Book Log 2014 #4: The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler

I didn't realize how much I'd been putting off the Book Log until I noticed we were nearing the halfway point of the year and I'd logged all of three books. Time for some catch up in the form of talking about books I vaguely remember.


This is the latest in the series featuring Joona Linna, who is investigating a gruesome pair of murders at a home for troubled girls. Progress on the case is slow, but picks up when a woman claiming to be a medium - or who had at least been pretending to be one in order to earn some spare cash - has a vision about the case.

I find I've liked each of the books in this series more than the first, and that holds here. There's a good balance between the formal investigation and the involvement of the medium, and we get more background as to how Linna wound up in Sweden and what happened to his family, which appears to be setting up the next book in the series (which looks like will be released in the US this August).

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Day 40: The Pope Must Diet!

So this is the film that gave me the idea for this whole thing. Robbie Coltrane (pre-Cracker and Hagrid) plays a less than exemplary priest who is accidentally named pope. He then has to deal with Vatican corruption, the Mafia, and the return of an old girlfriend.

The original name of the film, The Pope Must Die, generated some flack, resulting the the alternate title under which it was released in the US (with some posters adding a 't' in the shape of a cross, which undoubtedly cheesed off some of the same people).

That's it, thankfully. Surprising how many films mention the pope but don't actually have one in the film. On the plus side, I could have done this whole thing based on short films of popes shot in the silent era. Maybe I should have? 

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Day 39: Becket

Not sure how I didn't think to include this earlier. It's the story of Thomas Becket and the English King Henry II, and how their relationship and differing responsibilities eventually led to Henry ordering the killing of Becket (with some question as to whether it was intentional or not).

With names like Burton, O'Toole and Gielgud in attendance, it's Italian actor Paolo Stoppa who plays Pope Alexander III. The only other films he's been in that I'm familiar with are spaghetti Westerns, which is an interesting juxtaposition.

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Day 38: Galileo

A 1975 biopic about the famed scientist, as played by Topol.Michael Lonsdale shows up as Urban VIII. It's based on a play by Bertold Brecht and filmed to maintain as much of the stage experience as possible (which I guess explains Topol). 

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Day 37:  Marie Ward - Zwischen Galgen und Glorie

I'm pretty sure this German film from 1985 is about the English nun Mary Ward, who founded two religious orders during her lifetime in the 17th century. She received patronage from several popes, two of whom - Urban VIII and Gregory XV - are in the film.

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Day 36: Blood Jungle ...or Eviva il Coltello!

A castrato and an undead vicar explore the jungle for purposes that are unclear. Dave DiLillo plays the pope, whose role in the jungle adventure is also unclear.

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Day 35: Una vita scellerata

This film is based on the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, a 16th century Florentine who was a gifted goldsmith, musician, and soldier. He found favor with the Vatican (most notably Clement VII) in all those areas, and lived on of those lives that defines the Renaissance.

All of this comes from his Wikipedia entry, as the entry for the film on IMDB has almost no details as to the plot. Max von Sydow plays Clement, and Ben Kingsley shows up as "Governor." Interested as to how they managed with the film being in Italian.

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Day 34: Good Morning, Night

This Italian film tells the story of the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, a former prime minister, by the Red Brigades. The film is told from the viewpoint of one of the brigade members who guarded Moro, a young woman who has doubts about the kidnapping.

Pope Paul VI appears in the film based on his role in trying to get the government to negotiate for Moro's release, at one point offering to take Moro's place.

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Day 33: Sign of the Pagan

Attila the Hun plans to strike at Rome, and cuts a deal with the emperor a Constantinople to turn a blind eye. A centurion who learns of the plan recruits the emperor's sister to help thwart the plan. Attila is also apparently in awe of the Christian God, which I imagine is how Pope Leo I gets involved. Jack Palance plays Attila, I'm assuming because he was good on a horse.

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Day 32: The Secret Conclave

This appears to be an Italian film about the election and papacy of Pius X. Released in 1952, it made it to the States the following year. The one review I could find of the movie was not positive, but the film apparently had its highlights, including a papal coronation and Pius' death scene.

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Day 31: Vampie

Vampire Azure St. Clair is allergic to blood but survives by baking something called vampie, which transfers the life force of the eater to the vampire. A shadowy order of vampires wants to use vampies to control the world, and while they're trying to do that the first American pope, Theodore III, orders Azure's assassination and sends a Jesuit assassin (along with his philosopher-quoting dog) to take her out. We were so close to an actual The Poke of Zorro, weren't we?

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Day 30: Elizabeth

Of course the pope shows up here, what with the constant plots to depose or kill the leader of the breakaway Church of England. Sir John Gielgud played the pope, marking his last feature film appearance at the age of 94(!).

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Day 29: Johnny Dangerously

Dom DeLuise appears as the pope, who is a big fan of Johnny Dangerously, local gangster with a heart of gold. It's a small scene, and only about the 100th craziest in the film. I don't think I've seen this since Comedy Central took it out of heavy rotation. Farging iceholes.

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Day 28: Deliver Us From Evil

This 2006 documentary by Amy Berg follows Father Oliver O'Grady, who is moved from parish to parish in northern California in the 1970s to cover for his pedophilia. Benedict XVI appears in archival footage, as the focus of the story are the abusive priest, those who helped cover up his crimes, and those whose lives were shattered by them.

The film earned an Oscar nomination in the feature documentary category (losing to An Inconvenient Truth), but did pick up several awards from critic groups as well as DGA and WGA awards for Berg. 

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Day 27: The Red Knight.

I have no idea what to make of this film, which appears to riff off both the Red Knight myth from Arthurian legend and the Crusades. The plot is also a little hard to follow based on what I can find - the titular knight has some sort of divinely-granted strength due to saving his best friend from a fire, but he also wronged the friend in a romantic dispute, and maybe the friend turns into a boar at night? The pope then asks the knight to find someone who fled from the papal court for reasons I don't quite understand.

Would it surprise you to learn that this is a French film?

The knight is played by veteran actor Daniel Auteuil, which is heartening as if this were an American film they'd never let an actor in his 50s near a role that appears to combine romantic and action elements. Pope Innocent III is played by Jean-Francois Gallotte, another veteran French actor, but who I know nothing about.

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Day 26: Monsignor

A shady priest (played by Christopher Reeve) uses his wartime heroics and connections to crooked Army figures and the Mafia to help build up the Vatican's finances during and after World War II. Along the way he and his mentor (played by Robert Prosky) work together to rise through the Vatican hierarchy and foil the mentor's rival. Then Reeve falls in love with a nun, and things take a turn.

The pope is played by Leonardo Cimino, a character actor who you might recognize from films like Moonstruck, The Freshman and various TV roles. The producer of the film apparently decided to make it after reading a synopsis of the book, which was originally written in French. That might explain why a film with a number of notable names, and with the publicity fitting a major release (I remember ads for the film) stiffed at the box office. Or maybe it was Superman playing a crooked cleric.

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Day 25: The District

This Hungarian animated film features a young man who lives in Budapest and wants to win over the daughter of a local pimp. But he has no money to settle family squabbles and get married, so he concocts a plan: he will go back in time to kill mammoths, and then sell the oil they turn into in the present day.

I have no idea how the pope figured into this, but he does, along with Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and the prime ministers of Hungary and China. We're a Sadaam Hussein and the devil away from this becoming another South Park movie. 

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Day 24: Brother Sun, Sister Moon

Another St. Francis biopic, brought to us by Franco Zeffirelli. Pope Innocent III is played in this movie by Sir Alec Guinness, in his only papal role. If IMDB can be trusted the Beatles were originally considered for the major roles, and Al Pacino read for Francis but was considered too over the top.

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Day 23: Saving Grace

Another film from 1986, but with the pope front and center. Tom Conti plays Leo XIV, a pope whose doubts and feeling of isolation from regular people come to a critical mass when he finds himself locked out of the Vatican. Leaving aside questions of how that happens, Leo eventually finds himself in a village where he learns to reconnect, etc.

This was apparently the last movie released by Embassy Pictures, which gave us films like The Graduate, The Lion in Winter, and Zapped! 

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Day 22: Thérèse 

This 1986 film tells the story of Thérèse of Lisieux, a nun whose writings and simple approach to worship eventually led to her sainthood. Not sure how the pope figures into this, as it seems like she attracted most of her attention after death, But there's a pope here, played by Armand Meppiel in his only movie credit.

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Day 21: Francis of Assisi

This 1961 film is a straightforward biopic of the current pope's namesake. Not much to say about it, really. The pope is played by Finley Currie, a British character actor who didn't make his first film until he was in his 50s. The only other notable name (to me, at least) is Pedro Armendáriz, who plays a sultan. You may know him better for his last film role, Kerim Bey in From Russia With Love. 

