LONG RANGE (Joe Pickett #20) (audiobook) by C.J. Box

 

Published in 2020 by Recorded Books.
Read by David Chandler.
Duration: 10 hours, 35 minutes.
Unabridged

This book is the 20th in the Joe Pickett series, but in a lot of ways it is the sequel to the 19th book in the series: Wolf Pack. More about that below.

The book starts out with Joe in the deep woods on an investigation of a bear attack. But, he is called back to Saddlestring, Wyoming on an emergency run. The wife of a legendary local judge was shot during a presumed attempted very long range sniper attack on the judge. The judge has demanded that every law enforcement officer in the area investigate immediately, including Game Warden Joe Pickett.

Of course, things are more complicated than that...

************Spoilers*************

In Wolf Pack a Mexican drug cartel assassination team shot up Saddlestring, killing the sheriff, the prosecutor, critically injuring an FBI agent and more. Nate Romanowski killed the leader of the hit squad and in this book their best assassin comes after Nate to exact his revenge. 

Personally, I am getting tired of the plots that take Joe Pickett away from being a game warden. Joe and Nate have disrupted international terrorists and taken on Mexican drug cartels in the last few books. They are good adventure stories, but they get away from the types of stories that made me like this series and they start to get more and more improbable. 

I was more interested in the bear attack part of the book than the attempted assassination of the judge and WAY more interested in the bear attack part of the book than the return of the drug cartel. The drug cartel angle seemed to be a clunky, heavy handed way of redirecting the arc of the Nate Romanowski story line.

**********END SPOILERS***********

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 mostly based on the fact that I like the main characters and it is always good to spend time with them, even in a frustrating book.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: LONG RANGE (Joe Pickett #20) by C.J. Box.

JOHNNY CASH: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published by Hourly History
in 2022

The Hourly History series features e-book histories and biographies that can be read in about an hour. They are great if you want to know a little more about a topic, but you don't want to read a regular-sized book or biography. Plus, they offer a set of free books every weekend so you can explore without spending a dime.

I already knew the bare outlines of Johnny Cash's life, but this small biography filled it out a little more. It would have been great if there had been embedded links to the songs that are discussed throughout, but since this is an e-book it's not particularly hard to minimized the Kindle app and open up YouTube and find the song. I did this exact thing with the original version of Cash's classic hit Ring of Fire. Here is the original version, performed by one of June Carter's relatives. I had no idea that Cash didn't write this song himself.

Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

I was struck by the fact that Cash continued to struggle with drugs throughout his life. He was in and out of drug rehab centers from the 1960's into the 1980's. For me, this makes his take on the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt all the more poignant.

I enjoyed this e-book. I rate it 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: JOHNNY CASH: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History.

NOT in IT to WIN IT: WHY CHOOSING SIDES SIDELINES the CHURCH (audiobook) by Andy Stanley

 

Published in 2022 by Zondervan.
Read by the author, Andy Stanley.
Duration: 5 hours, 11 minutes.
Unabridged.

Andy Stanley brings a warning to churches across the United States: Do not become involved in partisan politics. Jesus is not a Republican and he is not a Democrat. He did not come to rule this world and he did not make his church a government for this world. Nevertheless, Stanley has been criticized by church members he has known for years for not taking splashy political stands.

.

Stanley goes on to detail very practical reasons not to get involved in partisan politics, such as ticking off 40% of your potential mission field by endorsing a certain candidate and being known as a Democrat or Republican church. 

The answer? Neither. 

By identifying with a political candidate or a party, you are rejecting your fellow Christians who disagree with you by identifying with a party more than identifying with the body of Christ. This is literally a heresy. The body of Christ has work to do (and always has) under every sort of political system. That work is not acting as a government. Once the Church becomes a part of a political system it is compromised - it's just another political player.

The only government ever established by God in the Bible was in the Old Testament with Israel. God had a special covenant with Israel. The United States DOES NOT have a special covenant with God. This book is a kindly, Bible-based warning to the Christian Nationalists and the Dominionists that they are on the wrong track. It it is not thundering condemnation, but it is intended to be a correction. It is much more polite and well-written than this review has been.

