Another Delco Guy In South Jersey

Hello There!

It's been a while ...

Things are busy, so I can't say the site has been at the top of my list of priorities. May is deposit season, so work is as busy as it gets. It's also the heart of youth baseball season, so the weekends (including Mother's Day) have been full of games and time with friends.  My daughter's social butterfly stage is in full bloom and I even understand she may have a boyfriend. Sigh.

I've been a bit better on the eye health front, but there are still some mornings where getting the lenses in is darn near impossible.  The crazy days of greenish yellow tree pollen coating everything seem to be waning, but who knows what will come next.

I haven't read much lately, but did finish the audio versions of the Dragon Tattoo series.  I'm working on reviews and looking forward to listening to the new John Sandford 'Prey' novel that is out.  I've also become acquainted with 'Mad Men,' and it's as good as everyone says.

I'm eating better, getting some exercise in and have found some new things to interest me and make me happy. I'm still here and will be checking in more as baseball winds down. 

'The Great Leader' - A Review

I like cop books.  I read a lot of them, Sandford and Connelly and even Cornwell. At it's most simple, Jim Harrison's 'The Great Leader' is a cop book. A retired state police detective from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on the hunt for a cult leader who takes advantage of his young female followers.

But the pursuit of the criminal is only a single thread in the cloth of this novel, which weaves together sex, fishing, history, alcohol, reading, aging, family, longing, nature and travel in a compelling 288 pages.  Author of 'Legends of the Fall' and 'The English Major,' Harrison certainly knows how to build characters who resonate.

The protagonist in this book, Simon Sunderson, seems more than a bit autobiographical and as a reader I wondered throughout the story how much of what Sunderson was thinking and feeling was actually coming directly from Harrison's life experience and how much of it was part of the character creation.  The emotions seem so deeply considered, so strongly felt and vividly conveyed that it seems almost impossible to believe that they could be constructs and not drawn from real life.

Sunderson is a horny old dog, staggering though the early days of his retirement, often in a drunken stupor, lusting after virtually every woman he meets and reading history until he passes out every night.  Trailing the suspect to the desert Southwest, he gradually falls under the spell of the harsh and unfamiliar landscape.  His interactions with the other minor characters of the novel are well-scripted but the supporting cast is pretty one-dimensional. 

A 16 year old next-door Lolita is the best-developed of the characters, but we never really find out what makes her tick.  Sunderson's ex-wife, sisters, love interest and best friend all seem to be merely creations to further the plot incrementally and give things for Sunderson to think about.  None really develop into someone memorable after the book is put down.

The outdoors scenes are particularly well-described.  The cold, wet piney scent of the Upper Peninsula practically leaps off the page when you read the passages.  I even imagined what it would be like to have the patience to actually fish. Harrison's imagery of Arizona and New Mexico easily called to mind my visits to that area. The descriptions of Sunderson healing from an injury were sharp enough to make me wince a few times.

Ultimately the book gives us a peek into the mind of a man at a crossroads.  His professional life complete and his family life a shambles, what is there to live for at 65 years old? Harrison gives us a long look at our own mortality while also creating a solid cop story.

'Locked On' by Tom Clancy - A Review

In honor of National Read in the Bathtub Day (I looked for the only known picture of me in a bathtub, but alas, was unable to find it) we've got a book review for you today.  I'm sure you're way more interested in the review than the photo anyway.

'Locked On' is the latest in the Jack Ryan lineage, and includes all of the old gang of Jack Clark, Ding Chavez form the early days as well as newer faces like Jack Ryan, Jr. and cousin Dominic Caruso. The elder Ryan is pursuing a White House bid against a liberal who has gutted the CIA and the younger Ryan and the rest of the gang are running a privately-backed paramilitary group (The Campus) in Northern Virginia.

I have read all of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan books and a few of his others, including Red Storm Rising, one of my favorites of all time, but this might be my last one. Written 'with' Mark Greaney, this book has three main plots that converge so that Ryan's buddies can save the world. Each has its own impossible elements and combine in the end for a climax that would make Hollywood's worst action movie directors wince in incredulity.

In the Plot One, a shadowy former Warsaw Pact informer turned liberal American billionaire (A thinly-disguised George Soros) seeks to scuttle Ryan's presidential bid.  The plot involves the world's most wanted terrorist, a liberal civil rights group, a deputy director of the CIA, a convenient French detective with a million amazing contacts, a former Soviet spy and his Russian diplomat son.  And a few dozen other characters with connections and motives that are incomprehensible.  Executed properly, there is enough in just this plot for an entire novel. Sadly, it's executed horribly.

