Looking for Rachel Wallace (Spenser #6) (audiobook) by Robert B. Parker

Published in 1989 by Books on Tape, Inc.
Read by Michael Prichard
Duration: 4 hours, 45 minutes.

Unabridged.

I read Looking for Rachel Wallace years ago, but I don't have a great memory for all of the plot details so I am re-enjoying the Spenser books as audiobooks. In this case, Spenser and Rachel Wallace kept me company while I wrapped presents and fed my one-year old. And they were quite good company.

Rachel Wallace is a lesbian feminist activist who lives to shock and provoke the sensibilities of middle America in the late 1970s. Her activism has made her the recipient of several threats so Spenser is hired to protect her. If Rachel Wallace is anything, she is an ultra-feminist and no ultra-feminist (at least not in this book) is going to run to a big strong man for protection. Rachel Wallace realizes this and fires Spenser.

But, soon enough, Rachel Wallace is actually kidnapped and Spenser goes on the hunt for her out of a sense of personal obligation. The climax of the book is one of the more memorable scenes in this long and venerable series.

Robert B. Parker
(1932-2010)

My audiobook was read by Michael Prichard who does a decent Spenser but does a great near-humorless Rachel Wallace.

What can I say about the Spenser books that has not already been said. They're a bit formulaic (wisecracks, meet Susan for some snuggling, fistfights, cooking, etc.) but I love the formula so I enjoyed this one thoroughly. I consider it to be one of the stronger books, despite the fact that the protestations against feminism and lesbianism seem outdated in the year 2006. It almost makes it seem like a period piece. Interesting how the world changes, isn't it?

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Looking for Rachel Wallace: A Spenser Novel

Reviewed on December 25, 2006. Updated in 2010.

Mysteries and Intrigues of the Bible: Extraordinary Events and Fascinating People by Jonathan A. Michaels

What this book is and what it is not

Published by Tyndale House Publishers in 1997. 

I picked Mysteries and Intrigues of the Bible up somewhere along the way and I am sure when I bought it I thought that it was something that it is not.

What I thought the book was:

-I thought it was a Graham Hancock-type (ironically, Graham Hancock is referred to in the text of this book) look into some of the oddities of the Bible. What really happened at Jericho? What does the archaeological record say? Where did Moses and the Israelites cross the Red Sea? Are there possible explanations for a parting of the Red Sea besides a divine one? What about those that claim that Jesus did not really die on the cross? Is the popularly referred to "Swooning" of Jesus an explanation for his resurrection. If not, why not. The kind of stuff you get on the History Channel from time to time

That is not what this book is (although if anyone knows of such a cool book, let me know!)

What this book is is a compilation of a number of odd stories from the Bible. They are re-told here in loose categories in no particular order under such topics as "Unlucky Seventies" (times when 70 people died); "Family Customs" (polygamy, circumcision and the like - why they were done) or such ongoing categories such as "Strange but True" and "FAQs". A good feature is the listing of the verses where the strange story can be found in the Bible after every entry.

While well-written, I kept on wondering why it was written. I suppose I was not the target audience. I was quite familiar with 95% of the stories that were told and very little new information on the mysteries themselves were revealed.

So, my recommendation is that if you know your Bible backwards and forwards, this book will have little to offer. If you are relatively new to the study of the Bible, this one may help spur your interest.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Mysteries and Intrigues of the Bible: Extraordinary Events and Fascinating People by Jonathan A. Michaels.

Reviewed on December 25, 2006.

Enemy Mine DVD

This movie swings for the fence with every pitch...

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen 
Released in 1985

This movie swings for the fence with every pitch. If you are not a baseball fan, that is saying that a batter swings for the fence means that he only goes for home runs and does not try to just get on base. And, for you baseball fans out there, you know that the long ball hitter that swings for the fence with every pitch strikes out an awful lot. But, the fans love him anyway because when he gets hold of a good one it's a home run!

Enemy Mine is a lot like a long ball hitter - the director tries to go for a home run on so many levels that you end up alternating between shaking your head at the cheesiness of it all and wiping at a tear at the way some of the scenes work so perfectly.

The premise is that two enemy fighter pilots in a bitter intergalactic war shoot each other down over some horrible planet that will barely support life. One is human. One is a drac, a humanoid reptile species. They learn to trust one another and depend on one another and, eventually, the alien (Louis Gossett, Jr.) gives birth to a child (their species reproduces asexually). 

