Category Archives: Books

Book: The Wheel Man

wheelman.jpegI picked up “Severance Package” at Hyde’s Bookstore. I’d never read anything by Duane Swierczynski (I had to copy and paste that name), but this sounded interesting. And it turned out to be a totally engrossing and very unusual thriller.

So for Christmas, I put Swierczynski’s other two books, “The Wheel Man” and “The Blonde,” on my list.

Pam got me “The Wheel Man.” And yesterday, I finished it. Took me just two days. 

The main character of “The Wheel Man,” Lennon, is a getaway car driver for bank robbers. The book starts with a bank robbery that goes bad, and that sets in motion a whole lot of mayhem. We follow Lennon around as he gets shot and beat up and abused in sundry ways, but keeps on ticking. 

The book reminded me of Mel Gibson’s movie “Payback,” where he plays a con named Porter (It’s based on a Donald Westlake novel, which I haven’t read). “Payback” is one of my favorite movies. You really don’t know what’s coming next. You can guess, but you’ll probably be wrong. 

“The Wheel Man” is like that. Whatever 90% of writers would do with a scene, Swierczynski does differently. It’s unpredictable. The plot never pauses; you just keep moving right along, helplessly. As a reader, I was magnetically drawn page by page to the end, which turned out to be satisfying and unexpected. Though by that point, I was expecting the unexpected.

I need to track down “The Blonde.” Swierczynski has a wicked imagination, and I’m anxious to read more.

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Book: Ludlum’s “The Cassandra Compact”

cassandra.jpegTwenty years ago, I devoured every Robert Ludlum book that came along. I started with “The Bourne Identity,” went on to “The Matarese Circle,” “The Acquitaine Progression,” “The Holcroft Covenant,” and every other book he had written to that point (including the sub-par ones under the pen-name Jonathan Ryder). Nobody wrote twisty thrillers like Ludlum.

But somewhere along the line, my tastes changed. Maybe the implosion of the Soviet Union did it. Ludlum kept writing, but I stopped reading. 

Over the weekend, having just read two Daniel Silva spy thrillers, I was in the mood. I decided to try another Ludlum book. So I went to Hyde’s, the best used bookstore in Fort Wayne, and discovered the Covert One novels. This series is under the Ludlum brand, but written by other people. Hyde’s had five Covert One books. Wanting to start at the beginning, I bought the one with the oldest copyright (2001), “The Cassandra Crossing,” by Philip Shelby.

As it turned out, “The Cassandra Compact” was second in the series; Hyde’s didn’t have “The Hades Project.” But no matter. I dove into this oversized book with big type, and it read like a rocket-fueled rabbit. Nothing artistic about it; even the worst Stephen King book is a verbal treat. But it was wonderful escapist fun. 

The protagonist is a guy plainly named Jon Smith. He’s a doctor, and works with a super-secret government agency called Covert One. Every Ludlum book has an agency like that, I think. Or several. Anyway, there’s a dasturdly plot involving smallpox which takes the reader to Italy, Russia, Hawaii, and into outer space. It was kind of a mindless read, but sometimes that’s what I want. So I’ll probably traipse back to Hyde’s and get the next four books in the series.

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Books by Daniel Silva: Mark of the Assassin, Confessor

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My reading pleasure has been focused on mysteries for the past several years, but I still love a good spy thriller. We had a couple books by Daniel Silva laying around, but I hadn’t read anything by him yet. So last week, I gave “The Mark of the Assassin” a try. 

That was one very good book. Not great. Not in a Robert Ludlum category (“The Bourne Identity” is still the best thriller I’ve ever read, and so much better than the movie, which was not too shabby). But satisfying.

Silva’s hero in this one was Michael Osbourne, a CIA guy who was pitted against a deadly assassin-for-hire. The plot relied on the government, including the presidency, being infiltrated by bad guys with evil agendas, and that usually strains credulity for me. But such are the tools of authors of international thrillers.

I decided to go straight into a second Silva novel, “The Confessor.” This one, set mostly in Italy with stops in other European countries (the US never entered the picture), involved intrigue in the Vatican. Here, the infiltration of bad guys involved the upper echelons of the Roman Catholic Church. The plot focused around the Pope’s silence during World War II as Jews in Italy were being rounded up and carted off to death camps. 

