Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 by Charles C. Mann

Published in 2009 by Holt McDougal

Full of interesting, relevant color photos and maps, this oversized coffee table-sized book is a great introduction to the American Indian for school children (I'd recommend 4th grade and above) or even adults who want a quick and painless introduction to the topic.

Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 is Mann's adaptation of his larger work 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus and he succeeds at making it age appropriate without watering it down.

All major groups and most geographic zones are covered quite well with special emphasis on the Mayans, Olmecs and the Incas. Mann also discusses the role of disease in the Old World conquest of the New World (sadly, too often overlooked in too many textbooks!) and the importance of the development of maize.

Highly recommended. 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491.

Reviewed on December 15, 2009.

Never Look Away: A Thriller by Linwood Barclay

Another Winner from Barclay

Published in 2010 by Delacorte Press

Linwood Barclay excels at writing books in which the average middle class guy (a car salesman in Fear the Worst: A Thriller, a newspaper reporter in this book) has his whole life turned upside down and is thrust into a world of crime, violence and intrigue. His books remind me of the old-fashioned film noire style except these are quicker and have even more turns.

Linwood Barclay

In Never Look Away: A Thriller, David Harwood is a reporter with a wife, a son, two loving parents who babysit their son and a hot lead on signs of corruption in local government that will make an explosive story. Suddenly, his wife disappears at a local theme park and he is accused of causing her disappearance.

More problems pile on and the pressure makes David and his world crumble.

There is a point in which the reader says, "What? Even more happens to this guy?"

Does it get ridiculous?

Absolutely.

More importantly, does the story work?

Absolutely.

This is a real page turner. I found myself losing real chunks of time if I picked this book up during my morning routine. I was nearly late to work two days in a row because I had to keep reading a little bit more.

I look forward to the next one, Mr. Barclay.

5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Never Look Away: A Thriller.

Reviewed on February, 26, 2010.

April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik

This is how history should be written!

Published in 2006 by Harper Perennial.

Winik asserts that the month of April 1865 was the single most important month in the history of the United States due to the confluence of historical events and decisions that came with the end of the Civil War.

The decisions include Lincoln's plan for a "soft" peace rather than a vengeful one. Lee's decision not to opt for guerrilla warfare but rather surrender and urge his men to become good citizens for their country (meaning the USA), Johnston's similar decision in North Carolina, the assassination of Lincoln, the uncertain rules of Presidential succession, the North's collective decision not to lash out blindly at a prostrate South in revenge for Lincoln's murder and a host of other issues.

My take: Winik is one of that new breed of historian that knows that good writing as at least as important as good research (You can't teach anything if you write poorly). Winik's synopsis of the issues of slavery and the Wilderness campaign are so good that if I ever get the chance to teach US history again I am going to copy them and hand them out to my students.

Jay Winik

This book renewed my awe of Robert E. Lee as a man. Flawed, like all of us, he made the exact right decisions at the end. Perhaps the most interesting was in the summer of 1865 - the war was over and Lee was back in Richmond awaiting his fate. It is communion Sunday and a black man decided to assert his rights as a free man and he goes up to the altar FIRST to get communion (traditionally, blacks were last). The whole church stops. The minister is flustered at the change of social niceties. Lee gets up - goes up to the front and stands next to the man for Communion. Now, the service must go on- because you can't refuse Robert E. Lee. Together, the two men integrated the church - with no prior planning. Lee just knew that this was the way it had to be now, so get over it.

Great book. I heartily recommend it.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here:  April 1865: The Month That Saved America

Reviewed on August 22, 2004.

Never After by Rebecca Lickiss

Wow! Was this book bad!

Published in 2002.

Never After is one of those humorous fantasy books, in which everything is sweetly parodied and lots of puns are thrown in, etc.

A Prince in search of a princess finds a castle in which all of the inhabitants are asleep due to the spell of a fairy godmother (as in Disney's Sleeping Beauty), including the girl of his dreams. However, he needs to wake up 3 princes before he wakes up his love so he enlists the help of his tomboy cousin (a princess) and his boyhood friend, who happens to be a newly graduated wizard and they all go back to the castle for adventure, treasure and love. Along the way, Rumpelstiltskin (yes, that one) gets involved.

My review:

This book was so irritating that I got to page 85 and called it quits. The author seems to be more bent on being cute than she is on advancing the story (which had gone nearly nowhere in the last 25-30 pages I did read). I was afraid that if I read it any longer, I would somehow be sucked in and trapped like the people in the castle. Maybe that would have been fine - at least I'd be asleep and not reading the book!

I rate this book 1 star out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Never After by Rebecca Lickiss.

Reviewed in 2004.

Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (The Original Radio Drama) by Brian Daley and George Lucas

Published by HighBridge Audio.
Originally broadcast in 1993.
Multicast performance.
Duration: approximately 5 hours.

Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (The Original Radio Drama) was created for National Public Radio and originally broadcast in 1993. It features several members of the original movie cast including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C3PO) and Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian). John Lithgow steps in and does a strong job with Yoda. Vader suffers with Brock Peters as the voice - not because he did anything wrong, but because he is just not James Earl Jones.

George Lucas opened up the Star Wars vault and let NPR use the original soundtrack and original special effects - and they use them well. The soundtrack punches up the story and the special effects are used to move the story along as often as they are used to add a little detail to the experience.