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Day 20: Pope Joan

I read the book this was based on (OK novel, poor attempt at trying to make it historical fact). The short of it - an English woman raised in Germany manages to become pope, but has her gender discovered in a very public way with the sort of consequences you'd expect in the first millennium AD.

I've not heard of the German actress who played Joan, but I have heard of the actor who plays Pope Sergius; John Goodman. I would love to know how he wound up in that role in this movie, as he's really the only obvious Hollywood type in the picture. 

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Day 19: In the Days of Saint Patrick

This silent film from 1920 is about the life of St. Patrick, with an actor named George Brame (in his only credit) playing Pope Celestine. It's an Irish film, and apparently the state of Irish film at the time resulted in something that had great outdoor scenes and comically amateur indoor scenes (based on the one review on the IMDB page).

The adult Patrick is played by someone named Ira Allen, which is interesting to me for two reasons. First, Allen only has two credits in IMDB - this film and a 2010 songwriting credit in Country Strong. Based on Ira Allen's website, I'm thinking the credits belong to two different Iras.

The other reason that caught me is that one of the buildings on our campus is the former Ira Allen school, named for a prominent Roxbury doctor and coroner. And not the Irish actor. Or American country musician. Or founding father of Vermont and brother of Ethan Allen.

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Day 18: Dante's Inferno

This updated telling of Dante's epic uses paper puppets and miniature sets to tell the tale, and I'm torn between that being kind of cool and the trope of  "updating" a classic to remind us how little humanity has changed over the years.

Tony Hale (aka Buster Bluth) voices Pope Nicholas III, who is in hell for simony and is punished by being put head first into a hole and having his feet set on fire. Now I really want to see how they pulled that off using paper puppets. 

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Day 17: We Have a Pope

This Italian movie from 2011 is about a conclave where the newly-elected pope refuses his election to office, and the events that ensue in trying to get him to take the job. It's listed as a comedy and a drama on IMDB, and the one review suggests it's more a comedy. It did pick up a few awards in Italy, for what that's worth.

Book Log 2014 #3: The Yard by Alex Grecian

Set in a Victorian London still rattled by Jack the Ripper, a series of police killings puts stress on the Murder Squad, a unit within Scotland Yard created to solve killings. When it falls to the squad's newest member - brought in from the sticks for reasons he's not even clear about - to solve the case, there's doubt among his colleagues that he's up to the task. This impression may not be helped by his use of a doctor (with his new-fangled ideas about things like "finger marks") and constables who have their own issues.

There's nothing super remarkable about this book, it's another reasonably good historical crime novel that highlights the clash between old and new thinking at the turn of the 20th century. One thing I did like about it is that we learn the identity of the killer fairly early on, and get to see much of what happens from that perspective, which isn't so common.

Worth a read if you're looking for something in this genre, certainly.

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Day 16: Vatican Conspiracy

Apparently this is a highly fictionalized riff on the death of John Paul I, wherein a religious hermit gets mixed up with terrorists and plans to kill the pope by poisoning (and not the sniper rifle that's being hefted by someone in the poster, apparently). There's nothing really notable about the film except that the pope is played by Terence Stamp, who seems like he'd be better suited to playing a Borgia pope.

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Day 15: Lisztomania

As a performer in the early 1840s, Franz Liszt developed an intense following among his fans, who would rush him during performances and follow him outside of the concert hall, looking to get a keepsake or otherwise interact with him. In an age where such frenzy over a musician was unheard of, the term cropped up as a way to suggest some sort of medical cause to the madness. The madness would subside when Liszt retired from the stage to concentrate on composing, but his personal life continued to be interesting, from an abortive marriage to a Russian princess (when both were already married) to time spent in religious life.

Liszt would make an interesting subject for a movie. So why not make it more interesting by including phallic hallucinations and Richard Wagner as a vampire Hitler? That was apparently Ken Russell's thinking, as he wrote and directed this for release in the same year as Tommy (one suspects a visit or two to the Acid Queen). The proximity of the two films also explains how Roger Daltrey wound up playing Liszt. It does not explain how Ringo Starr wound up playing the pope who ultimately denied Liszt's marriage to the Russian princess. Though a visit or two to the Acid Queen might.

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Day 14: Mister Lonely

A Michael Jackson impersonator working in Paris meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who invites him back to the Scottish commune that she runs with her husband, Charlie Chaplin, and daughter Shirley Temple. In an apparently unrelated plot, there are a group of nuns jumping out of airplanes (without parachutes) to prove that God will protect you if you're true of heart.

James Fox (who is pretty much the reigning British "hey, it's that guy!") plays the Pope (I'm assuming Benedict XVI based on it being a 2007 release), while other notable performers include Samantha Morton as Marilyn and Werner Herzog as a priest (impersonator, I assume). The film is probably most notable as being written and directed by Harmony Korine, who made a splash about 20 years ago for his screenplay for Kids (written as a teenager himself). I hadn't thought of him in years, though he also made 2012's Spring Breakers, about a group of college kids who commit robbery to fund their spring break trip, which I vaguely remember. No pope in that one, sorry to say.

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Day 13: In nome del popolo sovrano

This Italian film from 1990 tells the story of the 19th century attempt at forming an independent Roman republic that the French and Austrians thwart by returning Piux IX to the Vatican.  The story is less about that than the lives of some of the republicans and their attempt to escape Rome once the French arrive. Someone does actually play the pope, so I suppose that's something.

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Day 12: Night Shapes

A papal visit to Berlin is the backdrop for stories about a variety of people trying to find happiness one night during the visit.  It's not clear to me that the pope's visit has any influence over the characters and their actions, the visit may just be a framing device. Based on the very basic plot description this film reminded me of Night on Earth, as far as the structure of the film goes.

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Day 11: Immoral Tales

Four erotic tales set in different time periods make up this film. The last tale is about an orgy involving members of the Borgia family, including Pope Alexander VI. The only notable thing about the movie is that one of its stars is Paloma Picasso, daughter of Pablo. The film even plays of this in its tag line, "You don't have to go to Rome to see a X-Rated Picasso."  

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Day 10: Nun of That

Sister Kelly Wrath is a nun with anger issues, which lead her to getting gunned down in an alley. But she's not quite dead yet, as after meeting the likes of Jesus and Gandhi in heaven, she's sent back to Earth to join the Order of the Black Habit, a group of supernatural vigilante nuns who are planning on exacting revenge against the mob for some reason.

Veteran B-movie actor Lloyd Kaufman plays the pope, whose role in this whole thing isn't suggested in the plot synopsis. This may also be the only movie I've ever seen whose lone shooting location is Cranston, Rhode Island.  

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Day 9: The March of Todd-AO

Todd-AO was developed in the 1950s as a large film format to create movies in competition with the existing large film standard, Cinerama. Todd-AO films were shot with one camera using 70 millimeter film. The final print would also incorporate six channels of sound, giving the films a level of visual and audio quality beyond the average 35mm prints.

Several films were shot in Todd-AO, including many musical adaptations (such as Oklahoma and The Sound of Music). The larger film size required the movies be shown in theaters with appropriate equipment, and as movie theaters at the time were often single-screen, you'd have Todd-AO films playing for months at a time, so shorts were filmed in Todd-AO to run in front of the feature and provide new content.

This film is one of them, and one of the subjects was the coronation of Pope John XXIII.

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Day 8: Joshua

This 2002 film that I'd never heard of is about a stranger who comes to a small town and begins to bring the community together and perform the odd miracle. The idea that he may be the second coming of Christ reaches the ears of the local priest, who lost a position at the Vatican and now dedicates himself to proving that Joshua is a fraud. I guess that would get him back into the Curia's good graces?

Anyway, veteran actor Giancarlo Giannini plays the pope, who winds up meeting Joshua and learns his true identity. F. Murray Abraham plays the suspicious local priest, and the pair of them being in this underscores that, in acting, sometimes it's just about getting paid.

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Day 7: The Shoes of the Fisherman

A Ukrainian archbishop, released after 20 years in Siberia, comes to Rome at the request of a young and troubled priest. The archbishop meets the pope, who takes a shine to the archbishop, and elevates him to cardinal. When the pope dies, the Ukrainian finds himself elected pope, and as Kiril I has to face his own doubts about his ability to lead, the increasing seriousness of the problems besetting his young priest friend, and worsening relations between the Soviet Union and China.

Anthony Quinn plays Kiril, while Sir John Gielgud plays the previous pope. So a pontiff twofer today. I've read the Morris West novel this is based on (apparently before I started the book log), which I remember liking in a vague sort of way.

