The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullough

This was the first book by historian David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Truman" and "John Adams", and it was written in 1968. I downloaded it from NetLibrary.org.

Having known nothing about the Johnstown Flood before listening to this audiobook, I had no disinformation that needed to be swept away like the Victorian Era steel town was in 1889. The newspapers of that time made every kind of reporting error in America's first major natural disaster, and some of those mistakes are now part of the mental DNA in some people from the area surrounding the ill-fated Pennsylvania town.

My wife's family took part in the clean-up after the flood, and she said she knew quite a lot about the flood. In spite of that, she still thought the dam had been built by rich people to create a resort. Actually, the dam had been built as part of a government canal project, just before the railroads made the canal obsolete. After falling into disrepair, the earthen dam was refurbished by developers to create a lake for a hunting and fishing club, but the club's membership has all the liability that the owners of a timeshare would have if a resort burned down: none. And that is pretty much why legal action against the members never got off the ground.

It took almost 80 years for some of the best reporting and fact-finding to get done, as does in this book, and it's fortunate that there were still survivors of the disaster at the time that David McCullough was writing it. There are also the records from the American Red Cross. This was their first natural disaster response, and Clara Barton herself was there to oversee it.

All the class envy, race hatred, yellow journalism, relief money scamming and political finger pointing make a good template for future books about Hurricane Katrina that will be written by the cooler heads of the future. I hope it doesn't take 80 years. I give this one 4 stars for its thoroughness and the excellent narrative skills of the author.

"God Wills It!": Understanding the Crusades, by Prof. Thomas Madden

This is not exactly an audiobook. It's a course taught in 14 lectures by a professor of Medieval History and chair of the History Department at St. Louis University. But it was 8:10:55 long, so it seemed like a book to me.

Professor Madden (pictured left) breaks down the Crusades into external Crusades against the Muslims and internal Crusades against Christian heretics. But the majority of the time is spent on the Crusades to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims over a period of about 500 years. There are 5 major Crusades recognized in this series, and they all get a pretty thorough and interesting treatment.

These lectures don't sound like a manuscript being read for dramatic effect, but they do sound like they were given in a studio as opposed to a lecture hall, with all the ambient noise associated with that venue. However, at the end of some of the lectures a narrator breaks in to announce that a student had posed a question at the end of the lecture, and a recorded answer is presented separately.

As a history nerd, I enjoyed these for the sense of completeness of the overview and depth of detail. There is not a lot of personal anecdote about the players, so it is just the facts. But there are so many facts and the narration is so well organized, that you don't get lost in the droning vastness of it all. I thought this was an excellent presentation and I give it 4 stars.

Everyman, by Philip Roth

I heard a review of this book early in the year, when it first came out. Someone had said it was the story of a man's body, and now I know what was meant by that.

Roth's character is so personal, yet impersonal. You learn all about the struggles of a man from his early youth until the day he dies an uneventful death. You become acquainted with him through his appetites and the indulgences thereof. But you are not disgusted by him so much as you pity his personal emptiness.

The main character's name may have been mentioned in the beginning of the book, but it was so far back and never mentioned again that I believe that it was an essential part of the author's creation: a man with no distinguishing characteristics or identity apart from his own search for meaning through pleasure, whether though his vocation or his diversions.

Everyman has a series of affairs, most of which lead to him divorcing a decent women that are named over and over, and marrying his tryst partner, only to cheat on her. You learn the names of all his friends, relatives, and women, but he is a nameless bundle of well-meaning narcissism. He is faithless, not only to his wives, but in general. He has no god. And he dies that way: an old man who is frustrated that the hottie on the beach that he hit on does not call him; and even starts jogging somewhere else to avoid him.

This is a sad story of a man who executes the sexual fantasies of ordinary men, and bleeds the life out of them. It's a good thing Mr. Roth is a good writer, or this would be all depressing morality tale with no room for pitying our anti-hero. And you do pity him because you see too much of yourself in him to loathe him without feeling the pain of being loathed. Most of his children hate him and avoid him, and he is useless to comfort anyone, while no one is left to comfort him. Take prozac before reading. It's three stars for the introspective mental workout, but one star for entertainment.

Health Care..., by Ceci Connolly

Another Chautauqua lecture on a single CD, available at our local library. Ceci Connolly is a political reporter, and this lecture took place before the 2004 election.

