1860 and the Secession Crisis that Lincoln faced as President-elect, including the danger that both Maryland and Virginia would secede and leave the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. to be surrounded by two Confederate states.

On top of that, Lincoln almost had to travel through Baltimore to get to Washington, D.C. and he would have to switch trains and travel through downtown Baltimore on foot or in a carriage. That would leave Lincoln exposed to various groups of "plug-uglies" that had sworn oaths to kill him before he could be sworn in as President.

A photo of Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884)
taken circa 1861.

Various groups had heard of these plots, including the military, various Congressional committees and a railroad man who asked Pinkerton to send some detectives in to infiltrate these groups. Strangely, the New York City Police Department under a man named John Kennedy also sent men to investigate and they also found plenty of evidence that organized groups of men were out to assassinate Lincoln while he traveled through Baltimore.

While the background information was told quite well, the book bogs down as the story nears the date of Lincoln's trip through Baltimore. It is hard to maintain any sense of tension since the reader/listener knows all to well that Lincoln did not die in Baltimore in 1861. The book slowed down to a crawl as the minute details of a midnight train ride are doled out. Edoardo Ballerni's soothing voice, while perfect for catching Lincoln's wry sense of humor throughout most of the book, did little to enliven the second half of the book with its density of details.

Despite the slow ending, the first half of the book was so well-told and so interesting that I am still giving this book 4 out of 5 stars.

The audiobook includes an interview with the author at the end of the that is essentially a twenty minute rehash of the early biography of Pinkerton and a summary of the plot(s) to kill Lincoln. Sadly, it offers little or nothing new to the listener except the opportunity to hear the enthusiasm that Stashower has for his subject.

Reviewed on April 20, 2013.

Note: I received this audiobook from the publisher at no cost to me in exchange for an honest review.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Hour of Peril.

Breaking Point (Joe Pickett #13) by C. J. Box

Inspired by a true case of abuse of power by the EPA

Published March 12, 2013 by Putnam

I really enjoy C.J. Box's Joe Pickett series but I freely admit that I, sadly, just sort of forget about these great books. There's no reason for that because this series is every bit as good as the ones I never forget about (Michael Connelly and Robert Crais) but I just do.

Breaking Point is an excellent addition to the series. The book features a local landowner and his family who are told by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that they need to stop construction on their property in a subdivision at the edge of Saddlestring, Wyoming because it is a "wetland" even though there is no water and no spring on it. They are given a few days to return the property to its pre-construction condition or face stiff fines ($70,000 per day). The property owners are given no way to appeal the decision and no one will discuss the problem with them from the EPA.

When the family resumes construction two armed EPA agents arrive to issue a cease and desist order and are killed and buried. The father of the family is on the run and only Joe Pickett can track him down. But, he finds these government agents hard to stomach and is not real sure that the man he is tracking wasn't provoked by his own government.

Throughout the book there is a consistent theme of excessive government regulation (federal, state and local) and the bureaucrats that enforce them not even bothering themselves to see the effects of their rulings. There are a lot of comments about not caring about the people involved because moving the paperwork is more important and the dangers of government workers getting too close to the people around them and how it can be difficult to enforce regulations if they "go native" rather than valuing the idea of getting to know the people they are regulating.

The inspiration for this story is the Supreme Court case Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency - a case that did not lead to violence but did involve an incontestable ruling that a piece of property in a subdivision was actually wetland, despite the lack of water. Click here for more information on that case.

The novel moves along at a breakneck pace and is one of the best novels I have read this year.

Note: I was sent a pre-publication copy of this book by the publisher as a part of the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Breaking Point by C.J. Box.

Reviewed on April 17, 2013.

Stationary Bike (audiobook) by Stephen King

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2006
Read by Ron McClarty
Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes

I am not sure who the person was at Simon and Schuster Audio that decided to record Stephen King's short stories, like Stationary Bike as separately packaged stories, but I think it was a stroke of brilliance. I am leery of listening to a 30-40 hour audiobook for a taste of King's special brand of story-telling and I am equally leery of a short story collection - I get tired of mentally shifting gears so often.

