Review: My Favorite Derby Stories

My Favorite Derby Stories by Billy Reed
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a number of newspaper and magazine columns by a long-time thoroughbred racing writer from Kentucky. It was what you would expect from a mid market columnist. He looked for the odd angle and captured the personalities involved. These stories were very much about the people of racing, not so much the horses. Entertaining, but in a quaint way.

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Review: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It was OK overall. Quite short, with very big text and wide margins. The most interesting bit was the analysis by Dumbledore being quite lengthy and academic-sounding (and footnoted!), but even that got old by the last story. To the good, an extremely quick read.

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Review: Trust Me

Trust Me by John Updike
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As always, Updike writes short stories that you immediately feel part of, and that draw you to the conclusion. Enjoyable writing.

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Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Given the ads for the movie that I've seen over the years, I assumed that Bernadette was just a flake that disappeared. I was pleasantly surprised that her character was written with much more depth than I had expected. I enjoyed the backstory of Bernadette, and the bits about Microsoft and Seattle were somewhat funny. But the plot and the modern epistolary nature of the book just fell flat for me. I haven't seen the movie and I do wonder if the architecture aspects are a focus -- that would be a plus I believe.

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Review: Rounding the Mark

Rounding the Mark by Andrea Camilleri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Our police inspector is getting older, and that makes this a bit more interesting than the previous installments in this series. Montalbano takes on a James Bond style house infiltration, but has medical issues along the way. In other parts of the book, he delays his detection to enjoy a good meal. Montalbano is getting more interesting and lifelike. I do have a nit to pick here, though. On the audio, his underlings on the police department are voiced as if they were the Three Stooges. I keep expecting a "Nyuk, Nyuk" to be uttered. And there are so many underlings to chose from for the action, and all seem to be written a bit differently, it reminds me of an old Our Gang reel. That is probably my least liked part of these stories.

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Review: The Moviegoer

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found the writing much too flowery and that torpedoed the book for me. I listened to the audiobook. I enjoyed the narrator. His Southern voice, mixed with the character’s politeness and his well-spoken dialogue, really set a mood of the genteel South. But the flowery descriptive language was difficult to follow, and many times, I guess the author was representing the rapid change of topics in the protagonist’s mind by just stopping mid sentence and starting up a totally new thought. I can imagine on paper you could follow that given the obvious punctuation. On audio you really can’t. I suggest that if you want to enjoy the book, you’re better off reading than listening to it.

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Review: Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and His World

Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and His World by David Lehman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My father-in-law lived with us for a year before he passed, and I played him a lot of Frank Sinatra songs while he was here. I bought this book for him, and he read it but wasn't so impressed. I think he'd already heard most of the anecdotes and had a lifetime of guys waxing poetic on their favorite Sinatra lyric. I decided to give it a try, and found that I liked the mix of anecdotes and reviews of Sinatra's work, usually summary reviews, like a listing of some of the best rarely heard songs, with some description that went deeper than typical liner notes. I tracked down and listened to a lot of the uncommon songs on Apple Music - very nice. A nice appreciation of Ol' Blue Eyes.

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