BALKAN WARS: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in September of 2024 by Hourly History.

I consider myself pretty well-versed in modern history, but I literally knew almost nothing about the wars that ran rampant through the Balkans just prior to World War I. I knew the area was all in an uproar, but I had no idea that the region had seen multiple all out wars rage throughout in just a few years. Those wars set up the scenario that directly led to World War I.

Hourly History specializes in writing histories and biographies that can be read in about an hour. That was enough time for this little history. The reader learns of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and how that created a power vacuum in the Balkans. Then, the reader learns how various ethnic groups in the region fought for their independence and earned it only to fight among themselves over the borders of disputed regions. 

Finally, the reader sees how the intervention of the great powers led more fighting and eventually to World War I.

This is a very readable history, but it is hurt by a lack of maps.

I rate it 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Balkan Wars by Hourly History. 

THE WAITING (Ballard and Bosch book 6)(audiobook) by Michael Connelly

Published in October of 2024 by Little, Brown, and Company.
Read by Christine Lakin, Titus Welliver, and Madison Lintz.
Duration: 10 hours, 50 minutes.
Unabridged.

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch first showed up in a novel in 1992. The Waiting is the 25th book in the series, but he has appeared in more than 30 books and short stories.

Bosch is aging. He has aged right along with the series. He would be about 74 years old in this book and he is no longer the detective that goes out and finds the bad guys, but he does contribute from time to time.

His protégé Renee Ballard is in charge of the cold case unit of LAPD.  Her unit is almost entirely made up of volunteers and they go through unsolved serious crimes and see if modern technology (like DNA comparison) can help to solve them.

This book is mostly a Ballard novel, but Bosch does play a critical role in one of the three mysteries that are dealt with in this novel. I have a feeling that the "Bosch" in the Ballard and Bosch books will soon switch from Harry Bosch to his daughter, Maddie Bosch. Maddie was involved in two of the three mysteries in this novel

In the first mystery, Ballard's car is broken in to when she is out surfing. Her wallet, her badge, and her gun are stolen...

In the second mystery, the unsolved team gets a genetic hit that shows a familial match to a serial rapist and murderer. 

In the third mystery, new evidence shows up in one of LA's longest-standing unsolved murders.

Three different actors read the parts of Ballard, Bosch, and Bosch's daughter, Maddie.

The mysteries were all compelling, the story moved along briskly, and there is a stunning and dramatic twist at the end.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Waiting (Ballard and Bosch book 6) by Michael Connelly.

COST of MALICE by H. Mitchell Caldwell

Published in 2024 by Nine Innings Press.

Cost of Malice is the third novel featuring attorney Jake Clearwater. Jake is an on-again off-again law professor who is often tempted to trade the classroom for the courtroom.  

Clearwater is offered a chance to sit on an informal council of leaders in the prosecutor's office. Cases that may be tough to win are brought to this council and they brainstorm possible strategies and determine if they are even worth the effort.

The book deals with three of these cases. 

Case one is a murder case in which the two primary witnesses are jailhouse snitches.

Case two is a horrific child abuse case in which one spouse literally beat a child to death at the direction of the other spouse. Clearwater wants to convict them both equally despite the fact that one of them literally never laid a finger on the victim.

Case three is a school shooting case modeled heavily on the Oxford, Michigan case that ended in April of 2024.

It feels right that Clearwater goes from one case to another - just like it happens in real life. Also, the three cases are all challenging and controversial in their own ways. 

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. It is well-written. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Cost of Malice by H. Mitchell Caldwell.

The first book of this series can be found here: Cost of Arrogance.

Note: I was sent a free copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

SUN MOON STAR by Kurt Vonnegut and Ivan Chermayeff

 

Highly Recommended

Originally published in 1980.

A mutual friend in publishing approached artist/graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff and author Kurt Vonnegut with a proposal. He wanted them to work together on a book. His proposal was that Chermayeff work up some illustrations and present them to Vonnegut and then Vonnegut would write a book based on those illustrations.

Vonnegut, even then, was an internationally celebrated author. Chermayeff created many of the images Americans see every day - the corporate logos for such companies as Chase Bank, National Geographic, Scholastic Books, Univision, NBC, PBS, and more.

Chermayeff presented Vonnegut with a series of simple, childlike paintings of the moon, star, and the sun. They came with no explanation. There is also a diagram of an eyeball. I do not know if that was part of Chermayeff's art or if Vonnegut added it, but I would imagine that Vonnegut added it.

