Books and other stuff I feel like discussing
By education and experience - Accountant with a specialty in taxation. Formerly a CPA (license has lapsed). Masters degree in law of taxation from University of Denver. Now retired. Part time work during baseball season as receptionist & switchboard operator for the Colorado Rockies. This gig feeds my soul in ways I have trouble articulating. One daughter, and four grandchildren. I share the house with two cats; a big goof of a cat called Grinch (named as a joke for his easy going "whatever" disposition); and Lady, a shelter adoptee with a regal bearing and sweet little soprano voice. I would be very bereft if it ever becomes necessary to keep house without a cat.
Mood:
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Books Update
THE SEIGE by Stephen White
White continues to vary the points of view in his continuing series featuring psychologist Alan Gregory. In this entry, Gregory's friend, the policeman Sam Purdy, is attending an upscale wedding celebration when the hostess asks for his help, fearing her daughter is one of a group of hostages on the campus of Yale. Purdy travels to New Haven, and finds himself acting as an impromptu hostage negotiator. The hostage scheme is very intricately plotted, closely related to today's headlines, and in the end rather unsatisfyingly presented. At least to this reader. But White is firmly fixed in my "don't miss" list, and I'll be ready for his next book.
THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING by Simon Winchester
Winchester has a remarkable ability to take seemingly complicated (and potentially dull) scientific and educational topics and make them intriguing and highly readable. An added plus is the author's custom of narrating the audio versions of his books himself. I find his voice to be a marvelous combination of soothing, erudite, and sexy. When I see one of his titles, I always request the audio version.
Here he tells the long, convoluted, and arduous history of the Oxford English Dictionary. The story has dozens of overlapping and contradictory concepts of what the aims fo the project should be. Originally proposed to take a dozen years or less, the preparation of the dictionary extended for nearly 70 years.
A DUTY TO THE DEAD by Charles Todd
Todd introduces a new protagonist - a WWI nurse who gets involved in some grim family secrets after she has promised to deliver a message entrusted to her by a soldier who died of his war wounds while in her care. I'll read another in this series, but I've enjoyed the prior series featuring Scotland Yard officer Ian Rutledge a little more.
LABOR DAY by Joyce Maynard
Tragedy results when a young boy unwittingly betrays a man who has entered his life and the life of his mother. The tried and true "coming of age" story is not hackneyed in Maynard's hands - this title might be the "sleeper" in this reading report.
THE THIRD MAN by Graham Greene
One of two classics in this list - and I enjoyed them both very much indeed. Greene was hired to write the screenplay for the famous film, and wrote the novella first, then adapted it as a script. I located the DVD at the same time, and watched the movie within a week of reading the book. I was intrigued by the fact the the two versions of the same story, written by the same author, end up emphasizing two entirely different foci as they are presented. The book centers on the mysterious, and perhaps nefarious deeds of Harry Lime, while the film centers on the plight of the woman in Lime's life. Both the book and the movie manage to be intriguingly creepy and engrossing.
DARK OF THE MOON by John Sandford
Sandford has a "spin-off" of his popular Lucas Davenport "prey" series, this one featuring investigator Virgil Flowers. When bodies are found in a small town, first in one house, then in another, and when a third group of people are observed hurriedly leaving their home, rumors spread rapidly that a serial killer is on the prowl. Flowers and other investigators are sure that there is a common thread behind the killings and the perceived threats, and they are right.
DEATH OF A DISSIDENT by Stuart Kaminsky
A library discussion group chose the first in Kaminsky's "Russian" series, and somewhat outside the pattern of choices from the mystery genre, we found we had a source of a lively discussion. An honest, hard working cop is assigned the investigation of the grisly death of a political protestor, and finds that he himself is being manipulated to serve political ends.
DEXTER BY DESIGN by Jeff Lindsay
Dexter is a blood spatter expert for the Miami police by day, and a sociopathic killer in his spare time. He is also a very entertaining protagonist in a truly unusual series of books. I've been curious to see if Lindsay could keep up the quality, and I think he missed the mark in this one, but I still can recommend readers who would like a book out of the ordinary to pick up the first one - DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER.
CANNERY ROW by John Steinbeck
The second classic, and I really enjoyed it. A loose collection of vignettes of life in a downscale California coastal community during the 1930's, featuring an attempt to plan and carry off a birthday party.
Steinbeck based the main character on one of his very good friends who worked as a naturalist.
LOVING FRANK by Nancy Horan
A fictionalized biography of one of the many women loved by Frank Lloyd Wright during his lifetime. He met Mamah Cheney when her husband hired Wright to design and build a house, and their small community in the suburbs of Chicago was scandalized when the two left their spouses and lived together in Europe for a year.
