Book Shelf:  2009 Books Link to Big Book Shelf: All Books 1999-2009

This web page lists all books reviewed by Steve Hopkins at http://bkrev.blogspot.com during 2009 as well as books relegated to the Shelf of Ennui. You can click on the title of a book or on the picture of any jacket cover to jump to amazon.com where you can purchase a copy of any book on this shelf.

Key to Ratings:
*****	Outstanding book-read it now
****	Highly recommended
***	Recommended
**	Mildly recommended
*	Read if your interest is strong
DNR	Do Not Read: Take a Pass

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Title (Click on Link to purchase at amazon.com)	Author(s)	Rating	Blog Date	Comments	Click on Picture to Purchase at amazon.com
Between the Assassinations	Adiga, Aravind	***	7/9/09	Vibrant. Aravind Adiga’s fourteen short stories in the collection titled Between the Assassinations are connected by time and place. All are set between the 1984 assassination of Indira Gandhi and the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in the fictional town of Kittur, India. Adiga structures the stories from day one through day seven and begins each with a made-up travel guide description of some area or feature of Kittur. While the travel guide’s blandness fails to attract much interest, Adiga’s description of the locale and the people come to life with clarity and vivid writing. Between the Assassinations tackles politics, corruption, religion, caste, poverty and everyday life in India in a way that left me wanting to read more about interesting characters and their struggles as each story came to an end. If you’re taking a staycation this Summer, consider reading Between the Assassinations as an alternative to traveling to India. You’ll almost hear the sounds and sniff the smells, thanks to Adiga’s fine writing.
The White Tiger	Adiga, Aravind	**	12/27/08	Success. I paid no attention to Aravind Adiga’s debut novel, The White Tiger, until it won the Man Booker prize, and then I decided to read it. Adiga is imaginative and clever in the way he has structured the novel, and in how he explores the levels of darkness in a society polarized by wealth. The narrator and protagonist is Balram Halwai, who rose from poverty in a villiage in India to become the driver for a wealthy man in Delhi, and then the owner of a fleet of cars serving Bangalore. His path to wealth was through murder and theft. The novel is structured as letters from Balram to the premier of China who is about to visit India, and wants to learn how to apply the entrepreunership of India for China. Adiga presents wealth in India as corrupt, and the wealthy as venal and abusive to those who work for them. While the darkness can be comic at times, the starkness of the contrast between wealth and poverty, and the triumph of evil makes The White Tiger a stark tale with characters who are more caricature than authentic.
Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism	Akerlof, George A.	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip	Algeo, Matthew	***	9/19/09	Nostalgia. If you’ve ever doubted that a decent book can be written about anything at all, give a chance to Matthew Algeo’s book, Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip. Algeo describes a 1953 road trip that Harry and Bess Truman took from Independence, Missouri to Washington, on to New York, and back to Independence after Eisenhower became president. Harry did all the driving in a vehicle that’s almost a character in the book: a black 1953 Chrysler New Yorker. Algeo retraced the Truman’s route, and added a quirky dimension to the book by inserting his own experiences at some of the stops along the way, and what happened to some places in the intervening decades. This book presents a great image of 1953, with a decent dose of nostalgia, and personalization by the insertion of Algeo’s current experience of this route. The pictures helped, mostly because every time I saw a photo Harry Truman’s wide smile, especially when behind the wheel of the New Yorker, I found myself leaning into a grin of my own.
In the Kitchen	Ali, Monica	***	7/16/09	Breakdown. The protagonist of Monica Ali’s new novel In the Kitchen is chef Gabriel Lightfoot, a character who becomes increasingly difficult to spend time with as he delves deeper into a nervous breakdown over the 436 pages of the book. Gabriel is the executive chef at the once-grand Imperial Hotel in London, and he leads a kitchen crew of hard workers from many countries. Gabriel’s life is packed with changes: his father is dying; he proposes marriage to Charlie, a jazz singer; he’s agreed to leave the Imperial and open a new restaurant with two partners that will be named “Lightfoot’s.” Following the death of a kitchen porter, Gabriel is haunted by a recurring dream and his life begins to spiral out of control. Gabriel wants to know who he is and what is meant to do in life. Ali’s descriptions of kitchen life capture the humor, challenging work conditions, and dictatorial nature of this environment. Her writing throughout the novel is excellent, in dialogue, description and language. A side plot about the exploitation of immigrant workers allows for some structure to the novel, but seems somewhat out of place in what is basically a psychological novel about a midlife crisis with concurrent erratic behavior and a nervous breakdown. In the Kitchen is finely written, gloomy, and may appeal most to readers who are willing to spend time admiring a writer’s skill no matter what the plot or how hard it is to spend time with as unsympathetic a protagonist as Gabriel Lightfoot.
The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace	Alsop, Ron	**	12/21/08	Expectations. Journalist Ron Alsop (The Wall Street Journal) has taken a group of columns and expanded them into a book titled, The Trophy Kids Grow Up. Alsop’s kids are the millennials, those born between 1980 and 2001, who have grown up with prosperity and have had lavish attention and praise wash over them throughout their lives. Now that they are arriving in the workplace, Alsop proposes ways that companies need to change to accommodate this generation of workers. I’m not as sure as Alsop is that this generation is shaking up the workplace. It may be that this group, to whatever extent they represent a real group, may be unrealistic in their expectations of the workplace, and are making their concerns heard. Some companies are listening and making changes; other companies are likely to tell them to grow up. Alsop provides lots of examples of what changes some companies are making. Each chapter ends with “chapter highlights” to recap his key points. I found this book to be tedious to read and sometimes repetitive. I was aghast to read about helicopter parents wanting (and sometimes getting) to sit in on performance assessment meetings with their children who are adults. My forecast is that this cohort called millennials may be starting out with expectations that some companies will be willing to meet. As the bulk of millennials come to the workforce, their expectations may become more realistic and more consistent with current corporate practices. If you read this book and decide to copy what some companies are doing, I encourage you to think twice, and make only those changes that you conclude are absolutely necessary to avoid alienating the talented millennials you want to become part of your organization.	-
Buffalo Lockjaw	Ames, Greg	**	6/14/09	Tetanus. Greg Ames’ debut novel, Buffalo Lockjaw, describes the holiday return of 24-year-old protagonist James to hometown Buffalo from his new life in Brooklyn writing copy for a greeting card company. Ames seems to have followed the advice of many creative writing teachers to write about what you know. He’s probably given that advice to others, since Ames is a creative writing teacher at Brooklyn College. Ames knows Buffalo, and presents the struggles and quirks of that place with mastery in this novel. In many respects, Buffalo is the best developed character in the book. James is both naïve and immature, and in grief over his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease he explores euthanasia as a way to give her what he thinks she wants. His stoic father, from whose expression Ames chose his book title, has sold the family home and struggles to pay for his wife’s care. James’ lesbian sister and her partner arrived for Thanksgiving from Oregon to announce her pregnancy. On top of this mix of main characters, James revisits Buffalo friends and finds them in various states of dissolution, not unlike the city. I had the sense in reading Buffalo Lockjaw that Ames had assembled vignettes about the city and some characters and then pasted this novel together with that old material. In a clever way, he interspersed among the novel’s chapters the text of audio interviews that James did with quintessential Buffalo characters. Anyone with a particular connection to Buffalo will find a lot to enjoy in this novel. Readers willing to give a chance to a first-time author will also find some good writing on these pages. Critical readers are likely to find ample faults with characters, plot and dialogue to have preferred a tetanus shot rather than spend time reading Buffalo Lockjaw.
