Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel (Spenser #36.5) by Robert B. Parker

I enjoyed it but would a young adult who has never heard of the Spenser books?

Published in 2009.

I've read just about everything Robert B. Parker has written. I'm a huge fan of the Spenser series and I really did enjoy Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel, a look at the frequently alluded to but never before fleshed out childhood of Spenser in "West Flub-dub", somewhere out west.

Fans of the series will enjoy it. It consists of Spenser and Susan talking about Spenser's childhood (with plenty of psycho-analysis thrown in) interspersed with flashbacks to Spenser as a young man in a series of "coming-of-age" stories).

Will Young Adult (YA) readers care? The weakness of the book for YA's is the modern talk between Spenser and Susan. New readers will wonder who they are and not get the references to Spenser's hyper-developed sense of self - Parker spent years developing these characters. The regular reader will have no problem with these conversations, but people who are new to the series may not know what they are referring to in most of the conversations. Of course, the flashback format is precisely what makes the book work for frequent readers of the Spenser series.

Bottom line:

Spenser fans should read this one. New readers will probably be confused.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel by Robert B. Parker.

Reviewed on September 23, 2009.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (Book 1) by David Michaels

Published in 2008.

I read Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon as the literary equivalent of a one night stand - nothing serious, no commitments. This is not deep literature that requires a set of Cliff's Notes. I was looking for a change of pace.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon fit the bill perfectly. Spotty character development, sci-fi weapons, lots of talk about honor and commitment (that works until it gets too syrupy towards the end). All of the good guys have big square jaws (or are pretty tomboys) and have wonderful biographies - a walking recruiting poster. The bad guys carry fetish swords and use prostitutes and plan to hijack China's foreign policy as part of their ill-defined personal vendettas.

Clunky writing and two-dimensional characters abound. But, the action scenes are intense and flow nicely. It is what it is - action-adventure writing without much else.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon.

Reviewed on September 27, 2009.

Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Dire Warning: Churchill's First Year as Prime Minister by John R. Lukacs

A speech, little noted at the time, becomes a powerful gift to the ages

Published in 2009 by Basic Books

One of Churchill's most famous phrases comes from one of his shortest speeches - his first speech as Prime Minister delivered in Parliament as German forces were literally destroying the French army. The first paragraphs are administrative, describing his assembled government.

The last paragraph is gold, pure gold.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) flashing his
famed "V" for victory.

Churchill lays out his war aims and makes it clear that it will be hard, "an ordeal of the most grievous kind." He identifies the Nazis as "a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime" and notes the policy as victory no matter the cost because "without victory, there is no survival." He bids any and all allies to come join Britain.

There, in a few powerful sentences written by Churchill himself (oh, if only that were done nowadays...), is a summary of the situation, the goals and a strategy to win.

Unfortunately, it was not broadcast live and only edited snippets were broadcast over the BBC.

Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Dire Warning: Churchill's First Year as Prime Minister is a short (147 pages), well-written history of the Churchill's war years. The focus, as the title implies, is his first few days as Prime Minister, but he follows through to the end of the war.

Nicely done.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed October 9, 2009.

The Black Echo (Harry Bosch #1) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly

12 discs
14 hours
read by Dick Hill*

Edgar Award winner - 1993.

First, let me say that Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch stories are the best series currently being published. I've read and heard books throughout the series and let me heartily recommend hearing the Harry Bosch books rather than reading them.

Why?

First of all, narrator Dick Hill has an amazing voice and he captures Harry Bosch perfectly. There is no one better.

Secondly, Connelly's books really are well-written. I listen to a lot of audiobooks while I commute. Most are fine, but you can always tell the so-so authors. Their prose does not do well when read aloud while Connelly's shines. Combine it with Hill's voice and you have an experience, not just a book. (I'm not kidding, try it - I get two weeks of enjoyment by listening on the way to and from work rather than just two days in the traditional book format).

So, is The Black Echo a good book?

Not just good, it's great.

Michael Connelly

The plot concerns a dead body found in a drainage pipe. It could be just any junkie that crawled in to use drugs and then overdosed but Bosch thinks it looks wrong. Turns out he served in the Vietnam War with the overdose victim and when he starts pulling on loose threads he discovers a much larger conspiracy.

The plot is full of twists, turns, upsetting moments and even a few moments of laugh out loud fun. Connelly's strength is making Heironymous (Harry) Bosch as detailed and developed as possible while making the story move along. Gritty, bleak, despairing and all too human, this version of the L.A. streets and this detective are the best thing going in the world of fiction right now, in my opinion.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Black Echo (Harry Bosch Series)

Reviewed on October 9, 2009.

*Note: the version of this book read by Dick Hill is not available as an audio download - he can only be found on older CDs. Titus Welliver has re-read many, if not all, of the audiobooks of the Harry Bosch series since he plays Harry Bosch in the streaming series. I like Welliver's readings, but Dick Hill's style is not matched by anyone.

Forged in Faith: How Faith Shaped the Birth of the Nation 1607-1776 by Rod Gragg

A surprising little book

Published in 2010 by Howard Books

What do I mean by surprising? I already knew how much of a role faith played in the founding of our country, so I was not surprised by that aspect of Forged in Faith: How Faith Shaped the Birth of the Nation 1607-1776. Rather, I found myself thinking that Gragg was slanting the facts to make a point and leaving out crucial details, only to find, when I turned the page, that he addressed those details and addressed them fairly.

For example, he extols the virtues of the religious liberties enshrined in Massachusetts Colony's legal system in Chapter 5 (p. 57). I found myself thinking - "Yeah, but what about the Quakers?" It is addressed briefly on page 60 and again on page 73 (it turns out, some of the Quakers were quite annoying when promulgating their religious beliefs, including one woman who walked naked through a Puritan church service while haranguing the pastor about the need for simplicity in one's life!)

