Titanic's in Vogue in The Dressmaker

I have to admit, I don't know why I would pick up The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott, beside it using Titanic as a jumping off point for its plot.   As a lifelong Titanic enthusiast, I guess I was compelled, much as I have been in the past, to see what historical threads an author or filmmaker chooses to weave into his or her fictional narrative.

I have to admit, I kept going every time historical facts bumped up against fictional narrative.  Alcott's story revolves around Tess Collins, an aspiring seamstress, who just happens to have the good fortune to be hired by Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon as a maid just before they embark at Southampton for Titanic's maiden voyage.   Lady Duff Gordon, or the haute courtier Lucille as she is also known, is renowned for her trendsetting fashion designs, and Duff Gordon, haughty and pretentious, quickly becomes drawn to the young Tess, ultimately choosing to mentor her.  In the course of the voyage, Collins meets up with a kindly sailor and midwestern tycoon, both of whom become romantic suitors later in the plot.

In some ways, I felt as if I was reading a historical trainwreck.   Something so wrong but something so compelling - almost as if witnessing a disaster in itself.  Don't get me wrong, Alcott pens a compelling piece of historical fiction, but I kept being jarred by it bumping up against historical reality.  When the disaster occurs, the Duff Gordons abandon ship - just as they did historically - in a sparesly filled lifeboat.   The recriminations upon rescue, in the press and in societal circles, test the young dressmaker's loyalty to Lady Duff Gordon and drives the remainder of the plot.

Don't read The Dressmaker for an accurate account of the Titanic disaster.  Although nearly citing the transcripts of both American and British inquiries into the disaster verbatim, this is not one for the historical record.  But if you enjoy a pleasantly compelling and well paced of historic fiction that just happens to be set in the era of the early 20th Century, The Dressmaker might be something to interest you.
-Michael

Defending Jacob by William Landay

Defending Jacob by William Landay is as much a mystery/legal thriller as it is a family drama.  Andy Barber is a district attorney in Newton, MA, a largely upscale inclusive community.  He is one of the first people called to a murder scene in which a 14 year old boy is stabbed three times and left for dead in the woods.  There are few clues and even fewer suspects.  While Andy insists on investigating a neighborhood pedophile for the crime, he is soon pulled from the case when his son Jacob becomes the lead suspect and charged with the murder.  Andy is adamant throughout the novel that Jacob is innocent.  However, Jacob’s actions and character are disturbing enough to place doubt in the minds of the town and Jacob’s own mother, Laurie.  The family dynamics is an integral part of the story.  Laurie’s doubts stem from Andy’s admission of a history of violence in his family - murder and rape - neither of which Laurie previously knew.  Did Jacob inherit a “murder gene”?  And if so, what does that say about Laurie’s parenting?  If Jacob did commit the murder could she have prevented it?  These questions haunt Laurie and send her spiraling down a destructive path.

I highly recommend this novel.  The legal procedures are described in such a way that you feel you’re actually in the courtroom with the characters.  And the surprise ending will shock you (it did me, even though I knew there had to be a twist, I still didn’t see it coming!).


~ Linette

The Formula Seems Off in the Devil's Elixir

I'm a big fan of Raymond Khoury's novels.   In The Devil's Elixir, Khoury returns to his series focusing on FBI Agent Sean Riley (begun in The Templar Legacy and continued in The Templar Salvation), this time with a story blending 1700s Mexico with present day drug traffickers.
The book is a page turner, with Riley leaping from one action sequence (if this were a film, they'd be called "set pieces") to another;  there's character development of his protagonist and love Tess Chaykin; the villain is ruthless and suitably menacing; and there's plenty of factual detail that fans of Khoury (not to mention of Steve Berry and Brad Thor) will relish too.  But there's something missing - or maybe a new ingredient weakens the mix.

While mysticism and magic have undergirded Khoury's earlier works, that element in The Devil's Elixir seems far more improbable than in in past books.   The resolution to this novel, while intermixed with all the successful elements Khoury has blended before, just felt a little too far fetched and too far removed from the realism he otherwise paints.

