Review: Chicago's Wrigley Field

Chicago's Wrigley Field by Paul Michael Peterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you have a friend that has visited Wrigley Field many times in the past, and like to show you slides of his trips, you've had a preview of what this book has to offer. This is one of those books with plenty of photos. And you get mostly what you expect here - pictures from around Wrigley Field, mostly of the stands. While there are some historic photos, and some pictures of baseball professionals (players, and Bill Veeck), a good percentage of these photos are like family photos from trips to the park. My interest waned while going through this and seeing pictures aimed not at the park but at someone's kids. I'd have liked to see more of the behind-the-scenes locations within the park, like the press boxes, the ramps, the restaurants, the grounds crew storage. I don't recall even seeing a picture from inside the scoreboard here, and they show that a lot on TV. Hit and miss.

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Review: Arkansas

Arkansas by John Brandon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just a strange trip careening through the lives of cornpone country drug kingpins and their affected underlings. What made this strange is the use of the kinds of characters you see in small towns, the go-getter, the guy with the odd hobby, the quiet tough, the guy who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and who must listen to opera/NPR. Lots of trailer parks and thrift stores, gas stations and old cars. There’s action, and plot, but it hangs very loosely together. Entertaining, but not entirely enjoyable.

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Review: Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean

Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean by Joshua Bernoff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author suggest not wasting your reader's time with extraneous stuff, and taking an active voice. Another suggestion - daily practice. Not too surprising, with plentiful examples (perhaps over-plentiful). Good for a refresher - you already know these things.

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Review: The Design of Future Things

The Design of Future Things by Donald A. Norman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Short, readable musings on the design of technology to help people and to replace people. Norman exposes some basic limitations of technology in automating human thoughts and actions, including inferring reason. He often looks at these issues through the lens of an automotive designer working on self-driving cars, but discussions on kitchen appliances also are in abundance here. This was written more than a decade back now and the thoughts expressed are more common now than when written. Nevertheless, the conversational, pop-science tone and understandable explanations makes this of interest.

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Review: The Wrecking Crew

The Wrecking Crew by Donald Hamilton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fun second book. If you have expectations set from listening to/reading the first book in the series, this meets those expectations. Action involving the other side’s spies, women and men to distrust, politics, the cowboy mentality, shadowy characters from Helm’s past life, and plentiful ruminations by our lead character on topics ranging from girdles to film photography. Helm is a Western American everyman, who is smart, skilled, occasionally aroused, and ready for action. And, as you'd expect, he's a bit dated. The audio version I listened to was narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, who sounds correct as an action-hero spy. I will listen to more.

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Review: Synesthesia

Synesthesia by Richard E. Cytowic
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having never noticed the concept of synesthesia before, I found this an excellent introduction, with engaging writing and enough detail to answer the questions that I came up with while listening to this audiobook. The author describes the different ways this trait manifests itself in different people and identifies some of the causes. He also conjectures people in history who exhibited this trait based on their writings or writings about them. Just the right length for an introduction to the topic…

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Review: To America

To America by Stephen E. Ambrose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just a famous historian and author, riffing on his personal thoughts about various historical figures, his career, and the state of the world. Being a famous historian/author, you expect to read a lot of documentation on reasons, and you get that here -- reasons why Ambrose thinks the way he does. For instance, although I don't believe he actually said that his favorite president was Teddy Roosevelt, he certainly makes the case. His thoughts on Jefferson -- over-rated. He covers other people and topics with the same level of thought he applies throughout. As interesting was his "inside baseball" discussion of the profession of historian, and of his own career autobiography. Historians like Ambrose are measured by their research and by their published output. Ambrose describes the impetus behind most of his books, with many interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes involving professors and presidents and camping out in reservations. An interesting glimpse into Ambrose's career, life, and personal reflections on his subjects.

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