The story is well told and has the added bonus of being able to take a little more time to expand certain scenes. For example, what do Luke and Han talk about after Han rescues him on Hoth and they wait for morning in an emergency tent? On the other hand, I don't know if anyone can really follow the radio drama if they have not seen the movie? In my mind, images from the movie were constantly being played - Lando's flowing cape, the bounty hunters all lined up before being sent out by Vader, the "cave" on the asteroid. I don't know if the radio drama would be able to create similar scenes in the mind's eye or not.

There is one major drawback - the are only 2 CD "chapters" or tracks on each CD. This is no big deal if you are listening in the car, but if you pull that CD out, you have got to do a lot of searching to find where you were. Each track is the complete drama as aired, including about 3 minutes of introduction, theme music and a reading of the cast members. It makes for slow listening when you've hear it for all 10 episodes.

I rate this radio drama 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can  be found on Amazon.com here:  The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars)

Reviewed on August 9, 2010.

Link to my review of STAR WARS (EPISODE IV).
Link to my review of RETURN of the JEDI.

Lost Indianapolis (Images of America) by John P. McDonald

Not a complete history of the city, but an interesting one.

Published in 2002 by Arcadia Publishing.

Lost Indianapolis is part of the very large Images of America series of books that feature historical photos of landmarks of a city or group of people and tell part of the history as well. From time to time "then and now" photos are included as well so that the reader can see how things have changed.

The author has written several local histories about Indiana and Indianapolis and maintains a webpage at http://www.lostindiana.net/Lost_Indiana/Lost_Indiana.html.

Lost Indianapolis is a great book for those with an interest in Indianapolis for two reasons:

1) The photographs. They are interesting and very well-chosen to add to the text. I have seen books of this sort that seem to have random pictures tossed in with the text.

2) The text. McDonald has chosen several interesting topics to tell some of the story of the city. This is not a complete history by any means, but he does a thorough job of telling episodes in the city's history.

Topics covered in the book include: the central canal, Union Station, the Interurban system, the Stutz company, Carl Fisher, Riverside Park, Burger Chef and Market Square Arena.

The Interurban system was an electrical train system that ran from Indianapolis and connected with similar systems all over Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. McDonald tells the story in both a thorough and interesting way, including how the electrical plants required to power the trains eventually started to sell their extra energy to nearby customers and morphed into two modern-day utility companies still operating in the state.

The history of the Stutz Company is interesting because it begins to tell the story of Indianapolis and its love affair with the automobile. The Stutz Bearcat was the most famous car to come out of the factories that still stand on Capitol Avenue (they now house offices and a series of art studios).

McDonald also tells the story of Carl Fisher, an automotive pioneer in many ways - he had one of the first car dealerships in the world, he sold parts, including the first working headlights and the electric starter. Most importantly, he was part of the team that created the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and began the tradition of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911. To the left is a photo of Fisher testing out the track before it was paved with more than 3 million bricks in 1911.

I very much enjoyed the section on Burger Chef as well. I did not realize that one of the warehouses I drive by from time to time on West 16th street was actually the corporate headquarters of Burger Chef!  I have fond childhood memories of the Fun Meal at Burger Chef featuring the characters Burger Chef & Jeff - the forerunner to the McDonald's Happy Meal. Lost Indianapolis details the growth of company and the men who founded it. Interestingly, they had made several fast food kitchen devices to make things like soft-serve ice cream, shakes and flame-broiled hamburgers and started the first Burger Chef as a showcase restaurant to demonstrate their products. It was so successful they decided to franchise their system.

Lost Indianapolis is marred by several typographical errors, but the good information and interesting stories more than made up for that.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Lost Indianapolis.

Reviewed on August 7, 2010.

Freedom by Daniel Suarez

Sci-fi at its best - full of meaty themes - a great book for serious discussion as well as being a thrill ride.

Published in 2021 by PRTTYCESS

At its best sci-fi becomes a forum for more than whiz bang technology - it becomes a forum for discussion about philosophy. The best Twilight Zones did this. Star Wars becomes a stage to discuss the nature of good and evil and if an evil person can be redeemed. Star Trek becomes a lesson in the strength that can be possible in diversity and the power of friendship over all else.

What does the Daemon/Freedom series bring to the table? Well, Daemon is the whiz bang introduction to the series that finally matures in Freedom. The computer Daemon program introduced in the first book is re-creating society throughout Freedom. Themes explored include "Is Freedom economic as well as political?" and "Can there be real freedom when so much of the economy is controlled by multi-national corporations?" Throw in a lot of action and lots of "skin of your teeth" moments and you have something special.

Daniel Suarez

In Freedom we learn that the Daemon is not evil - it is, however, radically re-making society by re-creating the political and economic systems of the world by introducing a second (online) economy. But, the new idealistic society is subject to the same weaknesses as the old economy - some people control more than others and use it for their own ambitions to the detriment of all. The ultimate question of the book (and left un-answered, making me hope that there's a third book coming soon!) is, perhaps, best expressed by The Who in their song Won't Get Fooled Again: " "Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss."

In other words, is this new birth of freedom in jeopardy from within and be just as bad as what it rebelled against in the first place or will it reform itself?

Click here to see my review for the first book in this series: Daemon.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

You can find this book at Amazon.com here: Freedom (TM)

Reviewed on December 20, 2009.