Books
"Bridge My Way" by Zia Mahmood (Fall, 2008). Entertaining, instructive, quirky bridge book written in 1992 by one of the world's top players. Interestingly, bridge was banished initially in Muslim Pakistan. Easy read for bridge players, otherwise not recommended.
"Rules of Deception" by Christopher Reich (Summer, 2008). Ignore the rave review by Janet Maslin in the NYT. Lacking an enemy with enough resources to operate competently in Switzerland (not my favorite country), the plot of this modern day thriller pits rival U.S. spy agencies against each other. The paper-thin characters are so poorly developed that I never cared a whit what happened to any of them, save the armored Mercedes S600 sedan. This book is so lightweight that I cannot recall, unaided, the book's title or author. Not recommended.
"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. (Summer, 2008). Extremely readable account of adventures of former American climber who decides to build a school for a village in northern Pakistan that cared for him after an unsuccessful attempt to climb K-2. Mortenson has now built 55 schools, mostly for girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan both before and after 9/11. Very realistic. Inspirational. Highly recommended.
"Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama (Spring, 2008). Written in the year after the Democrat Party nominee for President graduated from Harvard Law School after serving as the first Black editor-in-chief of its law review, this is a fascinating and extremely personal account of Obama's childhood and life as a young adult. Essential for an understanding of the candidate and unprecedented in the history of American presidential politics (no other major party nominee ever wrote a comparable book), it will be distressing to see future attack ads based upon its content. Indispensable for this year's election. Recommended.
"Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA" by Tim Weiner (Spring, 2008). Winner of the most recent year's National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. Moving at a surprisingly fast pace, the author catalogues and details the CIA's repeated failures from origin through the false and misleading "intelligence" provided in support of the Iraq war. Perfectly titled and disheartening on every level, the book establishes that the CIA's recent failures are representative of its history. Recommended.
"How to Write a Book Proposal" by Michael Larson (Spring, 2008). The perfect instruction manual for authors seeking to write future bestsellers like "How to Make Millions from Selling Seaweed Based Sandpaper." Not recommended for anyone else.
"Hawaii" by James A. Michener (Winter, 2008). Epic, famous 1959 novel does an exceptional job of educating reader on Hawaii's political and cultural history up to statehood. Quite long, but not a difficult read. Not dated. Parts of this novel you don't want to finish reading. Highly recommended.
"Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Winter, 2008). Second reading. (See 2006 Books.) Better than reflected in original review. (The other three members of my family all enjoyed it.) First review: "A just-turned thirtysomething pulls herself together after a bad divorce by devoting 4 months to pleasure in Italy, 4 months to spirituality at an ashram in India, and 4 months to balance (which turns into love) in Bali. The author is a terrific writer and her journey is interesting and compelling. Well-paced, insightful, just a tad long. Recommended." Change that to "highly recommended" and delete "just a tad too long." I am especially in awe of her pacing.
"Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan. (Winter, 2008). This novel is written from the perspective of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the wife of a client of Frank Lloyd Wright. After a multi-year affair, she ran off to Europe with Wright for a year, stayed on to become a translator (to support herself), obtained a divorce from an outraged husband, and thereafter lived with Wright at Taliesan in Wisconsin. An epic love story in which Wright comes off much better than expected. Recommended in general and especially for Frank Lloyd Wright fans.
"Journals 1952-2000" by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Winter, 2008). (The author died in February, 2007 and the journals are edited by two of his sons.) This 858 word text is surprisingly fast and enjoyable reading. The contemporaneous journals are pleasantly personal (except as to his immediate family), insightful, and occasionally wrong in analysis and judgment. Altogether more enjoyable than his memoirs (see 2001 books). In the end, he is a likable writer and person who lived and varied and exciting life and who wears exceptionally well as time passes. Strongly recommended.
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