Reading Journal No. 12
READING JOURNAL NO. 12 – BIJOU, THE GEM BENEATH TAHOE DARK. Todd Borg, a resident of South Lake Tahoe, is the author of the award-winning Owen McKenna Mysteries, or as we know them, the Tahoe….. with thirteen titles that follow. In this case, Tahoe Dark makes number fourteen. So what makes me come back for more? I first […]
The Orphan Master’s Son – Back for a Second Look
THE ORPHAN MASTER’S SON – A MORE TIMELY READ THAN EVER Totalitarian is an old-fashioned word but then the Democratic People’s Republic of [North] Korea (DPRK) is an old-fashioned kind of nation even though it has nukes and is striving to have ICBM missiles capable of delivering them half way around the globe. And while […]
The Name of the Star
Maureen Johnson’s latest YA novel, adds a few new wrinkles to the expanding mythology of Jack the Ripper. The myth-making began in 1913, just 25 years after the grisly murders in Whitechapel. Marie Belloc Lowndes wrote a popular novel called The Lodger. A landlord and his wife suspect their well-mannered tenant might be a serial […]
Hidden Figures
HIDDEN FIGURES: THE STORY OF THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN WHO HELPED WIN THE SPACE RACE I have always argued that equal education for all should be a cornerstone of our democracy. As a nation, we lose a lot of talent when students are shunted into classes or categories that don’t stretch their minds. Hidden Figures proves […]
Act of War
Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo As we have learned since 2001, if we didn’t know already, trying to assure national security is an ambiguous, messy business in part because it involves spying—one of the world’s oldest professions. Messy, but vicariously thrilling. If war is an […]
The Orphan Master’s Son
The Orphan Master’s Son is a book of adventures taking place in the repressive totalitarian regime of North Korea. While that may seem to herald a difficult, depressing story, The Orphan Master’s Son is anything but that. Through the darkness and literally, long tunnels of earth, this story ends as one of redemption, a journey […]
Welcome to our guest reviewer Donna Buessing
Before the Clayton Community Library Book Club closes a session, there is usually a lively discussion of what we’ve been reading individually, beyond our assigned titles. A few months ago Donna Buessing, a long-time member of the group, raved about The Orphan Master’s Son. Although I had an Advance Reader’s Edtion, it hadn’t yet been read or […]
1941: Fighting the Shadow War
1941: FIGHTING THE SHADOW WAR, A DIVIDED AMERICA IN A WORLD AT WAR Do I think this book is worth reading? Yes. Does this book irritate me? Yes. Before I tell you why I recommend this book, I must express some of my irascibility. Wortman, in Fighting the Shadow War, has much to say about […]
Bronx Requiem at one’s Beck and call
BRONX REQUIEM How much time do we have for reading? Is page count important? No chores to do? Home from work or do we wait for weekends? If you are reading John Clarkson, it’s not going to matter. From his prologue’s first sentence: “James Beck had about ten seconds before bones broke and blood hit […]
Essentialism
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less Self-improvement books follow a fairly predictable formula. First, the tone must convey can-do enthusiasm. Anyone who reads a particular self-improvement book, and follows its directions, will successfully accomplish [fill in the blanks]. Second, there must be pages and pages of diagrams and charts and illustrations and various schemes. Bullets […]
A Great Good Place for Books
Montclair is a vibrant neighborhood at the end of Park Blvd. and the foot of the Oakland Hills in the SF Bay Area. When I was a kid (long before Hwy. 13) there was no sign announcing “Montclair Village,” it was just plain old Montclair, finding its way back from a war-slowed economy. There was […]
George Marshall, Defender of the Republic
GEORGE MARSHALL, DEFENDER OF THE REPUBLIC Although I have studied historical figures for nearly six decades, there are few people about whom I would say, “He or she is one of my heroes.” On that very short list, George Marshall is prominent. It was with definite anticipation, then, that I began reading Roll’s George Marshall. […]
Langston Hughes – A poet for BLM?
GOLDEN SLIPPERS: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers Poem: Youth Poet: Langston Hughes (1901 – 1967) Editor: Arna Bontemps Publisher: Harper & Row 1941 Youth We have tomorrow Bright before us Like a flame. Yesterday A night-down thing, A sun-down name. And dawn-today Broad arch above the road we came. We march! […]
Summer Horse People
I just finished reading Lord of Misrule and it proves what I’ve known since I was a kid: nothing beats a good horse story. The characters in Gordon’s novel were strange yet somehow familiar, as if I’d known them from some place else, even though the only race tracks I’d ever been to were those found in the […]
Deadbeat Dams
Deadbeat Dams The subtitle of Daniel P. Beard’s whistle-blower expose, Deadbeat Dams, indicates the breadth and depth of his piercing analysis—“Why We Should Abolish the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation and Tear Down Glen Canyon Dam.” As a former Commissioner of the “Bur Rec,” as some of us like to call our government’s dam-building agency, […]
Great Ghost Stories
Nipping at the heels of the word “summer” are the words “summer camp,” and not long after comes the word “campfire,” and it’s a no-brainer that “ghost stories” comes next. Instead of offering the suggestion of a great, bawdy, bodice-ripper to accompany one to the beach, I thought I’d aim for a more family friendly, […]