The Witch Elm: A Novel

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by Tana French, 2018, Audiobook narrated by Paul Nugent, 2018, Penguin Audio

This is a novel about a young man in Ireland who gets involved in a murder of one of his school mates.  The book starts out with a break-in to his apartment when he is severely injured.  The book seems to focus on his attempts to come to grips with what kind of person he is and has been in the past.

Unfortunately, the book is about two times as long as it needs to be.  Some of the conversations go on and on to the point where they are tedious.  One might argue that this is necessary to define and develop the characters, which it does, but at the expense of enjoying the novel.  The tone of the book is dark, and it keeps descending into that darkness right up to the end, which is horrific and totally destroyed my appreciation of the book.

The writing is decent and the narration is really good.  My advice to a reader, however, would be to put the book down and go on to something else before you get near the end. 2.0 stars

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice

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by Bill Browder, 2015, Simon & Shuster

I thought this was a very good book, well-written and informative.  There are some reviews on Amazon that fault the author for being self-absorbed.  This book is about him and his experience with Russian crooks, some of whom may have wanted to murder him.  I can easily understand why someone in his situation would be somewhat self-absorbed.

Anyway, this book confirmed my desire not to travel to or in Russia ever again.  When I made my short visit to St. Petersburg on a cruise a few years back, I observed how nobody seemed to smile or make eye contact.  Now I can understand why.  There are many other places in this world I haven’t visited yet where people are much happier.  With the time I have left, I won’t be wasting it on Russia ever again.

I thought the book was well written and well organized.  The only problem I had with it was that I sometimes had trouble keeping track of all the characters.  He might have done what Tolstoy did in  War and Peace, which was to include a cast of characters at the beginning of the book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in what goes on in Russia.4.5 stars

The Night Tiger

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by Yangsze Choo, 2019, Audiobook read by the author, Macmillan Audio

This is a story that takes about a young girl in Malaysia and an even younger boy whose paths cross in a number of ways. There is also a legend about a human who changes into a tiger and comes at night to attack people.

The story didn’t seem to be very interesting at first, but the author manages to keep the story going.  The characters are done well and the writing is excellent.  I ended up liking the book more than I thought I would.

3 stars

The Undoing Project

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by Michael Lewis, 2016, W. W. Norton & Company

This is the story of two Nobel-winning psychologists, Daniel (Danny) Kahneman and Amos Tversky, and their research into how humans make decisions.  It was an interesting book, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did reading Lewis’ other books.  The author didn’t, in my opinion, bring it all together to describe the impacts of their discoveries regarding human behavior.  Also, the book seemed to jump around chronologically, making it a little hard to understand.  Overall, an interesting book but not one that is outstanding.2 1/2 stars

The Lessons of History

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by Will and Ariel Durant, 1968, Simon and Schuster, New York

This is a wonderful 102 page book that the Durants published in 1968 after publishing their ten volume set,  The Story of Civilization beginning in 1944.  The book attempts (and succeeds very well) to summarize their findings from the ten volumes of history that they had worked on for over two decades.  I only read a bit of the ten volumes, but this single volume brings it all together.

The chapters are short but not necessarily easy to read as they delve into just about every aspect of our history.  They are generally positive about the progress of history, even though this book was written less than a quarter century after the second devastating world war of the nineteenth century.  One would think it would be difficult to remain that positive after witnessing the atrocities committed by our adversaries in World War II but they manage it well with certain caveats.

Also, the book was written prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union which helped to discredit communism as a viable economic model (although China has managed to retain a form of communism while, at the same time, modifying it to achieve economic growth).  One wonders about whether Will and Ariel would have commented any differently in their chapter on “Socialism and History”.

One of the benefits of reading this book and thinking about the implications of the long view of history is that it provided me a bit of context to what is going on in our current political cycle.  I have been amazed to see the attraction of presidential candidates who are moving to the far left as well as their level of support they seem to have. One of their observations in the book was that the more a society is democratic and individuals are given the freedom to do whatever they please, the more the concentration of wealth will accelerate.  This tendency, in turn will eventually result in a swing back to socialism as the population becomes less enamored with the situation.  This swing can sometimes be violent as it was in Europe in 1848 and in Russia in 1917.  There have been a few occasions where land reform and other redistribution programs managed to stem the movement and any resort to violence, but, sooner or later it seems, an incompetent leader manages to wreck the process and all hell breaks loose (Nero, Caligula, etc.).  These observations go a long way toward suggesting to me why so many presidential candidates are now appearing to swing so far toward socialism at the current time.

The last chapter is titled “Is Progress Real?”  Sometimes I wonder about this as it seems that some of the progress we have made as a civilized society is now slipping away.  The Durants suggest that this may be the case, but they also cite prior times in history when this occurred and it always seems that, somehow, some way, humanity bounces back and goes on to the next era of positive accomplishments.  If that is the case, maybe my grandchildren will be still able to experience a better world than the ours.5 stars

Prince of Tides

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by Pat Conroy, 1986

Our men’s book club chose this book for our March selection.  We previously did Conroy’s South of Broad so obviously someone on the selection committee likes Conroy.

This is the story of Tom Wingo who grew up in an abusive household in the lowlands of South Carolina with his sister, Savannah, and brother, Luke.  It also takes us to New York City where Savannah as an adult is hospitalized as a mental patient.

