Johnny L. Wilson ( of High Score)

Johnny rated a book liked it The Grace Awakening by Charles R. Swindoll (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Personally, I think Charles Swindoll did himself a disservice by positioning his book, The Grace Awakening, as a manifesto for a movement. The subject matter of this book is not about a movement; it’s about truth. Swindoll performs an invaluable serv ...more
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Johnny rated a book liked it Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue (Gaslight Mystery, #18) by Victoria Thompson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I’m a fan of this series of historical mysteries, this one set just before Theodore Roosevelt becomes Governor of New York. Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue was designed to fit several spaces. Victoria Thompson’s publisher wanted a Christmas book. Check ...more
19 hours, 1 min ago · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue by Victoria Thompson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue by Victoria Thompson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book really liked it The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2) by Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A sequel to Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman is the second novel I’ve read in the last few months inspired by one of the great white horses believed to have been carved on English hillsides a century before the Battle of Hasting ...more
Aug 30, 2024 05:46PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book liked it The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jay Gatsby meet Jay Rutland. Rutland isn’t the protagonist of The Seventh Veil of Salome, but he is key to both plot development and the character development of the protagonist. Except for having a legitimate family business behind him instead of a ...more
Aug 24, 2024 06:50AM · 1 like · like · see review
Johnny rated a book it was ok Caught Stealing (Hank Thompson, #1) by Charlie Huston	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I finished Caught Stealing. Yet, I didn’t feel like I had engaged a novel. It felt like an unfinished outline for a film script. Admittedly, Charlie Huston received rave reviews for his run as writer on Marvel’s Moon Knight, but Caught Stealing feels ...more
Aug 24, 2024 06:49AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book it was ok The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It is purposefully ironic that The Man Who Folded Himself, a book about time-travel, should be dedicated to Larry Niven, an iconic science-fiction/fantasy writer who has continuously asserted the impossibility of time-travel. Yet, it is. It may be de ...more
Aug 19, 2024 06:20AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book liked it A Matter of Justice (Inspector Ian Rutledge, #11) by Charles Todd (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
One of my very minor criticisms of earlier books in the Ian Rutledge Mystery series has been that Rutledge doesn’t seem to be as proactive as one would expect in solving the mysteries. Oh, he investigates and he is successful (though not always “perf ...more
Aug 17, 2024 08:45PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book liked it Drover (Drover, #1) by Bill Granger	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Maybe there is something to be said for reading the novels in a mystery series out of order. My brother sent me both Drover and Drover and the Zebras, but somehow I bypassed the slicker cover of the first novel and took the second with me on a trip t ...more
Aug 17, 2024 08:42PM · 1 like · like · see review
Johnny rated a book really liked it Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution by Helen Zia	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Although not technically a biography, Last Boat Out of Shanghai serves as four biographies of very different Chinese who faced the trials and uncertainties of the Japanese occupation during WWII, the Chinese Civil War, and the imminent fall of Shangh ...more
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Johnny rated a book really liked it What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine Through the Apostles’ Creed by Michael F. Bird	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Fortunately, theologian Michael F. Bird is not afraid to be lighthearted in presenting gospel truth. For example” “To use a meteorological pun, to be a follower of Jesus means to walk in the “reign” of Jesus. It entails that believers order their liv ...more
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The Grace Awakening
by Charles R. Swindoll (Goodreads Author)

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Personally, I think Charles Swindoll did himself a disservice by positioning his book, The Grace Awakening, as a manifesto for a movement. The subject matter of this book is not about a movement; it’s about truth. Swindoll performs an invaluable serv Personally, I think Charles Swindoll did himself a disservice by positioning his book, The Grace Awakening, as a manifesto for a movement. The subject matter of this book is not about a movement; it’s about truth. Swindoll performs an invaluable service for his readers by challenging them to jettison their pride and experience grace. We wave the word “grace” like a banner, but it’s something like Andre the Giant’s line about the word “inconceivable” in The Princess Bride. To paraphrase it: Grace. I don’t think that word means what we think it does!

