Books

What Booker-prize author Ian McEwan has done with this new book is nothing short of ingenious. He drags a part of 19th-century British literature up into the 21st-century by writing a NEW Jane Austen novel! Her Victorian elaborate writing style and complex plots are made to serve this new story, as well as they did in her actual novels. The time is 1935 and the place is a very proper manor house owned by the Tallis family, in the English countryside. A dinner party is in progress. Then something happens. An overly imaginative, foolish, and hysterical young girl thinks she sees something that shouldn't be happening (somewhat in the manner of the young girls who accused the "witches" at Salem.) This 13-year-old has difficulty separating real people, from the characters that she writes about in her silly little plays and stories. When she reports what she thought she saw, a chain of events is set in motion that follows the characters at this dinner party through the years, to the retreat from Dunkirk in 1941; from London's World War II military hospitals to a reunion of the Tallis clan in 1999. McEwan draws us into the intimate lives, thoughts, and situations of his characters and paints a loving and realistic picture of England at four memorable times in its history.

One of the unbelievable things about this intricate, imaginative, and unique book, is that it's a 20-year-old author's first novel! Unfortunately, one of the things that makes it so unique is the very same thing that makes it a difficult and often confusing read...and that is the way the plot is structured. Actually, there are two parallel and converging plots. One concerns the author's search for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis in World War II. The other plot concerns the bizarre and fantastic lives of the Jews who live in an unusual town in 18th Century Ukraine. As "the hero" (the author) searches for his past, his plot moves backward. At the same time, the story of the "Jews of Trachimbrod" (as imagined by the author,) moves forward in time. In an unforgettable scene, the two stories collide. At times confusing and perplexing, and at other times hilarious and moving, this novel is, although hopelessly puzzling to read, the work of a literary genius. I look forward to Foer's next book, and hope that it's less of an enigma, and more of a good read.

Like Homer in his book The Iliad (although not in The Odyssey,) author Steven Pressfield writes in a stilted and boring style, about historic events that were anything but boring. In the case of Gates of Fire, the event is the battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece, where only three hundred Spartans held off an army of three million Persians, buying time for the rest of the Greeks to rally their forces. Don't read this book unless you're ready to read a manual of war, complete with ALL of the logistics of EVERY aspect of the battle. It often reads like a laundry list of war! Although the author manages to squeeze in a few pages of human interest, the bulk of the text is devoted to the details of the preparation for battle and the battle itself. Nothing is left out, including the number of shields carried into battle, the correct way to line up against an enemy, how to hold and throw a javelin, etc. The story is told through the eyes of a young man who barely survived the battle. His audience? No one less than Xerxes himself...the King of the Persians. In the telling of the story, "war" becomes the main character in the book...in all of its inhumanity, glory, violence, heroics, love of ones fellow man, and most importantly, love of ones country. If you are that interested in the intimate details of war...specifically one major battle in an historic war...then I'm sure that you'll enjoy this book.

Now that Jack Ryan has become the President of the United States, his spy days of jumping out of planes and killing people are, at least in theory, over. What to do. Clancy has simply turned back the clock and made Jack Ryan young again. Being a cynic, I must conclude that Clancy has caved into the "Hollywood machine" which has already released a film starring Ben Affleck as a young Jack Ryan, and has decided to make the Jack Ryan of the books, the same age as the Jack Ryan of the movies. Less confusing, and much more profitable! But what about the current book, Red Rabbit? If you've enjoyed the formula Jack Ryan novels then you'll probably like this one as well, because it's just more of the same. This time the enemy is the old Soviet Union, Reagan and Thatcher are the heads of their countries, and the target is, of all people Pope John Paul II. Remember that assassination attempt on the Pope years ago, in St. Peter's Square? Well, that's what the book is all about. Too little novelty and imagination; too much deja vu!

In this imaginative and occasionally hilarious fantasy, author Gary Shteyngart creates his alter ego, Vladimir Girshkin, a 25-year-old Leningrad-born immigrant, and takes him from a low-paying job at the Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society in downtown Manhattan, to the fictional Eastern European capital city of Prava (Prague,) in the former Soviet republic of Stolova, where he becomes the right-hand man of a Russian mafioso called the Groundhog. What happens to Vladimir, this Russian-American Candide, in his journey, is often serious, usually satiric, and often laughing-out-loud hilarious. This is 30-year-old Shteyngart's first novel, and it's a brilliant start. Nothing escapes his laser-like attention, and his observations are often sad and funny at the same time. Like his protagonist's, Shteyngart's status as a man with a foot in each hemisphere--he was born in Leningrad in 1972 and emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 7--has given him an ear for the absurdities of each. Although there are sections of the book where the story runs into trouble, for most of the time, it's a fun read with bizarre characters at every turn.

When this book came out last year, several of my friends recommended that I read it, but I kept putting it off. Now, with director Clint Eastwood filming the movie version of the book all over the seamier neighborhoods of Boston, I decided to give it a go. Although it's not a "masterpiece of great literature," it's certainly a page-turner and an excellent example of the murder-mystery genre. The story begins in a prologue, when three 11-year-old friends have their normal lives disrupted when one of the three is abducted by child molesters, and then returned...safe, but scarred for life. The story picks up 25 years later, when the three are reunited because of a terrible tragedy that befalls one of the three men, and alters the lives of all three forever. The characters are beautifully drawn by Lehane, and the actors who Eastwood chose to portray them in the film (Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Lawrence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Hayden and Laura Linney,) are perfectly cast. I'm happy to say that I'm not familiar with the settings in the story, but they seem to be very authentically described. Author Lehane knows both the best and the worst parts of Boston. As they say in the ads, read the book, then see the movie.

In his latest foray into the world of science fiction, my friend and colleague Gary Braver ( aka Gary Goshgarian,) has tackled the controversial area of the enhancement of childhood intelligence, and asks the question, "how far would you go to significantly increase your child's intelligence?" Gary's books are page-turners and thrillers that resonate with philosophical, socio-economic, and practical issues that concern readers, but in his books, these issues are pushed to their limits through wildly creative plot lines. Hence, the reader is forced to question his/her own feelings about the issues, making for an exciting roller-coaster of a read. In Gray Matter, the children in question are the childhood version of "The Stepford Wives." Remember them? In an affluent suburb of Boston, upwardly mobile parents Rachel and Martin Whitman are depressed, because their 6-year-old son Dylan, is learning disabled. His classmates tease him, and the parents of these classmates are condescending toward Rachel and Martin, when they're discussing their children at the posh country club. Then, along comes Dr. Lucius Malenko, with an expensive new medical procedure that claims to turn slow children into geniuses. But, at what cost? How far would YOU go to double your child's intelligence? If you have young children, read this book. It'll make you question your values concerning your children. If you don't have young children, read it for the sheer fun of reading a well-written thriller.

Just about a month ago, I was a guest at an incredible star-studded $1000-a-plate benefit in Manhattan, to honor the playwright A.R."Pete" Gurney. One of the gifts in our souvenir package was this book of his collected plays, from the years 1984-1991.Of course, I felt obliged to read it, and how lucky I was to have done so. Gurney writes drawing room "comedies" about upper-class American WASP's...a dying breed. In reality however, his plays speak to everyone, in words that you've either spoken yourself, or had spoken to you, regardless of your socio-economic background, or your ethnicity. Gurney writes about situations that we've ALL experienced, in words that hit home. Do yourself a favor and read at least one of the plays in this book...you'll be hooked, as I was. The plays in this book are: "The Cocktail Hour," "The Golden Age," "The Perfect Party," "Another Antigone," "Love Letters," "The Old Boy," and "Sweet Sue."

Michael Crichton's latest thriller deals with the world of nano-technology...microparticles, or in this case, micro-robots. In a high-tech laboratory in the Nevada desert, a secret experiment goes awry, and swarms of dangerous nano-particles (micro-robots,) are released into the atmosphere. They're deadly, they're sentient, and their prey is US! Because the "villains" are not as large as the dinosaurs and raptors in Crichton's "Jurassic Park" books, they don't seem as menacing, but they kill their victims just as effectively. A good suspenseful story, well told.

In the serial-killer genre, no one tops James Patterson for keeping you thoroughly engrossed until the final page. In his latest thriller, he sends detective/psychologist Alex Cross and his partner John Sampson, off on the hunt for a group of serial killers known as Three Blind Mice. The killers are murdering upper echelon Army personnel, by framing them for murders that they didn't commit, thereby guaranteeing that they will be executed by the Army itself. The question is WHY? Although the formula is basically the same, this is the best of the Alex Cross series of thrillers to date, because Patterson goes far beyond the usual cat-and-mouse chase, to show us more of Cross' and Sampson's personal life than he has in any other of the books in the series. Alex and John have new women in their lives. Nana may be dying. The children are getting older, and Damon is getting in with the wrong crowd. If you know the books, then you'll know to whom I'm referring. If you don't, then why not pick up the first one and introduce yourself to Alex Cross? He's a fascinating character. If you only know him as he's portrayed by the way-too-old Morgan Freeman in the films of the Patterson books, then you don't know him at all.

Ok, I'm confused. Didn't Robert Ludlum die in 2001? As an avid reader of Ludlum's thrillers, I've been "trained" to be highly suspicious of such things as authors who are still publishing books a year after their death. Adding to my suspicion, is the fact that this is the best damn Ludlum thriller in years! In it, "the author" takes the usual Ludlum pattern...a highly trained agent risks life and limb to over come the overwhelming odds of a global conspiracy...and twists and turns it on its back. The usual Ludlum plot comes to an end after the first 100 pages. In the remaining 450 pages, the plot is reinvented, attacked, and reconstructed, so that even the most avid Ludlum reader doesn't know what the hell is going on; feelings that are shared by the protagonist, Paul Janson. This makes for a suspenseful, exciting, one-step-ahead-of-the-reader tale of intrigue, filled with more twists and turns, and ups and downs, than your favorite roller coaster. I loved it. I can't wait for the dead man's next book!

With the country still reeling from the tragic Columbia disaster, and poised on the brink of war with Iraq, and possibly North Korea, maybe this was not the best time for me to be reading this book about everything that's wrong with America. As a conservative Republican, I can still respect the research that liberal, civil libertarian and Democrat, Michael Moore has done in putting this book together, as well as his point of view. But I can't help thinking, shouldn't everyone be circling the wagons now, rather than attacking everything, from "the mediocrity of our elected officials," to "the president who stole the election," to the fact that our "inferior school system" is "turning out idiots by the millions," to the "criminality of corporate America," to his admonition to "kill Whitey, because everyone who ever harmed me in life was a white person." Maybe if Moore hadn't written this diatribe just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center, he might have thought twice about what he wrote, or at least about the release date of the book. I respect Moore's work, especially his film "Bowling for Columbine," a brilliant documentary on similar themes. However, in Stupid White Men, he comes across as a whining, self-loathing Caucasian, who hates everything in his native country....a country that I love very much, despite its many faults. In spite of his Swiftian satirical wit, his point of view tends to take away from the thousands of shocking facts in his book...facts which do deserve to be read about, and pondered.

At first, it appears that Grisham has written a modern-day rags-to-riches Cinderella story. But soon, the reader comes to realize that this is more of a cautionary modern-day Faust story. The Faust character is a young lawyer (what else?) slaving away in the office of the public defender, when he "signs his soul away" to a devil-like "headhunter," who promises him untold riches in the form of endless class-action torts cases. All the lawyer has to do is represent thousands of people who have been hurt by pharmaceutical companies, unscrupulous construction companies, etc. At first, the millions pour in, but then, the tables turn. From this point on (halfway through,) the book becomes predictable...and a complete bore! The main problem with this book, is that the "hero" is so immature, greedy, and unbelievably stupid, that the reader is hoping that he gets his punishment sooner rather than later. At least I was! This is no Shakespearean tragic hero; no King Lear here. He's just a money-mad, adolescent idiot!

Jeffrey Archer, one of the world's best storytellers, has written his latest book, while serving a prison term for perjury. Whether or not this adds to the fun of reading this book depends on the needs and interests of the reader. I loved every minute of it. If you've read other books by Archer (Kane and Abel, The Fourth Estate,) then you know that they have some faults (often ludicrous dialogue; two-dimensional secondary characters,) but the positives far outweigh the negatives. The man knows how to write a compelling story, filled with surprising twists. This book begins with an almost operatic set of events. Two twins are dramatically separated at birth by a scheming nurse, and as we follow them through their parallel lives (similar child-hoods, growing up, college, Vietnam, law practices, political ambitions,) we wait for the time when their paths will cross and wonder what will happen when they do....and cross they do, when both men run against each other to become governor of Connecticut. It's really worth the wait. As I said at the beginning of this review, Archer is a master storyteller, and this book is a page-turner...impossible to put down.

What I love about reading historical fiction, is that it teaches the reader about a particular period in history, or an historical event, or a famous person, with the addition of the human interest element that's missing in historical textbooks. Unfortunately, if you're reading this interesting but thoroughly predictable story, to further your knowledge of the First Crusades and France in that time, you'll learn virtually nothing that you don't already know. The story concerns a poor innkeeper who goes off to the Crusades as an idealistic young man, only to return, disillusioned, and finding that his wife has been abducted by these same Crusaders. Donning the clothes and acquiring the talents of a court jester, he goes off in search of his wife, and his destiny. What he doesn't realize is that he's carrying with him the holiest relic in all of Christendom. If you think that you might be interested in reading this new Patterson tale for its simple story, then go for it. But if you really want to learn about life during this colorful period in history, read either The Once and Future King, or A Distant Mirror.

Beware the novel of ideas, particularly when the ideas come first, and all the novel stuff (like the story) comes second. Such is the case with Ishmael, a book that pretends to be much more than what it really is. In the guise of a skeletal plot, the author poses a telepathic "conversation" between a gorilla ("Ishmael") and an inquisitive man, who answers an ad in the paper. The gorilla acts as Socratic teacher to the man, enlightening him about man's true place in the universe. If this sounds lofty, it isn't. As a matter of fact, it's equal parts pretentious and simplistic. What is the gorilla's advice for putting man back on the right track? Nothing but overused cliches, such as "Share and share alike," "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," "Don't mess with Mother Nature," and "Don't believe everything that you read." Get it? When it starts to retell the Creation and Genesis stories from the Bible, it comes dangerously close to being a pro-Arab/anti-"Israelite" diatribe. The title should have given it away, since the biblical Ishmael, the son of Abraham, was the ancestor of all Arabs, while his half-brother Isaac, (also fathered by Abraham,) was the ancestor of all Jews. In any case, the book's premise is not a very fashionable position nowadays, after America's War in Iraq! Toward the end of the book, it deteriorates into pseudo-anthropological mumbo-jumbo, in which the author attempts to justify the merits of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle over that of the techno-agriculturalist's. There's a bit of hypocrisy here, since Quinn lives in Austin, Texas, and not in a cave on a hillside!

Whereas his last novel, Mystic River, was character-driven, this one is plot-driven, with its intriguing, mystifying story barreling towards its not altogether unforeseen conclusion. The year is 1954, and two U.S. marshals arrive at Shutter Island, one of Boston's outer harbor islands, in search of a missing woman. The woman has escaped from the island's mysterious "hospital" for the criminally insane. What is really going on in this mental hospital? As the puzzle unravels, the reader learns that nothing is what it appears to be. An enigmatic, thrilling, suspenseful, and thoroughly enjoyable page-turner.

This self-help book was recommended to me by a friend at the gym. On its cover are testimonials from Lee Iacocca to Mother Teresa! In its Preface, Foreword, and Introduction, the author makes promises that would entice even the most skeptical of readers (me!) For example, he states that he will demonstrate how muscles would strengthen or weaken in the presence of positive or negative emotional and intellectual stimuli, as well as the more obvious physical stimuli. He also promises to produce a profile of the entire human condition, allowing a comprehensive analysis of the emotional and spiritual development of individuals, societies and the race in general. He says that "you'll see how easy it is to raise your consciousness to the levels of power, rather than force, so that you can become one of those who is completely awake and aware in this world." Quite a premise. Does he deliver? Absolutely NOT! Instead, the book is filled with nothing but bullshit, and pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo. Just to give one example, Hawkins has created a complex "Map of Consciousness" which lists and calibrates all levels of consciousness, from Shame to Enlightenment, but he makes no attempt to explain the chart. At the heart of this ridiculous book is a testing method by which, he claims that all of the truth and falseness in the world can be tested simply by applying pressure on someone's extended arm! This is explained in details that had me reading and dumb-founded at the same time. Textbook-sized words tumble from the pages, with the sole intent to confuse and/or impress gullible readers. This scam of a book can take its place on the bookshelf of fakery, along with such other phony-baloney books as The Celestine Prophecy and Ishmael. From now on, I'll stick to fiction. It's more honest and real!

God, I loved this book! What I expected it to be was a more-than-routine cat-and-mouse thriller, involving murder, and coded clues to these murders, that could be found in famous art works. What I didn't expect, was that it turned out to be that, and so much more. When noted Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, while on business in Paris, is called in by the French police to help decipher the cryptic clues that have been left next to the body of the murdered curator of the Louvre, a 450-page chase begins that involves Langdon in a global mystery that could change the history of the world. Author Brown has done more than his share of homework/research in presenting this incredible story. He presents two opposing forces. One, a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, whose members have included Botticelli, Sir Isaac Newton, Leonardo DaVinci, and Victor Hugo. The other, the real-life controversial Opus Dei, a deeply devout Catholic sect, protected by the Pope, and mysterious in its goals and operations. Langdon finds himself pursued by one, and protected by the other, because he may have stumbled on a monumental "secret" that could change the course of Christianity as we know it. The clues to the mystery are found in coded messages, and in DaVinci's paintings, and even though you may have seen these paintings in person, you'll be shocked at what might actually be in such works as the "Madonna of the Rocks" and "The Last Supper." I had to pull out my prints and check them out, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what the author was talking about. His theories about religion and art are presented in such an exciting way, that you'll learn some fascinating facts while being thrilled by the suspense and intelligence of the story. Even if you don't believe a word of the art, history, or religion embedded in the plot, the book is a page-turner without any competition on the best seller list today. Move over Ludlum and Cussler....this guy's serious!

It takes a truly fine writer to make the reader laugh hysterically at, or love or hate something or someone, in a book that he's written. James Siegel has done the latter by creating a protagonist, who is an immoral, stupid, conscienceless loser for the better part of the book, Derailed. I really hated him! Charlie Schine, an ordinary, successful, married, advertising executive, gets on the train for his commute into work, and notices an attractive woman sitting opposite him. They flirt with each other, and one thing leads to another. To say the least! Flirtation leads to an affair, which leads to lying, which leads to violent rape, which leads to murder, etc. Well, you get the picture. It's a cautionary tale with a moral...don't cheat. If you do, tell your spouse immediately. That's not what I believe; that's what the author makes you believe. But the story is not as important as how it's told. Siegel has written a story within a story, with so many surprise twists and turns, you might have to go back and read over some passages. It's a cleverly written, thrilling, chilling, page-turner. If you're in a relationship right now, you'll have goose-bumps while you're reading this book!

I've never seen Bill O'Reilly's TV show "The O'Reilly Factor" (an oversight that I intend to rectify tonight,) where I understand that he can be rude, condescending and unfair. He displays none of these characteristics on the printed page. In fact, he deals with one controversial issue per chapter in a fair, intelligent and incisive manner. Each chapter is centered around an interview on his TV show, and they deal with such subjects as "Sexual Deviants Who Prey on Children," "Violence and Sleaze on CD's and TV," Sex Ed in the Classroom," "Capital Punishment," etc. You get the picture. There are snippets of confrontational interviews with the likes of Al Sharpton, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, George W. Bush, Susan Sarandon, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, Dan Rather, and James Carville. The book is a perfect antidote if you've read Michael Moore's Stupid White Men. Not coincidentally, I share the same politics as O'Reilly and as a result of this, and other things, I agree with just about everything he has to say in the book, and how he says it. Read it, and then read Moore's book, if you haven't already done so. See...I'm fair too!