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Day 6: Foul Play

I've never seen this Chevy Chase - Goldie Hawn vehicle, and didn't expect it to involve a pope, but it turns out the movie is like what you'd get if you turned The DaVinci Code into a screwball comedy.  

A librarian (Hawn) is given a tape and soon afterwards finds herself followed by a dwarf and an albino. She brings a less than stellar member of the police (Chase) into the picture, and together they learn of a plot to kill the Pope when he's in town seeing a production of The Mikado. I assume the dwarfs and albinos are working together. San Francisco bigwig Cyril Mangin plays Pius XII.

The only other item of note is a bit of a coincidence: CBS scheduled a prime-time airing of Foul Play during the week of the John Paul II assassination attempt. Not surprisingly, they decided to air it later in the summer.

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Day 5: Luther

No, not the crime drama starring Idris Elba (sadly), but rather a 2003 biopic on the godfather of Protestantism starring Joseph Fiennes. The unpronouncable Uwe Ochsenknecht plays Pope Leo X, who as you might imagine isn't on board with young Luther and all of his theses.

More notable is that this appears to be Peter Ustinov's final film, as he appears playing Frederick the Wise.   

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Day 4; Gone with the Pope

The story is pretty straightforward - four ex-cons plan to kidnap the pope and charge $1 per Catholic as ransom - and I've never heard of Lorenzo Dardado, who plays the pope (which makes sense, as it's his only film credit on IMDB). But the story of the film is interesting.

The movie was written and directed by Duke Mitchell, a singer and actor who dabbled in making indie/exploitation films (most notably 1978's The Executioner, which I've not heard of but is apparently a cult fave). In this case, he apparently wrote and shot as he could, using spare film and writing scenes on whatever he had at hand. He also traded on future profits for access to at least one shooting location.

That turned out to be a pretty bad bet for the location owner, as Mitchell died in 1981, almost 30 years before this film was released. In the intervening time all of the material for the film- negatives, rough cuts, etc. - were in a garage. The producers (including Sage Stallone, son of Sly) had to put the film together with what they had on hand (and what they didn't - they were apparently missing several reels of rough cut footage).

What reviews are out there are OK, but I suppose you have to grade on a curve for a film with this sort of production history. 

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Day 3: Pope Leo XIII Being Carried in Chair Through Upper Loggia, No. 101

The first documentary in our series, this short from the American Mutoscope Company is exactly what it says it is: a film of Leo XIII in a chair that's being carried through a doorway. American Mutoscope is better known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, which would later just be known as Biograph Studios, a launching pad for many of film's early stars (including Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore) and directors (like D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett).

But it made its earliest mark with one to two minute documentary shorts of things like an old Italian man being dragged around in a chair. For what its worth, this 1898 film made Leo the first pope to ever appear on film.

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Day 2: Cagliostro

Based on a real-life figure involved in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace (among other things), the count in this 1975 film has developed a number of supernatural powers through occult studies, and is traveling Europe healing the sick and working with a secret society that aims to free the continent from oppression. This, not surprisingly, catches the attention of Europe monarch and Pope Clement XIII, who move to eliminate the count. They do succeed in imprisoning him, but with surprising results.

The pope is played by Robert Alda, who is probably best known as the father of Alan Alda, of M*A*S*H fame.


 

I've been having my annual flirtation with not doing Lentorama, but in looking back I've seen I've done it, in one form or another, since 2007. So I kind of feel compelled to do it again.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Close-up, Your Holiness

Yup, 40 days about movies featuring a pope, either real or fictional. Let's get started.

Day 1: Apollo 13

So you're probably wondering to yourself, how did Ron Howard squeeze the Pope into his dramatic retelling of this dramatic failed mission to the moon? He pops up in a voice-over where Walter Cronkite says the Pope asked people to pray for the astronauts. Somehow this enough to earn the "pope" keyword on IMDB.

We could be in for a long 40 days.

Book Log 2014 #2: On the Noodle Road by Jen Lin-Liu

The author, a journalist and cooking school owner, noted in her travels the development of noodles as a primary part of both Chinese and Italian cuisine and wondered, as many have before, if they were developed in one location and then spread to the other. In this case, she decided to travel (to the greatest extent possible) the Silk Road, to see what evidence could be found in history, folklore and current cooking to support a theory of how noodles came to be.

If you're looking for a definitive answer, (spoiler alert) you're not going to get one here, and to be fair you're unlikely to get one anywhere. The occasional 4000 year old noodles notwithstanding, there's just not enough information out there to come up with a unified noodle theory.

The author begins to realize this pretty early on, as the noodles of Beijing give way to square noodles (sort of like single-thickness ravioli without the filling) and then, for much of Central Asia, a rice pilaf-like dish called plov that is more or less inescapable. But she soldiers on, and turns the trip into as much of an examination of the role of women and marriage as seen through food as anything else. This includes practical considerations (how to dress when traveling through a variety of Islamic countries) and broader concerns (how will being married to a fellow journalist and potential diplomat change her life).

There's a certain similarity to Paul Theroux's travel works here, with a shift from writing to cooking. The author does trade her services in the kitchen for lessons, and like Theroux often gets a more personal look at the people and cultures he encounters. The writing isn't at the same level, but the general idea - the full educational experience of travel - is familiar.

It's not perfect, but it's certainly worth a read.

As you may have heard, the Winter Olympics have returned, this time at the Russian resort city of Sochi, where a mere $51 billion dollars have been spent (or siphoned off or otherwise thrown down a hole somewhere) to bring us, to date at least, journalists mocking the shoddy nature of the accommodations and dog murder. Things will likely even themselves out as the actual competition starts, but it got me to thinking what the potential is for similarly humorous Winter Olympic shenanigans in the future?

Turns out they're not great. The 2018 Games will be held in a handful of towns in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and, agitation from the north notwithstanding, will likely be free of nonsense. So what about 2022? There are five potential hosts, with varying potentials for public failure, which I will rank here in increasing order of potential chaos.

5. Oslo, Norway. An absolutely solid choice that would provide zero opportunity for amusing failure. They'd be on the other end of this list if we were looking at the likelihood of actually winning the Games, though probably not at the top as bribery opportunities will be limited at best.

4. Beijing, China. Proved in 2008 that they can put on an event of this size, and would be able to do so again here, but without Sochi-level fun as corruption on that scale in China often ends with the grifter taking a state-sanctioned bullet to the head. We'd just have to wait a couple years after the games to go back for a second dose of ruin porn.

3. Krakow, Poland.  I suppose there's some potential for shenanigans, but any comparison to Russians would likely be met poorly, so I'm assuming work would be mostly on the level. 

2. Lviv, Ukraine. Probably not fair to lump the current unrest in Ukraine with double toilet bathrooms and hotels without lobbies, but should the country continue to more closely align itself with Russia maybe we'll get something similar out of their Olympic preparation. Not sure there are enough oligarchs to rack up as much waste and skimming as Sochi, but maybe Russia will lend them some.

1. Almaty, Kazakhstan. Former Soviet republic, only one president since independence, awash in petrotenge and looking to build its international profile. I'm surprised the IOC just hasn't awarded them the Games by fiat. I expect the bribes are already flowing to get the votes they need in 2015. On the down side, Kazakhstan has or will host some Olympic-style events, so may already have enough infrastructure in place to not have the sort of problems that were reported in Sochi. 

So while there's some potential for things to go sideways in 2022, the best option is actually in another sport: Russia hosts soccer's World Cup in 2018. Start rounding up the dogs now.

Book Log 2014 #1: A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler Olsen

The case at the center of this third installment of the Department Q series springs from a message in a bottle, written years before and discovered by British authorities and only getting back to Denmark by chance. The note leads the department to a string of cases involving the kidnapping and murder of children from families belonging to certain religious sects. And while the department is piecing this together, we get to spend a fair amount of time with the criminal himself as he plans and executes his next kidnapping. This isn't unprecedented - the last book in the series did something similar, albeit well after the killings in question - and it does help to give some context to why he does what he does and make it seem more plausible.

There's also a decent amount of time spent on the two assistants - we learn more about Assad's homelife, and meet Rose's oddly familiar sister, who comes in to help when Rose takes an impromptu hiatus - and we continue to work through the case that paralyzed Hardy and sent Morck to the basement to look at cold cases. All in all its an effective entry in the series.

Book Log 2013 #27: Bloodshot by Stuart MacBride

The third entry in the Logan McRae series focuses on two sex crime cases. The one that initially involves McRae is a John Doe who is dumped at a hospital after being sodomized to death. The other case, involving a violent serial rapist, actually involves McRae's girlfriend, PC Jackie Watson, whose physical approach to policing compounds the trouble that their suspect, a prominent footballer, is lawyered up and has strong alibis from his mother and girlfriend.