Security	Amidon, Stephen	***	6/9/09	Insecure. Stephen Amidon’s new novel, Security, explores many aspects of personal insecurity and the ways in which each of us remains fundamentally insecure, no matter how strong we’ve made our defenses. Protagonist Edward Inman owns a security company and leads a comfortable life in Massachusetts with his wife, Meg, an alderman running for mayor. Their relationship has become loveless, and after Ed reconnects with his old flame, Kathryn, recently divorced, he becomes involved in her life and issues, crumbling the already weak foundations of his own. A broader cast of characters, most of whom are unlikeable for one reason or another, exhibit behaviors that disclose the range of ways in which we try to overcome the insecurity that we want to hide from others. Amidon’s writing is superb, and this satire of modern life and relationships can be read with detachment or with an identification with one or more of the behaviors these characters as we try to find happiness or acceptance with others. Security is a timely novel by a talented writer.
Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America	Andersen, Kurt	***	9/21/09	Optimism. No matter how little time you have available for reading, you’re likely to find the time to read the 70 or so pages of Kurt Anderson’s new book, Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America. Anderson proposes that we have a window of opportunity in the current financial crisis to carefully reset our values, both personally and communally, to make different choices going forward. He delivers his optimistic message stridently with clear opinions that can border on the preachy. He gets his message across quickly, and that left me with plenty of time to reflect on his message, and to think about my own values and the degree to which I may have drifted from the values I hold.
Free: The Future of a Radical Price	Anderson, Chris	***	8/22/09	Marginal. Most readers will find something interesting or useful in Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Expanded from a February 2008 article in Wired, Free explores the various ways in which success can come from offering something at a price of zero. For a limited time, Anderson made this book available online for free (where I read most of it before reading the rest for free from a library copy). Anderson got into some trouble when this book was released and some parts of it were identified as being lifted intact from Wikipedia. Part of Anderson’s explanation of this attribution error was the challenge of attribution to something that changes form regularly, and he and his publisher having different views on noting hyperlinks. This sloppiness may distract some readers, but I found the book to be a breezy exploration of trends, and had no expectation that this was a work of scholarship. Coined words like “freemium” may cause some readers to wince and others to smile. Anderson comes across as confident and arrogant at times with his views. Underneath these distractions, there’s a message worth hearing, and reading Free will encourage readers to think about this issue.
Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown	Andrews, Edmund L.	**	7/2/09	Neighbors. In so many ways Ed Andrews’ personal story of mortgage disaster was both more and less than I expected. Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown presents the embarrassing story of a New York Times economic reporter’s personal financial and personal crises of the last few years. One would expect that an educated and informed person would have averted predatory loans and would not have spent so far beyond one’s means, but we humans are complicated, and Andrews’ story is like that of many others. He divorced, and faced increased expenses by adding his own housing expenses. He remarried, and his costs increased further. Both he and his new wife were reckless with spending and never quite found a productive way of talking about money and spending. For readers who love schadenfreude, Busted will be very satisfying. For fans of reality television, this print version of Cribs might be entertaining. For any reader who wonders about what kind of people get themselves into financial muddles, Andrews and his wife offer some answers but little sympathy because of their selfishness, immaturity and overall recklessness. If these people are our neighbors, the neighborhood is in trouble.
Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir	Athill, Diana	***	7/16/09	Spunky. Memoirs can lead readers to reflect on some of life’s big questions through a peek into an individual’s recollections of the paths taken. Diana Athill’s memoir, Somewhere Towards the End, was written by her at age 91, following fifty years as a literary editor. Her writing is clear and crisp, and she tackles those aspects of life many of us would prefer to avoid, ignore, or just wish would not happen to us. She covers relationships, sex, religion, and health with a dispatch and a way of talking about herself that does not preach to readers. The losses that come with the passage of time need not remove the spunk from life or diminish optimism. The fewer than two hundred pages of Somewhere Towards the End made me feel just fine about whatever the passage of time will bring to my life.
When Will There Be Good News?	Atkinson, Kate	****	3/28/09	Clever. Kate Atkinson reprises retired police detective Jackson Brodie in her new novel, When Will There Be Good News? She adds a cast of interesting and quirky characters, and engages them in clever plots and subplots that keep a reader thinking and engaged throughout the 400 pages of the novel. The past looms like a shadow over characters like Dr. Jo Hunter, and how she behaves in the present has much to do with tragedy from her past. Dr. Hunter’s teenage nanny, Reggie Chase, is an orphan and acts as an amateur detective to great success. She is wiser and more focused than her age would lead others to expect. Her brother looms over her life. Brodie and Detective Chief Inspector Louise Morris rediscover each other on these pages, and each has a marriage partner that may not bring the same quality of relationship that these two have with each other. The clever writing and depth of character development combine to make this novel a very satisfying book to read.
