Rasputin’s Daughter

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by Robert Alexander, 2006, Viking, The Penguin Group, New York

This story is about Rasputin and his assassination, told from the perspective of his daughter.  The author does a pretty good job of telling the story and what it must have been like witnessing her father’s actions and ultimate death.  The story seems a bit fanciful, however, and I, as the reader, sometimes wondered how much of it could have been true.  It appears that the author did a great deal of research, but also had to fill in the blanks himself much of the time.

I would classify this book as an interesting read, but not spellbinding by any means.3 stars

The Sellout, How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System

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by Charles Gasparino, 2009, Harper Business, New York

This book (lent to me by one of our friends in Florida) portrays the steps that led to the financial meltdown in the fall of 2008.  The tale is pretty fascinating as it traces the development of the original mortgage-backed securities back in the 1980’s to the crisis in the financial system they eventually caused.  The causes of the crisis, however, are complex and there is plenty of individuals who must share the blame.  What started out as a valid strategy using perfectly sound investment instruments eventually became what is now known as “toxic assets”.  How did this all happen?

Gasparino traces the greed and poor decisions of Wall Street executives, compounded by a well-meaning, but misplaced government policy (home ownership for everybody as a way to climb the economic ladder), that led to the meltdown.  What was surprising to me is that the big meltdown was preceded by many similar, but smaller meltdowns that seemed to occur with the Wall Street firms every few years.  As Gasparino cited the many instances of over leverage and poor decisions over the decades, the line from the song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, kept coming to mind: “When will they ever learn?”

In October of 2008 we were in Europe on a Danube River cruise.  I recall watching the TV at night as the meltdown went global.  This book, along with those memories, continue to remind me just how bad the situation was and how close we came to going into a deep depression, the likes of which we had never experienced.  I often wonder how there can be so many vocal critics of the “TARP” program, the bailouts, and the subsequent stimulus program.  There can be no question that some of these steps managed to avert a total meltdown.

I took over two months to read this book and it was tough read for me, not because of the actual writing, but, I think, due to the subject material.  It was just hard to read so much bad information and about such stupidity that led us into this situation.  If I had one criticism of the book, I would say that it was somewhat repetitive.  I felt as if I had already read some of the information several times before I finished the book.  Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest as to what caused the collapse of our financial systems.four stars

WordPress Custom Field List Widget

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I would just like to thank Tim Berger for the work he has done on the WordPress plugin to enable sorting and quick retrieval of posts using custom fields.  WordPress has the capability for creating custom fields and entering the appropriate data into those fields for each post.  The difficulty is in finding a way to easily utilize that information to find and retrieve various posts.  Tim’s plugin allows the use of widgets to easily accomplish this task.  Without this additional capability, it is difficult to recommend the use of WordPress as a full content management system.  With this plugin, WordPress can easily be used for that purpose.

Way to go Tim!

American Gospel, God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation

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by Jon Meacham, 2007, read by Grover Gardiner, Random House Audiobook.

I got this audiobook from the library last fall to listen to in the car when we made our annual trip to Florida from Rhode Island.  I finally got around to finishing it.  I downloaded it onto my MP3 player and I listen to it while I walk.  The reason it took so long to listen to it is that I haven’t been doing a very good job of keeping up with my walking.  I will strive to do better in the future.

I was pretty harsh in my assessment of Meacham’s book on Andrew Jackson (Review), but he does a pretty good job on this one.  He apparently spends a lot of time observing the American scene and those observations on current religious practice and tone, coupled with his research on American religion, ring fairly true.  His contention is that we do have a “public” religion in the United States that is a part of the fabric of American society and that it is essentially a good thing.  Furthermore, despite the concept of separation of church and state, it is not about to go away.  On the other hand, this public religion is a very watered down kind of religion and is definately not the kind of religion that evangelical Christians would like to impose on our government and schools.

Meacham walks us through the use of religion throughout our history to provide some perspective on this view of religion in the public sector.  The examples he cites are interesting, even though the points that he makes seem to be a bit obvious.  I left the book thinking that if only more individuals would accept the premises that he outlines and not attempt to take it further, we would certainly have a much more tolerant society than that which we seem to encounter these days.  Some persons feel that Christianity is under attack in our country and their response seems to be to try to insert it into our government and schools.  Meacham makes the case that a form of public religion exists in our government institutions and has been there from the inception of our republic.  In his view, there isn’t much need to extend it further.

