Category: Book Review

Prophecy by S.J. Parris (advance reader)

Prophecy by S.J. Parris (advance reader)

Posted on by Jack

After a few pages I was back in 1583. Was it a miracle of time travel? No, I had just started reading Prophecy by S.J. Parris.

I had read the first book in this series (Heresy) which introduced me to Giordano Bruno, a renagade Italian monk who fled to England to avoid the wrath of The Inquisition. He was a free-thinker and philosopher and the Pope wanted him burned at the stake as a heretic. Much to my surprise I later learned that Giordano Bruno was a real person and he did flee the heresy charges but was eventually arrested by The Inquisition, declared a heretic and burned at the stake. And he was really in England for several years (including 1583) during his years between the fleeing and the execution. I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel/thriller based on this character.

When I saw the second in this series by S.J Parris was coming out in a few months, I managed to get an Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) of Prophecy. As mentioned at the beginning of the review, the author does a wonderful job of setting the stage and transporting you back to the time period. Much more important than adjusting to life with no cars, no TV, and even no internet is the texture of life with the importance of being Catholic or Protestant, superstition, astrology, and so forth.

The story is set in 1583, the year of the Great Conjunction, when the two most powerful planets, Jupiter and Saturn, align in a certain way, an astrologi­cal event that occurs about once every thousand years and was thought to herald the end of one age and the start of another. All sorts of things could happen, maybe even the death of Queen Elizabeth.

When one of the queen’s maids of honor is killed, Francis Walsingham “spymaster” of the Queen asks Giordano Bruno to help solve the crimes. Bruno must allow the plot to progress far enough to give the queen the proof she needs but in doing so may allow the plot to go too far and result in the death of the Queen.

And although historical fiction does have an interest in itself, it is also very relevant to modern day dilemmas. Walsingham uses methods which would seem to be inconsistent with Elizabeth’s desired openness and tolerance. A dilemma in modern day democracy is how far you should go using methods inconsistent with your values to ensure the survival of your government and values. The police certainly want to prevent crime and terrorism but when they discover plots need to let them go far enough that they are sure they are right and maybe even convict the guilty.

The writing of S. J. Parris and her remarkable sense of place and time make both books stories worth reading. Heresy is now available in paperback and Prophecy is scheduled to be out in March in the UK and Australia but May in the US.

Henrietta Lacks and immortal HeLa cells: a legal but not moral tale

Henrietta Lacks and immortal HeLa cells: a legal but not moral tale

Posted on by Jack

I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

OK, I am not your typical reader. I am a scientist and have done quite a bit of cell culture. (I am retired now and read a lot.) I knew something about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells and thought the book would be only somewhat interesting and really not worth the time. But I was wrong. The reviews have all been so positive, I figured I should give this book a try. The story here is well-told and adds much detail that I thought I wouldn’t care about. (Did I mention that I was wrong?).

The doctors treating her cancer took her cells without informed consent. (But that was accepted practice until fairly recently.) This was the first immortal human cell line and was extremely important to medical science. There were medical advances and money was made. Yet the Lacks family got nothing. It was all legal but I doubt many would consider it moral.

There are several stories: Henrietta, her immediate family, the extended Lacks family, and the injustices done to them. And these are important stories. The book would be worthwhile if all it did was tell these stories. But it also puts these stories into the larger contexts of ethics, science, medical research, race, class, journalism, poverty, and education. So it is very complex and somehow Ms. Skloot manages to weave all of these facets into a fascinating and educational book in much less than 400 pages.

The reviews have been great and the book has become a best seller. And there is a simple reason for this. Rebecca Skloot has transformed an interesting story of an injustice into a fascinating book.

And unlike many of those who benefited from these cells and this family, Rebecca Skloot did something very strange. She actually tried to help this family. She has established The Henrietta Lacks Foundation to help Henrietta Lacks’ family. She is donating a potion of the book’s proceeds to the foundation and all visitors to the site may donate as well.

This story is really well-told. And different readers may enjoy one aspect more than another. But all aspects are well done and I think fairly covered.

Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Gideon Crew series)

Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Gideon Crew series)

Posted on by Jack

Thanks to netgalley I read an advanced reader’s copy (ARC) of Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The book won’t be released until February 22, 2011 but is available for pre-order though Amazon as either a physical book or a Kindle edition. The novel is planned to be the first installment in a new series featuring Gideon Crew. Gideon Crew is a fascinating character: an accomplished art thief, a Los Alamos physicist, an outdoorsman, an actor, a jazz fan, and more.

