Now and Then (Spenser #35) by Robert B. Parker

Parker and Spenser go over old ground, but it's still a lot of fun

Published in 2007.

Spenser is on the case again in Now and Then. This time, a simple "check and see if my wife is cheating on me" case becomes a double murder and takes Spenser back onto a college campus investigating yet another campus radical.

It is not terribly surprising that Parker is going over old ground - this is his 35th Spenser book. Hawk and others are brought in to help, as happens in most all of the newer Spenser books. However, the interplay between Spenser and the others is one of the best features of a Spenser book so that is not disappointing. All in all, this is one of the better Spenser offerings in years.

I enjoyed this book and was well on the way to giving it a 5 star rating until I got to the end. It was just too pat.

Still, it's a solid addition to the series and a must-read for fans.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Now and Then by Robert B. Parker. 

Reviewed on November 16, 2007.

The Best of John Mellencamp: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection

A review from a Mellencamp fan from way back

Released by Island in 2007

I was kind of torn about giving this collection a 5 star rating - not because it is not a quality sampling of his work, because they are all good choices. But, there's so much that has been left out. But, reality has to set in and the CD publisher just has to leave stuff out - there is only room for ten songs in this collection series.

I always check out the "20th Century Masters" series when I am browsing in the CD section because they usually get a strong cross-section of an artist's work. This is fairly easy if the artist is a flash-in-the-pan type, but Mellencamp has been cranking out hits for more than 25 years. Sure, his best days as a top seller are long gone, but he continues to put out quality work and scores an occasional top 40 song. The wealth of hits to choose from must have made the choices a bit tricky.

This album is arranged in reverse chronological order, covers most of his albums and definitely samples his changes in style. The only album that is represented with two songs is 1985's "Scarecrow". This is arguably his best album and although I personally like "Lonely Ol' Night" much better than "R.O.C.K. In the U.S.A.", "R.O.C.K." is one of his best-known hits and has more than earned its place on this compilation.

This is most likely not an album for the serious Mellencamp fan (or Mellenhead as some prefer or Mellencamper as John's concert T-shirts say) because a serious fan would have all of these songs on the original albums or on the greatest hits album ("Words and Music") that he recently released. But, it is a good starting point for the casual fan or as a gift for someone who is just starting to convert over to a digital collection (like I said, I'm a fan from way back - I still have Mellencamp on cassette tapes and even on a few on vinyl.)

I rate this collection 5 stars out of 5.

This CD can be found on Amazon.com here: The Best of John Mellencamp: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection.

Reviewed on November 18, 2007.

Star Wars: I Jedi (audiobook) by Michael A. Stackpole

A review of the abridged audiobook

Published by Random House Audio in 1998
Duration: 2 hours, 54 minutes
Read by Anthony Heald
Abridged

I was not a fan of this book. I'm not sure if it was the abridgment or the writing style, but I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt and blame the abridgment.

Like most abridged books, I, Jedi was too abridged (where are the Reader's Digest abridgers when you need them?). Characters, ships and situations show up without preamble but we're expected to be familiar with them. The whole book seemed hurried.

The typical special effects that Lucasfilms provides their audiobooks are a bonus, but they were somewhat haphazardly applied in this case - sometimes the music overpowered the text and jungle background noises were on a continuous loop that was too loud and too repetitive. The lightsaber sound effects are wonderful, but they were not timed with the text very well - sabers were being turned on before the text mentioned danger and off during battles (which made me wonder if someone was trying to do the Obi Wan Kenobi letting-himself-get-killed thing from Star Wars Episode IV).

Anthony Heald read the text and did a strong job, as he always does. But, there was only so much he could do with this one.

Corran Horn's quick welcome into the secretive pirate group (the Survivors) as a pirate seemed contrived and I'll credit that to the abridgment. Think of pirates as a street gang and try to imagine joining a street gang as a full-fledged member over a drink at a bar and you'll see what I mean.

Also, the use of a Star Destroyer as a smuggler ship boggles my mind, and not in a positive way. Smugglers depend on the importation of small quantities of goods to keep the price high to justify the risks they take. They use stealth to avoid the law. A Star Destroyer is neither small nor stealthy. It would overwhelm the market and make prices plummet and it would be so obvious that it would demand government attention. Think of a drug smuggler pulling into San Diego harbor with an aircraft carrier full of drugs. It would be: A) super obvious; and B) a disaster for the local drug market prices. But, you'd have to unload the product there because the cost of operating such a ship precludes stopping off at little ports all over the coast and doling out little amounts.

I did like this quote: "Selflessness is the only antidote to evil."

So, I cannot recommend this one - I listened to it and liked parts of it, but on the whole, it was unsatisfying.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here:   Star Wars: I, Jedi

Reviewed on November 21, 2007.

Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly

Inspired by an event in the author's life, a bit of "film noir" on paper

First published in 2003.

If you are familiar with the movie style called "film noir" than you get a good idea what Chasing the Dime is like. In a "film noir" movie the protagonist is a regular guy with a secret. He gets sucked into the criminal underworld (or into the world of spies) by events he cannot control and does not understand. Betrayals make him question everything and his old life is shattered.