Vonnegut took the drawings and made Sun Moon Star, a beautiful children's story about Jesus on the day of his birth. 

When I say that this is a children's story, I really mean that this is a book for adults in the guise of a children's story. There is nothing that is inappropriate for children and a child would be able to follow along with most of it. 

pages 62 and 63 of Sun Moon Star

Adults, however, will appreciate the care that well-know atheist Vonnegut brings to the concept that the creator of the universe has brought himself into his creation as a baby, with all of the limited perspective that a baby has. The warmth of a sun is compared to the warmth of a mother's embrace - and the love of a mother's embrace is superior. The eyes that witnessed creation itself are now the eyes of a newborn that don't quite know how to work together yet.

I found this to be a thoughtful and surprisingly sweet book. It doesn't feel like a typical Vonnegut book, but it may just be one of my favorites. 

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Sun Moon Star by Kurt Vonnegut and Ivan Chermayeff. 

MALAYAN CAMPAIGN: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

 

Published by Hourly History in 2021.

Hourly History writes short histories and biographies that take the average reader about an hour to read. Sometimes they try to explain too much in a short book (such as the Mayan Civilization, for example.) But, an hour is plenty of time to explain the basics of a military campaign that lasted 2 months and 8 days.

When the Japanese Navy attacked the American naval forces at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 it was actually part of a much larger, highly coordinated push against all Western forces in the Pacific and in East Asia. American forces were also attacked in the Philippines, for example.

This push also included the British-held Malay Peninsula and Singapore that started on December 8.

Britain had not provided much of a defense for this area, which was understandable considering the dire threat Britain itself faced from Nazi forces in Europe.

The Japanese landed with a slightly smaller force than the British had, but the British were completely surprised by the attack and the Japanese pushed hard towards Singapore and never stopped pushing. This did not allow the British to coordinate their forces and led to a quicker defeat.

British forces in this area did not have top shelf equipment, unlike the Japanese. The most surprising piece of military equipment in the campaign was something no one really expected - bicycles. The Japanese utilized bicycles to move their infantry quickly down the peninsula, despite the rugged terrain.

For a reader that is looking to fill in a few blank spots in their knowledge of World War II, this series would be a good place to start. 

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Malayan Campaign: A History from Beginning to End.

THE BROKEN GUN (audiobook) by Louis L'Amour

Originally published in 1966.
Audiobook published in 2011 by Random House Audio.
Read by Jason Culp.
Duration: 4 hours, 35 minutes.
Unabridged.

My synopsis:

The Broken Gun is the story of a writer named Dan Sheridan. Sheridan is kind of a stand-in for Louis L'Amour himself. L'Amour was a prolific author, but he before he was a writer he skinned cattle, worked in mines and lumber camps, was a professional boxer, and was a merchant seaman. Later, he served in World War II in Europe.

His character Dan Sheridan worked on ranches, lumber camps, and served in the Korean War where he was captured and escaped back to the American lines. Later, he was trained in guerilla warfare, served as an advisor in South Vietnam where he was captured again and escaped again.

Sheridan researches a topic thoroughly before he writes. It is the early 1960s and his latest interest is a large cattle drive in the 1870s that was led by two brothers named Toomey from Texas to Arizona. They were looking for a fresh start and brought a herd of 4,000 cattle with them. They were looking to settle down and build a massive new ranch in the middle of Apache territory. But, they disappeared without a trace. 

It is assumed they were massacred by the Apache, but Sheridan has a solid lead that something else happened.

When he gets an invite to visit the ranch that was built on the land that the Toomeys had intended to claim, Sheridan decides he has to visit and take a look for himself...

My review:

The story is entertaining, even though it stretches credulity at several points. That's okay, it's not a documentary, it's an adventure story.

The first hour of the audiobook is a bit slow, but once it gets going the action rarely slows. 

It's not a great novel - it's not complex or full of great themes, but there are fistfights, desperate chases, climbs up and down cliffs, nighttime horse rides, car crashes, pretty girls, and gun play and that's what I was looking for.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Broken Gun by Louis L'Amour. 

THE BOYS: A MEMOIR of HOLLYWOOD and FAMILY (audiobook) by Ron Howard and Clint Howard

Highly Recommended.

