Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Title: The Solomon Curse (A Sam and Remi Fargo Adventure) - Clive Cussler and Russel Blake
Genre:  Action / Adventure
Date read:  October, 2015

Typical Clive Cussler joint author book.  It is set in Guadalcanal with a few WWII references and some legacy characters.  Prequel chapters (there are two) were good, action okay although I have not been in a jungle recently.

Local politics a bit confusing and I did'nt get the market manipulation part of the book.  Treasure hunt was okay but the exploration of the ruins and subsequent discoveries were not detailed - more about the backroads and revolutionaries.

Rating (0-10): 7 - I made it through and it helped on a plane flight.
Disposition: Give to SIRS

Title: The Bootlegger (An Isaac Bell Adventure) - Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
Genre:  Action / Adventure
Date read:  Summer, 2015

Isaac Bell prior to his marriage gets involved with a bootlegger in the New York streets and harbor.  VanDorn is shot early on and the question throughout the book is "will he survive?"

 No steam engines and only slightly evokes the gilded age for me.

Rating (0-10): 7 - I made it through, OK but not Dirk Pitt.
Disposition: Give to SIRS
Title: Piranha (A Novel if the Oregon Files) - Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison
Genre:  Action / Adventure
Date read:  Summer, 2015

I read and enjoyed this last summer but to be honest I barely remember anything.  Something about sunken ship in Cuban harbor.  Scientific breakthrough hidden for ages - fighting breaks ou upon the attempt to recover technology?

Rating (0-10): 7 - I made it through.
Disposition: Give to SIRS
Title: Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill - Gretchen Rubin
Genre:  Biography
Date read:  Fall, 2015

Weird book - each chapter contradicts the previous.  Not a biography in the chronological or traditional sense - rather a series of essays.  I still do not know some of the basic facts on Churchill and his life.

Yet the book is oddly fascinating and thought provoking.  I have a better feel for the man with all his foibles and flaws.  His first love (almost only) is the British empire.  The fascinating revelation to me from this book is that Churchill's overwhelming goal in fighting WWII was to preserve the empire.  The terrible irony  is that while successfully "winning" the war he actually brought about the (perhaps inevitable) dissolution of that empire.  He reminded me of the father in Downtown Abbey - the world is changing all around him and he is unable to stop it.  Perhaps Chamberlain was right?

Rating (0-10): 8 - Plowed through but it enhanced my perspective of WWII, Churchill, Roosevelt, and that era..
Disposition: Keep with WWII books.
Title: Top Secret Twenty-One - Janet Evanovich
Genre:  Mystery
Date read:  Summer, 2015

Typical Stephanie Plum fare

Rating (0-10): 6 - Did finish but mostly forgot.
Disposition: Give to SIRS.
Title: 3rd Degree - James Patterson and Andrew Gross
Genre:  Mystery
Date read:  Fall, 2015

Short chapters - house blows up.  Business executives murdered.  Tension mounts leading up the the G8 conference in San Francisco.  Nice ambiance of the city.  References to radicals in Seattle and Berkeley.  A bit to right wing for me but enjoyable.

Rating (0-10): 7 - Read in OKC - helped with plane flight
Disposition: Keep for Diane.
Title: The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
Genre:  Mystery, chic-lit?
Date read:  Summer, 2015

Woman (alcholic) sees something from a moving train.  Murder?  Gets all intertwined with her ex husband and his new lover / wife.  One never quite knows what to believe since the woman is alcoholic and befuddled.  Still don't quite know what happened and I don't care.

Rating (0-10): 5 - Plowed through - not satisfying.
Disposition: Return to Diane.
Title: The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
Genre:  Mystery, chic-lit?
Date read:  Summer, 2015

SPOILERS
Interesting characters.  Plot mystery - what happened to that girl almost twenty years ago?  Mundane husband - wife interactions but actually enjoyable.  Then comes the big reveal - the husband's secret. He accidentally, inadvertently, sorta, slightly, kinda broke his girlfriend's neck and left the dead body in a park.  Many people where hurt by this act but, hey, it was a long time ago.  He's got a family now and they guy they all suspected didn't go to jail.  So we'll just let it be!

Rating (0-10): 6 - OK mystery, characters interesting, denoument awful.
Disposition: Return to Diane.
Title: Attack on Pearl Harbor Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions - Alan Zimm
Genre:  nonfiction
Date read:  Summer, 2015

This and the next book came out 2008 and 2005 and offer new perspectives on WWII and two main battles.  A key point is that these books looked at the Japanese sources and not just the US ones. 

The Pearl Harbor book has the primary message that the Japanese weren't that smart - we were just stupid and careless.  He debunks myths (the harbor could have been blocked, oil storage tanks destroyed greatly prolonging the war, Japanese were omniscient about the future of carrier warfare etc.).  He points to a lot of missed opportunities and miscalculations.

A key point - they wanted to shock us into a negotiated peace by destroying battleships for their image value - they new the ships would be back in service after say 6-12 months.  They started a war they had no way to win.

He reviews and updates the reputations of several of the leaders, Nagumo, Yamamoto,etc.

Rating (0-10): 8 - New perspectivies on WWII and Pearl Harbor
Disposition: Keep.
Title: Shattered Sword - The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway - Parshall and Tully
Genre:  nonfiction
Date read:  Summer, 2015

This and the previous book came out 2008 and 2005 and offer new perspectives on WWII and two main battles.  A key point is that these books looked at the Japanese sources and not just the US ones. 

The authors review the planning, execution, and aftermath of Midway.  Key points:

Counting the planes at Midway there was near parity between US and IJN planes - this was not a David and Goliath fight.

Japanese planning was severly flawed.  Japan suffered from "victory disease", after the battle authors suffered from "increadible victory disease".

The battle was pivotal but had the US lost the outcome of the war would not have changed.  The IJN lost at Pearl Harbor.

IJN damage control sucked.

They dispute much of what Fuchida says, they discredit him.  Carriers were not in the configurations claimed when the attacks arrived.

They show how the ship and plane counts were evenly matched but they do not really deal with the quality issue - were the Japanese better, more skilled - why didn't they win - were we just luckier?

Rating (0-10): 8 - New perspectives on WWII and Midway.
Disposition: Keep.

Todd Borg - Tahoe Series

Diane and I met Todd Borg at a quilt/sewing show in Pleasanton - he is self published with about a dozen books out with a retired detective, Owen McKenna, his dog, girlfriend, and other folks living in the Tahoe area.  I've read three of his books and will continue with them.  Enjoyable - the local aspect, the characters, thd super large dog.  Now - he does a number of things that would make Dirk Pitt run home to mommy, he takes the dog along into ridiculous situations  while sometimes leaving him home when he would be useful.  He waxes poetic about cosmology and general relativity and the artwork on his walls and books which is sometimes annoying.  His endings seem to abrupt - after all the action I would like more of a cleanup.  Still - I like him - and for me that is saying something.

I will be reading more of his work.

Tahoe BlowUp - fires in the lake area - pruchased and signed! - keep
Tahoe Killshot - pop star Glory murdered on a bike trail - library book - returned
Tahoe Hijack - kidnapping on a boat - missing gold - militias - library book - returned