In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir by Neil White

A profound book. Well-written and tugs at the heart.

Published in 2009 by William Morrow.

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is a memoir of a magazine and newspaper publisher who was sentenced to a minimum security prison for band fraud (he was "kiting" checks to make payroll, grow the business and buy fancy digs for the corporate offices). The prison he was sent to, however, is not your typical prison. Carville serves as both a minimum security prison and the last federal leper colony in the United States.

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is a title with a double-entendre. At one level it is a sanctuary where the outcasts are kept away from the outside. A sanctuary in which the victims of leprosy can receive treatment and not be "different" from everyone else. The author is literally staying in their physical sanctuary. But, in the case of the author, being in In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is more than this. He is under the care of the lepers. He learns from them. They teach him humility and taking life as it comes. He learns what is really important and the value of human connection. Calling them his friends would presume too much. They become his mentors by their examples and the few moments of humanity that can be passed between prisoners and patients. He absorbs what they teach with a passion.

Neil White at Carville Prison

The community that is created in Carville between these two groups that society's outcasts is unique and fragile. The federal prisoners are a volatile group and the leprosy patients are not confined to the facility - they are voluntary residents. This balance between freedom and confinement proves difficult for the government to manage and, in the end, the tenuous relationship ends as the book ends, giving it sort of a fairy tale quality.

A unique book and one of the best that I have read this year.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir by Neil White.

Highly recommended.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on September 10, 2009.

On the Wealth of Nations by P.J. O'Rourke

Could have been so much more

Published in 2006.

As an economics teacher, Adam Smith's An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations has long been on my "to read" list. I downloaded a free copy of it to my Kindle e-reader, but I haven't seriously considered opening it. I've read summaries of his ideas, perused his quotes and espoused his ideas in class, but I have not had the gumption to read 600 pages of 18th century prose.

When I discovered P.J. O'Rourke had written a commentary on the book I was thrilled. I do enjoy most of what O'Rourke writes and I figured his funny, insightful sarcastic take on things should do quite a bit to punch up a nearly 225 year-old economics text.

Let's start with the basics. Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a professor of both Moral Philosophy and Logic at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He wrote two books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), usually abbreviated The Wealth of Nations, often considered to be one of the first books on modern economics. Smith argued that freedom, both political and economic, was the ultimate source of happiness because the "invisible hand" of the free market would regulate the market and provide the best living for the most amount of people as possible. It is an interesting coincidence that the American Revolution and The Wealth of Nations both debuted in 1776.

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

I picked up P.J. O'Rourke's commentary on Smith's two books (the title and the cover do not tell the reader, but O'Rourke actually makes commentary on both books - he makes the compelling argument that they are really interrelated) and was expecting big things out of a very small book (242 pages including index, bibliography, endnotes and several pages of selected quotations).

Unfortunately, I did not get big things. O'Rourke's pizzaz and razmataz, his quick wit and his inclination to make a smart comment about everything - traits that can be very endearing and that I enjoyed very much in his book Peace Kills got in the way big time. For example when discussing Smith's arguments about the value of importing goods and how free trade is a good thing. This is a controversial topic even now, more than 200 years later and O'Rourke adds nothing to it - in fact he hurts the argument by noting: "...imports are Christmas morning; exports are January's MasterCard bill." (p. 24)

P.J. O'Rourke

If O'Rourke would have toned down the comments (Note: not eliminate, just tone down), this book would have been much more useful. As it was, I sometimes felt like I was reading Dave Barry's Dave Barry Slept Here: A Short of History of the United States. The attempt to leaven the dry nature of Smith's original work with jokes failed - I just had to work too hard to separate the facts from the jokes.

Did I learn enough about Smith and his thoughts to avoid that feeling of failure I get when I see The Wealth of Nations on my Kindle? Probably, so the book was not a complete failure. However, I feel like the book was a missed opportunity. The right man was picked to write this book, but he was allowed to play around a little too much.

I rate this book 3 stars.

Reviewed on August 22, 2010.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: On the Wealth of Nations by P.J. O'Rourke.

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (abridged audiobook) by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson

Abridged Audiobook
5 CDs
Approximately 6 hours.
Read by Kevin T. Collins

I first heard the incredible story of Marcus Luttrell  on Glenn Beck's radio show. I'm not a frequent listener of Glenn's show but this interview was so compelling I had to hear the whole thing.

Lone Survivor is a much longer version of that story. It includes a long, detailed description of how Navy SEALs train and their "Hell Week" that washes out those who are not truly dedicated to being a SEAL. Luttrell also tells us about his childhood and how he aspired to be a member of a special forces unit as a young man in high school.

The bulk of the book is about "Operation Redwing" - an attempt to kill or capture a Taliban leader that remains unnamed in the book (he uses a false name for this man throughout the book). The operation consists of inserting 4 SEALs in open mountain territory in Afghanistan to observe a remote village where this leader may or may not be staying.

Operation Redwing has difficulties from the beginning, including a lack of cover to hide behind while observing the village and extremely steep terrain. Not long into the operation 3 Afghan goatherders stumple upon the 4 SEALs and nearly 100 Taliban soldiers start to hunt the 4 SEALs.

Luttrell's tale of how his comrades died one by one in an intense running firefight is gripping and awe-inspiring. Eventually, Luttrell is the last one alive, although he is also shot in the leg and suffers from any number of cuts, bruises and a broken nose. He uses every trick he learned in survival training and a few that he learned as avid hunter back in Texas and is eventually rescued by an anti-Taliban village that risks the lives of the entire village by daring to take him in.

