by Ann Napolitano, 2020, Audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Random House Audio
This is a story about a young boy who is the only survivor of a commercial plane crash.
I had to get used to the way the book is constructed as most of it jumps between the events happening on the plane and later, when Edward is coping with his situation and loss.
The characters are well developed and the story is good. The narration is excellent.
by Marie Benedict, 2019, Sourcebooks Landmark
This is a novel about Hedy Lamarr and how she came to invent a method to transmit directions to torpedoes in WWII.
I enjoyed reading this because it was written in the first person. In this way the author allows the reader to believe that the story is being told by Hedy Lamarr herself. It is actually all fiction, but it is believable.
The story ends abruptly, however, without any information regarding what happens to Hedy Lamarr in her later life. I believe the author owed it to the reader to provide an epilogue to the story. Also, the book was somewhat repetitious toward the end. It almost seemed as if it ran out of gas. 
by Fredrik Backman, 2015, Narrated by Joan Walker, Simon and Schuster Audio
This is a story about a girl whose grandmother dies from cancer. She was very close to her grandmother but didn’t know a lot about her grandmother’s early years. She then finds that her grandmother has left apology notes with various individuals.
The author does a nice job with the characters and the dialogue in this novel, but the plot didn’t have enough substance to hold my interest. It’s a nice story, but a little boring.
The narrator is excellent but she sometimes dropped her voice so low that she was hard to understand. When I turned the volume up to hear and she returned to her normal voice, I then had to turn it back down. This situation was perhaps exacerbated because we listened to it in a car travelling 75 miles per hour.
by Robert Ludlum, 2002, Audiobook narrated by Paul Michael, Macmillan Audio
This is a fast-paced thriller that provides a number of plot twists. The story is about a world philanthropist who is abducted and Paul Janson is asked to rescue him. Things are not, however, what they seem.
The book is easy to listen to and entertaining. Ludlum includes a lot of psychological background of Paul Janson in addition to his heroics. Sometimes the background flashbacks detract from the story line, but not so that it infringes too much.
Paul Michael does a nice job of narration. The voices are very well done. 
by Stuart Woods, 2005, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
It starts out well and I thought it would be entertaining but, unfortunately, it dissolves to a rather disjointed and uninteresting conclusion. The characters are okay but the plot falls apart and it doesn’t really generate any suspense.
I believe this is the second Stuart Woods book I have read and they both were disappointing.
by Kenneth R. Miller, 1999, Harper Perennial, New York
Ken is a professor of cell biology at Brown University who is known for his defense of the science of evolution against the attempts to teach creationism and/or intelligent design in the schools’ science curriculum. He is also a practicing Roman Catholic.
In this book, he articulates both the flaws of alternate evolution theories as well as his faith in God as a scientist. Ken’s prose is vigorous and to the point.
In describing the basis of his faith he indicates that there are certain things that occur randomly and hence the outcome is unknowable and unpredictable. He cites quantum physics as the basis of this evidence. Because of the randomness of individual events, there are certain things that science can never tell us, such as the how the matter in the universe came to be. To Miller, this is a key element of his faith.
What is interesting is that, after taking apart all arguments in favor of intelligent design (a theory that states that there must be a designer who designed complex organisms – or at least directed the development of those organisms), Miller suggests that there may be an intelligent presence who created the scientific laws of the universe. This seems to me to be like some sort of intelligent design, but when questioned about it, he says he is okay with it because it can never be proven or disproven, unlike the concept of an intelligent designer who is supposedly responsible for designing the end product. In the latter case, the science of evolution again and again disproves it.
Miller also attributes some of the attacks that evolution receives from various sources on some of the scientific community itself. His religious beliefs are totally compatible with science and he feels that those who point to scientific discoveries as proof that God does not exist are actually doing harm to the study of evolution. As in the title of the book, he feels that there is much common ground between God and Evolution.