Because I enjoyed author Dan Brown's best-selling book The DaVinci Code as much as I did, I decided to read his earlier work, in which he introduced the character Robert Langdon, "world-renowned Harvard symbologist." Angels & Demons plunges the reader right into the action. Langdon is summoned to CERN, the actual famous research facility in Switzerland, where a murdered physicist has been found with a cryptic symbol burned onto his chest. To complicate matters, stolen from the physicist's lab is a quantity of anti-matter...enough to blow up a small city. From here, Langdon is led on a search to find a centuries-old underground organization known as The Illuminati, whose mission it is to destroy the Catholic Church and anything else that gets in its way. Once again, the author intermingles actual works of art, famous cathedrals, and landmarks into his plot, making for an intriguing and fascinating read to anyone who likes puzzles and mysteries. Will Langdon unravel the mysteries of the cat-and-mouse chase before the Hassassin blows up the Sistine Chapel, filled with the 167 cardinals who are there to appoint a new pope? Brown keeps you on the edge of your seat up to the very last page. I loved this book as much as I did The DaVinci Code, but if you plan to read both of them (and you should,) take a break between them, because the formulaic plots are similar, and that might detract from your enjoyment of the books.

Talk-show personality and author, Bill Maher, joins the ranks of the other two loud-mouthed talk-show personalities and authors, Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly, in putting in print, his ideas about what's wrong with America, and how we can make things better. Where Moore (ultra-liberal) and O'Reilly (ultra-conservative) are often strident and boorish, Maher comes across (in print at least,) as the fairest of the unholy threesome. Although he covers the same ground as the others, he seems to do it in a more reader-friendly and hilarious manner. Each chapter is preceded by a full-color poster from WW I, WW II, or the Cold War, altered to comment on our current "era of the jihad." They are hilarious! The titles of some of the posters are: "We Say They're Our Heroes...But We Pay Them Like Chumps" (too low wages for firefighters, police officers and teachers;) "Political Correctness at the Airports is Dangerous...Demand Real Security" (there should be racial profiling at airports;) "They Hate Us Because We Don't Even Know Why They Hate Us" (most Americans don't know anything about the rest of the world;) "The Real Celebrity Death-match; Jesus vs Mohammed" (religion can be dangerous,) etc. Maher defines "political correctness" as the elevation of sensitivity over truth, and the opposite of common sense. Who could argue with this? Regardless of your politics, you'll enjoy this provocative, but patriotic book.

Avid readers of the Harry Potter series have had to wait three years between book #4 and the present book. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. Would I rather have had a book each year? Most definitely. If you're one of those people who hasn't become addicted to the Harry Potter phenomenon, and even worse, think that these books are for children, stop reading right here, go buy the first book and start reading! Harry Potter is now in his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the eccentric faculty is training the student body in everything from Potions, to Conjuring Spells, to Defending Oneself Against the Dark Arts...to just plain growing up. Harry is now 15 and his hormones are acting up, causing him to do impetuous, stupid, brave, and clumsy things. In short, he's a typical 15-year-old, albeit a wizard-in-training. The Dark Lord, Voldemort, and his henchmen the Death Eaters, are still plotting to overthrow the present order of things (and kill anything and anyone that gets in their way...especially Harry and his Gandalf-like Headmaster, Dumbledore.) As Tolkien, Lewis, and Alexander before her, Rowling does so much more than just weave a spellbinding tale of fantasy and thrilling adventure. She tells an incredibly good story filled with some of the most wonderful characters ever put in print, and has things to say to all readers about life in general. Sometimes what she has to say is couched in very dark terms, and so some impressionable readers might have a nightmare or two. So what, the bonuses are worth it! My only regret is that Harry will have graduated from Hogwart's in two years (hence, only two more books.) Couldn't we all start a letter-writing campaign to take him through a doctoral program???

If you're a fan of the maritime misadventures of Cussler's "superhero" Dirk Pitt, then you'll probably enjoy this piece of adventure fiction, starring Cussler's new hero, Kurt Austin. The formula is still the same. The novel opens with a Prologue set back in historic times, where some mysterious event transpires. The plot then jumps to the present where Austin and his sidekick Joe Zavala have to unravel the ancient mystery, which is usually tied into some present-day global catastrophe. The result is usually a thrilling page-turner. Although not up to the level of the best of the Dirk Pitt stories, White Death will keep you going with its tale of a mysterious multinational corporation headed by a villainous albino scientist, whose goal is nothing less than control of the world's seas! It's fun to try to guess which chapters were written by Clive Cussler, and which by Paul Zembrecos. The more hair-raising, imaginative, and visual scenes are probably Cussler's...and there are many of those. But not enough to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire book. Nevertheless, a good summer read, especially for avid fans of Cussler and his two fictitious counterparts.

For those of you who, like many Americans after 9/11, have come to hate Arabs, this book will only reinforce that hatred. Rather than duck the issue, and play the politically correct, liberal, run and hide game, author Clancy uses the true present-day villains of world terrorism, Islamic Fundamentalists from Saudi Arabia. Having said this, I'm sorry to say that Clancy's new thriller, at only 420 pages, half his usual length, is only half as interesting as his best books. The first 200 pages are dull exposition, in which he introduces us to his main characters: the rag-head (oops, I mean Arab) terrorists, and the three heroes, Jack Ryan, jr. (hardly a chip off the old block,) and his two cousins, the twin Caruso brothers (does anyone remember these guys from earlier books?) Ryan is a dull junior analyst at a covert operation called The Campus, and the twin Carusos are a Marine and an FBI agent turned trained killers for "the good guys." During the first half of the book, the terrorists are plotting to strike at America's heartland. I won't give away the location of the strike, except to say that you might feel wary going to your local Blockbuster Video or The Gap, after reading this book! The story picks up somewhat after the terrorists strike their target(s) but it's a case of too little, too late. To get back to Jack Ryan, jr., he seems to have grown very quickly between the last book and this one, but he pales in comparison to his father, Ex-President Jack Ryan, sr. (now an elder statesman.) Anyway it's always fun to revisit the Ryan family, even if the wrong Ryan is the hero of this new book. Instead of aging Junior so quickly, he should have made Senior younger!

Whenever John Grisham breaks away from his formulaic legal thrillers, he often comes up with an original, imaginative book, even though I don't always enjoy them. (I enjoyed A Painted House, but didn't like Skipping Christmas at all.) Now, he's come up with something completely different with this novella (163 pages) about high school football in small town America. Members of the various Spartan football teams over the years, come back for a massive reunion of sorts, as they await the death of the coach that they all loved...and hated. Some of the former stars have never grown beyond their glory years in high school, while others have moved away and become successful doctors, lawyers, and bankers. It's interesting to hear their reminiscences as they meet in "the bleachers" to pay their last respects to their coach, their town, and their former selves. What I didn't find interesting was an endless play-by--play description of "the '87 game" that takes up a big chunk of the middle of the book. If you're a former jock, this may very well be the highlight of the book for you...and I don't mean that in a condescending or patronizing way. The whole book is sort of Pop Warner meets Our Town. So, if you're a fan of either high school football, or life in small town America, you'll probably love this book.

Because I thoroughly enjoyed his most recent novels, Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code, I decided to go back and read an earlier work by one of my favorite new authors, Dan Brown. Although Deception Point is not in the same league as his later books, it's head and shoulders above other novels in the thriller genre. In anything he writes, Brown's research is impeccable, and he has an impressive grasp of his material. However, in this earlier work, he hadn't yet hit on his surefire formula of mixing art history, religion, and murder...a formula that raises his latest books to the level of masterpieces of modern fiction. The plot of this techno-thriller involves deception at the highest level of our government. What a shock! A NASA, imperiled by cut-backs and failures, discovers a meteorite buried deep in the Arctic ice shelf, and in this meteorite is imbedded a discovery that could change the course of history. The White House sends a team of experts to the site to verify the authenticity of the discovery, and before long, these scientists are fighting for their lives against an unknown, but highly dangerous enemy. An exciting page-turner from one of our most intelligent young writers. I can't wait for his next novel.

David Baldacci's latest best-seller, is a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase involving the Secret Service, and the presidential candidates who they guard with their lives. Specifically, the story deals with two agents, who, eight years apart, have managed to "lose" their candidates, in two mysterious career-ending incidents. The two (a Harrison Ford type, and a Julia Roberts type,) band together when they learn that the events may be related, and far from accidental. Up to the half-way point, the novel is so fast-paced, and filled with surprises and twists, that it's almost impossible to put down. But then, the author throws in enough red herrings to stock all the open-air fish-stalls in Boston's Haymarket. The characters come tumbling at the reader so quickly, that at least THIS reader needed one of those glossaries that are so helpful in the more reader-friendly editions of War and Peace! But if you can keep the characters straight in your mind, you'll be rewarded with a shoot-'em-up finale filled with some unexpected (and expected) surprises. A fun read for those fans of Baldacci, James Patterson, Robert Ludlum, Dennis Lehane, and the "Queen of Red Herrings" herself, Agatha Christie.

The most amazing thing about this truly amazing book is its author, who is only 19 years old. He was only 15 when he started writing it! This prodigious talent can be attributed to many things, two of which have to be good parenting, and home schooling. His love of all fantasy and science fiction, as well as classical music, is evident in every page of this book...the first of a trilogy called "The Inheritance Trilogy." Eragon could only have been written by someone who read and loved the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and who listened to, understood, and enjoyed the operas of Richard Wagner. Luckily the reader doesn't have to have this same background. The hero of this book, Eragon, like heroes before him, such as Frodo Baggins, Taran Wanderer, Siegfried, and yes, even Harry Potter, is a young man who must undergo a difficult quest, in order to find self-realization and an understanding of his unusual world...a world of dwarves, Riders, the monstrous Urgals, mysterious Varden, the evil Razac, and at least one benevolent dragon, Saphira. His journeys take him great distances, away from his loved ones, and into fierce battles with dangerous enemies. There are glorious alabaster kingdoms hidden in huge mountains, waiting to be discovered, but not before Eragon watches his friends die, and his enemies grow stronger. The greatest question of all must eventually be answered..."who am I?"... but not in THIS book. The next book is called Eldest!

Publishers St. Martin's Press, and whoever it is that's writing Robert Ludlum's latest novels, have decided to conceal the fact that author Ludlum died several years ago! They've even gone so far as to include Ludlum's picture and biography on the inside cover, without mentioning the fact that he's dead. The new author has done his/her homework, researching Ludlum's earliest, and best, espionage thrillers (e.g., The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Gemini Contenders, etc.) and has duplicated this very successful formula in the last two books published under the pseudonym of Robert Ludlum.The present novel is an exciting page-turner of a spy thriller that takes place during the turbulent period of WWII in Europe. Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union are acting as a vise, to squeeze all of Europe into submission. Only England is withstanding the pressure, with America (still not in the war yet,) acting behind the scenes to help the British. One of America's best young spies, Stephen Metcalf, is sent to Vichy Paris (the French, as usual, have caved in to the Nazis,) then Germany, then Russia, to try to foil the plans of the Nazis and the Commies. In Russia, he meets up with a former lover, who is now the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi ballet. Together they.......................Well, you get the picture, right?

If you have any connection (actual or emotional) to either Harvard, Boston, New England, American History, historical fiction, or the writing of William Martin (Back Bay, Cape Cod, and Annapolis) then you'll surely enjoy, and probably love, Martin's latest epic Harvard Yard. In the style of James Michener (one of my favorite authors,) Martin chronicles the life of one fictitious family over a 400 year period. The family leaves England and comes to "the colonies," at the very same time that a new school is being founded in Cambridge. The family's history and that of the College, are woven together, so that in the process of telling the story of this family, we get to meet just about every historic personage who had anything to do with Boston and Harvard, from Shakespeare and John Harvard, to John Kennedy. At the same time that this family's exciting history is unfolding in the past, a modern-day story is being told as a parallel plot. Peter Fallon, the antiquarian who was the main character in Martin's earlier book Back Bay, has learned that a valuable treasure might be hidden somewhere in the vicinity of Harvard Yard. The treasure? An undiscovered play by Shakespeare. Both stories are told simultaneously...one interacting with the other. In case you think historical fiction is boring, this book will remedy that. Its plot covers witch hangings, the burning of downtown Boston, Civil War battles, the riots of the 1960's, and murder and theft in the present day. The characters are real, even the fictitious ones! A wonderful read, from beginning to end.

James Patterson brings back his (and my) favorite detective, Alex Cross, to solve the case of The Wolf, a Russian Mafiya chieftain who specializes in kidnappings on consignment. That is, Wolf and his vicious gang, take orders from rich sexual predators, who want specific people for their own sick pleasures, and are willing to pay very dearly for these pleasures. Wolf then kidnaps these individuals for his "customers," who enjoy them in various ways...none of them good. Unfortunately, Patterson's formula is wearing very thin, and this time it shows. On the plus side, he gives us an interesting glimpse into the unprincipled workings of the Russian Mafiya, a group of insane criminals who operate far differently than did the old disciplined Italian Mafia, now pretty much defunct. Even in crime nowadays, "progress" has brought a dumbing down!

In this, his first book, written only five years ago, Dan Brown, my favorite contemporary author, shows the glimmerings of the genius that would go on to write two masterpieces of their genre...Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code. In this novel, he tells the story of TRANSLTR, America's largest and most secretive encryption device...a computer that stores all of America's most classified secrets. A disgruntled computer genius (is there any other kind?) has implanted a destructive worm into TRANSLTR, and if he doesn't give out the pass-key, the worm will eat through the computer's firewalls and release all of America's most guarded secrets, to hackers all over the world. The villain is the only one who knows how to decode the pass-key, and, unfortunately he's just died unexpectedly in Seville. Will Susan Fletcher, computer genius, and her lover, college professor David Becker, be able to figure out all of the riddles and codes, before the worm destroys TRANSLTR? Will we, the readers, be able to figure out the riddles and codes before the characters do, and will we be able to guess the who, why, and how of the story? Unfortunately for readers of the last two Brown books, the answer is "yes," because this first novel has something that the author would be able to eliminate in his last books, and that is predictability. I guessed who the villains were and the mystery of the pass-key, long before they were revealed in the story. In the last two books, I couldn't figure out the mysteries, clues and enigmas, even if I had had the help of TRANSLTR!

If you're one of the many people who believes in the afterlife, then you'll probably enjoy this novella immensely. I for one, intend to hedge my bets by having as much fun as I can, every day, in THIS life! Mitch Albom, still riding high from his great success with Tuesdays With Morrie, is plowing the same sentimental, but highly readable fields, in this current book. Eddie is an 83-year-old maintenance worker at an amusement park, who is killed unexpectedly in a freak accident. In heaven, he meets five people who teach him lessons about himself, and help him to see why his life was worthwhile. I was hoping for a heaven that's a little less "It's A Wonderful Life," and a little more "The Wizard of Oz!" (Actually, my heaven is the town of Bellagio on Lake Como!) In any case, if you like borderline maudlin books about people who learn the value of their lives, only after they've lost them, then this is the book for you. It's very short (196 pages) and packed with enough sweetness to send a dentist into fits of joy.

The annual chore of reading John Grisham's formulaic latest novel was becoming a bore, until the author decided to revisit the scene of his first, and best, book, A Time to Kill. In Ford County, Mississippi during the Viet Nam-era '70s, Grisham introduces us to the most colorful characters that he's written about in years. The story line concerns a redneck low-life (is that redundant?) who murders a young widow in the town's bloodiest crime. At his trial, he threatens the jury saying that, if they convict him, he'll punish every one of them. They do...and, nine years later when the killer is paroled, jurors begin to die. But this story is just a device for introducing us to people that the author must surely have known growing up in a small town in the South. There are: the town drunks, who also happen to be the town's lawyers and reporters; the 25-year-old college dropout who buys the small, failing, town newspaper, and through whatever means at his disposal, turns it into a viable business enterprise; the wonderful Miss Callie, a poor black woman, who raises seven children, all but one of whom earns a Ph.D degree; the eccentric Hocutt twins, Wilma and Gilma, who live in a decaying, but grand, Victorian mansion, with all of their animals, and their crazy brother; the murderer's family, the clan Padgitt, who, for decades have lived outside the law, and have grown rich doing so; the crooked sheriff, who they "own," etc. All of these, and many more three-dimensional characters fill the streets of this colorful town, and the pages of this highly readable Grisham novel. Drop the lawyers Mr.Grisham, and stick with what you obviously love, and know best... the people who make up the small-towns of the Deep South.

When I picked up this best-seller, the reviews led me to believe that it consisted of nothing but the thousands of letters exchanged between these two giants of the 20th Century. That's what I was looking for, but I was misinformed. Certainly there are many letters documented in the book, but most of the text consists of the author's rehashing of material found in other biographies of these two men. Having read the definitive book about these great men many years ago,( the Joseph P. Lash 800-page text, Roosevelt and Churchill,) I found very little that was new and revealing in this book (that's half the length of the Lash biography.) Oh sure, there are some unpublished letters of FDR's secret lover, Lucy Mercer Rutherford. But if you're looking for scandal and shocking vulgarity, I'd suggest that you stick to biographies of the more recent American presidents! What is interesting about this book, in light of current events, is how Churchill and Roosevelt, the equivalent of today's Democrats, were considered the warmongers of their time, because they brought their countries into an unpopular war. Especially Roosevelt, who had to fight isolationists, like hero (and Nazi sympathizer) Charles Lindbergh, and "statesmen" like Joseph Kennedy, who saw no threat from Hitler, a dictator who wasn't directly threatening our country. Sound familiar?

There are three things that make this "children's book " unique. First of all, it's based on a Czech opera of the same name, written by Hans Krasa, and performed fifty-five times by the children of Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp. The composer, and all of the children died, either in Terezin, or in Auschwitz, after the last performance. Secondly, it's being re-told here by Pulitzer and Tony-award winning playwright, Tony Kushner ("Angels in America.") Thirdly, it's illustrated by America's most famous illustrator of children's books, Maurice Sendak. The look is all Sendak, He's borrowed freely from his other illustrated books, especially "Where the Wild Things Are," "In the Night Kitchen," "Outside Over There," and "We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy." As in most of Sendak's books, the story takes second place to the illustrations and the minimalist language. Here, two children try to beg for milk money for their dying mother, while being heckled and then robbed by a tyrannical organ grinder. The illustrations are filled with subtle reminders of the Holocaust. Children will miss them unless they're pointed out to them...and why would you? What is surprising, is that the children of Terezin were allowed to perform this simple opera, fifty-five times. Did the Nazi guards in the audience miss the point that it's about the deposing of a tyrant?

If you're a fan of Clive Cussler's marine adventure fiction, and you love following the Indiana Jones-like wild stories, involving his best character Dirk Pitt, and his sidekick Al Giordino, then you'll love his latest book. The pattern is the same. Cussler starts all of his stories in the past, describing a famous historical event, (e.g. the burning of the Alexandrian Library, the looting of the Inca Gold at Machu Picchu, the battle of The Merrimac and the Monitor etc.) then jumps to the present, where the present is about to be significantly changed, because of something that happened in that long-distant-past historical event. In the case of the present novel, the event in the past is The Trojan War and the ensuing journey home of Ulysses. (Cussler manages to summarize Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey in the first 22 pages of the book!) A brown tide is infesting the ocean off the shore of Nicaragua, threatening the ocean life in all of Central America. Pitt and Giordino are sent down to investigate, by their NUMA boss Admiral Sandecker. At the end of the last novel Valhalla Rising, Pitt was shocked to find out that he had two grown children that he had never known about. Not surprisingly, they've inherited not only his good looks, but also his love of adventure and the ocean. The two fraternal twins are a marine biologist and a marine engineer. It's they who find the unbelievable artifacts that set the plot in motion. I can't wait to see all of these characters come to life on screen, in "Sahara," the first of the Dirk Pitt novels to be filmed. Matthew McConaughey will be Dirk Pitt. Just perfect!