Swindoll does a great job of tying together the idea of grace and unworthiness. He points out how pride insinuates itself into even those who have experienced grace and, by controlling and manipulating others, becomes a “grace killer.” Then, recognizing that people are afraid that many will use “grace” as an excuse to sin, he offers an incredibly useful distinction between that misunderstanding of “grace” and a proper understanding of grace. Using Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s phrase, he notes: “’Cheap grace’ justifies the sin rather than the sinner. True grace, on the other hand, justifies the sinner, not the sin.” (p. 44). Later in the book, he calls that idea of “cheap grace” or using the idea of “grace” to excuse sin as being “abusing grace” (p. 135) instead of “Amazing Grace.”

As usual, Swindoll draws thought-provoking quotations from his reading and tells stories that clearly emphasize his point. One such story details the life of an individual who had an accident and miraculously recovered. During recovery, he claimed salvation. Later, he went back to his old ways and had another accident which mutilated him worse than the first. Today, he confesses that he rebelled and was forgiven, but observes that the literal scars didn’t go away (pp. 144-145).
One of the more helpful concepts in the book to me was his analysis of two reasons people are judgmental: “We compare ourselves with others (which leads us to criticize or compete with them) and we attempt to control others (which results in our manipulating or intimidating them).” (p. 154) In a pulpit style, he asks a rhetorical question: “Who wrote the ‘let’s compare” rulebook? Will you please show me from Scripture where God is pleased with such negative attitudes?” (p. 155)

There is a marvelous line about leadership that all leaders should take seriously: “God reserves the right to use people who disagree with me.” (p. 176) A more general line, but which spoke powerfully to me was “Grace in weakness enables us to become instruments of power in God’s hands.” (p. 204) Even more valuable is the chart on p. 232 comparing “Shame-Based Spirituality” with “Healthy Spirituality.” He is quoting from the work of a Christian therapist named Dr. Earl Henslin. I’ll share two out of the 10 examples. Shame-Based says, “Having problems is sin,” while Healthy says, “Problems are part of my human condition. I can bring them to God and my fellow Christians.” Again, Shame-based = “Success (or its lack) is sinful” versus Healthy = “Prosperity or poverty is not due to deficient spirituality.”

Further, many believers could use the three reasons presented for the value of giving. First, we should give because it keeps our lives and possessions in a healthy balance (p. 266). Second, believers should give because, in so doing, they are modeling the Lord’s example (p. 267). Third, we need almost a habit of giving to counteract selfishness (p. 268).

Many months ago, I picked up this volume to read and managed only to get to the introduction (p. xiii) where Swindoll uses the metaphor of a movement. “Oh, no!” I said to myself, “not another ‘movement!’” I put the book back on the shelf and made some pretty judgmental (and unfounded) observations. In August of 2024, I saw the book on the shelf and thumbed through it—thinking of getting rid of it. I glanced at a couple of the lines written above and decided to actually read it instead of (ironically, considering the subject of the book) judging it. I highly recommend The Grace Awakening but I advise readers to skip the introduction (something I never do). ...more

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Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue by Victoria Thompson

Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue (Gaslight Mystery, #18)
by Victoria Thompson (Goodreads Author)

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I’m a fan of this series of historical mysteries, this one set just before Theodore Roosevelt becomes Governor of New York. Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue was designed to fit several spaces. Victoria Thompson’s publisher wanted a Christmas book. Check I’m a fan of this series of historical mysteries, this one set just before Theodore Roosevelt becomes Governor of New York. Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue was designed to fit several spaces. Victoria Thompson’s publisher wanted a Christmas book. Check! Not only does it have a Christmas reference in the title, but the two kids, Catharine and Brian, are definitely looking forward to Christmas as part of the backdrop of the story. Second, Thompson (and her fans) wanted her to do something focused on some of the supporting characters in the story. Check! We see how the elder Mrs. Malloy is fitting into the new household, how Maeve and Gino’s budding romance is taking its first baby steps, and how Felix and Elizabeth Decker (Sarah’s parents) have been drawn into their daughter’s and new son-in-law's life. Third, it provides a fast-moving mystery while the main protagonists are enjoying their honeymoon. Check! Providing this novel allows the verisimilitude of time flowing naturally to offer a sense that readers are following a timeline that makes sense in the lives of these characters.