I rate this audibook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: NOT in IT to WIN IT: WHY CHOOSING SIDES SIDELINE the CHURCH (audiobook) by Andy Stanley.

THE AMERICAN STORY: CONVERSATIONS with MASTER HISTORIANS (audiobook) by David M. Rubinstein

 

Published in 2019 by Simon and Schuster Audio.
Voice work by various historians hosted by David M. Rubinstein.
Duration: 9 hours, 52 minutes.
Unabridged.

David M. Rubinstein is an avid amateur historian and financial supporter of history-related projects. He organized a series of 16 interviews of historians by the Library of Congress with the intended audience to be actual members of Congress with invited guests. 

He picked historians who have written popular and professionally respected histories and biographies of famous Americans such as Ron Chernow (Alexander Hamilton), David McCullough (Adams and Truman), Cokie Roberts (Abigail Adams) and Doris Kearns Goodwin (Lincoln) and just let them discuss the person they studied.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

The audiobook consists of the actual audio of these interviews with a little introduction

The interviews were all solid, but could have been better if Rubinstein had not insisted on inserting himself in the middle of them so often. So many times the historian would be discussing an interesting topic and Rubinstein would interrupt to ask a question that totally changed the trajectory of the conversation. I noted to my wife that Cokie Roberts and Doris Kearns Goodwin were best at fielding his questions and then going right back to the topic they were pursuing. Perhaps they have a lot more experience with men interrupting to say something that was not relevant. 

This is still a good listen and I do recommend it. I did remove 1 star for the interruptions. Yes, I found the interruptions to be that annoying.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: THE AMERICAN STORY: CONVERSATIONS with MASTER HISTORIANS by David M. Rubinstein.

WAR on the BORDER: VILLA, PERSHING, the TEXAS RANGERS, and an AMERICAN INVASION (audiobook) by Jeff Guinn

 

Published in 2021 by Simon and Schuster Audio.
Read by Timothy Andres Pabon.
Duration: 10 hours, 10 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

The famous expedition into Mexico led by "Black Jack" Pershing to punish Pancho Villa in 1916 and 1917 is the stated topic of this book. However, this book is much more than that. It is a look at the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and World War I (1914-1918) and America's rather aggressive foreign policy in Latin America.

Within most Americans' living memory the United States had taken on the responsibilities of empire by defeating Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The United States took the Philippines, Guam, Cuba and Puerto Rico and immediately got involved in a fight against Filipino insurgents and independence movements that lasted more than a decade. The concept of foreign intervention was not a new one and the impulse to intervene remained strong.

With war in Europe looming, the Mexican Revolution made America nervous. An unstable Mexico looked like an invitation for European intervention. America directly intervened multiple times, including the well-known punitive mission led by Pershing to capture or kill Pancho Villa. 

Villa led one of the many revolutionary armies that was trying to change the government in Mexico. Sometimes they worked together, sometimes they fought each other as much as they fought the government. Villa was on the decline, having been beaten multiple times and reneging on several promises to him men. 

But, Villa understood "media" as it was then. He had been the subject of a Hollywood movie, including actual footage of his men "in action". He got his name and his image in the newspapers regularly - always with the same exciting look - a big sombrero, a big mustache and bandoleers full of ammunition.

Villa decided to shake things up. He needed money, he needed attention, financial support and volunteers to join him and an attack on the United States itself might just do it. He attacked Columbus, New Mexico. He needed the loot but more importantly, he needed to look like he had no fear of Mexico's neighbor. He also figured (correctly) that America would intervene and the Mexican people would reflexively come to his aid with money and volunteers (not really). 

*******

My review:

This book is a big sprawling book and it is mis-titled in my opinion. The actual punitive mission by Pershing mentioned in the title takes up maybe 1/3 of the book. It's not that the other information wasn't relative, there was just so much of it and I did not think it was not organized particularly well. It's like the author just kept collecting tons of relevant information and somehow couldn't cull it down to the original theme of the book - Pershing vs. Villa and couldn't organize it in a compelling way. 

