Book Log 2010 #17 and #18: Satan in St. Mary's and The Crown in Darkness by PC Doherty

These are the first two books in a mystery series featuring Hugh Corbett, a government clerk in the time of Edward I who is tasked to investigate events that touch upon the safety of the crown (in these cases, a plot against the king led by apparent Satanists and the suspicious death of the Scottish king, respectively). 


The stories are both good, though the first book (the first in the series) is a little too obvious with some of its clues and the second book keeps us a bit too much in the dark. We do get the basics on Corbett - he's very professional, a bit dour (due at least partially from being a widower) and has, for the time, some strange notions of hygiene (he likes to wash every day!).

If you're looking for a new series to start you could do worse. Or you could choose from one of the four or five other series that Doherty has going.

Book Log 2010 #16: The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell

The latest in the Saxon Tales series featuring Uhtred Ragnarson, the English-born but Dane-raised warrior who, in this book, decided to finally break from Alfred and retake his ancestral home, usurped by an uncle in the first book. His plan is derailed when Alfred's daughter, to whom he pledged his loyalty, asks him to return to fight for the nascent kingdom of Wessex.

Another solid entry in the series, a bit better than the last one I think.

Book Log 2010 #15: The First Fall Classic by Mike Vaccaro

Joe Posnanski mentioned this book about a hundred times on his blog (Vaccaro is a friend of his), and so I felt compelled to pick it up when I came across it at the library. It's a very entertaining recounting of the 1912 World Series between the Red Sox and the (then) New York Giants, a rematch of sorts as the teams were slated to play in the 1904 World Series that never happened (there's a pretty good book out there about that, too, which I think I read pre-Log). There's a fair bit about that in this book, of course, and it also gives a bit of a prelude to 1919, between the appearance of gamblers like Abe Rothstein and the team-owner tensions that run throughout the series.

My only quibble is that the book tries to take the Devil in the White City approach by juxtaposing a big criminal case of the time against the subject. In this case it was some sort of police-involved murder trial that I'd never heard of but was apparently a big deal to New Yorkers in 1912. It perhaps merited a mention for color, but wasn't of any particularly good use as a running theme.

Book Log 2010 #14: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

During his tenure with the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green went a little crazy after blowing a lead and losing to the Chicago Bears, noting (among other things) that "they are who we thought they were." That's pretty much all you need to say about this book, as it's exactly what you thought it would be. Perhaps 10 percent less credulous than The DaVinci Code, but otherwise just the sort of conspiracy-lite mumbo jumbo with sides of unlikely plot twists, coincidental timing and random other crap that you get from Dan Brown. It will make a splendidly awful movie.

Book Log 2010 #13: Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

I don't expect to jump into the e-reader market any time soon - I like actual books too much, and I'm too cheap to buy a Kindle or an iPad - but did find myself in need of an e-reader when I was commuting in via the Orange Line during the Hockey East tournament. This led me to downloading Stanza, a free e-reader for various platforms, iPhone included. And because I'm too cheap to actually buy books, I downloaded this title from Project Gutemberg. I was somewhat familiar with the story and knew it would lend itself to commuting reading based on it being more of a collection of short stories than a typical novel.

I did find some of the stories interesting, but the one overwhelming feeling I had during the course of the book is that George Willard was smart to get out of town when he did, because staying in Winesburg apparently makes you crazy. That or the water is tainted. Those are the only explanations I could come up with for having such a concentration of eccentrics and characters in one midwestern town. The book never quite came together for me, either. It was just a string of events that just kind of ended when George left.

The reading experience on the iPhone wasn't as bad as I expected, but the small display size required frequent page flips, which got old quickly. No complaints about the way the iPhone displayed text, and Stanza was very easy to use. I've not read another book on the phone, but it's nice to know the option is there if it's needed.

Book Log 2010 #12: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Known for writing thrillers, this marked a departure for Follett, as he wasn't someone who would be expected to write a cross-generational historical novel about the building of a cathedral. But that's exactly what he did, releasing this book in 1989 to moderate fanfare but strong word of mouth, building up to become his best-selling book of all time, helped by being named an Oprah's Book Club selection... in 2007.

I'll admit to having some reservations going in, as I wasn't sure how a thriller writer could realistically portray a story based around a 13th century building project. But what I didn't consider was that Follett's abilities as a story teller would allow him to create solid story lines from which he could develop the historical and architectural aspects. Because, really, it's not a book about building a cathedral but rather a book about the people involved with building the cathedral and how their lives intersect as the project starts and stops over the decades.

The only real complaint I have about the book is length - it clocks in at 976 pages, which really pushes the boundary between epic and tome. Otherwise, it's certainly recommended for anyone into historical fiction. There is also a sequel, World Without End, that I've not tackled yet due in no small part to it crossing the 1000 page threshold. I suppose I'm saving it for a time when I'm stuck in bed for a month.

Book Log 2010 # 11: Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepherd

Fresh out of college, Adam Shepherd decides to do something he's been considering since high school - with only a small amount of personal gear and cash, he goes to a city he's never lived in before to see if, within a year, he can build himself up to having a job, a car, a place to live and future prospects for school or starting a business.

With that, Adam jumps a train and gets off in Charleston, South Carolina, and after a rough first night finds his way to a homeless shelter, and from there starts on his plan in earnest. Along the way we get to meet other residents of the shelter, co-workers and employers who both help and hinder Adam as he works towards self-sufficency.

There's a lot to like about a young guy who does something like this, and manages to write about it reasonably well to boot (the conclusion notwithstanding, which is pretty disjointed). But a couple of points did strike me as off. First, he looks at this as a rebuttal to books like Nickled and Dimed, which paint a much less rosy picture of getting out of the lower middle class, but I'm not sure it's as much of a rebuttal as he thinks it is. In this case, we have a young guy who is in good shape, no dependents and no debts, all very advantageous if you want to work your way out of the shelter. His results would not have been the same if he were a woman (and thus less likely to get the labor-intensive jobs he gets), had a child to support or past bills to pay.

Adam also claims that he's not going to use his education or contacts to help him, but I don't think that's something you can quite turn off. While he doesn't overtly use these things, it's not hard to see how his education (and his stable family life) give him an advantage over people who didn't have the same start, and thus didn't develop the same habits or traits that Adam has.

With those limitations, though, I did still enjoy the story, and think it has motivational potential for anyone who just needs a push to get out of present circumstances.