The mystery itself is somewhat predictable. A man is murdered in his own home and his wife is found cradling his bloody head in her lap. She is in trauma and cannot speak, so the police take her guilt as an easy solution to the case and carry her off to prison. The wife’s mother tries to contact Frank Malloy to prove her daughter’s innocence, but Malloy and his new bride, Sarah, are having a European honeymoon. Enter Maeve, Gino, Elizabeth, and Felix. They solve a case which involved a financial swindle, a suicide, and multiple murders before zeroing in on the logical perpetrator.

Either Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue was written in a hurry or Thompson went overboard on the foreshadowing, but the perpetrator was a little too obvious and the “red herrings” didn’t last long enough to obfuscate. This was unusual in my experience of the series, but I like being way ahead of the detectives sometimes. Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue did not touch me emotionally as much as some of the other novels in the series, but it was still a pleasurable reading experience. That being said, I’m also excited about some of the set-up for future books and future roles for the supporting characters. ...more

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The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)
by Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)

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A sequel to Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman is the second novel I’ve read in the last few months inspired by one of the great white horses believed to have been carved on English hillsides a century before the Battle of Hasting A sequel to Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman is the second novel I’ve read in the last few months inspired by one of the great white horses believed to have been carved on English hillsides a century before the Battle of Hastings (but apparently, recut in the 18th century). To be sure, the eponymous horseman could just as easily be “Death” from the Apocalypse of John (since there is plenty of death therein), one of the Dane antagonists in the story who uses a horse as his symbol on battle flag and ship’s prow as well, King Alfred who is so ill as to be a shadow of the bold king we expect from the legend’s and biased histories, or the light-haired protagonist of the story who vacillates between his loyalty to the Saxon cause and a desire to join the Danes because he is not pleased with Alfred’s over-idealistic form of Christianity.

In my experience of reading historical fiction, it is rare for a volume to begin with the protagonist narrator conceding that he had made a serious mistake. Indeed, Uhtred might have saved some lives if he hadn’t burned bridges with his personal pride and priorities. Of course, we expect protagonists to face sheer cliffsides of challenges, but we don’t expect the majority to be of his (or her) own making. [Though see my admission concerning Harry Flashman later in this review!]

On the plus side, Uhtred is a warrior, a man of action. That leads us into some intense action sequences. Fortunately, they are also action sequences where we aren’t sure how our “hero” is going to fare. He is definitely not an introspective individual. Even his hostility toward Christianity is more over what he recognizes as a threat to “national” security than any given doctrinal confession. His other objections have to do with ecclesiastical interference with personal choices and the propensity for some clerics to become fat, wealthy, and powerful through their self-serving representations of God. At one point, a character asks Uhtred if he’d ever known a “skinny priest” to emphasize the point. In many ways, Uhtred’s evaluation of Christianity is a cautionary parable on civil religion of any kind.

The Pale Horseman is built around a skeleton of known historical facts. We know that Alfred blundered in making peace with the Danes more than once. We know that he spent time hiding out in a swamp settlement called Aethelingaeg (now, Athelney near Taunton), but we don’t know for certain about the geography attributed to the Battle of Ethandrum where Alfred fought Guthrum’s Danes. Cornwell wraps his narrative around a plausible site and many historians tend to lean in the same direction.

Like his other historical novels, The Pale Horseman is gritty, bloody, muddy, superstitious, and vicious. In short, it strips away the well-packaged legends of pre-Norman England and replaces them with a reasonable semblance of reality. I also like the fact that the book is dedicated to George McDonald Fraser, a weaver of a rather large corpus of historical fiction in his own right, a defender of the kernels of historical truth in Hollywood epics (his Hollywood History of the World is well-argued), and the brilliant satirist who gave us Sir Harry Flashman (talk about a protagonist who admits his mistakes and has brought a lot of difficulty upon himself!).