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth	Atwood, Margaret	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
The Year of the Flood	Atwood, Margaret	****	11/25/09	Survival. Margaret Atwood’s new novel, The Year of the Flood, does something that I can’t recall her doing before: she reprises characters from a previous novel, and expands their story. Several of the characters from Oryx & Crake, (which I also rated with four stars in 2003), appear in the new novel, and the two novels merge pleasantly to create a more complete view of a future possible world. The Year of the Flood is a story of survival in a world devastated by genetic experiments gone foul, and a plague that wiped out much of the population. One group in The Year of the Flood is called God’s Gardeners, and the hymns that Atwood creates describe their beliefs and their world with humor and insight. A collaborator composed music for these fourteen hymns and they can be heard and purchased at www.yearoftheflood.com. Atwood’s writing is superb, the characters believable, and the future world she creates is a scary place.
Last of the Old Guard	Auchincloss, Louis	***	6/14/09	Partnership. Prolific novelist Louis Auchincloss’ new novel is titled Last of the Old Guard. On these pages, protagonist Adrian Suydam reflects wistfully on his life and that of his recently deceased law partner, Ernest Saunders. Set at the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Auchincloss presents with a formal detachment the relationships and behavior of those times. While the primary relationship is that between two life-long friends and law partners, other relationships are also critical to the novel: husbands and wives; fathers and children; and employers and employees. This brief glimpse into another time provides a striking contrast to modern times. Last of the Old Guard conveys the sense of responsibility, formality, manners and expectations of a time that has passed, but dimensions of personal character and integrity that survive and can thrive in any era. Reading Last of the Old Guard is like visiting a museum and coming away with impressions about other times and places. Readers who want to visit an old New York will find pleasure on these pages.
Man in the Dark	Auster, Paul	***	2/23/09	War. Darkness can take many forms, and in this short novel, Man in the Dark, Paul Auster explores many of those forms. Following a car accident, protagonist August Brill at age 72 is recovering in the Vermont home of his daughter. In pain and sleepless, Brill tries to write his memoir, but instead creates stories to battle his depression. During the day, he watches movies with his 24 year old granddaughter, Katya, whose boyfriend was tortured and murdered in Iraq. His divorced daughter, Miriam, struggles to write about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s youngest daughter, Rose. Each of these characters grapples with the darkness of their lives. Brill uses the darkness of night to write about a parallel world, one in which the war in Iraq didn’t happen. He creates the parallel protagonist, Owen Brick, who finds himself involved in the Second American Civil War, between the red states and the blue states, and on a mission to kill August Brill. Any war ravages relationships and leaves consequences for survivors that can feel like a permanent state of darkness. Man in the Dark might be our common condition as long as we engage in war. In the meantime, stay up in the dark for a few nights, and read Auster’s way of trying to make sense of the nonsense of war.
The Devil We Know	Baer, Robert	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
The Numerati	Baker, Stephen	***	2/23/09	Algorithms. Each of us is more than a number: we’re the product of complicated algorithms. That’s what I concluded after reading Stephen Baker’s book, The Numerati. Many smart mathematicians are developing all sorts of ways to predict our behavior, and Baker presents some of the ways in which that is happening. Baker is a Business Week reporter, and confesses to being more liberal arts major than math wiz. Thanks to that perspective, The Numerati provides a sweeping exploration of data mining without plodding down in details that might be of interest only to algorithm writers. Baker structures The Numerati to describe how our personal information is gathered and used in seven dimensions of our lives: worker, shopper, voter, blogger, terrorist, patient and lover. In each of those chapters, I learned something new, and winced or laughed often. If you’re looking for a general overview on the many ways in which personal information is being gathered, analyzed and used, this book provides such an overview.
Divine Justice	Baldacci, David	**	3/30/09	Tiresome. David Baldacci’s fourth Camel Club novel, Divine Justice, picks up where he ended the third one, Stone Cold. Protagonist Oliver Stone (John Carr) has to get out of D.C. following his murder of both a United States Senator and the head of the CIA. He ends up hiding out in Justice, Virginia, a mining town with a supermax prison. Despite Stone’s skills, he couldn’t successfully hide from either his government pursuer or from the remaining members of the Camel Club who wanted to find him. Since trouble always follows Stone, life in Justice, Virginia isn’t what it seems to be, and the cast of bad guys there leads to big trouble for Stone. There’s violence, murder, secrets and more near-death experiences than one individual could ever expect. Baldacci stretches it all out, milking the chapters for all he possibly contrive, and may actually bring this series to an end with this book. Fans of Baldacci and the series will probably appreciate the effort in Divine Justice, but fans of thrillers and mysteries may find the writing too tiresome to enjoy reading this mediocre offering.
First Family	Baldacci, David	**	5/25/09	Disbelief. Novelists ask readers to suspend our disbelief while they present their imagined characters and situations in ways that lead us to recognize something about human nature or relationships. Some novelists, like David Baldacci, have created brands with their novels that reprise characters and place them in new situations. Protagonists Sean King and Michelle Maxwell return in Baldacci’s latest novel, First Family. Sean and Michelle are competent private investigators, and former Secret Service agents. In First Family, they’ve been hired by the First Lady to find a missing child. What unfolds has all the qualities of a thriller: fast-paced action and plot twists and turns. For me, the novel fell apart in the middle when there were few characters that had any complexity or multiple dimensions. Past the middle, the plot became so implausible that any surrender of disbelief became impossible. I plodded through to the end, shaking my head at the drivel that can sell a lot of books. If you’re looking for an escape from reality, and little need to engage your mind, consider reading First Family.
True Blue	Baldacci, David	**	12/12/09	False. The plot of David Baldacci’s new novel, True Blue, moved quickly and provided lots of suspense. While I kept wanting to savor the development of the interesting characters, I found that with every passing chapter, they became more cardboard-like rather than human. Set in Washington, DC, two sisters are featured: one the police chief, the other, a former cop who’s being released from jail as the story opened. A hundred or more pages could have been edited out of this novel without much loss. Readers looking for a thrill will find some pleasure here, but those who want more depth to characters, should look beyond True Blue for something else.