The book is extremely well written in the conversational style that Miller probably employs in his lectures. He is an extremely popular professor and his style is engaging while, at the same time, challenging. The concepts discussed are not simple, but the author makes the reading interesting and, in some cases, entertaining.
by Timothy Egan, 2016, Kindle Edition, Mariner Books
I don’t know what to think about this book. It was somewhat interesting and had a lot of information about Thomas Meagher and his exploits, but didn’t really grab my attention as it should have. The book was well researched but seemed to just get into it and then bounced to another subject or venue. I thought it was pretty well written and covered the life of a fascinating individual who initiated a uprising in Ireland in 1948, was sent to a penal colony in Tasmania, fought in the U.S. Civil was as a Union general, and eventually became the governor of the Montana territory, but somehow didn’t quite get there. I suspect that many others would read this book and think more highly of it and I wish I could too, but it just didn’t happen.Â
by Erik Larson, 2020, Crown, sold by Random House
This book basically highlights the first year of Winston Churchill’s rule as prime minister from May of 1941. Like Larson’s other books, he contrasts what is going on in one venue versus another, this time contrasting Churchill’s world in England with Hitler’s in Germany.
The book focuses on the personal lives of Churchill, his family, and his closest advisors and aides. Much of the information is derived from personal diaries and other written sources from that time. On the other hand, Larson doesn’t glean as much information from those sources in Germany and, therefore, the comparison between the two individual’s is heavily weighted toward what went on in Churchill’s world.
While the book was somewhat interesting, it didn’t really grab me. There are a lot of passages that were pretty mundane such as John Colville’s pursuit of his girlfriend who had little romantic interest in him. These were taken from previously unpublished sections of his diary and really don’t add much in my opinion.
I had previously read Citizens of London by Lynne Olson which was about Averell Harriman, Edward R. Murrow, and John Winant and their experiences in London during the war. This book also had quite a bit of information about their connections to the Churchill family, but I thought the book was much more compelling than Larson’s book.Â
by Edward Rutherfurd, 2009, Audiobook narrated by Mark Bramhall, Random House Audio
This book is a long one (30 CD’s of audiobook) that traces the history of New York from it’s founding until 2009 through one family and its descendants. It’ very similar to the historical novels of Ken Follett but I think Rutherfurd does a better job of developing his characters. Follett’s tend to be stereotypes, either good or bad individuals, and don’t seem to change over time. Some of Rutherfurd’s characters, although often prejudiced and flawed, seem to change over time to be better individuals as they age.
I had forgotten how many crises and riots (Civil War draft riot, 1965, 1977) that New York had endured. Since the novel ended in 2009, it had not yet experienced the corona virus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter riots and looting of 2020. Perhaps Rutherfurd will have to write another epilogue for another edition to include the latest?
While I enjoyed listening to the book, and I think that Mark Bramhall did an excellent job of narrating, I was glad when I had finished. The book at times seems never ending, although as I mentioned in the last paragraph, history just keeps rolling along.
by Adam Higginbotham, 2019, Simon & Schuster
Excellent book although somewhat difficult to digest due to all the individual characters involved and their Russian names which make it hard to follow. I was not aware of the causes of the disaster nor the extent of the response that the USSR initiated to contain the disaster.
The main thing I learned from the book is the impact that the Chernobyl disaster had in accelerating the downfall of the Soviet Union. The economy was already reeling from the mismanagement of the agricultural sector and the arms race with the U.S., but it appears that the Chernobyl disaster was the nail in the coffin due to the extraordinary expense and other resources that had to be allocated to cleaning up the disaster.
The other main aspect of the disaster was the uncovering of the flaws in the government’s peacetime nuclear power program. Rather than being the greatest scientific program ever developed as was asserted by the USSR, the design of the plant was extremely dangerous. The government was reluctant to admit to these flaws and also attempted to cover up the extent of the release of radioactivity. Once the truth began to be exposed, it further discredited the government which also contributed to the eventual collapse of the USSR.
The book certainly isn’t very enjoyable to read, but the message it provides is meaningful. 