Book Log 2012 #43: The Lincoln Letter by William Martin

The fifth book featuring antiquarian/treasure hunter Peter Fallon, this is probably the best of the more overtly political books in the series. Fallon, along with some neo-Confederates, a billionaire etailer, and a handful of Lincoln scholars and biographers, is looking for a lost Lincoln diary, whose contents are hoped will influence any number of issues, current and historical. The story of his search is intertwined with that of a Union officer who comes into possession of the diary in 1862, loses it, and spends the rest of the book trying to get it out of the hands of Copperheads, Southern sympathizers, and those who would use it for self-promotion.

The historical story is the better of the two, which makes me think this may have been a better book if set completely in the past, like Citizen Washington. The modern storyline has all of the typical Fallon touches - brushes with danger, dragging girlfriend Evangeline Carrington into the mix, etc. - but comes to a head somewhat perfunctorily. The politics of the modern story don't clog things up too much (a blend of state's rights and the potential introduction of a VAT), adding just enough to the plot to explain the presence of the various antagonists.

Not a bad book in the whole, but I would really like it if in his next adventure Fallon came home to Boston to find the original Sacred Cod or something.

Book Log 2012 #42: Red Gold by Alan Furst

In 1941 occupied Paris, the Soviet Union has instructed communists to do whatever they can to strike at the Nazi regime, which has abrogated its non-aggression pact and is rolling tanks towards Moscow. The communists in Paris are looking for a way to get arms and other materiel to strike at the Germans. The French resistance (and government in exile) is looking to cause trouble but not necessarily put their own people at danger. In the middle is former film producer Jean Casson, who escaped Gestapo captivity and now is looking to survive and perhaps do something to help France (and his new love interest, a travel agency worker of Jewish descent).

Not surprisingly, there are many similarities between this book and the other Furst novels in this loose series about men who operate in the shadows of war. There's a similar desperation, a decision between acting out of self-interest and acting in the interest of a greater cause, and the tension of living in a place and time where war may not be present but colors every moment.

Casson is apparently also the main character of The World at Night, which is set before this novel. From the blurb it probably makes sense to read that book before this one.

Book Log 2012 #41: Dream Team by Jack McCallum

I liked this book quite a bit, and I think anyone who remembers the Dream Team - or who likes basketball and wants more of the story about this turning point in international play - will like it quite a bit as well. That being said, I do have three quibbles.

1. There's not enough about the actual Olympics. I suppose the thinking is that we know more about that than the other stuff, so focus on the creation of the team. But I'd have liked more inside stuff about the actual games and competition. I suppose that may be hard to come by given how lopsided the games were and that head coach Chuck Daly passed away a few years back.

2. Can we please stop making the pop culture asides in sports books now, please? I don't know if they're there to provide some sort of time reference to readers or if it's the Bill Simmons effect that now makes every sports writer throw in references regardless if they actually mean anything to the subject matter. Either way, please stop wasting space on this. It's not necessary.

3. There were a few times in the book where I felt like McCallum was a little too chummy, and the narrative veered more towards him than the team. That's probably an occupational hazard given his role in covering basketball and this team specifically.

Anyway, none of these issues are big enough (separately or as a group) to not recommend the book.

Book Log 2012 #40: The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

Pearl stays in the 19th century but leaves the authors behind in his latest book, which sees a group of students at the newly formed Massachusetts Institute of Technology fight the Harvard snobs (who look down at the school for its practical approach and enrollment of both charity scholars and a woman) and anti-science locals (particularly trade unionists) to investigate a number of incidents in Boston where someone has used scientific principles to create chaos. As the severity of these incidents increases, the group risks losing the school (and their lives) to find the culprit and keep MIT afloat.

Most of the characters in the book are historical figures, even the students who are part of the investigating group (many of whom went on to become MIT faculty). I found looking into their actual lives as interesting as the book itself, an inspiration that doesn't always spring from historical fiction. I did find some of the twists at the end irritating, but I don't know if it's because I felt they were unnecessary or if I just wanted to find out who was behind things.

Certainly worth a read.

Book Log 2012 #39: The Nightmare by Lars Kepler

I didn't care so much for Kepler's debut novel, The Hypnotist, and dithered on picking up this second novel, but am glad I did. In this installment, the focus is much more on police detective Joona Lind, which is to the book's benefit. We get to know him better, which makes his skill at detecting more tangible. In the last book he was this bull-headed cop who seemed to put things together out of thing air, while in this one his process is clearer (though he does still seem to generate some correct theories out of thin air).