The Way Through Doors	Ball, Jesse	**	5/25/09	Meandering. Don’t even think about trying to read Jesse Ball’s novel, The Way Through Doors, while at the beach or on an airplane. After any distraction, I found I had to go back a few pages to see if I could catch the thread again of where I left off and what exactly was happening. This quirky and meandering quality is either the charm or the defect of Ball’s prose. I lost patience and charged ahead to finish the book, mostly to make it stop. Protagonist Selah Morse witnesses a taxi hit a pedestrian, and he decides to go with her to the hospital, where he weaves a complicated and convoluted story to help her recover her memory. The stories within his narrative begin to seem to be going somewhere, and then peter out before any resolution is achieved. Ball creates an alternative reality that may appeal to some readers, but for me, I became more irritated than satisfied as I continued to read. There’s a fine quality to Ball’s prose that merits my two-star recommendation to those readers who are game to give him your time and attention.
The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America	Bamford, James	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
A Country Called Home	Barnes, Kim	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
Waveland	Barthelme, Frederick	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
Peace	Bausch, Richard	***	1/3/09	Survival. Just when we think that there’s nothing left to write about World War II, Richard Bausch comes along and writes a fine novel titled Peace. Set in the Italian hillside during the winter of 1944, soldiers are facing fear of death from snipers, uncertain support from the locals, and regret about some of their own actions to survive. There’s tension on each of the 200 pages in this tightly written and emotionally taut novel. I felt that I was on the hillside with these soldiers, and could feel the cold and the fear along with them. Things are not as they seem, and the struggle of war can lead to a brief and uneasy peace, no matter what.
The Black Tower	Bayard, Louis	***	1/27/09	Dauphin. Historical fiction usually leads me to want to learn more about the historical period in which a novel is set. Louis Bayard stimulated that interest for me again in his novel, The Black Tower. The tumultuous period is early 19^th century France, after the Reign of Terror and Restoration. Bayard chooses a first-person narrator, Hector Carpentier, a doctor, whose father of the same name was a physician to Louis-Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The title refers to the place where Louis-Charles was imprisoned. Bayard lays out a mystery and a question as to whether or not Louis-Charles died in prison, or was secreted away and hidden. The famous Francois Vidocq, master detective, is presented as a larger-than-life character whose skills unravel much of the mystery. Vidocq and Carpentier follow all leads and their journey will entertain readers and likely lead to interest in this historical period and to learning about what really happened.
Beat the Reaper	Bazell, Josh	***	2/19/09	Funny. If you’re interested in a quirky and funny debut novel, consider Josh Bazell’s Beat the Reaper. Bazell is a medical resident, and wrote this messy, hectic and fast-paced novel in his spare (!) time. Thanks to his undergraduate training, the writing is superb. The protagonist he creates is a medical intern, one who used to be a hit man for the mob. Given that over-the-top character, you expect and receive a plot that’s totally entertaining. Bazell adds footnotes regularly that add to the humor. At page 148 he notes, “We still draw the Reaper with a scythe. We should draw him driving a John Deere for Archer Daniels Midland.” From that point on, the logo-like image that divides sections within a chapter changes from the grim reaper with a scythe to the reaper driving a tractor. Again, a funny touch. I read Beat the Reaper quickly, and look forward to Bazell’s next spare-time offering.
The Slide	Beachy, Kyle	***	5/27/09	Reversals. Read Kyle Beachy’s debut novel, The Slide, on sunny days. Reflect too long on the many slides and reversals experienced by all the characters in this book and you’re likely to join in their depression and loneliness. Protagonist Potter Mays has graduated college and moves back home uncertain of what’s next. His parents seem to welcome him, but their marriage has been in a downward slide, perhaps ever since Potter’s brother died years earlier as a child. Potter’s girlfriend went from college to Europe on a weird quest with a bisexual friend. After some malaise that Beachy presents with fine descriptive language and wit, Potter gets a job delivering bottled water. Potter has insomnia, his dead brother appears to him as a ghost, he develops relationships with a sixteen year old neighbor and a lonely younger boy whom he met while delivering water. The rocket slide in the park he visited as a child becomes the image for the direction of Potter’s life. Thanks to manipulation by a rich friend, Potter gets in more trouble. He’s a loveable sap, and epitomizes many of the anxieties lived out by people in their early-twenties. Beachy’s humor and decent writing make this debut worth a try to those readers willing to look at work from a new and young writer.
The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found	Beard, Mary	Ennui	7/16/09	I reached as far as page 40 of this book, and despite the interesting photos and subject matter, my attention kept wandering, so I put it aside for weeks, and then for good.
The Silent Man	Berenson, Alex	***	3/28/09	Nuclear. Alex Berenson reprises superhero John Wells to save the world again in a new novel titled, The Silent Man. Isn’t there someone else who can do what Wells does? Just before Wells and Jennifer Exley are about to take a well-deserved vacation, they are attacked while stuck in traffic in their minivan. Exley suffers a gunshot wound, and Wells has to get revenge for that at the same time he needs to avert a nuclear terrorist attack. While reading the prior novels adds some richness to the experience, each novel stands alone, and in some ways, a fresh approach to The Silent Man may be more pleasurable than having the expectations of past performance influence the current book. For fans of fast-paced thrillers, there’s a lot of reading pleasure to be found here. If you are reading this book on a plane, you will enjoy any delay that permits you to keep reading.
Home Safe	Berg, Elizabeth	***	5/23/09	Confidence. Protagonist Helen Ames has lost her bearings and her confidence following the death of her husband, Dan. The Oak Park, Illinois novelist isn’t writing, and after she learns that her husband withdrew $850,000 in cash from an account for a purpose unknown to her, she feels financially insecure. She reluctantly takes on teaching a class. Helen leans heavily on her adult daughter, Tessa, and her strong relationship with Midge allows her to hear things about herself that can be hard to face. With extraordinary ease and grace, Elizabeth Berg makes her latest novel, Home Safe, be a gentle way for readers to reflect on the losses we all face in life, and pursue ways to move ahead. I live a block north of Elizabeth Berg and see her walk her dog regularly through our neighborhood. While there may be parallels between the author and her character, the resonance for every reader comes from appreciating a sense of place and a purpose that makes life fulfilling and rewarding. I’ve come away from each of Berg’s books with a warm feeling about life, and if that’s the kind of reading experience you enjoy, along with a story well told, you’re likely to be pleased when you read Home Safe.