In the opening chapter a boy’s father is killed in front of him as a traitor to the United States government. Years later, Gideon who is now a young man learns his father was murdered as a scapegoat for an intelligence failure.

He plots his revenge and in carrying it out shows skills which bring him the attention of a private company which seems to be a government contractor for secret projects. Needless to say, Gideon agrees to a specific project and that does not go as planned and a thrilling sequence of events follows.

The authors do a wonderful job in telling his story. It was a real page-turner and I read the whole book (300+ pages) in less than 24 hours. The characters were interesting and the plot moved quickly. I had high expectations having previously read several books in the Agent Pendergast series by the authors.

I almost completely enjoyed this book. The ending seems to only partially resolve Gideon assignment. In many ways it felt like watching a TV show and getting very interested and wondering how they are going to wind up the story in a few minutes and then being left hanging when they say “Continued next week” but worse because you know it will be much more than a week. Although I found this ending disappointing, it does pique your interest for future installments of this planned series.

So this is sort of a mixed review. I enjoyed the book until the chapter which disappointed me greatly.

Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero by Michael Korda

Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero by Michael Korda

Posted on by Jack

I enjoyed the biography of Andrew Johnson (see previous post) so much I decide to read a short biography of the next president. Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero by Michael Korda is a good short biography. It is part of “The Eminent Lives” series.

It is worth reading because although we usually think of Grant as a great general and poor president, Korda’s biography shows the decency and gentleness that paired with military genius to make Grant the leader he was. He also makes a great case that Grant was a much better president than is usually thought.

Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed

Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed

Posted on by Jack

I read the new book on President Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed. The author is best known for her books on Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson and has won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for her work. She is also a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the National Humanities Medal and holds 3 appointments at Harvard.

Here is a partial quote from near the beginning of the book

… an assassin’s bullet would place the political fate of African Americans into the hands of a man who despised them.

Were it not so thoroughly steeped in mindless tragedy the first assassination of an American president, the destruction of the hopes of a people long treated as property who thought they were finally going to be able to live in dignity and peace, the lost chance to make the promise of America real to all who lived here one might be content to cast Andrew Johnson’s time in the White House as a form of cosmic joke. The gods were playing tricks on us, giving us Abraham Lincoln exactly when we needed him, having him cut down by an inconsequential person, and then giving us Andrew Johnson to teach us the folly of even imagining that we controlled our own destinies. But the effects of Johnson’s presidency were too profound, too far ranging — reaching into twenty-first-century America to be considered anything approaching a joke or trick, even one to teach an important lesson.

To be fair to Johnson, any man would have had a tough time following Abraham Lincoln, particularly under the circumstances that ended his presidency. …

Seems a very tragic thing that we went from Lincoln who is considered one of the best presidents to Andrew Johnson who is considered one of the worst presidents at a time of great national need. Like Lincoln, Johnson rose from very humble beginnings to the highest office in the land. Unfortunately, Johnson learned a very different lesson from the journey. The book documents his career which includes white supremacist beliefs and battles with Congress over Reconstruction of the defeated South.

My take on this is that the author has very strong feelings about the failures of Johnson as a President and events resulting from those failures. At a time the nation need unity and healing, a white supremacist became President and his failures have “haunted the nation ever since.” It seems to me that the author is very fair in her evaluation of events and documents those failures well. The book was extremely interesting and gave me insight into the first president to be impeached (and the only one before Bill Clinton). The Constitution provides for impeachment for “… high Crimes and Misdemeanors” but those offenses are not defined. There is an interesting discussion about various interpretations of that provision of the Constitution. The book has also made me want to learn more about the period after the Civil War and its implications for modern society.

This book is part of The American Presidents Series and if this is a typical example, I assume it must be a series of fairly short and excellent biographies.

Gabriel Cohen: “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue”

Gabriel Cohen: “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue”

Posted on by Jack

Recently I’ve been reading some non-fiction and really enjoyed those books but large non-fiction books can be a bit slow and since I liked the crime fiction by Gabriel Cohen, I thought I would give myself a treat with a couple of his books that were on my “to read” list. These would be “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue”. And as expected, both were much faster and enjoyable in a different way.

In the past few months, I reviewed 2 books by Gabriel Cohen: “The Ninth Step” and “Red Hook”. I really liked both, the first and fourth in a series about Detective Jack Leightner. “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue” are and second and third.

