Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
I liked The Ferry Port Mystery by David Pearson. For the first few chapters I was not sure I would. There seemed to be just enough to keep you reading and I was unsure how long I would continue but things got much better. But I am getting ahead of myself so I’ll go back to the beginning.
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I’ve been fan of Val McDermit for several years now https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/val-mcdermid/ .
Past Lying: A Karen Pirie Novel is her latest. DCI Karen Pirie heads Police Scotland’s Historic Case Unit (HCU). We Americans would call it cold cases. The Scots prefer the “Historic” designation for reasons given in this book.
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A good book. I enjoyed this police procedural. It pulled me into the story from the beginning. I enjoyed the characters and the story.
Continue reading “A body in the cottage”
I just finished reading “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point” .
It is by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt whose earlier book “How Democracies Die” I had reviewed about 4 years ago. They are professors of government at Harvard University. They like many other Americans were shocked by the violent insurrection of January 6, 2020.
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I liked it but it is very different than anything I had reviewed previously so I am a bit unsure of how of proceed. So I’ll get the easy part out of the way first and them added a short bit on what I thought about the book.
The book is “Abandoned Scotland” by Alastair Horne. I thank Netgalley and Amber Books for allowing me to read the book before publication.
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The book reviewed is Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR’s Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques. It was a great history of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s struggle to level the playing field for ordinary Americans interested in investing and saving.
Diana B. Henriques is a financial journalist and well qualified to tell this story. I’d like to thank both Netgalley and Random House for allowing me to read Taming the Street before publication.
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President Trump–Again? by Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a short book. I read it in one evening. For a short book it does cover a lot of ground. And I should mention that my review copy was very current, covering events that happened just a few weeks ago. I thank Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the privilege of reading this review copy.
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I liked this book. The book is Eyes That Do Not See by Kent Kearney, I thank Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for letting me read it in return for an honest review.
The story reminds us of the types of things many of our ancestors endured to find a better life for both them and their descendants.
First of all, I think this is a really good book. It is also an important book. The book is “American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress” by Wesley Lowery
Whitelash may not be a term familiar to all. Slang.net defines it this way:
Whitelash is a political term that refers to a resistance by white voters against social progress among minority groups.
About 4 years I decided to try a book by Ann Cleeves based liking the Shetland TV series which was based on a series of her books. The book I tried was the first of her Two Rivers series featuring Detective Matthew Venn. Since then, I have read the second of this series as well as several from the Shetland and Vera novels.
I have long enjoyed David Von Drehle’s writing via several books, Time magazine, and the Washington Post. So when I read about The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man, I figured I’d like it.
To my surprise, it was available from Netgalley, my usual source for advanced readers, so I do thank Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read this book after publication.
David Von Drehle was thinking about writing another book and this neighbor proved to be a remarkable subject for many reasons. The neighbor was Charlie White MD whose long and remarkable life contains many useful life lessons for us younger folks. (The Retired Guy doesn’t get to include himself in that group very often.)
It is not a very long book (about 200 pages) and well worth your time. I recommend this book as an interesting blend of history as seen by Dr White and his philosophy of life in dealing with both change and challenges.
I liked this book. I agreed with much of it but disagreed strongly with one part. I’ll get into that later in this review. It is the type of book that gets you thinking. The book is The Purple Presidency 2024: How Voters Can Reclaim the White House for Bipartisan Governance by C. Owen Paepke.
I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and RealClear Publishing for the chance to read this before publication. The book will be published on June 13.
I enjoyed the book but don’t think it is right for everyone. I think the target audience is people already invest with investment advisor or considering doing that but the book also has important messages for the rest of us who prefer do-it-yourself investing.
The book is “Lessons for Long Term Investors” by Richard Rodman. I found it to be a quick and easy read. The author has his own website at https://richardrodman.com/ where you can learn about him, this book, and his earlier book.
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He’s lived it in the nonfictional real world and now he is bringing it to us in a great fictional story.
The book Is Central Park West: A Crime Novel by James Comey. I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and Mysterious Press for the chance to read this before publication. The book will be published on May 30.
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Another good mystery by Jodie Lawrance. I had read and reviewed two by her a few years ago (https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/jodie-lawrance/). So I was happy to see this available. I thank both Netgalley (https://www.netgalley.com) and Joffe books (https://joffebooks.com/) for the chance to read this before publication. The book is “The Missing Woman” by Jodie Lawrance.
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