In this short story, Richard Sifkitz is an overweight graphic artist (he specializes in book covers and advertisements) who was told by his doctor that he needs to lose a little weight and eat better because his cholesterol is too high. The doctor compares his cardiovascular system to a road maintenance crew and says that Sifkitz is working his crew to death and soon enough it will start to fail.

Sifkitz resolves to work out and buys a stationary bike. He paints a simple painting of a landscape on the wall as well. Soon enough, he begins to fall into some sort of trance as he rides and it seems like he is actually riding into the landscape he has painted - and what he finds there is a definite surprise! Note that this is not a "horror story" so much as it is a story with a twist, much like The Twilight Zone.

Stationary Bike was read by veteran reader Ron McClarty who covered all of the characters well and helped to make this an enjoyable audiobook experience, despite its short length. His conversational reading style reinforced the idea that Sifkitz is just a regular guy with an extraordinary story.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Stationary Bike

Reviewed on April 12, 2013.

Civil War (Marvel Comics) (audiobook) by Stuart Moore

Adapted from the graphic novel series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

Published by GraphicAudio in 2013

Multicast performance

Duration: Approximately 6 hours.

NOTE: This review was written before the Marvel Studios movie of the same name was released. Clearly, this comic series inspired the movie. For me, this novelization is superior to the movie.

I am a huge fan of the work that GraphicAudio has done over the years with its adaptations of DC Comics graphic novels. They promise “A movie in your mind” and they have never failed to produce high quality audio dramas that sound like old-fashioned radio plays with better sound effects, special music and usually more than twenty actors plus a narrator. The fight scenes are amazing, the sound effects are always top notch.

Two or three years ago, I was asked on a message board if GraphicAudio ever performed anything by Marvel Comics. I confidently said that they did not and probably never would because DC and Marvel are like Pepsi and Coke – forever in conflict. I assumed Marvel would eventually decide to go with another publisher and that was that. Boy, am I glad that I was wrong. Marvel and GraphicAudio working together means that there will be twice the opportunities to let GraphicAudio do what they best with the very best superhero stories, especially if their first one, Civil War, is any indication of what is to come.

Marvel’s Civil War is a “reboot” of the Marvel universe. It is not a fundamental change like the Star Trek re-boot that came with the last movie. Spider-man is still Spider-man and Iron Man still flies around and tries to control everything through Stark Industries. But, some minor characters were literally killed. Groups like S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers are forever changed as well.

Since I am not a fanboy (once again, said with affection) in my mind I placed this audiobook a year or two after the events in the movie The Avengers just to make the story work for me. There have been some developments, though. The Hulk has disappeared. Nick Fury and Thor are dead and no one knows for sure how or where they died. Spiderman has just been convinced by Tony Stark to join the Avengers. Spiderman is also getting an Iron Man type suit that works with his abilities free and clear from Tony Stark.

This audiobook is a dramatization of the 2012 novelization of the rather extensive comic book series that made up the Marvel Comics Civil War. There are some substantial differences between the two story lines.

The story begins with a group of young superheroes called the New Warriors tracking down a group of supervillains in Stamford, Connecticut. They attempt to apprehend the villains and during the fight one of the villains causes himself to explode rather than be captured (the bad guys appear to have been using illegal drugs just before the fight so this is a serious case of impaired judgment). The explosion is massive and kills more than 700 people and causes a massive public outcry against untrained, irresponsible masked vigilantes who cause more damage than the outlaws they apprehend.

Within days the federal government has responded with sweeping legislation (negotiated with the help of Tony Stark) that requires all “meta-humans” be registered, unmasked, trained and licensed by the federal government and become federal employees and serve in a federally regulated superhero team working through S.H.I.E.L.D. Each team will be assigned to a state. Meta-humans who fail to comply will be hunted down, arrested and incarcerated in a special prison without any sort of trial. They will be released only if they decided to comply.

This is not a new idea in superhero stories. D.C. Comic’s The Dark Knight deals with a government that has had enough of superhero vigilantes as does Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles but Civil War creates its own distinct look at this concept.

Spider-man comes out of the shadows and becomes the symbol of this new movement when he unmasks himself during a Tony Stark press conference. Soon, his life is a disaster as old enemies and the press harass him at home and he loses his job once his newspaper figures out he was faking his Spiderman stories and pictures for all of those years.

