The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse: A Novel of Love and War

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by Alexander McCall Smith, 2017, Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York 2.0 stars

This book is about a young woman in rural England during and after WWII who becomes involved with an American pilot whom she eventually marries. The story is also about a German officer who saves the life of her husband after he is shot down on a mission over Germany.

I was somewhat disappointed in this book as it didn’t seem to capture the characters as well as some of his other books. The dialogue is a bit stilted and the story didn’t unfold as well as it should have. It is a nice story, but there is not much else to recommend it. Also, the dog didn’t seem to play as much of a role as I would have expected.

A Rule Against Murder

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A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Book 4, by Louise Penny, 2009, Audiobook narrated by Ralph Cosham released in 2016, Macmillan Audio 3.0 stars

This book is different from Penny’s prior books as the plot doesn’t take place in the village of Three Pines. In this novel, Chief Inspector Gamache is on vacation with his wife at a resort. The other guests are individuals who are having a family reunion. Well, murder isn’t taking a vacation as a woman is killed by a statue falling over on her and, as it turns out, it isn’t an accident!

There is a connection between the guests at the resort and Three Pines as another couple of relatives arrives and they are characters who live in Three Pines. Book 4 of the series had a lot to do with Gamache’s problems with his career and the plot to undermine him. This novel, however, does not continue that theme. It will be interesting to read book 5 to see if Penny picks up on that.

The pace of this book was somewhat slow, but it was tolerable. The narration by Ralph Cosham was very good, as usual.

The Hangman

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by Louise Penny, 2010, Good Reads Books 3.5 stars

Although this book is a “Three Pines Mystery” that is investigated and solved by Chief Inspector Gamash, it is a departure from Louise Penny’s longer books in the serires. It’s only 87 pages long and doesn’t get into the issues and difficulties that Gamash deals with as part of his employment. The Good Reads series is a a program supported by the Canadian government to provide some exposure to best-selling Canadian authors. These books are designed for “people on the go, who want to experience the joy of reading, and those who want to get into the reading habit.” I assume they approaached Penny and asked her if she would like to participate, and the result was that she wrote this book.

Although the book didn’t get into all the issues that Gamash ordinarily has to deal with, it was an interesting murder mystery that didn’t divulge the surprise resolution until very late in the book. Sometimes I feel that Penny’s books get bogged down due to her focus on all the interaction between the characters. This book obviously didn’t do that, but I missed some of the interplay between the various characters in her other books. Also, there was no connection between this book and the progression of Gamash’s career from prior books. Nevertheless, I wanted to read this so that i have exposure to all the Three Pines novels.

Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the tale

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by Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, Jr., with David Fisher, 2011, Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, New York 3.5 stars

I received this book as a Christmas present in 2011, shortly after it was published. I opened the present and then set it aside. I had no interest in reading about Buddy who had recently completed his prison sentence after being convicted of a felony for the second time.

This year I’m on a bit of a reading tear and I was looking for another book to read. I have quite a few books in the drawer in my nightstand and, on my wife’s suggestion, I pulled Buddy’s book out. I opened it up and was surprised to see the written inscription on the inside of the cover:

“To Larry, Thanks for your support! Buddy, Christmas 2011

We were not residents of Rhode Island and I had given Buddy absolutely no support, but I thought it was cool that I had a signed copy of the book. When, however, I tthink about it, I suspect that it was a forgery and joke by the friend who gave me the book. Whether the signing is legitimate or not, I read the book and found it to be pretty good. It gave me a lot of information regarding the revitalization of downtown Providence and much insight into Buddy and his deeds.

The book is a little like a Greek tragedy. Buddy was a charismatic, can-do leader who accomplished a great deal for the city of Providence. The book reveals a lot of information regarding how he did it. Buddy acknowledged his mistakes (at least most of them) and was fairly realistic in his assessment of his actions and character. He was aware that he didn’t pay enough attention to the actions of the people he employed as they were committing crimes. His flaw was his ego and pride which led to his eventual downfall. He understood that some of what he was doing was perhaps unethical, if not illegal, but he thought that the good that he did far outweighed the bad and that he should not have been prosecuted. Buddy felt that corruption was a part of the system, but that he was not corrupt. His rationale for his view was that he never took any cash for the favors or services he provided. The fact that he doled out jobs and other perks to those who supported him and his campaign fund with donations. He felt that corruption was part of the “system”, and he didn’t take any responsibility for the actions of his underlings.

I gained a lot of appreciation for Buddy and his accomplishments from this book. I was particularly impressed by his empathy for others (as long as they liked him). It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t able to avoid the pitfalls that eventually brought him down. He had the potential to be one of the greatest politicians who ever held office, but his blind spots ruined that reputation in the eyes of many individuals.

The book is very readable, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. It’s too bad it sat in my nightstand for almost twelve years before I got around to reading it.

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

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by Adam Hochschild, 1998, Audiobook on cassette tapes narrated by Geoffrey Howard released in 2010, Books on Tape, Random House Audio 4.5 stars

This book is an indictment of the colonization of the Congo by King Leopold of Belgium. It recounts the horrors inflicted on the native population, including the stealing of their lands, the forcing of them into slavery, the rape and hostage taking of their women and children, and the cutting off of their hands. What is particularly appalling is the fictional picture of enlightened benevolence that Leopold managed to portray for so many years. The cover up and lies fooled so many people for so long.