To be honest, I still prefer the Sharpe novels and the Starbuck Chronicles to any of the other Cornwell novels I’ve read. Yet, I wouldn’t pass up a Cornwell novel because they weren’t in that series. ...more

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The Seventh Veil of Salome
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Goodreads Author)

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Jay Gatsby meet Jay Rutland. Rutland isn’t the protagonist of The Seventh Veil of Salome, but he is key to both plot development and the character development of the protagonist. Except for having a legitimate family business behind him instead of a Jay Gatsby meet Jay Rutland. Rutland isn’t the protagonist of The Seventh Veil of Salome, but he is key to both plot development and the character development of the protagonist. Except for having a legitimate family business behind him instead of a bootlegging father, he has many similarities with Fitzgerald’s famous Gatsby.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia demonstrated her mastery of cinema history and culture in Silver Nitrate, but The Seventh Veil of Salome offers that and more. The protagonist is Vera Larios, but in a real sense, the eponymous Salome is also the protagonist. Since Silver Nitrate had a supernatural underpinning, the reader of The Seventh Veil of Salome can’t be certain whether the hint of reincarnation means that the depictions of Salome are “actual history” (at least, within the fictional wrapping) or, since the novel begins and ends from Joe Kantor’s (the screenwriter of the eponymous film), are those depictions supposed to be the scenes as Joe imagined them and wrote them. It’s a compelling story either way.

Moreno-Garcia has certainly developed the parallels in beautifully intricate patterns. Vera’s mother uses her to fulfill her original desire to have Vera’s younger sister become a movie start. Salome’s mother, Herodias, uses her daughter to advance her ambition for wealth and power. Salome is tired of being a pawn in her mother’s game and longs to escape to a faraway land with John the Baptizer [though Moreno-Garcia uses the harsher Hebraic pronunciation of a “heth” as in “Hanakah” to make it “Jokanaan” and erroneously makes John’s father a merchant instead of a priest (pp. 146, 221)], while Vera longs to go on an extended trip with Jay where he will play gigs on the piano and they will compose and play music together while throwing off her mother’s influence. And, where Salome is caught up in palace intrigue against her will, Vera is caught up in studio intrigues, much to her chagrin.

Every good protagonist needs an antagonist, so Moreno-Garcia has provided Vera with an ideal one. There are multiple layers of similarity between Vera and Nancy. Vera feels rejected (except as she can be used) by her mother while Nancy feels rejected by her father who gave up on her career. Nancy has always fantasized about playing the part of Salome while Vera fell in love with the part through her love of opera. Nancy chafes as an extra on the production with full confidence that she would be a better Salome while Vera constantly deals with self-doubt about everything.

So, The Seventh Veil of Salome moves inexorably toward the train wreck one can see from the beginning. We see Vera moving upward despite her doubt and Nancy spiraling downward, despite her confidence and willingness to do anything to get ahead. Yet, even though one can see the train wreck coming, one cannot look away. Moreno-Garcia has drawn from Hollywood history, literary parallels, and her own love of cinema to present an intriguing tale. In my opinion, it is not as engaging as Silver Nitrate, but it is a worthy book to read nonetheless. ...more

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Caught Stealing (Hank Thompson, #1)
by Charlie Huston

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I finished Caught Stealing. Yet, I didn’t feel like I had engaged a novel. It felt like an unfinished outline for a film script. Admittedly, Charlie Huston received rave reviews for his run as writer on Marvel’s Moon Knight, but Caught Stealing feels ...more

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The Man Who Folded Himself
by David Gerrold (Goodreads Author)

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It is purposefully ironic that The Man Who Folded Himself, a book about time-travel, should be dedicated to Larry Niven, an iconic science-fiction/fantasy writer who has continuously asserted the impossibility of time-travel. Yet, it is. It may be de It is purposefully ironic that The Man Who Folded Himself, a book about time-travel, should be dedicated to Larry Niven, an iconic science-fiction/fantasy writer who has continuously asserted the impossibility of time-travel. Yet, it is. It may be deliberately ironic that a book about folding time proves to be a book about discovering identity. It is a novel which could so easily have gone irreparably wrong, the existence of such a seeming ordinary time travel mechanism potentially proving The Incredibles thesis that if everyone is super, no one is.