In Plot Two, we've got the insane Pakistani general trying to overthrow his own government by creating a conflict between India and Pakistan. This guy has multiple identities and has been causing trouble in the Indian sub-continent for a decade but no one knew who he was until Jack Ryan, Jr. got on the case! Thankfully Jr. and Cuz zip over to Pakistan to defuse a stolen nuke, kill the plotting general and head back in time for the Inauguration.

And in the Plot Three, a Russian billionaire space tycoon finds out he really isn't Russian, but actually a Muslim, and buys an extra stolen nuke from the Pakistani general to take his revenge on Moscow and force the release of a separatist military leader. Of course, he has 3 former Soviet ICBMs at his disposal and manages to take control of an entire Russian space launch facility to carry out his dastardly plan.

The Rainbow organization of Clancy's middle period has been gutted by lazy, left-leaning Eurotrash governments and can't handle the task of saving the day.  Thankfully, a 64-year old John Clark is fresh off being shot and tortured at the hands of the Russian diplomat from Plot One and is available to train up his old Rainbow organization overnight.  With the help of his trusty sidekick Ding, who is now also a super-sniper and helo jumper, the hostage crisis is averted and with only minor damage to Moscow, the terrorist plot is foiled.

Even at 853 pages, there are glaring plot holes that you can drive a truck through. Ryan, Sr. is running for president as a far more conservative hawk than the moderate who resigned the presidency four years before.  We never hear the reason for his resignation or the startling run to the right. A love interest, Megan Kraft, is introduced to Jr. by old family friend and super spy runner Mary Pat Foley.  We have a few pages of her Kraft's inner thoughts and misgivings about the CIA early in the book.  By the end of the book, those inner thoughts have apparently been forgotten by the authors and Kraft is a duplicitous agent trying to dig up dirt on the Ryans for the CIA.

There are a few saving graces for the book.  It's pretty well written, if not by Clancy himself, then by barely-credited ghostwriter Mark Greaney.  The action is well-written and paced and the switches from plot to plot are solidly done.  As is true with any Clancy book, the technical aspects are perfect.  WIth a wide array of vintage and ultra-modern weaponry, the Jane's addicts will be very happy.  There are also a million new technologies mentioned and used, showing someone is keeping up on what makes counter-terrorism work these days.

In the end though, this book is a mess.  It's clearly designed as a pre-cursor book to a future Ryan, Sr. presidency book where all the world's evils with be righted with a super-robust CIA and techno-superior military. The three plots are just too over the top, the super-human characters to able to do just too much, the villains just too able to enmesh their own separate agendas to make this book remotely believable.

Sadly, I don't care where the series goes from here.  It's been killed by lazy writing, a lack of editing, and obviously greedy publishing.  It's a shame, because there is still some degree of interest left for me, especially in the Jack Ryan, Jr. character.  But there's just too much other crap going on in the last few books to make me think the next one will be worth the time to read it.

Friday Fantastic Four - Best War Books

It's Veterans Day here in the US the day we set aside to specially remember those who have served, fought and given so much for our nation.

So we've got a military-themed Fantastic Four this week:

What are the four best war books?

The Killer Angels – Michael Shaara - some of the best historic fiction ever written.  Wonderful dialog and a perfect sense of setting at the battle of Gettysburg.

1. All Quiet On The Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque - I remember the first time i read this in high school and how much it changed how I looked at war, the military and  the value of life.
2. The Caine Mutiny – Herman Wouk - A fantastic story, wonderful characters and writing.  Very believable war sequence and a great courtroom finale.
3. The Great Escape - Paul Brickhill - Maybe the greatest escape ever, the true story that inspired the movie.

Thanks to veterans everywhere who make it possible for my family and me to live safely and in freedom.

Friday Fantastic Four - Favorite Authors

We've been on a movie theme lately, but with Nicholas Sparks and John Grisham releasing big new books lately and Stephen King's much anticipated 11/22/63 coming out next week, I think it is a good time to switch to a book theme.

Who are your four favorite authors?

1. John Sandford - From his 'Prey' novels starring smartass detective Lucas Davenport to his new books featuring quirky Virgil Flowers, Sandford makes Minnesota interesting!  Maybe the best characters in the crime genre today.
2. John Feinstein - While he will never beat his debut 'A Season on the Brink' that took us all inside college basketball like no one ever had or will again, Feinstein turns out thoughtful sports inside stories nearly every year, showing us the heroism and frailties of the people we watch on TV every weekend.
3. Michael Connelly - Once again, an author who has had huge success with two characters, first LAPD detective Harry Bosch and now a bit player from that series has his own hit series as lawyer Mickey Haller keeps Connelly fresh.  His love for LA really comes though in these books.
4. Ruth Downie - A recent discovery for me, Downie is a British historical fiction writer whose novels feature a Roman doctor living in Britain in the second century.  Very interesting period detail, wry humor and complex plots make these a new favorite.

So who are the writers who will make you pick up a new release every time?

