Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment

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by Allen Guelzo, 2024, Audiobook narrated by Justin Price 4.5 stars

Let me first say that I am a big fan of Allen Guelzo. He has an astounding grasp of historical facts and concepts. I viewed his online Great Courses course, Our Founding Fathers, and learned so much about the writing of our constitution. I then decided to read this book.

The book begins with an overview of the concepts of democracy in the United States. He then outlines Lincoln’s views on democracy, but then he also describes his views on slavery, religion, and race.

Overall, I think the book is very balanced. The author describes Lincoln’s qualities as well as his failings using many quotations from individuals who knew and dealt with Lincoln. Guelzo also explores the lasting impacts of Lincoln’s views, policies, and accomplishments and speculates somewhat on what would have happened if Lincoln had not been assassinated and completed his second term as president.

I was hoping that the author, Allen Guelzo, would also be the narrator as his presentation in the online course was so good. That didn’t turn out to be the case, but Justin Price did an outstanding job. He seemed to capture the import and mood of the text very well.

While the book may not appeal to a reader who doesn’t have a deep interest in history, I enjoyed it, and it gave me some different perspectives on Lincoln and the times he lived in. I would have rated it even higher, but reading history has a tendency to be dry and, no matter how well done, it doesn’t compare to the excitement of reading a good crime novel.

After Annie

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by Anna Quindlen, 2024, Audiobook narrated by Gilli Messer, Random House Audio 2.5 stars

The story is about a family consisting of a father, mother, and four children when the mother suddenly dies in front of them from a brain aneurism. The loss of Annie is devasting to the family and her friend, Ann Marie.

While the book effectively captures the impact of Annie’s loss to the family and other individuals, there seems to be a lot of repetition which keeps it from being a much better book.

The House on Biscayne Bay

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The House on Biscayne Bay, by Chanel Cleeton, 2024, Berkely Books 2.5 stars

I have mixed thoughts about this book. It is a mystery that takes place over two time periods, one in the 1920’s and the other in 1942. There are two couples who this house. The first owner built the house and then threw a huge party to celebrate, but a woman falls into the bay and drowns at the party. The house then fell into disrepair until the second couple buy it and renovate it. The wife of the second owner is then murdered.

The plot is interesting and there is a twist at the end which I should have figured out but didn’t. The book tends to bog down a bit at times but is easy to read. The author manages to keep the reader in suspense as things are not what they seem to be.

The author needs to retake some English courses as she frequently makes errors in the correct use of pronouns, subjunctive voice, and gerunds. I may be pointing my finger at the wrong culprit, however, as an editor should have caught these grammatical errors before publication. Maybe instead of boning up on English grammar, the author should get a new editor.

Catch Me: Detective D. D. Warren, Book 6

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by Lisa Gardner, 2012, Audiobook narrated by Kirsten Potter, Brilliance Audio 2.5 stars

This book has a great plot and theme. It’s about a woman whose two best friends are killed exactly one year apart. The woman thinks she is next the following year. Detective D. D. Warren must find the killer before another murder is committed. The characters are well done also, but the action passages are not. There are sequences where bullets are flying at close range and one of the individuals who is present is calmly explaining the family history. Inserting this at the critical point detracts from the overall story.

The narration is fine with some passages somewhat tedious, but otherwise okay.

Slow Horses

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by Mick Herron, 2010, Soho Press, New York 3.5 stars

This book was enjoyable, but it was a bit hard to follow at first. There are a lot of references to British things and persons that I’m not familiar with. Also, the author throws the reader into a situation that is, at first, hard to understand.

The plot centers around a building called Slough House which is a building on the outskirts of London where the MI5 service sends its agents who have committed some kind of error in their careers. The novel starts in the middle of a situation where River Cartwright is chasing a suspected terrorist at a train platform. Once he captures the suspect, he realizes that he was chasing the wrong person and then a bomb goes off killing several innocent bystanders. This is the mistake that sends him to Sough House. The agents who inhabit Slough House are called Slow Horses because their capabilities are viewed as less than adequate.

The plot then centers around the activities of the agents in Slough House. Things are not what they seem to be, and the real story gradually comes to light.

Once I got used to the author’s style and sorted out the various characters, I enjoyed reading the book. It is quite different from anything about MI5 portrayed in a James Bond novel as these agents tend to be real slugs rather than a polished agent like 007.

The ending left with some unanswered questions, so I assume the answers will be revealed in subsequent novels in the series.

The Lion Women of Tehran

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by Marjan Kamali, 2024, Gallery Books4.5 stars

My wife and several women in our community read this book and said it was very good. I decided to give it a try and thought it might be okay, but that it was probably a typical book about some strong females overcoming adversity. It definitely is about that, but it is so much better than I imagined.