Gabriel Cohen’s books are crime novels, they are so much more. Jack grew up near the docks in Red Hook, Brooklyn and is haunted by his childhood (his relationship with his father and the death of his brother mostly) and his failures as an adult (especially a failed marriage, an uneasy relationship with his son, and difficulties in relationships). All in this series have been excellent reads and now that I’ve read all 4 in the series to date, I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next.

Since the sense of place is so important in Gabriel Cohen’s novels, these books are wonderful for those who either know Brooklyn or want to know more about Brooklyn. By the way, a graving dock is a dry dock and is used to repair ships below the water line. And Neptune Avenue is in Brooklyn, the Coney Island, Brighton Beach area.

So I’ll finish up with a few links you might find useful or interesting:

Amazon’s Gabriel Cohen Page

Gabriel Cohen’s website

saveindustrialbrooklyn.org

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

Posted on by Jack

I knew of Lawrence of Arabia from the movie of that name. I have a much better understanding of T.E. Lawrence now that I’ve read Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.

The movie was great and so was the book. And the book certainly was more accurate and a much deeper portrait of the man known as Lawrence of Arabia. The movie is a much smaller investment of your time (long for a movie but still less than 4 hours) but it only tells part of the story. Reading the book takes much longer but if you’d like a deeper understanding of T.E. Lawrence and the events of the time, it is well worth your time. I’ve watched the movie several times but decided to watch it again after reading the book. I’d recommend doing that.

I first learned of this book while driving and listening to NPR. I forget which day it was but a search of the NPR website shows an interview with Michael Korda on T.E. Lawrence on “Talk of the Nation” on November 18, 2010. I am listening as I type and that interview sounds familiar. (But I did fail at multi-tasking this time as I stopped typing to listen intently.) You can read about it or listen to the whole interview.

Korda starts with Lawrence as a very junior British officer in Cairo during World War I. And he then manages to become a leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. This is the story told in the movie. But the book by Michael Korda fills in the rest of the story explaining how Lawrence got there and why he was who he was, gives more details on the Arab Revolt, and tells how he coped with his fame, successes and failures.

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia is a great success. Korda is a wonderful story teller and is a master at integrated quotes about Lawrence or by Lawrence into the story. I did like his use of footnotes to expand on some points or to explain important issues which did not fit easily into the flow of the story. In a few places I wished he had used footnotes more. On occasion he quotes French without translation and I would have appreciated a translation. I would have also liked to see an explanation of the strings of letters after names. I just assumed they were all various types of knighthoods and British honors but an explanation would have been nice. By the way, there is a good summary webpage on knighthood abbreviations (you’ll have to page down a little). Perhaps a few pages where you could easily refresh your memory as to who various characters are when they reappear would have made a nice addition.

But these are all minor quibbles. Hero is a wonderful book about a complex character and covers complex events. The partition of the defeated Ottoman Empire suited the European power politics of the time but seems to be the root of many of our problems in the Middle East today.

I thought it did bog down in details in a few places but in other places I was glad for the details and enjoyed the narrative. At times the book felt too long but at other times I was glad it was as long as it was. I would guess another reader might find the places I found slow to be enjoyable and some of the passages I enjoyed to be too detailed.

So this book is not only a good history and biography but it is very relevant to current events. I’d highly recommend it.

Montaigne: unusual biography of an accidental philosopher and first blogger

Montaigne: unusual biography of an accidental philosopher and first blogger

Posted on by Jack

The reviewers can’t seem to say enough good things about How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell. If there are any negative reviews I haven’t seen them.

The Amazon.com crowd will usually let you know if they don’t like something and there are nearly always few negatives even if most folks like it. But when I looked this afternoon there were 22 reviews and 16 were the highest rating (5 stars). The rest were 4 stars. Have a look there. Read some reviews if so inclined and maybe even buy the book.

The Library Journal puts in among the Ten Best Books of 2010. The book has gotten rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. (It was released in England before the U.S.) There is a wonderful portrait of the author and the book in the New York Times. But enough about everyone else; what do I think?

Montaigne believed the best way to discover how to live was in the examination of everyday things and events and writing about them in his Essays. In doing so he seems to have invented a new literary form. And you might consider some bloggers as his literary descendants. Speaking of blogs and such, I am grateful that the author chose to talk about the Oxford Muse self-portraits. I was unaware of this and it looks like some very interesting reading.