As in the previous books, McRae has to (eventually) balance work in both cases with the needs (both professional and personal) of his supervisors. There's a further romantic complication when Jackie appears to be stepping out with a colleague, which sends McRae into the interested arms of a junior prosecuting attorney. Also as in previous books, McRae has to suffer his ration of shit before finding a way to solving both cases.

It's a pretty disturbing entry in the series - the ending is one of the more mindbending I've come across - but it's another well-written entry, balancing the action and tension of the cases with the personal issues (McRae's love life, McRae's relationship with reporter Colin Miller, and a dive into the BDSM scene in northern Scotland, thanks to a lower-ranking officer). The only thing I didn't like was the title change from the original. A series to pick up if you haven't already.

Book Log 2013 #26: The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson

Lawyer Reggie Heath has just moved his legal practice into a building on Baker Street in London, and was in such a hurry to sign a sweetheart lease that he misses the one aspect of the lease that's not exactly boilerplate - Reggie's practice is now responsible for answering all letters sent to the building by people who write Sherlock Holmes, and failing to do so (or going public with the practice) leads to significant penalties.

Thankfully, Reggie has his brother Nigel, whose legal career is in a kind of perilous limbo, to handle the letters. But when he comes across one from a girl in Los Angeles seeking her father, who is somehow connected to a geologic project whose plans were attached, he takes up the case, and eventually flies out to LA to find the now-adult girl. Problem is he does so on the day he has a hearing about getting his law license back, and also on the day a member of the first is found dead in Nigel's cubicle. Reggie takes it upon himself to go to LA to find his brother and hopefully smooth things over with the local bar and Scotland Yard. But he gets forced onto the Holmes case when a man in LA turns up dead and Nigel is arrested.

I can't say I was hooked by this book - there's a lot of time spent in taxis and hotel rooms where things slow down - though the plot (which involves the LA subway and the entertainment industry) is interesting. Funny thing here is that if I followed my usual rule about series and started with this, the first book in the series, I don't know if I'd have kept with it. But having enjoyed the third book, and liking parts of this one, it's a series I'm going to stick with.

(Random observation - for a book written in 2009, there's a suspicious lack of technology involved. No one seems to have a cell phone, for example. Not a problem, just odd.)

Book Log 2013 #25: The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

In occupied Paris, an architect who is living on the margins stumbles into a lucrative, but troubling offer: modify apartments and houses so they can be used to hide Jews and a local construction magnate will get him commissions to build factories for the Nazis. The architect is reluctant to participate - getting caught would mean certain death, and he doesn't particularly care for Jews - but the money and potential fame of the larger projects brings him aboard.

This causes certain disruptions - his wife considers him a collaborator (as do many other Parisians), and he gets involved in a triangle with his mistress and a high-ranking Gestapo agent - but as he continues to build his small and large projects he begins to understand why the man he's working for is hiding Jews, and how the risks serve a higher purpose.

The book isn't perfect - the characters' inner monologues are little too expositional at times, and there's a subplot involving the Resistance that doesn't do much for me - but it's an interesting book, thanks to the author's architectural background, which is used to great effect.

Book Log 2013 #24: The Given Sacrifice by S. M. Stirling

The latest book in the Emberverse series sees the High Kingdom of Montival putting the Church Universal and Triumphant on the run, making the deliberate slog to their capital city in Montana. This would usually involve detailed descriptions of troop movements, battles, etc, but in this case things wrap up pretty quickly with the apparent destruction of the CUT. There's not much focus beyond the core second-generation characters, and even then some of them show up briefly.

The last third of the book covers the journey to adulthood of Orlaith Mackenzie, the crown princess of Montival. We see snippets of her life in a peaceful kingdom, and its expansion into the Bay Area, where peace is shattered when sea-borne raiders (an apparent mix of Haida and Japanese, with one surprise guest) appear on the scene. The titular sacrifice end the book, and while it's expected I wasn't thrilled with the randomness of it. Even if that was a more likely way for it to happen.

There's nothing inherently problematic with the book, but it did feel like it was written specifically to make a break between all of the previous books and the coming series where Orlaith is in charge. Keep your expectations in check.

Book Log 2013 #23: The Hidden Oasis by Paul Sussman

When a woman goes to Egypt after her sister dies, she discovers that there may have been more to her life there than meets the eye. When she connects with a local academic in the search for the titular hidden oasis - and the weapon it apparently contains - she stumbles into a world of intrigue that includes a local strongman and the CIA.

I didn't like this book as much as I liked Sussman's previous two books, and I think the reason is that the protagonist of those two books, Inspector Khalifa, only makes a cameo here. Without him and his perspective, this becomes more of a standard thriller, with Egypt serving as a generic backdrop.

I'd say skip this one and move on to the next Khalifa book.

Book Log 2013 #22: Last Train to Zona Verde by Paul Theroux

In Dark Star Safari, Theroux traveled from Cairo to Cape Town, returning to places he first saw while in the Peace Corps and reflecting on the changes in Africa - and to himself - that occurred in the intervening years. Last Train to Zona Verde picks up in Cape Town, and is planned as a last trip through the continent, a journey to see new places, meet new people, and say goodbye.

This trip is up the west coast, and does not go well. There are travel delays (and a notable lack of trains, the preferred method of travel), lack of services, unfriendly locals, and a serious case of theft. This all mounts over the course of the trip, resulting in a first (spoiler alert!): the trip is abandoned, with a fair amount of pessimism towards the purpose of the trip and Africa in general.

The end of the trip says as much about the author as the conditions he encountered, as there's much musing about age and the idea that this is his last big trip. I'd like to think that I'd be game to try such an adventure when I'm 70, but I'm probably not even game now. I am hoping that Theroux will get the travelin' jones and make the one trip he's not made - a lap around the US on Amtrak. I'm not holding my breath.

I can't say I liked this book, as the way things transpire make it hard to use the word "like" in reference to it. But if you've read Theroux's other books you can't not read it, I suppose.

If you follow soccer at all you've likely heard the grousing about the 2014 World Cup draw, which has the US in the "group of death" with Germany, Portugal and Ghana and England in a very difficult group with Italy, Costa Rica and Uruguay, while host Brazil and (of course) France get what are considered to be fairly easy pathways to the round of 16.

All of which got me to thinking - is there a way to improve this? I think so, leading to...

MAKING IT BETTER: World Cup Draw Edition.

Here are my five suggestions for improving the tournament draw, leading off with one major change for the tournament itself.

1. Expand the field. I think the field should expand to 40 teams. That's still less than 20 percent of all FIFA members, and would allow for eight groups of five teams each (which I know presents various challenges, which I will presently ignore). I have no plan for how to expand beyond giving each confederation at least one more guaranteed spot (I'd limit UEFA and CONMEBOL to only one new slot each). But by expanding the field you'd create more cushion within groups. You'd likely still have a group of death somewhere, but not the sort of murderer's row we're getting in some of the groups for 2014.

2. Fix the FIFA rankings. The eight seeded teams for 2014 were determined by their FIFA ranking as of October 2013. The ranking is based on how a team has performed over four years, with results earning points, and with the final ranking based on some sort of averaging. Problem is that teams can game this system, as Switzerland did by not playing as many friendlies, and not against teams that are towards the bottom of the rankings. This article gives a good idea of how the ranking works and how teams can make it work in their favor.

I don't have a particularly good idea of what to use to replace it (Nate Silver's Soccer Power Index is an interesting example), but I don't think teams should be penalized for playing friendlies against lower ranked teams. If FIFA can give Qatar a World Cup based at least in part on growing the game in certain parts of the world, it can easily support that ideal by making games against teams from those areas not be an albatross around the higher-ranked team's neck.

3. Use the improved ranking to place teams in pots. As it stands now, there's one pot that includes the ranked teams and then the pots have some sort of geographic theme to them, so as to avoid any confederation from having more than one team in a group (or in the case of Europe, two teams). There's no seeding in those other pots, which is how you can get teams of similar ranking but different continents in the same group.

If you use rankings all the way through, you'd likely get groups that are more consistent with each other, and still use different pots to bring about geographical diversity (although using the SPI you could still wind up with a group having Germany, the US, and Portugal, as the US would the lowest seed in their pot and Portugal the highest in theirs).


4. Have someone outside of FIFA manage the draw. No one trusts FIFA. Even with a draw as apparently transparent as the recent one, you'll still get conspiracy theories based on FIFA's long history of corruption and cronyism. So just as the Oscar results are tabulated by an outside accounting firm, find someone else to run the draw. Not sure who exactly could do this that wouldn't have a vested interest in some team getting an easy group. Maybe some Canadians. They never make the World Cup.