Captain America decides that this new policy reminds him of the World War II era Japanese internment camps and there are some similarities. Imprisonment based on who you are, not what you have done. Young Japanese men could not leave the camps unless they agreed to fight for America in the army in Europe. Imprisoned superheroes cannot leave prison unless they agree to serve the federal government as meta-human police. Captain America becomes the leader of those that refuse to register, Tony Stark/Iron Man is the leader of the group that complies and a war of words quickly becomes a super-sized fight and not everyone survives.

Spider-man serves as the symbolic fulcrum of the argument, swinging back and forth between the two until he finally makes a decision.

One of the best things about science fiction is its ability to take a current event topic and turn it on its head and still be able to continue the discussion. In this case, this book discusses a number of issues, including:

-Group safety vs. individual freedom and another person’s rights;

-Negotiating away your rights in exchange for safety;

-Cloning;

-The coerced use of behavior-modification techniques;

-How far can corporate information gathering go?;

-Combined corporate/government power vs. the rights of the individual;

-Do you support America because it is your home or because it protects your rights?

The conflict between Tony Stark and Captain America continues until it gets to the requisite climactic fight scene (this is a superhero story, after all). Personally, I loved this story until the clunky ending where one side cedes to the other. It was all rather anti-climactic compared to the build-up and it just did not work very well when compared to the rhetoric and drama that filled the rest of the story.

If Marvel was looking to re-boot their universe this book does that in a way that seems rather natural. No time traveling enemies destroying worlds or killing a superhero’s parents. In this case, the politics of being a superhero gets in the way and changes everything.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Civil War (audiobook)

Note: I was sent this audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Yes, I truly did like this audiobook. I liked it a lot.

The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America by Scott Weidensaul

Published in 2012 by Houghton Miffllin Harcourt Publishing Company

I have had Scott Weidensaul's The First Frontier for longer than a year, buried in my legendary pile of books (actually, I am more organized than that, they are all in 4 milk crates) but when I heard an interview with Weidensaul on the John Batchelor radio show I was reminded to dig it out.

Weidensaul is to be commended for a very thorough job of researching the history of the relationship between the natives and the European colonists. The records are scant, the spelling is haphazard and so much of it is buried in myth and politics.

He starts with the disposition of the American Indian population prior to the arrival of Europeans. The limited history of pre-Colombian contact is discussed (with the Vikings and various fishing fleets) and the discussion of the similarities of differences of the various American Indians arrayed along the Atlantic coastline is quite interesting.

But, as Weidensaul's narrative continues and the colonies become established the book becomes quite repetitive and I found that I had to force myself to plow through what seemed to be an endless list of atrocities from both sides up and down the coast from Maine to Connecticut. There would be a misunderstanding, one side would strike back with violence, the other would escalate and then the European colonists would obliterate a native village, burn their corn and then there would be quotes with atrocious spelling and then it would start again in a new village.

Hannah Duston/Dustin statue in
Haverhill, Massachusetts 

Now, please understand what I am saying. First, what am I not saying? I am not saying that these struggles were unimportant or that these deaths were not tragic. I am not saying that this history is unimportant or that these people do not count. I am saying that the way this was presented made the whole thing a blur of violence and misunderstanding with precious little analysis. Rather than tell every sad story (with its related  quotes and back stories) up and down the New England coast for nearly one hundred dreary pages these could have been summarized with the highlights being told.

The exception in those stories was the extraordinary and gruesome tale of Hannah Duston/Dustin and her retribution against the group that kidnapped her and killed her baby - she killed and scalped them all so that she could turn in the scalps for the reward. Weidensaul's discussion of Duston/Dustin and what she has meant and what she means now is quite good.

The section on the Carolinas was better as it was told as more of a cohesive narrative but the section that ended the book with the beginnings of the occupation of western Pennsylvania was too long for a re-hash of the trends that had been happening since the early 1600s. I think the focus of the book was too much on catching all of the individual events and less on catching the trends and making the story something that was more friendly to the reader. This reader, who loves history, teaches history and talks about history all of the time found this book to be a well-researched but not very well-written. It was something that I had to slog through, which is too bad.

I received this book from the publisher at no charge through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America.

However, I do recommend this book instead: Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of Early America. 

Reviewed on April 4, 2013.