HAS ANYONE SEEN the PRESIDENT? (audiobook) by Michael Lewis

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2018.
Only available in audiobook format.
Read by the author, Michael Lewis.
Duration: 0 hours, 54 minutes.

Unabridged.

Originally, Has Anyone Seen the President was originally written for Bloomberg View, the editorial/opinion site of Bloomberg News. Lewis went to Washington. D.C. during the run up to President Trump's "State of the Union Address". Lewis visits the press room in the White House, speaks with a former press secretary from the Obama Administration and visits with Trump advisor Steve Bannon. He also spends time with a former ethics official in the government who quit because President Trump and his administration openly flout the standards for ethics that were established in previous administrations (like divesting your portfolio of investments that could be a conflict of interest with your position in government). Finally, Lewis ends up watching the State of the Union with Steve Bannon in Bannon's home with running commentary from Bannon.

Michael Lewis, for me, is best known as the author of the books that inspired the movies Moneyball and The Blind Slide.  Turns out that he also writes a lot about finance and politics. Who knew? Well, a whole lot of people did, so I guess I was just out to lunch on Michael Lewis and his many facets.

Steve Bannon

The biggest coup of the entire book is the access to Steve Bannon. Bannon is widely regarded as the man who masterminded Trump's 2016 election win. There used to be people that would say that the secret to Ronald Reagan's success was to just "let Reagan be Reagan" because his folksy charm would work wonders. Bannon was the one advisor that would push to "let Trump be Trump." He recognized that Trump's abrasive style and quirky speaking style repelled people by the millions but it also attracted just as many diehard supporters and that was the secret to victory.

If you are part of the group that is repelled by former President Trump, this book will only confirm that repulsion. Bannon's hired gun style is obvious, but he does nothing to betray former President Trump. If you are a fan of the former president, this book will not shake you from those convictions. It is all old news, albeit old news packaged in an interesting story told by a talented story teller. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  HAS ANYONE SEEN the PRESIDENT? (audiobook) by Michael Lewis.

CUSTER'S LAST STAND (Landmark Books #20) by Quentin Reynolds

 

Published in 1951 by Random House.

In the 1950's and 1960's Random House created an extraordinary history series for children called Landmark Books. There were 122 books in the American history series and 63 in the World Landmark series. A very solid description of the series can be found here: link. When I was a kid my little hometown library had what seemed like an endless shelf of these books (I even remember where it was in that little library nearly 40 years later). Undoubtedly, these books are part of the reason I am a history teacher. I have started a collection of these books. When I run across them at library sales and thrift sales I pick them up. Some of the texts have aged well, some have not.

Custer's Last Stand is aimed at students from 3rd to 8th grade. It is a simple read with line drawings. It could use a few more maps. 

The history is basically accurate in the broad strokes, but it is full of "quotes" and scenes that never happened in order to make the story move along. This whole series is like that, though. They are basically like a movie that is "based on a true story."

Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer 
in 1863. The term "brevet" means it was a 
temporary rank that would be reconsidered
after the war when the Army shrank to
peacetime size. 

This story is easy to read, but comes up short in the story of George Armstrong Custer (called "Autie" throughout the book) of the famous (infamous?) Custer's Last Stand. It really focuses on the time when he was in school, including West Point.  The story of his transition from West Point to the Battle of Bull Run was well told, but the rest of his remarkable career as a Civil War officer was glossed over. 

It barely discusses the reasons for the Civil War and skips most of Autie Custer's impressive Civil War accomplishments. Besides fighting with distinction at First Bull Run, he also checked Jeb Stuart of Gettysburg (a rarity), Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign and played a prominent role in Lee's surrender. He was the youngest general in American history when he received that rank at the age of 23. 

Even worse, his brother Thomas Custer is giving the short shrift in this book. If all you knew about Thomas Custer was what you read in this book, one would get the idea that Thomas joined up with his more famous brother just to join in his campaigns in the West with no prior military experience.  Thomas Custer fought from almost the beginning of the Civil War, entering as a private at age 16 and leaving as a brevet Lt. Colonel at age 20. Along the way he became the first solider to win two Congressional Medals of Honor.  

This book tries to deal fairly with the situation that the Sioux found themselves in 1876, but it comes off as clunky and cringey 70 years after it was written. The book readily and frequently acknowledges that the United States "made hundreds of promises to the Indians and broke almost all of them." (p. 139)

But, the book tries to walk a fine line compromise position: "Everyone has to judge for himself who was right. Was it the Indians, to whom this land was given? Was it the Americans, who insisted that the country had to grow in the West, and that you needed a railroad to help the country grow? There were good arguments on both sides, but Autie Custer didn't care about arguments. He was a soldier...Soldiers obey orders." (p. 139)

The book mentions over and over that Custer wanted to be a soldier so he coukd be an "Indian fighter" - from age 4 on that was his goal. As a literary device, it works. As history - it makes Custer look like an obsessed nut.