However, when the alien dies in childbirth the human (Dennis Quaid) raises it as his own and is forced to act when the child is captured by human slavers. Louis Gossett, Jr. was very good throughout. Quaid alternates between over the top ridiculousness and touching. The soundtrack is too much - too sentimental, too adventurous, etc. It gets in the way more than anything else in the movie.

The special effects are sometimes great (especially Gossett's make-up) and usually bad - think Star Trek original TV series quality, but the story mostly makes up for it.

All in all, I give this movie 3 stars for its up and down nature. The values and message are good, but sometimes the medium that transmits those values and that message is too saccharine for my tastes.

This movie can be found on Amazon.com here: Enemy Mine

Reviewed on December 29, 2006.

The Places In Between by Rory Stewart

A Scotsman, a mastiff and a feudal nation

Published by Mariner Books in 2006.

When the United States first invaded Afghanistan one of my friends wondered aloud if we intended on keeping it as a colony. I quipped that we already owned a mountainous desert area full of people that have a religion that we don't understand - we call it Utah (with apologies to my Mormon friends out there).

After reading The Places In Between I truly realize the depth of our misunderstanding of the situation in Afghanistan. I keep up on the news better than most. I've spoken with veterans who have returned from Afghanistan. Yet, as I read Stewart's account of his walk across Afghanistan just weeks after the fall of the Taliban, I realized that this truly is a foreign culture - as alien to me as any on the planet. I am amazed that the mission in Afghanistan has been as successful as it has been.

Stewart introduces us to the variety of cultures that Afghanistan possesses. He also makes us see that the very concept of an "Afghanistan" is nebulous at best. His commentaries on the United Nations are biting and ring of truth. While the news has commented that Afghanistan is a feudal society, I always took their word "feudal" to be code for technologically backward. Stewart experienced that it truly and literally is feudal and for some parts of Afghanistan, life is like stepping into a time machine and going back in time to the Middle Ages - both politically and technologically.

Rory Stewart

Stewart's book is a joy to read. While I wonder at the sense in walking by yourself across a war-torn nation during the dead of winter (with the exception of some companions who were forced upon him by concerned governments from time to time and an adopted mastiff dog he picked up along the way), I am pleased that he did. His impressions of what he witnessed and experienced were wonderfully conveyed. Stewart is truly a gifted writer.

This book is truly a wonderful experience. I cannot recommend it highly enough. What a great read to finish up the year with!

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Places In Between.

Reviewed on December 31, 2006.

The Godwulf Manuscript (Spenser #1) (audiobook) by Robert B. Parker

Going back for a second read - this time as an audiobook

Published in 1988 by Books on Tape
Read by Michael Prichard
Duration: 5 hours, 12 minutes (unabridged)

I've long since read all of the Spenser novels but I am enjoying a second time around with the older ones as audiobooks - I listen while commuting.

The Godwulf Manuscript is the first in a very long line of Spenser novels. The most essential parts of Spenser are here - wisecracks, details about cooking, his mostly unused office and a healthy interest in the opposite sex, Lt. Quirk (I'd forgotten he was Spenser's first "buddy" in a long line of buddies) and Spenser's self-deprecating inner voice.

The Godwulf Manuscript is a much more "noire" style book than most of the rest of them - but then again it's not much of a surprise really - authors change over time.

Spenser, however, does not change. The book is set in 1973 and Spenser is 37 years old. He makes more references to feeling the effects of age in this book than I ever remember throughout the rest of the series.Yet, Spenser remains ageless, like James Bond, which is good - otherwise the last Spenser book would have featured a 70 year old Spenser. While it might have been interesting, I like the ageless (or very slowly aging) Spenser better.

Robert B. Parker 
(1932-2010)

The audiobook was well-read. Michael Prichard's interpretation of Spenser is always interesting. He read several of the early Spenser audiobooks. He delivers everything very "matter of fact" - no matter how funny Spenser's comment is, no matter how many punches are thrown. Sort of like a faster version of Jack Webb in Dragnet. He makes the story go very quickly.

I give The Godwulf Manuscript 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Godwulf Manuscript.

Reviewed on January 5, 2007 (edited June 27, 2012).

Friday (audiobook) by Robert A. Heinlein

 

Published by Dh Audio in 1982.
Read by Samantha Eggar
Duration: approximately 3 hours.
Abridged

Many years ago, in the early 80s, I was a devoted reader of all things Heinlein. Somewhere along the way I guess I lost interest (I don't remember), but I found this audiobook version of Friday and thought I'd re-live the old days a bit.

