BillP's Book\Miniature\Wargame Blog

First up was Amor Towle’s outstanding A Gentleman in Moscow. This is the story of Count Alexander Iliych Rostov, who in 1922 was condemned by the Bolshiveks to lifetime house arrest in the Hotel Metropole in Moscow. The book covers Rostov’s life over the next thirty-odd years, his adventures, his loves and his mental adaption to a life wholly circumscribed by the four walls of one building. The book is just wonderfully written, the language is evocative and wonderfully descriptive. Its one of those books whose ending saddened me because my time Rostov was over. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Next up was A Friend of Mr. Lincoln by Stephan Harrington. This book is a novel that gives us a glimpse into the young adulthood of Abraham Lincoln using the device of fictitious poet Micajah (Cage) Weatherby, who first meets Lincoln during a skirmish of the Blackhawk War of 1832. The story follows Weatherby, Lincoln, and a host of historical contemporaries such as Joshua Speed and Billy Herndon, as well as Lincoln’s loves with both Mary Owens and Mary Todd.

I enjoyed it immensely. In the first place, it is beautifully written. Harrington has a gift of description that genuinely transported be to the time and place of the book. Reading it, I really felt like I was witnessing life on the frontier of the early Republic. Similarly, his characterizations and dialog are also outstanding. I came away from the book feeling almost as if I knew the characters.

That being said the plotting is a bit weird. The book seems a bit unfocused, like it couldn’t actually decide what it wanted to be. A great deal of it is focused on Cage’s adventures as a poet and an entrepreneur, with a generous dollop of his growing abolitionism and his romantic relationship with Ellie Bicknell. In this part of the book Lincoln is only an ancillary character, if he’s present at all. There is also quite a lot about Cage’s friendship with Lincoln, mostly in the context of Lincoln’s political ambition and his difficulties with the two Marys Lincoln is involved with. I guess my problem is that I wish the book were either one thing (a straight fiction account of Cage’s life and adventures) or the other (the story of Lincoln from 1832-1848 in Springfield). Where it wound up, between two stools as it were, seemed odd. I also found the ending rushed and ultimately a bit unsatisfying. Despite these relatively minor quibbles, I enjoyed the book immensely and do recommend it. And I will be seeking out Harrington’s other work. A tip of the hat to longtime friend Tricia Jones for recommending it to me.

Next up was A Man Call Ove by Fredrik Backman. This is the story of 59 year old Ove, a recently widowed man, who is very focused on everything in his world being “in order”. Ove is a curmudgeon who patrols his neighborhood calling out his neighbors for their transgressions, real and imagined. Six months after the death of his wife, Ove is forcibly retired from his and job, and finding himself at loose ends, decides to kill himself and join his wife. The fates intervene in the form of a chatty and vivacious young couple with two small daughters who move in next door and flatten Ove’s mailbox with their U-Haul trailer in the process. Much hilarity, redemption, and pathos ensues. The book was charming, and I quite enjoyed it. I think you will too. A tip of the hat to work colleague Susan Swanson for turning me on to it and lending me a copy.

Last was Robert B. Parker’s very first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript. This is vintage Parker, written in the early 1970s, it seems a bit dated today, but it was interesting to see the very beginnings of Spenser and see both how far the character came, but also how much of the essence of him existed even in his first outing. If you’re a fan of Spenser, you’ll want to read this, if you’re not (yet) its as good a place as any to start.

12 for the year.

I read these years ago and when I saw them on sale for $1.99 each, I bought them and re-read them. I was a bit surprised at how well they held up. They’re not great literature, and they’re a bit dated, but they’re definitely worth $1.99 each.

8 for the year.

On to books. My wife bought me a Big Green Egg barbecue grill for Christmas and, since I’m a “book learning” sort of guy, the first thing I did was go out to Amazon and find a book about Big Green Eggs. Hot Coals: A User’s Guide to Mastering Your Kamado Grill by Jeroen Hazebroek and Leonard Elenbaas is just about what it says it is, a “user’s guide”. The book starts out with a history of the ancient cooking equipment that inspired the Japanese Kamados, as well as their adaptation by Americans into the grills we see today. Next there’s a section on the science of how and why they perform as they do. Then a section on how to light and manage the grill for different cooking techniques. Finally, there’s a section of recipes that highlight each of the cooking techniques.

All in all, it was an excellent book that told me pretty much everything I wanted to know about my grill. It was well written, accessible and well-illustrated (even on my Kindle Fire). If I had a complaint, it would be that the recipes were a bit “frou-frou” for me. I’m not going to use my Big Green Egg to cook (or eat) “Bay-Leaf Grilled Quail” or “Grilled Salad Greens with Balsamic Dressing” or even “Squid with Aioli”. But even without the recipes, the book was still very useful. And I recommend it to owners of Kamado type grills who want to understand them better.

1 for the year.

Sherman’s March by Burke Davis was a bit of a disappointment. The book is long on first hand whining and complaining and it seems almost as Davis is deliberately minimizing the effect of the depredations of the March in hastening the end of the war. From the tone of the book, I get the idea that Davis didn’t like Sherman very much. You can ignore this one, it’s just not a very comprehensive treatment.

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth. This aviation ghost story set on Christmas eve is something I read every Christmas eve, usually late at night after everyone else has gone to bed.

Low Country Heart by Pat Conroy et al, is a pastiche of different stuff put together to either provide closure to his fans, or financially profit after his death last year. It’s mostly blog entries or speeches made by Conroy interspersed with rememberences from various friends. If you’re a huge Conroy fan, borrow this from the library, if not, skip it.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Job: A Comedy of Manners by Robert Heinlein are a pair of quite good sci-fi novels and are probably my favorite Heinleins.

Moon is a story of a revolt by Earth’s Lunar colony. The colony is a pretty libertarian society of penal transportees from Earth and their descendants. The revolt is also led and facilitated by the main computer of the hated Lunar Authority which has, accidentally, and unbeknown to the Authority, become sentient.

Job is a strange book about Alexander Hergesheimer, a fund raising director for a very conservative Christian church. As a result of his fundraising prowess, he is rewarded with a South Seas cruise. During the cruise he attends a demonstration of native firewalking and is somehow inveigeled into trying it himself. He competes the walk, but faints. He wakens in a parallel universe and is transformed into Alex Graham a suave and debonair rouge who has $1,000,000 in unexplained cash and is carrying on a sexual affair with his cabin stewardess Margeritte Gunderson. Much hilarity ensues.

A quite enjoyed both books and as I say, I think they’re my favorite of Heinlein’s work. If you’re at all into sci-fi and you haven’t read these, you should.

Well, that closes the book on 2016.

120 for the year.