Book Log 2010 #65: Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

I've read a couple of reviews of this book calling it a follow-up to Kitchen Confidential, but I don't buy that. Unlike that book, which was a straight-up tell all about restaurant work and Bourdain's fairly tortured life as a chef, this book is more a reflection on the world of food from a many who, by his own admission, is no longer a chef (though he loves it when people call him one).

The book is also more conflicted, as Bourdain has to reconcile being part of the food entertainment complex that he spends a fair amount of time lambasting. Having now seen the other side of the coin, he is now more understanding (and even apologetic) towards some of his previous targets, while remaining quite able to write scathingly about those who he believes deserve it (his chapter on food critic Alan Richman is a classic example of this).

So I think of this book as less of a follow-up and more of a checking-in, allowing Bordain to address some topics from the first book while making new observations based on things he's seen and thought since the first book came out. It's also an interesting example of how someone can sand down their rougher edges without damaging their core. Bourdain may be nicer, more understanding, and perhaps even somewhat humble, but he's still able to call things as he sees them and write about them powerfully.

Book Log 2010 #64: The High King of Montival by S. M. Stirling

This newest book in the Emberverse series sees Rudi Mackenzie, having gained the Sword of the Lady while on Nantucket, begin his return home as Artos, the high king of Montival (comprising most of the Oregon-based groups already introduced). Along the way he and his band make alliances with an eye towards a showdown with the Church Universal and Triumphant, whose powers have been blunted somewhat by the Sword.

While the book mostly sets up the coming war, I did like that it spent more time with characters and plot and less time messing about. One thing that did bother me, and seems to be a running issue over the last few books, is that the cover art. I assume the guy on the cover is supposed to be Rudi, but rather than getting the tall, muscular guy with curly reddish gold hair, the person on the cover is shorter and dark haired. I know this is kind of a fanboyish thing to get irritated with, but given how focused on detail Stirling is within the book, I'm surprised he's allowed the publisher to be so inaccurate on the cover.

Book Log 2010 #63: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

Book theft among rare book dealers is not uncommon, but the response to theft might be, at least to outsiders. Dealers are loathe to report the crime for fear of being seen as incompetent or untrustworthy, and the mechanisms for reporting theft to other sellers who may also fall victim was, until recently, haphazard at best.

Enter book seller Ken Sanders, who took on the role of security chair for the largest association of dealers and developed a reporting system that proved effective enough to identify a significant thief who, using stolen credit information, was ripping off stores all over the west coast.

That thief, John Gilkey, was stealing not so much to make a profit but because he loved books and the idea that owning rare books would help elevate his social status. It's the obsessive nature of Gilkey's crimes that pull in Bartlett, who spends most of the book trying to sort out what drives Gilkey to steal (and, once out, to contemplate stealing some more).

The author does get to an interesting ethical line when she goes into a store with Gilkey, who doesn't steal anything but talks her through his thought process. There's at least one comparison to The Orchid Thief (I think in a blurb), which is apt. I do think the book loses steam towards the end, as the author becomes less comfortable working with Gilkey and as Sanders becomes less involved in security matters. But it's still a worthy read to get an insight into both the world of rare books and into the twisted logic of one book thief.

Book Log 2010 #62: Crash Course by Paul Ingrassia

While the recent economic instability nearly wiped out at least two of the Detroit Three, the problems faced by GM, Ford and Chrysler have long historical roots, which long-time industry journalist Ingrassia displays with great clarity in this book. The picture that emerges is one where management, divorced from the rank and file and, in some cases, reality, made a litany of bad decisions, which compounded to put the companies into dire straits. The union contribute in equal measure, as their constant drive for benefits out of line with rationality and consistently combative relationship with management helped to create an environment where jobs weren't tied to performance, to the point where members didn't even have to work to collect nearly all of their pay (the Jobs Bank concept may be one of the singularly worst ideas ever).

While the history is interesting and quite instructive, the end sections on recent events help to clear up what was, at times, a confusing process. Both the government and Ford come out as winners, the former for helping the industry survive as a whole, and the latter for being the one automaker who didn't take any money.

A good book for people interested in the industry, and probably a better book for people who don't know as much but are looking for a clear overview of how the auto industry went into meltdown.

Book Log 2010 #61: Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith

This latest Arkady Renko novel is set at the Three Stations in question, a railroad terminus for three major lines. Renko, already on thin ice with his superiors, forces their hand when he continues to investigate the death of a young woman in a construction trailer as if it were a homicide - which it shortly becomes. While this is going on, Renko's sort-of foster son, Zhenya, gets mixed up with a girl who comes off of one of the trains claiming her baby was kidnapped, but gets little help in trying to track her down.

