A Pigeon Sings

The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin
Review by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jimmy Breslin made me an offer I couldn't refuse: a book with mobsters, crooked cops, a turncoat, and a trial in which a stool pigeon sings about the mafia's secrets.

Journalist Breslin made a career of following the mafia, writing of Queens, NY from the street-level. In The Good Rat he writes of the 2006 trial of two police detectives as they are brought down by the testimony of Burton Kaplan, an aging man with thick mob ties, who decided to come clean in hopes of seeing the outside again and spending time with his family before he dies.

As they are described, you can smell the streets and even feel as if you've walked into the mob-frequented bars alongside the writer, who spent much of his time in such joints. But beyond even that, Breslin's real talent is in creating a mind's eye image of these almost larger-than-life characters. I call these real-life men "characters," because what else do you call men with nicknames like Gaspipe, The Clam, Fat Tony and Three-Finger Brown?

The Good Rat masterfully interweaves the trial with NY mafia history, going back and forth to illuminate some time, place or person mentioned during Kaplan's testimony. Conversely, this background info is presented to set up thrilling reveals during the trial.

Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Is a rat ever good? Sure, he's helping to put away some men who did terrible things, but after all, he wouldn't have the information with which to dig their graves unless he himself had gotten his hands dirty.

View all my reviews

The Great Boobie Juice Debate

Bottled Up: How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood, and Why It Shouldn’t by Suzanne Barston
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Strident yet understanding and always smart, Bottled Up is a thoughtful argument for chillaxing on the women that formula-feed their babies as opposed to breastfeeding them.

As the "Fearless Formula Feeders" blog master, Los Angeles Family Magazine Editor-in-Chief Suzanne Barston stands as a sort of champion for reluctant-but-proud bottle feeders and those women who wanted to breastfeed, but for whatever reason, can not. In Bottled Up she fights back - not against breastfeeding, but against the nonsense flung upon mothers who nourish their infants on formula, a product much maligned recently.

With Barston's own sad-but-humorously-relayed tale and those of others woven into the argument, the book is highly entertaining and more importantly, informative. In fact, the notes, reference and further reading section takes up nearly a fifth of this thoroughly researched book. The real life stories are suspenseful, hair-raising and even occasionally blood-chilling. In some instances, this hot topic has affected life and death situations. It's not all doom and gloom, however, as Barston interjects welcome wit and mood-lightening humor just enough to keep things from becoming too depressing.

As a baby-less, non-breastfeeding man, I can't say that I was too aware of the apparently vicious battle going on between the two camps. Certainly I knew that breastfeeding was considered the healthier choice, but having come from a time when pretty much all people my age (including myself I believe) were bottle-fed formula as infants, I didn't think it was such a big deal. IT IS! Holy Moses, there are some mean-ass ladies out there casting down condemnation and fiery vitriol upon women who would DARE feed their babies formula this day and age. Barston does a hell of a job countering their arguments with very valid reasons for why, in some circumstances, the correct choice is formula. I welcomed this informative look into a sub-world war, if you will, that someone in my position would normally not be privy to.

Claire Dewitt and the Bohemian Highway

CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE BOHEMIAN HIGHWAY

Sara Gran

2013 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Reviewed by Carol

4 of 5 stars

 

Excerpt:

“‘That’s wonderful,’ I said.

‘Do you really think so?’ Lydia said. ‘Do you really think it’s wonderful?’

Did I really think it was wonderful? Wonderful was probably an exaggeration. I thought it was fine. Maybe even good. I couldn’t say the last time I thought anything was exactly wonderful. This implied more joy than I may ever have felt. But that was what she wanted to hear.’”