Well, all of that happens here. Henry Pierce gets a new phone number and a series of calls intended for the old owner of the number. He gets curious as he tries to tell the old owner, a prostitute who advertises herself on a porn site as an escort, to change her number. From that point on he gets sucked in to an out of control situation.

I wasn't in to this one for the first 75 pages or so. But, once it gets going this one really had me. Connelly noted in the book that he was inspired to write this book when he got a new phone number and got a number of questionable phone calls.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Chasing the Dime.

The Petty Story & The Wrestler DVD

 Not a great movie, but a must for Richard Petty and early NASCAR fans (from a Petty fan from way back)

Just so you know, I've given this movie 4 stars - not because it is a great movie. It is not, unless you are a die hard Petty fan. But, it is a valuable piece of NASCAR history - a little gem that I picked up in the super-cheap DVD section of a local store. It is a snapshot of the beginnings of the modern heyday of stock car racing.

Released in 1972 and full of footage from the early days of NASCAR, the production values in this one are not great, which is a mixed blessing. The old footage does not stick out from the rest of the film because the film itself is pretty grainy and has questionable sound at times.

Richard Petty plays himself and he comes off as a fairly wooden actor, which would be a pretty unfair assessment to make if you are not familiar with Richard's personality. He is slow-talking (careful with his words), casual, straight-backed and was as hard a driver as there ever was. So, Petty pretty much plays himself as I've always seen him.

Long-time mechanic Dale Inman plays himself. Darren McGavin (most famous for his role as the dad in "A Christmas Story") plays Lee Petty and Noah Beery, Jr. (most famous for his role as Rockford's dad in "The Rockford Files") plays Richard Petty's grandfather.

The plot of the movie is basically a set of flashbacks from the Petty family while Richard is in the hospital after a bad wreck in the World 600.

The 2nd movie on the disc is "The Wrestler" starring Ed Asner. It was released in 1974. Asner is a wrestling promoter. The movie features a number of famous wrestlers from the old days such as Dick the Bruiser, Ric Flair, and Dusty Rhodes. The sound quality on my DVD was very poor (very quiet).

I rate this DVD 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Petty Story & The Wrestler.


Reviewed on November 25, 2007.

A Committee of One and Other Essays by Chuck Avery

Thoughtful Ruminations of a born and bred Hoosier

Published in 1997 by D and C Publishing

Chuck Avery writes a column for the Richmond Palladium-Item, the local paper in Richmond, Indiana. His typical essay could be classified as one of those slice-of-life pieces - a little reminiscing, a little wry observation, a bit of good-natured humor. Avery is also a teacher.

I never heard of Chuck Avery before I picked up this book at a local book sale (ironically, he describes picking up books in a similar sale in one of his essays  - the essay that gives the book its title). A Committee of One is one of those rare books that gets better as it goes along.

I particularly enjoyed the essays "Clevenger's Pond" (a humorous look at human nature and why his farm pond is no longer open to the public), "The Allure of Instant Esteem" (a look at the self-esteem movement in the classroom and why it makes no sense unless you have actually done something), "Solitude and Reform" (the world of instant communication vs. the need to talk to those closest to us and even to work on ourselves).

I particularly liked this serious line from a humorous essay called "Food: The Chore of Eating:" 

"In our continuing effort to make life effortless, we have made child rearing frightening to parents, pushed education beyond the scope of even the most competent teachers, confounded the family to the point that we must have psychologists to untangle relationships."

A little humor, some serious points. All in all, a good read.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Committee of One and Other Essays.

Reviewed on February 18, 2012.

Great Tales from English History, Volume III: Cheddar Man to DNA (audiobook) by Robert Lacey

An Entertaining Take on English History

Published in 2007 by W.F. Howes Ltd.
Read by the author, Robert Lacey
Duration: 6 hours, 15 minutes

Abridged.

Robert Lacey's quirky 3 volume collection Great Tales from English History was truly a joy to listen to. Volume III ran from the late 17th century to the 1990s and covered such topics as John Locke, The Boston Tea Party (a remarkably even-handed presentation of the American Revolution in general), King George III, the beginnings of the Methodist movement, the Industrial Revolution, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Darwin, Queen Victoria and World Wars I and II.

If you are listening to this audiobook to get a complete history of England, you will be sorely disappointed. This series cherry picks the interesting and fun stories (the type I love to tell  in the classroom) and strings them together for a most entertaining listen.

Lacey reads the book himself and does a very good job. Sometimes it can be a problem when the author reads his or her own work in an audiobook format but as a reader Lacey was everything a listener could ask for.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Great Tales from English History Volume III: Cheddar Man to DNA by Robert Lacey.

Reviewed on February 18, 2012.

Note: The links provided here are to an abridged re-working of the audiobook I listened to. I could not find the exact version I listened to. This would also be a great listen, but not of all of the same stories in the same volume. It looks like the has publisher rearranged the same stories into different volumes.