Hard Knocks by Howie Carr

Ultra-gritty crime novel

Published  in 2012 by Forge Books.

Hard Knocks is among the grittiest of gritty crime novels. It is set in Boston and in ex-cop turned private investigator Jack Reilly's world, everything is ran by a political machine, the mafia or both. Everyone is on the take, it's just that some people get caught and others are a bit luckier or smoother.

Jack Reilly is not like his brother, an unlucky small time mafia wannabe who rotates in and out of prison. But, he's retired (with a "disability") after he was tainted as being the mayor's bag man who picked up bribes. Reilly is quite clear that he was not a bag man (except when no one else could do it) but he did a lot of work for the mayor as the man who could dig up dirt on anyone and make sure it made it into the right hands - a wife, a reporter, a political opponent.

Reilly gets dragged into a case by Bucky,  a lock-picking friend of his brother from prison who discovered a lot of information and incriminating paperwork about local mafia types and political big shots while he was breaking into safe deposit boxes during a bank heist. Bucky doesn't know what to do with it and is scared that the powers that be on both sides of the law will be gunning for him. Turns out Bucky was right - he is killed in the street right after talking with Reilly and now Reilly feels an obligation to do something about it. He really has no choice since Bucky has dropped it all in the mail for safekeeping and Reilly knows he won't be safe once he receives it.

Soon enough, everyone is gunning for Reilly while he figures out what he can do with these secrets before he ends up dead like Bucky.

Hard Knocks is gritty, but the unrelenting dark nature of the book eventually wore me down - Boston became a place to be endured, not a place to live. I had a hard time getting behind Jack Reilly as well. On the whole, the book is too dark and too despairing for my tastes. I have to give this one 3 of 5 stars.


This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Hard Knocks by Howie Carr.

Reviewed on March 9, 2012.

Event: A Novel by David L. Golemon

Borrows heavily from movies and TV, has decent action.

Published in 2006 by Thomas Dunne Books 

Event is not a bad book, per se, but I kept on thinking, "I've seen this before."

The book introduces a secret government agency called the Event Group which investigates historical legends, paranormal activity, UFO sightings, etc. They are sort of an X-Files, Men in Black and Delta Force rolled into one. The Event Group collects items of historical significance and studies them to plan for future disasters. They also keep these items secret.

 Why?

I was never quite clear as to why Noah's Ark, the existence of King Arthur, or the arrival of the Vikings in the Americas in the 800s were state secrets. Plus, comments such as the Event Group not wanting to give King Arthur's body to the Brits because it belongs to "the world" seem silly when the Event Group is just storing Arthur in a vast underground base in Nevada. They are not sharing any of this information with anyone - they are just hording it. The Event Group reminded me of Spielberg's Nazis in "Indiana Jones" that were always searching for relics of power.

There are aliens and their story seems to be a combination of Independence Day, Aliens and Tremors.

The characters were okay and the action was mostly good, but, for me, the story never quite gelled. I kept wondering why Noah's Ark was a state secret and the rest of the story broke down from there. To use a Bible analogy (in honor of Noah and his hidden-away Ark) - that was the story's "feet of clay."

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Event: A Novel.

Reviewed on November 9, 2007.

Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West (abridged) (audiobook) by Stephen E. Ambrose

Wonderful, just wonderful.

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio
Read by Cotter Smith
Duration: 4.5 hours 
Abridged

A family friend gave me the abridged audio version of Undaunted Courage. It has been on my "to read" list for years and I'd never quite gotten around to it but, boy, am I glad I finally did.

Meriwether Lewis
(1774-1809)

In Ambrose's hands the story of the Lewis & Clark expedition is lifted from the stale and stilted pages of the history textbooks and it becomes an exciting narrative - full of adventure, wonder and tons of hard work.

Ambrose is a gifted writer. I am reminded of the David McCullough quote: "No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read." No danger of that with Ambrose. Not only has he read everything there is to be found on the topic but has traveled the route several times.

William Clark
(1770-1838)

Cotter Smith did a great job of reading the text and keeping up with its lively prose (with the single exception of mis-pronouncing the capital city of South Dakota - he called it Pierre, like the French name, but they proudly pronounce it "peer".) 

Stephen Ambrose himself handled the intro and conclusion. I can't wait to pass on this audiobook to someone else.

I rate this audiobook 5 out of 5 stars.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose.

Reviewed November 9, 2007.

