Angels Flight (Harry Bosch #6) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly

Race is THE issue in this great mystery

Published by Hachette Audio
Read by Dick Hill*
Duration: 10 hours, 55 minutes.
Unabridged

Angels Flight, an early installment in the Harry Bosch series, is as good as the rest in the series meaning, at least in my mind, it is a proud member of one of the best set of detective novels currently being produced.

Michael Connelly's books are usually deep and gritty and this one is no different. The lead character is Harry Bosch, the leader of a 3 detective team in the LAPD that is assigned an unusually sensitive case. A well-known civil rights attorney that has successfully sued LAPD over and over again for violations of federal civil rights laws has been murdered on the eve of an especially notorious case against the LAPD. Of course, everyone inside LAPD and out believe that a police officer killed him in a fit of revenge and the city is seething.

Set just a few years after the Rodney King riots and the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Los Angeles is racially tense, to say the least. This works well with one of the main themes of the entire series - Harry Bosch's name. Harry's real name is Hieronymus Bosch. If you are not familiar with Hieronymus Bosch let me explain. The real Hieronymus Bosch is a Renaissance painter that painted detailed and fanciful paintings of the torments of hell, including demons, strange creatures and their victims. Connelly often presents Harry Bosch as a man walking among the sites and smells of hell - torture, betrayal, riots and the literal burning of parts of the city in protest are the backdrop of this moody, brooding book.

Michael Connelly

Connelly deftly handles the tricky topic of racial discrimination and issues of black and white in this book. While the case is being worked race tints every aspect of the case - Black vs. White vs. Blue (LAPD) is a frequent topic that is discussed - not overtly but neatly inserted as conversations that flow quite naturally in the context of the story.

I heard this book as an audiobook and it was truly a joy to hear Dick Hill's narration*. He's done several of Connelly's novels and I've never been disappointed with any that he's narrated. He is as good as it gets.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Angels Flight by Michael Connelly.

Reviewed on December 19, 2008.

*Note: This audiobook has been re-recorded. The version with Dick Hill as the narrator can be tricky to find. 

The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat by Bob Drury

A slow start - but don't let that deter you

Published in 2009.

Although I am a history teacher, I have to admit that I am woefully under-informed on the Korean War - at least when compared to our other wars. Sadly, I am not alone in this fact - there's a reason why the Korean War is called "The Forgotten War".

Drury and Clavin start off slowly, in part because there is no context as to why the soldiers are marching around in the subzero weather in northern Korea. However, once they explain the purpose of this particular campaign in the war as a whole and show the reader a few maps I got a lot more comfortable with how they were telling the story and appreciated it a lot more.

Marines during the Chosin Campaign
 in the Korean War

The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat is not a fancy history - it is told from the ground level perspective of the the Marines on the hill and is full of tales of bodily fluids, men too young to actually join the Marines, frozen toes, poor equipment and a command structure that not only failed to realize the Chinese Army had entered the war, but failed to realize that a few thousand Marines were up against tens of thousands of those same Chinese soldiers.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy a "Band of Brothers" type perspective on the war. This book is not a general history but I'd suggest it as a companion to any general history in order to get that gritty feel of the front line perspective - the point of view of the men who actually fought the war.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat.

Reviewed on December 19, 2008.

The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins

Fascinating. Disturbing. Inspirational.

Published in 2007 by Grand Central Publishing.

The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids is a fascinating investigation into the lives of some of America's top students - the kids who want to do it all and oftentimes do, but at great personal cost and for dubious reasons.

Alexandra Robbins befriends and follows several students from Whitman High School in Maryland through one school year as they try their best to score perfect 1600s and 2400s on the SATs, be accepted into Ivy League schools and pad their resumes to impress the admissions officers with tons of extracurricular activities (one student she interviewed had SIX typewritten pages of extracurricular activities!).

Robbins intersperses research and interesting facts with her stories of the students and discusses the unhealthy obsession with perfection and how the true values of education (knowledge, exploration, wisdom, self-discovery to name a few) is often subverted in the name test numbers, be they SAT, ACT or No Child Left Behind tests. 

Alexandra Robbins

She correctly notes that honesty and any actual learning is routinely sacrificed for the GPA points due to widespread cheating, especially by the good and even great students. I've been teaching for 19 years now and I've never encountered so much cheating (and plagiarism) as I have in the last three years. It's rarely the weak students - the ones that outsiders would suspect. Nope - it's the good students - the ones with so much riding on maintaining super-high GPAs that they cannot afford even one bad quiz.

The students ring true to me. I know kids like she's profiled here - the flirt, the Slacker, AP Frank, the Meathead, the Superstar. They come from a variety of homes and financial situations (though most are upper class - money does not seem to be a worry for most of them).

I hope that Alexandra Robbins turns her talents to documenting other groups of kids in schools someday, but in the meantime this is a fine and thought-provoking introduction to the modern American high school.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on December 19, 2008.