I also found the plot of this book more plausible - a number of deaths, all connected by international arms dealing - which helped suspend disbelief where needed. Here's hoping the third book (coming to the States this summer) follows the trend.

With the last hours of 2012 slipping away, it's time to wrap up the Book Log (expect another 4 or 5 posts for that before the day is out) and, for the first time ever, name a Blogalicious Person of the Year. And for 2012, that person is Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com.

This honor isn't as much for his election forecasts - which were accurate and well-reasoned, to be sure - but for how his work underscored what should be obvious: political punditry is a nearly useless practice. You didn't have to look far to find examples, from the online pipe dreams of Dick Morris and the ironically named Unskewed Polls to Karl Rove's adventures in math on election night. It was a sight to behold, as a entire class of otherwise educated people demonstrated that they had no working understanding of math.

(Note that I don't mean to exclude left-leaning pundits here. They bloviate just as much as their conservative counterparts, but had the numbers on their side this time around and thus weren't as obviously trapped in their ideological bubble.)

My hope is that Nate's ability to show how a rational approach to poll data can inform the average person will get everyone to take two steps away from their partisan watering hole of choice and actually try to understand how the candidates, their positions and the polls all interact. That looks unlikely, but it's my hope for 2013.

Book Log 2012 #38: The Last Camel Charge by Forrest Bryant Johnson

This book pledges to tell us the "untold story" of the US military's experiment of using camels in the southwestern deserts, and based on this book it looks like that story actually doesn't include camels for significant periods of time. There are lengthy stretches about the Mormon settlement of Utah territory and the ensuing conflict with the federal government, and other parts covering the troubled history of natives and the new Americans during westward expansion. But no camels, save for the occasional mention that tries to tie the sections together.

Not that camels are completely missing, but rather that for a book about them I found it odd that they'd go missing so often. I felt like this was a book more often about expansion and the conflicts with manifest destiny than how camels got to the US and into the military. I wonder if there was a concern that a book more sharply focused on camels would be too specific to appeal to a general audience. Or maybe the untold story of the camels wasn't interesting enough. There seems to be plenty of primary source material to build a book on, but if the camels didn't do much more than haul freight and make one charge against some Mojaves the resulting narrative may have been too dull.

It's not a badly written book - though occasionally too melodramatic and oddly fond of using quote marks to bracket off words or phrases that probably don't need them - but it's not the book I expected or wanted. Maybe I just need to see if I can find Hawmps! on Netflix.

Book Log 2012 #37: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I finally broke down and read this first book in the trilogy (it helped that it was shelved with the adult books, as I wasn't going to venture into the young adult room to get it). And I can see why the book (and series) became so popular. It's a good story featuring a strong protagonist in a dangerous setting.

That being said, it's much clearer that this is a book intended for tweens and teens than, say, the Harry Potter series. There's less depth to everything in this book than in even the first Potter book, which in some cases is unfortunate (I'd love to hear more about how Panem and the Games came to be, and get more background on the supporting characters, though I suppose that may come in the other books) but also understandable in places (it's more realistic, I think, that a teen forced to fight to the death would have a more practical reaction to all the death).

Not that I think that this series should be compared to Harry Potter. It's just the best frame of reference for these sorts of books I have. By the same token, for all of the killing in this book, the body count isn't all that much higher than your average Potter book. It's just more gruesome.

I do plan on reading the rest of the trilogy. Just as soon as the books wind up in the adult section.

Book Log 2012 #36: Taco USA by Gustavo Arellano

Another entry in the "how an ethnic food became American food" genre, this time for Mexican food. I didn't like it as much as I liked The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, but it's not far off. It's a good mix of the historical with the sociological, as it looks to explain both how the food got here and how it became so popular with non-Mexicans. It also goes beyond the well-known stories (like how nachos were invented) to highlight aspects of Mexican food like the tamale men who were popular in early 20th century America, the women who made Mexican a popular street food in San Antonio, and some of the restaurants and entrepreneurs who put Mexican on the map.

Enjoyed it quite a bit, even if it left me wanting chips and salsa all the time.

Book Log 2012 #35: Fordlandia by Greg Grandin

Henry Ford, entering his later years and looking for new ways to keep Ford at the pinnacle of automotive success, hit upon a way to keep Ford from being beholden to tire companies and the rubber trade. He authorized the building of a rubber plantation in a remote section of Brazil, and the construction of a town to support the plantation and help bring civilization to the Amazon. It didn't work, as documented in this book.