I am sure that the ending of the book was not accurate - with Custer and his brother being the last two of 200+ soldiers to survive, surrounded by dead soldiers and dead horses while bravely fighting on. Very dramatic, highly unlikely.

Some history books hold up well over time. This one is 70 years old and it did not.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: CUSTER'S LAST STAND (Landmark Books #20) by Quentin Reynolds.

THE PURPOSE of POWER: HOW WE COME TOGETHER WHEN WE FALL APART (audiobook) by Alicia Garza

Published in 2020 by Random House Audio.

Read by the author, Alicia Garza.

Duration: 9 hours, 31 minutes.
Unabridged.

Alicia Garza is one of the founders of the organization Black Lives Matter. 

This reader decided that he only had a superficial knowledge of the movement and wanted to learn more. The Purpose of Power seemed like a reasonable place to start.

The first part of the book is basically a recounting of Garza's early life and her beginnings as a community organizer. This was quite enjoyable. Garza is a talented writer and she tells her story well.

The author, Alicia Garza

The middle part gets bogged down with some esoteric political movement talk. Lots of discussion over meanings of words like "intersectionality." I thought she made her point very clearly early on and kept on making it. This was clearly very important to the author, but the lay reader who is not heavily invested in the movement and its specific language would, like me, find this to be too much insider talk. 

It got more interesting when Garza discussed a man who the media thinks was a BLM founder (he often appears on the political discussion shows with that descriptor), the reaction of old guard civil rights groups to BLM and the reaction to old guard groups to female leadership voices.

Garza frequently mentions a lot of serious economic reforms she would like to see. This is different from and in addition to the protests against police brutality in all of its forms.  However, she doesn't make take many steps to flesh out what she wants to do and why she is adamant that those reforms need to be made. She mostly assumes that the reader knows what she talks about and agrees with her. 

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. The middle part with esoteric political talk was a rough slog and the lack of explanation of her economic plans made it an average audiobook.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: THE PURPOSE of POWER:  HOW WE COME TOGETHER WHEN WE FALL APART by Alicia Garza.

SHE CAME to SLAY: THE LIFE and TIMES of HARRIET TUBMAN (audiobook) by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Published in 2019 by Simon and Schuster Audio.

Read by Robon Miles.

Duration: 5 hours, 53 minutes.

Unabridged. 

Erica Armstrong Dunbar brings us an accessible biography of one of the true heroes of American history - Harriet Tubman. She Came to Slay is long enough to give a decent picture of her life but short enough that it doesn't intimidate potential readers.

A traveling statue named honoring
Harriet Tubman named "Journey to Freedom"

I am not going to go through the entire biography of her life, but this book covers all of the major points of her life such as: 

-Her escape from slavery; 

-Her multiple trips back to Maryland to free family, friends and anyone that would go;

-Her work in anti-slavery societies where she met and worked with people like Frederick Douglass, William Seward and John Brown;

-The communities she helped start in New York and Canada;

-Her work with women's rights groups and her struggles to get white women to include black women in their fight;

-Her service as a nurse in the Civil War;

-Her service as a spy and a scout in South Carolina in the Civil War and her fight to be recognized for that service.

The book has a lively pace.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  SHE CAME to SLAY: THE LIFE and TIMES of HARRIET TUBMAN by Erica Armstrong Dunbar.

ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS from the TWENTIETH CENTURY by Timothy Snyder

 

Published in 2017 by Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Timothy Snyder is a historian that specializes in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930's and 1940's. This coincides with the rise of the Nazis in Germany the rise of the USSR as a world power. 

In On Tyranny, Snyder has written up several mini essays about the dangers that he sees in modern day politics that are actually echoes from the past. Or, as he puts it: "History can familiarize, and it can warn." (p. 11) He also warns, "We might be tempted to think that our democratic heritage automatically protects us from such threats. This is a misguided reflex." (p.13)

The author, Timothy Snyder

Snyder is clearly warning against the movement that brought Donald Trump to the Presidency, but as a Never Trump Republican, I am of the opinion that both parties do all twenty of these things. But, I am a Never Trump Republican because I am certain that Donald Trump went and keeps going too far. 

In his 5th point, Snyder reminds his readers to remember their professional ethics as a bulwark against authoritarianism. For example, judges need to stay fair and follow the law even if a ruling would reward the President who appointed them. Plenty of  judges that were appointed by Donald Trump wouldn't change their rulings when it came to overturning election results. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wouldn't change his mind about recusing himself from Justice Department Investigations and Vice President Mike Pence would not assert a Constitutional right he clearly does not have in order to stop the Electoral College from voting on January 6. 