Published in 2021 by HarperAudio.

Read by Ron Howard, Clint Howard, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Duration: 13 hours, 18 minutes.

Unabridged.

Ron Howard and his brother Clint Howard practically grew up on America's television screens. Ron Howard starred in the The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days for a combined 15 years of his early life. Ron has since gone on to become a prolific director. His credits include Cocoon, Willow, Cinderella Man, and Solo: A Star Wars Movie. His movies have won 9 Academy Awards.

Clint Howard starred in the TV show Gentle Ben when was a little kid and has since gone on to become the quintessential model of a working actor. He has more than 200 acting credits, including the original Star Trek series, Austin Powers, The Waterboy, and a recurring role on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

The Howard brothers are the sons of a working Hollywood actor named Rance Howard. Rance's credits look a lot like his son Clint's - regular work as guest on show after show after show and sometimes regular work on a TV show. Their mom was an actress who gave up acting for most of her life until the boys were grown and out of the house. 

Ron and Clint Howard

The Howard brothers tell their story, starting with their parents' first forays into entertainment and then through their regular success as child actors. Interestingly, their father often struggled while they had success. If you look at a list of credits, there are years where he had a small roles (sometimes uncredited) that paid the bills but did not lead to the a lavish Hollywood lifestyle. While that had to be tough to swallow, to his credit, he did not let his frustrations get in their way.

The story is told very well, flowing back and forth between the two brothers, but mostly told by Ron Howard. They offer some insight to Hollywood, but mostly they offer insight to a family that loved one another and successfully made it work in a tough industry.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found here on Amazon.com here: The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard and Clint Howard.

SAINT PETER: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2021 by Hourly History.

Hourly History has a series of short histories and biographies. As the name implies, they are designed to be read in about an hour.

Some of the best offerings in this series are the biographies and this biography of Saint Peter was no exception.

Saint Peter, of course, is one of the main figures in the New Testament, probably tied with Saint Paul for the second most important after Jesus himself. But, he's kind of a mystery in many ways because the references to Peter are scattered.

This biography gathers together all of those scattered references and puts them in a narrative format so that it reads like a traditional biography. It takes care to note when stories are from the Bible and when they come from tradition (the description of how Peter was executed comes to mind.)

The general outlines of Peter's life are laid out with only a token discussion of the implications of his theology, such as the decision to not require converts to Christianity to undertake the requirements that a convert to Judaism would have to make, such as circumcision.) 

I rate this biography 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Saint Peter: A Life from Beginning to End.

GHOSTED: AN AMERICAN STORY (audiobook) by Nancy French

Published by Zondervan in April of 2024.

Read by the author, Nancy French.

Duration: 9 hours, 56 minutes.

Unabridged.

My synopsis:

Ghosted is an autobiography of Nancy French. Nancy French had a career as a Conservative political columnist and ghost-writing for people in Conservative circles. She helped Conservative politicians write opinion pieces, helped them come up with clever lines for radio and TV interviews, and even books. She worked with such Conservative stars as Sarah Palin and Ben Sasse. She even worked with the Romney campaign. 

The book starts with her childhood in Kentucky, including an awful story of sexual abuse at the hands of a manipulative youth pastor and how that sent her life into a spiral into she met her future husband while she was in college.

Nancy French is married to David French, a well-known Conservative political columnist, commentator, and attorney. He worked for two organizations that defended the rights of Christian groups and Conservatives on college campuses and Christian businesses that did not want to support the birth control provisions of the Affordable Care Act. 

This couple epitomized the pre-Trump Christian Conservative movement.

When Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016, they were mortified. He was the opposite of every moral position they stood for in so many ways. They refused to back Trump and their friends refused to support them. Nancy's work dried up and people from their local church began shunning them. They were ghosted by their friends and colleagues.

My review:

This book is an up and down affair. The beginning and the end are very strong, the middle is a bit slow until the Donald Trump campaign throws their lives into disarray. On the whole, I rate Ghosted 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Ghosted: An American Story by Nancy French. 

ARETHA FRANKLIN: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2023 by Hourly History.

Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) was a true music legend. Nicknamed the Queen of Soul, she dominated the charts in the late 1960s and early 1970s and popped in and out of the charts for the rest of her life. She appeared on television, in movies, and, of course, in concert.

Hourly History specializes in short biographies and histories that most readers can complete in about an hour. The reader is not going to get a super-detailed biography, but the reader will get a decent overview.