Claire is a mess. A word of advice to those that allow her in their homes–keep your drugs locked up, as she’ll be in the medicine cabinet hunting for Valium and oxycodone as soon as your back is turned. You know Claire. I was friends with her in college. I’m not precisely sure if I love the character, or my memory of the Claire-like friend. Beautiful. Burning with intelligence. Supremely dysfunctional in an utterly honest way. Prone to exploiting and helping those around her in equal amounts.  Not with maliciousness, mind you; more an instinctual focus on meeting her own needs, her desperate attempt to fill the holes in her psyche. And yet, despite all those dysfunctional behaviors, it’s heartache for friends to walk away. (Come to think of it, I’m in a Claire-like relationship with a certain book site right now).

Set in San Francisco some time after Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Claire has set out her detective shingle in her usual ambivalent way, unloading much of her work on her new assistant–a former medieval history student who was strangely drawn to a certain detective how-to book he accidentally discovered in the library. One night, she is awakened by the police calling her; this time, they are hoping that she can offer solace to the wife of an old friend, Paul. Little does the officer know Paul and Claire were star-crossed lovers, and his death might just be the result of damage a decade in the making. The story ricochets between two main cases, the case of Paul’s murder (aka ‘The Case of the Kali Yuga’) and the long-ago case of Claire’s missing Chloe (‘The Case of the End of the World’), but like we already know from Jacques Stilette, Claire’s really solving the mystery of herself.

“But then I felt tense, and the moment turned yellow and eerie, like the moment when the clouds have gathered and the light turns before it starts to storm. Like in a movie when you see a couple looking so happy and alive, but you knew when you brought your ticket: This wasn’t a story about love. This was a story about murder.”

I picked up the book once, and after a chapter in, realized my schedule was too busy to fully commit to Claire (no allowing her near my medicine cabinet). Once I cleared a little space, I picked it up again and was rapidly re-impressed by Gran’s ability to weave a tale. Once again, she astounds me with her writing, particularly her ability to capture small explosions of emotion with direct, profound simplicity. 

When someone says, ‘oh, that detective book you guys like,’ referencing the book  Détection which gave shape and purpose to the teenage Claire’s life, the response is:

“This book we liked. Like this air we breathed, this sun that shone on us.”

Thankfully, the heartache of Claire’s past case and the destruction of the current one are leavened with Gran’s sly humor. Sometimes, it’s in Claire’s descriptions:

“He had on a worn bathrobe over pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and fake leather slippers that had seen better days, although I think it would be fair to say that none of their days had been exactly good.”

And sometimes, it’s the side cases, such as when Claire and her assistant take on a case of missing miniature horses:

“My theory was that the little fellow were running away to try to get some big boy genes back in the mix, or maybe committing suicide. I made a mental note to research equine suicides.”

One of the most sorrowful aspects of the book is Claire’s gradual implosion. Though she knows investigation won’t bring Paul back, she can’t help picking at the pieces of his life and their relationship. She ends up doing endless amounts of drugs in an attempt to mitigate the pain. It happens slowly, piecemeal, but one of the first signs is Claire’s exhaustion:

“Maybe that was all there was to life. One long case, only you kept switching roles. Detective, witness, client, suspect. Then one day I’d be the victim instead of the detective or the client and it would all be over. Then I’d finally have a fucking day off.”

Gran’s sophisticated layering of social commentary isn’t present at the same level as City of the Dead, despite the potential of San Francisco. The enormous dichotomy of the city– tech/hippies, billionaires/street-dwellers, society mavens/potheads–remains largely unexploited. Instead, analysis is more subdued, tossed into asides:

“Besides, she and Paul didn’t live so high on the hog. Other than their house in the Mission, which had cost about a billion dollars, they lived like everyone else, except they didn’t worry about money while they did it.”

As an aside, I enjoyed following Gran on Facebook before she deleted her account. Perhaps I conflated her with Claire, but she had a fascinating mix of posts: old Hollywood photos, art, random laughs, New York news and feminism.  One time, there was a post full of irritation, bemoaning the male gaze that evaluated all women by their ‘fuckability,’ which resonated with me for a number of reasons. It was no surprise then, to find Claire sharing her own bon mots on the concept of ‘pretty’:

“On the other hand, a pretty girl is always the object, never the subject. People think you’re dumb and treat you accordingly, which is sometimes helpful but always annoying. I figure once you hit thirty it’s diminishing returns on your investment anyway. Might as well move on and put your money into more useful skills.”