His 6th point is to "Be Wary of Paramilitaries", especially when the groups that "...have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh." (p. 42) Witness the Proud Boys and similar groups and the January 6 attack in D.C.

There are 18 other points, some with just some good basic advice like "Contribute to Good Causes" because it helps civil society and keeps the basic building blocks of society strong. Another bit of good advice is to be a patriot, not a nationalist. There's a massive difference.

This small book is a quick, thought-provoking read.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS from the TWENTIETH CENTURY by Timothy Snyder.

ARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION to the WORLD'S GREATEST SITES (audiobook) by Eric H. Cline

 

Published in 2016 by The Great Courses.

Read by the author, Eric H. Cline.

Duration: 12 hours, 37 minutes.
Unabridged.

Eric H. Cline is a well-respected and highly experienced archaeologist who is a professor at George Washington University. He has excavated at several sites for a total of 30 seasons, doing everything from being an inexperienced newbie to being Co-Director of well-established sites.

Turns out that Cline is also a very likable guy who does a good job of explaining archaeological techniques. He tells about a number of sites that he worked on and some of the most famous digs in history (King Tut's tomb, Troy) in the first half of the book. It was a bit frustrating for me because they were all within 100 miles of the Mediterranean Sea. 

In the second half of the book, Cline tells about other digs around the world - Machu Pichu, the Terracotta soldiers, Teotihuacan and more. 

On the whole, this was a pleasant if not particularly riveting listen as an audiobook. I rate it 4 stars out of 5.

It can be found on Amazon.com here: ARCHAEOLOGY:  AN INTRODUCTION to the WORLD'S GREATEST SITES (audiobook) by Eric H. Cline.

ZONE ONE: A NOVEL by Colson Whitehead

Originally published in 2011 by Doubleday.

I don't often read zombie novels. I have reviewed 1600+ books and this is only my second one featuring zombies. They're not really my thing, but I figured that if an author who won two Pulitzer Prizes wrote a zombie book, it must be worth reading.

I was wrong.

The premise behind ZONE ONE is quite good, but it is an over-written mess.

Mark Spitz (a nickname) is a man who has gone through his life as a B/B+ type of guy. Never the smartest guy in class, never the first guy picked to play for the schoolyard games, but certainly not close to the last. He kind of floats through life being "good enough."

The reader meets Mark Spitz well into the Zombie Apocalypse. He is working as part of a mopping up crew in New York City. He and his crew are seeking out Zombies that the military may have missed in their sweep through the city. The worst of the Zombie attacks has passed and a provisional government is working out of Buffalo, New York. 

This new government is very concerned with crafting a narrative of the recovery - a narrative of hope and rebuilding with an official theme song and heroes and brand name sponsors and news from all of the other little colonies that it has established on the East Coast.

But, there are rumblings that things aren't going according to the plan...

My take: 

Whitehead has said that he was inspired by his childhood love of Stephen King and Isaac Asimov. King's The Stand is certainly a benchmark to judge all "end of the world" books by, but his lesser-known Cell has the most in common with this book. 

Cell has a focused plot with little character development (a rarity for King). Zone One's plot is constantly interrupted with flashbacks - some fill in important gaps, some seemingly just to fill up some pages. That's not quite fair, but the incessant flashbacks just ruined the momentum of the story. I think it would have been better if he had just cut the book up into its little narrative chunks and placed them in chronological order.

For a reason that is never explained, this new government is obsessed with re-
establishing New York City. As one of the most crowded urban environments in the United States, I would think that NYC would be a horrible place for a fledgling government to spend its limited resources. High urban populations would mean more zombies per city block. Why not just stay in Buffalo and take over Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, areas with low populations and less zombies? I guess it was more of the symbolism over substance pattern that this new government had already exhibited. Yes, re-establishing NYC would be a major feat, but would it be worth the cost? I think it is really a product of Whitehead leading a NYC-centric life, almost like he couldn't imagine that they would abandon New York City and head to West Virginia or Arkansas or South Dakota. 

On a different note, my edition of this book (first edition) was written in a font that I found very hard to read - tiny and very busy. 

I rate this novel 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ZONE ONE: A NOVEL by Colson Whitehead.

CONFEDERATE GENERALS of the CIVIL WAR (Collective Biographies series) by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford

 

Published in 1998 by Enslow Publishers, Inc.