Some of these biographies are quite good, some read like a well-written Wikipedia page. This book was much more like the latter than the former. It went through the Franklin's life and told all of the details, but you never get a sense of what she was like as a person. 

I was pleased to see that they mentioned her small but outstanding role in The Blues Brothers. I think it is one of the major highlights in a movie full of highlights.

I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ARETHA FRANKLIN: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END by Hourly History.

THE OTHER SIDE of the WALL: A PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN NARRATIVE of LAMENT and HOPE (audiobook) by Munther Isaac.

Published in 2020 by ChristianAudio.
Read by Neil Shah.
Duration: 8 hours, 5 minutes.
Unabridged.

I heard about The Other Side of the Wall on The Holy Post podcast. I knew that there were Palestinian Christians in Gaza, but I hadn't given it much thought. Generally, I find the Palestinian/Israeli conflict too intractable to think about. It's not that I don't care, it's that simple solutions (or even insanely complicated solutions) don't even seem to be on the horizon at all and in a world with so many problems close at hand, it's easy not to think about problems half a world away. My bandwidth is just not that big.

But, the interview was good - it came from an unexpected source in this conflict. The podcast host interviewed Munther Isaac, a Lutheran pastor and teacher. He is also a Palestinian from Gaza. There has been a continual Christian presence in Gaza as long as anyone can tell, although it is dwindling as Palestinian Christians opt out of the conflict zone by moving away. 

Isaac brings a long list of observations and complaints. He has reasonable complaints, like his family's farm and home being grabbed by the Israeli government to make space for Israeli settlements. But, he is also bothered by fellow Christians who refuse to let him speak at conferences because he offers a different point of view than the standard American Christian (pro-Israeli government) point of view.

The author

The author is not anti-Jewish, but he is against so much that the conservative Netanyahu government has done over his long time as Prime Minister.

The book was obviously written before the brutal Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. Many of the places he mentions in his book were headlines in the Hamas-Israel War as I was listening to the audiobook. Some might say that the book is outdated since those terrorist attacks were a profound pivot point, but I think the book still has tremendous value, especially with his discussions about the applications of Jesus' teachings in a world in a continuing cycle of violence and retribution.

A tough listen, but a very good one.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope by Munther Isaac.

THE RISE: A SHORT STORY (kindle) by Ian Rankin

Published by Amazon Original Stories in 2023.

Synopsis:

There has been a murder in one of the newest and most exclusive high rise apartments in London. The night security guard in the lobby was found dead by his girlfriend (she used to sneak in for a little romancing in the middle of the night.)

His head was smashed into the corner of the counter and a fancy electronic door key is missing from the collection of spare keys in the office.

When detectives start asking around it looks like just about everyone in the apartment building could have killed the guard, including the girlfriend.

My review:

The first half of this story was pretty tedious. The way the crime was finally solved was kind of obvious - and I missed it!

I rate this short story 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Rise: A Short Story by Ian Rankin.

THE RUNAWAY (Peter Ash #7)(audiobook) by Nick Petrie

Published by Penguin Audio in 2022.
Read by Stephen Mendel.
Duration: 11 hours, 35 minutes.
Unabridged.

The Runaway is the seventh book in the Peter Ash series. Ash is a retired Marine with PTSD issues and an intense desire to help people in need. Sometimes he settles down, sometimes he wanders.

In this book, Ash is crossing the country and is near the border of South Dakota and Nebraska. He comes across a broken down car and a very pregnant young lady. She is desperate to get going down the road so he takes her. 

They get a few miles down the road when they come across a truck blocking the road. They turn around and find another truck blocking the road and leaving them nowhere to go. The hitchhiker tells Ash that he is in very grave danger and he should flee...

My review:

For a book full of action, thrills, and mayhem, this book was often tedious. 

********Spoilers********

The pregnant young lady is a victim of gaslighting and, eventually, kidnapping. The process was long and very detailed. I think that there was simply too much emphasis on this part of the book. 

I don't know if it was intentional, but it is worth noting that literally every male character was a criminal, a murderer, a misogynist, or simply incompetent except for Peter and his friend Lewis. I doubt it was intentional, but it just seemed like the entire Great Plains countryside was full of literal bad guys.