Not a bad read by any means, but definitely not one of my favorites.   Of course, I'll be eager to see what he has in store for us next, but this elixir just was not as palatable as his previous brews.
-Michael

Reagan Down, But Not Out

There's surprisingly little written solely on the topic of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981.  Del Quentin Wilber's Rawhide Down attempts to fill that void, depicting from start to finish the events that surrounded the shooting of the President on March 30, 1981  Just weeks into his first term, the President was nearly fatally wounded when loner John Hinckley fired on him, wounding four people, outside a Washington D.C. hotel.   While Wilber's prose succinctly traces the events that led up to Hinckley's attempt on Reagan's life, the book is moreso seemingly a minute-by-minute account of the shooting, the actions of the Secret Service, the heroic effort doctors made to save Reagan.   Amid the chaos of the event, historic figures are brought to life with colorful detail in Wilber's narrative.   With a senior White House staff stumbling, the media pressing hard to confirm facts, and heart wrenching accounts of the doctors' efforts to save both Reagan and the believed to be mortally wounded press secretary James Brady - the most vivid portrait to emerge is that of the wounded Reagan, who, Wilber argues, was made more human and - therefore - a more identifiable figure in the eyes of the American people.   A page turner from start to finish, Rawhide Down is compelling, detailed history whose story flows with ease. -Michael

Thor's "Lions" Roar

Author Brad Thor seems to tear his thrillers from the news headlines, and his first thriller, The Lions of Lucerne, which follows former SEAL turned Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath on a quest to find the kidnapped President of the United States, roars to life.  Globetrotting in its adventures, with great detail to attention, and a shockingly plausible plot, readers who enjoy Steve Berry and James Rollins's novels will no doubt find interest in Thor.

Harvath is a compelling protagonist and this debut adventure starts a series of novels featuring the character.   Thor imbues his character with realism and grounds his story in technical details and facts that are the result of thorough research.

If you're looking for a contemporary, page turner of a thriller, pick up Lions and you may find yourself compelled to read more than one of Thor's thrillers.

-Michael

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

In honor of Veterans Day this past weekend, I would like to recommend "Matterhorn" by Marine Corps veteran Karl Marlantes. "Matterhorn" is based on Marlantes' experiences as a young platoon leader in Vietnam. 30 years in the making, Marlantes' intense story of a young man's abrupt transformation from innocent, All-American boy to battle-hardened and tortured veteran not only brilliantly describes the hardships his rifle platoon had to endure in the jungle and the brotherhood that forms between men in the absurdity of combat, but also brings up the incompetence and ruthlessness of a handful of high-ranking officers who will gladly sacrifice their men to further their own goals. In its senselessness, the battle for (fictitious) fire support base Matterhorn reminds of Hamburger Hill and Korea's Pork Chop Hill, putting in question the meaning of war, of leadership, and, ultimately, of life and death. While there are many novels about the Vietnam War, Marlantes' account is especially haunting: its authenticity and intensity will draw your heart and mind into the jungle to vicariously experience the fear and exhilaration of combat, to suffer through the heat, the diseases, deprivations, and the loss of lives and, thus, will give you a glimpse of what it really is that we have been asking our young men and women to endure since times eternal.

~ Andrea Galbusieri

Sibling Rivalry takes Center Stage in Book about Lincoln Assassin

Having read, seemingly not too long ago, Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis by James Swanson, I have to admit I was a little bit reluctant to pick up another book with significant focus on John Wilkes Booth, who has to be the most well-known of the American Presidential assassins. While I'm fascinated with the Lincoln Presidency, there's something unseemly to me about spending too much time paying attention to the man who took his life.

But there was something compelling about the cover of My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy by Nora Titone that led me to pick it up. Almost anyone with a passing history knows that Lincoln's assassin was an actor whose sympathies lied with the Confederate cause. What many may not realize is that Booth came from a long line of distinguished actors, of which his brother Edwin was his greatest rival. This hook drew me into yet another book where John Wilkes takes center stage.