Ms. Connolly reports that although the US probably spends enough on health care to get the job done for all Americans, that it is not allocated very well. We spend the highest percentage of our GDP on health care, yet we have so many inefficiencies and CYA tests and procedures that do no necessarily yield life enhancement. Patients with insurance also abuse the system, and she is surprisingly lenient on the insurance companies, which she finds to be the lesser of evils.

Thought-provoking, if light on data; this was an easy listen and enough to get you digging. I give it 3 stars.

Changing China..., by David M. Lampton

I saw that one new addition to the local library's CD collection is a series of lectures from the Chautauqua Institute. This first one comes on one CD, is about 1:15 long, and is very much like one of those NPR public affairs broadcasts.

In this lecture, Mr. Lampton is optimistic about our relationship with China, so long as we are all optimistic about it. He makes the case that our Western attitude is one of, "If China will cooperate, we can be friends; whereas, the Chinese approach is, "If we are friends, we can cooperate." He was one of the first Americans allowed into China after Mao's death, which had brought on a brief period of seclusion, and he tells us that change in China is much more positive and rapid than we think. Furthermore, he has some positive words on why we could, and should, be positive on the relationship between the People's Republic of China (Mainland) and Taiwan.

This is a 4 star must-listen for anyone who weighs our foreign policy options when going to the polls.

A break for podcasts

Yesterday I took a break from audiobooks to just zone out with podcasts. I usually have a few podcasts as a part of my listening diet, but yesterday I caught up with a lot of shows I had not heard in awhile.

For those of you who are mystified about what a podcast is, it is simply a down loadable audio program that is attached to an rss feed, so you can subscribe to it and be notified of the latest episode. Some will argue that the rss feed is not required, and I can understand that, but I have to admit that I don't listen to such podcasts. Everything I download is part of someone's rss feed, and the podcasting community all seems to agree on this, so I think I will let them define themselves.

Relax. I know I just numbed your brain a little bit with a bit of geek-speak, but you don't have to have a clue about rss feeds to enjoy podcasts. It's like your mp3 player: you don't have to understand it to use it. But if you want to subscribe to podcasts, it will be helpful to use a program or application to track the ones to which you want to subscribe. Forunately, some sites like yahoo.com and google.com provide a means of doing that through their "mypage" portals. (Yahoo's is called MyYahoo, and Google's is My Account, but you get the point.)

Here are some of the websites for some of my favorite podcasts that are a good jumping off point. You can find recent episodes, get subscribing information, etc.

Scott Sigler's "The Rookie" This one is a podcast novel. As he says in the intro, "you can't peek at the end!" I am not a science fiction fan, as a rule, but Sigler is a very good writer, and that comes out in any genre. It takes place in a future where an alien race has conquered the known universe, but has the same governinng problems that come with any overextended empire. In order to channel the aggression of all these alien species into a less destructive venue, the victors have encouraged athletic competition, and American Football is the overwhelming fan favorite. So, you have receivers and cornerbakc who can jump 25 feet in the air.

Another thing you have in a huge empire that tries to control everything is organized crime. Some of these criminal elements own football teams, and use the team spaceships to move contraband. And on the teams themselves you have issues of racism. This sounds like a crazy book, but I have to tell you that I am hooked! So, here I am waiting eagerly for episode 13.

The Daily Breakfast Father Roderick in the Netherlands does this English language podcast with upbeat music, humor, and a touch of spiritual inquiry. I am not even Catholic, but this show is a pleasant diversion that anyone could enjoy. Fatehr Roderick is a 38 year old priest who watches over 3 parishes in the Diocese of Utrecht, and he makes the time to produce a half hour program with podsafe music, geek news, movie reviews, and even an ocassional Latin segment that begins with a sound clip of Bart Simpson praying in Latin, followed by Homer yelling, "Bart, what in hell are you saying?"

There are many others, but I have to go to work! Happy listening!

The Souvenir, by Louise Steinman

The rest of the title is: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War, and that discovery begins after Louise's father, Norman Steinman, passes away and leaves behind a treasure of old letters from the Pacific, and a souvenir. Like many WW2 combat veterans, Norman never reminisced about the war. He was quite happy to forget it. So his daughter, like many baby boom sons and daughters, grew up with a view of WW2, and war in general, that did not benefit from the experience of the participants.

Norman was a non-observant Jew who came back from fighting the Japanese in the Philippines, went to pharmacy school on the GI Bill, and raised his family without saying anything about the war or revealing the cache of 474 letters to his wife, along with a Japanese flag with inscriptions from a mysterious dead soldier's family back in Japan.