*********End Spoilers*********

Sadly, this series has gotten weaker for me. I rated the first five books 4 or 5 stars, but I have rated the last two books as 2 stars. I will move on to the next book and hope for the best. 

One last thought. Despite what you will read in this book, healthy, well-fed coyotes do not hunt humans. 

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Runaway by Nick Petrie.

PANCHO VILLA: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END by Hourly History

Published by Hourly History in 2021.

I think this is the third book I've read in the last few years that is at least partially about the Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa (1878-1923). I read two that were basically about American responses to Villa's cross-border excursions  (and near misses) into the United States for money and supplies.

Each entry in the Hourly History series is, by definition, a short book. Each entry is supposed to be read in about an hour.

This biography was neither bad nor good. It did tell the basically outlines of his life without giving the reader much a sense of the man. Even worse, Villa will forever be associated with the Mexican Revolution but this book did a pretty poor job of explaining the complicated politics that Villa tried to navigate. It seemed that he was an insider one week, on the outs the next week, and running for his life the week after that and I had no understanding as to why that was.

A good basic intro, but nothing more.

I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Pancho Villa: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History.

ROAD RAGE (audiobook) by Joe Hill, Stephen King, and Richard Matheson

Published in 2009 by HarperAudio.
Read by Stephen Lang.
Duration: 2 hours, 25 minutes.
Unabridged.

My Synopsis:

In 1971 a relatively unknown director made an ABC made for TV movie called Duel. The plot was simple enough - a traveling salesman is harassed by a semi-truck on a nearly empty desert highway. Spielberg took this opportunity and turned it into the movie that made his career. Now, Duel is a cult classic.

Before the movie was made, there was  the short story of the same name. Richard Matheson wrote the short story and the screenplay.

Joe Hill and Stephen King added a second story called Throttle to this collection. It features a motorcycle gang trying to decide their next steps after a botched attempt to find some missing money that resulted in a brutal murder. Suddenly, a semi-truck catches up to the gang and begins to pick them off one by one.

My Review:

Duel was a very good short story. It draws you in and keeps you involved to the end. 

Throttle is told well, but I found it very hard to identify with any of the horrible characters. The drama is hurt by the fact that I really didn't care if the gang members were hurt.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ROAD RAGE by Joe Hill, Stephen King, and Richard Matheson.

THE OUTSIDERS (audiobook) by S. E. Hinton

Originally published in 1967.
Audiobook published in 2004 by Listening Library.
Read by Jim Fyfe,
Duration: 5 hours, 9 minutes.
Unabridged.

Listed on BBC's list of 100 Most Inspiring Novels in 2019.
Author is the winner of the inaugural Margaret A. Edwards Award for YA 

Synopsis:

This is a true YA classic. Some consider this to be the book that invented the YA genre. Written by a high school student in the 1960's, The Outsiders is the story of a group of "greasers" in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

Greasers are poor teens who grow up on the tough side of town. Adult supervision is pretty lax and they spend their days smoking, flirting with girls, and working. They join loose gangs and fight among themselves, but they all unite when their biggest enemies come around. Their biggest enemies are the rich kids who cruise the poor side of town looking for a fight.

The main character is the oddly-named Ponyboy. Ponyboy's deceased parents liked to give their children odd names. Ponyboy and his two older brothers live together in their childhood home and somehow scrape by.

One very late night, Ponyboy and his oldest brother have an argument. Ponyboy runs from the house, finds one of his friends, and they wander the neighborhood. They are sitting in a park when a car full of the rich kids finds them and decides to make an example of them...

My review:

It's been a long time since I read this book, but I read it several times when I was in upper elementary. I came back to this book thinking it was going to be would be lightweight and that I had overestimated its quality when I was a young adult reader.

Turns out that I was pleasantly surprised. While the writing style is pretty simple, this is not a simple book. It has layers and complexity and was an astoundingly good novel, especially when you consider that it was written by a high school student.

I am glad I re-read it as an audiobook. Jim Fyfe did a good job with voice characterizations.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.

Note: This book has often been placed on banned book lists over the years, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. I have tagged it with the MAGA Censorship List tag because, more recently, it was challenged in Williamsburg, Iowa  and was put on a book ban list in Tennessee. The last linked article has a searchable database because the list has more than 1,100 unique titles.

HAWKEYE: THE SAGA of BARTON and BISHOP (graphic novel) by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and more

Published by Marvel Universe in 2021.