Some critics have gone after the author for pointing out that the border situation simply seethed in racial tension and the Texas Rangers were far from the noble heroes you see in Chuck Norris' TV show Walker: Texas Ranger. I literally have no issue with the facts that he presented. I have an issue with the presentation of the facts.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: WAR on the BORDER: VILLA, PERSHING, the TEXAS RANGERS, and an AMERICAN INVASION by Jeff Guinn.

WHY WE DID IT: A TRAVELOGUE from the REPUBLICAN ROAD to HELL (audiobook) by Tim Miller

 

Published by HarperAudio in June of 2022.
Read by Josh Bloomberg.
Duration: 8 hours, 14 minutes.

Unabridged.

Tim Miller is a Republican political operative. He previously worked on the presidential campaigns for John McCain (2008), Jon Huntsman (2012) and Jeb Bush (2016), worked for the Republican party as a liaison to the Romney campaign (2012), created "gotcha" content for websites and traditional media, helped run a Political Action Committee (PAC) and writes regularly for Rolling Stone magazine and political websites.

He's connected. He knows someone on every campaign. He knew people all over the Trump administration. 

He is also a "Never Trumper". He once made a list compiled by the Washington Post of the top ten Never Trumpers.

Miller talks about the motivations of people that joined the Trump White House after they swore that they never would because he was simply not an acceptable candidate or president. He talked with several people and he got the same answers over and over. Among them are these:

1. Fear of Missing Out. The White House is where the action is, no matter who is the President. 

2. Fear of damaging their careers. Refusing to work for President Trump could spell the end of their career as Republicans.

3. Looking to further their careers. Enthusiastically supporting the GOP candidate and the GOP President could vault their career ahead.

4. Being the adult in the room. Someone had to keep an eye on Trump and say no to the bad ideas and suggest better ones. A lot of people said this but there were very few times when someone could tell him that they actually did it.

There were other categories as well, but perhaps you get the idea.

Miller makes an excellent analogy comparing his own life with his colleagues that went to work for President Trump and his own experiences working for multiple Republican candidates as a gay man. He notes that he simply ignored the clear biases that some of the candidates he supported had against people like him. Instead, he focused on the positives because...(insert one of the reasons from up above). 

Miller's analysis was most likely accurate. However, I wasn't a big fan of Miller's snarky nicknames for people. He was especially rough with Sean Spicer. I am not a fan of Spicer, but I see no reason to call him by an embarrassing nickname that he was given in college over and over and over again. It was unnecessary.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: WHY WE DID IT:  A TRAVELOGUE from the REPUBLICAN ROAD to HELL (audiobook) by Tim Miller.

THE KITE RUNNER (audiobook) by Khaled Hosseni

 

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2003.
Read by the author, Khaled Hosseni.
Duration: 12 hours, 1 minute.
Unabridged.

This book was published about 20 years ago and I just got around to reading it. This is not an uncommon thing for me - I did the same with the Harry Potter books and The Handmaid's Tale, also.  I was motivated to read this for the same reason I was motivated to read The Handmaid's Tale - it was permanently placed on a banned book list in Idaho in May of 2022.

There are three parts to the story. The first part is a long description of the life of Amir, a boy who is growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970s. Amir had his problems, but he had a pretty decent life. He and his father fled to the United States when the chaos think of as "Afghanistan" began - the Communist Revolution of 1978.

The author, Khaled Hosseni

The second part of the book is the story of how Amir and his father adapt to life in the United States, including the re-building of an Afghan community in California. 

The third part of the book is Amir dealing with a great offense that he committed against his best friend when he was a young man as he heads back to Afghanistan.

***********

For years and years, I have been hearing how amazing this book is. It is very hard to live up to almost 20 years of hype. This is a good book (I rate it 4 out of 5 stars), but not an amazing book. It was a first book for Hosseni and it shows first book problems like pacing issues. The first part is very slow and Amir's mental self-flagellation happens so often that it gets old. I wanted to scream at Amir to do something about it or just shut up about it.

Bottom line - it is a good book, but not an amazing one. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseni.

Here is a link to an article about books banned in Florida schools during the 2023-2024 school year. It is a ridiculously long list. Here are other schools that have banned this book: Click here.