All Clear (audiobook) by Connie Willis

A sci-fi book for lovers of history

Published in 2010 by Audible Studios.

23 hours, 56 minutes.
Read by Katherine Kellgren.
Unabridged.

43 hours of audio listening later (read wonderfully by Katherine Kellgren who handled a wide variety of accents and aging characters with real skill), I am finally done with the Blackout/All Clear saga. These books are intended to be one giant book, not a series, although you would never. ever know that from the audiobook's cover. To her credit, the author, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Connie Willis introduces the second half of this audiobook with a warning that you had better listen to the first half first. Indeed you should and you should listen to the second installment as soon as you can after hearing the first one because there is no review, no scenes where the characters re-hash everything for the benefit of the listener. This is literally the second half of a very large book and she starts out exactly where she left off.

See my review of Blackout here.

All Clear continues the premise of Blackout (of course) and follows the adventures of late 21st century historians who learn about the past by time travelling. They observe and learn by blending in and becoming part of the past. They operate under the belief that they are unable to actually alter history (and apparently they have never read Jack Finney's Time and Again!) but they should not really do anything to test that theory.

Blackout/All Clear is both science fiction and historical fiction. Its real strength lies in its historical research and the way that it makes the reader experience London during World War II. The bombings, the inconveniences, the rationing, the danger, the weariness, the randomness of death from a bomb dropped from the sky - those aspects of the war come through crystal clear. Some reviewers have complained about the length of the books (and they are a big chunk, believe me, I know).  Certainly, a Reader's Digest type of editing job could easily cut out hours and hours of listening time without much affecting the plot of the story. Scenes could be cut, conversations could be shortened. There are certainly aspects of mind-blowingly stupid behavior on the part of the characters that had me wondering of Willis had gone daft.

Connie Willis

But, Willis has created an experience here. This is not so much a story but an homage to the regular, everyday people that endured the cruel attacks of a dictator, the privations of war, made communities in subway tunnels, survived when they were literally alone in the world. It is a bit of their experience and as such it is priceless. I teach history so nothing about this book really surprised me. I knew the bare facts but Willis has created a chance for the listener to get a taste of what it was like to live the facts, not just know them. For that, I have to thank her.

Throw in a bit of drama, a touch of sci-fi, the lovable completely awful Hodbins and I have to recommend Blackout/All Clear to anyone interested in World War II. Sci-fi fans are bound to be disappointed but I like both and I certainly enjoyed this.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found here: All Clear.

Reviewed on March 12, 2011.

Curiosities of the Civil War: Strange Stories, Infamous Characters, and Bizarre Events by Webb Garrison

Too scattered for this student of the Civil War.

Published in 2011 by Thomas Nelson

Webb Garrison's Curiosities of the Civil War: Strange Stories, Infamous Characters, and Bizarre Events is a well-researched , hefty book that does deliver what it promises - a collection of odd things about the Civil War.

I read a lot of history and it seems to me that there are two main ways to organize a book about history. You can go with the more traditional timeline approach - tell the story in the order that it happened (narrative history). Or, you can go with themes - study the themes of the history as the writer sees them. For example, a Civil War historian can look into the evolution of military technology and techniques or focus on civil rights in the North and the South. Most historians try for a combination of the two and pick several themes and follow them as they tell a narrative history.

Curiosities of the Civil War goes with the less popular "bathroom reader" style. It is literally a collection of facts, interesting as most of them are, with only the barest of themes to hold them all together (for example, the theme "Supporting Members of the Cast" consists of several chapters about non-famous Civil War personalities such as John Wilkes Booth's one-eyed horse (and nearly everyone else's horse), soldiers, wives and various weird animals that became regimental pets.

For me, the randomness was too much. I like a story to be told as I am learning my odd and interesting facts. This style just could not hold my interest for more than two or three pages at a time.

This is not a book for the Civil War novice - this book will teach you nothing but a series of facts with no analysis, no interconnecting themes, no narrative (It does, however, have a very nice index). If you are looking for a book to pick up, read a couple of pages and then put back down, this is it. Otherwise, well, find something else.

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

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Curiosities of the Civil War. 

This book was reviewed on March 9, 2011.

The Corruptible: A Ray Quinn Mystery by Mark Mynheir

Interesting Characters. So-so mystery.

Published in 2011 by Multnomah.

The Corruptible is the second in the Ray Quinn mystery series. It is written by now-retired police officer Mark Mynheir who adds a touch of authenticity to his work (although he misses the most obvious clue at the beginning of this mystery).