Hawkeye: The Saga of Barton and Bishop is actually two collections in one. The first half of the collection is the text from Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon.

To be honest, the first collection is much better than the newer second half. 

In the second volume, Hawkeye and Bishop are working separately. At the end of Volume 1 she left for California to be an independent Avenger. That's not really a thing, but she's young and hadn't really thought it through.

I found the art and storyline to be convoluted, especially with the main storyline - the Bishop storyline. The shorter Barton storyline is a simple continuation of the actions in Volume 1. Even though it is the shorter part of the story, it feels like it is stretched out and padded while the much longer Bishop story arc feels rushed and poorly explained.

I gave a rating of 4 stars for Volume 1. I give a rating of 2 stars for Volume 2. That makes for a total score of 3 stars. 

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Hawkeye: The Saga of Barton and Bishop.

An Unforgiving Place: A National Parks Mystery, Book 2 (audiobook) by Claire Kells

Published by Dreamscape Media in 2022.
Read by Cady Zuckerman.
Duration: 9 hours, 18 minutes.
Unabridged.

Edgar Award nominee.

Synopsis:

An Unforgiving Place is the second book featuring Felicity Harland of the Investigative Services Branch. If you are not familiar with the ISB, join the club - I had no idea that it was the "FBI" of the National Parks Service. If the local park can't deal with it, they call in the ISB. That always include murders.

Harland is partners with a park ranger nicknamed Hux. He is a big, strong guy. Harland is a short (but very tough and determined) lady. There is always of undercurrent of romantic attraction between the two, but it is never acted upon for fear of messing up their friendship and working relationship. Her dog rounds out the trio.

In this series, the ISB moves the agents around from park to park. I have no idea if that is what happens in real life but it does let the reader get a feel for a new park in every book.

An Unforgiving Place is set in Alaska at Gates of the Arctic National Park - a park that is literally in the middle of nowhere. You have to fly in on a bush plane or a float plane to visit big chunks of the park. Harland and Hux get called on because two missing hikers have shown up dead along a river in an isolated place.

After some detailed internet research, it is determined that the two hikers are a couple from New Jersey who came to Alaska in search of a man who offered to cure their infertility troubles with native cures.

They are flown in and almost immediately encounter a group camping nearby. Things get tense when they decide to pass themselves as a adventure hiking couple and join the campers for a few nights...

My Review:

In my mind, the author makes a mistake by letting the readers in on who the victims are and why they are going to Alaska. The reader doesn't experience the mystery likes the investigators and I think that takes some of the steam out of the story.

I gave the first book in this series a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. I liked it well enough that I bought this audiobook (usually I am an avid library patron but they didn't have this audiobook.) However, I am rating this book 3 stars out of 5. It's not a bad book at all, but the mystery was diluted by the issue noted in the previous paragraph. I will continue on the the third book.

This book is available on Amazon.com here: An Unforgiving Place: A National Parks Mystery, Book 2 by Claire Kells.

THE BLACK ROCK COFFIN MAKERS (audiobook) by Louis L'Amour

Published by Blackstone Audio in 2007.
Read by Stefan Rudnicki.
Duration: 54 minutes.
Unabridged.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) was an amazingly prolific writer with a career that lasted 50 years. He wrote up to 200 books, both novels and non-fiction works, depending on how you count them up, but he began writing short stories for magazines. I assume The Black Rock Coffin Makers is one of those stories.

Synopsis:

A cowboy rides into a strange town hundreds of miles away from home. He is immediately mistaken for a local man who was driven out of town and possibly killed by ruthless competitors so that he couldn't make a claim on a ranch. He looks so much like the other man that armed man try to kill him within minutes of arriving in town.

Luckily, he runs into a local woman who is also involved in this mess and that's when the real adventure starts...

My Review:

This story starts out very strong. I was immediately drawn in. But, as it went along it just lost some of its steam. Not a bad story, but not a great one. Good enough.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Black Rock Coffin Makers by Louis L'Amour. 

THE AGE of GRIEVANCE (audiobook) by Frank Bruni

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2024.
Read by the author, Frank Bruni.
Duration: 9 hours, 46 minutes.
Unabridged.

Frank Bruni, as the title The Age of Grievance implies, looks at how people of all political stripes act as though they are aggrieved at so many things. Sometimes, it's kind of funny and harmless, sometimes it's deadly serious to our values (forcing speakers off campus because they are too conservative) and sometimes people's lives (January 6th.)