In this book, and in others by Silva, the hero is Gabriel Allon, an art restorer who, in his spare time, is a top-flight Israeli operative who had become legendary for carrying out numerous assassinations of Palestinian terrorists. 

Both books started rather slow, I thought, as Silva introduced an awful lot of characters. But I enjoyed the books, and will no doubt read more Silva thrillers. Especially ones involving Gabriel Allon.

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Book: The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts

inheritance.jpegI highly, HIGHLY recommend David Sanger’s book “The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power.” Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times, really helps you understand the dynamics in dealing with various countries. We hear lots of posturing from political pundits on cable news, with simplistic, hardline answers to world issues. Sanger takes us behind the scenes, where we see nuance in all its complex varieties.

The book is divided into 8 parts, with 2-4 chapters in each part. The first five parts deal with a specific country.

A couple themes emerge:

  • In every chapter, we see how America was unduly distracted by Iraq. We lost opportunity after opportunity because all of our focus was on Iraq. 
  • Dick Cheney’s hardline influence dominated US foreign policy during the first six years of the Bush Administration. 
  • During his last two years in office, George Bush, having marginalized Dick Cheney, began getting a lot of things right. But in most cases, it was too late.

Part 1: Iran. The first chapter is a fascinating look at Iran’s nuclear program and its efforts to build The Bomb. There is a lot of spycraft here, as America (and other countries) tried to learn what exactly Iran was up to. And there were some incredible breakthrough. When it comes to electronic intelligence-gathering, the USA is GOOD. 

Sanger also tells stories about Ahmadinijad which show what an idiot the Iranian president truly is. 

Part 2: “Afghanistan: How the Good War Went Bad.”

davidsanger.jpegPart 3: “Pakistan: How do You Invade an Ally?” These chapters explain the double-dealing deceptions of Musharaff, the political and religious complexities of this country, and how Pakistan is obsessed with threats from India. We learn much about Pakistan’s nuclear program–how its weapons are secured, and how nuclear technology was given to other countries. 

The chapters tell about numerous diplomatic missions from the US, as we attempted to keep the regime on track and nudge them in certain directions. Sanger tells about US Special Forces attacks into Pakistan, and how the current regime is seriously threatened by its own internal Taliban.

Part 4: North Korea: The Nuclear Renegade that Got Away.” This section begins with the story of the Syrian nuclear installation that Israel destroyed in 2007. It was being built by North Koreans right next door to Iraq–but we didn’t know about it. Israel, on the other hand, had pictures from inside the facility. This section mostly illuminates the failed approach of the Bush Administration.

Part 5: “China: New Torch, Old Dragons.” This is a fascinating look at modern-day China. While we were bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, China was gobbling up and investing in resources throughout the rest of the world, especially in Africa. It’s a bit worrisome.

Part 6: “The Three Vulnerabilities.” Sanger goes deep in explaining how the US is vulnerable to nuclear attack, biological attack, and cyber-attack (triggering economic collapse). These are scary chapters.

The book represents excellent reporting, with behind-the-scenes stuff none of us have heard about before (and never will hear about on shallow cable news). If you really want to understand these countries, and the complexities of US foreign policy in dealing with them, I highly recommend “The Inheritance.”

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Books: Man Who Smiled, The James Deans

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Just finished Henning Mankell’s “The Man Who Smiled,” an Inspector Wallander mystery. Started out a bit slow, with Wallander agonizing over having killed a really bad guy in the previous book. He finally works through his emotional trauma, after months and months, and goes back to work.

The Swedes are very squeamish. Spencer, in good American fashion, would just shoot a baddie and go on with life. Wallander gets all introspective and is ready to quit the force. Wallander’s emotional fragility gets old. For me. Nevertheless, Mankell’s books are nearly always excellent. 

I’ve read eight Wallander books now. This wasn’t among his best. THE best was still “The White Lioness.” That was a masterpiece. 