Titone's narrative doesn't focus on the assassination; she attempts to spell out John Wilkes Booth's motives, but the story is more about about the legacy of renowned actor Junius Brutus Booth, whose offspring dominated the American stage in the mid-19th Century. John Wilkes is portrayed as being in the shadow of his brother Edwin, whose talent led him to dominate the stage throughout the country. That domination led Edwin to parse out parts of the country which his siblings could ply their trade. John Wilkes, readers won't be surprised to find out, spent considerable time in the South.

Rather than focus on a tried and true historical narrative, Titone's decision to frame the story of the eventual assassin through the frame of sibling rivalry is clever. Along the way, readers learn considerable about theatre in the mid-1800s, and about the other actors and actresses whose paths cross the famous Booth siblings. The book is littered with fascinating figures, patrons of the arts and performers. The role of Our American Cousin producer Laura Keene - the comedy that Lincoln attended that April night at Ford's Theatre - is particularly interesting.

If you're looking for a slightly different approach to the Lincoln assassination, you might find this a good read. The Booth family is a compelling bunch, making this more than one more familiar account of the assassin's story.

-Michael

You May Be "Destined" to Love Millard's "Destiny of the Republic"

I didn’t know how lucky I was to get my hands on an advance reader’s copy of Candice Millard’s The Destiny of the Republic at the American Library Association annual conference until I found myself traveling again a few weeks later.

Always a sucker for a well-written narrative about American history, I carried along the proof copy in my carry-on bag during my next trip.   The book, which hits shelves in September 2011, features a truly intriguing subject: James A. Garfield, an American president who did not seek the office, only to find himself shot by a patronage seeking, wannabe political appointee only weeks after assuming the highest office in the land.  Once I opened the book, I found myself turning page after page, drawn into her rich, flowing narrative.

I knew little about Garfield, less about his assassin, and little about the era in which the story was told - less than 20 years following the end of the Civil War.   In an era rife with patronage appointments to government jobs, raw politics and bitter post-war feelings, the story of the self-made Garfield is remarkable.   Rising from poverty to prominence as Civil War major general, he was then elected to the House of Representatives and then the Senate in 1880.   Then,  when the political frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination – John Sherman, James G. Blaine and the third term seeking Ulysses S. Grant – failed to attract enough support to become the candidate, he was named – in spite of his reluctance – the party’s compromise candidate.  Besting the Democrat Winfield Scott, Garfield would be in office less than 3 months in 1881 before crossing paths with the man whose actions would eventually take his life.

Millard’s narrative and back story for Garfield is far more compelling than my recount.   It’s her ability to take meticulous research and interweave it with the story of assassin Charles J. Guiteau, who thought the country would celebrate his act, which makes this a compulsive, page-turning event.   Just when I didn’t think it could get any better, she infuses the narrative with the next group of historical figures to drive the story – the doctors who cared for the wounded president in the months following the assassination, details  of modern, 19^th Century medicine that could have saved Garfield’s life, and a desperate attempt by inventor Alexander Graham Bell to use a recent breakthrough to help treat the dying president.  Throughout Destiny, there’s the compelling portrait of the long-suffering Garfield, who would live months following Guiteau’s attempt to kill him.

I haven’t read Millard’s River of Doubt, the story of Theodore Roosevelt’s journey down the Amazon, but I’ll have to after reading this.  Evocative and reminiscent of Erik Larson’s remarkable The Devil in the White City, lovers of history are destined to enjoy every minute of her Republic.

-Michael

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai tells the story of Lucy Hull, a librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, who “kidnaps” Ian Drake and takes him on an adventure along the East Coast.  Ian is a precocious 10 year old who spends as much time as possible at the library.  His parents (mother, in particular) monitor his reading and so it is up to Lucy to slip him books on the sly.  One day, Lucy comes into the Library and discovers Ian hiding out, prepared to run away.  Although conflicted about what she should do, she decides to help him rather than take him home or call the police.

Lucy truly believes she is saving Ian from overbearing, homophobic parents who are willing to subdue their son’s nature out of fear that he might be a homosexual.  But what she finds is that not everything is what it seems…not in her life and not in Ian’s.  This book is far from perfect.  Lucy and Ian both annoyed me constantly and I couldn’t shake the feeling that a 26 year old woman traipsing around throughout the East Coast with a 10 year old boy who wasn’t her son was extremely creepy. 

