68 posts tagged “books”

A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery by Philip Kerr

My rating: ★★★✩✩

Perhaps the weakest Bernie Gunther mystery to date. The flashback style felt especially forced, for some reason. A few good lines, but once again, the web that ensnares Bernie just seems far too convoluted. Maybe I'm just not subtle enough, but the long range goal seems so unlikely in hindsight that it bugs me.

In this one, Bernie has just got off the boat in Argentina, where he was bound at the end of the previous book. He meets the Perons, both Evita and Juan, gets involved in counter spying on other Germans and, most especially, other ex-SS agents. He also gets tangled up with more Jewish refugees, including romantically. There are a few close calls, and the main disappearance mystery is solved in the end.

Speaking of the main mystery's solution, I hated it. It was both vastly unlikely as well as far too neat. Usually there are many strands in a Bernie Gunther book, and while there were several here too, they got all tied up in a manner that made me think Kerr just got tired of writing.

There was also far too much anti-Nazi speechifying. Yes, we all know how horrific it was, and must have been. And we know Bernie wasn't a Nazi, but man, he got strident about it. Maybe Kerr was trying to draw some modern parallels, but I prefer my private eyes to be more cynical and less strident.

The ending seems to have left open the possibility of more, but much like Lee Child's Reacher series, it all seems worn out by now. I hope Mr. Kerr stretches out again.

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The One From The Other by Philip Kerr

My rating: ★★★★✩

While on vacation, I read The One From The Other by Philip Kerr. Following the action of the brilliant Berlin Noir (Kerr's first books - March Violets, The Pale Criminal and A German Requiem), it continues the adventures of Bernie Gunther, a down in his luck investigator in pre-World War II Germany. He rubs shoulders with many of the evil men who were soon to make their dark mark on the world. The One From The Other picks up Bernie's life after World War II, where he is running a bed and breakfast just outside of Dachau, of all places.

One thing leads to another and he is quickly embroiled in the trials of the Red Jackets, war criminals held in prison. Soon he is beaten up and sucked into a bigger web of lies.

Once again, Kerr hits gold. Some of the ugly details of concentration camps and the pure evil of the SS can get a little hard to read. And I think the final web remains too big and random to have actually been planned, a common failure of many mysteries. I was never convinced there weren't much easier ways for the criminals to do what they wanted to do. But not enough to keep me from turning the next page as I blazed through it.

If you haven't read the Berlin Noir trilogy, I highly recommend it. And then follow it up with The One From The Other and, next on my reading list, book 5 starring Gunther, Hitler's Peace (wrong book - it's) A Quiet Flame

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Daemon by Daniel Suarez

My rating: ★★★★✩

Probably more of a 3.5 stars book. It was a solid, fast moving, techno-thriller with some great ideas, some clunky writing, and, worst of all, it's only the first book of, I think, a proposed trilogy, so it ends pretty abruptly. I kept wondering, as I reached the end of the book, just how Suarez was going to wrap up all the narrative strands with so few pages to go. Well, he has at least another book to do it in, I guess!

Daemon tells the story of a dead computer game company founder whose death unleashed a cyber creation of his. Told in the 3rd person from several different points of view (cop, computer security consultant, military types, etc), it also includes vignettes describing how some of the early followers of the Daemon were recruited. The network the Daemon unleashes and controls is pretty impressively described and generally believable. Another warning though - just because a character is a narrator, don't get too attached! Like George RR Martin, he's not afraid to kill off any character, no matter how central he or she may seem.

Some of the action goes over the top and some of the chase scenes carry on a bit too long, but I never felt like flipping past them. I also had a hard time at the start keeping everyone straight - not sure if it was the author's fault or my fault. But once the story got rolling, it really took off. The ending, while admittedly just of part one, was quite mysterious and I'm not sure what the rambling was about, but we'll see in book 2.

So if you like a fast paced, sometimes over the top, techno thriller, like say Philip Kerr's The Grid, you'll enjoy Daemon, despite its unfinished business at the end.

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Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis by Paul Muolo

My review

Rating: ★★★✩✩

One of those books that make me wish there were 1/2 stars, Chain of Blame tells an important story, yet does it in a very dry and by-the-numbers fashion. Muolo and his co-author, Padilla, are financial reporters close the the mortgage industry and obviously know their stuff, yet the book lacks compelling human drama. The closest it comes is in the description of how many of the long timers in the mortgage industry, like Angelo Mozilo, head of Countrywide, got started.

But the book tends to devolve into a headspinning web of who bought who, who borrowed money from who, tranches, wholesalers, and the ilk, some of which is explained and some of which isn't. The amounts of money are staggering, especially in terms of real money lost. Yes, there were paper losses of value when the stocks tanked, but even more incredible are the stories of banks buying lenders for billions of dollars, only to just shut them down a year later.