The history of the Fordlandia settlement is given in great detail, from the idea that sparked it to the often shady way Ford got into Brazil to the myriad ways that the plantation and town were created that guaranteed failure (it's a bad sign when, to start, you don't hire anyone to work the plantation who knows anything about rubber trees). We also get good background into Ford's mindset and how he believed he could apply his systems to bend the natural world to his will. We also get some interesting insight as to the operation of Ford and the long-running personal battle between Ford and his son Edsel.

Enjoyed it quite a bit, and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Ford (the man or the company) or the Americas in the early 20th century.

Book Log 2012 #34: Those Guys Have All the Fun by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

Miller and Shales were behind Live From New York, the oral history of Saturday Night Live, and on the success of that book came up with this one, an oral history of ESPN. It's a natural subject, given how its become this cultural behemoth that crosses the lines of sports, journalism, entertainment and celebrity. But I don't think this book is nearly as successful as its predecessor, for two reasons.

First, for all of the photos of ESPN talent and sports stars on the cover, the book draws heavily from the executive ranks. It's not that what they contribute isn't interesting - it often is, especially on the early days of the network and the reign of Mark Shapiro - but there are times where one would like to hear more from someone who was in front of the camera. Most of these executives also seem to be the type of person I wouldn't trust as far as I can throw them, but I suppose that's TV for you.

The other problem is that, given the book's title, it's often hard to feel like these folks were having any fun. Almost everyone says they love(d) it there, but with the long hours, low pay and often difficult working environment (especially for women), I wonder how much nostalgia and time have smoothed over the day to day annoyances.

The book itself was a little uneven for me, as all of the interesting bits were bogged down by the ongoing saga of the boardroom and the often clunky transitions between subjects. One thing I did appreciate is that the book did give me what I think is a reasonably good idea of how ESPN transitioned from plucky little cable station to Worldwide Leader in Sports (for all the good and ill that entails). I'll also admit to not having read the last 100 pages or so, as at that point it was entering the period where I'd stopped watching ESPN for anything other than live sports, so the people and events they were talking about weren't familiar and, honestly, not that interesting.

I'd suggest reading Live From New York over this. I'd also suggest reading Miller's book Running in Place before this one. It's a book about the US Senate based on his time as a staffer for Howard Baker, so it's a bit of a historical piece at this point but well done from what I can recall.

Book Log 2012 #33: 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

At some point in the 300 years between this book's publication and its titular year, humankind has spread itself across the solar system, from glassed-in communities on Mercury to small, frigid settlements on Pluto and just about everything in between. But all isn't what it's cracked up to be, as there seems to be a plot to disrupt this spread - now focusing on terraforming Venus - that may be led by a new consciousness rising from an unexpected source.

There's a lot to like about this book, in its sweeping vision of a potential future and in its detailed approach to portraying how humans may best adapt to life in a developed cosmos (you may want to prepare yourself for having some additional body parts, for one thing). Some of the text outside of the main narrative (a fragmentary history of the solar system and the disjointed memories of someone or something) can be challenging, as it's not always clear how it's adding to the story, but this tends to work itself out.

My main concern with the novel is the ending, which is abrupt and wraps things up a little too neatly for what came before it. The ending leaves me wondering if this was going to be part of trilogy and, for whatever reason, it was decided to go with one long book instead.

I don't read a lot of straight science fiction, not sure that this book will goad me to read more, but on the balance I feel more positive about it than negative.

Book Log 2012 #32: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

In 1913, George Sawle brings a friend from Cambridge home for a visit. That friend, Cecil Valance, would memorialize that visit in a poem that would become famous after Valance dies in World War I. And while generations grow up learning this poem, there's an underlying mystery to it - is the romantic relationship in the poem a reference to George's sister, or is it in reference to George himself? The legacy of the poem, and the lives of George and his sister, Daphne, spin out over the rest of the novel, which is set in five sections spanning 1913 to 2008.

To be honest, the mystery of the poem is overstated, even in the paragraph above. I don't think there's much of a mystery for the reader to sort out, so it's more looking to see how, over time, people touched by the poem and by its possible subjects remember Valance and his work. There are other major themes as well - the changing fortunes of aristocrats and the rich, the way age and time plays havoc with memory, and perhaps most notably the radical changes in what it meant to be gay in Britain during the 20th and early 21st centuries.

What didn't work so well for Solar works better here, I think because the time jumps are large enough that the author just had to pick things up anew without trying to explain what happened in the intervening years. Enough of those details come to light during the course of the section to fill in the reader but not overwhelm.