The Manual of Detection	Berry, Jedediah	***	9/26/09	Dreamy. Jedediah Berry’s debut novel, The Manual of Detection, provides willing readers with a quirky and odd story of a clerk, Charles Unwin, who becomes a detective. The balance between order and disorder, and between dreams and reality remains off kilter for Unwin and for readers. The Manual of Detection presents a puzzle in a form that isn’t what most mystery readers are accustomed to, but for me, became absorbing as the story unfolds. Berry allows us to engage our brains with him as we enter Unwin’s world and try our best to make sense of what is happening. Adventurous readers are likely to find much to enjoy: a new author, and a genre that may defy the limitations of an orderly niche.
The Charlemagne Pursuit	Berry, Steve	**	4/25/09	Whiplash. Steve Berry changes scenes so rapidly in his latest novel, The Charlemagne Pursuit, that I began to feel whiplashed. Berry reprises Cotton Malone for this tale, and follows a plot structure that he’s used before: bad guys go after Malone, he eludes them, and uses his powers of recollection and analysis to solve complicated historical puzzles. The brief chapters leave lots of cliffhangers. That also means that you can put this book down frequently and do something else, since no matter how thrilling the situation may be, you know it will change again quickly, and you can easily pick up where you left off. Berry excels at the depths to which he can exploit the behavior of schemers and the dysfunction of families. Whether the history bears any resemblance to facts matters little to most readers, so Berry grabs pieces of fact and lets his imagination soar, but always in short spurts. If you like rapid-fire scenes and history as it might have been, give The Charlemagne Pursuit a try.
Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating	Bittman, Mark	****	4/25/09	Dietless. Leave it to “The Minimalist” writer of New York Times and PBS fame, Mark Bittman, to use shortcuts even in his book title to convey multiple messages. Food Matters means both that the food we select makes a difference, and this book concerns food. Following a personal medical wake up call, Bittman chose to make some improvements to his diet along the lines that all of us know when it comes to clarity on what’s good for us: eat more plants, fewer animals, and skip junk food. In a non-doctrinaire manner, Bittman surveys the state of food in America, habits of eating, and offers practical suggestions for making choices that improve health without leading to feelings of deprivation. For those readers who hate being on a regimented diet, Food Matters offers simple ways to buy and prepare good food, including dozens of recipes. It’s simpler than most of us imagine.
The Secret Currency of Love: The Unabashed Truth About Women, Money, and Relationships	Black, Hilary	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
Alphabet Juice	Blount, Jr., Roy	Ennui	1/17/09	Blount’s mastery of language combined with his finely honed wit provide many occasions for laughter on the pages of this unusual book. I attempted to read it from the beginning forward, and while I found some pleasure and laughter in this approach, found that I became bored quickly. I then skimmed back and forth, stopping at pages that had some interest. I found more pleasure in that approach, and decided not to try again to read it from beginning to end.
Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life	Bogle, John C.	****	7/25/09	Character. Index fund pioneer Jack Bogle has always marched with confidence to the beat of a drummer different from that followed by his competitors. His approach of charging the lowest possible fees for mutual funds led him toward building Vanguard as a market leader, and put less money in his own pocket that that received by his peers whose fees enriched their personal fortunes. In his latest book, Enough: True Measures of Money, Business and Life, Bogle describes the good fortune of his own life, and presents a manifesto of sorts for financial executives to lead through a return to fundamental personal values, a return to trust, and the foundation of strong moral character. The title refers to a reported conversation between Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller while they were attending a party hosted by a billionaire. After Vonnegut tells Heller that their host earns more in a day that Heller ever earned from his successful novel Catch-22, Heller replied that he has something that the billionaire will never have: enough. Enough is a preachy treatise that may alienate some readers, while for others it may be inspirational. Because of Bogle’s straightforward writing style, I highly recommend Enough to any reader willing to consider alternative ways of measuring success and achievement.
The Women	Boyle, T.C.	***	3/30/09	Taker. T.C. Boyle’s novel about the wives and mistresses of Frank Lloyd Wright titled, The Women, leaves readers with one clear impression: Mr. Wright got what he wanted. Boyle writes the novel from the later to the earlier periods of Wright’s life. He begins with the wife who survived Wright, Olgivanna. He goes on to Miriam, whose drug addiction and narcissism gave Wright heaps of trouble. Mamah is next, Wright’s soulmate, who is murdered at Taliesin. Then there is Kitty, Wright’s devoted first wife and the mother of his children. Boyle uses as the narrator a student and apprentice at Taliesin, and it is that place that becomes the central core of the novel. As with other Boyle novels, his insights into characters is strong, the use of language precise and finely written (although I only learned two or three new words from this offering,) and the setting described with a precision and clarity that places come alive. The fact that Boyle lives in a house in California that Wright designed gave him an extra level of involvement that helped him explore the personality of this larger-than-life character who packed a lot of complicated living into his twentieth century life.
A Different Life: Growing Up Learning Disabled and Other Adventures	Bradlee, Quinn	***	7/9/09	Candor. Memoirs from authors in their twenties attract readers less from the disclosure of wisdom acquired over decades than from telling a story about something extraordinary and worth reading about in a life at its beginning. Quinn Bradlee’s memoir, A Different Life, tells the story of the first twenty six or so years of his life. The child of Washington Post luminaries Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, the extraordinary story he tells here is a sweet tale of being supported by loving parents as he struggled with learning disabilities and medical problems. After years of illnesses, Quinn was diagnosed at age fourteen with something that’s estimated to impact one in 2,000 people: Velo-Cardio-Facial Syndrome. This genetic syndrome is manifested through multiple physical ailments and learning disabilities. Quinn’s candor in A Different Life led me to wince at times and laugh at others as he tells his story in his own unique way, and without a trace of embarrassment. Any parent of a child with learning disabilities or physical ailments will resonate with what Quinn describes on many of these pages. Through his parents, Quinn has had doors open to him that would be closed to others, and he has used that advantage well in this case as a chance for a young man with learning disabilities to talk about his life and call attention to genetic syndromes that we might not have heard about before reading this book.
Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve	Bragman, Howard	**	9/26/09	Preparedness. Readers looking for plain speaking advice on getting attention and recognition might find some nuggets of interest on the pages of Howard Bragman’s book, Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve. You have to love a publicist with a name like Bragman. He draws from his three decade career in this field to offer readers ways to influence perceptions. For me, I kept turning the pages with a degree of amazement that anyone could spend one’s working life in the public relations field if this is what it is all about.
Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt	Brands, H.W.	****	2/14/09	Confident. The latest book by historian H.W. Brands of the University of Texas is a flattering and readable biography of FDR titled, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I don’t know if there’s much new on these pages, but I can attest that I enjoyed thoroughly all that I read. FDR’s irrepressible confidence exudes from most pages, and his wily craftiness when dealing with just about everyone adds to the joy of reading about this American president. Given the title, I expected a special focus in this book on the animosity of America’s wealthy toward FDR. In many respects, that was a background item: he knew where he came from, and proceeded with confidence to do what he thought needed to be done, no matter how much opposition it created among the most privileged citizens. Brands does an excellent job in deconstructing the complicated relationship between Franklin and Eleanor, in expanding on how FDR’s battle with polio strengthened him, and on the ways in which he drew out the skills of others to get done what could be done. I kept waiting for one of my favorite lines from an FDR speech to appear, but alas it did not. That line was when the patrician Roosevelt began his address to the Daughters of the American Revolution with the line, “Fellow immigrants…” I highly recommend Traitor to His Class to any reader interested in FDR, history, or the challenges of the mid-twentieth century.
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children	Bronson, Po and Ashley Merryman	****	9/21/09	Contradictions. Are common assumptions about good parenting backed by good science? Not really, according to Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in their book, NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children. While it will come as no surprise to parents that kids of all ages (as well as adults) are bundles of contradictions, it was surprising to me to read in this book about all the ways in which scientific studies have turned commonly held notions about children and child rearing upside down. Lying can be a sign of intelligence, and deception seems like a necessary part of developing identity. Those Baby Einstein DVDs: throw them out since they seem to do more harm than good. Whether you’re a parent or not, there’s loads of fascinating information in NurtureShock, especially about the ways in which strategies for nurturing children are backfiring because we’ve overlooked key elements of what science is telling us.
The Lost Symbol	Brown, Dan	***	11/7/09	Revelation. There’s an exciting and entertaining two hundred page book buried inside the 528 pages of Dan Brown’s latest Robert Langdon thriller titled, The Lost Symbol. For readers who find value in pages per dollar, there’s some benefit here in having more pages to turn, which might prolong a reader’s pleasure. For me, the surplus pages riff with exposition that adds little to the novel. Unlike his earlier best sellers which drew heavy criticism from the Catholic Church and increased sales, The Lost Symbol is unlikely to irritate the institutions that Brown describes. In this case, Masonic ceremonies, symbols and buildings are likely to increase the range of Washington, D.C. tourism rather than lead to ire. The entire novel is the revelation to Langdon of a buried symbol long kept secret in Washington. Along the way, the adventure, suspense and plot twists can be entertaining, provided a reader has the patience to put up with superfluous exposition while awaiting the return of action.
Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater	Bruni, Frank	***	12/12/09	Candid. Frank Bruni’s memoir is titled, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. His direct and punchy writing style reveals aspects of his life that most individuals would be too embarrassed to discuss, let alone publish. He presents his insecurities, a serious eating disorder, and lots of quirky behavior that draws readers in, made me laugh often, and by the end of the book, made me feel like this Frank Bruni is an ok guy. An accomplished journalist, he was recently the food critic for The New York Times. Born Round covers that part of his life, which involved lots of eating, as well as his early life, which also involved lots of eating. For much of his life, he’s struggled to keep his weight down. The stories of meals and family members and relationships are hilarious and sometimes sad. The end result is a finely written memoir that reveals with candor a fascinating smorgasbord of the ups and downs of life. Those readers who enjoy eating will especially appreciate Born Round.
America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy	Brzezinski, Zbigniew, Brent Scowcroft and David Ignatius	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir	Buckley, Christopher	****	6/25/09	Devotion. Christopher Buckley’s new memoir, Losing Mum and Pup, focuses on the deaths of his larger-than-life parents, William F. Buckley and Patricia Taylor Buckley, within the same year. Fans of Christopher’s witty fiction will find the same quality of writing in this memoir. As an only child, Christopher discloses the end of life caregiving that can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to caring for strong willed parents. Beneath some of the shots Christopher takes his late parents, his devotion to them, and their devotion to each other come through on these pages. Through his writing skill, Buckley allows readers to share his mourning, and come close to experiencing his grief. I was teary after reading some of these pages. The anecdotes from their lives and their dying are packed with vivid description and with all the issues that any family faces. After reading this memoir, I found myself recounting some of the Buckley family stories to friends. Losing Mum and Pup captures the laughter and tears of living and dying in ways that will make readers reflect on our own relationships and losses of loved ones as well as the elements that constitute a life well-lived.
Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future	Bunch, Will	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
The Glister	Burnside, John	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes	Burrough, Bryan	****	6/9/09	Characters. Texans and Texas always seem to be larger than life. In his book, The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, Bryan Burrough presents a cast of larger than life characters and their personal stories that combine to tell memorable stories about rags to riches to not-quite-rags. The big four oil fortunes are covered in detail, those created by Roy Cullen, H.L. Hunt, Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson. There are side stories about lesser luminaries that add to a reader’s understanding of the times and the impact of these individuals on life today. Burrough’s framework is that of a journalist more than a historian, but his research seems thorough, and there’s a liveliness to his writing that makes these stories a pleasure to read. The pratfalls of these characters wouldn’t be believable in fiction, but these individuals provided ample material for a book twice the size of this one, say Texas-sized. For sheer entertainment value, read The Big Rich, and enjoy the bonus of learning a lot about Texas big oil money.