Before this book, I finished “The James Deans,” by Reed Farrel Coleman. It introduced me to a private eye named Moe Prager. An interesting kind of guy, former New York cop (most private eyes are ex-cops). The plot was kind of a two-parter: solve one case, then solve it again. It was enjoyable, but I probably won’t bother reading another Moe Prager book. Too many other mystery protagonists I care about more.

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Book: Robert Parker’s “Resolution”

resolution.jpegYesterday, after returning from National Conference, I finished Robert Parker’s western, Resolution. I started it just before heading off to the conference, and read about 100 pages while there. It’s a pretty quick read, and reads fast. You don’t lose interest.

Resolution is a sequel to Appaloosa, which was made into a movie starting Ed Harris and Aragorn…I mean, Viggo Mortenson. They are a team of freelance lawmen who hire themselves out to towns as sheriff and deputy. It’s not what they do in Resolution, but it’s what they’d done for 15 years.

The books are told first-person by Everett Hitch, the sidekick, a graduate of West Point and veteran of the Indian Wars. Mortenson played him expertly in the movie. Parker strictly follows the first-person approach, not alternating between first- and second-person, ala Richard Patterson. Hitch is in every scene, and you see nothing that Hitch doesn’t see. (Appaloosa actually started with a second-person back-story scene, but once Hitch appears, it’s all his point of view.)

Ed Harris played the part of Virgil Cole, the truly expert gunslinger–a very quiet, introspective fellow. He is an utterly fascinating character.

I’m trying to remember how I mentally pictured Virgil Cole when I read Appaloosa, Because throughout Resolution, I could only see Ed Harris. That’s one of the curses of Hollywood. I could only picture Viggo Mortensen as Hitch, too. I initially had trouble seeing Ed Harris in that role, but his performance redeemed it. 

I’m sure Resolution will become a movie, and I hope Harris and Mortenson return. Parker has written a third book, Brimstone, now in hardback. This raises the possibility of a western movie franchise. When has that happened last? John Wayne did two Rooster Cogburn movies. Before that, you had Clint Eastwood’s Spaghetti Western flicks, where he basically played the same character. It would be great to see a 21st Century western series. I don’t imagine Westerns are expensive to make. 

Resolution makes many references back to Appaloosa, particularly regarding Virgil Cole’s lady friend there. Since “Appaloosa” religiously followed the book, I would imagine they would do the same in Resolution. I just hope they can get Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson back. They played their roles in an appropriately understated, but convincing, way. I’m sure that when I read Brimstone, I will again be picturing them.

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Books: Invisible Prey, Body Copy

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John Sandford is among today’s best mystery/detective writers. His Lucas Davenport mysteries, set in Minneapolis, are always  good reads. I started with his first book, “Eyes of Prey,” many many years ago. I’ve missed a few in the “Prey” series (all of his titles use the word “prey”), but I think Pam has read them all.

“Invisible Prey” is one of those mysteries where the reader knows who the killer is long before the protagonist does. We follow along, watching Davenport go down some blind alleys, yet inch closer and closer. And yet, there are still plenty of surprises.

There are a number of big-time, prolific mystery writers today. I read just four of them: James Patterson’s Alex Cross mysteries; Robert Parker’s Spencer, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall books; and John Sandford’s Davenport books; and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers. That’s enough to keep anyone busy. Of those, Davenport is probably the least interesting to me, which may explain why I’ve missed some of the Prey books. I would never, ever, skip an Alex Cross mystery.

“Body Copy” is the first novel by Michael Craven. It’s hero is Donald Tremaine, a former world champion surfer turned Private Investigator. He’s an interesting character. I enjoyed the book, with its mystery that really didn’t unfold until near the end. For most of the book, I just watched Tremaine follow lead after lead, none of which really seemed to be going anywhere. 

I suspect this is only the first in a series. Craven writes with some quirkiness, with some similarities to Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen. I’m not a big fan of either of them, but if another Tremaine book came out, I’d probably have to read it.

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Book: The Forever War

foreverwar.jpg“The Forever War” is a great piece of war reporting. Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter, entered Afghanistan with US troops, and in 2003 entered Iraq with the US invasion. He spent seven years covering those wars, and helps us see what he saw.

