by Daniel Silva, 2004, audiobook read by John Lee, Books on Tape
This is a pretty good book about tracking down a Nazi war criminal in Vienna who has a connection to a right-wing politician who is running for the office of the Austrian Prime Minister. The plot is believable for the most part and keeps moving throughout the book.  The characters are well done. The reader did a good job as well.
by Tom Brokaw, 2007, Random House, Inc., New York
I first encountered this book at a lecture given by Tom Brokaw at Brown University probably back in 2008. His latest book, Boom! was the topic of the lecture. During the first half of the lecture Brokaw reviewed the events of 1968 one by one. I was then in my junior year at Brown so Brokaw’s retelling of the events was as if I was reliving them. I couldn’t believe how the impact of this part of the lecture was so raw and emotional for me.
Brokaw then, in the second half of the lecture, related how the events of the sixties were impacting the political and cultural world of 2008. At the end of the lecture I had the opportunity to buy the book and, as Brokaw signed the book, I told him about our graduation experience at Brown when we turned our backs on our commencement speaker, Henry Kissinger. Tom Brokaw said he hadn’t been aware of that incident.
After the lecture, which I attended with my son, Peter, and his future wife, Erika, we went to dinner. When I asked them what they thought of the lecture, they said the first part (the revisiting of the events of 1968) didn’t have much interest for them. The second half they found somewhat interesting, however. It was then that I realized how much difference a generation can make in how the events of history are perceived.
I took the book home, and I didn’t pick it up again until this year. Because it was written almost nine years ago, it is somewhat dated. Barack Obama was just starting to pick up momentum in his first campaign for the presidency. Hillary Clinton was still the frontrunner. Brokaw decries the hard divisions that existed between the right and left, but was expressing some hope that we could come together and begin solving some of the pressing problems of our country and the world. After eight years of one of the most divisive presidencies ever, I wonder how he would view our situation today.
The book provides some interesting vignettes of some of the major players in the sixties and their current thoughts and perspectives on those times and the issues and how they evolved. Because of my interest in that era, I thought that most of them were quite interesting to me. I doubt, however, that my son or daughter-in-law would find them quite as interesting. Brokaw also provides much of his own experiences in meeting those individuals back then and his thoughts and perspectives.
Where the book fails, I think, is that the author didn’t do a very good job of tying things together at the end. In the final chapter, where he had a chance to really delve into the issues and provide his final thoughts, he continues to focus on some additional individuals. By the time I got to this point, I was ready for him to wrap it up rather than bring more people into the spotlight. I was a little disappointed that he left it hanging as much as he did.
It was an interesting read for me and brought back many memories. In addition, it provided some information about some of the individuals who were front and center during those times. I would, however, have liked the author to bring it together a bit more at the end. It would be nice if Tom Brokaw would be willing to author a short afterword to bring us up to date on where the world has moved since he wrote the book.
by Brian Kilmead and Don Yaeger, 2015, Random House, New York
This is a quick book to read and it is done pretty well. The authors keep it moving so the reader never gets bogged down. It tells the story of the first Barbary Pirate War and the actions that took place. The book also makes reference to the second Barbary Pirate War that was conducted later by President Madison.
The book was of interest to me as I didn’t know much about what transpired during this war. The authors also did a good job of capturing the importance of this war to the United States.
by Anthony Doerr, 2014. Scribner, New York
This book, about a young blind girl and a German boy genius whose paths cross in WWII, starts a bit slow and seems a little disjointed in the beginning, but it really comes together in the end.
The author utilizes very short chapters that alternate back and forth between the blind girl and the German boy. I found that it took a little getting used to, but this technique really adds to the overall book. 
by Chris DeRose, 2014, Lyons Press, Guilford Connecticut
This was a very interesting book for me to read as it had a wealth of information about the five former presidents who were alive when the Civil War began.  I didn’t know much at all about these presidents, much less about their support or lack of it for Lincoln’s efforts to prosecute the war.
The efforts of the former presidents during the war varied from mild support (Martin Van Buran, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan) to vigorous opposition via promotion of slavery (Franklin Pierce), to outright treason and engagement in the Confederacy (John Tyler). None of the former presidents gave their whole-hearted support to the northern cause, however.
As I read the book I thought of our current president and the silence that George W. Bush has maintained since he left office. With the exception of a bit of politicking on behalf of his brother’s failed presidential campaign, George W. Bush has been fairly silent on the issues. After reading this book, it appears that this may be the sensible course. The president has a job to attend to and it appears that the efforts of the five former presidents prior to and during Lincoln’s term probably did more harm than good.
