Stupid Christmas by Leland Gregory

Published in 2010.

Leland Gregory is a co-author of America's Dumbest Criminals: Wild and Weird Stories of Fumbling Felons, Clumsy Crooks, and Ridiculous Robbers, a book filled with a series of short, mostly humorous "filler on a newspaper page" type stories.

He follows this format with Stupid Christmas, a book full of short (1-2 pages) stories about Christmas. Some are amusing stories about Christmas history, some are about Christmas criminals, some are sweet and touching and some are just about Christmas oddities such as the middle school teacher that drove his student around town to vandalize Christmas displays, including putting some in compromising positions, so to speak.

Unfortunately, unlike the criminal themed book, which has the entire realm of criminal activity to draw from, this book feels a bit limited by the Christmas theme. Too many repetitive stories about drunken Santas. This is a great "bathroom book" - just something to pick up and read a little bit and put back down again without having to worry about plots, characters or having to remember what was going on the last time you were reading.
 
I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here:  Stupid Christmas

Reviewed on December 22, 2010.
 
Also mentioned in this review:  America's Dumbest Criminals: Wild and Weird Stories of Fumbling Felons, Clumsy Crooks, and Ridiculous Robbers

The Woods Out Back (Spearwielder’s Tale #1) (audiobook) by R.A. Salvatore

Published by Tantor Audio in 2010.

Read by Paul Boehmer.
Duration: 11 hours, 57 minutes.
Unabridged.

Gary Leger lives Massachusetts and is forced to make do with a miserable job in a plastics factory with no real prospects of doing anything but making ends meet at a job that offers little for his very active imagination. A natural athlete with no interest in sports, Gary finds solace in long walks in the woods behind his house and in his dog-eared copy of The Hobbit.

While on one of these hikes, Gary sits for a bit of reading and finds himself staring at a real life pixie who shoots him with a tiny drugged arrow that causes him to faint. When he awakens he is no longer in Massachusetts – he is in the magic-filled world of Faerie. Gary finds that he has been kidnapped from his own world by a leprechaun named Mickey McMickey in order to wear the armor and carry the broken spear of a long dead human king named Cedric Donigarten in an epic quest led by a grumpy elf named Kelsenellenelvial Gil-Ravardy (but everyone refers to him by Kelsey, a fact that makes him even grumpier).

Kelsey is convinced that if he can kidnap the best Dwarven smithy, subdue a dragon in single combat and use them both to re-forge the broken spear (using the fire of a dragon’s breath), the mere fact that it has come back in existance will inspire the people of Faerie to live up to the forgotten standards of their ancestors and restore some of the lost lustre of Faerie. Gary has been chosen to wear the armor because he is the first human that they found in our world that could fit in it, a fact that makes Gary doubt the soundness of the plan quite often. It is not clear why a human from Faerie was not chosen except that all of the humans we meet in the book are physically wrecked by disease and famine or are not of high enough character to fulfill the quest.

Written as a light-hearted adventure, The Woods Out Back (Spearwielder’s Tale #1) works because the reader sees the world of Faerie through his eyes and Faerie is just as new to him as it is to the reader. The customs of the humans, dwarfs, leprechauns, evil witches, goblins, trolls, dragons, giants and elves that Gary encounters confound Gary throughout but, with the help of his companions, Gary and the reader mostly muddle through. One of the most amusing aspects of the book is Gary’s well worn copy of The Hobbit. Mickey McMickey, the leprechaun reads it as they travel and he makes comments throughout.

R.A. Salvatore

When I first began to listen to the book I was trying to imagine parallels with the Wizard of Oz (Dorothy was taken unwillingly to a strange, magical land, she goes on a quest with strange companions, she wants to return home, etc.) but I soon enough realized that Salvatore’s true inspiration was actually The Hobbit. Like Gary Leger, Bilbo Baggins is forced out of his comfortable but very stale day-to-day life in order to go on a quest. Like Bilbo, Gary finds this quest to be eye-opening, fascinating, morally challenging and in the end he is a much better person than when he started.

This is not a perfect book – Gary is often guilty of just accepting the strange things that happen around him as they are rather than asking questions that would help the reader. The language is sometimes stilted with worn, overused phrases (“glowering eyes” was especially grating for this reviewer). The characters are straight from central casting of any Tolkien-inspired book. The audiobook format provides additional issues. Paul Boehmer is the reader and he does a truly great job of creating different voices for the characters. But, his reading of the actual narration of the book (all of the non-speaking parts) is quirky. Oftentimes, he emphasizes his sentences in an odd manner that was distracting for the first couple of hours.

