Review: The Violin Conspiracy

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was struck while listening to this audiobook that this story “felt” like “The Queen’s Gambit”. I have a hard time putting my finger on the similarities, but I believe that both books, unlike most fiction books I’ve read, felt skimpy on the sense of place and strong on the action. In remembering both stories, I remember the plot, but, for instance, I can’t picture the places described. I’ve read a few Westerns recently, and this struck me as the opposite of the Westerns I’ve read, with their descriptions of the land being a big part of the package. I enjoyed the story, a kind of a typical young musical genius story (think Miles Teller in Whiplash) with some illustrations of racist behavior harming the story’s hero, as well as some odd thinking by our hero, in this case suggesting a bizarre contract. The impediments overcome appear to be more class related than anything else (view spoiler)[ as the hero’s opponents are mostly friends and family who want to profit at any cost (hide spoiler)]. The mystery aspect here takes a back seat to the story background, the history and the story of the violin.

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Review: Holy Cow!

Holy Cow! by Harry Caray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read Carey’s “Holy Cow!” right after reading the book about him read by his long-time on-air partner Steve Stone “Where’s Harry?”. I recommend reading these together. Steve includes many of the same stories as Harry, but they are obviously told from an outsiders perspective. When you read Harry’s story, you understand what Harry wants you to understand about his life. The persona that he built over the years is on display here – Harry being the voice of the fans, Harry partying it up all night, Harry shilling for his friends and his oft-times beer sponsors. Harry also explains his rise through radio in Joliet and Kalamazoo, working there with Paul Harvey. The stories of his early life focus on the drive Caray had to become a sportscaster, and it is a surprisingly motivating story. But overall, you get from Harry that he dedicated himself to broadcasting, above all else including family. But from Stone, you get the sense that there also lurks a genius behind Harry’s rise, and sometimes it is an evil genius, or at least a remarkably self-centered genius. Stone illustrates the reasons behind some of the things that Harry did, things that added to his fame and tenure. Taking Stone’s book along with this book of Harry’s together, you get a much more complex idea of who Harry Caray was, and in my mind that make’s him a much more interesting person.
By the way, Goodreads suggests that the 5 books most similar to “Holy Cow!” are all horror books, four by Stephen King. I’ll need time to process this….


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Review: Battle Cry: Waging and Winning the War Within

Battle Cry: Waging and Winning the War Within by Jason Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Battle Cry” provides living-your-life advice to men, given plentiful stories of the author’s life and scripture. I found the author’s perspective to be the draw here, as he talks about growing up and living in the mean streets of Detroit, being a janitor in a school, running a martial arts school and learning martial arts, and being a non-profit founder. And he provides learning anecdotes from his family life, without sugar coating the bad. His advice is simple and not all that surprising. I felt the author leaned on scripture quotes a bit too often, given his life story seemed so interesting. Overall, “Battle Cry” had flashes of interesting stories, but felt a bit generic in the bible-based life advice provided.

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Review: Sackett

Sackett by Louis L'Amour
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I purchased a number of Louis L’Amour books recently, thinking I might try reading the kind of books my Dad read growing up. I asked one of my best friends from high school, who was always reading a L’Amour paperback, which one he’d suggest I read first, as I hadn’t read but a few. He told me his favorite was “Sackett”, and since that was in the bundle I purchased, I read it first. I’ve only read a handful of Westerns, mostly Zane Grey’s. There seemed to be a kind of formula, where the lone cowboy hero of the story was the silent, surprisingly smart fellow who appreciates the land and tries to do the right thing by his people and society. In “Sackett” we have a hero with attributes in multiple areas, many more than other Western heroes that I have read. Sackett is superhumanly strong, exceptionally smart (book smart as well as nature smart, and always learning), tall, sense of humor, head for business, strong moral and family code, handsome to the ladies. He’s pretty much a Western super hero. I didn’t get the impression anything could stop him, outside of horrible blizzards or a lucky shot from a mile away. (Ends up he’s only slowed down by these kinds of things.)

Once I got into the superhero mode, this ended up being a good read. I look forward to reading more, and seeing if the Sackett’s great genes exist in others of the family.


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Review: Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I hadn’t heard of David Starr Jordan prior to reading this book, so I found his story quite fascinating. If the book was about him, I would have enjoyed it. I even enjoyed the scheme the writer used to tell his story in the order in which she learned it, where Jordan goes from good and industrious to ethically questionable. But this becomes a parallel memoir of the author and her relationships. If the author lowered the memoir quotient I would have appreciated this one more. The writing mostly maintained my interest, and the fish story is quite interesting.

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Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed following Kavalier and Clay as they entered the nascent comics business just before WWII, built their art and their business, and lived their lives with a worldview built on the ethics of superhero comics, and also the ethics of business. It is a long book, longer than I tend to read. But, unlike many other reviewers, I didn’t feel the length was beyond what was needed. Then again, I listened to this on audio at high speed, so perhaps that helped… I mostly enjoyed the description of the times and the places the story takes place. I also liked reading about the comics business and how the companies were developed – this seems very true to history. I also enjoyed the description of the apprenticeship of a magician. Least enjoyable were some of the plot twists in the last third of the book that seemed too over the top. Overall, though, I did enjoy this one.

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Review: The Philosophy of Modern Song

The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Quite an odd book, especially on audio. Dylan picks about 50 pop songs from the 20s to the 90s or so, songs that he likes. For many of them, he does a kind of slam poetry take off of the song lyrics. Then there is an often bizarre writeup about the song itself, or its singer, or composer, or a place it mentions. One song write-up was mostly a list of American pop songs that were originally foreign songs in other languages. On audio, Dylan himself does the slam poetry reading, while a cast of stars take turns reading the song writeups. Not Nobel quality, though you do get a little insight into how Dylan thinks about songs. I listened to the 2/5 of the songs I hadn't heard, or hadn't remembered, before I read the section on the song. It made the book more interesting, and I wouldn't have understood what was being written about otherwise.

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