Saint Patrick's Battalion: A Novel by James Alexander Thom

A disappointment

Published by Ballantine Books in 2006.

To start, let me establish my bona fides as a fan of Mr. Thom's work. Three of his novels sit on a shelf less than two feet from this computer. I have the featured review on Amazon.com one of his novels ("The Red Heart"). One of his books is on my Favorite Books List on my profile page. I actually designed a long-term project for my world history classes using historical fiction with his books in mind, and I told him so when I met him at a state-wide conference for social studies teachers.

So, I approached St. Patrick's Battalion with much hope. Instead of his usual quality, I found this book to be simplistic, with less detail and bent on beating two points home time after time: the Irish were treated brutally and shamefully by the U.S. army during the Mexican War and the Mexican War was an unjust war.

James Alexander Thom

Thom makes it clear in the opening dedication and acknowledgments that he is against the Iraq War and quite clearly he is drawing analogies between the two. However, Thom never really gets off of his twin focuses on the unjust war and the unjust treatment of the Irish. He never gets to his real strengths in his other books - bringing the reader into another world and teaching us about larger movements in history, but also about the day-to-day lives and goings on of our ancestors. Thom rarely gets beyond the superficial and develops the characters and that is a shame - and a loss to Thom's loyal readers because when his books are good they are fantastic.

Thom's format is the main cause of the failure of this book to be as excellent as his others. His chosen format is a diary of a 10-12 year old Irish-American boy (Quinn) with the U.S. Army and the remembrances of a Mexican man (Juvero)about his experiences during the war as a young boy 16 years later. The diary entries are the better of the two, but are often sketchy. The remembrances are very repetitive and full of Spanish phrases that must be annoying to readers who don't know any Spanish. He often comments about Manifest Destiny, the Irish and America's arrogance. It gets old - not that he wasn't right, but he made his point early and often - it's time to move on. I must admit that I started skimming his sections. I think that Juvero says it best on page 256: "Que Rollo! My preachings are a bore!"

So, to sum up: not his best work. I recommend you read any other Thom book before this one.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Saint Patrick's Battalion: A Novel by James Alexander Thom.

Reviewed on July 30, 2007 (edited June 24, 2012).

The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family by Mark I. Pinsky

An interesting premise and lots of fun
  
Published by Westminster John Knox Press in 2001.

Google this book and you will find some criticism from people that have entirely missed the point of the book. The point of The Gospel According to The Simpsons is NOT to tell how the Simpsons preach the Gospel. They don't.

The Simpsons

Even though The Simpsons always goes for the sarcastic and biting joke, it is also a remarkably spiritual show. It is the only show in which the main characters go to church on a regular basis. No one thinks it strange that people pray. Prayers are answered. God exists and he acts. From time to time, organized religion is skewered with their wickedly clever satire. Then again, so is everything else, from rock stars to public education to family life to just about everything else. Pinsky's point is that religion is treated remarkably well on the show that has a bad reputation.

Pinsky focuses on each of the main characters (Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa) and also on Ned (evangelical Christian), Apu (Hindu)and Krusty (Jewish) in order to show how religion and morality are treated in the show.

He also details several plotlines - two or three of them are explicitly based on a religious theme -and shows how they relate to his overall thesis. He backs it up with several interviews and quotes from the creators and writers of the show.

I saw this book's author interviewed on PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly in conjunction with the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. I'm glad I saw it and I'm glad I picked this book up.

Note, the show has managed to put about many, many more years more worth of shows out since this book was written in 2001, but this fan thinks that the premise of this book is still correct.

Note: since this review was written the book has been expanded and a Bible study has been created.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Gospel According to the Simpsons.

Spare Change (Sunny Randall #6) by Robert B. Parker

A strong addition to the Sunny Randall series

Published in 2007 by Putnam

In Spare Change, Sunny joins with her retired cop father on a serial killer case that went unsolved 20 years before. It seems the killer has come back again after a hiatus and the elder Randall is chosen to head an all-star task force to catch him. Sunny is brought in as his assistant since she's a former cop and her father trusts her instincts.

As the jacket liner tells you, Sunny gets noticed by the serial killer and he starts to send her notes in the mail...

Just to be clear, this is not a police procedural. The reader does not have to read through the drudgery of endless questioning of possible witnesses, etc. Sunny still acts as a private detective and the smart comments and witty dialogue prevail throughout.

Sunny makes a lot of progress with her psychologist (Susan Silverman) in this book and a great portion of it is about her numerous issues and the progress she makes towards resolving them. She makes so much progress that I wonder if this is the last Sunny Randall book. I hope not, because this one was a fast-paced, witty. welcome addition to Parker's lengthy list of books.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Spare Change (Sunny Randall)

Reviewed on August 7, 2007.

Live from Middle America: Rants from a Red-State Comedian by Brad Stine

 

Up and Down throughout the book

Published in 2006 by Hudson Street Press

In Live from Middle America Stine comments on any number of popular culture items, including tobacco, abortion, God in public schools, baseball, Las Vegas, banning guns, bumper stickers and Wal-Mart. Each little rant comes in short chapters averaging around 4 pages each.

