Book Blogger Holiday Swap

Here's one for all my book-blogging readers.  Some lovely and clever people have devised a Book Blogger Holiday Swap. It's like a Secret Santa - for booklovers, by booklovers. They are accepting international bloggers.
Registration closes (firmly) on November 14th, so sign up now  Not sure if it's for you? Check out the thorough FAQ page.

Hollywood Hills

Hollywood Hills: A Novel

by Joseph Wambaugh

Little, Brown and Co

November 2010

Joseph Wambaugh has been writing about police and police work since the 70s. He published his first work while still an LAPD cop.   I can remember reading The Onion Field and the powerful impact it had on me.  After the turbulent times of the 1960’s, Wambaugh did more to build back the reputation of the police than any other writer.  His work was dark (The New Centurions, The Blue Knight) but enthralling as he laid out the emotional cost of police work.  I haven’t read Wambaugh’s books in a long time so I was surprised with Hollywood Hills.  It is a police procedural but in a much lighter vein than I expected.  It chronicles the stories of the police who work out of Hollywood division in Los Angeles.  It is a fast moving story with a plot centered on an art theft.  There are a myriad of characters – both cops and crooks.  The story is told by alternating the narrative between the police and the criminals.  It is funny and the dialogue is realistic (except for the two surfer cops who were unintelligible to me).   Wambaugh’s depiction of every day police work seems so real, cops get in fights with bad guys, and cops get their noses broken, no super heroes here, just everyday police work. No one character is the center of this novel, each character is lightly drawn and given a place in the story but the lack of character development for me, reduces my enthusiasm for the book.  Hollywood Hills is part of a series (Hollywood Moon, Hollywood Station, Hollywood Crows) but is easily read as a standalone book.  If you have read and liked the other books in this series I am sure you’ll enjoy this one, if you are looking for a Wambaugh story from a previous era I think you’ll be disappointed.

I read an advanced reader copy of this book provided by the publisher.

An Impartial Witness

An Impartial Witness: A Bess Crawford Mystery

by Charles Todd

Sept 2010

William Morrow

This is the second Bess Crawford novel in the series that is written by the American mother/son team Charles Todd. As in the first, the action is set primarily in World War I London. Bess has a chance encounter that gives her information that is crucial in a murder investigation and through her nursing duties with an officer wounded at the front she becomes engaged in the case. I won’t recount plot details but the mystery is adequate with a number of twists and turns (perhaps a tad too many coincidences) until the identity of the murderer is discovered.

The author’s ability to create the scene of London in 1916 is good with a number of scenes that create this backdrop – automobiles while present are not reliable, war wounded are ubiquitous, and train travel is the norm. In the first Bess Crawford novel (Duty to the Dead) the main character is introduced as a strong, independent nurse who is self sufficient in her life. In this novel Bess is continually rescued by her father’s former aide-de-camp, Simon B., at every sign of danger. I was left scratching my head at this – is this man in the pay of her father? Is her in love with her? The relationship did not work for me and seemed to weaken the Bess Crawford character. I’d expect the author to clarify this in future stories.

So, in summary this is a satisfactory historical mystery with decent characterizations, good plotting and authentic sense of place but doesn’t really deliver on the promise of the far better Duty of the Dead.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: A Novel

by Tom Franklin

October, 2010

William Morrow

This is the first Tom Franklin book I’ve read and I choose this book because there was so much positive buzz about it on blogs and in reviews. I wasn’t disappointed. No spoilers here. The story is set in Mississippi and the author creates a unique sense of place in his writing. You are put in mind of the south of William Faulkner. No doubt about it you are in the Deep South. The two main characters are richly drawn. Larry Ott is an introvert, book worm, local auto mechanic and son of a poor white family. Larry has become the town pariah because twenty years earlier he took a local girl on a date from which she never returned. He is accused but not arrested as there is no evidence. Silas Jones is black, son of a single mother, athletically gifted and the local constable. In their teen years these two very different boys shared a friendship that was short but deeply felt by each of them. The two drift apart caused in some part by the girl’s disappearance

The story alternates between today and the events of twenty years earlier. It is told in the narrative voices of Larry and Silas. When in the present day another girl is reported missing, the stage is set for the events that follow. The mystery/thriller aspects of this story are good but this is really a character driven novel. Even some of the minor characters are so well described – Larry’s parents, Silas’s office mate Voncille- that a fully formed  picture comes to mind. The family backgrounds of each of the main characters contribute to the drama of the story in a distinctive way. The narrative examines choices people make, actions taken and not taken and the impact and pain caused. The loneliness that Larry feels was real and poignant to this reader. This is a satisfyingly complete novel – great characters, great sense of place, great story. I’ll remember this novel for a long time.