More than the other books, this one is more about the current state of Russian society than Renko and his crime-solving. The killing he investigates winds up tying into the new moneyed class and the slow collapse of their house of cards, thanks to the global economic crisis and a crackdown on oligarchs by the same government that helped them earn billions. The other half of the story takes us into the lost generation of Russians, kids who band together to form something that's part gang, part family and all desperate.

Zhenya's part of the story does a nice job of showing how similar he is to Renko, from his dogged pursuit of the case to his (likely doomed) personal feelings for Maya, the girl whose baby is missing.

It's a worthy addition to the series, but one that's a little different.

Book Log 2010 #60: The Town that Food Saved by Ben Hewitt

On the face of things, Hardwick, Vermont is a depressed little town. It's unemployment rate and per capita income are both well below the state average. But in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, the town and its immediate environs saw a huge growth in food-related businesses, from a purveyor of heirloom seeds to artisinal cheese producers to a guy trying to start a soybean industry. And while this hasn't solved the town's problems, it's a start that a lot of towns aren't getting.

Hewitt sets out document this turn of events, but is struck almost immediately by the complexity of defining just what is going on. Are the new businesses actually helping when they mostly focus on value-added products rather than primary ingredients (cheese versus milk, for example)? How will the new businesses interact with older ones? Can food really have saved the town when many of the products are priced well above similar items produced by the industrial food system? He does set up a framework for answering the main question about food saving Hardwick, but by the end it's no clearer if there's actually an answer.

Which in and of itself is OK, given the people we meet along the way. They provide an intriguing cross-section of the community, which helps to put some of the questions into starker relief. By the end of the book I didn't think that Hardwick was being saved, but did believe that the area is developing into an example of how we can move away from corporate agribusiness and towards something more personal. It's just not clear how long it will take to develop completely.

Book Log 2010 #59: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steiger Larsson

The second entry in the Millennium trilogy picks up some time after the first book ends. Mikael Blomqvist is back at Millennium and working on an expose about the sex industry with a freelancer and his soon-to-be Ph.D. fiancee. When both are shot as part of a triple killing, the only hard evidence - fingerprints on the murder weapon - point to Lisbeth Salander as the killer.

Salander, recently returned to Sweden after nearly a year abroad, works to clear her name and to settle some old scores. We also learn a great deal more about her background, which winds up having a direct tie to the sex trade investigation and the murders. Blomkvist adds his help, running down leads and appearing at just the right time as needed.

I did think this book took more time to get going than the first one in the series - it seemed to take a couple of hundred pages to set up the rest of the book - but once things got going they moved quite nicely. The background information into Salander's past was also quite welcome, as it put "All the Evil" into context, and goes a fair way into explaining Salander's social maladjustment and strong (if peculiar) sense of morality.

Kind of sad to think there's only one more book in the series.

Book Log 2010 #58: The Information Agent by Mark Mills

I think I'm developing a taste for World War II books set outside of the usual theaters. First there was Robert Wilson's The Company of Strangers, set in Portugal (and which, like all of his books, is excellent). Then it was Ken Follett's Hornet Flight, set in Denmark. Now there's this book, set on Malta during the earlier days of the war.

The main character (the information officer of the title) is tasked with keeping the propaganda front up for the British, mostly aimed at keeping the Maltese as allies in the face of Germany's bombing campaign against the island. He then gets dragged into the killing of a local woman, apparently by a British soldier. Facing official pressure to bury the case, the officer winds up undertaking his own investigation into what appears to be the latest in a line of serial killings. And on top of this he has his own romantic problems to deal with, though they soon enough become part of the case as well.

The strength of the book is its depiction of Malta at war, from the regular German attacks to the fatalism of the Britons on the island to the almost business as usual nature of the Maltese (who, historically, are used to the threat of invasion). The mystery itself unfolds at a nice pace, but I did feel that the ending was a little forced, with the actual killer cropping up out of the group of suspects almost at random. Admittedly I did read through the ending fairly quickly, but I did go back and re-read some sections to see if I'd missed something. Recommended, with an apology if my thinking about the ending is inaccurate.

Book Log 2010 #57: Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski

This is just what it sounds like - a Freakonomics-styled book that tries to use economic theory and quantitative data to answer soccer questions, from why England loses so much to what countries may come to dominate soccer in the coming decades.

It's not as well done as the inspiration, and the quality (or perhaps just the readability) of the chapters seemed to tail off at the end. All that being said, the early chapters, which take on some of the well-established "truths" of soccer (particularly those that surround English national team and club soccer), are pretty fun. Unless you're an England fan, in which case they're probably depressing (short version: England isn't going to win the World Cup any time soon, but the Prem will be great - as long as the morons who run the clubs don't get in the way).