Now, my review:

I wanted to love this book (since I am  the exact target for this book: a Christian, a conservative and I am a proud resident of Indiana - a red state since LBJ in 1964 with the exception of Barack Obama in 2008) but I could barely get myself to like it.

Brad Stine

First and foremost, I quickly grew tired of the publisher's decision to pull little tidbits out of the text and highlight them with a box right next to the text that contains the exact same sentence? What was the point of that?

Secondly, Stine blames everything in the world on liberals (even for bumps in the road). He assumes that liberal automatically means atheist (well, I guess my dad, the church elder is not going where he assumed when he dies) and assumes that conservative automatically means Christian (what about Milton Friedman?).

Thirdly, Stine seems to confuse "Red State" with "Redneck" at many points, saying things like Red State parents make their kids smoke and they eat animals they run over with their cars. I think I've heard all of this before and it the routine always ends like this, "...you might be a redneck."

I've never seen Stine in person, so perhaps knowing his act really would juice up a lot of this - I don't know. His funniest comments are about Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, "God is my co-pilot" bumper stickers, turn signals, gay marriage (he's remarkably middle-of-the-road on this) and abortion. The abortion commentary isn't particularly funny but it is a much more coherent argument than the rest of the book presents and really is the best piece in the book. On the other hand, his commentary on foreign-made goods is not terribly coherent nor is it conservative.

So, I give this one 2 stars out of 5. It would have been worse except for the strong section on abortion.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Live from Middle America : Rants from a Red-State Comedian by Brad Stine.

Reviewed on August 8, 2007.

The Incident DVD

I am not a fan of Matthau but he is undeniably strong in this one.

Produced in 1990 by Qintex Entertainment

The Incident is an Emmy-winning made for TV movie about a fictional POW camp for German soldiers in World War II. They are being held in Camp Bremen, in Bremen, Colorado (the movie was actually filmed in Colorado Springs).  During the World War II, the United States held thousands of Axis POWs in similar camps in rural areas throughout the country.

The local town doctor is also the POW camp doctor. He is murdered at the camp and a German sergeant looks to be guilty. A civilian trial is ordered due to political considerations and the local ne'er-do-well attorney played by Walter Matthau is appointed by the judge (played by Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H and Dragnet fame) to defend the German suspect.

Matthau is strong with a wide variety of emotions displayed - not overdone, not underdone - just right. He has several strong scenes with his character's granddaughter played by Ariana Richards (best known as the blond girl from the Jurassic Park movies).

This movie inspired two sequels starring Matthau and Morgan. Richards was in one of the sequels.

I rate this DVD 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Incident. 

Reviewed on August 8, 2007.

Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs by Mary E. Lyons

The fictionalized version of a real-life runaway slave story.

Originally published in 1996.

Mary E. Lyons' book Letters from a Slave Girl is a fictionalized account of the true story of Harriet Jacobs, a slave girl from North Carolina who escaped and hid in her grandmother's attic for seven years, beginning in 1835, before making her way north to freedom.

Lyons chose to use a fictional diary format to tell the story of Harriet Jacobs. In real life Jacobs could read and write and actually published a book about her life in 1861 called Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

The reward notice for Harriet Jacobs

The diary format has some strengths - it is an efficient way to note the passage of time and to tell about Harriet's feelings. However, it is not nearly as memorable as telling her story as a novel. The letters just do not have the same flow and impact as a story.

The book also include a set of pictures of some of the real people and places involved, a family tree and a thorough bibliography.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Letters from a Slave Girl.

Reviewed on August 15, 2007.

Rupert: Just Being Me by Rupert Boneham

Despite the lack of details about "Survivor" it is a solid autobiography

Published in 2007 by Life Press

Rupert Boneham is one of the few bona fide celebrities to have come from the "Survivor" television show. Rupert tells about his difficult family life growing up in Kokomo, Indiana, his difficulties as a young man struggling with alcohol, drugs, tricky female relationships and his own desire for an instant family. However, through it all that big heart of his shines through and the reader is rooting for him to find his way.

Despite his gruff and bearlike appearance, Rupert: Just Being Me confirms that the attribute that we loved him for on Survivor was no act - this man is a Teddy Bear with a heart as big as all outdoors.

Most enjoyable is Rupert's discussion of helping troubled teens. Even at his lowest, Rupert helped out kids - often his program was their last chance to stay out of jail. Rupert proudly details some of his successes and acknowledges that some kids need "a thousand strikes" before they get it figured out.

Rupert Boneham

You know how people say that if they won a million dollars they'd help out this charity or do something to help make things better. Mostly that's wishful thinking. But, Rupert is a guy that followed through and he proudly talks about his Rupert's Kids program in the last half of the book. He also includes addresses, websites and e-mails for his organization. As an Indianapolis resident I can assure you that Rupert still is quite active in the community and still attracts a crowd around here. His image and name are used with a number of good programs around town, and that's one of the reasons we love him.

Unfortunately, due to contractual obligations with the TV show, Rupert is not allowed to discuss "Survivor" at all in his book. In fact the word "Survivor" is not even in the text, only in a legal disclaimer page inside the front cover. Too bad, but it is still a strong read.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Rupert: Just Being Me.

Reviewed on August 15, 2007.