Part of a series of 8 books, Confederate Generals of the Civil War was intended to be a classroom or school media center supplement for students to use as a resource. It is not a large book - 112 pages including a glossary, some charts comparing the the Union and the Confederacy, 2 maps and a timeline of the Civil War.

There are 10 biographies, arranged in alphabetical order. Each biography is 8-9 pages, including a photograph of the general and a related picture (photo of a battlefield, drawing of a battle scene, etc.). 

The biographies themselves are pretty neutral, although it does take some mild stands on a few controversial items. It states in a matter of fact manner that Robert E. Lee was anti-slavery (It was definitely more complicated than that). It puts a lot of blame for Pickett's Charge on Longstreet, not on Lee. And, it gets sappily sentimental in the last paragraph of Pickett's biography. I would rate it as very mildly slanted towards the old "Lost Cause" theory of the war (the three areas I mentioned are all at the heart of the theory), but not fatally so. 

The featured generals are:

Nathan Bedford Forrest;

William Joseph Hardee;

A.P. Hill;

John Bell Hood;

"Stonewall" Jackson;

Confederate General George Pickett
(1825-1875)

Joseph Johnston;

Robert E. Lee;

James Longstreet;

George Pickett;
J.E.B. Stuart

Other books in the series include a collection of biographies of Union Generals, "Women in America's Wars" and "American Heroes of Exploration and Flight".

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. The biographies are just not all that interesting out of context. This book can be found on Amazon.com here:CONFEDERATE GENERALS of the CIVIL WAR (Collective Biographies series) by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford.

SILVERFIN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL (A James Bond Adventure #1) by Charlie Higson and Kev Walker

 

Published by Disney Hyperion Books in 2008

Silverfin is the first of 9 books in the Young Bond graphic novel series. Bond's parents are dead due to an accident during while exploring. His aunt and uncle (a former spy) have sent Bond to the super-elite boarding school Eton College (ages 13-18) which has long been known as a school for multiple royal families and future military and political leaders. 

One of James Bond's signature lines being used
as he arrives at Eton.

Bond makes one really good friend and also one really devoted enemy who really tries his best to be James Bond's bully. When the term is over, he goes home to the family manor in Scotland and, as happens so often in teen movies and TV shows, he finds out that his wannabe bully lives fairly close by. In this case, the wannabe bully's family just bought a manor in the area. That could be rough - but it turns out that this manor is thought to be the source of a lot of strange activities that have been going on in the area and Bond wants to check it out...

The only real problem that I have with this graphic novel is that it is incredibly fast-paced. Bond makes a friend at school - all we know about him is that he is smart, nice, a bit pudgy and from India. What else about his schooling at Eton? There seem to be a lot of physical contests. I assume that Eton had something to do with Bond's adult adventures.

I also assume that the writers of the first book wanted to emphasize the action and that required a Bond-type villain for Bond to fight and that required the plot to move very quickly in order to do some literary world-building to set the scene. It might have been better to build the world a bit more and then have a small confrontation at the end with the hint of an even larger confrontation to come. But, that's neither here nor there since this book was printed 13 years ago.

All that being said, it was an entertaining story. Notice my complaints with the story are only that it was paced too fast - the underlying story is solid and full of good characters. Kev Walker's illustrations are almost always clear and easy to follow and the multitude of new characters are easy to tell apart. 

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: SILVERFIN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL (A James Bond Adventure #1) by Charlie Higson and Kev Walker.

THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED: ESSAYS on a HUMAN-CENTERED PLANET (audiobook) by John Green

 

Published in 2021 by Penguin Audio.
Read by the author, John Green.
Duration: 10 hours, 3 minutes.
Unabridged.

This collection of essays is, from what I understand, mostly a re-working of essays that Green has published on his blog or his YouTube channel. However, they were all new to me because I haven't seen more than a few snippets of his videos that my oldest daughter has shown me. 

I know a bit about John Green because I live in Indianapolis, which is my adopted hometown just like it is John Green's adopted hometown. Green doesn't go out of his way to make his presence felt in his adopted hometown, but he is our current well-known author, replacing Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) with a completely different kind of vibe. Vonnegut gives off a whip-smart angry feeling with sarcasm to spare. Very clever. Green gives off a smart, understanding melancholy feeling. Just as smart as Vonnegut, but different. Vonnegut grew up here and moved away. He was always proud to be FROM Indianapolis but never lived here as an adult. Green grew up other places and is glad to live IN Indianapolis. 

The premise of this book is that it is a series of Amazon-type reviews of items from the Anthropocene Era (a term for the era of Earth since humans arrived on the scene, like the Jurassic or the Cretaceous). Green dislikes the 5 star review system and he assigns the different topics he writes about a different star value.

