Category Archives: Books

Books: Five Novels for Vacation

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When we went on vacation in mid-September, I took some books of redeeming spiritual and intellectual value…but didn’t read any of them. Instead, I stuck to the escapist track, devouring five thriller novels during our 12-day vacation. All were winners.

Fresh Disasters. This is the first Stuart Woods book I’ve read, which is pretty amazing, considering how many books he’s written in genres  I like. He has a series about a private investigator named Stone Barrington. Fresh Disasters is part of that series. I enjoyed the character, and enjoyed the plot–not hugely, but enough to want to read more. I found several more Stone Barrington novels at a used bookstore. They’re now sitting on my shelf. I’ll get to them eventually.

Rough Justice. I’ve read a number of Jack Higgins books over the years, but not in quite a while. It’s about time I got back to him, because he never disappoints. His books have some continuing characters, such as Sean Dillon, who figures in this book. In this book, Higgins creates a new fellow, Harry Moore, who joins this cast of tough-guy British spooks. This was a very good book.

The Killing Floor. This is the first of Lee Child’s novels about Jack Reacher. I’d previously read books 2-5 in the series, but not the first one. Of the books I’ve read, The Killing Floor and Echo Burning are my favorites. This one had a great plot, and plenty of action.

L.A. Outlaws. T. Jefferson Parker is a superb writer. I’ve read only a couple of his books, but they’re always good. And LA Outlaws was outstanding. The central character is a sympathetic woman bank robber, a really unique literary creation. Her parts are written in first person, everything else in third person. I loved this book.

Black Widow. I’d not read a book by Randy Wayne White. He’s a heckuva writer. Black Widow was based on a Caribbean Island. The protagonist, Doc Ford, is a former CIA agent of some kind (the book never really explains much of his background). A collection of very interesting characters populate these pages. White has written another Doc Ford book. I’ll probably need to track it down one of these days.

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Books: Powder Burn, The Underground Man

undergroundman.jpgpowderburn.jpgFinished two books from the Vintage Black Lizard imprint last  week.

  • Powder Burn, by Carl Hiaasen and Bill Montalbano, was a fun read. It revolves around Chris Meadows, an architect who, in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets drawn into the drug wars. I enjoyed it. These authors wrote three books for the Black Lizard imprint. This one was published in 1981.
  • The Underground Man, a 1981 Ross MacDonald mystery, seemed to drag. There were way too many characters and relationships to juggle. Any of them could have committed the murders. But I couldn’t keep track of them all. The last 50 pages, I just wanted to know who done it, put the book on the shelf, and start a new one.
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Book: The Things They Carried

thingstheycarried.jpg“The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, is considered among the best–if not the best–work of fiction to come out of the Vietnam War. After reading it, I must concur. It is some kind of masterpiece. It’s been two weeks since I finished the book, and I still think about it.

You haven’t read anything like this book. It reads like a memoir, written in first person by Tim O’Brien. The book is dedicated to “the men of Alpha Company,” and then he names them–the same characters as in the book. And yet, the title page (not the cover) says, “A work of fiction by Tim O’Brien.” The characters in the book are, I’m assuming, the same people O’Brien actually served with in Vietnam. But here, he’s making up stories about them, inventing a whole different reality, rewriting his own history. Or is he?

How much is actual memoir, and how much is made up? Only O’Brien can tell us that, I suppose. In the book, he references the book “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” his own actual memoir of serving in Vietnam. Early on, he tells a fascinating story about getting his draft notice, and coming close to crossing into Canada. Was that all made up, or was it based on at least some truth?

So in that respect, it’s a somewhat discombobulating book. What is real? What is based on reality? What is just totally invented?

The book has no plot. Rather, it is a series of stories, usually not involving combat. In places, O’Brien the character muses about the role of war stories, how it keeps alive the memory of men killed in action.

And he kept circling back to the same stories. He’d tell a story in one chapter, and a couple chapters later, while telling another story, he would allude back to the earlier one and fill in some information he didn’t tell before. Then a few chapters later, he might come back to the same story from yet another angle. This happened over and over, giving cohesiveness to the book’s somewhat disjointed tales.

The writing itself is beautiful. In one place, he talks about going on night patrols.

“It was the purest black you could imagine…the kind of clock-stopping black that God must’ve had in mind when he sat down to invent blackness. It made your eyeballs ache. You’d shake your head and blink, except you couldn’t even tell you were blinking, the blackness didn’t change. So pretty soon you’d get jumpy. Your nerves would go. You’d start to worry about getting cut off from the rest of the unit–alone, you’d think–and then the real panic would bang in and you’d reach out and try to touch the guy in front of you, groping for his shirt, hoping to Christ he was still there. It made for some bad dreams.

This is a book I highly recommend. It is captivating, it is surreal, it is off-putting. It is altogether masterful.