The book’s saving grace comes from the many references to beloved books.  Pretty much every chapter begins with a reference or an allusion to a novel or picture book.  Some of my favorites include:

“If you give a librarian a closet, she will probably fill it with junk.

If she fills it with junk, some of the junk will be books in need of repair.

If some of the junk is books, and the closet is off of a back room anyway, she will hide more books there, books that she thinks are crap like the Stormy Sisters series, but which her boss thinks the library should keep.”  p. 56

It goes on for a few more paragraphs, but you get the gist.  Another great one was the “Choose Your Own Fiasco” chapter on page 157.  I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a child and thoroughly enjoyed reminiscing throughout the novel.

~ Linette

Deaver gives Bond “Carte Blanche” on his new mission

Novelist Jeffrey Deaver takes a crack at an iconic character with his newest novel, dusting off the James Bond character that Ian Fleming created over 60 years ago.

While it’s hard for modern audiences to divorce the Bond novels from the films that they inspired, thriller and crime novelist Deaver plants the British Secret Service agent clearly in the 20^th Century all the while respecting Fleming’s source material, in the process creating an exciting page turner of a novel.

It’s hard for me, as someone who was introduced to Bond through the films, to entirely divorce filtering a 007 novel through that mental process.  It’s not difficult to imagine Daniel Craig, the current actor playing the role in the film series, going through the paces of Deaver’s plot, but it’s nice to see the author, while determined to write a modern novel, plant images that hark back to the Fleming novels.    All the requisite elements are here, but some are throwbacks to the Fleming era.  Thus, his “M,” the crusty superior to the occasionally unorthodox agent, is male and in the mold, again, as portrayed by Bernard Lee, who played the role ably in most of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore film adventures.   But there’s plenty of references to the original novels too that show Deaver did his homework – women with unlikely names, a state-of-the-art automobile, references to Bond’s schooling, his parents’s death, the colorful villain and henchman, and the able CIA sidekick Felix Leiter, Miss Moneypenny, Bill Tanner, and Mary Goodnight, all show Deaver is comfortable working within the Fleming universe without slavish references to it.

While Deaver pays the appropriate nods to continuity, he also moves Bond into the 21^st Century.  The “Bond girls” are tough and as mentally adept as 007; Bond, a veteran of the Afghan war, has given up smoking and drinks – but not to excess; Bond’s opponent, Severan Hydt, is a well-drawn villain, modern character – a recycling industry magnate – with a fascination for death and decay.   That character’s plot, not one of world domination, but one of more limited, but nefarious intent, is believable, crafty, and suitably wicked.   Bond uses his fists and his wits – with a helpful assist from a few, not at all over-the-top gadgets from the “Q” branch – to take on both Hydt and his ever efficient henchman, all the while considering a mystery involving his long dead parents.

The results are a globe hopping thrill ride, and one hopes, at the end of the book, while it’s not unlikely that James Bond will return, it’s certainly this reader’s desire to see Jeffrey Deaver plotting that next adventure.

- Michael

Save Me by Lisa Scottoline

I’ve always enjoyed Lisa Scottoline’s books.  There’s nothing I like more than a return to Rosato & Associates to see what scrapes the spunky lady lawyers are trying to escape.  What I’ve realized in reading Scottoline’s stand alone, Save Me, is that what I like about her works are the characters.  I can suspend disbelief with some of the plots in her series because I genuinely enjoy the characters and feel like I know them.  The lack of character development in Rose McKenna made it a difficult and unbelievable book to get through.

Rose McKenna is helping out at her daughter’s school as the “lunch mom” when an explosion rocks the lunch room and she suddenly has to decide whether to try to save her daughter (who’s locked herself in the bathroom) or save a few of her daughter’s classmates (whose teasing is the reason the daughter, Melly, is in the bathroom).  Although she ends up helping the classmates to the hallway and THEN rescuing Melly, she gets vilified by the parents and media when one of the students ends up seriously injured and in a coma.  Make sense?