This collection of essays can be very personal. Green is very open about his personal struggles with depression, a discussion that makes you feel like you are being brought in close, like a friend, as you listen to the audiobook. His style comes off as very conversational, like a friend is telling you a story. All that's missing is the reader occasionally saying things like "Uh-huh" and "Really?" from time to time.

The World's Largest Ball of Paint in Alexandria, IN.
My family painted this yellow layer. Wondering why I
included this picture? It all makes sense if you read
this book. 

Green writes about a wide variety of topics, including the Academic Decathalon, Diet Dr. Pepper, Canada Geese, the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, Sunsets, CNN, The Smallpox Vaccine, Sycamore Trees, The World's Largest Ball of Paint, Super Mario Kart, Indianapolis, the Indy 500, and Piggly Wiggly. Some are basically information about a topic, some like the Super Mario Kart essay have a nice twist of political commentary at the end that make you think.

This is generally not a funny book, but there are parts that are literally laugh out loud funny. I laughed so hard that I cried during his essay enititled "Mortification". On the other hand, "Sycamore Trees" came very close to making me cry from his poignant commentary on living life with depression. We have a daughter that deals with depression and it struck home to me in a very personal way. When I finished hearing it as I was driving, I immediately called my wife and told her that she had to read it right away.

Highly Recommended. 5 stars out of 5.  I may be coming back to this one in a couple of years for a re-read. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here:THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED: ESSAYS on a HUMAN-CENTERED PLANET (audiobook) by John Green.

ROBERT E. LEE and ME: A SOUTHERNER'S RECKONING with the MYTH of the LOST CAUSE by Ty Seidule

 

Published in 2021 by Macmillan Audio.

Read by the author, Ty Seidule.

Duration: 10 Hours, 45 minutes.
Unabridged

I have been studying the Civil War since I was in college 35+ years ago. My thoughts on Robert E. Lee have evolved over the years. I used to be a lightweight proponent of the Lost Cause theory of the Civil War. I never was comfortable with the concept of slaves being content with slavery, but I certainly believed that the Southern officers were generally a noble and heroic lot when compared to the Union officers and the most noble and heroic officer of them all was Robert E. Lee. 

My thoughts the war and Lee have changed as I have read more and gotten older and perhaps a bit wiser. This book will be the 131st book I have reviewed that has been tagged "Civil War" and the 42nd book tagged "Robert E. Lee". I have widened my readings to include more of the Antebellum Period and more of the Reconstruction Era. Reading the Declarations of Causes of Seceding States (documents designed to be much like the United States' Declaration of Independence in 1776) gave me additional insight. I like to think I have picked up a more informed perspective.

Ty Seidule

This mirrors the shift in perspective that the author of Robert E. Lee and Me went through, although his was certainly more dramatic. He grew up in the South and Robert E. Lee was his hero. It was only when he was a history professor at West Point that he started to think about Robert E. Lee and what he actually did.

Seidule doesn't come at this topic as an outsider. He is a retired Brigadier General who served with the 82nd Airborne and as a member of the 81st Armor Regiment. He is a career Army man, something he notes over and over again. But, being a career Army man doesn't mean that he supports everything the Army has ever done - it means that he wants to support what the Army does right and fix what it does wrong and honoring Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee is certainly wrong.

Seidule notes that moves to honor Confederate leaders tended to follow Civil Rights advances, as a pushback against them. Despite being a former head of West Point, Lee was practically purged from the facility after the Civil War. But, when black students started being appointed to West Point, Southerners began to push for naming things after Robert E. Lee, mirroring a phenomenon in the larger American culture. 

But, Seidule goes farther and looks at Robert E. Lee as an officer of the U.S. Army. He notes that with every promotion, an officer takes an oath. Lee took this oath many times, including a little more than 3 weeks before the resigned to join the Confederacy (he was promoted to colonel on March 28 and resigned on April 20). Seidule has no tolerance for oathbreaking. He now finds it ironic that he proudly took his first oath at Washington and Lee University next to a memorial to Robert E. Lee.

There is a frequently made argument that Lee resigned to defend his state and that most officers did. Seidule dug through the Army records and discovered there were fifteen colonels from states that seceded in the U.S. Army before the Civil War (remember - the Army was much, much smaller back then). Twelve of the fifteen remained with the Union. Of those fifteen colonels, eight were from Virginia. Only one colonel from Virginia resigned to join the Confederacy - Robert E. Lee. 

Seidule's book looks at the entire "Lost Cause of the Confederacy" phenomenon that excused the Confederacy from any wrong-doing, downplays the central role of slavery in the conflict and similarly downplays the evils of slavery itself.