Despite those issues, the book’s fast-paced, good-humored nature draws the reader in and makes the world of Faerie a fine place to visit – good thing there are two more installments!

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Woods Out Back (Spearwielder's Tale)

Reviewed on December 10, 2010.

The First Rule: A Joe Pike Novel (audiobook) by Robert Crais

A good, tight story

Published in 2009 by Brilliance Audio

Read by Robert Crais, the author

Duration: 8 hours, 15 minutes.

Unabridged.

I am a gigantic fan of Crais' Elvis Cole novels, a series that introduced Joe Pike to the world as Cole's enigmatic, tough and very quiet partner with a soft spot for mean old cats. But, I have been reluctant to get into the Joe Pike novels due to a fear that Joe's facade would be burst wide open and mysterious Joe Pike would be laid wide open and no longer be a mystery.

Not to worry. We learn more about Joe, but what makes Joe Pike tick is still a mystery. Plus, as a bonus we get a healthy serving of wise-cracking Elvis Cole throun in as a bonus to make the story even more fun.


Robert Crais

The First Rule's title comes from an Eastern European thieves code that demands that no gangster have a family so that their loyalties will never be divided (much like the story of Keyser Soze from the movie The Usual Suspects). A friend of Pike's from his days as a mercenary for hire is killed by professional home invaders. His entire family is murdered, including his chidlren and the nanny is left for dead with mutliple gun shot wounds. Pike is concerned because his friend had dropped out of that life completely and had become a legitimate businessman, a respected family man, and now the police suspect that he was using his old connections in a crooked gun deal gone bad and his reputation is being destroyed. Besides, no one messes with a friend of Joe Pike.

Crais does a solid job of narrating the book. The bonus of having the author read his own book is that you know the inflections and emphasis he intended.

Very enjoyable action thriller.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on December 18, 2010.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon here: The First Rule (Elvis Cole/Joe Pike Series)

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization by Brian Fagan

Disappointing.

Published in 2004 by Basic Books.

I really enjoyed The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850 (I gave it 4 stars). I was not thrilled with The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (I gave it 2 stars) and I have to say that I do not care much for The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization either.

In fact, to be short and sweet let me just say that if you see my review about The Great Warming and add in an extended discussion about mankind in the Ice Age you will pretty much have the substance of The Long Summer. The two books could have easily have been made into one slightly larger book.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization.

Reviewed on December 18, 2010.

Bye Bye Miss American Empire: Neighborhood Patriots, Backcountry Rebels, and Their Underdog Crusades to Redraw America's Political Map by Bill Kauffman

While I am sympathetic to a point, Kauffman drives his point home with so much rancor and vigor that I ended up being both bored and repulsed.

Published in 2010 by Chelsea Green Publishing.

Bye Bye Miss American Empire takes what should have been a fun look at the various groups that want to split apart current U.S. states and/or make independent countries out of U.S. states and turns it into a long, repetitive, angry rant about American foreign policy, both Presidents Bush and the United States (indivisible, as the pledge goes) in general.

Kauffman starts off on the right foot with an introduction to these various splinter groups (or groups that wish to splinter America, to be more accurate) by taking the reader to a meeting of secessionist movements from all around the country in Vermont. For me, this was the first and last enjoyable chapter.

Kauffman then launches into an extended discussion of secessionist movements in America in which he "scores points" by making multiple snide comments about the Constitution's use of the phrase "more perfect" (just to clarify, it means that it is intended to push the Union closer towards perfection, not that it was already perfect and now it becomes even more so), advocates the murder of Founding Fathers (Alexander Hamilton on page 13) and gets into a political argument with a master politician (Abraham Lincoln, on page 34) that only serves to demonstrate that Kauffman has not truly listened to what Lincoln was saying. Lincoln declared that "secession is the essence of anarchy." Kauffman scoffs and fails to truly follow Lincoln's logic. If New York City were to secede from the United States (a popular notion, Kauffman notes,  several times in American history), what would make it stop there? Could the Bronx secede from New York City? Could an individual neighborhood secede from the Bronx? Could an apartment building secede from that neighborhood? Could a single apartment secede from that building? Could an individual person in a room secede from that apartment? That would indeed be anarchy and that was the argument that Lincoln was making.

