Barbara C Houston

Tears and Laughter

Reviewed: 10-26-20

1) I have read all of the novels and every short story about Harry Dresden. Which is to say I know all of the characters and plot lines. My suggestion is to start from the beginning. That's lots of reading but it's worth every second.

2) This is an apocalypse. I know, I know: it seems like every book has something sort of apocalyptic but this one is major league. I don't like to tell a novel's plot in a review, so I'm only giving you this tidbit of what happens.

3) Emotionally, this novel runs from warm and fatherly to much warmer and not at all fatherly to blazing anger and unbearable heartbreak. I had laughter and less than a chapter later, I was crying, tears streaming down my face. This probably the best written of all.

Thank you, Jim Butcher, for this book. James Marsters also deserves gratitude; His voice is Harry to me.

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Almost a Love Letter to James Baldwin

Reviewed: 07-10-20

Eddie Glaude has written and narrated a book about James Baldwin and his non-fiction, most of which focuses on race in America. Glaude uses language as an artist uses paint, and his voice is another color.

Jimmy is Glaude's reference to Baldwin, such a close way to refer to his subject. From the first time Glaude tells you what he is writing, you can tell this is not a standard literary criticism nor a history. As I read, it came to me that he was writing to Jimmy Baldwin, telling us what Baldwin had felt and then telling Jimmy where America is now.

My knowledge of Baldwin has been his fiction. I now want to read his criticism, his essays, so that I might come to refer to him as Jimmy.

This book is amazingly timely in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. Baldwin was part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s to 1980s, saw the death of friends like Medger Evers and MLK, and then stopping the campaign with the election of Ronald Reagan. There is symmetry here, and we can see the civil rights movement grow into Black Lives Matter.

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Excellent!

Reviewed: 05-21-19

Rachel Maddow's writing style matches her straight forward, easy-going on-air style which allows her to tell history and politics without losing my attention.

Her basic thesis is that we have drifted away from the Constitution's emphasis on keeping the decision for going to war in the hands of Congress. Starting with the founding fathers reasons for the rules and continuing with the way war has been waged by the whole country through WWII, she describes how the system worked and how we began to drift away.

No president is spared for his part in the drift and the military, cabinet members and the congresses each bear their burden. I suppose Reagan bears a little extra for Iran-Conrad.

Extremely easy to read for the subject matter. Powerful discussion of "how we got here."

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APresidential Candidate

Reviewed: 01-26-19

I've watched Senator Harris for the last two years and I have been reasonably impressed. When she announced her run for the presidency on Morning Joe, I realized I needed to know more.

I'm glad I did.

The book is well crafted, moving from youth to adulthood with ease, offering insights into those things which inspired her youth to the brilliance of her work as a California Attorney General.

Definitely worth reading.

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Is Firing a Bad Thing?

Reviewed: 04-19-18

Before I read this book, I had a relatively negative opinion of James Comey; as a Clinton supporter, I did not like the way he had behaved during the 2016 election. I have been reading most of the books being published this year as I seek to understand what led to the election of DJT, and Comey's writing could well hold some of the answers.

What I learned makes James Comey more comprehensible, not more likable, but more understandable. Comey's clean prose told his life story, and the story doesn't always show him as the hero. It does demonstrate the fact that his motives are not always clear to him, but that he had chosen a wife willing to help him see what he needs.

He is not a boy scout as so many describe him; it's more than that. He wants to be a good leader, and that is the cord that I see running through his life. He knows the basic rules, always follows the rules. His problem: he misses the nuance. He chooses to follow the rules, but when the circumstances don't fit correctly, he doesn't know how to apply the rules.

I think I am proud that the president fired Comey. A person cannot stay in DJT's realm without losing his soul. Jim Comey's faults are real, but I don't believe they are mean-spirited.

Comey's style is clear and demonstrates a natural storyteller. This book is worth the read.

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8 people found this helpful

Remember Martin Luther King

Reviewed: 04-10-18

50 years ago, an assassin killed Martin Luther King. King led the country through the ugliness of civil wrongs connected to the Vietnam War, and we remember him for his Gandhi-like leadership. What is forgotten is his weaponized non-violence and his belief in socialism. Americ beatifies our heroes, which is what we've done with MLK.

This book, edited by Cornel West, is a compilation of King's speeches. The words remind of why I so admired him. The audible version employs a wide variety of actors and actresses to read the King's words. I might have preferred to hear MLK, but this demonstrated that the real power is in words, not the speaker.

50 years later and his words are not dated. I would not be surprised to hear these speeches from Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

I miss his voice, his words, his leadership.

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31 people found this helpful

Good,not great, but GOOD.

Reviewed: 04-08-18

I love novels by Mary Higgins Clark.

These books are easy to read, friendly, with mysteries solved without difficulty. People are undoubtedly good or obviously evil.

Good feelings are part of the ending.

Breathe in and remember her books give us strength.

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8 people found this helpful

Don't Bother.

Reviewed: 01-08-18

Don't bother.

If you keep up with the news, don't bother. If you have followed the blurbs about this book on the news, don't bother. If you are hoping for any depth, don't bother.

In fact, I can't think of any reason to bother.

Of course, I had to have it. I've been reading so much, anything to help make sense of the 2016 election and its participants, so this highly touted tell-all was essential. I started it immediately. Too much TV hype took away much in the way of surprise. Mainstream media news took away the remainder of my surprise. Maybe the Trump White House is the leakiest organization ever; all I know is that at least half of the incidents detailed in this book will be found elsewhere.

An MSNBC pundit suggested this book could help Robert Mueller; the only help it could provide is as a doorstop.

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7 people found this helpful

Narration Much Better Than Story

Reviewed: 09-30-17

I've read much history from this period, but this is the first dedicated to civilians. The description of American life emerging from the Great Depression into the frenzied efforts of a wartime economy contains actual recordings of those who lived through that period. The descriptive text lacks much in the way of emotion, but the voices of those recordings carry strong reactions, the feeling so deep that it is evident years later.

WWII changed much of our lives in America. Women in the workforce and efforts tôward civil rights for all began and grew during the war. As a baby boomer, I lived through many of the results from WWII without realizing how those things had come into being.

I found this enjoyable, but it was obviously a transcript of a radio or television performance. A simple improvement would be to have chapters înstead of epîsodes, episodes with repetitions of each episode's credits.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent Journalism

Reviewed: 09-30-17

This book is crime reporting at its best,

As the deaths occur, I found myself drawn, slowly but inexorably. These deaths occurred more than 100 years ago in an Indian community, both of which require effort to understand; this effort might be problematic if not for David Grinn's superb journalistic writing.

The subtitle refers to the Birth of the FBI, which intrigued me. The FBI agent who finds the killers is the kind of person I grew up believing exemplify everyone in the FBI. Learning about Hoover jaundiced my belief, but this account (along with the two most recent heads, Comey and Mueller) has begun to temper my opprobrium.

The three narrators are highly competent, but Will Patton is exceptional in the section dealing with the FBI agent.

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