I leave this review with a comment for Union General George H. Thomas, a Virginian who stayed with the Union, provided an early Union victory, saved the Union Army from certain destruction at Chickamagua, participated in capture of Atlanta and literally destroyed a Confederate Army at Franklin, Tennessee:

[T]he greatest efforts made by the defeated insurgents since the close of the war have been to promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendar of the virtues of freedom, suffered violence and wrong when the effort for southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a species of political cant, whereby the crime of treason might be covered with a counterfeit varnish of patriotism, so that the precipitators of the rebellion might go down in history hand in hand with the defenders of the government, thus wiping out with their own hands their own stains; a species of self-forgiveness amazing in its effrontery, when it is considered that life and property—justly forfeited by the laws of the country, of war, and of nations, through the magnanimity of the government and people—was not exacted from them.

— George Henry Thomas, November 1868

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. Highly Recommended. 

It can be found on Amazon.com here: ROBERT E. LEE and ME: A SOUTHERNER'S RECKONING with the MYTH of the LOST CAUSE by Ty Seidule.

IN PRAISE of WALKING: A NEW SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION (audiobook) by Shane O'Mara

 

Published by Highbridge in 2020.

Read by Liam Gerrard.

Duration: 5 hours, 46 minutes.

Unabridged

I picked up In Praise of Walking because I am a recent convert (the last 4 years or so) to the joys of walking and hiking and have personally seen it change my health. I was hoping to learn some more information about it and experience a bit of confirmation bias from an expert who told me what I already knew - walking and hiking are great forms of exercise with limited chances of injury.

While O'Mara says all of this, I think that this book has been been mis-described in by its publisher. The title is very accurate when it says that this book is "a new scientific exploration." But, the blurb description starts by describing this book as "a hymn to walking, the mechanical magic at the core of our humanity."

Calling it "a hymn" sounds like it is going to be a more literary, story-filled approach to the topic, as authors like Malcolm Gladwell and Mary Roach have done with numerous science topics. Both of them have considerable skill at making obscure scientific concepts very approachable.

If you like those authors, this book may disappoint you. It certainly did disappoint me. 

I had no problem with O'Mara's conclusions - I agree with them wholeheartedly. O'Mara asserts that walks are good for the body and the mind, that walks are a great way to connect to your environment (rural or urban), that walking can be a profoundly social experience and that urban environments must be more friendly to pedestrians.

My problem is that in a nearly six hour audiobook, O'Mara makes those (and similar) points for about half of the book. For the remainder, he often wanders off topic into areas that only vaguely support his thesis. For example, we are told about fish that "walk" for a short period in their lives and then they settle on a spot, attach themselves to a rock and never move from it again. These fish then go through a metamorphosis and absorb their eyes and their vestigial brain. Why are we told this? I think it was to support the idea that you need a brain to walk and walking around may have encouraged human brain development.

Fair enough, but that bit about the fish was tedious to listen to. I think we can all agree that humans have highly developed brains without having to go into the evolutionary steps of how we got here.  O'Mara could just skip into one of his discussions of how the brain maps out its location in the world, or how the brain seems to work better when the body is walking around (the second point was interesting, the first was sort of interesting the first time it was made, less interesting every time that followed). But we could have completely skipped the commentary on the fish that absorbs its own brain.

There was also a long discussion about urban sewage systems and how the 1800's saw a revolution dealing with human bodily waste. All of this discussion was in support of the idea that urban areas need to be more pedestrian friendly. It was a long way to go to make a tenuous connection.

He wandered so far to make these tenuous connections that I often found my mind wandering as I drove and listened during my daily commute. If the audiobook cannot hold my attention, it cannot receive a good rating.

This book just felt like it was a missed opportunity to be so much more. The interesting conclusions were buried in repetitive scientific commentary that wasn't necessarily needed. 

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: IN PRAISE of WALKING: A NEW SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION (audiobook) by Shane O'Mara.

NINE NASTY WORDS: ENGLISH in the GUTTER: THEN, NOW, and FOREVER (audiobook) by John McWhorter

 

Published in May of 2021 by Penguin Audio.

Read by the author, John McWhorter.
Duration: 6 hours, 52 minutes.

Unabridged.

John McWhorter is a linguist who teaches at Columbia University. He does the nitty gritty linguistic work that professional linguists love to read about, but he also is pretty good at explaining linguistics to the non-professionals as well.

The author, John McWhorter

In Nine Nasty Words, McWhorter explores the origins of nine taboo words in English. Naturally, this brings to mind the familiar cast of "four letter words", but he also looks into other words that are similarly potent, such as the infamous "n word".