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Books: Two by Ruth Rendell

Some Lie and Some DieNo More Dying ThenI just finished, back-to-back, two Inspector Wexford mysteries by Ruth Rendell, both in my beloved Black Lizard imprint. I had previously read two Rendell books, but none in the Wexford series. These are: “No More Dying Then” and “Some Lie and Some Die.”

I find Rendell ponderous to read. She’s not particularly wordy, and her plots are very good; in neither book did I figure things out until the final revelations. But she’s–well, she’s British. And the Brit mystery writers take it slow and serious and very literate. And there’s virtually no action. The initial murder happens off-screen. Then Wexford goes about his work, never drawing a gun or clenching a fist or hardly even raising his voice. Makes me long for Jack Bauer.

Rendell is a gifted writer. Her style just doesn’t connect well with me. I found myself looking to see how many pages were left, wanting to get the book done, even while wondering who done it. And that’s never a good thing.

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Book: The Prometheus Deception

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Today I finished Robert Ludlum’s 2000 book, “The Prometheus Deception.” At 650 pages, it’s the longest novel I’ve read in quite a while. But it was worth it.

I read every Robert Ludlum book up through 1990’s “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Then I stopped. He continued writing books, using his signature three-word titles–The Scorpio Illusion, The Apocalypse Watch, The Materese Countdown, The Sigma Protocol, and Prometheus–plus one called The Road to Omaha, which followed The Bourne Ultimatum. But I hadn’t read any of them. Don’t know why. I guess I moved on to other stuff, even though a Ludlum book never failed to thrill.

Ludlum died in 2001. Eric Van Lustbader finished four more Ludlum novels, and then started a series about Jason Bourne under the Ludlum brand which now has four books.

A couple months ago I read a book in the Covert One series, another series under the Ludlum brand but not written by him. It reminded me of how much I liked Ludlum’s novels. I decided to go back and catch up.

“The Prometheus Deception” was standard Ludlum: a lone hero teams up with a female accomplice to battle a dasturdly conspiracy, with plot twists and betrayals galore. I’m glad I rediscovered Ludlum. I’ve got some more catching up to do. Just wish he didn’t write such doggone long books!

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Book: “The Assassin,” by Stephen Coonts

assassin.jpgStephen Coonts made his splash in 1986 as one of the early techno-thriller writers with “Flight of the Intruder.” Tom Clancy, of course, arguably launched, or at least perfected, the genre with “The Hunt for Red October” and then the 1986 “Red Storm Rising.” Dale Brown’s “Flight of the Old Dog” (1987) was excellent. Other writers emerged, and the techno-thriller took off.

“Flight of the Intruder” was a pretty good book. I think I probably read another Stephen Coonts book, but can’t remember which one. Anyway, after a 20-year layoff, I thought I’d give him another try with “The Assassin” (2008).

As it turns out, one hero of “The Assassin” is Jake Grafton, the hero of “Flight of the Intruder.” He’s now a CIA honcho. “The Assassin” involves going after Jihadist bad guys, primarily the title character, a terrorist named Abu Qasim. 

The book is predictable all the way through. Nothing happens that surprises me. A few minor questions weren’t answered to the end, but again, nothing earth-shaking. Never did something happen that made me think, “I wonder how they’ll get out of that one?” or, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” No plot twists, no unexpected turns.

The book ends up with a Hollywood-style ending reminiscent of “In the Line of Fire,” “Patriot Games,” and “The Bodyguard.” In other words, a big event which the assassin crashes. Ho hum.

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Books by Patterson: Double Cross, Sail

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I took both of these books on vacation last week. Patterson books read quickly, with all those short chapters free of descriptive fluff. They just move right along. Good vacation reading.

“Double Cross” is another winner in the Alex Cross series, which Patterson writes himself. He creates very dasturdly villains. In this book we’ve got two–the Audience Killer, and Kyle Craig, a villain from a previous book who’s been in a Supermax prison for years. This book comes to a conclusion which, for me, was unexpected but satisfying.

Patterson, like Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy, has branded himself. A stable of other writers do books under the Patterson label, and they closely follow the Patterson style. “Sail” is better than good, but it’s not great. It’s very good. Or pretty good. I enjoyed it. I “sailed” right along. Started it the last day of vacation (last Sunday), but didn’t finish it until Tuesday. I thought it was headed toward a predictable ending, but it took a sudden detour, and I appreciated that.

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Books: Before the Frost, Without Fail

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I read three books, and most of a fourth, on vacation last week. 

You can’t peck away at a Henning Mankell book. You need a big block of time so you can dive in and stay submerged until you’re done. 

So last week’s vacation started with Mankell’s “Before the Frost,” the last of the Kurt Wallander books currently available (I’ve read all the others). This one is actually billed as a “Kurt and Linda Wallander Mystery,” and daughter Linda is, in fact, the main character. 

Linda is within days of joining the police force where her father, Kurt, is an ace investigator. A murder occurs, and because of some relationships, she gets involved. It’s another excellent book. This one features some interesting religious themes.