When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (abridged) (audiobook)by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Originally published in 1995 by Dove Entertainment, Inc.

Read by David Ackroyd
Duration: 3 hours, 5 minutes.

Abridged

Strengths:

When Elephants Weep is full of moving anecdotes concerning animals and the possibility of them having emotions. It is a pleasant listen and usually not "over the top" in its preachiness. It was well read by narrator David Ackroyd. The authors make a compelling, if not scientifically rigorous argument for animal emotions.

Weaknesses:

The authors are continually preaching against scientists who do not believe that animals have emotions and may even doubt that animals can even feel pain. However, they rarely point out the scientists or the studies that espouse this view. It felt like a straw man argument after a while. They also fail to cite any work that backs their claims besides convincing rhetoric.

In the end, it was a convincing, mostly entertaining book that was a lot more entertaining and pleasant than a PETA brochure, but without much more actual content than such a brochure.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: When Elephants Weep.

Reviewed November 9, 2007.

Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954: Pain and Passion by Andrea Kettenmann

A wonderful introduction to Kahlo (a review of the English translation)

Originally published in 1999.

If you saw the Selma Hayek movie on the life of Frida Kahlo and want to know a bit more, this book is a wonderful introduction to her professional life. In fact, the movie and this book complement one another quite nicely, since the movie tended to focus on her personal life.

Andrea Kettenmann's book follows the life of Kahlo and does a great job of explaining the symbolism of Kahlo's work as it pertained to her personal life, her health setbacks and her political beliefs. In my opinion, the intensely personal nature of her work is what makes her such a compelling artist. She was especially good at depicting her pain, both psychic and physical. This book goes a long way to explaining many of her works.

Frida Kahlo with
Diego Rivera in 1932

There are 93 illustrations in this book and most of them are of her paintings. Also includes a couple of photographs of Diego Rivera's works that included images of Kahlo.

This is a small book (less than 100 pages), but it packs a whole lot of punch and is very effective as an introduction to this fascinating artist.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954: Pain and Passion.

Reviewed on November 9, 2007.

African Kingdoms (Great Ages of Man Series) by Basil Davidson and the editors of Time-Life Books

Strong history, only limited by the fact that the book itself is practically an antique

At the time of this review, this book is 41 years old. It was published in 1966 by Time-Life books as part of a series of books entitled "The Great Ages of Man."

Of course, several of the photos of contemporary Africa are now hopelessly outdated (but you can choose to look at the book itself as a piece of history and look at those pictures as photographic evidence of historical Africa) and any references to contemporary Africa are not accurate - no mention of any of the tragedies that continent has witnessed over the last 25 years - starvation, genocide, AIDS, etc.

Fortunately, those references are few and far between. Mostly this is a well-written, accessible history that taught me more than the half-dozen or so textbooks that I read in college as part of my coursework.

Its greatest strength is in detailing the civilizations that were built from roughly 1000-1600 AD in West Africa. It does a great job of comparing them with the European explorers that were just beginning to investigate the African coastline in search of trade. Cultural comparisons are also made. So-called "strange" and "barbaric" African customs of the day look pretty run-of-the-mill when compared with the activities of their European and Middle Eastern neighbors.

Beautiful pictures and illustrations round out the book. I would love to see this book updated and re-issued for the the 21st century.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: African Kingdoms.

Reviewed on November 22, 2007.

With Bowie Knives & Pistols: Morgan's Raid in Indiana by David L. Taylor

Nice history of Indiana's "moment" in the Civil War

Published in 1993 by TaylorMade WRITE

From July 8-13, 1863, Indiana became the focus of attention in the Civil War. Despite the massive losses incurred by the Confederacy from the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, the Confederacy still had enough life to mount an invasion into the North (albeit small) and it caused a first-rate scare throughout the Midwest.

Confederate Brigadier General
 John Hunt Morgan

"With Bowie Knives and Pistols": Morgan's Raid in Indiana is a good, detailed history of the Indiana portion of the raid (it continued on into Ohio). Taylor starts with a short general biography of Morgan and his famed cavalry unit. Taylor also describes the situation in the Kentucky theater of war and explains the logic behind Morgan's raid and why he went against his orders to carry the war into Indiana and Ohio.

What could be a tedious read is actually told in a lively manner filled with lots of local stories about the raid as they cut across southern Indiana. A must read for any Hoosier Civil War buff.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: With Bowie Knives and Pistols.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Reviewed on March 1, 2012.