How could anyone write a boring story about the last two days in the life of the sin city of Pompeii, the Vegas of the Ancient Roman Empire? When Vesuvius erupted on that Thursday morning in August, A.D. 79, it released an energy force 100,000 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb! Those two sentences are more exciting than the entire book by Robert Harris. The author, foolishly, has chosen to concentrate on the activities of a civil engineer, whose job it is to monitor the water supply being carried over the 60-mile aqueduct that supplies the water to all of the nine cities on the Bay of Naples. Who gives a damn! The reader comes to know more than he would ever need to know about this marvel of Roman engineering, and so little about the people and the city that are about to be buried in lava and suffocating ash!

For those of you who believe that Ireland has contributed nothing to civilization except a few playwrights, some poets, and drunkenness, then you owe it to yourself to read this latest epic by master story-teller Edward Rutherfurd ( London, Sarum, The Forest, and Russka.) In the much-loved style of James Michener, Rutherfurd follows the fortunes of several fictional families from prehistoric times up to the present. Because he's such a masterful story-teller, Rutherfurd manages to weave the lives of these family members into the historic quilt of a country, placing them where actual historic events were happening, and having them interact with some of the great names in history. The Princes of Ireland starts in prehistoric times and quickly moves into pre-Christian Ireland with the pagan rituals of the Druids. Then, as years pass, our fictional families and their descendants live through the major events in Irish history: the High Kings at Tara; the mission of St. Patrick; the coming of the Vikings and their intermingling with the natives; the preservation of the ancient world's knowledge in the glorious monasteries; the Book of Kells; the warring leader Brian Boru; the disastrous Irish invasion of England; and the treachery of two Henrys...Henry II and Henry VIII of England. In the reading, it becomes all too evident how the seeds of division between England and Ireland were planted in much earlier times. If you think that this sounds like a boring history text, think again. It's anything but! Because of the author's skill in creating full-blooded characters, and placing them in exciting story plots, the book becomes a page-turner, in spite of its length. (Although it's 764 pages, it's only part 1 of a two-part series entitled "The Dublin Saga." Part 1 ends with Henry VIII. I can't wait for Part 2.) This epic will make a fine companion-piece on the shelf with Leon Uris's classic Trinity. I only wish that I had been able to read it before taking my trips to Ireland (and Northern Ireland) in the past. It would have made these trips much more enjoyable.

Like Clive Cussler, another of my favorite popular writers, James Patterson keeps re-writing the same story, with a tweak here, and a twist there. In one of his most popular series, Patterson's hero is the wonderful Alex Cross, an African-American psychologist/detective. In his other, relatively new, series, his heroine is Lindsay Boxer, a female detective, and a member of the self-named Women's Murder Club. (The other members are a reporter, a medical examiner, and an assistant D.A. All women!) In this latest book in the Women's Murder Club series, detective Lindsay Boxer, with the help of her three friends and a new love interest, are on the trail of a Charles Manson-like terrorist, who is bent on destroying "all conservative capitalists who are trying to destroy Third World countries by investing foreign capital in their labor markets." Of course, he has a small army of college student/lunatic followers who are willing to blow themselves (and others) up for his cause. Where would these wacko cult-leader types be without their little army of socio-paths, who are willing to do anything for the cause? Probably teaching at a liberal arts college in America. (Don't any conservatives teach at these Marxist universities??? Oh yeah, I did!) Anyway, the book is a fast page-turner, filled with suspense, bombings, and frightening allusions to what's going on in "the real world" right outside your front door.

Supposedly, Mario Puzo wrote most of this book before he died, at which time it was completed by his friend and lover, Carol Gino. I don't buy it. My guess is that Carol Gino wrote almost the entire book, from notes and ideas that Puzo left before he died. Why do I say that? Well, if you've read any of Puzo's other books, notably The Godfather, then you know that his writing style is operatic, florid, and suspenseful. How then, could he take the story of one of the most famous families in history, the Borgias of Renaissance Rome, and turn it into a boring history text? My guess is that he didn't...Carol Gino did. Puzo would have reveled in telling the story of Rodrigo Borgia, who after fathering three children, went on to become Pope Alexander, who encouraged two of his children, Lucrezia and Cesare, to begin an incestuous relationship that would last a lifetime, and destroy so many others in the process. All of this, while Cesare himself was a Cardinal of the Church! That's the story that Puzo should have written, and I would have loved to have read. Instead, we have the Gino version...pedantic, descriptive, informative, but rarely exciting. However, even an unexciting telling of the Borgia story is fascinating. This family made the Corleones look like the Cleaver family!

I almost never say this, but I will in this case. This book will make for a more enjoyable experience as a movie, than it does as a book. (Since both Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio are trying to obtain the film rights, we'll surely see this book translated to the screen.) Because Erik Larson chose to write this story as non-fiction, it comes out duller than it should. Because of the story being told, it should have been a page-turner. It's not. Two parallel stories unfold in this book. One deals with the trials and tribulations of creating the first major World's Fair in this country...the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. (Because all of the grand architectural wonders were white, the Exposition became known as "The White City.") The other story, a tragic one, tells of a mad serial killer, who built a castle of death near the Fair, and it was there that he lured young women to their gruesome deaths, and then sold their skeletons to medical schools. Hence, "The Devil" of the title. The two stories run parallel to one another, only occasionally coming together. It's a good read, but not a great one. Wait for the movie.

Supposedly, this "non-fiction" book was one of the inspirations for Dan Brown's brilliant novel, The DaVinci Code. The three authors have respected credentials as serious research scholars, and in that capacity they've attempted to answer such questions as: Did Jesus really die on the cross? Is it possible that Jesus was married, a father, and that his bloodline still exists? What is the connection between Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Merovingian Dynasty of French kings? What is the relationship between the Knights Templar, the Crusades, the Holy Grail, and the Books of the New Testament? They've rummaged through archeological sites, ancient unpublished manuscripts, archival resources, and family histories, and come up with answers to the questions. These are the same answers that Brown has integrated so brilliantly into the story-line of The DaVinci Code, making it one of the most fascinating and readable books of the decade. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for this book. History is often better served up in the guise of fiction, because this book, so filled with questions, facts, and questionable facts, is a difficult, heavy, and except for a few chapters, boring read.

This is the first book of Michael Connelly's that I've ever read, and it'll probably be the last. Not because it's a bad book. On the contrary, it's a very well-written page-turner in the mystery-detective/lawyer-thriller genre. It's just that I already have quite a few authors in that category whose books I read...James Patterson and Richard North Patterson, David Baldacci, John Grisham, Clive Cussler and Dennis Lahane. Sorry, Michael, but this is it. The present book deals with two former FBI agents who converge on a serial killer (yeah, another one!) nicknamed The Poet. In a previous book, this Poet was their mentor at the FBI Academy. The plot is intricately woven, but the characters don't get you involved, as do those created by "my other authors." If you've been reading Connelly, then it's a must. If not, pass on it.

On the back dust-cover of this book, author Nelson DeMille states, "If Scott Fitzgerald, Umberto Eco, and Dan Brown teamed up to write a novel, the result would be The Rule of Four." I'd like to know what these two young authors paid him to say that! Although there ARE some faint hints of the work of these three far superior authors, in the present book (and even more hints of Clive Cussler,) it doesn't even begin to measure up to their quality. In fact, although the book does have an interesting, although derivative, premise, it's written in such a dull and boring fashion, that it's hard to resist closing it, and never picking it up again. I'm sure that this won't be the last attempt to cash in on the incredible success of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons, but let's hope that the next books are at least an interesting read. The plot, such as it is, revolves around the attempt of four Princeton students to decode/uncover the mysteries in an ancient text, written in Renaissance Italy. They are a self-indulgent, self-serving, deadly dull foursome, who don't for even a moment, make the reader give a damn what happens to them, or their ridiculous book, for that matter. A bad start for two young authors.

BOOK REVIEW- BROOKLYN! THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO NEW YORK'S MOST HAPPENING BOROUGH by Ellen Freudenheim
Whether you were lucky enough to have been born and raised in Brooklyn, or are planning a visit to this exciting place, or simply interested in finding out more about what is certainly one of the most dynamic and interesting places in the world, this book is a must on your reading list this summer. The author, a brave, intelligent, and resourceful woman has plunged into "the 4th largest city in America," with a zeal worthy of Stanley and Livingston and Lewis and Clark! She explores the newly gentrified neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, DUMBO, Red Hook and Gowanus, and describes, in detail, the wonders of their architecture, new restaurants, art galleries, and shops. Her description of Brooklyn's magnificent world-class cultural institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM,) shows why this borough of New York City, rivals some of the world's great cities in the depth of its cultural holdings. Prospect Park is the jewel in the crown of its creators Olmstead and Vaux (who went on to design Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace,) but who considered Prospect Park to be "their greatest work." Old neighborhoods such as Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge (of "Saturday Night Fever" fame,) Flatbush (remember the Brooklyn Dodgers,) and America's pre-DisneyWorld playground, Coney Island (Nathan's hot dogs and the Cyclone,) are also described in loving detail. Brooklyn's schools rival any in the world. The author lists the best of these. (Erasmus High counts as its illustrious graduates, everyone from Alexander Hamilton, to May West and Barbra Streisand!) In addition to other factors, this book made me decide to return to my hometown as my summer vacation this year. If you can't do the same, you can experience the trip vicariously by reading this wonderful guide-book.
(4-Stars)

If you're a fan of the book and the film versions of "The Wizard of Oz," (and who isn't?) then you'll probably find this book to be as fascinating, creative and imaginative a read as I did. It's a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, in which the events and the lives of the main characters are described prior to the time when the house fell on The Wicked Witch of the East. (The Broadway musical is based on large chunks of this book.) The story is basically the tale of Elphaba, the little green-skinned girl, and Glinda, the ditzy snobbish airhead, who grow up to become the Wicked Witch of the West, and the Good Witch of the North. It's all told from Elphaba's perspective, and we begin to see a very different picture of things than the one previously portrayed. Where did she come from? Is she really wicked? Why is she green? Who are her parents? What is her relationship to Glinda? Be warned, however. This is NOT a children's book. Conceptually and linguistically, it's a difficult read, even for adults, dealing as it does with such topics as discrimination, explicit sex, religion, civil rights, and the nature of evil. Gregory Maguire has created a fantasy world that rivals those of J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, Isaac Asimov, and J.K. Rowling. That's pretty heady company for a man who taught a seminar with me at Simmons College, many, many years ago!

In 17 novels, Clive Cussler's great action hero, Dirk Pitt, reigned supreme. But then, he finally grew too old to do all of the exciting things that he did in those fun books, and so, Cussler created a clone of him...Kurt Austin. Either the formula got tired, or I got tired of the formula, in any case, this book just didn't seem to give me the same fun reading it, as did all the previous novels. In the Dirk Pitt novels, the story always began with an exciting event in history (slightly re-told!) Then, it jumped to the present, where the story unfolded, using the historic event as a jumping-off point. That was always thrilling. However, in the Kurt Austin series, there is no historic event, and so all we're left with is an underwater thriller, with some above-ground espionage thrown in for added thrills. It doesn't do it for me. In the current novel, Austin, and his sidekick Joe Zavala (a clone of Al Giordano in the original books,) are hunting down a rich, aristocratic family of French psychos, who may have discovered an enzyme that prolongs life, and also who may have have been instrumental in starting World Wars I and II. Now, that's a pretty ambitious premise!

It's all about money isn't it? The estate of the late author Robert Ludlum hired Van Lustbader to complete "The Bourne Trilogy," the three books that were so well written by Ludlum (and the subject of the two fine films with Matt Damon.) Hell, I thought that the trilogy WAS complete. As I said before, it's all about the money, isn't it? Once again, college professor David Webb (alias Jason Bourne,) is forced to resume his previous life of master-spy, when people start dying around him, and too many assassins are aiming their weapons in his direction. With the exception of one surprising twist in the plot, Van Lustbader brings nothing new to the story of Jason Bourne. It's one long cat-and-mouse chase thriller, with everyone (from those nasty CIA bosses, to Chechens, Russians, and assorted Arab terrorists) trying to kill Bourne, before he can stop them from unleashing a deadly biological weapon on a World Leaders' summit in Iceland. Although some of the characters are well-drawn three-dimensional characters, with interesting "back-stories," the plot is still more of the "same-old, same-old." How many ways can an author put his main hero in peril? This would probably have worked better as one of those old-time movie-theater serials, with a 10-minute "chapter" shown every week, before the main feature attraction. Wow. How many people are old enough to remember those wonderful serials? Let's face it. Without them, there never would have been an "Indiana Jones" or a "Star Wars." But, I digress. If you enjoyed reading the three other Bourne books (and enjoyed the two films,) you might want to take a look in to see what Bourne is doing nowadays. Otherwise, try something fresh, new, and original.

I had thought that this would be a funny, tongue-in-cheek look at "punctuation," as seen through the eyes of a British humorist. (I love British humor.) Unfortunately, it's not. Instead, it's a boring treatise on the proper usage of apostrophes, commas, colons, semi-colons, etc., by a one-time literary editor, journalist, sports columnist, and book reviewer, whose sense of humor only occasionally shines through the lessons in proper usage. Although I think that my punctuation is as good as the next person's (although the preceding sentence would seem to negate that fact,) I suppose that I did learn a thing or two, and for that, I'm grateful. But, all of this could have been condensed into a one-page hand-out. Who am I kidding? This book has been #1 on the UK best seller list for ages, and it's hovering around there on the NY Times list. So, you go, girl. Don't mind me. Just go out now and write a book about the proper way to pour ketchup. I'll probably read it!

BOOK REVIEW- THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger
This book builds from a slow-start, into a page-turner that I couldn't put down. I don't know how to describe this unique novel without turning off half of you. If I describe it as an extraordinary and complicated love story, I'll turn off the men. If I describe it as an exciting piece of original science-fiction, about a man who can time-travel back and forth throughout various periods of his own life, I'll turn off the women. That might sound sexist, but that's me, folks! What I CAN say without turning off anyone, is that this is the best first novel that I've read in a very long time. First-time author Audrey Niffenegger (what's with that name?) tells the enchanting story of a young man who involuntarily travels through time into various parts of his life, and of the patient woman who waits behind for him, and falls in love with him, even before he realizes that he's met her. Figure THAT one out. The two main characters, Clare and Henry, take turns telling their story, and sometimes we get to see the same incident from different perspectives. In a "Sixth-Sense" sort of way, it almost requires a second reading to get the complete picture of their life together. I wrote to my friend, Matt Damon (name-dropper!) and told him to buy the rights to this story, if it hasn't been scooped up already. He was born to play Henry DeTamble. Read it, THEN judge it.
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I had a wonderful time reading this Spanish novel...a novel that's filled with enough stories, incidents and characters to fill several books and a few soap operas as well. This book was #1 on the Best Seller list in Spain for all of 2003. Then it was translated into English by Lucia Graves (daughter of poet Robert Graves,) and brought to America. As I said before, there are so many separate stories in the book, however there's a unifying link to all of them..."Who is Julian Carax, and why are people dying because of the book that he wrote?" The mystery begins, when young Daniel is brought to a mysterious library in his hometown of Barcelona, where he's allowed to remove a single book and keep it. He begins a search for the author of his book, and in doing so, meets all of the people who were a part of the life of Julian Carax, the author. At this point, I could have used a glossary at the back of the book to keep track of all of these fascinating characters. There's a story for each character, and most of these stories interlock with one another, revealing more and more of the mystery of Julian Carax. Episodes in Daniel's book begin to parallel episodes in his own life, and soon his life is in jeopardy. Story lines run the gamut from adultery to incest to murder to comedy to satire, and the characterization is so vivid that it's easy to imagine most of the characters, even those who you'd rather NOT imagine. Some scenes are the stuff of nightmares! What a movie this would make.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE SLOW BURN FITNESS REVOLUTION by Fredrick Hahn, and Michael R Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, M.D.
These books about "how to revolutionize your fitness routine," come out every so often (the last one that I read was Body For Life...remember THAT one?) and they also seem to follow the same pattern. In the Introductory segment of the book, the authors will present their credentials, and then scare you with such statements as "What if everything that you knew about exercise was wrong?" and "What if you discovered that all the time that you spent working out was doing you more harm than good?" Then when they've got you hooked enough to read on, they present THEIR "revolutionary" program. In the case of the present program, the authors present a "slow-motion" strength-training routine that uses maximum weights, forcing the muscles to work at almost unbearable capacities, but that only requires a half-hour work-out a week. If that sounds good to you, then this is your book. I tried it, and it's not for me (although I have integrated some aspects of the program into my own daily workouts) for two reasons. I have neither the patience nor the endurance to work at these high-intensity levels, and I ENJOY my 6 hours at the gym each week!
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- BOYOS by Richard Marinick
The author, Richard Marinick, is an ex-con who spent ten years in state prison for armored car and bank robbery. He writes about lowly criminals in South Boston... the kind who sit around in big cars and in little bars, planning armored car and bank robberies, while dealing drugs. He writes about these low-lifes and their crimes with the voice of someone who's been there, but unlike Robert B. Parker and Dennis Lehane, who cover the very same ground, there's no human interest in his stories. Maybe that's what happens to you when you've been in prison for 10 years. Your humanity disappears. In any case, I was bored to death reading about this trash.
(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW- HOUR GAME by David Baldacci
David Baldacci has written some fine original thrillers in the past ("Absolute Power," "Split Second," etc.) and some clinkers ( "Wish You Well," and "Last Man Standing.") This one is one of the latter group. It's not that it's a bad read. (Actually it's a fine beach book, but hell, it's snowing out!) It's just that he's chosen to go down that well-worn road, and write yet another story about a serial killer, and the two veteran law enforcement officers who track the killer down. In fact, I think that they're the same two characters that the author wrote about in Split Second. As I said, it's a decent enough read, and something to do while you're waiting for your next real book to come along. In Hour Game, Baldacci's serial killer kills in the style of famous serial killers of the past. The cat-and-mouse chase is lively, but it's really all a case of "same old, same old."
(2 1/2-Stars)

This may not be the best book that Tom Wolfe ever wrote, but it certainly is the best book that I've ever read about contemporary college life. I've spent most of my adult life on, or around, a college campus, and Wolfe hits a bulls-eye on every target that he aims at, in the academic world. There's the all-encompassing sex; the incessant drinking; the professors who dumb-down their courses in order to accommodate the campuses brain-dead athletes (I never did this;) the athletes themselves...gods on the field or court, but illiterate in the classroom; the "froshstitutes,"....first year female students, who will have sex with anything, in order to gain status with their peers; the fraternity scene, right out of Dante's Inferno, with drunken morons inhabiting rundown mansions and spending their days watching ESPN, and their nights at drunken sexual bashes; nerds, who will protest, and write about everything, while experiencing nothing, etc. Charlotte Simmons is a brilliant virgin from a small town in Appalachia, who becomes a Freshman at one of America's most prestigious universities, and it's there that she comes face to face with a shocking world that she never knew existed. She goes from being appalled, to being seduced (figuratively and literally) by this lifestyle. In an extended scene, one of his best, the author describes, in graphic detail, the intimate steps in a drunken seduction of the heroine, from inside the heroine's head. How did this man write so realistically about what a woman experiences during this traumatic moment? It's Wolfe at his best. Where he does miss the mark, is that he says little, or nothing, about those students who don't spend their days and nights with sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but manage to maintain their high grades, while still having fun, during these, the best years of their lives. I recommend this book highly, especially to anyone who has any interest in the college experience.