The time shifts between the two cases were done well, and I found myself equally invested in both stories. Both felt real: the teenagers looking for identity in the face of absent parents felt familiar; Claire’s current desperation and mourning felt painfully so. Unfortunately, the ending was less than satisfactory. There was a sudden group of short, choppy chapters, a kalediscope of fragments wrapping up a tale. And, could that be? A cliff-hanger ending?  Given Gran’s general writing style and her preference for stand-alone books, I am–like all the times I forgave my Claire-like friend–completely willing to blame an editor or a publisher. And buy the next book.


Do I recommend it? Absolutely, if you’ve read the first. It won’t work for everyone, but it is an unusual, profoundly heartbreaking tale.


Cross-posted at:  http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/claire-dewitt-and-the-bohemian-highway-by-sara-gran/

The Drowned Cities

Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Reviewed by: Nancy
4 out of 5 stars

Summary

In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.

This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.

My Review

Being unemployed can be nice. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to read a book all the way through, barely stopping for meals or a drink. Since this was such a page-turner, I surely would have been late to work or missed an appointment.

Though this is the sequel to Ship Breaker, there is a different set of characters. Mahlia and Mouse are two young refugees who fled their home to escape the terrible violence going on in the Drowned Cities. Now they are in the care of Dr. Mahfouz, a man with a peaceful heart whose life is devoted to caring for others. Mahlia is invaluable as the doctor’s assistant, despite her lack of a right hand which was chopped off by the Army of God. Though they have a good life with the doctor, they are still outsiders, constantly reminded of the fact they are “castoffs” or “war maggots.”

Their lives change drastically when they discover the severely wounded Tool, who is a “half-man” engineered for war. Part tiger, part hyena, part dog, and part man, Tool has exceptional strength and endurance. He also has retained human characteristics, which makes him a really fascinating character.

Once Tool receives the antiobiotics he needs to survive, the doctor decides to return to the village which is now overrun with soldiers and Mahlia has a choice to return to her village or to flee with Tool. Mouse returns to the village and finds his life is irrevocably changed, as he is armed, branded and now a soldier. Mahlia is strong, brave, determined and risks her life and safety to get Mouse back.

This story is not as action-packed as the first, but the character development is much stronger and the story is considerably darker. It explores the physical and psychological effects of war – on children, families, communities and infrastructure.

It is brutal, harrowing, sad, frightening, and humane. It lacked the fun and adventure of Ship Breaker, but I was absorbed into the story instantly and unable to stop reading until I was done.

Because of the graphic situations, I would recommend this to older teens.

I love Bacigalupi’s writing and can’t wait to read his adult books!

Also posted at Goodreads.

China Mountain Zhang

China Mountain Zhang

Maureen F. McHugh

Reviewed by Zorena

Four Stars

Summary

Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee.
With this groundbreaking novel, Maureen F. McHugh established herself as one of the decade's best science fiction writers. In its pages, we enter a postrevolution America, moving from the hyperurbanized eastern seaboard to the Arctic bleakness of Baffin Island; from the new Imperial City to an agricultural commune on Mars. The overlapping lives of cyberkite fliers, lonely colonists, illicit neural-pressball players, and organic engineers blend into a powerful, taut story of a young man's journey of discovery. This is a macroscopic world of microscopic intensity, one of the most brilliant visions of modern SF.

My review

I'm not sure what I expected from this book but considering all its awards and nominations I was hoping it was legitimately good. I got what I hoped for. While I love space opera and action styled science fiction, I also love a good character driven story. This falls into the latter category.