The Signal	Carlson, Ron	***	7/9/09	Perils. Ron Carlson presents the character Mack as a 2009 Everyman in his short novel, The Signal. Set over six days in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, Mack is camping with his ex-wife, Vonnie, in the hope of restoring their relationship. He withholds from Vonnie a second reason for their trip: Mack is trying to make some money from crooks who want him to find a piece of military hardware that crashed in those mountains. The title refers to the transmission that Mack is trying to locate via a BlackBerry that will allow him to recover the missing hardware. Mack was recently released from jail, he’s losing the family farm, drinks too much and continues to make bad choices. Mack is also competent: he knows these mountains well, and even when he’s at his worst, he’s able to move forward. Like each of us, Mack has made mistakes, chosen poorly, and has worked in ways that make him skilled. Carlson wastes no words on the pages of The Signal: his prose includes vivid description, clear dialogue and ways of moving the plot forward efficiently.
Practicing Catholic	Carroll, James	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009. I read as far as page 96 and got bored.
Jericho’s Fall	Carter, Stephen L.	****	8/22/09	Suspense. A good thriller maintains suspense throughout the novel, and Stephen Carter accomplishes that well with his new novel, Jericho’s Fall. Jericho Ainsley is a former CIA director, former Secretary of Defense and former White House National Security Advisor. After he was brought down by an affair with Rebecca DeForde (Beck), he worked for a financial firm and may have pulled off a huge fraud scheme. Most of the action is set in a small town in the Colorado Rockies, where Jericho is dying of cancer, and he calls Beck, whom he has not seen in fifteen years, to come to his bedside. The potential revelation of CIA secrets causes Jericho’s enemies to take action to protect their interests. Unlike Carter’s earlier novels, there’s less complexity and depth in Jericho’s Fall. This straightforward approach produces a pure thriller that I found to be an exciting book to read and enjoy.
How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities	Cassidy, John	****	12/10/09	Ideas. John Cassidy’s new book, How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities is a call for reality based economics. This is a book of ideas, along the lines of Economics 201. Cassidy explains in plain language the ideas behind lots of economic theories, and how some dominant theories have come in and out of favor. I especially enjoyed his exploration of rational irrationality. For those readers who are looking for an understanding of the context in which the recent financial crisis occurred, there’s a viewpoint expressed here that shows the consequences of the expectation that markets are self-correcting. How Markets Fail is well written, and will provide every reader with some increased level of understanding.
Await Your Reply	Chaon, Dan	***	9/19/09	Identity. Who are we, really? Who are those others, really? Dan Chaon’s fine prose riffs on identity in his new novel. Await Your Reply. The title refers to those e-mails asking strangers for one’s help, especially in getting money out of foreign countries. While identity theft plays a part in Await Your Reply, the larger questions dominate as three connected stories play forward and backward for a reader’s alert engagement. Orphaned Lucy Lattimore leaps at the chance to leave the constraints of her small town with her Maserati-driving high school history teacher, George Orson. Miles Cheshire searches for his twin brother, Hayden, whom he hasn’t seen in 10 years. Ryan Schuyler has found his birth father, Jay Kozekek, and from their base in Saginaw, Michigan, they are running identity theft schemes. Nothing and no one is what it appears to be, and reading Await Your Reply can bring joy or frustration to readers, depending on one’s tolerance for surprise.
Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction	Cheever, Susan	**	1/17/09	Musings. Susan Cheever muses about her own life and shares personal stories and insight in her new book, Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction. I finished the book drawing the conclusion that anything can be addictive, and that we don’t know the cause of addiction. Cheever doesn’t pretend to be an expert on addiction, but addiction has been a constant companion throughout her life. By the end of the book, I was thinking that Cheever might be addicted to addiction, and has come to see it everywhere. Her musings are interesting to read, and I felt a bit of a voyeur as she disclosed some of the embarrassments of her life.
Creative Capitalism	Clarke, Conor and Michael Kinsley, editors	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
Little Bee	Cleave, Chris	***	4/18/09	Refugee. Evil, injustice and inequality remain abstract concepts until they become personal. In Chris Cleave’s new novel, Little Bee, the plight of refugees becomes vivid through the character Little Bee. With some contrivance, Cleave brings the refugee experience home to England, because of the experience of characters Andrew and Sarah on a beach in Nigeria where they were on a brief vacation. As the lives of Sarah and Little Bee intersect, they both become survivors in a world where compassion may be needed on a broad scale, but can be implemented only by one person at a time. Cleave’s fine storytelling will keep most readers enthralled to the last page, and reflective for many days afterwards.
Ballistics	Collins, Billy	***	1/27/09	Charming. There are 56 poems in Billy Collins’ latest collection titled, Ballistics, after the title of one of the poems. In several of the poems, the narrator/poet is drinking tea, and so was I while reading most of these poems in spurts of three or four at a time. I’m sure that while I enjoyed his self-deprecating lines about poetry, himself, and other poets, I didn’t know the poets to whom he referred, even when he made it pretty easy to figure out. That in no way detracted from my enjoyment of these poems. Collins is assessable and charming as poets go, and his style brings me a lot of reading pleasure. The efficient way in which he notes the ordinary, and creates a few lines of beautiful poetry from everyday things, belies the skill it takes to come across with such apparent ease. Sit down with a cup of tea and read a poem or two. Relax and note something about the ordinary that displays beauty in your life.
Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else	Colvin, Geoff	****	4/18/09	Practice. Geoff Colvin expanded his Fortune article, “What It Takes to Be Great,” into an evidence-based book titled, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. Colvin renounces the notion that leaders are born with innate talent, and shows how disciplined forms of deliberate practice lead to remarkable success. The practice he describes may not be the practice that many of us follow, but his presentation is compelling about how the right kind of repetitive practice leads to extraordinary success. You may be just 10,000 hours away from world-class performance. After reading Talent Is Overrated, you may think differently about talent, and about Mozart. Read it to find out why.
The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington	Conant, Jennet	***	2/19/09	Overflowing. The late Steve Allen brought historical characters to life on his series Meeting of Minds. Were that show still broadcast, I can now think of another fascinating person for him to assemble at an eclectic table for conversation: Roald Dahl. Having known Dahl as the author of Willy Wonka and James and the Giant Peach, I became aware of the rest of his life thanks to Jennet Conant’s book, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. After this fighter pilot career in the Royal Air Force was cut short by illness, Dahl was assigned to the British Embassy in Washington in 1942, and joined an effort to influence American public opinion toward the war in Europe. The suave and debonair Dahl became enmeshed in social circles, and ate, drank and slept his way into relationships that helped the British achieve their objectives. In Conant’s depiction, Dahl is “a man in full,” overflowing with charm, intelligence, and a physical presence that made him capable of influencing those with or near power. This is a readable and enjoyable tale of a fascinating time, and is packed with intriguing characters.