Ray Quinn is a former Orlando police officer turned Private Investigator who was forced to retire due to disability as a result of being shot through the hip. His replacement hip is painful and he needs to walk with a cane and he often deals with the pain (physical and emotional) with a few stout shots of Jim Beam. He has a support team of sorts: a partner named Crevis who is trying to pass the entrance exam to be a police officer and a business manager who works during the daytime hours as a parochial school teacher.

In this story, Quinn is hired by an investment company to recover stolen client information by downloading it onto a portable hard drive. The number one suspect is a an acquaintance of Quinn, an employee of the company who was former Orlando narcotics undercover officer who had been forced off the police force.

Quinn delves into some of his own difficulties with alcohol and unresolved issues of his own forced retirement and his new physical limitations as he follows the trail to the missing data.

Mark Mynheir

As I noted in the title of this review, the strength of this book, and of the series so far, is the characters. The mysteries are so-so, but the real-life struggles of the three principal characters and the fact that Ray Quinn is not a superman that can punch out all of the bad guys makes the story more interesting.

There is a second story involving those annoying e-mail scammers who claim they are trying to "smuggle" money out of Africa into America while in reality they are trying to scam the elderly out of their hard-earned cash. Also, there is an undercurrent of Christian themes written into the story.

Follow this link for my review of the first book in the Ray Quinn series.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Corruptible: A Ray Quinn Mystery.

Reviewed on March 7, 2011.

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

The controversial winner of the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for fiction

Here we are, decades years later and The Confessions of Nat Turner is still in the news. Recently, Henry Louis Gates, Jr made comments (positive ones, now. Originally negative impressions, years ago) about the book. The primary controversy is quite simple - how can a white man, a southerner, and the descendant of slave owners write a novel about one of the few slaves who actually stood up and demanded his freedom by leading a rebellion? Some have even asserted that he did not even have the right to write the book in the first place - after all, it is not HIS history.

But, is Nat Turner to be forever held apart? Is African-American history to be held apart? Can an African-American write about the Japanese Shogunate? Can an Asian-American write about the Alamo? Of course and of course. Gates makes this point in his comments (correctly). History is human history.

Nat Turner (1800-1831)

Styron's fictionalized Turner is based on research and a book written by Nat Turner's defense attorney, Thomas Ruffin Gray entitled The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Virginia.

The controversy over Styron's portrayal of Nat Turner and his failed slave rebellion in 1831 Virginia would not be nearly as furious if not for the sheer power of Styron's writing. He drags you into Turner's tortured mind and you can feel Turner's rage, religious fervor and lust. In my case, it pulled me in so tightly during some scenes that the rest of the world was lost to me. All was a breathless rush until that little piece of this tragedy was over and I was able to breathe again.

William Styron (1925-2006)

 I am not entirely pleased with some of the liberties that were taken with Nat Turner. As a general rule, I am more a fan of historical fiction that makes characters out of people who are witnessing the history rather than making it. I am especially doubtful about books that take known historical figures and purport to get into their minds and figure out what drove them.

However, the writing displayed in this book is really quite exceptional and it merits 5 stars. It takes the information we have about Turner, throws in a healthy bit of supposition and mixes in a plausible way to come up with one of the more profound books about American history, religion and race to have been written in the last 50 years.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Confessions of Nat Turner.

Originally reviewed on October 27, 2005. Updated on March 6, 2011.

Update February of 2022: The Confessions of Nat Turner was listed on a 2021 list of 850 books that a MAGA Texas state legislator wants to ban from schools in Texas: see article here. It is now included in my tagged list of books that MAGA members of the GOP want to ban from schools.

School Days by Robert B. Parker

A throwback to the early days of 'Spenser'

Published by Putnam Adult in 2005

This edition of Spenser reminded me of the early days of the series - the days before Spenser would assemble a gigantic posse of bad guys and policemen (ie, Potshot) in order to get the job done. Thankfully, this one is also basically Susan Silverman-free (not that I mind Susan, it's all of the repeated conversations about their relationship - it just gets old!)

Unfortunately, School Days is also Hawk-free, so the experienced reader of Spenser books will definitely miss the witty banter the two often share. However, Spenser manages to get in a few good lines without the extra help and he does get a bit of outside help from some unusual sources from the past.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: School Days (Spenser)

Reviewed October 9, 2005.

Icon by Frederick Forsyth

This is my first Forsyth novel and for the first 250 pages...

Originally published in 1996.

...I had determined that it would be my last.

Forsyth spends the first half of of the 500+ page Icon just setting the reader up for the real plot of the novel. Unfortunately, the setup consists of a series of disjointed flashbacks interspersed with seemingly unrelated tales of what is going on in the present of the novel (1999-2000 in the old USSR, now Russia).