I gravitate towards the more specific genres of science fiction such as dystopian, post apoc and cyber punk because they are topics that I've put some thought into. So has McHugh. A Chinese dominated dystopian society is not one I've even considered and add into the mix the fact that the main character is also gay. It made for some really good backdrop, dialogue and therefore good reading. It could even be said this is an alternate universe as it doesn't feel like a distant future.

There are many subplots that almost weave into one. All of them do touch on the main character at one point or another but not all are resolved or are they resolved very obliquely. Which didn't seem to matter to me because I was so caught up in Zhang's character.

I also loved the glimpses into some future or possible current tech. Nothing too earth shattering but the swim suits were a fascinating concept and totally plausible. I'm glad I delved into this book before I ventured into some other current dystopian novels where the emphasis seems to be more on the physical horror.

Failed to Get Under My Skin

Embedded
by Dan Abnett
Published by Angry Robot

2 Out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Amanda 

Embedded is set in a future where humans have begun to colonize other planets. Eighty-Six is the most recent settlement and it's where universe-weary, award-winning journalist Lex Falk has arrived to investigate rumors of political unrest and a military lockdown on all information leaving the planet. Falk's clout gets him embedded with the military, but it's not until he's approached by a clandestine party that can actually embed him into the body of Nestor Bloom, a combat soldier, that he gets the real story about what's happening on Eighty-Six.

Elmore Leonard famously advised "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip." If Dan Abnett had taken this approach, the novel could have been about 150 pages shorter and far more enjoyable. He has apparently never met a simile that he's not keen on rubbing up against.

The book is far too descriptive and I know many people might argue that such is necessary for believable world-building, a sentiment with which I might normally agree. If you're going to present me with an alien world, I want to see it. The problem here is that Eighty-Six isn't much different from Earth. There are no alien life forms, no exotic landscapes, no cultural clashes. And yet Abnett is always keen to tell us what shade of blue the sky is and what the green trees in the forest look like. Other than the existence of "blurds" (some form of insect/bird hybrid), there's really nothing unusual about the setting. And there's nothing particularly futuristic other than the ubiquitous presence of a poison called Insect-Aside and apparently inorganic foodstuffs that always end with the suffix "-effect" (such as chicken parmigiana-effect, which can be washed down with a can of tasty NoCal cola-effect). Even the tech through which Falk is embedded into Bloom is clichéd--Falk is suspended in a Jung tank, which is just a clever name for the science fiction trope of a womb-like tank in which Falk is suspended in a viscous, amniotic-like liquid. None of this is particularly bad, but none of it is particularly good--and it's been done much better before.

The book takes forever to get going, developing characters and relationships that are promptly jettisoned as soon as Falk is embedded within Bloom. The actual embedding--the part of the story with the most promise--missed out on so many opportunities to explore the psychological issues of dwelling within another's mind. If Bloom and Falk had been inhabiting the same consciousness throughout most of the narrative, there could have been some really standout scenes. However, Falk is simply a repressed observer, a passenger, within Bloom until Bloom is shot in the head. At this point, Bloom becomes an unconscious passenger in his own body and Falk has to take over, a plot that still has some possibility as Falk is not a trained soldier. However, every time Falk gets into a jam, Bloom's muscle memory arrives to save the day, allowing Falk to blast his way out of every inconvenience with which he comes into contact. When Bloom is shot and his persona disappears, the book basically becomes a stripped down version of Avatar, only without the aliens.

Other issues include:

1. From what I can tell, the U.S. is now the United Status (no explanation is given for this) and the army with which Falk is embedded seems to be U.S. As a result, all of the British spellings for words seem incongruous and often jarring. A minor pet peeve, I understand, but there it is.

2. So we're apparently centuries into the future, colonizing planets, and the two dominant powers are the U.S. and the Bloc, who speak Russian and whose military vehicles are all adorned with red stars. That's right--we're fighting a Cold War with the Communist Bloc in outer space. I might forgive this in a piece of 1950's science fiction, but in 2013? We can't come up with a fresh new narrative for who the bad guys are?