BOOK REVIEW- THE FINAL SOLUTION: A STORY OF DETECTION by Michael Chabon
If you enjoy the writing of Michael Chabon ( Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ) as much as I do, then you might want to read this novella. Nothing much really happens in this short book with the long title. The time is 1944. The place is England. An old man, who was once a great detective, is called in as a consultant on a case involving a murder, a stolen parrot, and a mute German-Jewish boy. Because the parrot, before he was kidnapped, kept mumbling numbers in German, the police think that he might be harboring some secret Nazi codes, and so when he's stolen, the pursuit becomes a tale of espionage and murder. We never do find out if "the old man" is really Sherlock Holmes, but it's fun to be inside of his head for even a short while.
(3-Stars)

There's really no good reason to read this book unless you're a fan of Cussler's "Dirk Pitt" novels (as I am, ) or unless you have nothing better to read. The Dirk Pitt novels always start in the past with a chapter of historical fiction (e.g. the burning of the Alexandrian Library; the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac, etc.) and then jump to the present or the near future, and tie the past event to a contemporary tale of underwater adventure, espionage or terrorism. Our hero, Dirk Pitt, usually rescues the world , and a beautiful female scientist, in a series of wildly improbable, but tremendously exciting adventures, and saves the ancient artifacts to boot! This time around, the past is relatively recent, the defeat of the Japanese Imperial Naval Fleet, and the sinking of two submarines off of the west coast of America, during the final years of World War II. It seems that these submarines carried enough toxins to wipe out the population in most of our western cities, and now, a rich North Korean demagogue has access to these biological weapons, and he means to use them. Since a great deal of time has elapsed since the first of the Dirk Pitt novels was written, the hero and heroine of the current series of books are Pitt's twin offspring, Summer and Dirk, Junior. It's an exciting read, but not top draw Cussler by any means. If you'd like to start out reading one of the earlier, better "Dirk Pitt" books, start with Sahara, because the movie (starring Matthew McConnaughy as Pitt) is about to come out shortly. If this film is a success, watch for the filming of all of the other 16 Dirk Pitt adventures. Wow, that's a franchise!

Reading two Clive Cussler books back to back is like eating two Chinese dinners one after the other. You'll get full and be very satisfied, but you'll be hungry right away for something more substantial. The present book is "a novel from the Oregon Files," with its high seas action-hero, Juan Cabrillo. The bad guys in this case, are a group led by a billionaire industrialist, whose intent is to strike a paralyzing blow to Islam, by destroying the holy Mosques at Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem while the millions of "the faithful" are at prayer. I was rooting for the bad guys!!!

BOOK REVIEW- JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL by Susanna Clarke
If either Charles Dickens or Gabriel Garcia Marquez had decided to write a Harry Potter book, this would have been the result. First-time British author Susanna Clarke has written a complex, intelligent and highly readable fantasy about two rival magicians in a Victorian England where there are no rules of reality. Anything goes...and does. Mr. Norrell, after a show-off piece to demonstrate his magic to his fellow-magician peers, establishes himself as the master of British magicians. However, because he's reluctant to use his magic for personal gain, his younger rival, Jonathan Strange emerges as the "go-to" guy whenever anything major needs "fixing up" in England, e.g. helping Wellington win the Battle of Waterloo, defeating the immense French fleet by creating a rival fleet of ghostly British ships, etc. The book is long (820 pages,) epic, and written in an excellent imitation of Victorian prose, but don't let this put you off. It's a magnificent page-turner, filled with wildly imaginative characters, and set in well-known cities (Venice, London, Padua,) that are turned magical at the hands of the two feuding magicians. Although I've been lugging the 4-pound book around with me for weeks, I was sorry when it came to an end.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE GODFATHER RETURNS by Mark Winegardner
It's all about money, isn't it? And I guess that the family of Mario Puzo is running low, because why else would they hire writer Mark Winegardner to revisit the story of the Corleone family...a story that was complete in the book written by Mario Puzo? In the current novel, the story begins in 1955, following some of the major events of the novel, and then dovetails back and forth with events of the novel, and the first two Godfather films, mercifully eliminating any mention of the dreadful third film. The characters are the same, but the major difference between the Puzo book and the Winegardner book is in the style of the authors. Mario Puzo wrote in a style that was epic and operatic. There was a grand sweep to his work that raised its story to the level of allegory. Mark Winegardner writes in an ordinary style, that is journalistic and episodic. If the Corleones could ever be made to appear commonplace and even dull, they are, in this book. What's needed is more Verdi and Tolstoy, and less "goombah" and Danielle Steele!
(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW- NIGHT FALL by Nelson DeMille
Nelson DeMille is a master story-teller. What separates him from other authors who write page-turners in the thriller genre (James Patterson, Clive Cussler, John Grisham, etc.) is his intelligent style of writing, his three-dimensional characters, and his highly readable, yet complex plots. Whether he's writing about the mafia on the North Shore of Long Island, or Vietnam, or murder in the Army, he holds your attention from the beginning to the end. In Night Fall, he dips into the area of historical fiction to retell the tragic story of the crash of TWA flight 800 off the coast of Long Island in 1996. The husband and wife team of John Corey (NYPD) and Kate Mansfield (FBI), who we've met before in other DeMille books, take it upon themselves to reopen this case, in order to determine what really caused the explosion that brought this plane down, just minutes after take-off, killing all of the passengers and crew. Was it a malfunction or a missile fired from a ship? Telling this story from the present-time, in the Age of Terrorism, gives this plot a resonance that it wouldn't have had, had it been written prior to 9/11. The characters in the story aren't yet engulfed in the War on Terrorism, but we, the readers are, and this adds immensely to the story. There is a surprise at the end of the book, but it won't come as a surprise to anyone who can read the chapter headings, and do some simple arithmetic. Nevertheless, knowing what's coming at the end isn't as important as what happens getting there. A terrific read, and unfortunately, a very topical one.
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Philip Pullman
(This book was recommended to me by my young cousin Catie, and I thank her for that; it was a joy to read.) In the fantasy/adventure tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, and J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman has studied those who came before him, and written a rich and detailed story of adventure, courage, and betrayal. The characters of Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter and Iorek Byrnison are unforgetable, but none more so than the young heroine of the tale, Lyra Belacqua. The concepts far transcend those usually associated with books dealing with children as the main character...concepts such as "free will," "the need for a soul," "parental betrayal," "original sin," and "genocide." The young "orphan," Lyra, the ward of the scholars at Oxford, is torn away from her somewhat idyllic life on campus, and plunged into a believable adventure involving kidnapped children, armored talking bears, brain surgery, flying witch clans, sea-going gypsies, and warring parents bent on destroying one another and their offspring. Pullman creates a world where souls are living animals, and the clergy is the villain. That, in itself, is a rarity. In addition, it's rare to find a scene in any book, let alone one of this genre, that is so moving that it will bring you to tears. Without giving away too much, the scene involves Lyra's discovery of the caged and dying "souls" of the kidnapped children. The Golden Compass is the first book in a trilogy entitled "His Dark Materials." I need some time to absorb what I've just read, before I plunge into the parallel universe that Pullman has created in the second book. That's something to look forward to.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- LONDON BRIDGES by James Patterson
Reading a James Patterson novel, after reading a novel of substance, is something like eating some sherbet after a fish course...it's light, refreshing, and is easily digested! This is my tenth novel dealing with the main character of Alex Cross, psychologist/detective, and to be perfectly honest, although the formula is as old as an old tire, it's still a fun read. This time, Cross is pitted against two of his most formidable enemies, the masterminds The Weasel, and The Wolf. The Wolf's ambitions are lofty...to hold five of the world's cities "hostage" until his demands are met. While the FBI, the CIA, Interpol, and Scotland Yard contemplate how to deal with this terrorist, famous landmarks around the world are blown up, killing thousands. Did I say it was a fun read? Well, you know what I mean. It does strike me as somewhat irresponsible, when an author like Patterson gives terrorists ideas about what to do in their spare time, and how exactly, to go about doing it! Do we really need our novelists giving helpful hints to Al Qaeda? That's what we have the newspapers, TV, and the Internet for, right?
(3 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE BROKER by John Grisham
What kind of book do you get when John Grisham takes his plot and characters out of the courtroom? The best book that he's written since his first two, A Time to Kill, and The Firm.
In this book, the main character Joel Backman, is a billionaire Enron-style financial broker and lobbyist, who stumbles onto a "Star Wars"-like satellite system...one that belongs to someone other than the United States. His involvement in trying to find out which country has put this mysterious system in place lands him in a federal prison for six years. When he's pardoned six years later, by an inept president who's leaving office, he's put out onto the streets where he's hunted by those foreign powers who are still trying to find out what he knows about that satellite system. One of these hunters is the CIA. Most of the action takes place in the dark, picturesque medieval Italian city of Bologna. This in itself, is a major departure for author Grisham, whose usual venue is a courthouse in the Deep South. It's a welcome change, and one that should keep this book on the best seller lists for months to come.
(4 -Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE SUBTLE KNIFE by Philip Pullman (Book 2 in the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy)
Don't even think of reading this book, if you haven't already read the first book ( The Golden Compass in Pullman's trilogy.) Even having read the first book, it's quite confusing at times, because the author doesn't always explain references to persons and places in Book 1, and you're never quite sure which world you're in in Book 2. But if you have read the first book, then you're in for a real treat, because the story of our young heroine Lyra ("Silvertongue") Belacqua, continues in a fantastic adventure, that rivals those of other classic series in this genre. Lyra and her young companion Will Parry, travel to and through two worlds that parallel our own. The first city that they travel to on one of these worlds, is Cittagazze, which resembles a Meditteranean town by the sea, only it's populated with children, devilish Specters, and zombie-like adults. The second world, Lyra's actual world, is a world like our own...but different. The third world is our own, which seems quite foreign, after one has visited the others. Lyra and Will are on a mission to rescue Will's father, to see where The Subtle Knife takes them, to learn its true function, and to learn the meaning of "Dust." On their journey, they're pursued by Specters, murderous children, and Lyra's evil mother and her allies. They're helped by Witches, Angels, and a golden device that always tells the truth. Pullman (like his fellow countrywoman, J.K. Rowling,), although writing for young adults, never talks down to them. In fact, some of the religious concepts and those of quantum physics, are difficult even for bright adults to grasp. But the journey is exciting, the characters are unforgettable, the multiple plots are highly imaginative, and I can't wait for the conclusion in Book 3, although I hope that it's less confusing to the reader than this one was.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- STATE OF FEAR by Michael Crichton
They say that timing is everything, and if that's the case, then Michael Crichton's timing is impeccable. His latest novel, a thought-provoking techno-thriller, deals with whether or not global warming is really a threat, or merely media hype. With recent events like the tragic tsunami in the South Pacific, and the signing of the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming and the Environment by over 100 nations, his timing couldn't be better. In his book, the forces favoring the notion of global warming, are pitted against those who claim that scientific evidence favors the view that it isn't happening (Crichton's viewpoint,) and either side will stop at nothing to make sure that they win the "war." The novel is filled with charts, graphs, and footnotes to scientific references, making the facts of both sides appear to be accurate. If nothing else, it's worth reading just to read Crichton's theory of the "State of Fear:" how Western nations (with the help of their politicians, universities, lawyers and the media,) keep their citizens in a perpetual state of fear. This is fascinating, and it occurs 100 pages from the END of the book. Just in case I'm making this sound dull, let me assure you that it's anything but. One side will resort to anything to keep the public fooled, and anything, means wild chases over glaciers in Greenland; the hero and heroine (both young lawyers who are truly the most accident-prone heroes in recent novels!) being swept away in a flash flood, chased by a storm with planned, directed lightning strikes, bitten by a poisonous Australian octopus, and captured by modern-day cannibals; etc. In other words, enough action to make for a blockbuster movie. Start casting!
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- CONVICTION by Richard North Patterson
If you know anything about my politics, and my obsession with fairness, you probably can guess that I'm not too happy reading a book about a liberal California lawyer, who's trying to prove the innocence of a moronic coked-up gorilla who's been sitting on death row for 15 years, awaiting his imminent execution, for having been convicted of committing an unspeakable crime. The crime? He was found guilty of causing the death of a 9-year-old Asian girl who choked on his semen while she was forced to perform oral sex on him. I know that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but he WAS found to be guilty by a jury of his peers. During her visits to death row to interview her new client so as to try to exonerate him on a final appeal, she found this man to be sweet, likable, and "she loved his smile." She even brought him presents. You'll excuse me if I find this character's behavior to be disgusting. This is a cautionary tale about lawyers who become obsessed with their clients. People on death row shouldn't be coddled like kids in a day-care center, not even in a piece of fiction! As with all of Patterson's books, this one is written expertly, with fine attention to plot and characterization. Up to a point that is. Half way through the book, it deteriorates into a legal textbook. This second half of the book is overburdened with so much boring legalese jargon, that it makes a John Grisham novel read like a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm! That, in addition to the fact that my conservative bias couldn't get me through the nauseating bleeding-heart liberal attitudes of the protagonist, especially when she puts the feelings of the alleged murderer before those of her daughter and family. It made her repulsive to me. Sorry.
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE AMBER SPYGLASS by Philip Pullman
All of the many imaginative story lines come together in the conclusion of Philip Pullman's trilogy, "His Dark Materials." Although the first two books in the trilogy were creative, exciting, thought-provoking and quite beautiful, this final book is nothing short of magnificent. In fact, it's a masterpiece of the fantasy/adventure genre. None of these books can be read alone; they must be read in sequence. All of the characteristics of a well-told story...plot, setting, character development, setting and style...are woven skillfully into one of the richest tapestries that I've ever experienced in a novel of this genre...and I've read them all. At its simplest level, the book is a coming-of-age story of two exceptional children, Lyra and Will. At its more complex level, it's a creative re-telling of the Garden of Eden story, which culminates in a battle of the forces of good and evil. How this battle turns out, will shock even the most sophisticated reader. Along the way, the reader is introduced to wonderful mythical (and mystical) creatures; monumental urban and pastoral settings; spectacular battles on land and in the air; violent deaths and glorious re-births; scenes of epic proportions that cry out for computer-generated-imagery; and a tricky reversal of the usually-accepted roles of God, the Church, the clergy, angels, witches, Specters, harpies, and other creatures that I've never ever encountered...even in my own very vivid imagination. I loved this trilogy, and especially this last book...the best, by far, of the three.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- HONEYMOON by James Patterson & Howard Roughan
If you're a fast reader (I'm not,) you'll finish this one in a long evening, because it's exciting, it's a page-turner, the chapters are short and the print is large and triple-spaced, but most important of all, it's a terrific story. Not great literature, mind you, but a gripping fast-paced story. Nora Sinclair is a beautiful "interior decorator to the rich," who would appear to have everything, including an ideal boyfriend, and an ideal husband! She's also a widow, having disposed of her first wealthy husband. You see, Nora is what's known as a "black widow," a woman who marries rich men and then kills them. Up to now, she's been getting away with it. (Hey, I didn't say it was Dostoevsky!) Enter Craig Reynolds, insurance agent, and John O'Hara, FBI agent, who in addition to suspecting foul play, fall wildly in lust with Nora. Did I mention that Reynolds and O'Hara are the same man? The plot is shot full of holes, but you'll be hooked from the very first page, anyway. Now, if I were casting the movie, I'd go with Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, and possibly Colin Farrell. Not bad, huh? Oh, and don't give away the ending.
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- DETOUR by James Siegel
The author of the successful book Derailed, has come up with another page-turning thriller. As with his other book, this one starts with a relatively innocent premise...an infertile couple is going to Colombia to adopt a baby girl. One would have thought that the first clue that things would go wrong, was the fact that they were going to COLOMBIA! If you do read this book, see if you have a sense of deja vu, when things start to go wrong with the adoption in Colombia. I could swear that I read the exact same scenes (or saw them in a movie,) somewhere else. I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen, down to the smallest detail. Anyway, the couple's lives go into a downward spiral involving betrayals, kidnappings, drug-smuggling, suicide, and murder. The author's first book, Derailed, has been made into a movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen. I'm sure that the same thing will happen to this one (with different stars, of course.) I've read two "beach books" in a row now. What will I read this summer???
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- FODOR'S NAPLES & THE AMALFI COAST (First Edition)
The only thing wrong with this otherwise excellent guidebook, is that it's five years old. So, if you're looking for up-to-date information (like current hotel and restaurant prices, etc.) on this area of Italy, I would say get a later edition of the same book. I say that, because it does a wonderful job of describing the various cities and towns of Campania in great detail. Most of these places are centuries old anyway, so not much has changed! For those of you who are coming to Amalfi in July, you'll find the book very useful in giving information on walking tours of the towns that we're planning to see...Pompeii, Herculaneum, Positano, Sorrento, Ravello, Capri, and Amalfi itself.
Our hotel, the Luna Convento is described as the "legendary 13th Century convent founded by St. Francis of Assisi, that was transformed into the earliest hotel on the Amalfi Coast in the 19th Century. Along with guests like Wagner, Mussolini, Sophia Loren, and Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, it was here that Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll's House." What I did find disconcerting about the book is that everything was quoted in Lire rather than Euros, so that I had to convert the currency when trying to establish prices. Other than that, I did learn a great deal from this book. So, I recommend it for its background information, not for its timeliness.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- SATURDAY by Ian McEwan
McEwan's last book Atonement, was not only beautifully written, but was also a great read...a truly wonderful story written by, what I thought was, a masterful story-teller. The present book is also beautifully written, but it's a terrible read...so boring, that I almost skimmed parts of it. In the first 83 pages, there are only 80 sentences of dialogue. I know; I counted them! Not that dialogue, in and of itself, makes for a great read. But, it helps! This one reads like a term paper in an advanced English writing class, where everyone is trying to impress the professor with words, syntax, and use of metaphors. I wanted to take out a red pencil, and write all over it, "did you forget to write a story?" In the slim story, an English neurosurgeon has his peaceful day interrupted by an auto accident, which ends in a violent confrontation. It sounds interesting, doesn't it? It isn't! It's a depressing, colossal bore.
(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW- FLYING WITHOUT FEAR by Captain Keith Godfrey
For someone like me who's flown to more than 50 countries, it's ironic that I've developed a fear of flying in the last two decades. I do it anyway, but I'm a white-knuckle flyer. In the hopes of conquering this fear, I read this manual by a former 28-year veteran pilot at British Airways. In it, he tries to answer some of the most basic questions pertaining to flying and the fear of flying. Although he does do a lot of explaining about how a plane flies and why it's highly unlikely that you'll ever be in a plane crash, the only thing that I took away from the book that I found useful to my awkward situation, is that "even in the most severe turbulence, the plane is never in danger." If I hear a drinks-cart rattling down the aisle, I assume that we're going down! This from someone who was in a plane that was struck by lightning over the former Soviet Union; weathered a ferocious hail storm over Uruguay; and saw an engine catch fire over the Atlantic. I guess not everything mellows with age!
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- 1000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE by Patricia Schultz
This is one of those fun books that every traveler should read. The author, who has not herself visited most of these places, has nevertheless interviewed/surveyed hundreds of travelers, tourism boards, travel agents, and PR agencies to compile this list of must-see places. Her sole criterion for inclusion is that "each place impress upon the visitor some sense of the earth's magic, integrity, wonder, and legacy." It includes cities, hotels, restaurants, and even events (e.g., Times Square on New Year's Eve, etc.) I must say that I agree with most of the places included in the book, but I think that I would have substituted others that were left out, for some of the more obscure ones (e.g., Baliem Valley in Indonesia???) What surprised me the most was the number of places that I've visited; it was surprisingly low for someone who's traveled to more than 50 countries, some of them several times, and visited just about every important site in each of these countries. The number for me was 300 (out of 1000!) Low, don't you think? This is all just sour grapes on my part, because I'm angry that I didn't write this book!!!
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: OFF THE RECORD by Briyah Paley
This is a useful little handbook about Northeastern University, written by a student in the Journalism department there, with a little help from her friends. It's students, supposedly telling it like it is. The students quotes are often inarticulate and grammatically incorrect. Much of it is accurate, some of it is not. Topics covered include: Academics, Diversity, Safety and Security, Guys and Girls, Campus Dining, Nightlife, Athletics, Campus Housing, Famous Alumni, etc. You get the picture. A good book if you're thinking of going there, are going there now, or have already gone there. Or, in my case, have spent your entire life there....and are STILL there!
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- 4TH OF JULY by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
If you've read and enjoyed the first three books in Patterson's "Women's Murder Club" series, then you should read this sequel to the others. It's the same formula, with a different kind of story. The main character in this one is Detective Lindsay Boxer. The action begins with a near-fatal car chase, in which two murderers are cornered by detective Boxer, and in self-defense, she kills one, and maims the other for life. Unfortunately, the murderers also happen to be children! This leads to an exciting trial, and then what appears to be exile from her former life as a law-enforcer, for Boxer. In the small town of Half Moon Bay, where she escapes to, for some peace and work, she gets caught up in a series of murders, which seem to be the work of a very sick serial killer, or killers. In this small picturesque, peaceful town, the stuff of nightmares happens, and no one is what he or she appears to be. If you're into this kind of thing, you probably won't be able to put the book down until you come to the surprising conclusion. It's a fast read, and although it's not great literature, it's very entertaining nevertheless.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- ZORRO by Isabel Allende (translated from the Spanish by Margaret Peden)
Is there anyone out there who hasn't heard of the legend of Zorro, the masked avenger of the oppressed Mexicans and Native American Indians of 19th-Century California? If you haven't read about the story of Diego de la Vega (aka Zorro,) you've certainly seen at least one of the many films, in which he was portrayed by Douglas Fairbanks (in silent films,) and others, including Antonio Banderas, most recently. Now, one of my favorite authors, Isabel Allende, has written, as only she can, one of the most complex and exciting histories of this swashbuckling adventurer. As always, her writing is filled with color, style, and incredible details. Even I, who enjoy reading slowly, had difficulty putting this book down. Her imaginative tale creates the historic legend with dramatic intensity, beginning with Diego's birth in southern California, late in the 18th-Century. His father was a Spanish aristocrat (a caballero,) and his mother an amazon-like Shoshone warrior; what a heritage. The first half of the book deals with Diego's exciting childhood and adolescence, in which the reader sees the unusual upbringing that eventually could produce the man who would become Zorro. It was almost inevitable. Allende weaves together Spanish history, California history, mythic folk tales, stormy sea voyages, wild romance, duels at dawn, pirate adventures with colorful pirate Jean Lafitte, Native American lore, secret societies, and much, much more. It's an epic story, that's operatic in scope, and a literary tour de force for Allende. I loved every page of this book!
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- THE CLOSERS by Michael Connelly
If you're an avid fan of Connelly's "Harry Bosch" series, then you'll enjoy this book. I'm not, and therefore I found it to be a generic and boring detective "thriller."
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers
This is a story of an asshole! In a fictionalized autobiography, that's neither "heartbreaking" nor "staggering," the twenty-something author retells his tale of woe. After having lost both parents in a very short period of time, he's left to raise his younger brother. As a role model and mentor for this young boy, he's a disaster. The little boy is much more mature than his older brother is. What the author is, is paranoid, disorganized, forgetful, perpetually late, horny as a frat boy, and a brilliant writer. So, if you're looking to read a story about the adventures of an asshole and his younger brother, this is it. At least it's well written.
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- "HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE" by J.K. Rowling
If you've read all of the other books in this incredible series, then nothing can keep you from reading this new book. When you do, you'll be rewarded with another exciting chapter in the life of the students and faculty of Hogwarts, the school for wizards. For those of you who have chosen not to read this series for fear that you might be reading books for children, get that ridiculous notion out of your head. This is as much children's literature as is Oliver Twist or Romeo and Juliet. Just because the main characters are young, doesn't make a book a book for children! In this, the latest book in the series, the emphasis is less on action (although the last 100 pages are action-filled,) and more on character development. We learn more about, not only Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco, but also about Lord Voldemort, when he was young Tom Riddle. The villains get more villainous, and the heroes and heroines more heroic, although always within the broader context of being flesh-and blood adolescents. These are real kids...who just happen to be able to fly on brooms, and disappear at will! To the impatience of many of my friends who read the book in one night, I chose to read the book very slowly, savoring every page. As I explained to them, when one sits down to a 5-course magnificent meal in a fine restaurant, one doesn't gobble it up in five minutes! Oh well, now it's time to put away my Hogwarts sweatshirt for another year. I do so reluctantly.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE CORPS :Book 1 SEMPER FI by W.E.B. Griffin
W.E.B. Griffin is the poet laureate of the American Military. He knows his stuff when it comes to writing about "The Military" in all of its various aspects. Therefore, a warning. If you're not thoroughly interested in the details of military life, dress, ordnance, etc., then you'd probably be wiser to stay away from Griffin. The present book deals with the Marine Corps in the year 1941. It starts in China and ends in Pearl Harbor. I found it interesting, historically, because it gave a clear picture of the events leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. (The actual bombing is glossed over in the last 20 pages of the book!) However, what I didn't enjoy, was the fact that the military details overwhelmed the very thin story. Griffin spends more time, and pages, describing a rifle, than he does describing a character. Ultimately, this proves boring. At least it did to me. Tom Clancy used to obsess over details concerning the military as well, but in his novels, the details never got in the way of the story. So, if you're a military buff, and enjoy this kind of thing, go for it. However, let me warn you that "Semper Fi" is the first of NINE books in THE CORPS series!
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: LIFEGUARD by James Patterson & Andrew Gross
Although not top-draw Patterson, this book is a good enough read to have kept me going until its predictable conclusion. Ned Kelly, a lifeguard-to-the-rich in Palm Beach, is drawn into a burglary, by a group of his friends, with the promise of a million dollars as his share. As in all of these books, things go wrong, people are killed, and the former lifeguard finds himself being pursued by the F.B.I., as well as by master criminals, all of whom want him dead. One of these F.B.I. agents becomes his ally, and his girl-friend, further complicating things!
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: ELDEST by Christopher Paolini
...the Saga of Eragon continues. There's really no need to write a lengthy review of this, the second book in "The Inheritance Trilogy," but I probably will! If you read Eragon, the first book in the trilogy that was written by the young genius Christopher Paolini (he started to write the first book when he was 15 years old!) you'll most certainly want to read this book as well. As in the first book, the rewards are great. It's an instant classic, worthy of being put on the shelf alongside the works of Tolkien, Lewis, Alexander, and Rowling. In this book, our hero Eragon, and his cousin Rowan, set out on parallel journeys, on different sides of the land of Alagaesia. The journeys have been forced on them, but they meet all tasks bravely and excitingly. Paolini has written another page-turner, and I had to force myself to read slowly. Why rush through the excitement of meeting fire-breathing dragons, magical and wise elves, fierce but lovable dwarves, monstrous Urgals and even more horrible Ra'zac? The journeys of the two cousins come together in a fiery, spectacular battle, in a landscape resembling hell, that fills the last 50 pages of the book. The ending of the book is also filled with surprises. As in most great works of epic fantasy, the reader will gain insights, not only into the many characters, but also into him/herself as well. I loved every page of it, and I look forward to the next, and final book of the trilogy.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE CITY OF FALLING ANGELS by John Berendt
If you love Venice as much as I do (it's my second favorite city in the world,) then you'll surely enjoy reading this fascinating, interesting, and often thrilling "non-fiction" novel. It took John Berendt ten years to research and write it (his last big novel was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,) but it was worth the wait. Each time I go to Venice I seem to discover a new part of this tiny stage-set of a city: the glass-blowers on the island of Murano; the Cipriani Hotel on Giudecca, and the velvet-cushioned boat that takes you there; the majestic Danieli; the first ghetto in the world, where I stayed in a charming hotel, the Amadeus; the Lido, and its Casino and topless beaches; the cemetery on San Michele; the back-canals of Canareggio, etc. Berendt does the same thing with this masterfully-created book. He allows the reader to discover Venice bit by bit. In the book, he tells us the story of the investigation surrounding the burning of one of the world's greatest opera houses, La Fenice. Was it arson, or simply a freak accident? In any case, this magnificent opera house was burned to the ground, and the suspects were piling up. As the author of this forthcoming book, Berendt was allowed to "eavesdrop" on virtually every aspect of the investigation, taking him from his tiny apartment in Canareggio, to the police headquarters, to the great palazzi, lining The Grand Canal. We meet pigeon trappers, the Plant Man, con artists, the Rat Man of Treviso, as well as Counts, Countesses, and Henry James and Ezra Pound! It reads like the script of a Fellini movie. In fact, it would make an incredible Merchant-Ivory film! By the way, La Fenice has been completely rebuilt, even better than before. The book bogs down somewhat near the end, but it's still a fascinating read.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE MARCH by E.L. Doctorow
If you're a real Civil War buff, you might enjoy Doctorow's latest book. I found it to be intermittently interesting and boring...mostly boring. In it, the author has decided to document Union general William Tecumseh Sherman's march to the sea, after burning the city of Atlanta. The Union army, like a huge flood tide, carries with it the remains of The Old South, now "gone with the wind." There are so many characters in the book, but none of them are particularly memorable. Nor is there any one scene that stands out in my mind. In addition, to the detriment of the book and the person reading it, Doctorow has chosen to adopt a writing style (no quotes for dialogue, etc.) that makes the reading of it even more confusing. As I was reading the book, I kept bringing to mind so many unforgetable scenes from the movie "Gone With The Wind," proving that one picture is sometimes worth more than a thousand words.
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE CAMEL CLUB by David Baldacci
David Baldacci (one of my favorite authors) has written his latest thriller about the escalating fears and dangers in this present Age of Terrorism, and what might happen if the Non-Islamic world decided to play by the rules of the Islamic Jihadists. There are so many heroes and villains in this fast-paced novel, that it's often hard to keep track of who's who. The four main protagonists are a ragtag group of what one might call "bag-people"; each of whom has a fascinating history, and who, collectively, are out to find out who is telling the "truth" in America, and who is out to destroy it. The book starts with a mysterious murder, and proceeds through various horrific events, including Arab suicide bombers, conspiracies at the highest levels, and eventually to a roller-coaster of a cat and mouse game, involving the attempted assassination of the President of the United States. Oh, did I mention there's also an eleventh-hour plan to drop an atomic bomb on the city of Damascus, Syria, the oldest continuously occupied city in the world? How ironic...and how frightening.
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: MARY, MARY by James Patterson
The latest Alex Cross ( FBI agent/psychologist) thriller about yet another serial killer. (Does America breed this damn species?) If you've read, and enjoyed, the other books in this series (e.g., Along Came A Spider, Kiss The Girls, etc.) you'll certainly enjoy this one as well; it follows the established formula perfectly!
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: ORDINARY HEROES by Scott Turow
In Scott Turow's latest novel, he's created some fascinating characters, and he should have been able to write an interesting book, in which to tell the story of these characters. He didn't! Instead, he's written a boring story about a man's quest to find out the true story of what happened to his father during the final years of World War II. Was he a hero or a criminal? Who cares. The book is a bore. I couldn't wait to put it down!
(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW: MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Although this novella is not up there with my favorite books by Marquez (e.g., One Hundred Years Of Solitude, and Love in the Time of Cholera,) it's hard to ignore any writings by one of the world's finest authors, who hasn't written a book in 10 years, and who received the Nobel Prize for Literature! The hero of the novel is a 90-year-old lifelong bachelor, who on his 90th birthday, decides to give himself the gift of a night with a 14-year-old virgin prostitute. As with all of Marquez's novels, it's not about the story, but rather, about the beautiful words that he uses to tell his story.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN by Annie Proulx
I can't remember the last time that I said this, if I ever did, but I'm saying it now. Skip the book and see the movie instead! Even though the book was written by Annie Proulx (The Shipping News,) screenwriter Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) took the short story and opened it up into a full-blown masterpiece of screen writing. His lonely cowboys and their wives, living in dying Western towns, are fully realized on screen, due in large part to the brilliant portrayals of Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway. I must confess that I didn't see these people (especially the cowboys,) in the men created by Annie Proulx in her 55-page short story. Even though her writing is filled with vivid visual imagery, nothing compares to the majestic beauty of the Canadian Rockies as seen on screen, and the characters on the page, are much too ordinary and weak to carry the full powerful burden of such an overwhelming and devastating story. As I said before...skip the book and see the movie instead!
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: FREAKONOMICS by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
Who would have thought that a brilliant young economist could have written a non-fiction text, that is not only a page-turner, but also fun to read? Levitt, the economist, collaborated with Dubner, the New York Times journalist, and together they researched some unusual combinations, occurrences, facts, and coincidences, and came up with surprising answers to some surprising questions. For instance: do teachers cheat so that their students will do better on standardized tests? Do Sumo wrestlers cheat, and how? Do real estate agents get more money when selling their own homes, than when selling yours? Why do many black parents saddle their children with absurd names (Shaquanda, Marquis, Taleequa, etc.) and how do these names affect these children when they're trying to get a job? Will taking your child to museums make that child a better student? Do adopted children do poorly in school? What are the multitude of differences between blacks and whites, and will the gap ever disappear? These, and many more fascinating questions and subjects are answered, and dealt with, and more importantly, are backed up with extensive research from many reputable sources. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and found myself quoting from it to friends, as I was reading it. You will too.
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova
I really loved this book! Part of the reason that I so thoroughly enjoyed it, is because it has many of the same qualities of Dan Brown's masterpieces, Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code. It's a book about three couples, from three different generations of the same family, all historians of sorts, who are in search of an illusive and deadly "legendary" figure.....Count Vlad Tepes the Impaler, who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula! It's filled with religion and murder, ancient history and the great architecture of some European cities, three love stories and stories of hatred and death, and hidden codes found in the pages of ancient texts. The story bounces back and forth from events in the 1930's, and the 1950's, to those in the 1970's and the present, and is advanced in letters from the 1960's and ancient texts from the 1400's. It's told by a mother who was abandoned by her lover, her mysterious daughter and her new lover, and their young daughter, who has no idea who her mother is, but is coming to discover her, in once-hidden letters. Parts of the story are told by monks, who lived in the 1400's. It sounds confusing, but it isn't, because it's so well written by first-time author Elizabeth Kostova. It's an unforgetable page-turner, in which elements of the supernatural become as real as events in the real world. What made it even more enjoyable for me, is that the story takes place in cities that I once visited, from Oxford, England, to Budapest, Hungary, to Istanbul, Turkey, and of course Bucharest and Transylvania, in Romania. It will linger in my mind for a long time.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell
Not nearly as fascinating and thought-provoking as is the similar book Freakonomics, this book sets out to describe trends and fads (which the author calls "social epidemics" )...who starts them, and how and why they spread. For anyone familiar with basic textbooks in psychology, education, communication, and economics, there's nothing new in this book, that hasn't already been presented and analyzed in more comprehensive textbooks. Gladwell has simply compiled some of the more interesting facts from other sources and presented them in a somewhat linked, and simplistic, fashion to support his theses. In short, he's written what amounts to a good term paper. I stopped reading those 6 years ago!
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE OTHER SIDE OF ME: A MEMOIR by Sidney Sheldon
Back in the day, I read most of Sidney Sheldon's novels, because they were page-turners, best-sellers, and a fast read. Who knew that, before he started writing novels, he was a famous playwright; that he wrote screenplays for some of Hollywood's biggest, and best, films (many of which he also produced and directed;) that he wrote the scripts for some very successful TV series; that some of his closest friends were also Hollywood's biggest stars; that he won an Oscar AND a Tony award; and that he was manic-depressive and suicidal? It's no wonder that this memoir reads less like an autobiography, and more like one of his fast-paced novels. It's filled with interesting anecdotes about his friends Marilyn Monroe, Richard Burton, Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, etc. But the most interesting person in this story is Sidney himself, who rides his roller-coaster life, from near-suicide in Depression-era Chicago in the midst of a highly dysfunctional family, to his ups and downs on Broadway and in Hollywood, to enjoying life as a grandfather at the age of 90. It's a fascinating, fast ride, and a must for theater and movie buffs.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT by Anne Rice
Anne Rice, author of all of those vampire books, has chosen to write about an intriguing subject...the young Jesus Christ of Nazareth; the very young Jesus Christ. In fact, the entire book deals with one year in the life of 7 year old Jesus....as told from his point of view. Why Rice has chosen to focus on this relatively uneventful year in the life of a very fascinating individual is unclear, but the end result is a fairly dull book. I remember now, why I only read the first of the vampire books, and never went on to the others. I don't like the way Anne Rice writes; she writes in a very boring way. In the present book, she's taken one of the most famous families in "history," and has reduced them to ordinary blue-collar suburbanites. Jesus is just becoming aware of his powers, which his parents refuse to discuss. Mary is motherly, but stoic. Joseph is strong, and a leader of his extended family, all of whom live under one many-bedroomed roof in a large house/ workshop in Nazareth. So what we have is "Leave it to Beaver" in Nazareth!
(2 1/2-Stars)