5. Cut back on the pomp during the show. It's only an hour, but it's like some awful combination of the American Idol results show and the Eurovision song contest. If the lottery folks can draw six balls in under a minute for Mega Millions, we could wrap up the draw in ten minutes, easy. That'd give everyone an extra 50 minutes to complain about their team's group and devise conspiracy theories.

There you go, FIFA. Get crackin'.

Book Log 2013 #18-21: Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World, all by Neal Stephenson

We moved over the summer, and as part of the unpacking I ran across these books again and decided to re-read them. It was the third or fourth time I've read Cryptonomicon, but the first time going back to the other three books, all of which I was fairly ambivalent about upon first reading. I was surprised that I'd not talked about them before, but then realized they all predate when I started logging books.

Cryptonomicon is split between the present day and the period from roughly 1935 to 1945. In both timelines, members of the Waterhouse and Shaftoe families cross paths when emerging technologies (mostly computer related) find themselves intertwined with the quest for gold. In the World War II timeline, it's the Japanese hiding of gold they've stolen/taken in from the Germans and the development of mechanical computers; in the present timeline, it's the development of a data haven and online currency, financed by that same gold.

The other three books (known collectively as the Baroque Cycle) cover a period of about 50 years in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, jumping across timelines (and around the world), and pull together changes in a wide range of disciplines. These books take a much broader approach, showing how a new breed of people - smart, often outside of the ruling class - used a growing understanding of the natural world, economics, technology, etc. to change the very way in which the world worked.

If you do read these, you really have to commit to all four. Together they total something like 3400 pages, and you easily go hundreds of pages between story lines (especially in The Confusion, which is written as if two novels are interspersed). I found the the Baroque Cycle a little disappointing at first read, but I think it was because I was reading them as they came out, which made it harder to remember what happened in previous books. Reading them straight through alleviated that, and I found I enjoyed them much more the second time around.

Part of me wonders if it would be worth reading them in chronological order rather than publication order, to catch references and Easter egg-type things in Cryptonomicon that you'd not get without reading the Cycle first.

I do recommend all four books, whichever way you choose to read them. Just give yourself plenty of time and try to read at least a little bit every day.

The idea of a Summer Olympics in Boston reared it ugly head again recently. It's a horrible idea for any number of reasons, from the stress it would put on an already taxed transportation infrastructure to the cost of developing new venues to the usual inability to recoup costs. Unlike London, we don't have a section of the city we can level to build an Olympic park, and we're not going to have the sort of governmental backing they did.

But let's say, just for the hell of it, that Boston was going to host. Where would we put everything?  Here's what I see, by sport, using London as a guide where possible.

Archery - in London, they used Lord's Cricket Ground, a venerable venue considered the home of the sport. It was well-suited for the event, with its open space and seating for 28,000 or so. Based on the history and capacity, the most obvious Boston equivalent is Fenway Park. It's not like it'll be needed for baseball, as the Sox will certainly spend the entirety of the Games on the road (sorry, team!).

Athletics - The largest existing arena in the area that could fit this is Harvard Stadium, which is too small and not well-situated for traffic. As the athletics venue also typically hosts the opening and closing ceremonies, you'd need some space. My guess is that we'd knock down a significant portion of a neighborhood that abuts 93 and is within reasonable bus distance to South Station and the Red Line. This will be one of the many times we'll muse on the redevelopment of the Bayside Expo Center, which is owned by UMass-Boston and plays multiple roles in the current development of their campus. It is close to 93 and the JFK/UMass stop on the Red Line. Is it a big enough parcel for a stadium? Not without some eminent domain, I think.

Badminton - was held at Wembley Arena, which seats about 6,000. A similarly sized venue is Agannis Arena, on the campus of Boston University. BU also has a track and tennis center that could be used for something, although the capacity may be a little low (based on London venues, which seemed to bottom out at 5,000).

Basketball - was held in two separate venues, one in the Olympic Park that sat about 12,000 and the North Greenwich (ne O2) Arena, which seats closer to 18,000. While TD Bank Garden would serve as the larger venue, there's not a second arena of similar size in Boston proper. The Conte Forum is probably the next biggest arena that's close, but it seats under 10,000. If we're not being too picky about keeping things in Boston, you've got Worcester's DCU Center or Providence's Dunkin' Donuts Center.

Beach Volleyball - the site for this in London was Horse Guards Parade, which is the sort of flat, wide-open space Boston doesn't have in abundance. One completely impractical idea would be to have this on Georges Island, squeezing the court and stands inside the walls of Fort Warren. One idea that could have merit would be rehabbing the Wonderland dog track, which is a big enough parcel, across the street from a Blue Line stop which has a big new garage, and right next to a commuter rail line that could spawn a temporary stop. It's not a great site for cars - it's on a very heavily traveled section of Route 1A.

Boxing - this was one of many sports held at the ExCeL Center, a large convention center that could be configured for events seating 5,000 to 10,000. And while I don't think it's quite as big, I do think that the Boston Convention and Exposition Center could host this and a few other events. Its location near highways belies the fact that the Seaport District is one of the hardest parts of the city to get into and out of during rush hours. Though there are plans to start running a train from the BCEC to Back Bay using a currently unused track the state owns.

Canoeing - there were two separate venues outside of London, one for flat-water canoeing (the same lake used for rowing) and a man-made whitewater course. They weren't near each other in London, but could be close by if placed on Lake Quinsigamond out in Worcester. It regularly hosts rowing events, and it's got enough open space near it to put in the whitewater course.

Cycling - the variety of cycling events - track, road, mountain and BMX - will require completing a number of new venues.The road course would involve Boston streets, I assume, but timing would be key as it's going to be hard enough to keep things moving without shutting down streets for racing. A velodrome and Olympic-level mountain bike and BMX courses would need to be built, and I think that putting them all in one place would make sense not only for the Games, but as a potential post-Olympic cycling center. As for where I'd put it, I'd suggest either Devens or the former Weymouth Naval Air Station, both decomissioned military facilities with a reasonable amount of open space. My preference would be Devens, as we're already putting enough stress on the Red Line and 93.

Diving - would be part of a new build aquatics center as discussed under swimming.

Equestrian - London used Greenwich Park for this, and there's not really a comparable space in Boston. I would look to have this held up in horse country somewhere, like Andover. If we did want to keep it in the city, Franklin Park could probably host it, although it's a pain to get to and touches on some of the less salubrious neighborhoods of the city.

Fencing - was one of the events at the ExCeL Center, and could be held at the BCEC. But it could also be run at the Hynes Convention Center, a downtown location near the T that could handle those large, out of control fencing crowds.

Football - this is typically the most spread out event, and for London they held games all over the UK. I'd not spread it out that far, but if we were looking for five stadiums to use for this I'd go with Gillette Stadium (with temporary sod), the Yale Bowl, Rentschler Field, MetLife Stadium (also with temporary sod), and Lincoln Financial Field.

Golf - Forgot that they added golf. Ugh. An obvious location would the The Country Club in Brookline, which hosted the 1999 Ryder Cup. Should they pass, there's also TPC Boston, which is Norton and close to 495 and 95. There are also two muni tracks  in the Boston area - William J Devine (which is in Franklin Park) and George Wright in Hyde Park, both of which are 18 holes. I have no idea if they're of the appropriate quality for Olympic golf, as I would like to ignore that there is such a thing as Olympic golf.

Gymnastics - London used two venues, one for artistic (i.e. regular) and trampoline, the other for rhythmic. The same thing could be done in Boston with rhythmic and trampoline at Agganis or Conte and artistic at TD Bank Garden. Though there's part of me that thinks you could put rhythmic and trampoline somewhere smaller, like Matthews Arena.

Handball - would, based on London, wind up in the secondary basketball venue. I would wind up bumping it to either Agannis or Conte and then find a new home for badminton (such as Matthews) if needed. The medal round would wind up at TD Garden.

Hockey - a temporary venue was constructed for London, with 15,000 and 5,000 seat facilities. As this is the one sport that favors Astroturf over FieldTurf, there's not a place of the right size in Boston that could also hold that number of spectators. You could potentially do something temporary in Fenway after archery is done (probably not with two fields, though).

Judo - as one of the ExCeL sports, would go either to the BCEC or the Hynes.

Modern Pentathlon - would be split as appropriate for each discipline, with the advantage of combining running and shooting (and the recent adoption of laser guns) opening up a venue like the Public Garden or the Esplanade. It's a fairly small event - 72 competitors evenly split by gender - so there's some wiggle room.