3. It is never made clear as to how Bloom's body is still functioning after he's been shot in the head, right below the eye. The mental image I kept getting as Falk tried to will Bloom's body to do his bidding was Weekend at Bernie's in military garb.

4. The ending. What. The. Freek®. So, in the last 10 pages, Falk actually, against all plot odds, discovers something half ass interesting. But that's the thing--only half ass. We don't get the whole ass. What he finds is only hinted at and the repercussions are ambiguous. Basically, it took 400 pages to get to the real story and then it just stops. I wanted to hit something and hit something hard when I reached the end.

5. The whole use of Freek® as a linguistic patch that prohibits a person from using any expletive other than "Freek."

In the end, I can only offer this advice: read John Scalzi.

The Cold Touch of Magic

The Night Watch

Sean Stewart

Ace

Reviewed by: Terry 

4 out of 5 stars

 

Sean Stewart is one of those writers I used to buy sight unseen (before he unfortunately dropped out of writing novels and decided to devote his time to writing interactive online games). His books tend to be very character driven, something I personally like, and he has an individual writing style that manages to be 'writerly' without getting bogged down in stylistic tricks.

Basically it is the story of a future earth in the year 2074 after an inundation of magic has flooded the world (this flood started soon after WWII in Stewart's timeline) and only pockets of human civilization are left in the sea of wild and magical frontiers (in this the story can be seen as a member of the same universe as _Resurrection Man_ and _Galveston_). The novel concentrates on two societies, the Southside, which is a relatively technological and militaristic state located where Edmonton used to be and Chinatown, located in the appropriate region of Vancouver. The former community has made a Faustian deal with the spirits that haunt the Northside in return for the opportunity to be left alone, while the latter lives in the midst of its spirits, especially the three godlike, and archetypal, beings the Dragon, the Lady and the Monkey and the beastlike barbarians (magically mutated humans from the initial magical explosion).

Following the lives of several intertwined groups of characters from each community, Stewart examines the dynamics of these two opposing points of view in an era where the high tide of magic is finally starting to recede and, as ever, human machinations and politics attempt to take advantage of the situation.

Stewart manages to populate his world with many interesting, and realistic, characters. None of them are painted in black-and-white terms and even the 'villians' have realistic motivations that point to a multi-faceted melding of both self-interest and even love of community. The real star of the book for me, though (even with Stewart's finely realized and well-drawn characters) was the world itself. It is a world we can recognize, and yet at the same time it is completely alien. The small enclaves of humanity fighting for survival in a world that can barely be understood in the rational terms humanity had been wont to apply to it before the 'Dream' overtook them are intriguing reflections of both humanity's ever-present willingness to fight against the odds, as well as an acknowledgment of the myriad of ways in which this can be done. In many ways I felt that Stewart had managed to capture the air of the medieval romance (in terms of world-building if not in style or content) with the minor 'kingdoms' of humanity placed in the midst of the ever encroaching 'wild wood'...a place where demons and ghosts walked and adventures or power might be bought, though at a very high price. The lure of the dream-world is always in contention with the obligations and comforts of human society.

I also like the way in which Stewart paints magic. It is a wild and largely uncontrollable force, though as mentioned certain deals can be made with it in exchange for ability or power. It seems to me to be an appropriate way to look at something that truly is the reverse of 'science' in that while magic does follow certain rules these are more along the lines of adhering to agreements and obligations than being a cookie-cutter 'physics of magic' where spells of fireball or lightning can be produced given the proper reagents and incantation. It is a force that is mysterious and wild, in that sense at least it mirrors nature, though it cannot be easily understood or defined by rules of cause and effect in any systematic way.

The story itself deals with the beginning, and dissolution, of relations between the Southside and Chinatown as we see the leaders from each community vying for power and control. In the midst of this the heir to Southside's virtual king must make a choice that will determine not only her own future and safety, but that of her people and one of the 'heirs' to a great power of Chinatown must come to terms with her place in the world and her familial relationships as well. This book, like all of Stewart's, is primarily about human relationships. He examines how they grow, and end, in the midst of stress and change. He also looks at the price they exact upon us and the give-and-take that must be accepted in our attempts to balance our personal and individual desires with our public and communal responsibilities.