Suddenly, once the flashbacks work their way up to the present time the real story starts and it is a great adventure story! The meandering story redeems itself. There is a lot of action, intrigue and a bunch of frustrated Nazis. Unfortunately, the ending is just too neat - it ends the book with everything too well resolved.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Icon by Frederick Forsyth.

Reviewed on October 9, 2005.

Alexander - Director's Cut DVD

YIKES!

Released in 2005.

NOTE: this is a review of the 1st re-cutting of this movie - the "director's cut." Stone has since re-cut it into a "final cut" and an "ultimate cut"

20 minutes into this movie I was thinking that it had real potential. We get to see the ugly details of Alexander's childhood. We get an understanding of his need to conquer, the need to achieve more than his father and his fascination for the non-Greek world (thanks to his mother).

An hour into the movie I was confused and disappointed. Confused because of the incessant flashbacks. I knew what was going only because I teach this stuff for a living.

How could the average movie-goer possibly understand why Alexander invaded the Persian Empire based on the feeble information supplied by Stone? Stone has an oblique reference to Phillip's murder, but the average movie-viewer does not know even know who Alexander the Great is, let alone that his father was murdered(he shows it in detail in a flashback - at the end of the movie - so the uninformed viewer will stay confused for nearly 2 more hours). A casual viewer might think that Alexander invaded Persia because he was following an eagle, since it was used so much in this battle scene (and mostly dropped for the rest of the movie).

On an historical note, I think it is disingenuous to blame the entire invasion on Alexander's need for revenge when the Greeks and the Persians had been fighting off and on again for nearly 2 centuries before Alexander's invasion finally put an end to it. Stone ignores all of that history and puts it all on Alexander (In my opinion, Stone is looking for conspiracies again -shades of 'JFK')

My disappointment stemmed from the casual skipping of most of Alexander's campaigns - from the destruction of the Persian navy to the conquering of the unconquerable Tyre to the Egyptians and their declaring him a god - all was covered in one paragraph from Ptolemy. One of the greatest military campaigns in all of history - possibly the greatest of all - dismissed like it was just so much garbage in the way of the true story.

***Note to Oliver Stone - the difference between Alexander the Great and every other mentally disturbed egomaniac with a Messiah complex, an abusive father and an over-protective mother with a snake fetish is those battles. They made him 'The Great!' Dismissing them with a wave of Ptolemy's hand over an ancient map is disrespectful to the story and to the viewer!

Stone's battle sequences are busy, noisy and confusing. Those are appropriate adjectives for any movie's battle scenes. However, they are also cold, distant and fail to convey the true genius that Alexander had as a battlefield commander. This is where it would have been useful to include those early campaigns - to show the viewer that Alexander was flexible, ruthless, personally brave and in many ways the ideal of a soldier and a general. He comes close when he shows Alexander speaking to the men before the Battle at Granicus. He alludes to a common history, but the viewer knows nothing of it and really cares very little for the people involved. Mostly, it's 10 minutes of Alexander riding his horse very fast.

Oliver Stone's re-creation of Babylon is very nice. He does a good job of showing Alexander's fascination with Asian culture and of demonstrating the tension between his desire for a united Greek-Asian empire and his men's desire to just take Asia's riches and return home to Macedon.

However, there's almost no development of the supporting cast of Macedonian characters. Alexander's male love interest has one main scene while they are in Asia and otherwise lurks in the shadows with sultry looks for Alexander. His men just become a part of the scenery so there is little emotional punch when Alexander starts to kill them off for mutiny.

The constant flashbacks were irritating. Some might think that they are sophisticated. I think they were insulting. Stone shows Phillip accusing his men of disloyalty in a flashback and then show Alexander doing the same. He shows Phillip bringing in a second wife in a flashback and then shows Alexander ignoring his wife in favor of his boyfriend. Phillip's second wife is dealt with as is the boyfriend. Phillip is assassinated as is Alexander (historically shaky...) Are we too stupid to make these connections without having them paired up for us in back-to-back scenes?!?

For those that blame the failure of this movie on Alexander's bisexuality and America's prudishness I would say that as a history teacher in America, not 1 American in 100 knows who Alexander the Great was, let alone knowing his sexual preferences. Rather, what everyone heard was that it was a long, bad movie.

Too bad that Oliver Stone took this topic that was so rich in potential for a great movie and ruined it for this generation of movie-goers. I suppose we'll have to wait for 20 more years before someone will be able to get the financing to try again and do it right.

I rate this DVD 1 star out of 5.

Reviewed on  October 8, 2005.