This is an unusual biography. But then Montaigne was an unusual man. He did think of himself as usual, or maybe as unusual as everyone else, but what made him really unusual was that he wrote about life and himself. And he had a knack for shifting his perspective, imagining events through the eyes of someone else or even his cat. (Yes, that was a shameless attempt to lure cat lovers to my blog.)

Sarah Bakewell has constructed a most unusual biography of this proto-blogger and accidental philosopher. It is structured around 20 answers (or as she puts in attempts at an answer) to the How to Live question. Bits about his life are scattered in among the answers and this a very seems suitable way to tell the story of his life. We slowly to know him as we listen to some of his answers and learn about his life.

The book is an enjoyable read. I felt I was learning much about Montaigne, his life, his philosophy, and the 16th century world he lived in while enjoying a good story or series of stories. The book reads like a novel perhaps because she make the subject so compelling but I think the book is so complete it would also be useful as an academic resource.

Here are a few more links if you want to read a bit more:

Also I might mention that I rarely am impressed with the design on the dust jacket but the design on the US version by John Gall is very good (in my opinion, of course).

Enough about this book and my opinions. I’m off to read some Montaigne essays which I hear are about you (and me!)

My Reading Life and Fall of Giants

My Reading Life and Fall of Giants

Posted on by Libby

My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

Every time that I read Pat Conroy, I remember why I love his writing so much. This book doesn’t disappoint.   My Reading Life can be read a chapter at a time or read all at once.

Anyone who has read his books will love this – the books and people that made him the writer he is today.

Link to Pat Conroy’s page at Amazon

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Finished the first of this planned trilogy. I enjoy historical fiction and Mr. Follett does a wonderful job in this book describing the historical years before WWI.

But the problems I had with this book were the characters. I didn’t care for most of them nor did I want to read about their romantic interludes. The book ends with all his characters surviving. (Kind of hard to believe considering the horrific conditions the author describes.) But I’ll probably will read the next book to see how it continues.

Link to Ken Follett’s page at Amazon

First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph Ellis

First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph Ellis

Posted on by Jack

Joseph Ellis has done it again. This combined biography of the most important husband/wife team of the era is a wonderful extension of his writing on early US history. I enjoyed 2 of his previous books on the American Revolutionary era. In my previous review of Founding Brothers and American Creation I thought that he covered that era well and in a totally enjoyable way.

His new book First Family: Abigail and John Adams covers the same time period but from a different perspective (and of course with much more detail on the Adams family). The book is based on the letters between Abigail and John which spanned the years leading up to the Revolution and the early republic. The gaps are filled in with Ellis’ knowledge of the era and some informed speculation to fill in missing details.

I read this on my Kindle and that has both advantages and disadvantages over reading a physical book. I’ll write a more detailed post on that later.

If you think you might be interested in this book, I would encourage you to visit the Amazon site (link below). You can read more reviews on Amazon or read samples of the book (see link below).

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne

Posted on by Jack

I am currently reading How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell. So far I find it very interesting and enjoyable. Montaigne believed the best way to discover how to live a good and satisfying life was in the examination of everyday things and events and writing about them in his Essays. In doing so he seems to have invented a new literary form. And over the centuries since he lived and wrote, many have discovered that Montaigne’s Essays are a valuable tool in understanding their own lives.

I find Bakewell’s book is a wonderful introduction to this writer. I am about 10% through this book and will have more to say about it when finished. Since the book is organized around 20 attempts to answer the “How to Live” question, it may be suited to taking breaks after reading each chapter but so far I have not felt the urge for a break. If I am still as excited about Montaigne’s Essays at the end, I may tackle those.

The Book, a dystopian novel

The Book, a dystopian novel

Posted on by Jack

The opening line is “Don’t read The Book” but I’m glad I did. The book is The Book by M. Clifford.

I thought the idea behind the book was important but I wasn’t always fond of how the author told the story. A good editor may have improved matters. The idea is somewhat similar to other dystopian novels in that the government controls and modifies information.

This book adds an interesting twist in that they do so not by banning books or burning books but by becoming a sole publisher of books which are electronic and can be edited as the government wants and paper copies are no longer printed and old paper copies recycled. The great recycling is presented as an environmental plus and government edits of books are a secret and only suspected by a few.

This reminded me of 1984 with government control of information but the technology is now more believable.

Thus this is a cautionary tale which features eReaders as an instrument of government control. It was an unintentional irony that I read my copy on a Kindle. By the way, the paperback version is about what you would expect to pay for a paperback but the Kindle version is only $2.99 (at least that is what I paid and it was still that when I looked tonight.)