Rowing - out at Lake Quinsigamond with canoeing.

Rugby - thankfully, synthetic turf appears to be OK for this, so you can put some combination of Harvard Stadium, Alumni Stadium, and Nickerson Field into play. You could potentially also use Parsons Field in Brookline, though 7,000 seats may be too small.

Sailing - taking a page from the America's Cup, it'd be great to do this on the Charles River. I don't know if there's enough room on the water, though. This could be where we revive the idea of using the harbor islands, or perhaps move things out to a more sailing-centric location, of which there are plenty.

Shooting - there is not an existing military structure in the Boston area that could hold this and provide potential seating for 7,500 spectators. This may be another event for Bayside depending on what sort of shape it's in for indoor events.

Swimming - would require building a facility, as the only way you could approach the sort of capacity that London had would be to construct a temporary pool at TD Bank Garden, which is out of the question.Once again we look to Bayside as a possible location for a new build facility (assuming the existing buildings have been demolished by then).

Synchronized Swimming - also at a new aquatics center, wherever it is.

Table Tennis - BCEC or Hynes.

Taekwondo - Also BCEC or Hynes

Tennis - while its name would imply otherwise, the Longwood Cricket Club played a pivotal role in early US tennis history - the Davis Cup was first contested there, for example - and it hosted a pro tournament for years. It's not quite up to Wimbledon's standards - no roofed center court, for example - but it's almost certainly the best option in the Boston area outside of a new build.

Triathlon - I would move this up the coast a bit, with swimming at Revere Beach and then the cycling and running heading in whatever direction makes the most sense. You could either cycle down 1A and bring competitors back into Boston for the run, or go up 1A and host the run somewhere like Salem. A pain if you want to drive 1A, but accessible by public transport between the Blue Line and commuter rail.

Volleyball- in London, volleyball was held at Earl's Court, a well-known exhibition center of which there's no real equivalent in Boston (at least at the stated capacity of 15,000). The more of these events show up the more I think a newly-built (probably temporary) general purpose arena is needed, which is unfortunate.

Water Polo- had its own venue in London. I'd suggest a combined venue with swimming, though the logistics may be problematic. The London venue was next to the aquatic center, and they shared some facilities, which would help. Not sure there'd be enough room at Bayside to build two buildings, but perhaps something with pools on multiple levels?

Weightlifting - Would go to BCEC or the Hynes normally, but I like the idea of using the Citi Performing Arts Center to create more drama. Probably too small at roughly 3,600 seats. Could go to Matthews.

Wrestling - at ExCeL in London, I'd prefer it to be in an arena venue like Agannis or Conte.

Three additional considerations to this nonsense:

1. The Paralympics. The Olympic host also hosts this event later in the year, which means a second disruption (or a longer initial disruption), although of less severity as there are fewer spectators. The Paralympics in London required a couple of venues not used for the Olympics (for wheelchair tennis and a cycling road course). Still, adding this in you'd get a pretty solid month of activity to deal with.

2. Non-athletic venues. On top of everything listed above, you'd also need an Olympic Village and a broadcast center. Personally, I think you could stick the broadcast center somewhere like the World Trade Center, though it tends to be in the middle of things, so might require something built close to the main stadium. The village is an even bigger concern, as I don't know where we'd drop a development for 17,000 people.


3. Timing. Of late the Summer Games have been happening in August, with the Paralympics in late August or September. The problem with that is going into September would clash with the return of 100,000 or so college students to Boston. Starting in July would help, but would also have things happening during the hottest (and muggiest) part of the year. We're not Qatar, but it'd be a bit uncomfortable. June would be best, not sure how much we'd have to bribe the IOC to make that happen.

Book Log 2013 #17: Visit Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell

In the vein of Assassination Vacation and similar offbeat travel books, Blackwell visits the sites of various environmental disasters in this book, ranging from the radioactive wasteland of Chernobyl to the refinery-laden town of Port Arthur, Texas to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a pretty interesting read, as the author enters each trip with the expectation of a hellish deathscape, but then has to confront the complexities of each disaster, mostly when dealing with the locals, who are often trying to balance living in or near an ecological nightmare with making a living off of same. And for all of the damage caused, there's a lot about these locations that are banal, from the bland corporatism of the mining company pulling oil sands out of Alberta to the somewhat pointless study voyages out to the garbage patch.

We also get a sort of B-plot of the author's relationship with his girlfriend/fiancee, the ebb and flow of which tends to mirror the time and distance the author spends traveling. It's not overbearing, and helps to break up the travel.

It's been a while since I've read this, and I do remember thinking at times that in some cases the author may have been trying a little too hard to be balanced in some areas, but I'll be damned if I can remember a specific instance. So it may just be me. Anyway, certainly worth a look.

Book Log 2013 #16: Exploding the Phone by Phil Lapsley

For every technology, there's someone who is going to hack it. That's most obvious with computers, but for any technology you can name you'll find someone who is going to put the full weight of their intellect behind getting to know it and doing all sorts of things to see what it can do. This is no less true of the phone system, which for two or three decades in the mid-20th century found itself at the mercy of a group of dedicated phone enthusiasts (or phreakers).

The folks at Bell didn't anticipate this. So as they developed the phone system, they did it in a way that wasn't particularly secure. They also made a lot of their technical information available in journals and other publications. As the phreakers discovered the system's vulnerabilities, and plumbed the available information to develop ways to make the system work for them (most notably the blue and red boxes that let people make free calls), Bell reacted by using the power of a large corporation (allied with the power of government and law enforcement) to go after the phreakers while trying to implement fixes (which were often costly and time-consuming).

That pursuit of the phreakers takes up much of the last half of the book, and is decidedly less interesting than the stories of the phreakers. That really makes the book, and while it's not always easy to identify with the phreakers, they are generally presented as more than the expected stereotype. The stories of how phreaking entered the general populace - and may have had a hand in bringing about the personal computer revolution - carry the book. Definitely worth a read.

Book Log 2013 #15: Birdseye by Mark Kurlansky

Every family seems to have a story about a lost opportunity to make a fortune, from stock advice not taken to real estate investments not made. In my family, there was talk about how my grandparents knew Clarence Birdseye and failed to get involved at the ground floor of his frozen food business. I don't know how much truth there is to the story, but I can remember Birdseye's name coming up regularly around the dinner table when we'd visit. Which explains why I was drawn to this biography of the man a little more than I may have been normally.

The biggest problem with writing this biography appears to have been the lack of source material, as most (if not all) of the people who knew Birdseye are now dead, and there's less documentation - letters, articles, and the like - than one might expect. Though that seems typical for the Birdseye presented here, an inveterate tinkerer whose wandering mind and taste for the outdoors makes him less likely to spend time scribbling at a journal or engaging in voluminous correspondence.

Birdseye is painted here as one of the last of a vanishing breed, a self-taught man who uses observation and experience to solve problems. His "invention" of frozen food came out of observations while living in Canada, where the need to stock up for winter (and the presence of naturally frozen food thanks to long and bitterly cold winters) led him to consider frozen food as an everyday thing.

Kurlansky did a good job of providing a biography out of the available material, and the theme of Birdseye as one of the last great tinkerers is quite apt. I wouldn't say it's presented as a bad thing, but more as an observation on how much more interesting the world was when there were people like Birdseye around. A sentiment with which I'd agree.

Book Log 2013 Extra: The Most Famous Book Set in Each US State

The folks at Business Insider came up with this map of the US that gives the most famous book set in each state. There's no real discussion of how they came up with these selections, and in a number of cases there's a real question as to whether on not they chose correctly. Those that stand out to me:

Arkansas: A Painted House. OK, it's hard to argue that a John Grisham book wouldn't be famous, but it's not exactly the first (or second, or fifth) book of his you'd name if asked to name one. True Grit would seem more popular (thanks mostly to the films), and for people of a certain generation Summer of My German Solider would be an option, too.

Connecticut: Revolutionary Road. Maybe it's a little on the nose, but what about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?. There's also Long Day's Journey into Night and Ah, Wilderness!, both of which may have been dinged for being plays. And if the only criteria is fame, perhaps The Stepford Wives would be a contender thanks to its movie adaptations (I'm assuming that the movie adaptation of Revolutionary Road helped get it here). Although if we're really only considering fame, wouldn't The Baby-sitter's Club be the obvious choice?

District of Columbia: The Lost Symbol. See, this is where using fame as your sole criteria breaks down. This isn't even Dan Brown's most famous book, and even for him it was pretty much crap. Why you wouldn't go with one of the Alex Cross novels here? Either Along Came a Spider or Kiss The Girls would work.