I found the book to be readable but overly long.  Conroy got very long-winded in some of the passages and the book could have been considerably shorter.  The book’s treatment of the subject of Savannah’s mental illness is fairly realistic although reading it in 2019 versus 1986 when it was written made it seem somewhat less compelling.  Luke also has some mental issues attributed to the abuse by his parents that he suffered while growing up.  There was no mention of PTSD even though he served as a SEAL in Viet Nam.  Tom, himself, is alternately hostile and compassionate.

The book certainly didn’t make me want to see the movie.  I also felt that I could have spent my time more productively reading something else. 3 1/2 stars

Fear: Trump in the White House

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by Bob Woodward, 2018, Simon & Shuster, New York

I was very disappointed in this book.  It is not much more than a recounting of conversations that occurred between Trump and his aides.  The book, although the events were chronological, jumped from topic to topic with no transition from one to the next and very little context.  It gives the appearance of being thrown together.

Another concern I have about the book is the author’s use of quoted conversations.  Woodward obviously wasn’t there during these conversations.  Did he obtain them from recordings or were they recounted by individuals who were there.  I have read some books that purported to be historical that used quotations to reconstruct conversations that most likely took place, and didn’t much care for this approach.  Unless a conversation was actually recorded in some way, quotes should be avoided, even if the quote purports to capture the tone and essence of the conversation.

While I didn’t appreciate how the book was written, if ten per cent of content of the conversations that were depicted is actually true, we are in big trouble as they show a person who has no capability for actually running a government.  I had a strong sense before I read this that Trump is a very poor manager of people.  The book reinforces that feeling but I am now convinced that he is probably the worst boss on the face of the earth.

2 1/2 stars

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

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by John Carreyrou, 2018, Knopf

This, in my opinion, is a great book.  The narrative is mostly chronological (as well as logical) and the author introduces new characters well.  In addition, his sentence structure and language usage is very good.  I don’t think there was a moment while I was reading it that I had to go back and reread or ponder on what I had just read (other than when falling asleep in bed while reading at night).  This, to me, is the mark of good writing.

The story itself and the person of Elizabeth Holmes made me angry while reading the book.  The sheer arrogance of this individual and the real and potential damage and danger she was wreaking made me want to scream.  One can only hope that she is convicted of her crimes and pays the price for her transgressions.

I also hope that the individuals she fooled learned something from the experience.  There seems always that another fraudster will come along to foist something on unsuspecting victims, however.  5 stars

An American Marriage: A Novel

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by Tayari Jones, Audiobook narrated by Sean Crisden and Elsa Davis, 2018, Highbridge, a division of Recorded Books

This is a novel about a black couple and their marriage which fell apart after the man was incarcerated for a rape he didn’t commit.  While in prison he discovers that his cellmate is his real father.

While the story line is compelling, I, for some reason, didn’t get into it as much as I would have liked.  It seemed to drag on in much of it and I found myself getting impatient with it. The book has had rave reviews and is an Oprah’s book club selection.  The readers were okay but I wonder if I would have enjoyed reading the book better than listening to it. 3 stars

April 1865

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by Jay Winek, 2001, Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., New York

This was a great book to read, primarily because the author used, in his own words, “vivid writing.” I’m not sure what he meant by this, but his prose is elegant and has an element that I would call “continuing.” As I was reading I would get a sense early in each sentence where the rest of the sentence was going to end up. This sense contrasts with some of the worst prose I have ever read which was in the book Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Shiff. In that particular book I found myself rewriting each sentence and paragraph in my mind so that my brain could absorb the content. It was a gruesome, painful experience that I would not recommend to my worst enemy. No problem here with this book. My mind would race ahead as I was reading, absorbing each thought as I went. I assume the author had spent some time with Funk and Wagnells’ Elements of Style. Perhaps the author’s prior experience as a journalist helped form his excellent writing style.

As for the content of this book, it is built on the premise that extraordinary things occurred in the month of April, 1865, at Appomattox and after Lincoln’s assassination that helped preserve our country and actually helped create a sense of nationhood versus statehood for the first time. Prior to reading this book I didn’t have much knowledge of the these events and appreciated being educated somewhat on what occurred. I always thought the war was over with Lee’s surrender but was not aware that the war continued for almost another month afterwards. I was also not aware that Lee and General Joe Johnston disobeyed the directive of Jefferson Davis to fight on when they decided to surrender.

One thing that I took away from reading the book was an appreciation for some of the Confederate generals for their decision to surrender and avoid additional bloodshed had they decided instead to continue fighting a guerrilla war. For their enlightened decisions in that regard I now think that statues of certain Confederate generals should be allowed to stand. Lee, for one, certainly made a bad, but understandable, decision to fight for the South. On the other hand, his horror directed at the crime of Lincoln’s assassination, and his counsel to fellow Southerners to put down their arms and become good citizens of the United States, certainly should put him in good regard in history. Other individuals, such as Nathan Bedford Forrest who fought bravely but went on to become the head of the Ku Klux Klan, should never have received the honors that followed the war. (There was even an elementary school in Tampa, Florida, that once was named after Forrest.)

I believe the author was a bit too biased in favor of the South in the book, but other that that, I felt the book was extremely readable, put forth a reasonable premise, and contained a great amount of historical insight.