It's not the easiest read for a commute - it requires more time to read and reflect - and may occasionally be too knowingly literary - but I wound up liking it more than I expected.

Book Log 2012 #31: Solar by Ian McEwen

Michael Beard is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is past his prime. He's been coasting on his award, and has landed at an organization trying to find a way to prevent climate change. He's cynical about their chances at success - really, he's cynical about everything - and his disagreeable nature infects all aspects of his life. Beard is pretty much going to run out the clock - until a chance encounter with another scientist from his organization changes his life. This novel chronicles the decade of his life following the encounter, as seen in three periods over that span.


I can't say I was a huge fan of the book. I didn't hate it, but it felt uneven to me. It might have been the broken chronology, which required enough exposition that the book may as well have been written in straight chronological order. There's also a portion of the book where Beard goes on a trip to the Arctic, which is based on a trip that McEwen took. I can see why he'd want to use the trip in his work, but I don't know if it really fit this story.

Not sure if it's worth a look or not. It doesn't make me want to run out and read more of McEwen's stuff, but it doesn't make me want to avoid him altogether.

Book Log 2012 #30: Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith

I'd heard of this book well before reading it, but knew little enough about it to think it was actually the relocation of Holmes and Watson to the American west. And, eventually, learned that it wasn't. Instead, we have a cowboy who, having read some Holmes stories, believes he can use the same deductive reasoning to solve actual mysteries. Such as why a local ranch has hired a large crew well past the point in the year where they'd need one. And, in the course of trying to sort this out, other mysteries - including a couple of murders - arise to complicate the original mystery.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I think the Holmes-Watson relationship was translated well into a western setting, both in how a cowboy detective would be received by his peers and in making the pair brothers, which I think gives them a stronger bond.

I'll be seeking out the second book in the series.

You've likely heard that the New Orleans NBA franchise is planning to change its nickname from Hornets to Pelicans. Some have mocked the new name, but there's one spirited defense that makes me doubt I'll ever go bird watching in the bayou. There's additional talk that the Carolina Bobcats will reclaim the Hornets name, which makes a certain amount of sense.

Personally, I'd prefer to see New Orleans trade the Hornets name to Utah. The New Orleans Jazz would ride again, and the Utah Hornets makes a bit of a call out to the honeybee, the Utah state insect and Mormon symbol.

In any case, this got me thinking of what other teams could use a name change.

MLB: the most obvious case here is the Washington Nationals, a name whose generic quality underscored the whole ridiculous process that brought the team down from Montreal. I can understand why they didn't want to revive the Senators name - and if you don't, check out the pre-1960 seasons listed for the Minnesota Twins - but there are other options. Ambassadors, Diplomats. Monuments. Capitols (or even Capitals, it's not like that name's getting a lot of use right now).

My second option here is the Cleveland Indians, which I would roll back to Spiders. 

NFL: And with the Indians in mind, my suggestion here would be the Washington Redskins. I don't mean to pile on the District, but of the few Native American nicknames that still persist in pro sports, this one's the most egregious.

But rather than go with Warriors or something, I'd go with a tribal name - the Powhatans. Their territory covered Maryland and Virginia, and there are state recognized tribes today that trace back to the Powhatans. Cut a deal, change the logo (but keep the colors, I have a fondness for the unis), make the change.

For those not looking to tackle racial and ethnic issues, I'd suggest a name change for the Carolina Panthers, a snoozer of a nickname.

NBA: The New Orleans name change is not the most needed change in the league. The team that most needs a change is the Toronto Raptors, an example of why you don't name your team after something appearing in a currently popular movie. That sort of synergy only goes so far.

Reviving the Huskies name (from Toronto's brief 1940s stint in the BAA) would have made more sense. Even if you were going for something ferocious or dangerous, Dragons or Scorpions (both suggested) would have been better. Really almost any of the other nine names that made it to the final cut would have been better than Raptors (the only one that wouldn't be an improvement was T-Rex, for obvious reasons). So let's just go with Dragons and work out a deal to mimic the Barcelona Dragons kit, which was the best thing to come out of the World League of American Football.

NHL: If we ever have professional hockey again, I would hope to have it without the Minnesota Wild, a nickname that has never made any sense to me. I get that Minnesota has all those lakes and trees and such, but I don't think that it translated well into a nickname. Or at least this nickname.

The other finalists weren't much better (I suppose Voyageurs was the best of the lot), so I'm not sure what to go with here. North Stars was pretty much perfect, so I suppose I'd suggest some sort of name trade with Dallas, who could then don whatever bovine-related nickname would work best with Cowboys and Mavericks.