As I mentioned above, the book sometimes seems to state the obvious, but it is interesting nonetheless.  3 1/2 stars

The Lacuna

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by Barbara Kingsolver, 2009, HarperCollins Publishers, New York

I was disappointed in the format of this book as it reads as a collection of journal pages, letters, and other assorted excerpts from the life of an individual.  Because of this format, the novel lacks the flow of Kingsolver’s previous novels as well as her incredible prose style.  Despite these shortcomings, the book has merit … but not the high praise that her other books attract.

The book is the story of Harrison Shepard and his life as told through his journals, letters, and the writings of his close friend and stenographer, Mrs. Violet Brown.  The story starts in Mexico where he is living with his mother, a native-born Mexican.  The story migrates back to the Washington, D.C., area where he is in boarding school.  He then travels back to Mexico where he becomes Leon Trotsky’s cook and secretary and friends of the painters, Diego and Frieda Rivera.  He then returns to the U.S. where he writes some very successful novels about the struggles of the Aztecs against the Spanish conquistitor, Cortez.

Shepard is then accused of being a Communist and is summoned to appear in his own defense before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The novel presents the Red Scare of the early 1950’s in vivid, if somewhat heavy-handed detail.  On reading this part of the book, it caused me to ponder the current hysteria targeting socialism.  While nobody has been indicted or executed for his or her socialist viewpoints and the hysteria is evidenced primarily by the party that is out of power, the level of acrimony seems to be rising.  Could we, perhaps, be on our way back to the mentality of the 50’s?

While this book is not as enjoyable to read as her previous novels were, it is, nevertheless, worthwhile if you can stick with it.3 stars

Southern Exposure, A Solo Sea Kayaking Journey Around New Zealand’s South Island

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by Chris Duff, 2003, The Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, CT

I was interesting in reading this, not because I am a kayaker, but because my son who is gave me the book to read.  Also, I spent a considerable amount of time on the South Island of New Zealand back in the 70’s.

The book proved to be worthwhile, although a little bit slow in places (somewhat like paddling).  The parts I found the most interesting were those that had to do with encountering the people in New Zealand.  These individuals who lived in remote places around the island invariably had stories to tell and Chris Duff did a good job retelling them.

The author was obviously looking for a deeper meaning to this endeavor.  When he got into that aspect the book became less interesting.  I did, however, develop a great deal of respect for his resolve to keep going, even after he wrecked his boat.  I guess I developed some of the same resolve to keep reading, even when the going was a bit tough.3 1/2 stars

The Book Thief

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by Markus Zusak, 2005, Alfred A. Knopf, New York

Very interesting book about a German family in WWII.  The narrator of the book is Death and he has a sense of humor and a personality.  This approach reminds me a bit of C.S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters,  where the devil was the narrator.

The characters in the book were also interesting but perhaps not as fully developed as they might have been.  Also, I wish the book had tied in a bit more with the progression of the war.  Stalingrad and the effects it had on the neighbors who lived next door was incorporated, but the realization that the Germans were losing the war didn’t seem to enter the novel.

Despite some shortcomings, this is a worthwhile book to read. four stars

Teacher Man

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by Frank McCourt, 2005, Performed by the Author, 2005, Simon and Schuster Audio

This book focuses on the author’s many years of teaching in New York schools.  There are many interesting stories with flashbacks to his childhood growing up in Limerick, Ireland.  Some of the stories of Ireland, I believe, had already been told in Angela’s Ashes.

The narration of the book is definitely a plus.  Having the author tell his own story in his own dialect really added to the effect.  The book, however, did not have nearly the impact that Angela’s Ashes had.   McCourt seems a bit tired as he reads his final book.  Nonetheless, the  book is worthwhile due to the human elements contained in his reminiscences. 2 1/2 stars

Hot Mahogany

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A Stone Barrington Novel, by Stuart Woods, 2008, Read by Tony Roberts, 2008, Penguin Audio

I listened to this in the car on the way to Florida this October.  I don’t have much to recommend it other than it passed the time.  The characters were not particularly interesting and the plot was dull.  The story involved antique furniture, so if you like that sort of thing, you might find it interesting. two stars

The Hour I First Believed

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 by Wally Lamb, 2008, HarperCollins Books, New York

This is a book about a married couple who were employed as a teacher and a school nurse at Columbine High School when the massacre occurred.  It focuses on the trauma it caused and their attempts to return to a normal existence after the event.

I enjoyed reading the book but thought that Lamb meandered into the main character’s family history a bit too much.  I had a hard time tying all that history into the current situation.  The book could have been a bit shorter and it could have been more compelling. three stars