Oh, there’s much more.  How about a conspiracy to blow up the lunchroom?  An accidental death that occurred years ago?  A corrupt senator?  Lisa Scottoline throws so much at the reader that what starts out as an interesting moral dilemma swiftly turns into a hodgepodge of overused plots.  And really, all that I could’ve endured if I had even a shred of empathy for Rose.  But it was hard to root for her when she constantly second guessed herself and her decisions.  Instead of questioning if she made the right decision during the lunchroom explosion she should have been questioning why she’d leave her daughter, who’d just suffered a severe trauma, overnight in the hospital.  She goes from being “supermom” in the first half of the book to being “amateur sleuth” in the second – a complete stretch of the imagination – even for me.

~ Linette

You Know When The Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

Siobhan Fallon uses a series of linked stories to paint a picture of what families, both spouses and soldiers, endure during a deployment.  As an Army wife, these stories seemed all too familiar to me.  And in that respect, I enjoyed them very much.  The familiarity was rather comforting.  Having either gone through similar experiences or known someone who had, it was nice to know that I wasn’t alone. 

However, as much as I liked the stories for their engaging plots, my only complaint lies with the stories’ characters.  They were either stereotypical or exaggerated. From the “perfectly lipsticked” battalion commander’s wife to the paranoid, neurotic soldier who goes through some pretty extreme measures to check on his wife’s fidelity, none of them seemed fully developed. 

I can overlook that, though, and recommend this to Army spouses and civilians alike because from the first page, Fallon captures almost perfectly that sense of emptiness on a military post when a unit deploys and the men are gone:

“Babies still cry, telephones ring, Saturday morning cartoons screech, but without the men, there is a sense of muted silence, a sense of muted life.”

And she had me there.  Life goes on during a deployment, if a little slower than usual.

~ Linette

I "like" The Accidental Billionaires

I’m not usually one to “read” a book classified in either the computer section or the business section of a library’s collection, but The Accidental Billionaires is a rare exception.   Subtitled The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, Ben Mezrich’s book reads like fiction, with colorful characters and a compelling plot that keeps readers engaged.

If one reads it in the wake of seeing The Social Network, the film which was inspired by this book, one might be surprised that for all the accolades Aaron Sorkin received for his adapted screenplay, Mezrich’s original prose is punchy and fluid as well.   The plot moves briskly, with real life characters coming to life and jumping from the page.   The pace and breezy wit which Mezrich brings to the subject kept me compulsively addicted to page turning, much as the Internet phenomenon has addicted millions of users.

Do I feel like I know Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg any better having ready it?  Naah.  Does it matter?  Not really.   The story it chronicles is the compelling and engaging, because, it, like Facebook, is remarkably addictive.  Whether you love it or loathe it, you can’t help but be compelled to keep reading it.

-Michael

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Diana Bishop has spent the majority of her life renouncing her magical lineage and focusing on becoming a world renowned historian.  She is at Oxford working on her latest research project when she calls upon a manuscript, Ashmole 782, that she senses is magical but has no desire to further investigate.  However, that doesn’t stop vampires, daemons, and other witches from hounding her for answers.  How did she do it?  How was she able to call up a manuscript that has been bewitched for hundreds of years?  One vampire in particular wants the answers and Diana has to decide whether he’s friend or foe.

Ever since reading Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour, I’ve been fascinated with supernatural creatures, witches in particular.  Harkness creates a world in which there are four species:  humans, witches, vampires, and daemons.  And although the witches, vampires, and daemons all think their particular species is superior, all three have a collective disdain for humans (who are completely unaware that the others exist).  Harkness got me hooked with the first half of the book – Diana seems a formidable supernatural creature and all her untapped power is itself a mystery.  However, once she joins forces with Matthew, the vampire, she relinquishes her ability to make decisions on her own.  She insists that she’s strong or “brave” but her actions say otherwise. If she’s not sleeping or eating (or drinking tea!), she’s being carried around from room to room by Matthew.  In addition, Harkness spends an inordinate amount of time describing the mundane activities that occupy Diana’s day and that definitely slows down the plot.