This isn’t an anti-war book, nor a pro-war book. Nothing partisan about it. It’s just reporting of a very personal nature–progressive journalism, it’s called, where the reporter is part of the story. We see what Filkins sees. He doesn’t pass judgement, doesn’t analyze. Just observes,experiences, and reports.

The book almost reads like a novel, a series of scenes. He’s talking to a Northern Alliance commander. He’s with US Marines amidst a desperate firefight in Faluja. He’s in the Green Zone. He’s in the home of an Iraqi official. He’s accompanying Ahmed Chalabi to Teheran. Story after story. Beautiful, descriptive, yet strangely sparse writing. 

The first 70 pages take place in Afghanistan. This, to me, was the best part of the book. He describes the constantly shifting alliances, a long tradition in the Afghan history of war. One day an Afghan would be commanding Taliban troops in some town. The next, he and his men would be part of the Northern Alliance, storming that same town to oust the Taliban.

“Battles were often decided this way not by actual fighting, but by flipping gangs of soldiers….The fighting began when the bargaining stopped, and the bargaining went right up until the end. The losers were the ones who were too stubborn, too stupid, or too fanatical to make a deal. Suddenly they would find themselves outnumbered, and then they would die.”

He described how scary, how ruthless, the Afghans cold be.

“One of them would be sitting across form you in a restaurant, maybe picking at a kebob, looking at your from across the centuries…and you knew he’d just as soon kill you as look at you. Dumb as a brick, but that hardly mattered. Great cultures are like that. Always have been. The Greeks, the Romans, the British: they didn’t care what other people thought. Didn’t care about reasons. Just up and did it.” 

Filkins finds himself in a soccer stadium, where a thief’s hand is amputated, and where another man is executed as part of a sanctioned family revenge. The world Filkins reveals in Afghanistan is very foreign, and you realize what we’re up against.

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Above: Filkins (left) with some US troops.

But then the Iraq war comes calling, and Filkins transfers there. The remaining 250 pages take place in Iraq. Some things that stand out to me:

  • Chalabi, whom I’ve taken as a fool, is really a brilliant, hard-working guy–and probably in the pocket of the Iranians.
  • Suicide bombing happened a whole lot more than we realize, at least in the earlier years. It was practically a daily occurrence–if not far more frequent than that.
  • We see, very clearly, the hatred Iraqis have for Americans. Even if they hate the insurgents, they want the Americans to leave their country.
  • We clearly see the constant fear that follows Iraqis. One woman said that under Saddam, you just had to watch what you said, and you would be okay. But now, there are many ways to die, and many people who want to kill you for many different reasons.
  • Many times in the book, Filkins barely escapes being killed, whether in a battle or, more often, at the hands of mobs or fanatical insurgents.
  • “There was no entering an Iraqi home, no matter how hostile your relationship with its host, without being embraced by a hospitality that would shame anything you could find in the West.” 
  • You see a lot, a LOT, of death. Sometimes gruesome death.

The best parts are when Filkins is with US troops, whom he usually refers to as “the kids.”. I remember impressions from the books I read about Vietnam; our troops seemed undisciplined, unruly, easily drawn to drugs and alcohol, unkempt, lacking in conviction about their cause. The US troops in Iraq, by comparison, come across as very professional. They’re still kids, many of them, and war can bring out the worst in people. But Filklins paints a picture of US troops who are well-trained, disciplined, and superb at what they do. One of them takes a bullet for Filkins.

“There wasn’t any point in sentimentalizing the kids; they were trained killers, after all. They could hit a guy at 500 yards or cut his throat from ear-to-ear. And they didn’t ask a lot of questions. They had faith, they did what they were told, and they killed people. Sometimes I got frustrated with them; sometimes I wished they asked more questions. But…out there in Faluja, in the streets, I was happy they were in front of me.”

“The Forever War” is a remarkable book, and I recommend it highly.

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Book: Unfashionable

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Here’s a name I’ll bet you haven’t heard: Tullian Tchividjian. And I’m sure you can’t pronounce it. He’s a pastor, and he’s got a pedigree: his grandfather is Billy Graham. 

“Unfashionable” is best summed up with this line: “Christians make a difference in the world by being different from this world; they don’t make a difference by being the same.”