This is the fifth book in the "Women's Murder Club" series, and it follows the same pattern as the previous four books. An unofficial "team" of four professional women (a police lieutenant, a medical examiner, a reporter, and a lawyer,) pool their skills and resources to capture a serial killer. This killer is terrorizing a municipal hospital in San Francisco, killing recuperating patients, who are about to be released with a clean bill of health. Instead, they're found dead with caduceus buttons on their eyes. If you enjoyed the first four books, you'll enjoy this one as well, unless like me, you're getting tired of the formula. Don't take this book into the hospital with you when you go in for minor surgery!

BOOK REVIEW: THE REBELS OF IRELAND by Edward Rutherford

When James Michener died, Edward Rutherford became the new reigning master of grand historical fiction. In this sequel to his Princes of Ireland, Rutherford completes his two-book, nearly 2000-word masterpiece, "The Dublin Saga." Add these two books to Leon Uris' Trinity, and you'll have everything that you need to know about Ireland in just three magnificent books! (You might want to throw in a book of poetry by Yeats, and a play or two by Shaw or Wilde. But, I digress!) The Princes of Ireland, the first volume of Rutherford's epic of Irish history, begins in prehistoric times, and ends with the disastrous Irish revolt of 1534.The present book begins where the other book left off, and ends in the 1920s, with yet another revolt. Both books bring history to life through the tales of a dozen families, who just happen to be everywhere that history is being made in this troubled country. They're Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, villainous and heroic. But most of all, they're exciting characters to read about, because Rutherford is a master story-teller. Yes, an 863 page book CAN be a page turner!

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: CELL by Stephen King

After reading most of Stephen King's earlier better novels, I stopped reading him ages ago when all of his books started to sound the same. The blood and gore became predictable and stupid. But, just recently, I heard that King will not own a cell phone because of the unconscionably rude behavior that they've caused in even the best of people. So since we share that belief (I refuse to own a cell phone,) I decided to read his latest book, Cell, in which cell phones are used as the weapons of mass destruction to destroy all those who use them. Well, it starts off great, with the cell phone users in Boston turning into savage beasts, preying on all those around them. (Isn't that what they do now???) What's set off this mysterious behavior, is a "pulse" heard by all "phoners" around the world. The world is now divided into "phoners" who stalk by night, and sleep by day (or is it the other way around,) and "normies," who haven't been affected, because they weren't using cell phones. In any case, after the initial concept is worn out, the rest of the book becomes predictable King...bloody, gory, disgusting, and stupid!