Also, if you're going to include DC in the list, how about putting it in its proper place alphabetically rather than sneaking it in after Virginia?

Louisiana: Interview With the Vampire. Uh, Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Maine: Carrie. There are any number of Stephen King novels you could choose here, but as King was already selected for Colorado (The Shining), we could go with The Cider House Rules here. Which would give John Irving two entries (for now). As I think of it, Empire Falls may be a better choice.

Massachusetts: Walden. Considering it's almost impossible to get out of high school without reading either The Scarlet Letter or Little Women, I'd have chosen either of them over Walden, which is plenty famous in its own right, obviously.

New Hampshire: The Hotel New Hampshire. Having the state in the title helps, but I'd go with A Prayer for Owen Meany. Were this 20 years ago I'd also suggest Peyton Place.

New Mexico: Red Sky at Morning. I'll admit to never having heard of this book, and while it's possible I'm out of the loop on this one, I would still argue that Death Comes for the Archbishop is a better choice.

North Carolina: A Walk to Remember. Probably correct (the most likely replacement would be another Nicholas Sparks book) but depressing. I'll throw Cold Mountain out there as an option.

Ohio: The Broom of the System. Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Captain Underpants and Winesburg, Ohio would all seem like more natural choices than David Foster Wallace's first novel, at least if we're going by fame.

South Carolina: The Secret Life of Bees. Helped by its recent movie adaptation, but I'm wondering if The Prince of Tides would be a better choice.

I could probably critique every selection, but I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Book Log 2013 #14: 1356 by Bernard Cornwell

Thomas of Hookton, the main character of the Grail Quest trilogy, returns in this book which is skips ahead from the last book in that series to the time right before the Battle of Poitiers. Thomas leads a group of mercenaries who, while in the service of a noble, are mostly allowed to operate independently.

As was the case in the first three books, Thomas becomes embroiled in the search for a religious relic, in this case la Malice, the sword St. Peter used to slice off the ear of the high priest's servant at Gethsemane. Both the English and the French are hunting for the sword, as it's believe that the side which possesses the sword will win what we now know as the Battle of Poitiers, a major battle of the Hundred Years' War.

As you'd expect, there are corrupt churchmen, cruel nobles, and a variety of fighting men who all add their particular color to the hunt for the sword and the eventual battle. But the actual story, the search for this sword, didn't do much for me, and I kind of felt like the book was forced a bit. I'd have rather had the book begin to explain how Thomas would become the "lord of a thousand acres" that's mentioned in Agincourt than go on another religious treasure hunt.

Book Log 2013 #13: The Africa Reich by Guy Saville

I spent a good five minutes trying to decide if I wanted to read this, based on the Swastika Rule - I don't know the actual percentage, but the cover looks to be about 60 percent swastika - but I eventually decided to give it a go, as I wasn't finding much else of interest at the library. Turns out the rule didn't quite apply here, as the book was better than the rule would suggest.

As you can guess by the title, Germany won World War II and has established a strong foothold in Africa, where they threaten the weaker colonies of those who lost (or were neutral) during the war. The British hatch a plot to weaken the Germans in Africa, and turn to a quasi-retired special forces officer to lead the mission. He opts to do this one final mission so he can secure his preferred future of running an orchard and marrying his already-married girlfriend.

As you can imagine, things don't quite go as planned, and the team finds itself stranded deep in German-held Kongo, their best bet for escape an overland trek to Portuguese-held Angola. Along the way they fight off the Nazis, team up with the local resistance, and try to learn just why their plan was foiled.

At times there's a cartoonish level of violence, which pairs with some A-Team level of injury avoidance to make disbelief that much harder to suspend. For the most part, though, it's a perfectly serviceable alt-history novel that's a decent commuter read. It's the first part of a planned trilogy, and I have to give kudos to the author for his frank blog post as to why the second installment is lagging. Hard enough to imagine putting a quarter-million words to paper, never mind blowing it up and starting fresh.

Book Log 2013 #12: The Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell

The premise is simple enough: a man who has figured out time travel celebrates his birthday every year with all of his other selves from across time at a party that is always the same. At least until the man turns 39, at which point the party changes, and one of his selves ends up dead. How that happens - and how to prevent it, with the help of his older selves and a mysterious woman - makes up the bulk of the story.

And it's not a bad story per se, but I found myself hung up on the time travel aspect and its details (such as how various versions of the man become "untethered" as things change) at points that took away from my overall enjoyment of the book. I'd also have liked a little more background on whatever calamity has befallen the planet (or at least New York) in the man's timeline. It's not necessarily important - though the mostly abandoned city does allow the party to go on year after year - just something that niggled.

Anyway, it's certainly worth a gander, and you may like it more than I did if you can get past the things that I couldn't quite get my head around.

Book Log 2013 #11: A Study in Revenge by Kieran Shields

Anyone waiting for Caleb Carr to return to the plucky band of New Yorkers who solves murders in The Alienist and The Angel of Death will find some solace in the adventures of Portland, Maine police detective Archie Lean and his unofficial partner, the criminalist Percival Grey. In this outing, Lean and Grey are called in to help solve a killing with an apparent occult twist, one that pulls them back into the ambit of an old and powerful nemesis. Both parties are looking to find the same object, one which promises great power and, in the wrong hands, great danger.

Historical mysteries set in New England are always going to be of interest, though I wish I hadn't jumped quite so quickly to read this one. It is the second book with these characters, and the first, The Truth of All Things, is referenced frequently. This isn't such a bad thing if you just want to get up to speed, but if you have a light case of OCD about reading a series in order it's a problem. I'm still going to go back and read the first book, but it'll be less of a mystery.

Back to the Carr comparison, there are some comparisons to be made between Grey and Laszlo Kreizler (both highly intelligent, practicing in new fields and personally set apart from society based on a physical trait), as well as between this book's main female character and Sara Howard (both also highly intelligent, feisty, and less observant of traditional women's roles).

Anyway, I do recommend this book, but only after reading the first book.

Book Log 2013 #10: The Audacity of Hops by Tom Acitelli

Not surprisingly, given my taste in beer, I really enjoyed this history of craft brewing in America. Starting with Fritz Maytag getting involved with Anchor in the '60s and running through the contractions and rebounds in recent times, Acitelli puts together the story of how a handful of brewers used their passion and knowledge to reverse the trend in brewery consolidation and inspire other brewers to join them in building a small but significant niche among America's beer drinkers.

The book also clearly demonstrates the obstacles that craft brewing had to overcome (and in some cases is still overcoming), from finding capital to getting shelf space to trying to survive the pressure put on craft brewing by industrial brewers to just what exactly craft brewing means (is the Boston Beer Company, which is a top 10 brewer that contracts the work to other breweries, a craft brewer?).

One idea that came up, and is worthy of greater exploration, is craft beer's place in the wider development of quality American food and drink. The 1970s were a banner decade for this, between craft beer, improved California wines, and restaurants like Chez Panisse that emphasized local, quality ingredients. There are good books on each topic, but something synthesizing things would be a pretty good read, too.

Book Log 2013 #10: The Namesake by Conor Fitzgerald

The latest entry in the Alec Blume series, the title refers to a murder victim who shares his name with a magistrate investigating the 'Ndrangheta, Calabria's organized crime outfit. When that magistrate suffers a stroke while discussing the killing with Blume, the policeman sees an opportunity to help both of their investigations. What unfolds from that opportunity sees Blume mixing with police and intelligence agencies in Italy and Germany (as he's partnered with a German cop who has apparently gone off the reservation) and his partner/sort-of girlfriend Caterina Mattiola in danger.

Read this a while ago, and don't recall and specific issues I had with the book. Enjoyed it as I have the other entries in the series.

Book Log 2013 #9: The Last Secret of the Temple by Paul Sussman

The second book in the series featuring Luxor police detective Yusuf Khalifa, it starts with an investigation into the murder of an elderly hotel owner with a shady past whose interest in ancient artifacts is tied into the search for the missing treasures of the Temple, long considered lost after it fell to the Romans. This naturally interests Khalifa, who has an interest in history and antiquities as well, and he digs into the case, even in the face of opposition from his superiors.

Complicating matters is a militant Israeli group who is reoccupying buildings in Jerusalem and a crusading Palestinian reporter who dogs them. The Israelis would like the treasures for obvious reasons, and the reporter gets on the trail thanks to some documents sent to her by an unknown party. As the case broadens, Khalifa has to turn to the Israeli police for help, and winds up working with a detective whose dislike of anyone Muslim stems from the death of his girlfriend in a terrorist bombing a few years before. Can this odd couple solve the murder and discover if the treasures exist (and keep them out of the wrong hands - whoever they may belong to)?