After their return and eventual move to Wisconsin, Mamah died in a tragic arson and knife attack when a servant went berserk. Horan based her interpretation of the two lovers on a series of letters she found, but she freely admits in an afterword that her book is mostly fiction.
I found the last quarter of the book to be overly wordy and long. It's not an easy task to maintain suspense when your reader already knows how things turn out, and Horan didn't quite pull it off.
That's it for this edition!
White continues to vary the points of view in his continuing series featuring psychologist Alan Gregory. In this entry, Gregory's friend, the policeman Sam Purdy, is attending an upscale wedding celebration when the hostess asks for his help, fearing her daughter is one of a group of hostages on the campus of Yale. Purdy travels to New Haven, and finds himself acting as an impromptu hostage negotiator. The hostage scheme is very intricately plotted, closely related to today's headlines, and in the end rather unsatisfyingly presented. At least to this reader. But White is firmly fixed in my "don't miss" list, and I'll be ready for his next book.
THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING by Simon Winchester
Winchester has a remarkable ability to take seemingly complicated (and potentially dull) scientific and educational topics and make them intriguing and highly readable. An added plus is the author's custom of narrating the audio versions of his books himself. I find his voice to be a marvelous combination of soothing, erudite, and sexy. When I see one of his titles, I always request the audio version.
Here he tells the long, convoluted, and arduous history of the Oxford English Dictionary. The story has dozens of overlapping and contradictory concepts of what the aims fo the project should be. Originally proposed to take a dozen years or less, the preparation of the dictionary extended for nearly 70 years.
A DUTY TO THE DEAD by Charles Todd
Todd introduces a new protagonist - a WWI nurse who gets involved in some grim family secrets after she has promised to deliver a message entrusted to her by a soldier who died of his war wounds while in her care. I'll read another in this series, but I've enjoyed the prior series featuring Scotland Yard officer Ian Rutledge a little more.
LABOR DAY by Joyce Maynard
Tragedy results when a young boy unwittingly betrays a man who has entered his life and the life of his mother. The tried and true "coming of age" story is not hackneyed in Maynard's hands - this title might be the "sleeper" in this reading report.
THE THIRD MAN by Graham Greene
One of two classics in this list - and I enjoyed them both very much indeed. Greene was hired to write the screenplay for the famous film, and wrote the novella first, then adapted it as a script. I located the DVD at the same time, and watched the movie within a week of reading the book. I was intrigued by the fact the the two versions of the same story, written by the same author, end up emphasizing two entirely different foci as they are presented. The book centers on the mysterious, and perhaps nefarious deeds of Harry Lime, while the film centers on the plight of the woman in Lime's life. Both the book and the movie manage to be intriguingly creepy and engrossing.
DARK OF THE MOON by John Sandford
Sandford has a "spin-off" of his popular Lucas Davenport "prey" series, this one featuring investigator Virgil Flowers. When bodies are found in a small town, first in one house, then in another, and when a third group of people are observed hurriedly leaving their home, rumors spread rapidly that a serial killer is on the prowl. Flowers and other investigators are sure that there is a common thread behind the killings and the perceived threats, and they are right.
DEATH OF A DISSIDENT by Stuart Kaminsky
A library discussion group chose the first in Kaminsky's "Russian" series, and somewhat outside the pattern of choices from the mystery genre, we found we had a source of a lively discussion. An honest, hard working cop is assigned the investigation of the grisly death of a political protestor, and finds that he himself is being manipulated to serve political ends.
DEXTER BY DESIGN by Jeff Lindsay
Dexter is a blood spatter expert for the Miami police by day, and a sociopathic killer in his spare time. He is also a very entertaining protagonist in a truly unusual series of books. I've been curious to see if Lindsay could keep up the quality, and I think he missed the mark in this one, but I still can recommend readers who would like a book out of the ordinary to pick up the first one - DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER.
CANNERY ROW by John Steinbeck
The second classic, and I really enjoyed it. A loose collection of vignettes of life in a downscale California coastal community during the 1930's, featuring an attempt to plan and carry off a birthday party.
Steinbeck based the main character on one of his very good friends who worked as a naturalist.
LOVING FRANK by Nancy Horan
A fictionalized biography of one of the many women loved by Frank Lloyd Wright during his lifetime. He met Mamah Cheney when her husband hired Wright to design and build a house, and their small community in the suburbs of Chicago was scandalized when the two left their spouses and lived together in Europe for a year.
After their return and eventual move to Wisconsin, Mamah died in a tragic arson and knife attack when a servant went berserk. Horan based her interpretation of the two lovers on a series of letters she found, but she freely admits in an afterword that her book is mostly fiction.
I found the last quarter of the book to be overly wordy and long. It's not an easy task to maintain suspense when your reader already knows how things turn out, and Horan didn't quite pull it off.
That's it for this edition!
Read/Post Comments (2)
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