I would recommend this book to anyone having an interest in reading about some little-known history during that time period.
by Ian McEwan, 2014, Penguin Random House, New York
This book is about a woman judge in England who must rule whether a young boy should be forced to undergo a blood transfusion to save his life, despite the religious objections of his parents and the boy himself. The state argues that the boy has been brainwashed by his religious teaching and his parents. The parents and the boy argue otherwise.
The author focuses on the anguish that the judge undergoes in making a decision, but the book is also about her as a person and how wrapped up she is in her work and career. It makes for an interesting scenario, but, unfortunately, the ending of the book seems very incomplete. I enjoyed reading it but it left me feeling very unfulfilled.
by Barry Strauss, 2015, Simon & Schuster, New York
This book was our men’s book club selection for March.
Perhaps this book is more enjoyable to those with a greater interest in ancient history, but I think that one of my difficulties in staying with it has more to do with the author’s failure to relate the assassination of Caesar to larger, overarching themes in history. Strauss does go into a brief discussion of the chaos that followed immediately after Caesar’s murder, but he doesn’t offer many clues as to what was the actual significance of the act in terms of world history. What if Caesar had died of natural causes? Would the same result have occurred or would there have been another probable outcome?
Another difficulty of the book for me is the attempt to capture the personalities of the individuals involved when there is such scant evidence remaining (with the possible exception of Cicero, whose voluminous writings give us a pretty good picture of the man). To me, most of these individuals remain mere shadows of the men and women they once were.
I think I had the same problem when I read the book, Cleopatra, and found that most of the information presented was supposition on the part of the author (which is understandable given the few scraps of evidence remaining). I just can’t seem to get my arms around these figures of history as individual personalities, despite these authors’ attempts to portray them as living, breathing human beings. This is probably my issue as many readers seem to enjoy these portrayals, but I am much more comfortable with biographies and histories written about more recent persons and events.
The book seemed well researched and I learned some things about how the assassination transpired, but I had a hard time sticking with it.
by David Mitchell, audiobook narrated by Jonathan Aris and Paula Wilcox, 2010, Recorded Books
This is a story about a clerk in the employ of the Dutch East India company in about 1800 and his experiences in Dejima, Japan. The book is very interesting as it characterizes the relationships between the Dutch merchants and the xenophobic Japanese. It also depicts the corruption and contempt of the Europeans toward their Japanese counterparts.
The book was narrated very well and it was enjoyable to listen to.
by David McCullough, 2015, Simon and Schuster, New York
I thought this book was interesting, primarily because I didn’t know that much about the Wright brothers, even though I had made one visit to Kitty Hawk. McCullough, as usual in his books, provides a lot of information about the capabilities, personalities, and idiosyncrasies of his primary characters, in this case Wilbur and Orville Wright and their sister, Katharine.
My reaction to the book is that it certainly isn’t McCullough’s best effort. He accurately depicts the lead up to the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, but the rest of the book seems like a catalog of the various rewards and accolades the Wrights received afterward. From 1903 to 1910 the Wrights must have made significant advances in the technology of flight, but McCullough only mentions these in passing. The book would have benefited greatly from a collaboration with an aeronautical expert. McCullough apparently is not one of those as he describes only the duration of the flights, sometimes the altitude, and who of note was in the audience. The first flight was only twelve seconds and, by 1910, the Wright brothers were able to fly for over an hour. Much of the improvement was due to their additional experience in flying, but certainly their ingenuity must have led to technological advances that they applied to each iteration of their aircraft. McCullough mentions some increases in horsepower of the subsequent engines, but not much more.
I was intrigued on my visit to the Edison museum with the advances in design and technology that Edison applied to each succeeding of his phonographs. The Wright brothers essentially invented the first powered aircraft and also learned how to fly it. I would be interested in knowing more about how they improved upon it over the years following.
Also of interest might have been the lineage of the Wright Company and the fact that it subsequently became a part of the Curtiss-Wright Company, a company that survives today. McCullough mentions the Wright brothers’ rivalry with Glenn Curtiss during the early years of powered flight. It seems ironic that the two companies later became part of one company.
I very much enjoyed reading this book. I think it would have been much better, however, if the author had provided some additional information about what was developed after the initial flight.
by Nelson DeMille, 2006, Warner Books, New York
This is a novel about a retired NYC police detective working for an anti-terrorist group within the FBI after 911. His wife also works for the FBI and is officially his supervisor.  It takes place in the Adirondacks.
The plot is interesting, although somewhat of a stretch. John Corey, the main character, is a bold, wise-cracking individual who, I think, may have a personality similar to that of DeMille.
The novel suffers a bit from a little too much dialogue with the villain, which sometimes slows down the action so that the books tends to drag in places. While the bantering and jokes are fun, it can get a bit wearing at times. Otherwise, the book was OK.