I found the book to be entertaining and an accessible look at how language changes over time - and sometimes it changes very quickly. McWhorter cites written sources, music, plays, musicals, TV shows and movies as artifacts to show when the words were used, how they were used and if there was a change in their use. For example, the word a**hole arrived fairly late and then underwent a dramatic change from being a wimp to being an obnoxious person. 

I found this to be a very entertaining audiobook. I rate it 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: NINE NASTY WORDS: ENGLISH in the GUTTER: THEN, NOW, and FOREVER by John McWhorter.

OPIOID, INDIANA by Brian Allen Carr

 

Published in 2019 by SOHO Press.

I received a gift card from a book store and I decided to get this book by a local author for several reasons: 1) it is set in my area; 2) it deals with the opioid crisis; 3) I like to encourage local authors. 

Turns out that the author is NOT a local (Indiana) author - he is from Texas. Small town Texas and small town Indiana do have a lot in common when it comes to drugs and alcohol, though.

Riggle is 17 years old and lives in a town in central Indiana and suspended from high school for a week due to a suspension for having a vape pen at school. His week won't be used to lay around in bed or play videogames, though. 

Riggle lives with his uncle, his sole guardian after the deaths of his parents and his uncle has gone missing. His uncle's live in girlfriend (not much older than Riggle) has no idea where his uncle is. This is not necessarily an unusual thing - he has been know to abuse substances and go on all night benders, but he's been gone for too long - and the $800 in back rent is due on Friday. If it is not paid, they will be evicted in the middle of winter. 

Riggle has been given two tasks by his uncle's girlfriend - find his uncle and find $800...

The opening chapter in the book was very good, the characters felt and sounded authentic but Riggle's adventures around town got bogged down with a series of stories about how the various days of the week got their names that Riggle's mother had told him before she passed away. I am not really sure what the author was trying to do with these little stories, but I felt like they just disrupted the flow of the story and weren't particularly entertaining. 

I rate this novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: OPIOID, INDIANA by Brian Allen Carr. 

THE DESIRE of the EVERLASTING HILLS: THE WORLD BEFORE and AFTER JESUS (Hinges of History #3) by Thomas Cahill

Published in 1999 by Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Doubleday.

The Desire of the Everlasting Hills is the third book in The Hinges of History Series by Thomas Cahill. It is a series of histories that look at important long term movements in history that helped create Western Civilization. 

Nearly 20 years ago I read this book and the second book in this series, 

The Gifts of the Jews and then parked them on a bookshelf. I never read more books in the series and simply forgot all about them. With the pandemic quarantine came a purging of the bookshelves and these books returned to the to-be-read pile. 

Overall, I enjoyed The Gifts of the Jews, despite some slow spots. I had high hopes for this book because I thought it would fit in well with the strongest parts of its predecessor. But, I found this book to be a mostly plodding history with an absolutely excellent and inspiring last chapter attached to it. 

And, I have solved the mystery of why I never pursued the rest of the books in this series 20 years ago.

I rate this history 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE DESIRE of the EVERLASTING HILLS: THE WORLD BEFORE and AFTER JESUS (Hinges of History #3) by Thomas Cahill.

MILLION DOLLAR BABY: STORIES from the CORNER by F.X. Toole

 

Originally published in 2000 as Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner.

F.X. Toole (1930-2002) worked as a trainer and as a corner man in support of boxers for decades.  Think of the character Mickey in the Rocky movies and you have an idea of what he did.

But, unlike the barely literate Mickey, Toole was a powerful writer of boxing short stories. All I know about boxing comes from having watched all of the Rocky and Creed movies, so I freely admit that I know almost nothing about boxing. But, that did not matter because Toole made these short stories compelling, even if they were full of boxing jargon and practices that I was unfamiliar with. 

There are six stories, most are very good. The story that the Clint Eastwood movie Million Dollar Baby was adapted from is extraordinarily powerful and haunting. The story that was original title story for this collection, Rope Burns, started out very strong, but the ending was so over the top that it ended up being the worst story of the collection. 

I rate this collection 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: 

MILLION DOLLAR BABY: STORIES from the CORNER by F.X. Toole.

THE COLOR of LAW (audiobook) (Scott Fenney #1) by Mark Gimenez

Published in 2005 by Random House Audio.

Read by Stephen Hoye
Duration: 12 hours, 21 minutes.

Unabridged

Scott Fenney has it all. The former college football star is a partner in the premier law firm in Dallas. He has a beautiful wife, a daughter that adores him, a Ferrari and a house in an elite neighborhood. 