Kauffman moves on to explore the idea of New York State and New York City separating. I truly have sympathy for the upstate New Yorker. The provincial, self-important thinking of NYC is difficult for anyone in "flyover country" to stomach -  being politically attached to it must be frustrating in the extreme.

The Great Seal of the
proposed State of
Jefferson.

Other secessionist movements covered in this book include Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, the South and various movements to create 2 or more states out of several states, including a very commonsense one to break California up into 2, 3 or even 4 states. Kauffman's description of the various attempts to turn northern California and parts of southern Oregon into the State of Jefferson is quite interesting.

Kauffman makes his points throughout the book and can write with an amusing twist. Unfortunately, he throws in so many other snide comments and forced witty observations that don't really tell the reader anything except Kauffman's political leanings that I found myself wondering if this book could have been shrunk by 40 or 50 pages if a strong-handed editor had taken control of this project. Kauffman tells you early on his opinion on Bush, the War on Terror and why the principle of "one man, one vote" is unfair (I am not sure why he thinks rural voters should get more representation than urban voters, but he does). He also tells you about these items in the middle and at the end of the book many, many times. Enough already! Is this a book about secessionist movements in America or a personal political rant?

Long story short - great topic, maybe even the right guy to write this book, with the proper editor. But, in the end, I found that the topic was overwhelmed by all of the other baggage.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Bye Bye, Miss American Empire: Neighborhood Patriots, Backcountry Rebels, and their Underdog Crusades to Redraw America's Political Map

Reviewed on December 18, 2010.

The Revolutionary Paul Revere by Joel J. Miller

Very approachable history

Published in 2010 by Thomas Nelson.

The Revolutionary Paul Revere is a great history for newbies to the Revolutionary War's history as well as a solid history for those that are more well read.

Joel J. Miller begins his history with Paul Revere's father, Apollos Rivoire, a French Huguenot who fled to Boston for religious freedom as an indentured servant. Miller follows the family and weaves into the narrative the complex and often tense relationship between England and its American colonies.

Despite the very informal tone of the book, this is a fairly detailed biography of America's most famous messenger, who was also a founding member of the Sons of Liberty and who personally knew John Adams, Sam Adams and John Hancock. Most people know that Revere was a silversmith, participated in the Boston Tea Party and of course the famed "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." But, what happened after that? For most of us, Paul fades away from the history and disappears.

Paul Revere

Miller's biography follows Revere in an orderly mostly year-by-year format in which we learn about his successes and setbacks in business (mostly successes), his family life, his very active social and political life and even his less than stellar attempts to be a soldier. It turns out Revere was very successful as a military contractor, but not much of a soldier, despite his bravery under fire.

Truly the best feature of the book is the way that Miller weaves in the larger social and political events of the day and includes Revere's reactions to them, including demonstrating how British taxes and policies affected the bottom line of his business. The very informal tone may be a turn off for some, but for others it will be a breath of fresh air.

I rate this biography 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Revolutionary Paul Revere.

Reviewed on December 17, 2010.

Guardian of Lies: a Paul Madriani Novel by Steve Martini

Steve Martini gets better and better (from an occasional reader of Martini)

Published in 2009.

I'm not the biggest reader of Steve Martini. I'm inclined to discount his work precisely because he is a "name brand" author. Plenty of authors that have made it to the top  start to crank out books like a factory and the quality drops and I always think that Martini will do the same.

Guardian of Lies is my fourth Steve Martini/Paul Madriani novel. I went back and checked my reviews of them. I've enjoyed them all and have been surprised by the fact that I have enjoyed them as well. I was expecting churned out novels and have always been pleasantly surprised.

Steve Martini

Guardian of Lies is the most ambitious Martini/Madriani novel I've read. We move from a simple courtroom case to international terrorism. Madriani gets swept along in a multi-country chase to find out the truth and to clear his own name. Along the way, he gets stalked, betrayed, nearly blown up and framed in a plot that zips along.

Well, who could ask for more?
 
I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 
Guardian of Lies: A Paul Madriani Novel (Paul Madriani Novels)  

Reviewed on July 17, 2009.