(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: NATIVE TONGUE by Carl Hiaasen

In years past, I read all of the books by authors Woody Allen and Kurt Vonnegut, because they made me laugh out loud while reading them. I thought that Carl Hiaasen was the kind of author who would do the same for me. Well, he isn't. This is not the hilarious laugh-out-loud book that I expected it to be, but it is a funny parody of theme parks and the mentality of those people who run them. Hiaasen always creates memorable characters and the characters in this book are no exception. Bud and Danny are two brainless, small-time crooks, who are hired by a grandmotherly type who heads an environmentalist group, for the express purpose of putting a stop to the bulldoze-everything-in-sight mentality of the sleazebag who owns the Amazing Kingdom theme park in Key Largo, Florida. Trying to keep scandal from erupting at the park, is a burned-out reporter, who acts as the park's PR man, until he uncovers a dirty scam that's going on behind the scenes. Actually, with the right cast and director, this would probably make a funnier movie than it is a book. As is, it's a fun book to read while you're waiting to read your next GREAT book.

(2-Star)

BOOK REVIEW: THE SECRET SUPPER by Javier Sierra

Little did Dan Brown know that he would be creating a cottage industry when he wrote his modern masterpiece, The DaVinci Code. Here's another imitator to add to the ever-growing list. This book shares some of the same characteristics of the Dan Brown original: murder, mystery, religion, art, and coded messages hidden in great paintings. The year is 1497, and Leonardo Da Vinci is painting his "Last Supper" on the walls of the dining hall of a church in Milan. A mysterious religious group, the Cathars, who were supposed to have been wiped out, have surfaced, and are bent on destroying, not only the brothers in this church, but also the Catholic Church itself. Are they taking their instructions from the painting itself, and has Leonardo, who may or may not be a Cathar himself, filled his painting with anti-Catholic symbols and instructions to these "terrorists?" Or is it all a sinister plot concocted by a mysterious figure, known as The Soothsayer? The book is a well-written fun read for those who like art, history, and deciphering coded messages. However, it's limited in scope, in that it focuses all of its attention on the one painting, and the simple church in which it's being painted. Also, the coded messages are either too simple and easy to figure out, or so complicated that they're laughable. It's no DaVinci Code, but it's a good page-turner, if you like this sort of thing...and I do.

(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: IN THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN by Sarah Dunant

I love big pieces of historical fiction in which the author gives you a very real sense of what it must have been like living in one of the great cities of the world, during the time of its most glorious period. Such a book is In the Company of the Courtesan. This epic novel, is the story of a fictitious courtesan, Fiammetta Bianchini (she's too classy to call her a prostitute,) and her business manager (pimp, if you will,) the dwarf, Bucino, in Renaissance Venice. These two characters are so colorfully drawn by the author, that it's impossible to read their story without casting them in your mind, for an epic film, based on the book. Fiammetta's "clients" are the cream of Venetian society, from wealthy businessmen, to artists like Titian (Tiziano,) and even the occasional Cardinal. The book is filled with love, hate, sin, religion, murder and witchcraft. All of this against the background of the glorious palaces and watery canals of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It made be want to jump on a plane, and head over to my second favorite city in the world!

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: BEACH ROAD by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge

What makes this book different from so many of the dozens of other books that Patterson has written (he IS prolific, if nothing else,) is that it has some unexpected twists and turns...surprises, that I for one, didn't expect. The scene is the glamorous beach resort of East Hampton...the richest resort town in America. It's not all billionaires and mega-celebrities, as we're lead to believe by the media. When four people are murdered, after a pick-up basketball game between some white kids and black kids gets ugly, a hunt for the killers turns up some unsavory characters. The trial allows our main character, a going-nowhere young lawyer, to show what he's really capable of doing. His ex-girlfriend, now a Manhattan super-lawyer, comes back to help him fight this case. Did I mention that the suspect is a black star athlete, destined for the NBA? Go ahead and read it. I'll bet that you won't guess where it takes you.

(3 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER by Kim Edwards

The runaway hit of the summer book season, is this book by first time author Kim Edwards. Not even the publishers knew that it would be such a critically-acclaimed book, and that it would be swooped up by the public in every bookstore. In fact, they published it in paperback, not hardcover!
The story is the story of a young baby girl, one of two twins, who is born with Downs Syndrome, and how this fact, affected the lives of two families so profoundly, that it’s telling, approaches the level of Greek tragedy. Everything about the book is absolutely perfect: its unusual, highly readable style of writing; the original, fascinating plot; the incredible character development; the settings, and the beautiful theme. All of it comes together miraculously, in one of the best books that I’ve read in a long time. Don’t be put off by the element of Downs Syndrome in the story; it’s not at all depressing. Well, actually it is, but in such an uplifting, good way. I loved this book, and I’m recommending it to all of you.

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE by Ben Mezrich
Mezrich has written a piece of non-fiction (that reads like fiction, ) about a group of brilliant students from M.I.T., who became rich by beating the casinos of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and the Mississippi riverboats, using their skills of card-counting at blackjack. It was a fun book to read in Vegas, but it's a cautionary tale. There may have been a time when you could "beat the house" at blackjack, but that time is over. There are too many safeguards in place now. So when you go to Vegas, spend your money on the restaurants and on the shows as we did.
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW- DON'T MAKE A BLACK WOMAN TAKE OFF HER EARRINGS by Tyler Perry

You don't have to be black to appreciate the humor of playwright, composer, actor, director, producer, and now author, Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry speaks through his alter ego, Mabel "Madea" Simmons, a 400-pound, foul-mouthed, pistol-packing, lovable grandmother, who offers advice on just about every subject, from flirting and marriage, raising kids, the healthy choice of a deep-fried diet, the many uses of Vaseline, her commentary on the Bible, etc. Her words of wisdom are very funny, and often laugh-out-loud hilarious. Here's Madea on leading a protest march back in the day, "We got a whole bunch. It was twenty-two women. But all of us were as fat as hell, so we marched a good fifteen feet and everybody went to Burger King." A clever, funny, wise and enjoyable read.

(3 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: TERRORIST by John Updike

On a welcome break from writing about "suburban angst in Connecticut," author Updike takes a dramatic turn, and in the process, has created the most chilling, depressing, and insightful book that I've read in years. Ahmad is a young high school student in New Jersey, whose mother is an Irish Catholic, and whose father was a Muslim. He has been studying with a local imam, and has become a single-minded, unforgiving, relentlessly-hateful-of-all- things-non-Muslim, priggish, blind, candidate for martyrdom. The scary thing about this book is that Updike takes us into the mind of this young man, shows us everything that's wrong with American society today from his point of view, and you find yourself agreeing with much of what he sees and hates (e.g., valueless people creating monster children; materialism and ignorance running rampant; moronic teenagers on cell phones and in tasteless clothing, having sex before they can spell the acts that they're performing, etc.) Don't get me wrong. I love America, and wouldn't live anywhere else. But we're all f_____d up, and Updike shows us how and why.

(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: DEAN & ME by Jerry Lewis and James Kaplan

With the help of writer James Kaplan, show-business legend Jerry Lewis gets to tell his version of the rise, phenomenal success, and the fall, of one of the greatest acts in the history of show-business, "Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis." It's an always-interesting read, as Lewis gets to drop famous names, tell inside stories, and in general, describe a relationship that reads like a marriage, albeit a stormy one. I would like to have read Dean Martin's version of this same relationship!

(3 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: GOD BLESS YOU DR. KEVORKIAN by Kurt Vonnegut

Back in the day, Vonnegut was one of my favorite writers...the only one who could make me laugh out loud while reading one of his classic books. In fact, during my 30 years of Christmases spent in what-used-to-be glorious Acapulco (before the Spring Break animals discovered it,) I always took down either the latest Vonnegut, or the latest Ian Fleming, to read by the pool. But then Vonnegut lost it, and his books ceased to be laugh-out-loud funny. In this, one of his more recent "books," he's clever funny, but not laugh-out-loud funny. This book is not really a book at all, but a short (70 pages) series of "interviews" conducted for WNYC public radio in New York. Vonnegut claims to have had a near-death experience during heart by-pass surgery, and during these "excursions to heaven," he interviews the likes of Adolph Hitler, Martin Luther King's assassin, Sir Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. Some of these interviews are funny, some are clever, but none are laugh-out-loud funny. So, my search continues for another book that will make me laugh out loud. Don't Make A Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings did it. Any other ideas?

(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: GODLESS by Ann Coulter
The media has done a fine job in shamelessly portraying Ann Coulter as a raving lunatic with outrageous opinions. In fact, even I believed it, not having seen anything to the contrary. After having read this book, I can say that Coulter is a brilliant writer, and one who knows how to present ideas objectively and fairly. The book has the validity of a textbook, being well-researched, well-documented, and filled with bibliographical references. Because it presents such an accurate picture of what's REALLY going on in America today (it's hard to argue with factual references,) I recommend it to every intelligent reader, whether or not you're a liberal or a conservative, a democrat or a republican, or a religious person or an atheist. Unfortunately, even the most brilliant liberals, such as one of my colleagues and closest friends, might respond to my suggestion to read this book with, "I'd rather die than even touch that conservative bitch's filthy rag!" As I pointed out to him, isn't that something like saying, I wouldn't even look at "The Last Supper," because I'm not a Catholic, and DaVinci was a homosexual! You may not agree with everything in the book, and I don't, but it's a fascinating and enlightening read for someone with a brain in his/her head.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: FODOR'S CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY by John Doerper

If you're planning a trip to the California Wine Country in the near future, as I am, then this is the guide book for you. As with all Fodor guidebooks, it's an in-depth book with everything that you need to know. I haven't been back to the Napa Valley since I first visited it 35 years ago, when there were only a few vineyards operating, and a good meal consisted of a burger or fried chicken. Now, this has become one of the prime wine producing areas in the world, and its hotels and restaurants are world-class as well. So, whether you're planning on staying at a Courtyard Inn or Best Western, or at the luxurious Silverado, Meadowood, or Auberge du Soleil resorts, this guidebook will give you all of the information that you need, from the history of the region, to where the best spas are. In addition, there are beautiful photographs which help to recapture some of the spectacular beauty of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. When you start to read this guidebook, don't forget to make your reservations at Thomas Keller's impossible-to-book, "The French Laundry" restaurant. It takes reservations two months in advance!

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER by Jed Rubenfeld

If you enjoy reading books like The Alienist, Ragtime, The Historian and Devil in the White City, in which the authors use real-life historical figures, and weave them into a story-line of classic crime, along with exciting fictional characters, then you'll surely enjoy reading this book as much as I did. The year is 1909, and Sigmund Freud has landed in New York for his only visit to America, in order to deliver his now-famous series of lectures on psychoanalysis, at Clark University in Massachusetts. Along with him is an entourage including his protege and rival, Carl Jung, and his biographer Ernest Jones. No sooner have they arrived, when a young woman is found strangled, and hanging from a chandelier in her opulent apartment in the Ansonia (called the Balmoral in the book.) Soon after, another wealthy heiress is attacked. Everyone, from the then Mayor McClellan, to Harry K. Thaw (who shot architect Stanford White,) to Freud and Jung themselves, are brought into the case. The plot becomes more and more twisted, as first-time author Rubenfeld, brilliantly recreates the sights, sounds, and smells of New York at the time. I felt just as though I had been there. In one of the most convoluted endings that I've read in a long time, he brings all of the many pieces of the puzzle together, and finally, this exciting historical thriller makes sense. Stick with it, and try to solve the mystery if you can. It's a most enjoyable read.

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE BOOK OF FATE by Brad Meltzer

This is one of those books that will make a better movie, than it did a book. It starts off with a spectacular attempted assassination of a sitting president, at a big Indianapolis 500-type race, and then twists and turns its way through 500 pages of confusing interlocking story lines and two-dimensional characters. The plot concerns political espionage and religious symbolism (this time it's the Masons who are in the spotlight.) There are villains called The Three (one bad guy from each of the following: the FBI, the CIA, and the Secret Service,) and a couple of good guys (one a personal assistant to the president, and a gossip columnist.) Then, there's the requisite escaped murderous lunatic, who has religious delusions. Everyone is trying to kill everyone else, but it just takes too damn long to get to that final showdown in a cemetery. As I said before, wait for the movie!

(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: ON BEAUTY by Zadie Smith

For those of us who are not African-Americans, the brilliant young writer, Zadie Smith, is an excellent tour-guide into the world of the African-American educated middle class in America...specifically, the world of college professors and their families, who live on and around the exclusive, exciting, exotic, exuberant, energetic, and ever-youthful world known as "Academia." The Belseys and the Kipps are two opposing families, who come from Florida and London respectively, to live in the college town of Wellington ("Wellesley?") Massachusetts. The Belseys are liberal, and the Kippses are conservative in their life-style and beliefs. Both families have college and high-school age children. The story throws all of these characters together in a thoroughly realistic, beautifully-written, page-turning plot, involving race, sex, politics, religion, art, and college life. The language is accurate and real, and the situations hit close to home for the intelligent reader. The two families are drawn together because of their opposing views of life. You'll find it hard to take sides; all of these people are interesting. If you want to experience what goes on behind those protective high walls of the academic ivory tower, read this book, and Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons. Both are completely accurate. Take it from me. I've spent my entire life there!

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE COLLECTORS by David Baldacci

In this, his sequel to his best-seller The Camel Club, author Baldacci once again introduces us to his team of aging, just-one-step-away-from-homeless, crime fighters with dark, mysterious pasts. Wasn't one of them a government assassin for the CIA? Anyway, now we're introduced to two different story lines that eventually converge. In one, a team of master con artists pulls off a major con in Atlantic City. In the other, a series of assassinations of high-ranking government officials in Washington, D.C., is tied to the forgery of one of the rarest books in American history. Back and forth the reader goes, from a Borgata-like casino in Atlantic City to the Library of Congress, and the backstreets of the nation's capital. It's an exciting read, but at the end, the author shamelessly ends with a "please-read-my-next-book" cliff-hanger. That really turned me off. I was expecting closure, not "wait till you see what happens to these people in my next book!"

(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE MESSENGER by Daniel Silva

The Messenger is the most recent espionage thriller in a series of books written by Daniel Silva, about the exploits of Israeli art restorer and spy, Gabriel Allon. I had never read any of the other books in the series, but the author is good enough to fill the "newcomer" in, on just about everything that's happened previously...much to the dismay of the "old-timer," who has read all of the previous books in the series. In this book, the bad guys are the Saudi Arabians, and the Islamic Fascist terrorist thugs who are financed by the money that the world pays the Saudis for their oil. In that respect, the author tells it like it is. Gabriel Allon, and his super crack team of Israelis and Americans, attempt to prevent a billionaire villain, and HIS team of Islamic thugs, from killing the pope and destroying St. Peter's, using as bait, a missing Van Gogh painting and the young art expert known as "the Messenger." The characters are surprisingly well-drawn for this genre, and a couple of them, notably Allon himself and the young woman known as "the messenger," are three-dimensional characters. The plot is the typical page-turner, filled with exciting twists and turns, some of which are not predictable. I enjoyed the book, but not enough to read the next book in the series. I already have a lot on my plate in this particular genre of spy fiction.

(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: INES OF MY SOUL by Isabel Allende

Well, Isabel Allende, one of my favorite authors, has finally done it. She's written a boring book! After three wonderful reads, The House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune and Zorro, she's written this book about Ines Suarez, a daring Spanish conquistadora who helped to build the nation of Chile (where Allende was raised.) Whereas the other books were exciting page-turners, this one plods along from "adventure" to "adventure," all written in a dull, textbook-like fashion. Yawn! Take a vacation, Senora Allende, before you write your next book.

(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW: JUDGE AND JURY by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

Just as Santa Claus has his elves to make his toys, James Patterson has HIS "elves" to make his books. Who's writing which parts of his books now is anyone's guess! The latest page-turner created by James Patterson, Inc., is the story of a crafty mafia boss, who knows how to defeat the American judicial system, by using everything at his disposal to escape his captors. That "everything" includes international terrorists, who will kill and blow up anything and anyone in sight to keep the Don out of prison. It's a thrilling, suspenseful fast read (partly due to the triple-spaced short chapters that are part of the Patterson formula!) In spite of lots of twists and turns, the plot is thoroughly predictable. The true guessing game for the reader, is in trying to guess which parts of the book Patterson actually wrote (very few, I'm guessing,) and which part was written by his hard-working and talented "co-writer." With all of the money that he's made off of his books, one would think that he could have a better picture for his back covers, than the one that has him looking as though his favorite cat just died!

(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

How could someone who looks as young and pretty as Marisha Pessl does, on the inner cover of the book, have written such an overwhelming piece of great literature? In fact, how could one person have written such an overpowering book? In the context of the story, the young heroine quotes and makes reference to just about every one of the "great books," and she also throws around thousands of facts about just about everything. I would have guessed that an army of researchers working full-time wrote the book. Anyway, whoever wrote it, it's a modern-day masterpiece...and it undoubtedly holds the record for the most metaphors used in one single book. The story revolves around a 16-year-old genius, and her eccentric college professor father. Blue Van Meer (the young girl) has been brought up in college towns all over the country, but for the duration of this story, they've settled in one college town, where Blue falls in with a bizarre group of high school chums, all of whom are under the influence of their teacher and mentor, a mysterious woman named Hannah Schneider. Things happen to them.......................................................................................

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK THAT I'VE READ THIS YEAR.

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: CROSS by James Patterson

If you're a reader and fan of James Patterson's "Alex Cross" books, then this one is a must, as it's a prequel to all of the others, and it includes the shooting death of Dr. Cross's wife, Maria, back in 1993. If you're not a fan, then skip this book, unless you're looking for a fast-reading murder mystery about the hunt for a serial killer. It can stand on its own, even if you haven't read the other books in the series.

(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: WILD FIRE by Nelson De Mille

This is one of the books where I found myself siding with the "bad guys." In this topical novel, author De Mille has written another brilliant book, substantive in content, yet an exciting page-turner. He tells the story of a government program entitled "Wild Fire," that was supposedly put into effect under Ronald Reagan. This program is a retaliatory program, where, if any city in America is bombed by a nuclear weapon, a myriad of atomic weapons aimed at enemy cities would be fired off instantaneously. A group of important, wealthy industrialists and politicians who realize that the enemy of Western Civilization, is the Muslim World, have decided to force America's hand to fire off the "Wild Fire" nuclear weapons, that are now aimed at 120 Muslim cities and major religious shrines around the world. How to make this happen? The Custer Hill Club, who are these wealthy men, are determined to use the two atomic bombs that they have "at their disposal," to blow up two American cities, and force the retaliatory atomic bombs to be fired at all of the Muslim world. Now who could argue with such a wonderful solution to the present day's problems??? Well, at least two people can. John Corey and his wife Liz, who are Homeland Security and FBI respectively, are following up on the murder of one of their agent friends, and the trail leads to the exclusive Custer Hill Club. Will they solve the murder mystery before the Custer Hill Club can cause the destruction of the entire Muslim world? If you know me, you know whose side I was on as I was reading this thrilling, albeit long, novel!

(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

This book appeared on just about every book-critics list of the "ten best books of 2006," so I thought that I'd give it a shot. Big mistake. This is one of the most boring and depressing books that I've read in years. Although McCarthy knows how to put together words and sentences beautifully, and he knows how to create vivid visual images, the man just doesn't care to tell a readable story. The story he tells is an apocalyptic vision of the end of the world, with a few survivors wandering the earth, foraging for the crumbs of food that might remain. Two of these "survivors" are a father and his young son, who are struggling to reach "the coast," on an endless road. They're pathetic, and so is this damn book!