Red Hook by Gabriel Cohen

Red Hook by Gabriel Cohen

Posted on by Jack

Last month, I reviewed “The Ninth Step” by Gabriel Cohen..

I really liked that book but it is the 4th in a series about Detective Jack Leightner. At the time I mentioned that I planned to look for the earlier books in this series. As it turned out I found the first of the series in our county library and enjoyed that as much as the other. Here is my review of the first in the series, “Red Hook” .

Although Gabriel Cohen’s books (or at least the two that I’ve read) are crime novels, they are so much more. “Red Hook” begins with a young Dominican man who is found murdered near the Gowanus Canal. The questions are who and why and there is no obvious answers. Sure the book is a crime mystery and in it Jack investigates a this crime and risks his career doing what he thinks is right (and his superiors disagree) but it is more importantly a story of an imperfect man dealing with his past and working toward a better future.
Continue reading “Red Hook by Gabriel Cohen”

Collusion by Stuart Neville

Collusion by Stuart Neville

Posted on by Jack

The second book from Stuart Neville Collusion continues the story of the violence in North Ireland during the “peace”. It is a bit different from the first (Ghosts of Belfast my review:

http://www.jackreidy.com/blog/2010/10/29/the-ghosts-of-belfast-by-stuart-neville/).

I liked both books. And although both were very violent, the violence hit me differently. I’m not sure why. I think it was because much of Ghosts was about a killer and the violence seems to fit naturally. But Collusion was perhaps less violent overall (I didn’t count the torture and death scenes) and more of a exploration of inner conflicts, right and wrong, and justice.

Much of this is done through the character of Jack Lennon. He was briefly mentioned in Ghosts (perhaps not by name) but here he is the center of attention. An Irish Catholic, he joined the Northern Irish Police because he thought it was the right thing to do and 15 years later is still struggling with the consequences of that decision (and with his Protestant superiors). The internal conflicts in Jack Lennon character are interesting and this book does an excellent job of presenting them. I hope to see him more in future books.

Other than one critical showdown near the end which I thought was overdone, it was a very good read. But the overdone business is just my taste. Another reviewer has a different take on this, see:
http://fionnchu.blogspot.com/2010/10/stuart-nevilles-collusion-book-review.html

If you have a kindle, you may want to consider the option of getting both books in kindle format.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy

Posted on by Jack

I guess most folks have heard of these books by now. Of course I refer to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, “The Girl who Played with Fire”, and “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”.

First of all, I think it is a great trilogy. And although you could read then as separate books, you would miss a lot. It is much better to read them in order. The first starts out slowly. At least it seems that way to me and I’ve heard that comment from others. I didn’t really get into the story until about 50 pages. I’ve heard other say it was more for them. But I really think you need those pages to build the background for the characters on which the rest of the series is based.

And once you get thought that initial so period of 50 or more pages, you have 3 page-turners on your hands. And we are talking about a good number of pages. I guess it was about 1500 pages or so for me but I guess that may vary a bit depending on your editions. And of course it you have a Kindle or such there are no pages to turn. And I don’t think anyone has come up with a page-turner phrase for eReaders yet.

So “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” introduces with main characters and tells part of their stories in the first few chapters. Then goes on to involve them in a mystery with several unexpected developments. The characters and situations, like the mystery, are a bit odd (especially Lisbeth of Dragon Tattoo fame) but entirely believable. I know there are plenty of reviews that will tell you something of the plot but that is not what I am doing here. Plenty of reviews like that on Amazon (see my link below). I would have been satisfied with this as a stand-alone book.

But of course I knew there was a second and a third and as I enjoyed the first so much I went on with hardly a break. The second starts out with Lisbeth in an entirely new setting but some the tie-in is obvious, the action moves back to Sweden, and many of the characters from the first book re-appear. We learn a good bit more about Lisbeth and why she is like she is. And some events from the first book make more sense and become more important. The third book follows directly from the second.

Steig Larsson was a journalist and it is probably no accident that a main character is a journalist. They say you should write about what you know. It is the fictional journalist (Mikael Blomkvist) who is convicted of libel and gets involved in the central mystery of book one and brings Lisbeth in to help because of her special talents. She is clearly the main character in all 3 books.

So if you are interest in trying these books (maybe even getting all three at once) or just want to know more about the books or author, please check out the
Steig Larsson Page at Amazon