by Ken Follett, 1989 This is an interesting book, and a quick read, about the building of a cathedral in medieval England. It is well researched and provided a lot of insight regarding how life was in those times. Follet was able to use his suspense writing talents to keep the action moving in what could have been a very slow-going effort. His characters also hold the reader’s interest although they tend to become a bit rigid at times. The end of the book seems to veer away from the focus on the local community where most of the book takes place to occurrences that take place far removed. While this change in focus keeps the action and suspense going, it detracts from the rest of the central theme, which is the building of the cathedral as the life work of the main characters. 
Endgame, 1945, The Missing Final Chapter of World War II
by David Safford, 2007, Little, Brown and Company, New York
This book is about the final few months of World War II, covering April of 1945 through June. To show the various events, the author uses the personal experiences of six individuals, ranging from an infantryman fighting his way up the Italian peninsula to a reilef worker arriving in Northern France. The events are drawn from interviews with the individuals as well as their diaries.
The book portrays the historical and military events that occured during this period interspersed with the personal events of the individuals. Some of the historical events covered are quite surprising, such as the fact that the local German government was left in place to run things for quite a few weeks after VE Day in such areas as Schleswig-Holstein and Holland until the allies were able to take control. Other information in the book such as Hitler’s death and the rounding up of the Nazi leaders has been told before but is interesting nonetheless.
The book’s treatment of the individual stories seems to lack focus, however. The historical events that are occuring during that period seem to overwhelm the individual stories in their significance and continually moving from one individual story to another seems to give the book a sense of choppiness.
Much of the material in the book, other than the individual stories, has no doubt been documented elsewhere, so I think the claim that this book represents the missing final chapter of World War II is a bit of a stretch. Overall, however, the book is worth reading. 
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy, Translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Wow! This one took me over four months to read. I wasn’t sure whether I would ever get through it. The issue wasn’t that it was so long; my primary problem was that I could only read about two or three pages before falling asleep.
Some individuals have stated that reading War and Peace totally changed their lives. In my case, I think the only change I have undergone is that I am one third of a year older and my estimation of the great Leo Tolstoy is somewhat diminished. I recall that I tried reading Anna Karinana when I was about 21 years old and made it about two-thirds of the way through it. I was somewhat ashamed that I never finished it. Now I think I can understand why.
Tolstoy puposely positioned War and Peace and neither a novel nor a history, nor even an historical novel. He states that he just wanted to write “the truth.” The problem lies in that he positioned the great events of 1812 against the lives of a some characters who seem like actors on the stage. They are not very engaging individuals and their roles in the book just don’t seem very important. In addition, they often seem to undergo major transformations as a result of a conversation or encounter with another individual or event. Tolstoy’s selection of characters seems pretty shallow as a result.
Tolstoy weaves his philosophy of limited free will throughout the book and the idea that individuals’ decisions don’t make much difference. A problem lies in the fact that he repeats these assertions over and over. The final epilogue is a dissertation on free will versus “necessity” (after the characters just fade from the scene) in which he repeats himself again and again as he argues his case. Boring, boring, boring, if not plainly absurd.
Well, I read it and now I can say I have accomplished this feat. I just wish I had gotten more out of it and had enjoyed it a heck of a lot more.
The Cat Who Went Up The Creek
by Lilian Jackson Braun, Read by George Guidall, 2002 by Lilian Jackson Braun, 2002 by Recorded Books, LLC
Since I am a cat person (we have three cats), I always wondered what these books were like. We had a long trip planned, so I went to the public library and picked up one of her audio books.
I can’t say much good about the book. The plot was basically a murder mystery, but he author meandered off with conversations with multiple characters who didn’t have much to do with the plot. As to a cat, the book had very little to do with the furry creature. I will not bother with another of her books.Â
The Bridesmaid
by Ruth Rendell, Read by Barbara Rosenblat
We listened to this recorded book on a long road trip. The writing is fairly decent and the characters are pretty well developed. The book is billed as a mystery, however, and its downfall is that it plods and plods along. It needs a shot of suspense. Also, the main character, Phillip, is very weak. There are times when one wonders if he is just plain stupid or what.
Bottom line, we probably won’t be doing future Ruth Rendell books.Â
No Country for Old Men
by Cormac McCarthy, 2006, Vintage International, New York
This book is a very quick read and it really moves along. There are a few places in the book, however, that are a bit hard to follow.
The villain of the book is the embodiment of evil, but we never get really close enough to understand how he got that way.
Everyman
by Phillip Roth, 2006, Recorded Books, LLC, read by George Guidall
This book is the story of a man who lived his life thinking he was doing all the right things, only to end up dying alone. The man suffered a great deal of health problems as he grew older.
The book raises many questions for the reader as to how people live their lives. I felt it was very depressing, however, and was relieved when it was done.Â
The Colorado Kid
by Stephen King, 2005, Audioworks (Simon & Shuster), read by Jeffrey DeMunn
This book was very pleasant to listen to. The characters are wonderful and the reading by Jeffrey DeMunn captures their Down-East Maine accents very well. Because the entire book is a tale that is spun through the dialogue of two old newspaper men and a young girl sitting over coffee, it is almost essential that it be listened to rather than read.
My only criticism is that the ending of the book is quite unfullfilling. Too bad, because I was looking for more.Â
Telegraph Days
by Larry McMurtry, 2006
I listened to this audiobook on a long, three-day trip from Florida to New England and that is the only reason I finished it. This effort by Larry McMurtry is feeble. It is an attempt to portray the life of Nellie Courtright, a supposedly beautiful, crafty, and brave female in the town of Rita Blanca starting in the year 1876. The book relates her adventures and her encounters with virtually every wild west character that one can imagine: Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickock, Billy the Kid, General William Sherman, the Earps, Jessie James, etc.
The primary problem with the book is that it is BORING. While I listened to it I found myself continually waiting for something at least a little bit interesting to happen. Instead, McMurtry managed to make even supposedly exciting events extraordinarily uninteresting.
I understand that Wallace Stegner was one of McMurtry’s teachers at Stanford. Wallace must have rolled over in his grave when this book was published. Stay away. 
Blame Us
I sent the following letter to the Naples Daily News (Florida) and it was published on April 12, 2008, except for the last sentence:
I am amazed at the misdirection of blame for the primary mess that has befallen Florida.
For example, The Naples Daily News published an editorial a few weeks ago implying that the Democratic National Committee is to blame for the disenfranchisement of Florida primary voters; and many articles and letters to the editors are of the same opinion.
I have another view of who caused the problem. We, the voters and citizens of Florida, are to blame. Through our elected senators and representatives (Republican and Democrat) who passed this bill, and our elected governor (Republican) who signed the bill, we moved the Florida primary from March where it rightfully belonged to January 29, 2008. Both the Republican and Democratic National Committees which, by law had the power to set the rules, had already established that a primary election on January 29 would lead to the disqualification of delegates. In the case of the Republican primary, it didn’t really matter because John McCain won the nomination by a wide margin. In the case of the Democratic primary, the action by our elected legislators and governor has resulted in the disenfranchisement of Florida voters.
The media has reported that some Florida legislators were “livid†and were “fulminating†about the DNC’s position. The media has given the true culprits a pass. They are, in fact, we the voters and our elected officials.
We should all take responsibility for the fact that we again blew it as we did in 2000. We should do this by rightfully pointing the blame at those legislators who supported this bill and the governor who signed it into law.