The book chronicles the lives of two women growing up and living in Tehran, first during the rule of the Shah and then, later, during the right-wing Islamist regime. One of the women is poor and totally a rebel while the other is more attuned to fitting in and enjoying the perks of being wealthy. Despite their differing outlooks, they become fast friends throughout their lives, even though they experience betrayals.

Why did I like this book so much? First of all, I loved the characters. The author makes them extremely accessible and easy to relate to. Secondly, it was interesting to see their differing experiences and reactions to what was taking place in Iran during this period. Thirdly, there was something that I can’t even explain that almost brought me to tears at the end of the book. Not many books can do that, but this one really did.

I highly recommend this book, even to old, crusty males like me.

The Chemist

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by Stephenie Meyer, 2016, Audiobook narrated by Ellen Archer, Hachette Audio 1.5 stars

When I started reading this book, I thought it looked promising. It’s about a woman (called Alex for most of the book) who is working for a government agency developing chemicals to be used to torture terrorist suspects to reveal their information. She also administers the chemicals and is always successful in breaking the suspects.

Alex is on the run from her former employers because the government agents have killed her lab partner and are also trying to kill her. The reasons behind this are obscure until later in the book, but she captures a man named Daniel who supposedly has a virus that he plans to unleash on the American population. After torturing Daniel with chemicals for some time, she discovers that he isn’t really a terrorist, and she subsequently falls in love with him. He has a brother Kevin, a former CIA agent who was thought to be dead. Kevin tries to rescue Daniel, but Alex knocks him out with some chemicals. They all decide to band together to fight the government agents who are trying to kill them.

The plot is a bit far-fetched, and the author barely manages to hold it together. In addition, she repeatedly describes the endearments that occur between Alex and Daniel as well as the barbs between Alex and Kevin. By the end of the book, I was fairly sick of all three of them.

The idea for this book has a lot more potential than the end product turns out to be.

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960’s

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by Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2024, Simon & Schuster, New York 4.0 stars

I have read other books by Doris Goodwin and think highly of her as an author and historian. This book is quite different from her other books as it is a personal memoir of her relationship with her husband, Dick Goodwin. I didn’t know anything about him and he wrote many of the speeches for presidents Kennedy and Johnson in the 60’s.

The book walks through the major events of the 60’s that Dick was involved in. He had collected many documents and mementoes from the time he spent in both administrations. Dick and Doris decided to open them up some sixty years later to go through them with the idea that they would write a book together about their experiences. Doris ended up writing the book as Dick passed away before they had a chance to write the book, but they were able to go through most of the boxes together and she kept notes about their conversations while they were going through them.

Doris writes very well and the episodes she relates bring many of the political figures of the 60’s to life. For me, this is a walk down memory lane as I was in high school and college during that time. I’m not sure someone who hadn’t lived through the events of the 60’s in their youth would have the same reaction to the book that I had, but it really struck a chord with me.

One thing that amazed me was that I had never heard of Dick Goodwin and his impact on those events. While his efforts and talents were considerable, he was someone who I never heard of until I read this book.

Stormbreaker (Alex Rider Book 1)

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by Anthony Horowitz, 2009, Audiobook narrated by Nathaniel Parker, Listening Library 2.0 stars

This book is categorized as a “children’s book”, but it definitely is not that. Horowitz had mentioned his Alex Rider books frequently in his Hawthorne detective novels so I decided to check one out to see if it would be something by 12-year-old grandson would like. I would not recommend it to someone his age: in fact, I would not suggest it for anyone under the age of 15 or so. The book starts out explaining that Alex’s uncle had died in a car accident where he was not wearing his seatbelt. Alex is suspicious of this explanation as his uncle also insisted on wearing seta bels in the car when he was riding with him. It turns out that his uncle was murdered, and Alex is determined to find out how and why he died.

As the plot unfolds, there are numerous events that involve death, torture, and mayhem that seem more suitable for an adult audience. Maybe the book should be in the “Young Adult” category instead of “Children’s Books”, but as an adult novel it is only mediocre. The only thing that makes it more palatable for children might be the lack of obscene language.

Horse

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by Geraldine Brooks, 2024, Penguin Books 3.5 stars

This is an interesting and well-written novel about a thoroughbred horse called Lexington who lived in the middle of the nineteenth century. Brooks based the book on a the horse that was declared the world’s champion and who eventually sired 575 fouls, many of which went on to win racing victories of their own.

The book bounced back and forth between the story of the horse in the 1850’s, the painting of the horse that was acquired by a gallery owner in New York in the 1950’s, and the discovery in 2019 of the painting on a curb by a neighbor who was researching equestrian paintings. The book blends the anatomy of horses, the history of thoroughbred racing, equestrian painting, racism and civil rights, and the impact of the Civil War. This is quite a collection of information.

The only issue I had with the book is that I am not quite sure that the information and subjects she covered were of great interest to me. It was an enjoyable read, but after reading the book, I don’t think it will have any lasting impact on me. That’s too bad, because Brooks put a lot of effort and research into writing it.