The system that was instituted by Leopold in the Congo resulted in the deaths of millions of native Africans but is largely forgotten when compared to the Holocaust and the Gulags of Stalin’s Russia. This book brings the devastation into focus and highlights how a people can have such a short memory when it comes to the history of their country.

I liked that the author gave a short follow up as to the fate of each of the principal characters in the book. He also gave a short history of what happened in the Congo in more modern times. This provided me with an appreciation of the impact of King Leopold’s rule on the lives of these individuals and the eventual fate of the Congo.

Hothchild’s research and writing are superb and the Geoffrey Howard’s narration strikes a tone that is perfectly appropriate to the events. This is a book well worth reading.

The Cruelest Month

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The Three Pines Mystery Series, Book 3, by Louise Penny, 2007, Audiobook narrated by Ralph Cosham, released in 2015, Macmillan Audio 3.5 stars

Once again Inspector Armond Gamash is thrown into another murder in the small Quebec town of Three Pines. This time he is distracted by a career problem in headquarters that almost derails his investigation of the murder.

Louise Penny continues the saga of Gamash and his team but adds a major twist at the end of this book. I didn’t see it coming.

Unlike the first two books of this series, there doesn’t seem to be a hook leading to the next book. I wonder if Penny intended it to be the last of the series. We know that it didn’t turn out to be the last as there are many more.

The book is well-crafted, but the solution to the murder mystery is much less compelling than what is going on in Gamash’s life and his team.

Demon Copperhead

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by Barbara Kingsolver, 2022, Audiobook narrated by Charlie Thurston, HarperAudio 2.5 stars

I had high expectations for this book as it had won the Pulitzer Prize and it was being compared to Huck Finn and Catcher in the Rye. Although Kingsolver did a very good job characterizing Demon, I felt the book was somehow missing something. It touches on the hidden talent that Demon had as an artist, but it didn’t build on it. It also referenced the plight of the “hillbillies” of Appalachia but didn’t follow through on the topic. Finally, the book totally left out the struggles that Demon may have gone through to come clean of his drug addiction. So, in summary, I felt a bit cheated by what the book could have been and didn’t focus as much on what it actually was.

For these reasons, I can’t give this book a really high rating. I recall some of Kingsolver’s early books (Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees, and Pigs in Heaven) and I find them to be more pertinent.

Note that I hadn’t read David Copperfield, on which this book was apparently modeled. I did, however, read Great Expectations, which I found to be similar, but a much better work of fiction in my opinion.

The Brass Verdict

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The Lincoln Lawyer Series, Book 2, by Michael Connelly, 2008, Audiobook narrated by Peter Giles, Hachette Audio 3.5 stars

Usually the second book in a series isn’t quite as good as the first one. I didn’t find that to be the case. The book is about a high-roller movie producer who is accused of murdering his wife and lover. When the lawyer who is defending him is killed, Haller is called in as his replacement.

The book, like the first one, has a lot of detail and information about how the justice system works. There are a quite a few characters who are not totally on the up-and-up. Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, is also flawed, but not so much that you can’t root for him to succeed. He makes some mistakes and overlooks some obvious clues, but manages to recover just enough to bring his cases to a favorable outcome.

This book has a couple of twists at the end that I must admit I wasn’t expecting. Sometimes I can sense who the real perpetrator is, but in this novel I was completely surprised.

Peter Giles does a good job of narrating. He changes his voice just enough to differentiate one character from another.

The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

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by Buzz Bissinger, 2022, Harper 1.0 stars

This is possibly the worst book I have recently read. It attempts to portray the marines who played a game of football on Guadalcanal prior to fighting in the battle for Okinawa where many of them lost their lives.

The book is more of a tribute to those individuals and serves well as a memorial, but it is terrible reading. There is little information regarding the battle itself, but rather a play-by-play description of each of the marine’s death. The author also employs a great deal of the foul language that would have been used by the marines at the time, but it actually detracts from the narrative. I had a very hard time getting through the book and probably the best reward came when I was finally finished.

There were some passages in the book that were totally worthless. For example, there was a whole chapter on a scouting mission on Guadalcanal on which very little happened. There were also about three pages devoted to FDR’s recipe for a mint julip cocktail.

There was some information about John McLaughry who fought in and survived Okinawa. This was interesting to me as he was Brown University’s varsity football coach when I was a freshman and sophomore at Brown. Bissinger also highlighted the lives of some of the other football players of the time, but the detail was not very interesting.

This book was a Christmas present from my wife who had heard about it from some friends. Sorry to say, I didn’t enjoy it at all.

A Fatal Grace

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by Louise Penny, 2006, Audiobook narrated by Ralph Coshan released in 2014, Macmillan Audio 3.5 stars

This is the second Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Penny. He is called to investigate a new homicide that takes place at a curling match in a nearby town to Three Pines. The murder is by electrocution and it’s highly improbable. After many false starts, Gamache again is able to solve the crime.

While not quite as compelling as her first novel, the story is well crafted, and the characters are well done. The author always gives a hint at the end of the book regarding what is unfolding in the next book, so I think it’s important to read these in order.

Ralph Coshan continues to do an excellent job of narrating and the characters are portrayed very well.