Update: I am now in year 30 of my teaching career. The comment on cheating is still true - even more so with the advent of smart phones. Students can take a picture of an assignment and "airdrop" it to everyone in class with little effort. They can text it to friends in other classrooms or even post it on Instagram (if it is a textbook-based assignment it is on Instagram and has been since the moment the textbook reached a school). 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids.

Beowulf by Gareth Hinds

A strong and relatively short re-telling of the classic tale

Published in 2007 by Candlewick.

If you are like me and are well read, are mildly interested in Beowulf but just plain lack the desire to read a 3000-line long medieval poem, this volume may be the answer. I plowed through this graphic novel in about a half an hour and certainly was entertained and a bit more enlightened as to the tone and nature of the Beowulf saga.

I was aware of the outlines of the first two sections of this story which are about the battle against Grendel and the battle against Grendel's mother. I was totally unaware of the story of Beowulf's death from the fight against a dragon.

To his credit, Gareth Hinds includes sections of a translation of the original text to narrate his text. Hinds' artwork is fantastic, especially his renderings of the beasts that Beowulf fights.

Does it replace the original? No, of course not. But, it's a pretty good stopgap substitute and its pretty darned entertaining.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Beowulf.

Reviewed on December 20, 2008

Marvel 1602 by Neal Gaiman

Didn't do much for me

Marvel 1602 just didn't do much for me, which is surprising since I'm a casual comics fan but a serious reader of history. I figured (correctly) that there'd be no problem taking superheroes into a different time period. But I also figured (incorrectly) that the story would be more interesting and have more of a focus.

Lack of focus is really the problem I have with the series. Is it a spy novel in which the familiar superheroes are involved in a complicated web of deceit and danger? Yes and no. Is there more than that and the entire world (actually every universe) is threatened with destruction and everyone must bring their unique talents to save the day?

Yes. It degenerates into that. Degenerates? Yes. Degenerates. Every character is brought into the fray and the storyline is muddied by bringing everyone in for a token cameo and the whole story becomes an over-the-top "jump the shark" type of plot usually reserved for aging and decrepit series that can't seem to drum up interest unless the stakes are the salvation of the universe itself. Puh-leaze! Gimme a break.

While beautifully drawn, I lost interest as even more characters were brought into the storyline. There was precious little character development after the first 3 parts of this 8 part volume. Plus, what's up with the dinosaurs? Why are dinosaurs wandering around?

I rate this collection 2 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Marvel 1602 by Neal Gaiman. 

Reviewed on December 22, 2008.

Quantum (Nolan Kilkenny #2) (abridged audiobook) by Tom Grace

So-so effort

Published in 2000 by Hachette Audio.

Duration: approximately 3 hours
Read by Jerry O'Connell
Abridged

For once this was an abridgment to an audiobook in which I didn't feel like something important was left out.

Unfortunately, the plot and the characters in Quantum were only so-so. Jerry O'Connell read the story - and at first I thought that would be a big plus since I've liked most of the stuff that he has done. However, this time I was not impressed. Not his best work.

Nolan Kilkenny, who should be known as 'the one man army' based on his unstoppable one man's (a former Navy SEAL) performances against several teams of battle-tested, better-armed former Russian Special Forces throughout the book, is a tiresome character. Many of the supporting characters were much more interesting and I would have preferred it if some of them would have had a greater role throughout the book.

If you are a fan of Tom Clancy and want something that is similar (but not as well done) to hold you over until the next Clancy book, this may fit the bill.

This audiobook can be purchased on Amazon here:  Quantum

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on May 23, 2006

Out of Season: An Undersheriff Bill Gastner Mystery (#7) by Steven F. Havill

Well depicted characters make this one a winner!

Published in 1999.

The mystery is not all that mysterious. No international criminal ring threatens. National Security and the fate of the free world do not depend on what happens in Posadas County, New Mexico and its tired and ready to retire Undersheriff Bill Gastner. That, of course, is the charm and strength of Out of Season.

Posadas County, New Mexico's small sheriff's department suffers the loss of its well-intentioned but inexperienced Sheriff in a plane accident - except it looks like it was not an accident after all - the pilot was shot before he crashed. Undersheriff Gastner looks into the private investigation that the Sheriff was looking into and finds that his inexperienced boss may have had good instincts after all.

First, let me praise what Havill does best in this book - character development. Gastner is a tired old horse who is ready to go out to pasture but when duty calls the value of his years of experience (more than anything else) move Federal, state and local authorities towards finding out who has killed Sheriff Martin Holmann. He is a restraining hand on the young pups, a prod to the confused, and a sounding board to the others.

This is my first Havill book. You do not have to start the series at the beginning and I give this one 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Out of Season: An Undersheriff Bill Gastner Mystery

Reviewed on May 23, 2006.