All in all _The Night Watch_ is a great book. It's a well-written story of human relationships set against a backdrop of conflict and magic in a world that could almost, but not quite, be our own.

Also posted at Goodreads

Dark Love

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
1847
Reviewed by Diane K. M.
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars



I was not prepared for how bleak this book was. I had seen movie versions of Wuthering Heights, but this was my first time reading the novel, and it was much darker than I expected.

So many of the characters are utterly unlikable! Cathy is selfish and foolish and obstinate; Heathcliff is brutal and vengeful and psychotic; Hindley is spiteful and venomous and a drunkard. And when Edgar and Isabella Linton enter the story, everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

Why, oh why, did Cathy marry Edgar when she admitted she loved Heathcliff? As a reader, I wanted to shake her and scream at her that she was making a disastrous choice. Let's hear it from Cathy herself: "I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heatchliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."

Yes, I know Cathy felt she couldn't marry Heathcliff because of his low birth and lack of education, but considering how isolated they were in Yorkshire, did it really matter that much? Was that Bronte's point -- that disobeying one's heart by following the courtship rules of one's social class caused suicidal and homicidal ravings?

I agreed with Heathcliff when he later scolded Cathy for her decision: "You teach me now how cruel you've been -- cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight you -- they'll damn you. You loved me -- then what right had you to leave me? What right -- answer me -- for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart -- you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine."

There was such violence in this book! Women are beaten and locked up; children are bullied and abused; punches are thrown, shots are fired, and even dogs are kicked and hung. Egad. I can imagine how shocking it must have been to the good folks of England when it was published in 1847, learning that not only did a woman write it (gasp!), but that she was a clergyman's daughter (double gasp!), and the story involved a married woman having a tryst with another man. The horror!

Despite not liking the darkness of the novel, I thought the writing was good and the structure was interesting: the servant Nelly Dean relates the history of the doomed love affair to an outsider. The servant was an interloper and kept informed on events in both houses. I can't imagine a more effective way to tell the story of the love triangle. I wouldn't trust either Heathcliff or Cathy or one of the children as a narrator, they might only tell their parent's side of things. Of course, it's also interesting that Nelly Dean may not be a reliable narrator either. She often edits and omits what she tells the master; why should we believe she'd tell an outsider the whole truth?

It took me twice as long to get through this novel as it should have -- it was so bleak that I was hesitant to pick it up. The only other Bronte sister book I've read was Jane Eyre, which I liked very much, but that love story at least has some warmth in it. In contrast, Wuthering Heights left me feeling cold and bitter. I'm glad I've read it, but I won't be rereading it anytime soon.

Missouri Boy Makes Good

Truman by David McCullough
1992
Reviewed by Diane K. M.
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I was shocked that a presidential biography could be so good. Many readers had praised the Truman book, but I thought they were exaggerating. I was happy to be proven wrong.

I think there are several reasons why "Truman" was so compelling. First and most importantly was the man himself. So epic was his odyssey that Truman seemed like a character in a novel. Harry S. Truman was born in a small town in Missouri and he grew up on a farm. He was bookish, played the piano and wore glasses, which prevented him from playing sports. He enlisted in the National Guard and fought during World War I. Then he returned home to run a clothing store, and was asked to run for county judge. Later, he became a U.S. Senator, and then he was picked to be Franklin Roosevelt's vice president in 1944. He became president when FDR died in April 1945.

Epic and astounding, yes? Truman comes across as a decent, hardworking, loyal, honest and down-to-earth guy. It's hard not to root for him -- he was so genuine.