David Gerrold doesn’t specifically address the “if everyone is super” problem, but he hints at the malleability of timestreams such that the possibility doesn’t necessarily matter. Paradoxes exist, but the classic “Grandfather Paradox” does not, and many of the paradoxes are self-correcting in the flow of a given timestream.

Indeed, Gerrold goes a very different way than one would expect in a time-travel novel. Dan [I won’t spoil it by giving the names of other time-travelers.] may well be the most narcissistic time-traveler ever. We expect time-travelers to want to view, if not participate in, some of the great events of history. Dan does so using a mechanism known as timeskimming. Yet, we get no hint of interaction with historical figures that one would expect in a time continuum where most paradoxes are self-correcting. Instead, Dan seems more than content to double-, triple-, quadruple-, or infinity-multiple-back to interact with his previous selves. And that, is where the book became disappointing to me.

Oh, I was intrigued by Dan’s attempted interaction to remove Hitler and Christ, along with the realization that the world could have more damaging consequences without either the paradigmatic villain or Savior. Perhaps, that would explain the protagonist’s reticence to get involved with historical figures. However, this disappointment weighed on me. And, since so much of the book is about dealing with who one actually is, I have to wonder if my feelings about The Man Who Folded Himself is more about me than about the novel itself.

The novel is something of a voyage of discovery. At first, it’s all about the money. But after using the mechanism to generate riches: “I’d lost interest in the money. It was just so many numbers. Useless except as a tool to manipulate my environment, and I had a much better tool for that.” (p. 50) And, although I didn’t enjoy the ultimate lack of commitment in any of the protagonist’s relationships, I liked the sentiment in: “So this is love. The giving. The taking. The abandonment of roles. The opening of the self. And the resultant sensuality of it all. The delight. The laughing joy.” (p. 60) Yet, in all of Dan’s sensuous encounters (and let’s face it, if such a mechanism existed, many would use it for erotic encounters without any long-term commitment), there is an emptiness. Even in Dan’s eventual cogitations on death, there is an emptiness.

Gerrold’s character has no hope of posthumous continuity. His musings upon death are empty because it means “ceasing to exist.” (p. 112) Neither does Dan get to enjoy an infinite loop that would enable some perverse immortality. As Dan writes to himself near the end of the novel: “Time travel is not immortality. It will allow you to experience all the possible variations of your life. But it is not an unlimited ticket. There will be an end.” (p. 113) Yes, we all know that there is a closing chapter in our personal books of life, but wouldn’t it be wonderful in those books were well-lived prequels?

When I picked up The Man Who Folded Himself, I didn’t expect to be depressed by the direction the book was to take. I have to admire the philosophical considerations and personal revelations within the book, but it wasn’t the story for which I was looking. ...more

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A Matter of Justice (Inspector Ian Rutledge, #11)
by Charles Todd (Goodreads Author)

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One of my very minor criticisms of earlier books in the Ian Rutledge Mystery series has been that Rutledge doesn’t seem to be as proactive as one would expect in solving the mysteries. Oh, he investigates and he is successful (though not always “perf One of my very minor criticisms of earlier books in the Ian Rutledge Mystery series has been that Rutledge doesn’t seem to be as proactive as one would expect in solving the mysteries. Oh, he investigates and he is successful (though not always “perfectly” successful), but often it seems that the most vital clues just come to him rather than being discovered. Indeed, even in A Matter of Justice where Rutledge is as proactive as I’ve seen him (even to the point of risking his life in a speeding car), he absolutely overlooks some vital clues until something he wasn’t looking for grabs his attention.

Fans of the series will be pleased to note that Hamish, the disembodied voice of Rutledge’s survivor’s guilt, is active in this investigation, but not as chaotic as he has sometimes been. Series fans will also be intrigued that the mysterious Meredith Channing makes more than one appearance in this volume, though the ultimate mystery and resolution of Ian’s general discomfort with her have yet to be revealed.