This is the last Wallander book I have (3 other Mankell books sit on my shelf, unread). A collection of several short stories starring Wallander will be released by Vintage/Black Lizard in October, and there’s another book out there called “The Troubled Man” which I don’t think is available yet in English, and which supposedly brings the career (though not the life) of Wallander to an end. 

“Without Fail” is my fifth Lee Child book starring tough-guy Jack Reacher. These have all been tremendous books, and I think “Without Fail” may be the best (it’s between “Without Fail” and “Echo Burning”). In this book, the Secret Service invites Reacher’s help to foil a plot to assassinate the vice president. The Reacher books are pretty straightforward, with lots of action, though this one has a more intricate plot and less action than the other books. 

We have all but one (the first) of the Jack Reacher books. Pam has read all 11 of the books we own. It’ll take me a while to catch up.

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Book: Less Clutter, Less Noise

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Let me recommend “Less Clutter, Less Noise,” by Kem Meyer. It deals with local church communication, but probably not in a way you would expect. There is some strategy, some technique, some do’s and don’ts, some philosophy. But more than anything, I came away with an attitude. An attitude toward everything we do in communicating in the local church. 

Kem Meyer is the Communications Director at Granger Community Church near South Bend, Ind. It’s a fast-growing church with a laser focus on reaching lost people. A very innovative place. And Kem Meyer is a very innovative person who enjoys the cutting edge. She is doing some original (at least it seems that way) thinking about how we communicate in the church. 

I’ve been familiar with Kem for several years now. I attended her seminar at MinistryCOM 2006, heard her keynote address at MinistryCOM 2007, and attended a full-day seminar by her at Granger. And I’ve been reading her blog for several years. 

The book resembles her blog in ways–a bunch of short pieces, most of which can stand on their own. In fact, I recognized some of the content from her blog. 

In 1995, I wrote “A Plain and Simple Guide to Church Promotion” as my project in completing a Masters in Public Relations at Ball State U. I gathered absolutely everything I could find about any aspect of local church promotion–newsletters, advertising, branding, design, printing, Powerpoint, font usage, and much more. In all, over 100 individual topics. Each topic filled a single page, and I mostly just gave bullet points–simple tips, do’s and don’ts. 

Kem’s book is similar. She doesn’t go in-depth into anything, but hits a lot of different areas. If you want direction, she gives you more than enough to work with, but she doesn’t overload you. Which is part of the book’s point–that we need to make life easier for people by lessening the clutter and noise.

People today are barraged with information and choices. Kem writes, “People who live in today’s world respond in one of three ways: they become overwhelmed and shut down, they labor over whether they’re making the right decisions, or they just ignore you and move on.”

So that’s important to keep in mind as we communicate in the local church–between ourselves, and with outsiders (or, in PR-speak, with our internal and external constituencies). She emphasizes keeping it simple. Don’t complicate people’s lives. Help them sort through the clutter. And don’t add to the clutter with stuff you think is important, but which they couldn’t care less about.

That’s an overview of the book. Follow the link below for some quotes.

Read more »

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Books: Two by Charles Willeford

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This weekend I finished two books by Charles Willeford. Both are worth recommending.

Willeford, who died in 1988, is a very interesting writer. He was a tank commander during WW2, and won the Silver and Bronze stars and a purple heart. As a writer, he didn’t plot things out before starting. Rather, he got the seed of an idea and started writing without really knowing where he was going.

I’ve read four books by Willeford now, and all are totally different.

  • The Burnt Orange Conspiracy (1971).
  • Pick-Up (1967).
  • Miami Blues (1984).
  • Cockfighter (1972).

In “Miami Blues,” his most well-known book, he created the character Hoke Mosely, a police detective. He wrote several other novels starring Mosely, and I’ll need to read them, because I like him a lot. And the Miami locale adds all kinds of color. 

“Cockfighter” is narrated first-person by Frank Mansfield, a well-known chicken-fighter in the south. This book will tell you all you could ever want to know about cockfighting–all the tricks and techniques, how to train and feed chickens–really, everything. And you probably don’t want to know anything about cockfighting. 

A few years before, Mansfield shot off his mouth and, as a result, ended up losing his chance for a championship. Angry at himself, he took a vow of silence: he wouldn’t talk until he won that championship as the best cockfighter in the south. So throughout the book, the main character doesn’t talk–only points, gestures, and scribbles notes. But this being first-person, we’re privy to Mansfield’s thoughts. Everyone else thinks he just lost his voice somehow; they don’t realize he’s voluntarily not talking. This makes the book extra interesting.

Mansfield starts out down on his luck, and must build back up to pursue the championship. Think of the movie “Tin Cup,” but in the world of illegal cockfighting. As I read, I thought of the underworld of dogfighting in which Michael Vick was enmeshed. Both are cruel worlds. 

Because of the detail, the atmospherics, I’ll remember “Cockfighter” long after the plot of “Miami Blues” fades away. But I’ll be reading more about Hoke Mosely.

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