Scorpions - Review and Giveaway

Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices

by Noah Feldman

November 2010

Twelve

Scorpions – the title references a description of the Supreme Court Justices as “nine scorpions in a bottle” – is the story of four widely different justices all appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt.  These four, Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, Robert Jackson and William O. Douglas could not have been more dissimiliar.  Frankfurter, a Jew was perhaps the most liberal voice in the country when Roosevelt appointed him to the court.  Black was a southern country lawyer former KKK member with an altogether unique interpretation of the constitution, Jackson, a plain spoken lawyer seeking a pragmatic resolution to court cases and Douglas, a westerner who defined wide limits for individual freedom.  I enjoyed the detail and back story the author presented on all of these men.  The intellectual growth that allowed these men to listen, learn and change their minds from where they started was so appealing in this story.  Black from a KKK member to perhaps the strongest civil rights supporter on the court.  Frankfurter from the most liberal to arguably the most conservative member of the court. I was fascinated at how men of such widely divergent backgrounds could come together to decide some of the most important issues of the twentieth century.  The background of the Japanese internment in WWII, Truman’s seizure of the steel mills, civil rights and lastly the Brown v. the Board of Education decisions are all covered with the deliberations and interactions that led to the court decisions.  Personalities are on full display.  I admit much of the legal theories were lost on me and did for me (the clearly non legal reader) drag out the story a bit but I still enjoyed this book as a history of the Supreme Court and the justices who served there.  In today’s acrimonious political environment one really longs for the time when disagreements were discussed, debated and had compromises developed that moved the country forward.  A good narrative history of the Supreme Court in the mid twentieth century.
I have three copies of SCORPIONS for a giveaway, if you would like to participate, click here. 

Reading a book v. audiobooks - a few favorites

Given a choice I will always read a book, but I have become addicted to audiobooks when  I drive.  I don't do a daily communte but do spend 5-6 hours/week in a car.  The addiction started when I drove to Florida two years ago and listened to  What is the What.  W/W was the OneBook OnePhiladelphia selection a few years ago, so there were lots of copies at the library.  I was enchanted with the reader of this novel and ended up with a literary experience that was much different than if I had read this book.  What is the What is the fictionalized, but mostly true story of a Lost Boy of Sudan.  Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s.  The reader of this novel Dion Graham (The Wire, Law and Order) was sensational and for me added a new dimension to the story.   Even though this story, unabridged is 16 hours long I highly recommend, it hooked me on audiobooks.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an audiobook with multiple readers, always a feature to look for when choosing an audiobook.  This is also high on my list, especially recommended for medical professionals.  I wrote a full review of this one, read it here.  Twelve hours and 30 minutes, read by Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin.

Nine Dragons is a Michael Connolly/Harry Bosch novel.  I have read a lot of these stories so I wasn't quite prepared for the voice of this character.  It was not what I "heard" when I read the story, but I did enjoy it.  The suspense in the audiobook matched the written word.  It was read by Len Cariou and is 11 hours in length.

Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, Handle with Care - all of these were written by Jodi Picoult and are read by a cast of narrators.  I normally don't read Picoult because of the intense and sometimes horrific things that happen to children in her novels but the audio books were riveting.  Unabridged they are between 10 and 12 hours long.  

When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.  This recording is a series of essays each about 30 to 40 minutes long, read by the author.  Sedaris has a droll sense of humour that is not for everybody but I found them funny and engaging and kind of perfect if you have a traveling companion that is not signed on to listen to 10-12 hours of a traditional audiobook. 

Murder on the Links and One Two Buckle Your Shoe   There are a number of BBC full cast dramatizations of Agatha Chrisite novels.  These are two that I have listened to.  They are very different than the unabridged audio books..  They are mostly less than three hours long.  They have casts that number up to 25 actors.  Listening to these books is more like listening to an old time radio show (not that I have first hand experience!) rather than an audio book.  Perfect for light listening.