(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW: TREASURE OF KHAN by Clive and Dirk Cussler

If you've been reading as many Clive Cussler books as I have, then you know the pattern;

....they begin with an historic event (this time it's the reign of Genghis and Kublai Khan and their treasures)

....the heroes, Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino come to the aid of a damsel in distress (they're usually highly capable, beautiful professional women)

....there's usually a shipwreck or two

....there are several daring escapes (too many in this overlong book)

....an antique car plays an important part in the story (sometimes it's a motorcycle)

....Pitt gets to keep the car (and sometimes, the girl) for his collection

....the modern-day story and the historic story come together, with Pitt uncovering the lost (treasure, city, president, ancient vessel, etc.)

....there's always a megalomaniacal villain who wants to rule or destroy the world (this one wants to control the world's oil market)

....the settings are always exotic (this one takes place in Mongolia, Hawaii and China)

....there's a cameo appearance by the author, Clive Cussler, usually in a very flattering role

....Pitt's adventurous son and daughter (DIrk and Summer,) get caught up in the action

....Pitt gets to save the world once again!

Same old, same old, but I love it, and you will too, if you love the "Indiana Jones"-type of adventure thriller.

(4-Stars) Too long!

BOOK REVIEW: THE AUDACITY OF HOPE by Barack Obama

Barack Obama flew onto my radar screen when he made that incredible speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. For a conservative Republican like me, the speech HAD to be good to get my attention! Ever since then I've been following his career, and he's always been impressive. Now, that he's a presidential candidate for 2008, I thought it best to read his book. In this enlightening book, Obama sets forth his ideas on everything from family values, the environment, the Iraq war, race, the economy, to globalization, gun control, abortion, etc. Damned if I don't find myself agreeing with him on just about everything that he says. He's so damn fair, articulate, intelligent, and bipartisan, and he says, "it's the media that hypes the differences between Republicans and Democrats. When I sit down with my Republican colleagues, we talk about ideas that we share in common. There are more of those than you'd think." He outlines very specific plans for dealing with the country's current problems...and they're all very sound ones. In fact, right now, I like HIS ideas more than those of my own party...such as they are. I can't believe that I'm the same guy who read Ann Coulter's Godless, and loved every page of it. Maybe Obama is right. We do have more in common than we think, and we should stop listening to the more hysterical, strident voices in both parties! Regardless of your party affiliation, this book is a MUST READ.

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: NEXT by Michael Crichton

The topic of Crichton's new science fiction thriller, is genetic engineering, in all of its current and future aspects. Subplots deal with: a man whose cells are being harvested (without his knowledge) and resold as a possible cancer cure; a talking orangutan in Java, and a chimpanzee who actually passes for a young boy, and goes to school with unsuspecting children; ads being implanted onto the bodies of animals, making them glow with company logos; master genes to control drug addiction, alcoholism, and anti-social behavior; a talking parrot, with human emotions, etc. If all of this sounds like a lot to process, it is, and there are just too many story lines to hold the readers interest for long periods of time. Nevertheless, I did enjoy reading each of the many stories...up to a point. Halfway through the book, Crichton seems to have lost the thread of each of these stories, and the book falls apart. As with other Crichton books, and I've read his last 10 books, it's often difficult to determine what is real and what is just speculation about what COULD be. It's even hard to determine which of the many newspaper articles in the book are actual reprints from newspapers, and which aren't, (without checking the bibliography.) Some of this adds to the fun of the book, while some just adds to the confusion. In any case, as I said before, after the halfway point in the book, it's pretty much ALL confusion. Don't bother reading the book. Just wait for the inevitable movie.

(2 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE CASTLE IN THE FOREST by Norman Mailer

The Devil made me do it! That could be a perfect one-sentence review of this book, and I'll tell you why in a minute. Any book by Norman Mailer is an important one, because he writes so infrequently. But, a book about the youth and adolescence of Adolf Hitler REALLY intrigued me. For the first 150 pages of this 460 page book, Mailer describes Hitler's family...one riddled with incest. His grandparents were first cousins, and his father and mother were father and daughter! For little Adolf's first few years he appears to be a normal little boy, growing up in a small town in Austria, with a domineering father and a loving mother, and going to school in a one-room schoolhouse. But I left out one major detail in this strange book. There were three people present when Hitler was conceived...his father, his mother, and the Devil! Just like Rosemary's Baby! In fact, a lesser devil is narrating the entire story, and we see devils present everywhere. OK, that STILL could have made for an interesting book. But then, on page 150, or thereabouts, Mailer drops the Hitler storyline and goes off on a 50-page digression about apiculture...the raising of bees. I know, it makes no sense. Even if we see the world of bees as a metaphor for Europe before Hitler, or for life in general, it STILL makes no sense. Then, just when you think that he's resuming the Hitler storyline, Mailer goes off on another 50-page digression about the Coronation of Nicholas and Alexandra in Moscow!!! Here, there's not even the remotest connection to either Hitler or bees! Then, on page 261, we're back to the Hitler family and their bees. What to make of this?

We DO get a few glimpses of what Hitler will eventually become, from little things that he says and does as a child, but even with this meager foreshadowing, there's just not enough here to see that this sickly little boy who soils his pants, because he's afraid of everything and everyone, will become the monster of the 20th Century!

(2 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST TEMPLAR by Raymond Khoury

If you loved The DaVinci Code and just can't wait for the release of Dan Brown's new book, then first-time author Raymond Khoury's book should satisfy you until the real thing is released this summer. The Last Templar is filled with the same exciting ingredients of history, religion, art, and murder. OK, it's not as well written as the Brown contemporary classic, and the characters are a bit too obsessive, and they often do very stupid things, but it's a fun read, and you might learn some new things about the medieval Knights Templar who were thought to be the guardians of Christian doctrine, during a time when other religions were threatening it. The book starts with a very exciting raid on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, during a Gala Opening of an exhibit of Vatican Treasures. The murderous raiders are dressed as Templar Knights on horseback! The plot jumps back and forth from the people who are trying to apprehend these daring murderers on horseback, to the 13th Century, when the original Templars were trying to preserve a world-shaking secret about Jesus. Poor Jesus. After authors like Brown, Khoury and countless others have written books that speculate about the life of "the real Jesus," is there any mystery left to His life? Anyway, it's a good book with some new insights and theories about Jesus, the Knights Templar, comparative religion in general, and some crazy murderers...one of whom is a monsignor, and another, a retired college professor. Now, that's an interesting possibility for a new series.......

(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer

I had the same problem with this book as I had with the author's first novel Everything is Illuminated. Sure, it's imaginative and unique, but the damn thing is so annoying and confusing to read, that I started to lose interest in what could have been a fascinating story. Oskar Schell is nine years old, when his father is killed in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Oskar finds a mysterious key in an envelope in his father's possessions. On the envelope, his father had written the word "Black." Oskar, after searching the telephone book to determine how many people named "Black" are in New York City, sets out on a quest to interview each of these people, with the hope of finding the lock that matches the key. Now, this could have been a terrific story, except that Foer has written it in such an enigmatic way, that the story turns into a puzzle...one that I soon lost interest in. I'm no idiot and I do like puzzles, but at times, I had no idea who was narrating the story, or when it was being told. It jumps back and forth from generation to generation with little or no warning. Is it Oskar or his grandfather, who's narrating the chapter? Or is it his grandmother? I would have liked to have had more stories about the people named "Black." As with his first book, it's the plot structure that's the problem. I'm beginning to think that Foer is less of the literary genius that I called him in my last review, and more of a literary show-off, who just likes to play with the pieces of a story, turning them into a hopelessly puzzling swirl of words and images. Next time, Mr. Foer, how about a linear story, one that I can follow without the use of a literary road-map? Do you think you can do that?

(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: FOR ONE MORE DAY by Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom is obsessed with death. His three books (Tuesdays With Morrie, Five People You Meet in Heaven, and For One More Day,) all deal with different aspects of death. I didn't like Five People You Meet in Heaven, but I did like the other two. In this current book, a suicidal loser gets to spend one day with his dead mother. Actually, he's just been in what could be a fatal automobile accident, when he encounters his mother, so you're never sure if he actually met her, or if it's just an hallucination brought on by the accident. In any case, this homey woman gets to dispense some much-needed wisdom to her failure of a son. Can she save him? What brought him to this point in his life, where suicide is his only answer? Who ruined his life? All of these questions, and more, are answered in this novella-sized book. It's enjoyable, and it's a quick read. Now, Mitch, how about a comedy?

(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE SECRET by Rhonda Byrne

This book is complete bullshit! I was roped into reading it because friends were talking about it, and I kept seeing it up front in all of the bookstores. When I asked those who have read it, what the secret is, they told me, "you'll have to read it." Well, YOU won't have to read it, because I'll tell you what the big damn secret is! Like those classic scam-books that came before it (e.g., Games People Play, The Celestine Prophecy, etc.) "the secret" is, you can make ANYTHING happen simply by willing it to happen! Here's "The Secret" in summary:

...the Great Secret of Life is the law of attraction. What you think about the most or focus on the most, will be attracted to you.

...our emotions instantly tell us what we are thinking. When you feel good, you are powerfully attracting more good things to you.

...Ask for what you want. Believe (act, speak, and think) that you have already received it. Receive it by feeling the way that you will feel once your desire has manifested.

...create your day in advance by thinking the way you want it to go. Visualize what you want to happen. At the end of every day, replay in your mind anything that didn't go right, the way you wanted it to go.

...to attract money, focus on wealth. Make-believe you already have the money you want. Say, "I can afford that. I can buy that." The money will come.

...your job is you. Unless you fill yourself up first, you have nothing to give anybody. Treat yourself with love and respect, and you will attract people who show you love and respect.

...beliefs about health and aging are all in our mind. Focus on health and eternal youth, and you'll have them.

There it is in a nutshell. As I've just summarized the whole book for you, I realized that I've been living "The Secret" my whole life without knowing it, and it's been working for me. Damn. Why didn't I write this book!!!

(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW: EXILE by Richard North Patterson.

When Richard North Patterson writes well, he writes very well, and here he's at the top of his form. I know so many people who don't enjoy reading, and when I read a book like this one, I can't help thinking how much they're missing. It's the kind of book, where not only are you reading an exciting story, but you're also learning a great deal about one of the major conflicts of our time. The book deals with a terrorist assassination of the Prime Minister of Israel by a suicide bomber...the first suicide bomber on American soil. What follows is a thrilling court trial to rival anything by John Grisham; a highly charged love story worthy of Danielle Steel; and a history lesson in the basic differences between Palestinians and Jews...differences that have impacted the entire world. David Wolfe, a successful Jewish lawyer on the fast track to a seat in Congress and about to marry an influential Jewish socialite, takes on the defense of a Palestinian woman who he once had an affair with, while they were in law school at Harvard. The woman has been accused of being the mastermind behind the bombing. In researching the case, the lawyer goes to Israel and the West Bank to meet Jews and Palestinians who force him to not only come to terms with his own beliefs, but to come to understand the beliefs of his enemies. You'll do the same. The book is a long one (560 pages,) but it's a page-turner, filled with twists and shocking surprises. I loved it!

(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: STEP ON A CRACK by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

First came Alex Cross. Then the Women's Murder Club. Now, Patterson's new creation is Detective Michael Bennett...NYPD...and his ten children! In this story, the First Lady has died, and her funeral Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, is being attended by a Who's Who of the famous people in America...politicians, movie stars, billionaires, etc. A group of ten hooded monks proceed from the back of the altar, tear gas begins to pour out, and they reveal themselves as terrorists who have sealed off the church, and are holding all of these people hostage. So begins an exciting game of American terrorists vs. the combined forces of the NYPD (with Bennett as the negotiator,) the FBI, and Delta Force. It's an exciting read from cover to cover, with Patterson's typical short chapters and swift mood changes. It's not a great book by any means, but it's one that you'll find hard to put down.

(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION by Michael Chabon
A new book by Michael Chabon is always an event. He writes so infrequently, and I've really loved his other books (Wonder Boy; The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.) With the exception of a few other writers like Tom Wolfe, Maeve Binchy, J. K. Rowling, Edward Rutherford, John Irving, etc., no one writes with such creativity and wild imagination, as does Chabon. His characters and the situations and locations that he puts them in, are always unique, especially in this latest novel. Here, he's created a world that is almost as unique as Tolkien's Hobbiton in Middle Earth! Here's the premise. After the Holocaust, the Jews created the new state of Israel, which then collapsed in 1948! Seeking for a safe place in which to live, the Jews fled to the Federal District of Sitka, in Alaska. For sixty years the Jewish refugees and their descendants have lived happily, in this unique world that they've created, in the Alaskan panhandle. Now, let's focus the lens a little tighter, so that we see our hero, Meyer Landsman, a homicide detective with the District Police, who is involved with a murder case, in which the dead man may, or may not, have been a Messiah! The story is thoroughly captivating, but even more so, are the words, the sentences, and the paragraphs of prose that Chabon uses to tell his story. His characters are completely unique and unforgettable. The man writes like no one else. That's high praise indeed.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE NAVIGATOR by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos
When Clive Cussler's most famous action hero, Dirk Pitt (and his sidekick Al Giordino,) got to be too old to be doing all of the swashbuckling adventures that Cussler kept writing for him, the prolific author simply created another action hero, Kurt Austin (and HIS sidekick Joe Zavala,) to replace him. The pattern of the Austin books is still the same as in the Pitt books. The action begins with some historic catastrophe (real or imagined.) The plot moves to the present with an adventure story that ties that historic event, to a modern-day threat to the world. Austin and Zavala are brought in to prevent that threat. There's always a professional woman around for the eye-candy. In The Navigator, the historic events involve Phoenician sailing ships large enough to have crossed the Atlantic; the lost treasures of King Solomon; the Queen of Sheba; and a mysterious set of documents, personally encoded by Thomas Jefferson, which may have caused the murder of Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame.) Anyway, it's a fun, quick read to take to the beach with you this summer. Cussler will rarely disappoint you.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini
I can't imagine that there's anyone reading this review, who doesn't already know that Islamic Fundamentalists are a pack of barbaric assholes, who treat their women like cheap furniture or household animals. But if there is, then you might want to read this thoroughly depressing book about two women in Afghanistan, who lived through several oppressive regimes, and one horrible marriage. (Both are married to the same filthy pig. Under Islam, you can do that.) I can't say that you'll be entertained, or find it enjoyable, but at least you'll be enlightened. It gets better toward the end, but by that time I was numbed by the violence, backwardness, and ignorance. There is some insight into the mentality of the men who oppress their women in the name of religion, and also some insight into the mentality of women who refrain from killing them! I didn't enjoy this book, but it is well-written, by Khaled Hosseini (who also wrote The Kite Runner,) and it does give a human face to the atrocities that we hear about on the news every day.
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS by J.K. Rowling
If you're wondering why it took me so long to finish this book and write my review, then you really don't know me! I love to prolong the enjoyment of things that I love, whether it be a good meal or a good book. So, I tried to read only 20 or 30 pages a day, and savor them as I read them. As with all of the other books in this classic series, it was a book to savor. As the final book in the seven-book series, there was a sadness to reading it, knowing that there would be no more adventures with these highly original, colorful characters, in these amazing settings. As with Lord of the Rings, and other memorable books that I've read, I'll never forget these characters. They'll always be with me. If you haven't read any of the Harry Potter books, don't read this one. Start with the first one, and I envy you, reading them for the first time. In this book, Harry, and all of his friends, classmates, and teachers at Hogwarts, come face to face with the gathering evil of Voldemort and his forces. Most of the action takes place away from Hogwarts, as Harry, Ron and Hermione search for "The Deathly Hallows," the only weapons that can defeat Voldemort. The search ends in the set piece to the book...The Battle at Hogwarts. (I can only imagine what this battle will be like in the film to come.) I won't say any more about the rest of the plot, for fear of giving anything away, although I'm sure that most of you who read, have already read the book! Goodbye Harry, I'll never forget you.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt
When my friends Pete and Liz recommended this book to me, Pete told me that I would find it interesting because, not only was it well written, but also because of the fact that the plot bore some similarities to the plot of my own life. I was intrigued. When they gave me the book as a birthday gift, I plunged in. The story revolves around an elitist college professor who befriends and mentors a small group of unique, privileged students in an exclusive New England college. Not only does he teach them the classics in Greek, but he tries to teach them about good foods, wine, and life in general. Mmm, that does sound familiar. However, that's where the similarities end. The professor speaks Latin and Greek with these students, but is totally unaware of what's really going on in their lives outside of his classroom. The students are a brilliant, but self-indulgent, spoiled, alcohol and drug-dependent, group of near-psychotic freaks, who prey on each other, and on everyone else around them. There isn't one in the group that I would enjoy taking to dinner! Possibly because of the fact that they've been taught to think of themselves as living outside the ordinary humdrum existence of academic life, these students begin to think outside of the normal boundaries of what's right and what's wrong. This propels them all onto a downward spiral, which leads to them toying with evil, and eventually to murder. The author, Donna Tartt, is a gifted writer, and in this, her first novel, she creates a compelling atmosphere of suspense, and intrigue, and has also developed characters that are recognizable (if you know college students,) and unforgettable. It's a fast read, but a memorable one.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: BELOVED by Toni Morrison
I read this book for the first time, when it came out 20 years ago, but I decided to re-read it, when The New York Times Book Review Fiction Survey, selected it as "The Single Best Work of American Fiction in the Last 25 Years." In addition, a new opera, "Margaret Garner," premiering at The New York City Opera, is based on the book. The question I asked myself is, do I agree with the New York Times Survey's assessment? The answer is "absolutely not!" I've read several books in the past 25 years that I consider to be better than Beloved. What it is, is a liberal's guilt read; read this and one strikes a blow against racism. Bullshit! I think that I'll always have problems with aspects of Toni Morrison's writing. She writes page after page of beautiful words, phrases, and sentences, and throws them haphazardly, in the face of the reader, whether or not they advance the cause of her story-telling. In her books, very often it's difficult to determine who's being spoken about, or who's doing the speaking. Past and present blend together as well. The supernatural mixes with reality, but not as well as in books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende. In Beloved, the author tells the story of Sethe, who having escaped slavery herself, is arrested for killing her daughter (and trying to kill her sons,) just to keep them from being returned to the plantation from which she fled. Although the main character was a real woman, Morrison has taken many liberties to make her story more accessible and interesting to the reader(!) I think that Alice Walker's "The Color Purple," another book about brave women who escaped the horrors of slavery, is a better read than Beloved, and would have been a better candidate for the Times' award. As a matter of fact, I can think of a dozen books, that I've read in the past 7 years alone, since I've been writing reviews for my web-site, that are better than Beloved. Check the web-site (www.NicksReviews.com) for my "5-star books".
(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW: WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen
To say that this is just a book about the circus and the people who work in it, does the book a great injustice. Sara Gruen has written a beautifully-written page-turner, about the exciting lives of wonderful characters, who just happen to be a part of the circus. The book is told in flashback, from the bed, in an assisted-living facility, of the 93-year-old Jacob Jankowski. It's hard to reconcile this feisty, but obviously feeble, old man, with the young, vibrant 23-year-old Jacob, who joins the circus, after he's forced to leave the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine. At first reluctant to become a part of the crazy world of the circus, he soon becomes an integral part of this third-rate traveling show. One of his reasons for staying, is the lovely Marlena, who is the star of the act involving trained horses. Unfortunately, the other half of the act is her husband, August, a sadistic and jealous nut-case, who enjoys beating up animals and people. In a book where one grows to love an elephant named Rosie, and a dwarf named Kinko, it's easy to understand the lives of these exotics, and to see how exciting a life in the circus could be. What's sad, is to see the contrast between the young Jacob's world of colorful people, costumes, and animals, and his drab existence growing older, and waiting to die, in a gray world of bedpans and nurses. However, this vivid, detailed book, about love, murder, and thrills under the big top, has one of the happiest endings you'll ever read!
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho.
This international bestseller, which has been kicking around on the best-seller lists for ages now, is part self-help book, like The Secret, which I hated, and part fable, like The Little Prince, which I love. Your tolerance for the story of a young Spanish shepherd, who goes on a quest for treasure, only to find that the treasure lies within, depends on how much sugar-coated philosophy you can take, between two covers of a book. Here are some worthwhile quotations from the book:
..."whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend."
..."when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises."
..."there was a language in the world that everyone understood. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired."
..."intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there."
..."our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."
..."I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man."
There's a story tucked away in this book somewhere, but it's just a framework on which the author hangs his philosophy. Read it, if you need it.
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: PLAYING FOR PIZZA by John Grisham
If you're looking for something light to read, in between two "significant reads," then this simple little book might serve the purpose. John Grisham has taken another of his occasional breaks from writing his formulaic legal thrillers, to write a book about an American in Italy. This American, Rick Dockery, was the third-string quarterback for a big NFL team, who, when he was surprisingly put into an important championship game, "provided what was arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL." Upon the advice of just about everyone, he fled America, taking a job as "the American quarterback" with the Parma Panthers, an Italian football team. Yes football, not soccer. This pathetic little team, the Rocky of its league, benefits from having Rick as one of them, and he in turn, learns to love life in Italy playing for pizza, and learns a great deal about himself in the process. As I said above, it's a simple book, but it's a pleasant read...part sports book, part love story, part travel book, part coming-of-age story. That's a lot for a 250-page book!
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE ORC KING by R.A. Salvatore
According to last week's Sunday New York Times Best Seller list, this book is the "first book of a new trilogy, Transitions." Part way into the book, after being thoroughly confused by a barrage of names and places, all of which the author seems to assume that the reader should be familiar with, I realized that, although this book IS the first book of a NEW trilogy, all of its characters are based on other books by the same author. Therefore, the elf Drizzt Do' Urden, who was a new character to me, had already appeared in at least 13 other books. I stopped reading the new book at that point!