I like the title, A Matter of Justice because it applies on many levels. There is at least one case of poetic justice. There is a case of straightforward justice. There are a couple of cases of clear injustices. Indeed, after the case is wrapped up, Rutledge keeps pulling at loose threads till he gets all the answers—though not entirely to his liking. But I like the title particularly because Rutledge seems to be a predecessor to the famous Harry Bosch line that “either everybody counts or nobody counts.” Most investigators would have been satisfied with bringing at least one guilty person to justice. Rutledge is looking to restore the appropriate equilibrium.

The mystery in A Matter of Justice goes back to a horrendous act during the Boer War. Two war criminals from that war have managed to elude justice until the post-WWI era. Yet, when one is murdered, their secret is well enough hidden that no one thinks of the possibility of a connection with their traitorous act of years before. Much of the investigation’s energy is spent in focusing on the wrong suspicions since, in a very real sense, every resident of a Somerset Village had reason to dislike, if not hate, the victim.

Regular readers of the series (who probably discovered it before I did) will be amazed at how bleak and futile many people consider their lives. Tragedy and a sense of waste seem to permeate all of the landscapes which Rutledge investigates. The writing team known as Charles Todd know how to plumb the depths of psychological distress and find the tragic, sometimes even in the mundane. The inspector isn’t the only one with secrets to hide and the writers use that to their advantage in creating a collage of existential discomfort. I like these books, but potential readers need to be certain that they can deal with a certain amount of angst and suffering if they are to get full enjoyment from the novels. ...more

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Drover (Drover, #1)
by Bill Granger

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Maybe there is something to be said for reading the novels in a mystery series out of order. My brother sent me both Drover and Drover and the Zebras, but somehow I bypassed the slicker cover of the first novel and took the second with me on a trip t Maybe there is something to be said for reading the novels in a mystery series out of order. My brother sent me both Drover and Drover and the Zebras, but somehow I bypassed the slicker cover of the first novel and took the second with me on a trip to the UK. Actually, I’m glad I did. I liked the Drover of Drover and the Zebras better than the protagonist of the original Drover. Oh, he is still the disgraced (through no fault of his own) sportswriter who now writes for an audience of one, Fox Vernon, the mathematical genius behind a Vegas sports book. He still has the Chicago background of growing up next to people affiliated with the Outfit. Yet, there is a mean streak that I didn’t detect in the second book.

Drover and the Zebras was about college basketball and an allegedly crooked referee (hence “zebras”) and was written either during and shortly after the few years in which DePaul was competitive. This one (Drover) has him investigating an illegal book out of the Chicago Board of Trade. Amazingly, it is an old acquaintance from the Outfit who originally calls his attention to the illegal book (unwelcome competition), but what keeps Drover investigating is his certainty that there is a huge fix going on. And, one can easily tell that this is a work of fiction, because the Chicago Bears are headed to the Super Bowl (next thing you know I’ll be reading a “Drover” novel where the White Sox are winning).

Complicating matters is, wouldn’t you know it, woman trouble. An old (and very unextinguished) flame has been victimized (and her ne’er-do-well husband committed suicide over it) by a shady and unscrupulous gambler. Drover has a chance to get revenge on the gambler. He does so, but the shady character proves to have unexpected friends and allies.

Of course, Drover has friends and allies, as well as frenemies (you can’t call those Outfit guys “friends” unless maybe you’re a “friend of mine” or “friend of ours”), but it’s a retired firefighter nicknamed “Black Kelly” who is the friend of consequence (and perhaps, at one point, consequences). One thing is for sure, in both of these novels, Kelly has Drover’s back. Does Drover have Kelly’s?