From the product description on the back of the box I did not remember having read the book, but soon enough, I vaguely remembered the plot a bit. So, how was it re-visiting Heinlein? It was okay. The story line was not nearly as interesting as the backdrop (a fragmented United States - how I'd love to see a short history of this vision of earth plus a short description of the technology - Heinlein accurately describes the internet - not bad for 1982).

Friday is a genetically modified human being created from bits and pieces from all around the world. She lives in a remarkably open society that openly discriminates against such Artificial People (APs). Heinlein builds the book on the themes of wanting to belong and being rejected for things that you cannot control.

Robert A. Heinlein 
(1907-1988)

Heinlein's free love world (nearly sex-crazed) is, in my mind, a bit of wishful thinking on the part of Heinlein. However, I'll give him his due - the multiple-partner marriages are a controversial idea to toss out there - and part of the job of a good sci-fi writer is to toss out new ideas and cause some discussion.

Overall, I was not over-impressed with my audiobook version of Friday. Part of it has to do with the fact that it is heavily abridged (the unabridged version of the book lasts 13 hours, this one is a mere 3 hours). The story suffered from the abridgment. Secondly, the choice of reader was disconcerting. She was very British and she never shook that accent, no matter where the action was taking place. Sometimes that worked out well, but usually it was jarring to hear residents of New Zealand, Winnipeg, Southern California and Vicksburg, Mississippi speaking with any number of British accents (sometimes Cockney, even!).

I give this audiobook version of Friday 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Friday by Robert A. Heinlein.

Reviewed on January 9, 2007.

NOTE: In the 2023-2024 school year this book was challenged in a school district in Indiana. I do not know the district, but this is a list compiled and published by the Indianapolis Star.

Leaving the Left: Moments in the News That Made Me Ashamed to Be a Liberal by Keith Thompson

Thompson's original essay was much better

Published by Sentinel HC in 2006

For those of you who do not know, Keith Thompson's first draft of Leaving the Left was a column in the San Francisco chronicle (found here).

I thoroughly enjoyed the original essay. I printed it out, read it to my wife, forwarded it to friends. A copy of it has set on my desk for the better part of two years - mostly in the way, but also as a reminder of my own personal journey away from the Democrats (my first 4 votes in any sort of Presidential race were proud votes for Jesse Jackson, Michael Dukakis, Paul Tsongas and Bill Clinton). Really, though, it's not so much that I've moved from them as they have moved from some of their core values to new core values.

Political parties, like people, evolve in their thoughts. Keith Thompson, like many others, discovered that the political party of his youth (he was the youngest delegate to a Democratic national convention in American history in 1972)  had become something different. (Can you imagine Harry Truman working better with John Kerry or George W. Bush?) Thompson describes the values of his youth, how they matched up with Democratic Party policies and positions and then tells how he believes the Democrats have moved away from those policies. His assertion is that he is still a liberal, but not liberal with a capital "L". Rather, he is a traditional political liberal, the type of liberal that Adams, Jefferson, Washington and the rest of the Founding Fathers were. (If you do not know the difference, write your college poli-sci professors a nasty note for neglecting your education - you paid a fortune for it, they should have done a better job! - and then start brushing up on the political philosophies of the Enlightenment.)

Thompson's book is an elaboration on his original essay. I think it would have been better if Thompson had included his original essay as a starting point, but he does quote from it in an unnecessary picture section in the middle of the book.

His 10 chapters cover a variety of topics:
1. Affirmative Action;
2. Eminent Domain;
3. Neo-Feminism;
4. Clarence Thomas;
5. Abortion;
6. Bill Clinton's Perjury;
7. Columbine;
8. the Extreme Left's reaction to 9/11;
9. Displaced Dads (fathers in divorce);
10. Euthanasia.

Some chapters are very strong (Clarence Thomas, 9/11, Eminent Domain and Affirmative Action) but others feel hurried and underdeveloped - almost like the publisher thought the book was too short and asked him to add a couple of more chapters in a hurry (Euthanasia, Displaced Dads). For example, the Euthanasia chapter focuses on Terry Schiavo but does not include a back story explaining the situation.

I give the book 4 stars out of 5.  Mostly good, but there are weak spots, especially towards the end. It leaves a poor impression - especially when the start was so strong.

But, I do heartily recommend reading his original column. If you love it, you'll like this book.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Leaving the Left: Moments in the News That Made Me Ashamed to Be a Liberal by Keith Thompson.

Reviewed on January 17, 2007.