Have a great weekend!

On Spring Training and Tug McGraw

As the temperatures here in the Northeast drop back into the 40s today and wind sweeps the remaining fall leaves across the yard, baseball teams are stretching and throwing under cloudless blue skies in Florida.  While I would love to make the trek down to see the Boys of Summer getting ready to come North, such a trip is just not in the budget this year.

last week, to try to get ready for baseball season, I picked up Tug McGraw's 2004 memoir "Ya Gotta Believe!"  "The Tugger" was a larger than life figure in Philadelphia during my childhood.  The screwball pitcher who saved the final game of the Phillies 1980 World Series victory by striking out Willie Wilson, McGraw was known as a funny guy and the life of the party. 

About this time of the year in 2003,Tug McGraw was diagnosed with brain cancer.  He died just before the book was published.

I met "The Tugger" a few times in the late 1990s.  I was living back in Delco -- in Media, PA -- at the time and had a post office box at a store at the end of the street.  Tug somehow knew the older Irish gent that owned the store and I talked with him a few times over the years.  He was just what he appeared to be, funny, friendly and never at a loss for words.

But the wide smile hid some personal demons.  A brother who was a convicted murderer, a disastrous personal financial situation, a serious of painful personal relationships.  At that time he had finally accepted country music superstar Tim McGraw as his son, but had spent nearly two decades denying paternity.

Still, you could not help but love the guy.

So I was looking forward to the book arriving and spending a few days reading old stories about being a ball player in the wild and crazy 70s, maybe getting some inside dirt on that 1980 Phillies championship team or some insights on moving up though the Mets organization.  But the book doesn't start there.

The book starts at the end.  With Tim McGraw telling us that Tugger didn't pull this one out.  With the diagnosis and the cancer and the sadness.  I knew Tug had died, but I really wanted to celebrate his life, not re-live the loss.

And so I put the book back on the shelf.  I'm not going to finish it right now.

I've lost three grandparents to cancer.  My brother is a survivor.  Its marks are all over my life and my past and there is nothing funny about it.

As much as I wanted to read Tug's life story, the shadow of his death was too much for me.  Maybe another time.

What I Read On My Summer Vacation

As you may have heard, this has been a cool, wet summer in Maine.  So when you are there for a week and the kids exhaust themselves at about 7:30, there is plenty of time for reading.

At least there is for me.  Some of the other family members do puzzles, but there isn't anything more boring to me than doing a puzzle. 

Except maybe watching Olympic synchronized diving.

So I read six books in seven days and felt pretty good about it.  Most of it was your basic light beach reading, but it still felt good to be reading more than usual.

Nelson Demille's Wild Fire is a far-fetched post-9/11 thriller that seems to have been written to be made into a movie.  The book's hero, John Corey, is the typical guy I like to read about, a wise-cracking smart Aleck with an authority complex who always gets the hot woman.  Sound like anyone you know?  3 out of 5 stars.

Michael Connelley's Echo Park is 2006 installment (I got it on remainder, you think I can afford hard covers?) of the Harry Bosch series of detective novels set in the Los Angeles area.  A number of interesting twists and Connelly's usual knack for bringing us great LA settings makes this one of my recent faves.  4 stars out of 5.

Augusten Burroughs' Possible Side Effects is the funny but ultimately disappointingly pointless 5th of Burroughs' memoirs and the material is starting to get  a bit thin.  I mean how many essays can a guy write about his life as a recovering alcoholic, OCD nearly-psychotic gay man?  Apparently more, since there's a sixth book out. 2 out of 5 stars.

Dennis Coupland's Miss Wyoming was not at all what I expected, but it was well worth the wild read.  Part social commentary on the cult of celebrity and part gonzo Hollywood buddy book, this is a fun story that has some very poignant moments.  3.5 out of 5 stars.

I picked up the last 2 books at the Colonial Pharmacy since the Book Port has left The Port.  The books weren't bad, but god it's weird to buy books at a pharmacy.

Linda Fairstein's Bad Blood has her signature cool characters (another wise guy detective), a series of very cool settings, but an almost intelligible plot line.  The romance subplot is forced and the overall feeling is a bit of a mish-mas.  Some great historical references and a pile of stuff to look up on Google save this one.  2.5 out of 5 stars.

My final book of the week was a new author for me and a book that is hot off the presses.  Richard Montanari's Merciless was interesting for me primarily because the thriller is set in Philadelphia and has a number of settings that are part of my everyday, including Spruce Street and some others that I had never heard of in the City of Brotherly Love.  The story spins a bit out of control, but the characters are well-cast and the tone is dead on for a cop novel.  3 stars out of 5 (3.5 if your a Philly guy/gal).