I think the real story of the house & mortgage crisis has yet to be told. I still would like to know why, beyond sheer pigheaded greed, some of these mortgage veterans would agree to such crazy lending practices. I had never heard of "payment option ARMs" before this book, which are adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) where the option of what to pay comes up every month and you can choose to even go negative and move actual money owed to the end of the mortgage! It's all insane, and I'd love an insiders view of why these guys, who should have know that house prices weren't going to keep going up 25% every year, thought they could get away with it. And why the people taking out the loans thought they could as well.

I still say that This American Life's Giant Pool of Money and its follow up show, Another Frightening Show About the Economy are the best reporting done so far on this financial meltdown and many of the characters mentioned in these shows are featured prominently in Chain of Blame.

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Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels by Giorgio Manganelli
 

My review

Rating: ★★★★✩

Hard to grade this book. I didn't quite finish it, although that in and of itself isn't really a big deal, as this book is a collection of 100 2 page unconnected "novels with the air let out". Each is varyingly satisfying, but I wasn't really sure how to tackle reading the book. Didn't really feel right just sitting down to read such a bunch purposefully unconnected set of stories. Might be a good book to purchase and put somewhere to just pick up and read a story or 2 every now and again. I did really enjoy them in short steps, but had to return the book in the end.
 
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Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Yorkshire Punch, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar by David Wondrich

My review

Rating: ★★★★✩

Great book covering the early days of American cocktail mixing, writing and drinking, from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Lots of interesting cocktail recipes, with discussions about how they came about, what the ingredients were like and what some variations might have been. He tracks down the earliest mentions of many of them, and tries to pin down the inventors, with varying degrees of success.

I also really liked the discussion of early bar tools and what the liquor was like back then. Sadly, the most glaring ingredient that isn't available at all any more is "Old Tom Gin", which was, presumably, a sweeter, heavier gin than the "London Dry" we have today. Another very hard to get gin is the Holland Gin, which is a genever of even thicker purpotions. It's good to see that a real Plymouth gin is more widely available these days. Wonder if any of the boutique distillers will take a crack at an Old Tom gin?

While I enjoyed the recipes, I have to say that for some reason, I found them very hard to follow. I think part of it is that he uses the original quotes from the various groundbreaking books of the day, which means the measures are much more vague. While he puts equivalents in, I'm still not sure if they are exact equivalents or his adjustments to the recipes. And while he more clearly describes each, I think he goes back and forth himself as to which way the reporting is done.

Other than that minor nitpick, I really enjoyed this book. The writing was wonderfully colorful, with an almost 19th century feel to it. You can tell Wondrich really loves his research! I'm dying to try some of the recipes. As a bonus, there's a very nice appendix on his online research notes and I'm going to be looking into all of them.
 
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The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire by Matt Taibbi

 

My review

Rating: ★★★★★

Wow, what a scary, hilarious and depressing book this was! Veteran Rolling Stone political reporter Matt Taibbi visits two extreme sides of today's political "debate", a Christian Evangelist church in Texas and the wingnuts of the "Truth 9/11" squad, who maintain the whole Sept. 11 terrorist attack was really a government plot. A plot for what, no one seems quite clear, but a plot nonetheless.

His visit to the fire and brimstone evangelical mega-church in Texas is, of course, the scariest to this atheist. To imagine people buy into this far right wing talk of the apocalypse, brought on by Hillary Clinton (who really is the devil incarnate for these folks), is a truly depressing thought. Fine, have your religion if you need it, but show a little skepticism for these trumped up claims bellowed from the preacher man. There are some simply bust-a-gut laughing sections here, as he brings a liberalism and a truly cynical view to the scene.

He's equally tough on the Truth 9/11 group. In fact, one of the funniest sections of the book is his "transcript" of a meeting of the cabal lead by The Dark One himself, Dick Cheney and the rest of the leading neocons, as they figure out the plans for the 9/11 plot. It is so laughably an accurate account of how things must have happened if even a portion of their conspiracy theories are right that it makes it clear how far fetched it all really is. Yet, astoundingly, something like 40% believe some or all of these theories.

He intersperses these two stories with truly depressing chapters on how things currently are in Congress. The book actually goes past the 2006 Democrat uprising yet describes a "business as usual" attitude among our Congress critters. It's a very bleak, dark and depressing look at the politics of power and just how much it is to just stay in power and get money from lobbies. The main thrust of the 9/11 Truthers is that the whole plot was to change public opinion, but reading these other chapters makes you believe that they don't care about public opinion in the slightest.

I wish I still had the book on me so I could quote a few of the more outrageously cynical and humorous paragraphs. But Taibbi also does a very good job at trying to figure out what makes these people tick. What is it about big time religion that attracts folks? He works hard at humanizing them even if he can't believe what he is seeing sometimes. He understands both groups attempts at getting black and white answers in this very grey and confusing world. He makes the point that the 9/11 are just making their own version of the "truth", as today's news/marketers can't be trusted to do it for them.