Dallas, Texas

One day, a federal judge asks Fenney to take on a tough case. The son of a prominent resident of Dallas is alleged to have been murdered by a prostitute that he had picked up earlier in the evening. He was shot in the head by her pistol and her pistol was found by his body. Fenney was asked to defend the prostitute in court because the judge was convinced by a speech Fenney gave about how Atticus Finch from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird should be the role model for all lawyers. Plus, Fenney's big-time law firm actually has access to the resources needed to defend a death penalty case

It is a federal crime because the victim held a federal job. He held that job because his father is one the Senators from Texas and is the leading Republican nominee for President.

Fenney accepts the job even though he really doesn't believe the hyperbole from his Atticus Finch speech - you simply cannot turn down a federal judge. But, he has no idea what he is up against and he finds out the old boy network is strong...

*****

The Color of Law is really two stories in one. The legal aspect of the case (the accused person, her case, her lawyers) is pretty cut and dry. But, the case is necessary for the more important part of the story - the changes that happen to Scott Fenney.

The narrator of the audiobook telegraphs this angle of the story from the very beginning. He has a sort of mocking tone - the tone of an all-knowing narrator that is setting up his character for a lot of well-deserved uncomfortable change. 

This was a an interesting audiobook. It was not a great novel - it was often heavy handed and obvious. But, it was entertaining and I wanted to find out exactly what happened in the end. 

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:THE COLOR of LAW (audiobook) (Scott Fenney #1) by Mark Gimenez.

THE DECISIVE BATTLES of WORLD HISTORY (The Great Courses) (Audiobook) by Gregory S. Adlrete

 

Published by The Great Courses in 2014.
Lectures delivered by the author, Gregory S. Aldrete.
Duration: 18 hours, 29 minutes.

Unabridged.

As long as there has been war, there has been discussions about which battles were the most important, the most pivotal. This takes some analysis, since the temptation might be to simply discuss the battle that finally ended a long conflict, like Appomattox was the functional end to the American Civil War. 

The temptation might also be to collect a list of the biggest battles of history, but that would exclude Aldrete's tiniest choice - the Battle of San Jacinto. While that battle had less than 2,500 soldiers, he persuasively argues that the battle not only made Texas independent from Mexico, it also set off a chain of events that led directly the the American Civil War, Reconstruction and more.

In The Decisive Battles of World History, Adlrete presents the battles in chronological order and spends at least as much time on the background information of each battle as he does on the battles themselves. A few of the entries are not battles, but are entire campaigns.

The Battle of San Jacinto

Almost all of these lectures are informative and entertaining, but I did find the one set in Medieval Japan to be very hard to follow. I found that to be surprising since I took two classes on this topic back in college. 

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE DECISIVE BATTLES of WORLD HISTORY (The Great Courses) (Audiobook) by Gregory S. Adlrete.

IRON MAN: STEEL TERROR by Dean Wesley Smith

 

Originally published in book form in 1996.
Published in 2019 by Marvel.
Read by James Patrick Cronin.
Duration: 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Unabridged (but maybe not - see below)

As the Avengers settle down for a Christmas Eve dinner in Tony Stark's mansion (which doubles as Avengers headquarters), they are interrupted by news of a robot attack on a super secure research facility. TESS-One, a World War II era robot designed to counter super serum soldiers if it turned out to be necessary has returned from the dead. Can robots die? No matter - this robot was thought to be disposed of, but it is back. 

TESS-One

Even worse, it is under the control of another robot - the dreaded Ultron. He was also thought to have been killed/destroyed, but he is back and is pursuing his goal to kill off humanity...

My take:

******Caution - spoilers*******

The Iron Man: Steel Terror audiobook was created from a 160 page novel published in 1996 by Pocket Books that was aimed at 12-15 year-olds. If you are expecting a continuation of the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), you will be disappointed. 

The details for the audiobook say that it is unabridged, but I think that 2 hours and 15 minutes is simply too fast for a 160 page novel to be read. An abridgement would explain the breakneck pace of the plot. For example, Black Widow travels from New York to Russia (and has a fight) and then back to New York and then to Antarctica (and has an even bigger fight) and then back to New York in the span of about 12 hours. 

Featured heroes include: Iron Man, Black Widow, Jarvis the butler, Vision, Quicksilver, Crystal, Hercules and Hank Pym as Giant Man.

This audiobook was not particularly riveting. There was room for a lot of character development, but instead it became a punch fest (or energy blast attack fest) and Ultron was defeated by lab work done by Hank Pym that took him no more than half an hour to think up, create and then place on a rocket that he programmed to go to Ultron's lair. 

Missed opportunities to go for a quick buck on the good name of Iron Man from the MCU..

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: IRON MAN: STEEL TERROR by Dean Wesley Smith. The original 1996 book can be found on Amazon.com here: Steel Terror: Iron Man Super Thriller by Dean Wesley Smith.