Not much value for anyone who isn't a soccer fan.

Book Log 2010 #56: City of Dreams by William Martin

When The Lost Constitution, the last book featuring action antiquarian Peter Fallon, took a decided turn towards politics at the expense of story, I was worried about the future of the series. Thankfully, my fears were premature. Mostly.

This time around, Fallon and his fiancee, travel writer Evangeline Carrington, get caught up in the search for Revolutionary War bonds worth over a billion dollars in current money - assuming they can be redeemed. Along the way they tangle with mobsters, financiers, self-styled patriots and a mysterious bag lady, all of whom have an interest in the bonds.

I will say that Martin does a better job of injecting politics and current events into this book than he did with The Lost Constitution, which was disappointing. This is more in tune with Martin's other Fallon books, but with a higher body count.

If you liked Harvard Yard or Back Bay you'll like this book. Even if it is set in New York.

Book Log 2010 #55: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

A couple of summers ago it didn't seem like I could travel on the T without encountering someone - usually a woman - reading this book. I didn't think much about it, assuming it was some form of chick lit, albeit an odd one given the title (no mention of shopping, dating or fashion), cover art (abstract, title in plain bold font), and author (male). I eventually sorted out that the books were more of a general audience mystery/thriller, and even more eventually landed a copy.

I did enjoy the book quite a bit, especially the interplay between the main characters, the strait-laced journalist Mikael Blomqvist and the Aspergery hacker genius Lisbeth Salander. Together they unravel the disappearance (and potential killing) of a teenaged girl several decades ago, at the behest of a well known industrialist. The other story line - involving Blomqvist's libel sentence, jail time and the impact it has on the magazine where he works - doesn't do as much for me, but it's an interesting juxtaposition to the increasingly dark history unearthed in the missing person investigation.

It's pretty easy to see how this book appealed to women, given Salander's intelligence and independence. That she functions as she does given her obvious issues - she trusts no one, has no social graces and was clearly damaged by something she calls "All the Evil" - add layers of complexity that make her character that much more intriguing.

By all means give this a read.

Book Log 2010 #54: Super Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

More of the same from Levitt and Dubner, who turn their quantitative eyes towards a variety of other issues, ranging from the economics of prostitution (echoes of the previous book's section on drug dealers) to global warming. And, once again, it's surprising to see how the data demonstrate the theme of incentives shaping behavior.

I vaguely recall being dissatisfied with the global warming chapter, but I don't recall why. So with that half-baked caveat, feel free to read away.

Book Log 2010 #53: The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester

Moving ahead three centuries-plus we encounter another wandering intellectual in a foreign land. Joseph Needham was a career academic, establishing himself at Cambridge as a preeminent biochemist. In 1937 three Chinese scientists came to work with him, which led him to learn Chinese and develop a deep interest in Chinese science and the question of how China was overtaken by the West in science when China had developed an early lead. Needham would redirect his interest from biochemistry to this question, becoming a respected expert on China and the author of the multi-volume Science and Civilisation in China.

The real interest in Needham's story, though, comes from his trips to China (both as an academic and as a representative of the British government during World War II) and his unorthodox (for the time and place, certainly) personal life. Needham was a naturalist, a committed leftist and incorrigible womanizer (he would marry his longtime mistress, one of the Chinese scientists he met in 1937, after his wife of nearly 60 years died in 1987). Needham did have some trouble with his political views, but otherwise his interesting personal life did not seem to diminish from his professional accomplishments.

Winchester spent several years living in and writing about Asia, and that background helps him explain various details of Chinese history, language and culture in a way that someone less knowledgeable (like me) can understand. He also has developed a very approachable style for non-fiction, as seen in his fantastic earlier book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Professor and the Madman.

This isn't a book I would have normally picked up, but it was on the shelf of "good reads you might have missed" that our library offers, and I have to say it was rightly placed there.

Book Log 2010 #52: Heresy by S. J. Parris

A really engaging historical mystery featuring monk turned philosopher and astronomer Giordano Bruno as its main character. As in his actual life, Bruno travels to Oxford in the company of Philip Sidney to participate in a debate on the nature of the universe (and, on the side, do what he can to uncover any Catholic plots against Elizabeth I). But in the book, his time in Oxford is punctuated by a series of killings with a sinister ritualistic bent to them. When the college administration tries to hush up the murders, Bruno strikes out on his own to figure out who is behind them.