A Discovery of Witches is the first book in a planned trilogy and if its intent is to set up the other two books by providing background and introducing characters without resolving any issues….it does the job remarkably well!  Despite my misgivings on Diana’s character, I will be looking forward to the next installment and hoping that she stops acting like Bella in Twilight (fainting, stumbling, staring deeply into a vampire’s eyes…) and instead becomes the powerful witch she seems destined to be.

~ Linette

Hot and Cold When Engulfed in Flames

I’ve never read a David Sedaris book, but I’ve always wanted to.  Truth be told, you could technically say I still haven’t, as I Iistened to  When You are Engulfed in Flames, an audio adaptation of his 2009 work read by the author.

Performers can make or break the reading of an audio book, but Sedaris reading his own work was undoubtedly a wise choice.  The inflection, tone, and an intensity he brings to the performance is no doubt indicative of his feelings about his subjects.

Sedaris’s work is a collection of essays; some are dramatically serious, some lighthearted.   All of them feature a sly, biting wit.  With Sedaris skewering his own habits and failings, such as obstinately refusing to give up a seat on an airplane, but also calling out others for bad behavior – such as a couple on a another flight cursing and carrying on or the behavior of the caregiver who cared for him and his siblings as children.

I found myself amused for the most part by his work.  Sometimes my attention strayed, such as when as he explored his own smoking cessation, but I felt myself snapping back to attention when he’d whip out an anecdote such as how he was arrested in Thailand for littering or his conversation with a Japanese merchant.   Sedaris doesn’t take himself too seriously, adding the occasional self-deprecating remark to lighten the mood.  His account of seeking to purchase a skeleton, and the subsequent display of it by his companion Hugh, is almost too bizarre to be true, but Sedaris’s made the episode nearly side-splitting.

Honestly, I don’t know if I would have made it through the book if I had only read it.   I’d like to think that I would have had the tenacity to stick with it, as most of the essays are relatively short, but at times I tired of the recording.   Ultimately, Sedaris’s wit was what carried the day and, undoubtedly, makes him a favorite for many readers.

- Michael

Did He Crack the Code Again?

Dan Brown's follow-up to his phenonmenal bestseller The Da Vinci Code is more of the same, which is probably exactly what audiences wanted.   The author was, admittedly, in sticky situation.  Like it or loathe it, Code was a phenomenal bestseller.   How could Brown live up to all the hype that was inevitably associated with his follow-up?  His answer seems to be to whip up a sequel whose pace and tone feels very much like its predecessor.  

Symbologist Robert Langdon is drawn into a mystery - this time in Washington D.C. - and runs into what are becoming Brown's stock characters - the possessed, oddly transformed villian and the intelligent, female partner.  With a story firmly set on American soil, this adventure is steeped in American history, with well-known locales such as the Smithsonian and the Capitol serving as more than story backdrop.   Brown's flashbacks uncharacteristically jar the pace of the narrative, but his characters are well drawn particularly Inoue Sato, the CIA's security chief, and it's always fun to imagine Tom Hanks delivering Langdon's dialogue (the actor having portrayed the character in the film adaptations of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons).

The Lost Symbol is not a bad novel by any stretch, it just suffered under the weight of all the inevitable hype which accompanied its release.
-Michael

A Lion for Which You Can Roar with Approval

In so many ways, Andrew Jackson was the creator of the modern presidency, strengthing the executive branch and standing in defiance of the Congress on matters he thought weakened the Union. Jon Meacham's American Lion: Andrew Jackson in The White House creates the portrait of a strong-willed, principled man, who, through force of will, battled what he saw as corruption (The Bank of the United States) and the greatest threat to the nation - Southern secession. Meacham doesn't hesitate, however, to point out the legendary General's flaws - his attitudes toward slavery were those of a planter, not an emancipator, and his policies toward Native Americans led to Cherokee Trail of Tears.