If you follow the news, especially political news, not much is new here except grouping them all together and adding analysis. 

He is not saying grievance is always wrong. For example, the Civil Rights movement was a grievance movement. But, he is saying that it has to be informed grievance. For example, he discusses the fact that most people that are convinced that China's economy is larger than America's economy (China's economy is about 2/3 of the size of the U.S. economy with 3 times the population.) How can there be an actual consideration of America's policy towards China when we don't even know the facts of our relative strengths?

This book can actually be quite entertaining, but the serious side always comes back. 

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni.

BROKEN BAYOU (audiobook) by Jennifer Moorhead

Published by Brilliance Audio in July of 2024.
Read by Sophie Amoss
Duration: 10 hours, 18 minutes.
Unabridged.

My Synopsis

Broken Bayou features Dr. Willa Waters, a child psychologist with a very popular podcast who lives in Texas. After a disastrous local television interview goes viral, Waters runs to Broken Bayou, Louisiana. This is where her two great aunts lived in a mansion on the edge of town.

When she arrives in town, there is an uproar because a body has been found in the bayou and then a young schoolteacher and her car went missing. But, some of the locals still remember her because Waters spent most of her childhood summers in Broken Bayou with her great aunts. Waters and her little sister would be brought to town by her mother. All three of them would move in and her mother would spend the summer having a good time with the locals. 

In many ways, her great aunts were the closest thing to proper parents that Waters and her sister had. Her great aunts passed away within hours of one another and they have given the house to the local historical society. Waters says that she is in town to go through some things, but really she is looking for one thing - one very specific thing from a horrible night - the last night they ever stayed in Broken Bayou... 

My Review

This book is steeped in Southern Gothic vibes. There is a brooding mood from one end to the other. The murder mystery aspect was quite good, but I found Dr. Waters' behavior to be amazingly, frustratingly, and all too conveniently self-sabotaging. This very educated woman couldn't seem to grasp the concept of taking the stuff she wanted and going to some other town (any other town) with it until it becomes too late.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead. 

Note: The publisher of this book sent me a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

COMRADES in ARMS (kindle)(short story) by Kevin J. Anderson

Published in 2014 by WordFire Press

My Synopsis:

Veteran (and prolific) author Kevin J. Anderson delivers a compelling short story/novella in the tradition of the golden age of sci-fi with Comrades in Arms. 

Humanity is at war with an insectoid race that uses psychic energy to create weapons and even peer into the future.  The story is set in an asteroid belt way out in the middle of nowhere. Some of the asteroids have breathable atmospheres, but they're not comfortable for either race to live on for long. 

Even though the asteroids have limited value, there is no way either side will give them up so the war has ground itself into a stalemate of sorts. 

However, humanity has developed a new weapon that is starting to turn the tide. Mortally wounded humans are brought back to the base and given the Robocop treatment. Their bodies are refitted with armored limbs, organs are replaced, and a "werewolf trigger" is installed deep in the brain. The werewolf trigger sets the cyborg soldier into an out-of-control killing frenzy. These killing machines tear across the battlefield and civilian outposts, leaving behind nothing by death and destruction until the cyborg is destroyed or its system breaks down.

But, what happens if a cyborg learns to control its computerized impulses? What if it starts to question the war itself? What if it refuses?

My Review:

I enjoyed this novella from beginning to end. The story has an ironic twist at the end, but not the way that you would think. In its own way, it makes a strong anti-war statement. 

I rate this novella 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Comrades in Arms by Kevin J. Anderson.

WINGS of REDEMPTION: THE FORGOTTEN FLEET, BOOK 3 (audiobook) by Craig Andrews

Book version originally published in 2023.

Audiobook published in July of 2024 by My Story Productions.
Read by Shamaan Casey.
Duration: 12 hours, 7 minutes.
Unabridged.

Wings of Redemption is the final installment of the Forgotten Fleet Trilogy. This sci-fi series is about a future war between humanity and an insectoid species. The series focuses on a squadron of space carrier-based fighter pilots on the front lines.

The fact that it is focused on this relatively small group of people is the real strength of this trilogy. It doesn't get caught up in tales of political intrigue at the macro level, instead it follows these pilots on the bleeding edge of the front lines. There are successes and very tough losses. The risks are personal and also galaxy-wide. If these pilots can't help turn the tide, the war will be lost for everyone.