There are multiple mysteries in Drover and the protagonist is fallible enough that he doesn’t solve them all in a timely fashion. He makes mistakes, and those mistakes have costly consequences beyond lost gambling stakes. So, while it is bloodier than a Raymond Chandler novel and depicts more graphic violence than standard noir of the classic period, Chandler is the closest analogue I can come up with to Bill Granger’s style. ...more

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Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution
by Helen Zia

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Although not technically a biography, Last Boat Out of Shanghai serves as four biographies of very different Chinese who faced the trials and uncertainties of the Japanese occupation during WWII, the Chinese Civil War, and the imminent fall of Shangh Although not technically a biography, Last Boat Out of Shanghai serves as four biographies of very different Chinese who faced the trials and uncertainties of the Japanese occupation during WWII, the Chinese Civil War, and the imminent fall of Shanghai after Mao’s victories. To author Helen Zia’s credit, the four “biographies” interspersed with one another for both variety in pace and clarity in subject matter, are well-chosen for gender representation, familial situation, and economic status. By using this technique, we see the changing economic, military, and political situations from four different perspectives. It is masterfully done.

By featuring two females as biographees, we get a chance to see the prejudicial gender bias in favor of Chinese males. When something needed to be sacrificed, it was the female’s security or the female’s education. Beginning with Bing, a girl who is shuttled from home-to-home and feeling abandoned, we see her evacuate Shanghai on a forged passport and a third-class ticket while her adoptive Elder Sister travels first-class. Bing constantly longs for her baba, despite being abandoned twice and running away once. Even the U.S. is not quite the shelter Bing had pictured.

Annuo is a young girl who identifies as a taonan (person on the run from difficulty). Her father is largely absent from her life, but has dictatorial authority enough, even from long-distance, to force her physician-trained mother to stop working, and force the family to move time and again. It seems that every time Annuo’s life is stabilized, she is forced to relocate. And each relocation has a psychological (usually negative) effect on the youngster. Over and over again, this young woman feels marginalized, called by the natives of Taiwan (after evcacuating) one of the wai sheng ren (outsiders). I was pleased to read about her success as a journalist, but not surprised that she could never please her father.

The two males are similarly different. Ho comes from a lower middle class family that works, scrapes, scrambles, and saves so Ho can receive the best possible education. This is different from Annuo’s often suspended education. Ho eventually typifies the foreign student in the U.S. who is allowed to study but not to work while his family is suffering hyperinflation back in China. Renting sub-standard housing and not letting his struggling family know before taking up “residence” by sleeping in a factory office is only a part of his pilgrimage.

Benny, on the other hand, is a child of privilege. That is, he is a child of privilege prior to his life caving in as a result of the exposure of his father as a hanjian (collaborator/traitor). It was interesting to see how the eldest son reacts and copes with this drastic development. It was also interesting to see how his conversion to Christianity changed the trajectory of his life for the better. However, as the Communist regime tightened more and more, he became worried about being labeled a yang nu (foreign slave) or zou gou (running dog). At least, he wasn’t a xiao ke (worthless playboy). However, his life during the Cultural Revolution (where classrooms were shut down for 10 years) was even worse with constant interrogation and separation from his wife and children.

Later in the book, we are also treated to the story of his younger sister, Doreen. As her elder sister pushes her to become a dance hall girl, she finds work with a reputable company because of her Shanghai classmates and facility with English. Fortunately for her, her sister’s idea is not the final verdict on her life.

[SPOILER ALERT: The epilogue features some interesting details on the lives of the biographees which author Helen Zia painstakingly interviewed over hundreds of hours of interviews. I was amazed at the successes of some who had experienced so many obstacles. But most importantly, there is a delightful connection between the author and one of the biographees.]

Last Boat Out of Shanghai reads like an epic novel, offers insights on the Japanese occupation, Chinese Civil War, and Cultural Revolution that few history books could provide, and creates tremendous empathy for these courageous Chinese citizens. ...more

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What Christians Ought to Believe by Michael F. Bird

What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine Through the Apostles’ Creed
by Michael F. Bird

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Fortunately, theologian Michael F. Bird is not afraid to be lighthearted in presenting gospel truth. For example” “To use a meteorological pun, to be a follower of Jesus means to walk in the “reign” of Jesus. It entails that believers order their liv ...more

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	High Score by Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson (Goodreads Author) 3.93 avg rating — 236 ratings — published 2002 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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