BOOK REVIEW: THE RACE by Richard North Patterson
This is probably one of the most interesting, readable, and informative novels about a presidential campaign that I've ever read. It's frighteningly realistic, and a page-turner as well. Corey Grace is a U.S. Senator, a war-hero, and the lover of the most beautiful African-American, Oscar-winning, movie star. When he decides to run for president, his life is turned upside down, and all of the slime-balls (rival politicians and their handlers, evangelists, reporters, and crazies,) climb out from under rocks to try to destroy him. Watching the whole disgusting process is fascinating, and terrifying for the future of this country. If even half of this fictitious novel rings true, we'll never have an honest man in the White House again!
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: YOU: STAYING YOUNG by Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Twenty five years ago, a friend of mine recommended a book to me. The book was Life Extension: A Practical, Scientific Approach (by Pearson and Shaw,) and it changed my life! Because of the information in this clearinghouse of medical and nutritional research, I implemented a regular program of eating healthily, exercising regularly, eliminating everything (and everyone) that was negative in my life, and taking mega-doses of vitamins and other supplements each day. I'm probably the healthiest person of my age, that I know. For one thing, I haven't had a cold in 25 years! This new book, by Roizen and Oz, does just about the same thing, only it does it in terms that are easily understood by the lay person (and it comes complete with amusing illustrations.) The older book was a difficult read, with chapters on Bio-Chemistry, etc. This one is fun to read, and in spite of having extensive knowledge of the areas of health, the body, nutrition, and exercise, I still learned a great deal from this present book. In fact, I'm planning on adding several supplements to my daily intake, and doing some extra little exercises that could be life-saving. It was reassuring to read that most of the things that I've been doing for the past 25 years, are still recommended by the current authors. Stop wasting your time reading this review. Go out and buy the book. You'll thank me for it at my 100th birthday party. Who wants to host the party?
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: PANDORA'S DAUGHTER by Iris Johansen
Once upon a time, in the year 1495 in Spain, there lived a family called Devanez. This family was a family of psychics, who practiced everything from shape changing to predicting the future. They kept their family history in a book called The Ledger. Needless to say they were hunted by the Spanish Inquisition. This book should have been about them. They sounded interesting. Instead, it's about the present-day descendants of the family...a much less interesting bunch of individuals. Some are healers, some are listeners (don't ask,) some can see into the future. One still has the Ledger, and everyone else seems to want it, for varying reasons. One of our heroines is a physician...the daughter of a Pandora (a Devanez descendant who can do everything except keep herself from getting killed!) Oh yeah, there's a villain, whose son was made insane after he raped the aforementioned Pandora. He's not fully developed, otherwise HE might have been interesting. I've never read a book by Iris Johansen before, and I probably never will again,. She writes as though she's saving her best material for the sequel.
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: DOUBLE CROSS by James Patterson
How many times can author James Patterson get away with rewriting the same story, about detective/psychologist Alex Cross vs. yet another serial killer(s,) and still keep us, his loyal readers, interested and entertained? Infinitely, it would appear!
(3-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER by Tom Perrotta
Author Tom Perrotta (Little Children) writes about dysfunctional suburbanites. In this book, it's soccer moms, born-again Christians, and their soccer-playing daughters. Since I'm not terribly interested in any of the three groups, I was bored most of the time!
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE ALMOST MOON by Alice Sebold
Alice Sebold had great success with her last book, The Lovely Bones. This new book will go a long way toward erasing some of that earlier fame! It's only fair to tell you that this review is based on having read a little more than half of this book. I couldn't force myself to read another page. Why? For one thing, the two main characters, a middle-aged woman and her 86-year-old mother, are such depressing, despicable characters, that it was hard to muster an ounce of empathy, let alone sympathy, for either one of them. I'm not giving away any of the plot when I tell you that the younger woman kills her mother in the first sentence of the book, because she's tired of being a slave to her. Didn't the bitch ever hear of nursing homes?? The rest of the book is told in flashbacks, in which we're supposed to come to understand why she was justified in doing this. All I came to understand was that the daughter was crazier than her mother. Hopefully, one of HER daughters will return the "favor" in the future!
(1-Star)

BOOK REVIEW: STONE COLD by David Baldacci
Baldacci may just be the best of the genre action-thriller writers. His books are page-turners, and his characters and story lines are always exciting and interesting. The present book continues the story of the ragtag group of men in their sixties, known as "The Camel Club," who were once almost superhuman fighting machines in Vietnam, and who are now still dedicated to preserving the American way of life, even if it means bringing down the biggest men in our government. There are several story lines criss-crossing in this book, some continuing the stories introduced in earlier books in the series. So, my suggestion, if you've never read any of the earlier books, is to go back and start with the first, The Camel Club. If you have read the earlier books, then you'll probably find this one to be the best of them all, as I did. Once more we meet John Carr, alias "Oliver Stone," we leads his motley crew against another killer, a former Navy Seal, who is determined to kill some of the higher-ups in our government, because his mother told him to do it. This will make sense when you read the book! We also meet again, the con artist Annabelle Conroy, who managed to swindle 40 million dollars from the megalomaniacal owner of Atlantic City's largest casino, because he killed her mother. Mothers figure prominently in this story! Of course, this casino-head is trying to find her to kill her. All of these stories manage to come together in an explosive conclusion, in which it's difficult to figure out who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are. No blacks or whites...all grays. Just like in real life.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE APPEAL by John Grisham
I know, I know. Grisham is formulaic and repetitive, but this one is Grisham at his most fascinating. Maybe it's because I read it during an exciting and highly competitive presidential campaign, and so the issues in the book resonated differently than they might have at another time. The story involves a billionaire business tycoon, who is on the verge of losing everything, because he's just lost a large class action suit involving the dumping of toxic wastes into a small Mississippi town's water supply, thereby causing the death of many people in the town. Of course, his high-powered lawyers are appealing, and here's where the story heats up. The tycoon hires a spin-doctor and his army of businessmen, media types, and crooked politicians to purchase a charismatic and photogenic lawyer, who is willing to be the stooge in a rigged campaign to unseat a popular judge on the state's Supreme Court. If he wins this unethical, but legal campaign, he will become the new judge, who will undo the balance on the court, thereby winning the appeal for the tycoon, who is paying millions to see that this happens. One can only wonder if presidential candidates can be bought and paid for in the same way. Gives you something to think about!
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
I'm still not sure why I decided to re-read this great classic now. Was it to see if it's still "the greatest American novel ever written," or was it to see if it had anything new to say to me after 30 years. The answer to both is "yes." There are certainly some great contemporary novels that approach it in story, character development, theme, and style, but there are none that surpass it...and that's not just because it's over 1000 pages! What was surprising to me was how the story and theme resonated so much more vividly in this age of terror, inelegance, vulgarity and mediocrity. After all, this is a story of The Deep South...before, during, and after The Civil War. It was the last time that a society in America reached the heights of elegance, chivalry, class, and good manners, before a war came along and it was all gone with the wind. Could that have been what touched me? Because, after all, I'm old enough to remember a time in America when there was elegance, class, good manners and intelligence, even in young people, before a series of wars, especially the current one, took it all away. The book is filled with relevance to what's happening today, for example, if the "Yankees" had had an exit strategy for getting out of the South during and after Reconstruction, we probably wouldn't have the racial problems that we have today. (Ask me about that when I see you and I can talk about that at length.) The characters are still unforgettable...some of the most fully developed and memorable that you'll ever read about. You'll never forget Scarlett O'Hara, Mammy, Rhett Butler, Ashley Wilkes, and especially Melanie, the true heroine of the book. If all you know of this great story is the movie version, which is excellent, you only know a picture-book version of a classic. Someday, read the original, and you'll see why just about every literary critic in the world calls it "a novel that is unsurpassed in the whole of American writing."
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: SANDSTORM by James Rollins
If you enjoy reading the novels of Clive Cussler as I do, then you'll certainly enjoy the books of James Rollins. Sandstorm is my first, recommended to me by a friend, and I really enjoyed it. Both authors use the same formula. They start with some incident in ancient history, and then proceed to the present, and create a story in the genre of action lit., integrating that historical incident with the action-filled story in the present. In the case of Sandstorm, the historical incident involves the destruction of the city of Ubar, the capital of the kingdom ruled by the biblical Queen of Sheba. A team consisting of former CIA operatives, archeologists, a museum curator, and the strangest army of near-supernatural women and children, and superhuman men, set out to uncover the secrets of Sheba, in the present country of Oman. All of this in the midst of an incredibly destructive megastorm. Although Rollins likes to pile on the scientific jargon, sometimes sounding like mumbo-jumbo especially near the end of the book, he never lets it get in the way of the story or the action. It's a page-turner, and one that you'll enjoy from cover to cover. With all of the stunning visual effects in the book, it would make an amazing film. But, they'd screw it up as they did Cussler's "Sahara." So, create the film in your own imagination as I did. As one critic said, "while Clive Cussler maintains the gold standard in historical/action lit., Rollins has a firm grasp on the silver." I certainly agree.
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE WHOLE TRUTH by David Baldacci
Baldacci's latest thriller deals with a frightening subject that is threatening the stability, sanity, and peace in the real world. It's a subject that's just recently been given a name, even though it's been going on forever. The subject is "perception management," a fancy name for manipulating the truth so that people will believe what you want them to believe. When it's done on a grand scale by institutions such as the Congress, the Media, or the President of the United States, it can cause wars! In The Whole Truth, Nicolas Creel, the head of the world's largest defense contracting company, needs a war to sell his weapons, and so he hires a perception management firm to create this war, by manipulating international conflicts. It's terrifying to see how simple it is to do this. The unlikely hero of this story is someone named Shaw, who works for a secret multinational intelligence agency. He, and an alcoholic, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Katie James, tackle Creel's billion-dollar juggernaut, The Ares Corporation, to try to prevent World War III. Russia and China are at the brink, about to fling their nuclear weapons at one another, while the U.N. and other nations try to prevent this from happening. It's all a suspenseful and frightening tale of a possible Armageddon. If you watch or read the news every day, you realize how up to our necks we, the gullible public, already are, in "perception management." Is it too late to do something about this, or have we been conned for so long, that we'll believe anything???
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Picture a plot out of a James Patterson novel, about a serial killer who has killed 44 children, and the master police official who is chasing him around the country, trying to find out his identity before he kills child 45. Now, transpose the story to the Soviet Union during the cold war, where, according to government policy, there is no such thing as a serial killer in their communist regime. Complicating matters even further, is that the police officer who is doing the pursuing, is a disgraced MGB official, who is being pursued by just about everyone else, for going against the government's rule that there is no crime or criminals in the "paradise" of the USSR. In this, his first novel, author Tom Rob Smith creates a vivid picture of life, and death, in this paranoid world. In fact, his characters and the setting in which they live, are almost difficult to believe. It's an unusual thriller to say the least, and a real page-turner. There's at least one major twist in the plot that will come as an unexpected jolt. In addition, there are lots of other surprises along the way. A depressing, but highly original look into an insane world, and the sane and insane people who populate it.
(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST ORACLE by James Rollins
James Rollins is a gifted writer, who knows how to write a page-turning thriller. But the story formula that he uses in each of his books, is derived from the author, Clive Cussler. Hell, it worked so well for Cussler, why not steal his style. Both authors start their story in an event in ancient history, then jump to the present, where the adventure story is related in some way to the historical event. In the case of the present book, the event is the destruction of the temple of the Oracle at Delphi in Ancient Greece. In the present, the assassination of a noted scientist, on the Mall in front of the Smithsonian in Washington, sets in motion a series of interrelated plots, involving the bioengineering of autistic savant children who may be able to predict the future; a frightening chase in and around the radioactive ruins created by the accident at Chernobyl; the search in the Punjab area of India for what may be the origins of the Gypsy tribes of Europe; the frantic rush to stop a ruthless scheme to assassinate all of the rulers of the world who have gathered for a momentous event, etc. That's enough. You get the picture. Although I enjoy reading Rollins as much as I enjoy reading Cussler, I have to say that Cussler creates better heroes than does Rollins. No one in Rollins books can match either Dirk Pitt or Kurt Austin. However, Rollins does create great villains. In any case, the book is a fine read. Although I had problems getting through this book at times, I can attribute that to the fact that I was just having too much fun in the past few weeks. My reading fell off. Normally however, a Rollins book is just as hard to put down as is a Cussler book. There I go again making comparisons. But in this case, they're justified.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING by Alaa Al Aswany
Forty years ago, in the summer of 1966, several of us visited Cairo, Egypt, as part of an extended tour of The Middle East (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Greece.) We found Cairo to be dirty, with a distinct odor, and unhealthy for tourists ( I developed dysentery from eating shellfish in the restaurant at the Hilton! ) Aside from the Sphinx, the Pyramids, and the complete King Tut section of the Cairo Museum, I could have done without Cairo. So, when an Egyptian, Muslim, friend told me that if I wanted to get an accurate picture of the people who live in Cairo today, some of whom go on to become terrorists, I should read the world's best-selling novel in the Arabic language, The Yacoubian Building. So I did. The author tells the story, several stories actually, of the residents of an apartment building in Cairo. He uses the building as a microcosm of all of Egypt. We meet the poor, the corrupt, the perverse, religious hypocrites, the easily led, and the women who are kept in virtual slavery by their men, as dictated by the Koran (Qur'an.) The multiple plots are all interesting, but sometimes confusing, because of the Arabic names (many of which sound the same to a Westerner like me,) and the author's tendency to jump around from story to story. What interested me particularly, was the story of the intelligent, youthful, idealist, who, because of his extreme poverty, his rejection by the Police College, as well as by his girlfriend, turns to the terrorist preachings of a fanatic religious leader, who trains the young to become future terrorists. In the course of the stories, we hear quotes from the Koran, many of which are demeaning, and some are incendiary, encouraging violence. So much for the Koran as a "book of Peace!" I'd like to see the "major motion picture" that was based on this book, and which became a big hit in Egypt, but unfortunately, never made it to the West. In any case, to get some background on the kind of people who think of us as "infidels," you might want to check out this book. It's an enlightening read.
(4-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: LAMB by Christopher Moore
A mildly amusing take on the life of Jesus Christ, "according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal." You get the picture. I would have found the book to be much funnier, if I had never seen Monty Python's "Life of Brian," which covers the same ground, but does it in a much funnier way. Also, the author feels the need to fill in the missing 20 years in Christ's life, that are not dealt with in the four gospels. He takes Christ, and his pal Biff, into India, China, and Afghanistan, in search of the Wise Men, who, when found, impart their knowledge of Confucianism and Buddhism to the young Christ. These wanderings along the Silk Road, cover 200 pages in the middle of this 400-page book, and they're boring as hell! Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were wise to have skipped them! Rent the DVD of "Life of Brian" and skip this book.
(2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE GIVEN DAY by Dennis Lehane
I'm about to use the word "masterpiece" again, even though I just used it in my last review. This book by Dennis Lehane is so epic in scope, and he's written it so well, that it really deserves the use of that word. The author is no stranger to fine books. He's written three that were made into films...Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island. This one is his finest by far. The year is 1919. The place is Boston. It was a year like no other for this city, because so many memorable events occurred at the same time in one year. The action of the plot leads up to the notorious Police Strike, in which chaos reigned in Boston for awhile, and much like the Boston Massacre, people were unnecessarily killed. The story tells of two families...one black and one white...one a family of Irish cops, the other a family of servants who take work wherever they can get it, as they try to build their family. Around these two families circle some of the famous people of their time...Calvin Coolidge, Babe Ruth, W.E.B. DuBois, Eugene O'Neill, and a weird, sleazy little lawyer named John (J.Edgar) Hoover. The characters are all richly drawn. The plot moves so swiftly that I had to force myself, at times, to put down the book. In the right hands (Martin Scorsese?) this will make a spectacular film. I can't wait.
(5-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: THE GATE HOUSE by Nelson DeMille

Eighteen years ago, author Nelson DeMille wrote his novel The Gold Coast, which went on to become a contemporary classic. Although I loved this book, I never felt that it needed a sequel. Obviously, the author disagreed with me, (either that or he needed the money,) because here's the sequel. In the original book, DeMille took us to that portion of The North Shore of Long Island known as "The Gold Coast," because at one time, its mansions housed the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. We were introduced to John Suttter, a successful lawyer, who foolishly befriended a Mafia don, who had purchased one of these mansions. Sutter's wife, Susan Stanhope Sutter, a wealthy socialite who grew up on The Gold Coast, takes the relationship with the don one step further...she falls in love with him and then, when scorned, murders him! The action of The Gate House picks up ten years later. The Sutters have reunited and come back to live in the gate house of the large Stanhope mansion. (Susan was only given a slap on the wrist for the gangster's murder.) The don, Frank Bellarosa, is still dead, but his son Anthony, who lives in a large villa on the grounds of the former estate next door, is determined to seek revenge for the death of his father...and guess who lives right next door? As with all of DeMille's books, this one is a page-turner, and a thoroughly enjoyable hard-to-put-down read. DeMille grew up on Long Island, and still lives there, so he "knows the territory." It's not as good as The Gold Coast, but it's a damn good book.

(4 1/2-Stars)

BOOK REVIEW: NO ANGEL by Penny Vincenzi

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, "there's no such thing as a woman's book or a man's book, only a badly-written book or a well-written book." Well, this is very definitely what would have been called a woman's book, with strong women characters, and very weak men characters, who are manipulated and controlled by these women. Being the sexist that I am, I should have hated it, except that it's so damn well-written. Vincenzi creates beautifully complex characters and puts them in wonderful situations, in the service of a great story. The plot revolves around the Lytton family in London, during a 15-year period from 1904 until 1920. The senior Lyttons, Oliver, his sister LM, and his wife Lady Celia, own an elite publishing house, and the story revolves around the ups and downs of the publishing business. The characters move through the events of this period...World War I and the bombing of London, the sinking of the Titanic, etc...and are influenced greatly by these events. Children grow up, people die, affairs take place, the world changes. What I loved most about this book is that it could have been written by either Jane Austen or Edith Wharton. Now, that's a compliment! What upset me about it is that, halfway