Only after her mother also died did Louise Steinman discover this archive while cleaning out her parents' condo. She reads the letters, some of which mention the flag and her father's regret at having taken it and mailing it home to her mother, but learns little else about the flag. Her curiosity propels her on a search for someone to translate the inscriptions and, eventually, to return the flag to the dead soldier's family.

This is exactly the kind of thing you would expect a politically liberal performance artist/writer (which is what Ms. Steinman is,) to do. And it might be cathartic to write about it, and profitable to publish as well. At least, that's the cynical view. And although I am a bit cynical, and way to the right of most performance artists, I found this to be a riveting, and touching, memoir by a woman who has given a real gift to historians and the public at-large. She travels to Japan and meets the soldier's family, and also visits Hiroshima, and the place where her father did battle on the ground in the Philippines.

I have read a lot of books on WW2, so I was not surprised by the savagery of the fighting, the hatred between the Japanese soldiers and the US Marines, and the atrocities visited upon soldiers and civilians alike by the Japanese military. But this was all news to the author, and her visit to Japan gave her a new appreciation for The Bomb.

I think that hawks and doves alike will find this book immensely authentic, and that it will challenge you to look at war in a way that gets past slogans and propaganda. It was read by Suzanne Toren, and was 7 hours and 2 minutes long, and included an author interview at the end. And I give it 4 stars.

Dead Watch, by John Sandford

I know this is the second John Sandford novel I have reviewed in 3 postings, but at least it's no part of the "Prey" series, with Lucas Davenport.

Released just this year, Dead Watch appears to be the beginning of a new series that features Jake Winter, a political espionage operative who has a working relationship with the FBI and CIA.

In this story, Jake is called upon to find out where a former US Senator has gone, and who may have kidnapped him...if it's a kidnapping. Lincoln Bowe is a Republican politician who is married to a former TV news reporter. Madison Bowe believes that her husband's former opponent, the Governor of Virginia, is part of a plot to make the outspoken former Senator disappear.

Governor Arlo Goodman, a conservative Democrat, is linked to a citizen volunteer organization called The Watchmen, which was formed to assist law enforcement in such "watchful" activities as locating illegal aliens and looking out for terrorists.

There are enough twists and turns to keep this interesting, although it does not rise to the level of some of Sandford's better Prey novels. But it is interesting, and there is enough linkage to several contemporary issues to make you think. And, of course, the solution to the problem of the former Senator's disappearance is a surprise.

I give it 3 stars for keeping me involved all the way, and not drifting too far out on the romantic tangent, which is inevitable from early on.

The Legacy, by Stephen Frey

Many times you discover an author that you like after he has had several novels published, and you have to go back in time to catch up with him. "The Legacy" was published in 1998, but my first experience with Frey was "The Day Trader", 2002. Frey writes financial thrillers, but this one is much less about the stock market and hedge funds than it is about a government conspiracy to cover up the investigation of the JFK assassination. The main character, Cole Eagan, just happens to work for an investment house.

JFK conspiracies are not my bag. But it is an indelible memory for most people my age, who all remember what they were doing when they heard JFK had been shot. (I was in kindergarten when the room dividers were all pulled apart, the teachers stayed huddled together, and a TV was rolled in for us to watch the news instead of the story lady on our local PBS affiliate.) And although I have shrugged off much of the JFK genre as something that has been overdone, this was a very good spy novel, with enough double crosses to keep you guessing right up to the end.

And it goes beyond being a fictional diversion when you consider how much of a story like this could actually be true. It's depressing, but not entirely surprising, which is probably what depresses me to begin with. That, and the idea that with all those people in a large public place, many of whom owned cameras even then, that there is so little incontrovertible proof of anything. You gotta wonder. It's just not very profitable.

Give it 3 stars for good story, characters, and the ability to bother the level-headed.

New link add: an audio player user group

I found this great place to read reviews, shop, and ask questions about digital audio players. It's a little geeky, but that is actually perfect for this kind of subject. Geeks know their audio players!

I've put the link on the left permanently, with other links of interest...

Broken Prey, by John Sandford

This is book number 16 In John Sandford's "Prey" series. I've listened to a lot of them, all narrated by Richard Ferrone, but I didn't know the exact number. I understand that "Invisible Prey" will be released next year, thus extending the franchise.

These novels all feature detective Lucas Davenport, a somewhat rumpled, gritty detective who can take a bullet. He specializes is serial killers, and his stories seldom wade into romance. He is currently married to a woman doctor whose first name is Weather, and Lucas is also fairly wealthy due to his profits from designing first-person-shooter video games. That does not come up in this book, but I do recall that detail from past novels.