I liked this more than I expected, and while I was able to guess a couple of the book's twists ahead of time I didn't think that detracted from the overall experience. There's a good chemistry between Khalifa and Arieh Ben-Roi (the Israeli cop), even if their relationship normalized a little quickly for my taste (it's a plausible result given the way the book turns out, I just would have liked the tension to last a little longer).

Anyway, as a thriller it's good, and I did like its treatment of the subject better than The Columbus Affair. It's a series I'll go back to.

So we have another year with a Senate election here in Massachusetts, filling the seat vacated by John Kerry when he became Secretary of State (which comes up for re-election next year, making it five straight years in which we'll have voted for a US Senator; Elizabeth Warren better keep a wary eye out during 2015). The election is tomorrow, so it's apparently time for another Blogalicious endorsement.

On the Democratic side we have US Rep Ed Markey, who's been serving in Congress for the last 37 years. He's pretty much what you'd expect from a Massachusetts Democrat, a lefty who's provided solid if generally unremarkable service to his constituents. On the Republican side we have newcomer Gabriel Gomez, a former Navy SEAL who has made a pile in the financial sector.

The race itself has been similarly unremarkable. Both have runs ads you'd expect for the candidates - Markey touting his experience while trying to paint Gomez as a 1 percenter, Gomez talking about his service and being a "new" Republican while trying to make Markey the poster boy for Congressional partisanship - and their three debates have done little to inject any spark into the race. There have been some third party ads (Gomez refused the "People's Pledge" to keep third party money out, as he needed that money to keep from having to self-fund his campaign), which have been as witless and partisan as you'd expect (though it did introduce us to the comically named Americans for Progressive Action).

So what we have is a standard Massachusetts Democrat versus a weaponized version of Mitt Romney.  Neither is particularly exciting, and neither candidate seems primed to change the Washington culture. Markey is taking his one best shot at moving up from the House, while Gomez's "new ideas" include linking Congressional pay raises to balanced budgets and term limits, which were fresh ideas during the Reagan administration.

And that might be my biggest problem with Gomez. He's trying to run the Scott Brown playbook by painting himself as an independent Republican, and he's tried to work the Romney pivot a little from his positions in the Republican primary. It's not working particularly well in this case, either, as his remarks pretty much place him in the current GOP mainstream. So while I'm not over the moon about him, in this race, Blogalicious endorses Ed Markey. Let's hope he uses his brief term to find an identity.

Book Log 2013 #8: The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen


A 20 year-old case of a murdered brother and sister keeps showing up on Carl Morck's desk. And while there's not much to suggest that this cold case will ever heat up, he eventually starts to look into it, with the help of his Syrian assistant and a new staffer, an unwelcome transfer from another department. As Morck and his "team" start to fill in some gaps, it becomes clear that the case is linked to some very important Danes - and one homeless woman. In order to close the case, Morck has to find the woman before the others do.

I don't know that I liked this better than The Keeper of Lost Causes, as I find centering things on a conspiracy of the rich and powerful a bit stale. That being said, the book does keep things interesting, and I do like the way the relationship between Morck and his colleagues is developing. But I could have used just a bit more of Morck's home life and the ongoing fall-out of the botched raid that left one of Morck's fellow officers paralyzed (although I'm interested to see how things will work now that those two subplots are merging a bit). Still, enjoyed it and am looking forward to A Conspiracy of Faith, which I've not been able to snag at the library.

Book Log 2013 #7: The Watchers by Stephen Alford

I never finished this book about espionage during the reign of Elizabeth I, and looking at reviews I am likely in the minority in how I feel about this book. Based on the jacket I was expecting an account that would feature the likes of Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen's principal secretary and sypmaster, but it mostly focused on individual spies.

That on its own might not have been a problem if there was more primary material about their lives and duties. But as you might expect, these folks (who were typically young men who entered Catholic colleges in France and Italy to root out plots against the queen) didn't leave much of a paper trail, for both professional and personal reasons. The story derived from what does exist (and some speculation) is interesting, to a point, but after a few stories about Englishmen suddenly appearing in Rome to ingratiate themselves with some mid-range cleric I lost interest.

But as I said I may be off on this one, so if the subject/period is of interest, it couldn't hurt to give it a go.

Book Log 2013 #6: Caveat Emptor by Ken Perenyi

This book caused a minor stir when it came out earlier in the year, as in it the author covers what's been a lifetime of forging paintings by mid-level artists, a profitable sideline (though often not that far to the side) to his legitimate work as an antiques dealer and restorer.

An indifferent student, Perenyi found his way into a branch of New York's art scene in the 1960s, and while his interests were more contemporary, his mentor steered him into reproducing older paintings as a way to develop technique. His mastery of technique, coupled with the influence of some less than savory characters, led him down the path of forging paintings for fun and profit (and some outright stealing to boot).

As regretful as Perenyi may sound at times, you do get the sense that he feels like the art world got what it deserved by stamping so many of his fakes as originals. Can't say I go along with that - as incompetent as some of the buyers were, it's still fraud - but it does strike me as a fitting point of view from someone who was marginalized from the "legitimate" art world.

All that aside, I did find the book interesting for its depiction of the New York art scene in the 1960s and '70s, and for the technical details of how Perenyi developed his techniques. It does descend into name-dropping at times - Andy Warhol merits multiple mentions, even though the two never met - and at times gets a little breezy for my taste. Overall, though, it's one of the better general audience books about art forgery I've read.

Following up a news story from earlier in the year, the IOC's executive committee recently short-listed three sports that are in the running to replace wrestling in the 2020 Summer Games. The sports short listed were squash, baseball/softball, and... wrestling. Yes, wrestling may replace itself, which is a pretty good indication as to how the IOC works.

It's ridiculous that things got to this point to begin with, though I suppose the bright side is that the federation for wrestling used the dumping from the Olympics to clean house and refocus itself on promoting the sport. Still, it's a little too much blame the victim for my taste.

So we're down to these three sports, two of which should be in the Olympic program regardless (wrestling and baseball/softball) and a third, squash, which is pretty popular internationally and certainly worthy. In my book they'd all be in, and in the interest of whatever the IOC is trying to do by dropping and adding sports, I have suggestions on what to cut to allow all three in.

Add wrestling, drop taekwondo. I have nothing against taekwondo, I've gone with it mostly under the "last hired, first fired" philosophy. It also doesn't help that over a third of all medals have gone to just three competitors: China, South Korea, and Taiwan Chinese Taipei.

It'd be more fitting if wrestling replaced boxing, which has lost a lot of its luster thanks to issues with scoring and refereeing. But we'll stick to the LIFO approach for now.

Add squash, drop table tennis. I don't mean to be picking on the People's Republic, but when a sport sees more than half of its medals go to one country, you have to question if it has enough competitive balance to be part of the Olympics. Squash should be somewhat better in this regard, though recent world championship results suggest a fairly small group of countries at the top.

Alternately, you could drop tennis, considering that the Olympics is, at best, the fifth-most important tennis tournament of the year.

Add baseball and softball, remove field hockey. The most imbalanced team sport is probably basketball - especially on the women's side, given the recent domination of the US team - but it's too popular (and too lucrative) to pull.  Going through the other sports there's not a great argument to be made for getting rid of of any of them. I still think the best bet would be to move an indoor team sport to the Winter Games, but that's not likely to happen, so I went with what seems to have the least mass appeal of the team sports.

Book Log 2013 #5: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

If you're looking for the anti-Twilight book about vampires, this is probably it (other than, you know, Dracula). Told mostly in flashback (or whatever one would call flashbacks based primarily on letters written decades before), we follow a teenaged girl (who grows up to be the narrator), as she is dragged across Europe by her father, an academic turned peacenik whose frequent trips to the Balkans for work provide great cover for his greatest personal interest - the hunt to find Vlad the Impaler, who he believes is still alive (or at least not dead).

Whether or not this book works for you will depend on how patient you are with the story being told by letters. The vast majority of the action takes place in letters written by the narrator's father or by his thesis adviser, whose interest in Vlad and eventual disappearance is what sets the dad on the same trail. Most of the book's suspense also comes through the way the letters present information, so if you're looking for epic battles with werewolves or whatever this is going to be 900+ pages of disappointment.

For such a long book I found it didn't drag as often as you'd expect, and that the changes in location and introduction of characters helped keep the story from getting stale. There's also the running theme about the desire for knowledge and the lengths to which it drives people, on top of the usual vampiric themes of good versus evil (in both general and religious contexts), all of which are well presented. Certainly worth a read if you didn't get to it when it originally came out, and if you have the time to dedicate to a longer book.