Another reason the book was so good was the brilliance of the writing. McCullough is a skilled historian and he wove a beautiful narrative. Truman was a prolific writer of letters, and many details and quotes in the book came from those epistles. I loved the stories of Truman's courtship of his wife, Bess, of his dream to be a concert pianist, of his battle experiences during the Great War, of his senator campaign, of his unlikely path to become vice president, of his whistle stop tour. Marvelous, just marvelous stories.

Finally, there is the knowledge that Truman was such a key figure in American and world history. He had to take command at the close of World War II, he chose to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he decided to send American troops to Korea, and he ushered in a new kind of foreign policy for the United States. Each of those events was incredibly significant and had lasting consequences.

One aspect that I found especially interesting was how Truman handled the atomic bombs. After he became president, he was briefed on the Manhattan Project -- which had started way back in 1939 -- and was told the nuclear weapon would be ready within a few months. I had assumed there would have been some serious debate over whether to use such a bomb, but it sounded like the project was so far advanced that Truman didn't consider turning back. The goal of dropping it was to shock the Japanese into surrendering and quickly ending the war, but it was still jarring and disturbing to hear about the casualties inflicted. (Having read John Hersey's book "Hiroshima," I was picturing the devastation on the ground, and I had to pause in silence for several minutes.)

Speaking of controversial decisions, apparently some historians have criticized McCullough for not being tough enough on Truman. It was clear that the author held the former president in high esteem, but as a reader, McCullough's narrative made it a more enjoyable book. If I wanted to read a harsh polemic on Truman's wartime and foreign policies, I wouldn't have chosen an 1,100-page biography. That's what newspaper columnists are for.

I listened to "Truman" on audio that was narrated by McCullough, and he had a fantastic reading voice. The recording included various sound bites from Truman's speeches, which were wonderful to hear. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves history.

Some Love for the Hard Case Crime series

The Vengeful Virgin by Gil Brewer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, she was a virgin at some point...

The story is straight out of the James M. Cain playbook. Jack Ruxton, a broke TV repairman, hooks up with a teenage temptress, Shirley Angela. Shirley and Jack plot to rid Shirley of her invalid stepfather and get her vast inheritance. Almost immediately, things get shot to hell...

The Vengeful Virgin is a thrill ride of conspiracy, murder, sex, and insanity. Gil Brewer's prose is similar to Lawrence Block's and the suspense and desperation is very well done. Things start off wrong and just keep getting worse.

The characters are pretty reallistic. Even though officially I'm appalled by the idea of a thirty-ish guy and a teenage vixen, as a red-blooded male... I can see how things went the way they did. In the beginning, Shirley's a sympathetic character. You feel for her, having her teenage years spent cooped up and caring for her dying stepfather.

The Vengeful Virgin is a gripping tale with a lot of twists and turns. If I wanted to get someone started on the Hard Case series, this is one of the ones I'd point them at first.

House Dick by Howard Hunt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pete Novak is a hotel detective (or house dick) working for a Washington DC hotel. Novak takes a shine to a gorgeous guest, only to find the murdered body of her former sugar daddy in her room and the jewels he gave her missing. Can Novak find the jewels and keep the woman out of jail?

First off, I almost dismissed this one as one of Hard Case's more dubious picks, like the Robert Parker book that wasn't by the Parker everyone was thinkng of. E. Howard Hunt was involved in the Watergate break-in, after all. Well, I was wrong.

Hunt's writing is top notch and Novak is a great noir protagonist. He's a lonely hotel detective with a budding drinking problem. The web of sex, lies, and murder is very easy to get caught up in and hard to get to the center of without being devoured by it. I should know. I read the whole thing in one sitting. It's a little lighter on violence than some Hard Cases but heavy on twists. It took me forever to catch on to what actually happened regarding the jewels and Chalmer's murder. On the surface, the plot looks simple but once all the players are introduced, it becomes much more complicated.

If I could only recommend one Hard Case to someone, it would probably be this one. Who knows? It might become someone's favorite book with the word dick in the title*





*Yeah, it was an easy joke but I had to do it...

Still on Goodreads