Each book of the trilogy has a distinct feel. The first book (Wings of Honor) focused on the recruitment and training of these pilots against the backdrop of an intergalactic war that humanity is losing.

The second book (Wings of Mourning) follows the fighter pilots as they are stationed on the newest, most advanced carrier in the fleet - the SAS Redemption. The Redemption is sent on a secret, desperate mission to probe into enemy territory in order find out why their insectoid enemies have changed tactics and are seemingly in retreat. Is it a real withdrawal, is it a trick, or is it something else entirely?

In Wings of Redemption, the SAS Redemption has found the answers to most of their questions and are desperately trying to outrace their enemies back to human territory. This book has large scale space battles between carrier ships, fighter dogfights, and hand to hand fights - but it really just does a good job of letting the individual characters shine. 

The audiobook reader, Shamaan Casey, helps those individual characters stand out. During the fighter dogfight scenes his individual voice characterizations help make the story feel more like a movie that you can see in your mind. In this book, I thought he did a particularly good job with the pilot with the call sign/nickname of Squawks. Like his name implies, Squawks is kind of a loud and squeaky guy. In the first two books he was often the comic relief, but he has a tragic moment in this book and Casey conveys the emotion in this voice perfectly. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Wings of Redemption: The Forgotten Fleet, Book 3 by Craig Andrews. 

Note: I received a free copy of the audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, this is a good trilogy.

THE TURKEYFEATHER RIDERS (audiobook) by Louis L'Amour

Published in 2004 by Random House Audio as a book on cassette.

Published in 2008 as a digital audiobook.

Multicast performance.

Duration: 1 hour, 8 minutes.

Unabridged.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) wrote well more than 100 novels and non-fiction works - maybe 200, depending on how you count them up. If you count individual short stories, you can add in hundreds more. L'Amour's writing career started out as a short story writer for magazines, beginning in 1938. I assume that this short story started out in a magazine but I could not find any record of when or where it was originally published. 

The Turkeyfeather Riders was adapted from a short story into old style radio play for this production. This includes special effects and multiple actors playing different characters. 

My synopsis.

The plot is pretty simple. Jim Sandifer is a ranch foreman. He and his widower boss get along fabulously, but when his boss comes home with a fiancé and her son, Sandifer becomes suspicious of their motives. When Sandifer starts to investigate, things get hairy...

My Review.

This was a fun little story. I was looking for a change of pace and this fit the bill perfectly. It's not very complicated and the performances are very good. The special effects are well done, too. 

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Turkeyfeather Riders by Louis L'Amour.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (BIOGRAPHIES of U.S. PRESIDENTS) (kindle) by Hourly History

 

Published by Hourly History in March of 2024.

Hourly History publishes an extensive line of histories and biographies that are intended to be read in about an hour. With that limit, none of these are the definitive biographies, but most of them  give the average reader a good sense of who the person was and why they were important. 

Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) was the 36th President of the United States. One thing I particularly like about this biography is that it tells about his formative experiences in Texas as a young man, especially his short stint as a public school teacher in a very poor area of rural Texas. Getting to know those students really gave him the desire to want to create government programs to help alleviate poverty. 

This biography is a little skewed towards Johnson's early life, but it's not particularly hard to find information about LBJ's time as President and the series offers books on the big events of his administration like the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement if you would like to read more.

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Lyndon B. Johnson: A Life from Beginning to End. 

AGE of REVOLUTIONS: PROGRESS and BACKLASH from 1600 to the PRESENT (audiobook) by Fareed Zakaria

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2024.

Read by the author, Fareed Zakaria
Duration: 13 hours, 2 minutes.
Unabridged.

Fareed Zakaria's Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present is exactly what the title says it is.

Zakaria writes about the beginnings of capitalism, multi-cultural societies, globalism, democracy, the industrial revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, Fascism, the failed Arab Spring, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rise illiberal democracy and the return on authoritarianism and the forces that pushed back (or overturned) them.

The author

Zakaria has clearly done his research and writes in such a way that it flows from one topic to another almost as if they entire book was just one big story (which it is, if you look at it as the story of humanity, especially The West.)

If you find yourself wondering how we got here, this is a good place to start. Zakaria breaks down complex movements and ideas and makes them understandable.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present by Fareed Zakaria.