In this one, a violent serial rapist, who has been released with one of those tracking leg manacles after doing his time, disappears about the same time that a young woman's body is found, violated and displayed. The missing ex-con is an obvious choice after his ankle bracelet is found in his apartment, sawed through and discarded.

A part of Lucas' investigation takes him to the prison hospital where former patients were acquainted with the missing man, who does not actually fit the profile for the kind of killing that has been done. It seems more like one of the current inmates, except they are all accounted for.

This is a pretty complicated, gory, and sometimes sexually explicit story. Still, Sandford is the master of this genre, and his ability to get himself, and you, inside the heads of his characters is his strength. And the voice of Richard Ferrone was made to read crime drama. It's a well-paced story, told well, but because I am a bit worn out with Lucas, I give it barely 3 stars.

Forever Odd, by Dean Koontz

The follow-up to "Odd Thomas", this is another odd story about a man who is visited by the dead in search of justice.

I have to admit that I am a Dean Koontz junkie who cares less about story than I do about listening to Mr. Koontz's amusing prose and weird juxtapositions. You know there will be good vs evil. You know that good will triumph. And you know there will be a few laughs. The bad guys (and gals: Koontz is an equal opportunity vilifier) will be gruesome and bloodthirsty.

In this story, a man has been murdered and his son, Danny, has disappeared. Danny, a long time friend of Odd's, is suffering from a disease that gives him very brittle bones, so he is quite fragile. Odd starts getting calls from a mysterious female psychopath who threatens to hurt Danny unless she gets what she wants: miracles. It seems that this woman, a bizarre occult practitioner, is using Danny to get to Odd so she can exploit his relationship with the supernatural.

This is not one of his best, but Koontz still gets a solid 3 star grade for this one. It is narrated by David Aaron Baker, who is good, but almost a little too soft-spoken for this one. Almost.

The Quiet Game, by Greg Iles

This 20 hour audiobook was downloaded free from NetLibrary, and it was just too long. And it was very much like a Pat Conroy novel: seedy and southern with a progressive social message and religious hypocrites abounding.

A top flight prosecutor, Penn Cage (I can hear the rimshot), who lost his wife to cancer, returns to his ancestral home with his little girl to get a rest. This does not work out. He ends up getting involved in an old civil right murder that was unsolved, but has plenty of chickens coming home to roost.

Our protagonist is further distracted by a crusading young newspaper publisher who wants to get a Pulitzer out of the turmoil. (Yes, she is hot.) And his old love interest (maybe hotter), who happens to be the daughter of a corrupt local power broker, also comes home after separating from her husband.

Crime novel turns romance turns courtroom drama over a long story with too many players. Yes, some of them are very well written, and probably worthy of their own books, but we are stuck with most of them until the end.

This would have been 3 stars if it had been half as long. It's downgraded to 2.

The Afghan, by Frederick Forsyth

Well-written, but formulaic, this is the story of a British agent of middle eastern extraction who goes undercover to impersonate an al Qaida operative who has been released from Guantanamo Bay.

The good prose of an Englishman is hard for me to resist, even if it's predictable. What is not predictable are the fascinating details of fictional, yet plausible, plots in our age of terrorism.

Forsyth's character takes risks and does not play fair, which is necessary to avert a devastating terrorist attack. If you are a civil libertarian who wants to extend the benefit of the doubt to terrorists, you will find this book insufferable. I give it two and a half stars.

Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich

This is the true story of 6 MIT students who bent the odds of Vegas to their advantage using a system of card-counting and subterfuge. Relayed through the novelist, Ben Mezrich, this account takes on the atmosphere of a thriller, complete with the danger that comes with running afoul of people who are only a degree or two removed from the mob.

Just as exciting as the misadventures with vengeful casinos, the action at the tables is riveting. If you ever read Positively Fifth Street, by James McManus, gambling is quite a rush for both the players and the spectators. And the Vegas lifestyle is a long streak of adrenalin demanding to be indulged with possessions, hookers, and danger. And when the house doesn't want to play anymore, everything hits the wall; everything but the need to play, and play, and play.

This was a fun and exciting story. Unfortunately, it may embolden the reader to engage in similar exploits. It is seductive. But it's important to remember that all those lights and all that glitter is ultimately paid for by losers. And there are an awful lot of them.

As mind candy, 4 stars; as a morality tale, 2.