The other option here, of course, is the Chicago Blackhawks.

MLS: The truly awful names of Major League Soccer are thankfully gone (though I don't know if FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City are huge improvements over the Burn and Wiz[ards]). So while I don't particularly dislike any of the names, the one I'd tab to change is the Columbus Crew. It's not awful, but it's kind of goofy (as is their logo of guys wearing hardhats).

If they're looking to honor workers in heavy industry, well, I don't know what to go with that's not Steelers. Suggestions welcome.

No second option, none of the other names really bother me.

NCAA: I'm not suggesting a specific school to change, but am rather suggesting the retirement of a nickname: Wildcats. How lazy is that as a nickname? It's not like we have teams called the Fish or the Mammals. Even the Greendale Community College Human Beings use a specific primate. It's a nickname for a school that either can't be bothered to go with something overused and specific, like Bulldogs or something.

The closest NCAA division 1 school to me that uses that name is the University of New Hampshire, and given the lack of athletic distinction in Durham (they didn't get their University of No Hardware nickname from their smashing successes), Wildcats almost works for them. They also have the problem that they have a native feline - the Fisher Cat - but that's being used by a minor league baseball team (which should have been called the New Hampshire Primaries, but that's another issue).

I looked up the official New Hampshire state symbols to find a new nickname, and it's not helping. The state bird is a finch. The state insect is the ladybug. There are really only two options if we go this route: Bucks (the white-tailed deer is the state animal) or Granite (state rock). I don't rend to like non-plural nickname, but I do think the UNH Granite has a certain ring to it.

Book Log 2012 #29: Making History by Stephen Fry

A middling graduate student and an aging physicist come together by chance(?) and concoct a plan to change history in one of the most predictable ways - prevent Adolph Hitler from being born. And as you might expect things do not go as planned.

I don't know what I was expecting from the book; Fry is well known as a comedic actor, so it would be natural to think that this would be a sci-fi comedy, but the comedic aspects of the book, while evident, aren't the focus. But there's enough comedy in the book that it doesn't read as it would if written in a typical alt-history style. The extent to which this works is probably very dependent on the individual reader. I thought it worked OK, not perfectly but enough to keep me reading.

Book Log 2012 #28: The Fatal Touch by Conor Fitzgerald

The return of Commissario Alec Blume has him investigating a murder that may have connections to a spate of recent muggings and the world of art forgery. He also has to balance his investigation with the wishes of the carabinieri, who are trying to take over (and perhaps stall) the murder case.

I did like the book, probably not as much as the first book in the series, but well enough. I don't recall anything I specifically liked or disliked (having read this months ago and only getting to logging it now). Seeing that there's a third book out now, and a fourth coming in 2013, does pique my interest, so I suppose that's a vote in favor of this book as well.

Book Log 2012 #27: We All Fall Down by Michael Harvey

This installment in the Michael Kelly series pick up where The Third Rail left off, as one of the light bulbs full of a deadly pathogen finally falls and breaks, releasing its contents in the Chicago subway. As the bodies start to mount, Kelly has to juggle finding the perpetrator of this crime with a mayor who wants to downplay things to protect his own image and power and a collection of feds who worry about the security implications.

I was concerned after reading The Third Rail that pursuing this story would water down the Chicago-centric aspects and make the series less enjoyable. There was still plenty of Chicago color, and Kelly continues to hold his own as a character, but I'm still a little worried that if he (and the series) continues to move in circles with the feds that the series will change in a negative way. But we're not quite there yet, thankfully.

Book Log 2012 #25 and #26: Prophecy and Sacrilege by S. J. Parris

The second and third books in the series of mysteries featuring Giordano Bruno, both involve plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I that become entwined with murders that Bruno is called upon to investigate.

In Prophecy, a girl at court is found dead, and with symbols carved into her that suggests an occult connection. Bruno is called in to see if that connection exists, and in turn discovers a link to a potential invasion by the European Catholic powers. The case also imperils Bruno's friend John Dee, whose occult leanings make Bruno's work that much more difficult.

Sacrilege moves the action to Canterbury, where the killing of a prominent citizen reintroduces Sophia Underhill, Bruno's love interest from the first novel. Bruno goes undercover to help her, and gets entangled with locals who want to use the local saint, Thomas Beckett, to launch a revolution.

Both books are of the same quality of the first, and are highly enjoyable. They're a good mix of the specific case and continuing plot points (the return of Sophia, Bruno's relationship with his patron, Sir Philip Sidney, and spymaster Walsingham). Looking forward to the next installment.