The insignia of the Navy SEALs

Unlike another autobiographical tale of our current wars that I've recently read, Joker One, the strength of this book is not its writing. It is co-written by Patrick Robinson who lets Luttrell's voice come through loud and clear. If you are easily offended by liberal use of swear words as adjectives, this will not be the book for you. However, having known a few soldiers over the years I found it lent a good deal of authenticity to let Luttrell describe the battle as he normally would.

No, the strength of the book is the power of the story itself. The decision to spare the lives of the goatherders (who presumably left the SEALs and immediately informed the Taliban), the vicious firefight, the loss of Luttrell's companions, the story of the village that rescued him, the pain his family went through when they believed he had also been killed... The story is so strong that it demands and deserves to be heard, even if its prose is not Pulitzer Prize material.

Highly recommended.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Lone Survivor

Reviewed August 21, 2010.

Look Again (audiobook) by Lisa Scottoline

Interesting premise but it often ends up being a glorified romance novel

Published by MacMillan Audio in 2009
Read by Mary Stuart Masterson
Duration: 9 hours, 27 minutes
Unabridged

In a planned departure from her normal books featuring female attorneys, Lisa Scottoline brings us the story of a single mother reporter (Ellen) and her adopted son. At the beginning of Look Again Ellen glances at one of those "Have you seen this child?" cards that come in the mail and she notes that the child looks just like her adopted son, Will.

A little digging by Ellen uncovers several clues that her son may indeed be a missing child, which leads us to the key point of tension in the book: If it turned out your adopted child was actually someone else's abducted child, would you tell and lose the child or would you stay quiet and leave another parent in pain?

Narrator Mary Stuart Masterson

I have been a big fan of Scottoline's work since I discovered Everywhere That Mary Went when I worked at a book store nearly 15 years ago. However, for me there was too much romance novel stuff that padded the book and slowed down and diluted the tension. Couple that with a plot hole at the end that is big enough to drive a truck through and I ended up a bit disappointed. It's pretty good but not as good as her others.

The audiobook is read by veteran Hollywood actress Mary Stuart Masterson. Masterson does a great job with the accents and voices, especially the voice of 3 year old Will. 

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Look Again by Lisa Scottoline.

Reviewed on September 17, 2009.

The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook

Originally published in 1997.

The Tenth Justice is an interesting little morality play set at the Supreme Court. What do you do if you accidentally leak information about a supreme court case and someone uses that inside information to make a fortune? What do you do if they come back and threaten to expose your slip-up unless you provide more information?

In my opinion, Meltzer's character does the wrong thing but that is what makes the story so interesting.

Meltzer's dialogue works so well with Thomas Gibson's performance that it sounds as if they were in the room copying down the natural flow of the characters' conversations as they were spoken. Truly, they were very fun to listen to.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer. 

Reviewed on October 15, 2004.

Star Witness (abridged audiobook) by Lia Matera

Good, simple story about a law case (in which the defendant says he didn't do it because he was being abducted and probed by aliens at the time).

Published in 1997.

Read by Alexa Bauer
Approximately 3 hours.

Abridged,

I'm reviewing Star Witness as an audiobook - more on that below.

Part of my positive reaction to this book, I am sure is a negative reaction I've recently had to several books on tape that I've listened to lately. Some have tried too hard to be overly-complicated. Some have injected way too much romance, so much that you forget it was supposed to be a legal thriller with a bit of romance, not a romance with a bit of legal thriller. However, this story is a no-frills, just-the-facts-ma'am legal story - thank goodness!

Now, this is not to say that it is not entertaining and the facts are not truly bizarre.

Lia Matera's book is set in California and involves a man who is arrested for vehicular manslaughter, but he claims he can't have done it since he was being probed by aliens in their spaceship at the time. Matera neither ridicules nor endorses the concept of alien abduction, much to her credit.

The audiobook version was performed by Alexa Bauer and she did an absolutely wonderful job. Kudos all around!

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Witness by Lia Matera. 

Reviewed on October 15, 2004.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

I was not expecting much, but it got to me in a big way. I laughed, I cried, I told my wife she should read it.

Published in 2008.

Everyone said The Last Lecture was fantastic. There were news programs about Randy Pausch and his Last Lecture. There's a billboard sponsored by the Foundation for a Better Life near my local library that extols his positive virtues ("Wrote a book on living while he was dying").

But, I refused to read the book. Why? I guess I am just stubborn. A friend of mine had the book on her table and I asked her if it was any good. Yes - she plowed through it in no time and she's really not a reader. She lent it to me and I was off.

Even then, I let it sit for a couple of weeks. But, once I got into it I was absorbed into it. It is a well-written, laugh-out-loud funny, big-tears-rolling-down-your-face sad, happy, poignant and sweet book. I called my friend when I was done and told her she should have told me that I was going to cry at the end of this book. She said, "I told you!" "Yeah, but I didn't know you meant it!"

Randy Pausch delivering his
last lecture on September 18, 2007

In case you are curious, the title of the book comes from a tradition at Carnegie Mellon University in which professors give a simulated last lecture - a lecture that would try to impart the wisdom they have gleaned to others if this were the last lecture they were to give in their life. For Pausch, this happened to be true. He makes the most of it.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

You can see his actual last lecture here on youtube: the last lecture.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. 

Reviewed on August 15, 2010.