Vince Flynn - Made for TV

Protect and Defend: A Thriller [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED]  (Audio CD)
by Vince Flynn (Author), George Guidall (Reader)

Just before Christmas I picked up this Audiobook with a gift card I had been given by a co-worker.  I knew I would be driving back and forth a good bit to drop off and pick up the kids and decided that I would splurge on a diversion.  I just didn't realize the diversion would be quite so mindless.

I've enjoyed some of Flynn's previous work.  It's good for a plane trip or a beach read.  His hero, Mitch Rapp, is a CIA superagent and assassin, 'the point of the spear' in the war on terrorism.  Rapp is everything you could want in an action hero, a crack shot, a cunning tactician, a hardened soldier and a lover of many women.  This is Flynn's 8th book starring Rapp, and he is deepening in complexity as the series continues, but there are some parts missing in the rest of Protect and Defend.

Playing for Pizza

And now for something a little different.  I just got done a fairly recently-published audio CD of John Grisham's Playing for Pizza and thought you all might enjoy a bit of a review.

Playing for Pizza
by John Grisham
Unabridged Audio CD
Published by RH Audio on Septermber 24, 2007
6 CDs - Read by Christopher Evan Welch

I am not much of a John Grisham fan.  I like legal thrillers just fine, but his seem to be written all to often to be turned into a film later.  Things explode often.   Private jets are frequently used.  Kisses happen on the beach at sunset.

Still, I was looking for some light listening for a recent trip and the premise of Grisham's latest novel intrigued me.  Since it wasn't a lawyer saving the world or a hooker exposing insurance fraud, i decided to pick up Playing for Pizza.  The liner notes mentioned a down on his luck NFL quarterback looking for a last shot at redemption playing American football in Italy.

It sounded just interesting enough to spend the $20 on so I would not have to be punching buttons on my car radio for a day of driving across Pennsylvania.

And it was interesting enough to prevent that.  But not by a whole lot.

It's a fun read about a lovable loser, Rick Dockery, who, after losing a game no one could have lost to cost the Cleveland Brows a shot at the Super Bowl, heads to Parma, Italy to play QB for the Parma Panthers.  He's out of money, running from a possible paternity suit and desperately interested in seeing the cheerleaders of Italy.  Dockery soon finds himself immersed in a city in love its food, wine and opera, and though a fish out of water, makes the best of his few months there.

The passages about the food and sights of Italy are amazing.  It's some of Grisham's best writing. The football sequences make it clear Grisham knows a bit about the game.  But if you're looking for a story, there isn't much here.  It's a Tom Cruise movie of a novel.  You know, talented rouge gets a break, faces adversity, bonds with unexpected people, overcomes said adversity, learns to enjoy life and triumph in the end.  All the while, he beds a hottie and leaves us wondering what's next.

It's fun.  Just not that special, which is a shame given all the material Grisham has to work with here.

It'll make a great movie.

Friday Fantastic Four

Continuing on our book theme, here is today’s list: 

What author would you most like to see have a new book out?

1. Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes)
2. John Sandford (Prey books)
3. Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird)
4. Katherine Kurtz (Deryni books)

Have a great weekend and GO PHILS!!!!

Friday Fantastic Four

Here's one of my favorite questions:

Who are your four favorite fictional charaters?

1. Jim Rockford
   
2. Indiana Jones
3. Curious George
   
4. Ignatius J. Reilly

Books, movies, comics, wherever -- who do you connect with form the world of fiction?

In An Instant

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I am in the midst of a two week period in which I will visit 11 states and  DC, using planes, trains and automobiles.

While in DC most recently I had the chance to hear a very compelling and moving story that helped remind me what's important.  Lee Woodruff's book is titled In An Instant and details her husband Bob's recovery from an attack by Iraqi insurgents in 2006.  The Woodruffs were on top of the world, with Bob recently assuming the evening news co-anchor job at ABC News.  They had four great kids and a dream home in West Chester County.

Then a bomb send pieces of rock and metal into Bob's head, neck and brain.  His producer stuck his fingers in the wound and saved his life.  Helicopter pilots ignored orders not to land and rescued the reporter who was near death.  Doctors in Iraq stabilized him and removed a large part of his skull.  Woodruff was moved first to Germany then to Bethesda Naval Hospital.

The president of ABC News called Lee Woodruff and gave her the news.  In that instant, every fear imaginable went through her head. 

Lee Woodruff did an amazing job portraying the emotion of the journey that has brought her husband back from the near-dead to work again as a television reporter.  I can't possibly write well enough to help folks who have not seen her understand the wonderfully calm way that she expresses her devotion for her husband and children, her gratitude for all those involved in her husband's recovery and her fervent desire to help the world better understand brain injuries.

The Woodruffs have established a foundation to help members of the military who have been brain injured.  They say they were ennobled by the experience.  I am humbled by it.