Tchividjian cuts through our emphasis on relevance, trendiness, using the latest technology–in short, being fashionable in the world’s eyes. “Just when our culture is yearning for something different, many churches are developing creative ways to be the same….Churches are losing their distinct identity as a people set apart to reach the world.”

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He’s a young guy, an innovative pastor, not some old fellow criticizing Gen Xers. 

If you think he’s gonna start taking shots at Saddleback and Willow Creek and Lifechurch–well, he doesn’t. But he does raise a lot of good questions…in the first few chapters, and in the concluding chapters. In between is a lot of stuff written, I’m afraid, to produce a full-length book. Stuff I’ve heard in countless sermons. But those opening and closing chapters were worth reading. 

Some excerpts:

“To be truly relevant, you have to say things that are unfashionably eternal, not trendy. It’s the timeless things that are most relevant to most people, and we dare not forget this fact in our pursuit of relevance.”

“Daily Christian living means daily Christian dying–dying to our fascination with the sizzle of this world and living for something bigger, something thicker, something eternal. 

“Almost everything Jesus said about the nature of Christian discipleship is precisely the opposite of what our culture exalts…..What do we see more of–conferences on serving, or conferences on leading?

He critiques how we’ve built an alternative Christian culture which is based on popular culture–our own T-shirts, music, books, TV shows, movies, etc. But our model is the world; that’s where we take our cues. 

“I want to possess the backbone to dig in and be unfashionable. I’m ashamed of those moments when I’m afraid to be a fool for Christ because the world might think I’m strange….Christians who try to convince the world around them that they’re really no different at all, hoping they’ll be accepted on the world’s terms and on the world’s turf, should be embarrassed. It’s time for Christians to embrace the fact that we’re peculiar people.”

This is an important message. The book “The Fine Line” also struck these chords. I didn’t find either book totally satisfying. But it’s still stuff we need to be thinking about.

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Remembering War Reporting from Vietnam

“The best combat reporting book since Dispatches,” is how reporter/novelist Pete Hamil described it, or something close to that. He made the comment on Morning Joe a couple months ago, just as New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins joined the set to talk about his new book, “The Forever War,” about his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. I’m reading it right now. It’s excellent.

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Hamil’s remark made me think again about Dispatches, Michael Herr’s 1978 classic. It was among five Vietnam books I read real close together in the early 1980s. I’ve still got them all, with underlined passages that struck me at the time. All of these books were in print years before the movie “Platoon” thrust Vietnam fully into the American conversation.

Nam, by Mark Baker (1981), an oral history in the tradition of Studs Terkel.

Everything We Had, by Al Santoli (1981), an even better oral history by 31 American soldiers who fought in Vietnam. Santoli was a highly decorated soldier in Vietnam (including 3 Purple Hearts).

Something I underlined: “We did a fine job there. If it had happened in World War 2, they still would be telling stories about it. But it happened in Vietnam, so nobody knows about it. They don’t even tell recruits about it today. Marines don’t talk about Vietnam. We lost. They never talk about losing.”

A Rumor of War, a war memoir by Philip Caputo (1977), Caputo first arrived in Vietnam in 1965 as a marine, and saw plenty of combat. Later, he returned as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He’s a masterful writer.

Something I underlined: “Our mission was not to win terrain or seize positions, but simply to kill: to kill Communists and to kill as many of them as possible. Stack ’em like cordwood. Victory was a high body-count, defeat a low kill-ratio, war a matter of arithmetic.”

Home Before Morning, by Lynda Van Devanter, who spent a year in Vietnam as an Army nurse (1983). 

But I’d say Dispatches was, indeed, the best. And it’s acclaimed as one of the best pieces of war reporting ever. Herr wrote for Esquire, not for a staid newspaper, and his writing reflects that with passages that are often surreal and off-beat. I may need to re-read it.

Something I underlined: “Patrols went out, patrols collided, companies splintered the action and spread it across the hills in a sequence of small, isolated firefights that afterwards were described as strategy.”

How does “The Forever War” match up? It ranks right up there, and I wouldn’t doubt Filkins wins a Pulitzer. It’s that good.

But all things considered, I’ll still take Ernie Pyle’s writing from World War 2.

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