This is a a great biography of Andrew Jackson, albeit a dense one and slow going. With the spectre of civil war looming for his nation, Jackson was, in many ways, forward thinking, but in others very much a creature of his own time.
-Michael

This Doesn't Represent the Lollipop Guild

Two things immediately came to mind and existed in the back of my head throughout this, ahem, wickedly fun satire. First, what would L. Frank Baum think of Gregory Maguire's Wicked, a sublime and textured take on the denizens of his land of Oz? Second, it was impossible for me not to picture Margaret Hamilton as the Witch, whom she iconically portrayed in 1939's The Wizard of Oz. Maguire takes Baum's characters and plot pieces, turning them on their head, interconnecting them, and creating a biting social commentary. No songs, no dance - lots of provocative ideas creating a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of the Witch.   Ding dong, this Wicked Witch isn't dead!
-Michael

Something's Missing in "The Emperor's Tomb"

Steve Berry’s intrepid, former federal agent Cotton Malone returns for a fifth adventure in The Emperor's Tomb, this time teaming with old flame Cassiopeia Vitt to recover a third century B.C.E. Chinese lamp, which apparently holds the key to how the country will overcome its dependence on foreign oil.

If the description sounds a little stilted, it actually reflects the reader’s attitude toward Berry’s most recent effort.  Berry work typically is crisp, page turning adventure, filled with historical details, intrigue, and action set pieces.  All of those elements are present in The Emperor’s Tomb, but there’s something hard to pinpoint that drags down the momentum of this novel.  Berry’s Malone typically moves breathlessly from adventure to adventure in these novels, a sort of former federal agent turned bookselling Indiana Jones, but this time the character is more introspective and the pace doesn’t seem as pulse pounding.    The author fills the back story of the novel with interesting Chinese history, but maybe it’s just too much this time.  The action pieces are in place, but a little more implausible and go on a little too long.

I’m not sure what it is about The Emperor's Tomb that’s lacking for me.  I’ve enjoyed Berry’s work and will certainly follow his future releases, but something about this book just leaves me cold…
-Michael

Dee-lightful! A Trio of Biographies Big as the Life of Theodore Roosevelt

When you consider the research and writing of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and Colonel Roosevelt took author Edmund Morris nearly 30 years to complete, you have to stand in awe of the sheer tenacity and determination it must have taken to bring Roosevelt’s epic life to paper in such a grand fashion.

But a larger than life personality such as Roosevelt deserved such treatment and it’s a credit to Morris that the three individual volumes crackle with energy and enthusiasm.    Over the course of the three volumes, the sheer scope of the work – totaling nearly 3000 pages – allows Morris to detail the many eras of Roosevelt’s life – from sickly child, to frontiersman, to soldier, to author, to New York Police Commissioner, to state assemblyman, to governor, to the vice presidency, then the  presidency, and finally to elder American statesman.

Roosevelt emerges from the pages animatedly, with Morris’s description of the broadly-grinning, fist thumping, handshake pumping Roosevelt seemingly, using a favorite phrase of Roosevelt himself, “dee-lighted” to be having his story retold.   It’s hard to find amongst the larger than life story vignettes deserving particular attention, but Morris is particularly adept at painting Roosevelt’s moods and emotions, particularly his many years of silence regarding the death of his first wife.    His treatment of Roosevelt’s dogged determination to be appointed to a military command and his subsequent leadership of “the Rough Riders” in the short-lived Spanish-American war demonstrates Roosevelt’s remarkable ability as a leader of men.  His devoted attention to his second wife and their children, followed with great detail over the course of the later two volumes, brings a very human dimension to Roosevelt.  His passion for conservation of the environment is palpable and leaps from the page.

People tend to forget that much of the modern presidency can be credited to Roosevelt's leadership.  Were it not for Roosevelt, the president's residence - drastically renovated in his first term - might still simply be "the executive mansion," as it was known until Roosevelt embossed the residence's stationery with the title "The White House."   Roosevelt was the first president to mediate conflicts between labor and industry, narrowly averting a potentially catastrophic coal strike in his first term.   American interests were thrust upon a bigger stage as well, with Roosevelt working to see that a canal was cut across not Nicaragua, but Panama, for the expediency of transportation.  It's fun too to watch a certain fifth cousin, a young man named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to appear on the periphery here and there, as a harbinger of another Roosevelt presidency later in the 20th Century.

Morris’s treatment of Roosevelt isn’t for the faint of heart; voluminous in effort, yet amazingly addictive, readers will be challenged and compelled to learn the story of Theodore Roosevelt from start to finish.
-Michael