Review: Confessions of a Murder Suspect

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The first thing this reminded me of was the movie “Spy Kids”. Precocious kids, excessively smart, solving mysteries. But the kids here, and the parents, are all excessively smart, and rich. And unlike the family friendly “Spy Kids”, this book begins with the murder of both parents through what appears to be a poisoning. (view spoiler)[And on an even less family friendly note, the surprise twist is that the parents committed suicide. Ugh. (hide spoiler)] Overall, though, the plot was juvenile. I somewhat enjoyed the characters, but the flow of events just kept getting more far-fetched. I won’t be running out to read the next in this series.

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Review: Baseball Forever!: 50 Years of Radio Highlights Celebrating the History and Hijinks of America's Pastime

Baseball Forever!: 50 Years of Radio Highlights Celebrating the History and Hijinks of America's Pastime by Jason Turbow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this a somewhat enjoyable review of highlights of old-time radio broadcasts of baseball games. The choices were pleasingly varied, and focused on topics such as famous announcers, famous plays, interviews, and famous game endings. Many of the snippets of audio were chosen for historic significance of the events, such as three (!) versions of the play where “The Giants win the pennant!” from different radio networks, an interview with Roger Maris right after tying the home run record, and Carl Hubbell striking out 5 of the best hitters in history in the 1934 All Star Game. One weakness of the collection is that, due to the technology of the era, many of the pre-1960 game recordings are a bit hazy from static and can be difficult to listen to, and that covers a good percentage of the content in this collection. A highlight for me was hearing Harry Caray calling a Cardinals World Series game with owner Gussie Busch cheering like crazy right next to him in the broadcast booth. Comparing these older broadcasts to the current day, you understand the massive change in content provided by the analytic data now available. There also seems to be two eras before the current “analytic” era. The earliest recordings are just play-by-play announcing – nothing flowery, lots of silence and crowd noise, occasional emotion. The big change you notice in the 50s or so, with Red Barber, Vin Scully, Harry Caray, and the like, was that the announcers were more willing to “wax poetic” about the game. Seems like game calling has gone from reporting to literature to science. Makes you wonder what’s next.

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Review: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you’ve read a book on creating habits, you’ll find this treading familiar territory. I found this was one of the better ones in terms of providing practical advice with interesting anecdotes. The focus here is on two methods – breaking yourself of existing bad habits while supporting the creation of new better habits. The author has a way with simplifying a topic.

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Review: Airbnb: A 21st-Century Goldmine

Airbnb: A 21st-Century Goldmine by Andrew Keene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The concept of offering a cabin as an Airbnb rental is intriguing to me. My rural hometown has no current short term rentals, no nearby hotels, no B&Bs. It is in a place with plentiful tourist activities, a key annual event that draws thousands, history, restaurants (well, taverns), great scenery, and it would be the closest traveler housing to a few large plants. As for culture, there’s a big plastic statue, and those taverns. I know people that could operate such an establishment if I’m not nearby. I’m sensing an unmet need and opportunity. I chose to read this book to get an inside view on how Airbnb worked from someone who is making money at it. The author owns a handful of units that he rents out, in different cities. He provides information on the steps that it takes to choose property, to make the investment work considering different financing options and pricing options, to handle the day-to-day operations, creating descriptions and marketing your rental, and handling risk. As a bonus, he also describes how he has used Airbnb rentals in his own travels, including some hints as to what to look for. The author hires out a lot of the day-to-day operations, so while he describes what should happen and while he has some anecdotes, I wasn’t completely comfortable going on his analysis. Additional research will be required. But that’s not to say this isn’t a good introduction – I think it does a great job of describing the pros and cons of entering this business, and provides a glimpse into the life of one who does this with what appears to be a very good return.

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Review: Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday

Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday by Donald Clarke
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thought I’d learn a bit about Billie Holiday. I’ve not been a big fan, but I appreciated her style, her approach to, as the author says in this book, sing a bit behind the beat. I always pictured her as being a bit slurry and slow from something like cough syrup. And the author provides plentiful stories that say that while that was her style, she also had drug use and hard living weighing on her. It was interesting that the author compiled many, many stories from different sources that illustrated the good and the bad parts of her personality. You probably couldn’t come up with an adjective that didn’t describer her behavior at one time or another. Sybil with musical style.

The book is driven by interviews from many different sources. The author notes repeatedly that some of the details were suspect given the length of time that had passed from events described to the interviews, and many of the interviewees were obviously mistaken. You also get themes that stand out. I’m not sure the author intended for these themes to be repeated so much, or if their choice was more selected based on who was interviewed. This aspect of the book felt directionless. The topics I heard repeatedly were details about her drug use, her often violent sex life, her family (especially her mother), and, near the end, her finances were repeatedly discussed. Often after reading a biography I have a new respect for the subject and I think how good it would have been to meet them. With this one, I have respect of Lady Day as a talented scrapper, but she didn’t seem the kind of person that I’d want to meet. Too much mean with the good. As for the book, I'd have preferred a bit more focus on set themes, and/or some editing out the repeated stories. There are times an event is described through different interviewees' eyes, and perhaps because I listened to this on audio I found it somewhat confusing. Overall, the book seems quite thorough, but getting a firm grasp on the subject remains elusive.


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Review: Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying by Darryl Ponicsan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read Ponicsan’s earlier book, “The Last Detail”, a few years ago, but I can’t say I recalled the details. This is the sequel to that book, taking place a few decades down the road. Prior to reading this, I read some of the reviews, many of which complained about the re-animating of one of the characters killed in the first book. It was handled, albeit clumsily, but in a way that helped explain the characters’ history, and it didn’t impact the story line beyond the first few mentions. I enjoyed this book of aging veterans on a road trip, rethinking their place in the world, and rethinking how being veterans has changed their lives. And they also reflect at length about the events in the first book, how that detail changed each of their lives. An interesting read – now to see the movie.

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Review: One Perfect Word

One Perfect Word by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I was younger, I was more of a “deep thinker” than I am today. I spent a lot of time thinking, often about my place in the world. Being an analytical person, there were times when I noticed repetition of a theme or concept in my thoughts and concerns over a short period of time. On reflecting on these repetitions (meta thinking?) I came to a realization that I had somewhat annual themes that caught my attention. Themes were identified by a word and a phrase, like ‘justice’, or ‘good vs evil’, or ‘role models’, or ‘building a career’. So being analytical, I focused on that theme, often for a year, reading things that related, watching TV shows with awareness, and discussing with friends. When I read the description of Debbie Macomber’s “One Perfect Word”, I believed I had found a fellow traveler. Macomber has gone through decades focusing on a single word over each year. Her words, or themes, were generally chosen from Bible passages, but tied to events happening in her life. She says that words felt like they were chosen for her. I have had that feeling as well, although my sources tended to the non-secular, especially music lyrics that caught my ear. I appreciated her examination of this habit, and found her sources from scripture and the ways she examined her world through the lens of that year’s theme to be different than mine, familiar yet interesting in the differences. I would have appreciated her take on the non-secular influences on her word, but Macomber aimed this squarely at Christian readers with repeated scripture quotes. I would also have appreciated more of a description of the positive consequences of decades of this practice. I knowingly followed this practice for about a decade, yet I still find myself referring to the things that I think I learned, especially when I am trying to relate a learning to my grown children. To me, this is a, if not the, source of wisdom. Anything that can convince people to approach their world with the level of awareness this practice provides is a good thing. Glad I found the book.

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