Bruno is a great character for historical fiction, as he has to balance his intellectual curiosity with his personal ethics and his own brand of faith. That tension is always at hand in the book, as Bruno has to fight off the English who see him as a tool of the Vatican and the secret Catholics who consider him a traitor. His interest in truth - both with the murder and with greater questions - regularly leads him into trouble, and he knows that, but he also knows that he can't settle for less.

I really hope this turns into a series of some sort. The characters and time period certainly give plenty of material to work from, if nothing else. Worth a look, certainly.

So while the Internets are blowing up over Qatar being tapped to host the 2022 World Cup, let's take a second to look at three reasons why this might not be a bad idea:

1. Money. Qatar has pledged to spend over $50 billion dollars to prepare the country for the event, which is a good thing given that they do not at present have anything close to the infrastructure necessary to host the tournament. And that money is more or less guaranteed, as the country's economy is based on oil and natural gas (neither of which seem poised for a drop in price any time soon) and its ruling family clearly has the will to run the thing, as they've made international sports a focus (they're hosting the Asian Cup in 2011 and hosted a WTA event for much of the previous decade).

2. Regional and international goodwill. This was apparently a large part of the Qatari presentation to FIFA. They pitched the hosting as a way to bring the wider world and the Middle East together, to help dispel stereotypes and serve as a bridge to better understanding. It also helps that Qatar is, by local standards, moderate. And, once the tournament is over, Qatar says it will disassemble the stadia they've built for it and send them to developing nations. Who, I'm sure, will have the resources necessary to run the under-field air conditioning systems.

3. Better viewing hours. Qatar offers the best viewing experience for Europe, with the bulk of the continent only being two hours earlier. It's also, theoretically, going to be a better experience for those of us in the Americas, or at least better than what we went through when South Korea and Japan co-hosted. An 8 pm start in Doha airs on the East Coast at noon, which isn't too bad. And you have to figure that there are going to be plenty of 8 pm starts.

Of course, there are also three (at least) reasons why this is a terrible idea:

1. Lack of almost everything besides money. It's a good thing that Qatar has 12 years to prepare for the Cup, as they have to build all but one of the stadia needed for it, and probably invent some technology to help handle local conditions as well. They're also short on hotels, decent local soccer leagues and international success. The national team is currently ranked 113th in the world, nestled between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand, two countries that may be about as ready to host the World Cup.

2. Mother Nature. The average high temperature for Qatar in June is 106 degrees. In July? 115. The average lows don't drop below 80. One description of the summers there mention alternating periods of dryness and humidity. Don't know how humid it gets, but one of those average June days with 50 percent humidity feels like 137 degrees. I don't think they'll be dumb enough to schedule games at the height of the day, but you get a sense of what players and fans will be up against.

And then there's also the chance of dust storms and the general lack of drinking water to worry about. Hopefully the winds stay down and the desalinization plants stay up.

3. Tough neighborhood. For all the feel good Kumbaya talk, the Middle East is still, with reason, considered a difficult place for outsiders. The laws are restrictive, customs are significantly different, and there is a not insignificant percentage of people who want to kill you if you pray less than five times a day and drink the occasional beer. As much as Qatar is comfortable with the west, hosting this event does present a juicy target to those who are not so comfortable with the west.

And what if Israel qualifies for the tournament? It's not inconceivable. They are currently 55th in the world rankings, which is among the lower-ranked teams in Europe, they've been putting together mid-table finishes in qualifying events. Some better talent and a favorable group and we could have an interesting situation on our hands. Qatar is cozy with Hamas and Iran, and cut ties with Israel over the Gaza conflict. A lot can change in 12 years... except when Israel is involved.

If nothing else, the 2022 World Cup will not lack for storylines.

Book Log 2010 #51: Beautiful Assassin by Michael White

A Russian sniper who kills to avenge those she's lost to the Nazis is plucked off the front lines and put into the murky world of espionage in this wartime thriller.

The assassin (who I keep picturing as Rachel Weisz in Enemy at the Gates) possesses a combination of physical beauty, Nazi-killing acumen, and devotion to the cause to make her a perfect propaganda tool, which the Soviet state exploits first by using her as a rallying figure for the Red Army, and secondly by sending her to a student conference in the US with an eye towards using her to spy on various figures, most notably Eleanor Roosevelt. Confusing matters is a burgeoning romance with the Air Force interpreter assigned to her.

I like that the book keeps the main character's spy work at a fairly appropriate level. While she has to deliver a couple of envelopes, and is pressured greatly to provide information gleaned from (and about) the First Lady, she's never put into the deep end of the pool, which many books in this genre would do to artificially build tension. It's not a perfect book - the main character seems almost clinically dense regarding espionage - it does provide an interesting glimpse into how wartime allies were already looking ahead to their inevitable clash, and how each willingly used individual lives to further national goals.