Elsewhere, U.S.A.	Conley, Dalton	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009
South of Broad	Conroy, Pat	***	11/25/09	Fate. Pat Conroy’s first novel in fourteen years, South of Broad, is a sweeping love story of Charleston, South Carolina. The large cast of wounded and hurt characters are bound together by friendship, marriage, and fate. Conroy’s lyrical writing delivers passion about people and place, and kept me engaged in their lives from the first page through the last. I often find novels over three hundred pages in length to become bloated, but with South of Broad, Conroy uses over 500 pages with care, needing each page to bring the people and places to life. The social issues Conroy covers on these pages are done with courage and empathy. There’s a depth to each character, and a backstory that added to my appreciation of this novel. Like most good novels, South of Broad grabbed me, and wouldn’t let me go until I surrendered myself to Conroy’s world.
Agincourt	Cornwell, Bernard	***	2/14/09	Violence. There were times during my reading of Bernard Cornwell’s Agincourt that I had to put the book down, close my eyes and try to remove the images of violence and bloodshed from my mind. Cornwell does what good writers of historical fiction attempt: transport readers into the time and place while maintain much historical accuracy, and add fictional characters and dialogue that brings history to life in the form of the impact of major events on ordinary lives. In this case, most readers already know from Shakespeare or elsewhere what happened in this battle in France in October 1415. Cornwell leads readers into the battle with a few hundred pages of buildup that sets a context and presents characters that make the novel a story of people as much as the event itself. Agincourt’s protagonist is Nick Hook, a perfect English name (one can almost hear Rowan Atkinson pronouncing it with heavy emphasis on that “k” consonant). Nick is a talented archer at a time when England’s archers delivered mass destruction to the enemies of King Henry V. Nick becomes an outlaw after a long family feud leads to trouble at home. He runs away and is taken under the wing of a warrior-lord who prizes Nick’s skills. Nick’s exploits include his rescue of the bastard daughter of a French lord from being raped in the convent where she is a novice nun. The battle scenes are bloody, the violence almost constant, and the pace of the story brisk. The 460 pages turned rapidly, interrupted only when I needed to cleanse by brain from all the violence.
100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth's Most Endangered Species	Corwin, Jeff	**	9/19/09	Survival. Jeff Corwin’s new book, 100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth’s Most Endangered Species, is a plea for us all to do the right thing and save those animals that are closest to extinction. He describes the plight of several species that face habitat erosion, poaching, invasive predators and other severe threats to survival. Readers who love animals will feel great sadness from some of his stories in 100 Heartbeats. Corwin also notes several successful efforts to help species survive. After presenting his vivid examples of the problem, he concludes with the realistic assessment that we face a matter of resource allocation, and that the costs of species conservation are small in relation to other problems that receive significant resources. His argument never quite convinced me, inclined though I am toward conservation. He did help me realize that what we do to reverse global warming will help those animals whose habitat is threatened by that problem. I’m just not convinced that the priority he expects to address the problem of extinction can be achieved given the multiple challenges demanding resources around the world.
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work	Crawford, Matthew B.	****	8/18/09	Reliance. Matthew Crawford’s new book, Shop Class as Soulcraft is a philosophical treatise calling for manual competence: the mastery of one’s own stuff that can lead to happiness and fulfillment. Some frustrated cubicle workers will find hope on these pages, and those who work successfully with their hands may feel affirmation and recognition. We depend on one another in our connected world, and understanding the value of all kinds of work can be helpful as we exchange skills and talents with others. At its core, this book is a work of philosophy, and can be a bit plodding at times to make a point. In anyone’s search for the good life, reading Shop Class as Soulcraft can be a useful way of thinking about what leads to satisfaction and joy. For some of us, it can be as simple as taking something apart and putting it back together.
Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History	Crile, George	Unread		Shelf of Ennui 2009. Saw the movie and read most of the book.
Everything Matters!	Currie, Jr., Ron	****	6/9/09	Possibilities. Part of the natural order is that all things come to an end. Whether we like the idea or not, each of us will one day die. Ron Currie, Jr.’s new novel, Everything Matters!, explores the theme that we face an infinite number of choices in life, and those choices become connected with others, and have consequences that make a real difference, hence the title. Protagonist Junior Thibodeau hears voices and has precognition from infancy. He dreams with clarity and specificity that Earth will be destroyed by a comet on June 15, 2010. Junior’s considerable intelligence leads him in one set of choices to save the world. Along the way he realizes that there is no way to avoid the tragedies of living: both the good and the bad matter. Deliverance or salvation comes from living, not from avoiding life. We will all die, most of us just don’t know the date, so why would knowing the date make a difference in how we choose to live? Junior chooses another possible set of choices, and that approach to life also has consequences, both good and bad. Everything Matters! could be considered a philosophical novel and would provide for lively discussion by any book club. Junior could be compared to Jesus, and the ensuing “what would Jesus do?” conversation would be animated. Currie’s characters are thoughtfully constructed, and his prose includes fine dialogue, vivid descriptions and remarkable creativity. Everything Matters! is a joy to read, and left me thinking and reflecting long after I turned the last page.
Medusa	Cussler, Clive	**	6/25/09	Reliable. The latest Kurt Austin novel from Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos is titled Medusa. In this outing, the NUMA hero tackles the exploits of a Chinese gang who are trying to overthrow the government through the spread of a virus, and have stolen an undersea lab that is developing a cure by using jellyfish toxins. While the action can be adrenaline-packed at times, and the structure of the novel follows Cussler’s typical formula, most of the writing is weak, and the extremes of character development: super-heroes and super-villains leave little room for the nuances found in most real personalities. So many of the entrances and exits of both heroes and villains were unlikely and unexplained that I found myself laughing when one or the other made a slippery getaway. I find most of Cussler’s novel to be the Lay’s Potato Chips of action novels: reliable in taste, one you start, you’ll probably finish, and in the end, it’s still junk food. For a summer escape that doesn’t require any thinking, consider picking up Medusa for a few hours of mild entertainment.
Spartan Gold