Gragg makes his point early and often about the role of faith. The first few pages are a bit tedious as Gragg hits this note over and over, including quoting entire prayers by early leaders and entire Psalms that those leaders quoted.

Franklin, Adams and Jefferson 
editing the Declaration 
of Independence

Fortunately, the book picks up more and more steam the closer Gragg gets to the American Revolution and by the time this book ends it is humming right along. Gragg does a great job of expounding on the role of faith in Enlightenment era thinking and its impact on such influential thinkers as John Locke, whose theories and ideas became played a large influence on Thomas Jefferson's wording in the Declaration of Independence.

Still, I must note that while it is true that Faith played a large role in the founders lives, it was not the only influence. They were also influenced by the classical writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans. If one read Gragg's book and Carl J. Richard's Greeks and Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers one would receive a much more well-rounded view of the foundations of this country than would be covered in any American history textbook.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Forged in Faith: How Faith Shaped the Birth of the Nation 1607-1776 by Rod Gragg.

Reviewed on August 13, 2010.

Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny by Agostino Von Hassell and Ed Breslin

Gives a solid background on one of America's iconic generals

Published in 2010 by Thomas Nelson

There have been thousands of generals that have served in the United States Military. Very few officers ever get "name" recognition. Washington, Grant, Pershing, MacArthur, Eisenhower. Patton stands right there with them, unique in the group of generals that I named because he was the only one that was always a subordinate officer, meaning that he was never in charge of an entire theater of war.

But, Patton inspires images of a general of action - impulsive, moving, always pushing, leading from the field. Modern tank warfare may have been perfected by Patton in the sense that he truly understood the need to coordinate air, naval, armor and GI's. He did more than understand it in theory - he actually did it on the ground in real life.

Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny is an attempt to dig behind the image to find out a little about the real Patton - a romantic family man (also a philanderer), the little boy that dreamed of the battlefield, the frustrations that accompanied his slow climb up the officer ranks (but helped by excellent connections), his fear of being afraid.

Von Hassell and Breslin are mostly successful in their attempt, although they are often repetitious in some of their points. For example, they tell the reader multiple times in the section on World War II that Patton's reputation as a glory hound was mitigated by the fact that he shared the glory so well with his men.

At times, the facts are written to make them seem more dramatic. For example, on page 117 they note that the U.S. army "had captured or killed more than 100,000 enemy troops"(p. 117) in the Sicily campaign (Operation Husky). Technically true but the numbers are 29,000 dead, missing or wounded Axis troops and 140,000 captured soldiers. Yes, it is common to include the captured in with the figures for the casualties, but this statistic seems written to inflate the death total.

At another point they just get facts wrong - not facts about Patton but about another general. They were trying to make the point that Patton did not squander his men, even while he was pushing them forward as fast as possible. The compare him to " 'Butcher Joe' Hooker, the Union general who to be relieved of command by President Lincoln early in the Civil War due to the appalling losses of life and limb incurred under his leadership." (p. xiii). Hooker's nickname was "Fighting Joe" and, ironically, he was dismissed due to tentative fighting in the latter part of the Battle of Chancellorsville and his lack of desire to chase down Robert E. Lee's army that was invading Pennsylvania and on its way to Gettysburg. Lincoln might well have excused a "Butcher Joe" on the grounds that at least he confronted the enemy. Ulysses S. Grant was the general with the nickname "Butcher". 

In many ways, Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny apologizes for Patton by denigrating his colleagues. Many times the reader is told that Montgomery and Eisenhower were too tentative in Patton's eyes. What we don't get is an historian's unbiased view about Patton's opinions. Were they? In Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7 1944-May 7, 1945 Ambrose asserts that Patton's tanks were out of gas, his men were low on supplies while he was advocating pushing forward into Germany - this might have created a "bulge" into Germany with the same results the Germans experienced with their bulge. A discussion of all sides would have been appropriate.

The book has many pictures of Patton, ranging from his childhood all the way through his World War II years. What the book also needed was maps - describing a map is so much less effective than just showing the reader why, for example, why the Battle of the Bulge was such a threat to the allies.

In sum, a good overview of the his life, but do not let this book be your only source about the complicated European Theater in World War II.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny by Agostino Von Hassell and Ed Breslin.

Reviewed on August 12, 2010.

I reviewed this book in conjunction with Thomas Nelson's BookSneeze program. I was not compensated for this review. The opinions expressed are mine.

Chasing Darkness (Elvis Cole #12) (audiobook) by Robert Crais

Published in 2008 by Brilliance.
Unabridged audiobook.
Duration: 7 hours, 19 minutes.
Read by James Daniels.

In my mind, Robert Crais has the second best series in fiction going right now, just after Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. Solid, quirky, oftentimes funny, good detective stories throughout.

Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner Joe Pike are on a dark, depressing case in Chasing Darkness. Three years earlier Cole had proven that a man could not have committed a horrific murder. Now, that man is found dead with evidence that he committed not only that murder but 6 others. Cole is sure that his work in the original case is correct and this man is being set up after his death and the real murderer is still wandering the streets. Cole and Pike start to pull on some loose threads and soon they have more trouble than they bargained for.

Chasing Darkness is not as good as other Cole novels such as The Last Detective. This one starts out rather slowly but it builds to an ending filled with twists and turns followed by even more twists and turns. This is a book that gets better as it goes along.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

Chasing Darkness can be found on Amazon.com.

Reviewed on October 10, 2009.