A very good read, but ultimately very depressing. All the more so given the slow rate of change with the current administration, and the business as usual of both Congress and appointed leaders like Larry Summers, who has been in the pocket of big finance for years and yet is Obama's chief economic advisor.

Sigh. Now I'm depressed all over again.
 
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The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway

My review

Rating: ★★★★✩

Solid memoir about growing up in 40s Australia, first in the Outback on a sheep farm that nearly collapses due to a long drought, then in Sydney as she tries to adjust to life a smart, pretty woman in a very chauvinistic academi world. She loses some important people way too early, and her mom begins to lose her grip on reality.

I enjoyed the book and it was well written. I definitely liked it better when it was in Coorain, the sheep farm her parents bought and settled about 10 hours west of Sydney. A very different world, well described from a ten year old's perspective. When her fatherless family moved to Sydney, leaving the farm in caretaker's hands, the book bogged down for me. It became more of a "normal" story of the youngest daughter trying to come to grips with many pressures. While my growing up years were perfectly fine, I don't have any desire to relive them, either mine or someone else's, so even most "coming of age" movies leave me cool. But I persevered as she entered college and tried to figure out her path.

The books ends as she gets on a plane to Boston, to begin her post-graduate work at Harvard. Oddly enough, she currently lives just down the road from me. A small world, and this book does a very nice job of explaining how it can become so.
 
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So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun book about Nelson's reading habits for a year. Her and I couldn't have more divergent tastes for books but it was still good to read about another read-aholic. Despite sounding slightly neurotic, she did a lovely job of explaining how books and life can get all intermingled. She writes a very honest, touching and heartfelt book.

She touched upon a few things that I want to talk about. The first was about sports. She has an 8 year old son who is just getting into sports like baseball and asks the reader if anyone has any good memories of sports, and comes to the conclusion (strangely enough for someone who admits to being pretty clueless about it) that no one does.

Well, I beg to differ. While certainly no All Star, or even a starter in some sports, I have very good memories of sports, from my earliest days playing soccer to my current days coaching my girls in it. From my days as a basketball scrub to being the goalie for a tournament winning hockey team just a few years ago, sports have always been fun and a big part of my life. I enjoy the camaraderie of the team sports and the challenges of the solo ones. I enjoy a good "real life" sports book, although I can't say as I've come across too many fictional ones.

She also surprised me by claiming many of her friends will actually read a book's ending and/or middle before (or instead of) reading it through. While she admits she never does that, it is still crazytalk! I had a high school English teacher who claimed you had to read the ending of a book first, and then read it through to see how well the writer did in getting to that point, especially with a mystery. But I'm not sure if he was just being his usual contrary self. That's just to bizarre a thing to even think about!

Ms. Nelson had a great idea that I am going to try and implement on a wider scale here. She read a book (Charlotte's Web) at the same time as her son (not aloud) and then talked about it together. I'd like to get my whole family to do that. A8.6 is reading Peter Pan and I think that would be a fun book to have the four of us read.

I also liked her very frank discussion of what book to bring out in public. While I like to think of myself as nearly immune to anything of the sort, I also find myself thinking about how I would look carrying around certain books. Like if I am going to read something while the girls are at basketball practice, I don't want to get too geeky by reading a programming book, or too cerebral by hauling out my War and Peace, so I try to find some middle ground.

I can't say as I have read too many of the books in her 2002 reading list and,for that matter, are not interested in reading too many of them. She's a huge Philip Roth fan, but I can't say as I've read any of his. She did like Disgrace by J. M. Coetze, but I wasn't too keen on it. It is kind of strange that the list in the back of the book doesn't really seem to coincide with the books she talks about *in* the book.

A few books did seem pretty interesting, and that I've added to my To-Read list. Heartburn by Nora Ephron sounds like bitter fun, while Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott sounds like it might be just the thing for a procrastinator like myself. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber sounds like an interesting historical novel. But despite our divergent tastes in books, I thoroughly enjoyed her description of a reading year.

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Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski

My review

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Severance Package and would definitely agree with the back cover blurb - it would be great to see Tarantino direct a movie version. That being said, it didn't quite grip like his previous two, The Wheelman and The Blonde.

This books tells the story of a Saturday meeting at the office - a Saturday meeting from hell. The boss reveals (to the surprise of some) a secret about the company they are working for and a terrible future planned for them all. And now it is every man and woman for themselves, as each claws their way out of the mess.

It was a little hard, for some reason, to keep the characters straight. I mean, there were only something like 8 or 9 of them. And Swierczynski was never completely clear when or if certain ones were dead, and it felt like he was purposefully withholding info, which was a little annoying. But it had the usual crackling dialog and frenetic pace, so it was another great read.
 
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