Book Log 2011 #37: Popular Crime by Bill James


Besides being one of baseball's leading quantitative minds, Bill James has a serious interest in popular crime stories. This book allows him to explore this passion, covering over two millennia of headline crimes, though he mostly focuses on events from 1800 onward.

The results of this examination are somewhat uneven. Some cases get great coverage, while other times get a laundry list of crimes that tend to drag. He creates a taxonomy for cases based on their elements, a digression that may help him but is dry reading at best.

The best parts of the book are where James is actually making an argument for or against something rather than just relating cases to fill the timeline. Towards the end of the book he starts to put together a plan for creating a more effective prison system (basically creating small neighborhood facilities, a neat idea that will never happen) and discusses the justice system generally, which goes on a bit too long.

James also makes a basic argument in the book for the importance of following and understanding these cases, both for their insights into criminal behavior and their reflection of the wider culture. I tend to agree with him here, and think that marginalizing such cases costs us an opportunity to reflect. Worse still is that we allow the cases to become public theater (think Casey Anthony), which only makes the general public more liable to marginalize these cases.

I do think the book is interesting, and worth a read if you're interested in true crime. I also think it could have been sharper in places, so don't expect this to stack up to James's best baseball work.

I can't imagine there are many people who read this who aren't friends on Facebook, but in case you're not, I can announce that the family unit has increased by one with the birth of our second son. And while there is still plenty of novelty stemming from the new baby's personality, I can see now why kids born later get the short shrift. We've taken many fewer pictures of the baby number two than of the first one, and we spent a significantly smaller amount of time planning and prepping for the new baby. A couple of brief refreshers, put the crib back together, get clothes back from the people we lent to when they had babies, and that's it. I swear we will not half-ass his rearing the same way we've loafed through the previous nine months.

(Note: the one area we did not skimp on at all was pre-natal care. Doesn't matter how many kids you have, see your doctor regularly, take your vitamins, etc.)

The re-introduction to things like feedings every two hours or so and the joy that is meconium (look it up if you don't know what that is - just avoid sites with pictures) has gone pretty smoothly (the actual birthing and post-birthing could have gone better, but the wife has rebounded nicely). Hopefully we'll be out of here on Thursday so we can finally see how the older child reacts to having a baby in the house full time. He's been marginally interested up to now - hospital visits are mostly spent trying to flip any switch left unmanned - but has at least acknowledged the baby's presence. He's also regularly spent time with his 11 month-old cousin since that child was born, even having a couple of long weekends where they stayed together. So hopefully the idea of having a baby around all the time isn't a problem.

What might be a problem, though, is that the older son enjoys to get into the crib and tub that we used on him and have brought out/reassembled for the new baby. Need to make sure that stops when child number two is actually using them.

So far so good, though. Keep your fingers crossed.

Dear U.S. Treasury Department:

With word that the Presidential dollar coin program has been shuttered, I'd like to think that the third time is the charm when it comes to realizing that a dollar coin, given the current state of our currency, is not going to work. I assume at some point you'll try this again (or be compelled to try it again), so with that in mind here is my plan for Making it Better: the Dollar Coin.

1. Get rid of the $1 bill.  It should be obvious that this has to happen before anything else. People are conditioned to use bills, and given a choice between a bill and a coin they'll revert to the bill. Cash registers are set up to take $1 bills, as are most vending machines (though many can take dollar coins as well). Both Canada and the UK stopped printing one dollar/pound notes to phase in the coin replacement, which took root as the bills left circulation. You don't do this, the $1 coin will never work.

2. Make it thick. The one pound coin in the UK is easy to pick out of a pocketful of change, as it's noticeably thicker than other coins. With all the focus on trying to find a unique diameter for the $1 coin, you've rejected the obvious dimension for differentiating it from other coins.

3. Throw in another obvious tactile difference. Just in case thickness doesn't seem like enough of a difference, you could make the coin non-round (check out the UK's 50p coin for an example) or go with a bi-metallic design such as the UK 2 pound or Canadian $2 coins. You could also do something with the edge of the coin, such as leave the edges smooth or use something other than the traditional milled edges. If you can get Braille on the Alabama state quarter, you can get some sort of raised design on a dollar coin.

4. Keep Washington on the dollar. I'm not particularly wedded to this - he is on the quarter, after all - but I figure this would be a sop to the traditionalists. You could also transfer future versions of the 50 State Quarters program to the dollar coin, which I figure would boost circulation, even if artificially.

5. Move the lettered Federal Reserve Seal to the $5. There is a subset of people who like knowing where their $1 bills came from - be they Where's George? enthusiasts or not - and moving the seal that uses the Federal Reserve Bank letter to the $5 will soften the blow of losing the one dollar bill.

I hope this helps, and look forward to seeing these suggestions implemented when you try dollar coins again sometime around 2023.

Book Log 2011 #36: The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry


This latest installment in the Cotton Malone series brings the action to America, where he has to stop a group of modern-day pirates who claim to operate under the auspices of the Constitution's provision for privateers. The pirates have had their status challenged by a small number of Presidents - Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy - and they've responded in the same way each time. An attempt on the life of the current President sparks the hunt for the documents that would prove the pirate's legal status, a hunt that brings the usual mayhem that seems to follow Malone.

I was curious to see how this would play out, as US-based thrillers of this ilk tend to focus on Freemasons or the Illuminati or such groups. It's refreshing to see a new twist, even though it's not quite believable that the person who originally took the documents in question - Andrew Jackson - wouldn't just burn them. I suppose he wanted to keep the pirates in limbo in case he needed them, but there's still a weakness to the premise. It's not The Paris Vendetta weak, but it's not great.

Even so, if you've read the series it's a decent continuation. I see that Berry's next book is a stand-alone work, which will hopefully give him some time to get this series back to the more solid footing of its earlier entries.

Book Log 2011 #35: Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan


A young man named Capac Raimi arrives in the City - that's all we're told of it, no idea of where or when this city is located - to start work with his uncle's minor criminal enterprise. He finds the City disagreeable, between the noise, the occasional green fog, and the micro-rainfalls that attract blind people. But he goes on his first job for his uncle, only to have everyone killed but him, so he can be taken to the Cardinal, the crime lord who essentially runs the city. The Cardinal wants to talk to him because Raimi is slated to take the Cardinal's place - someday.  From this point, Raimi enjoys a meteoric rise in the City's hierarchy, but questions linger. Who is the Cardinal? Why did he pick Raimi to be his successor? What's the deal with the green fog, the rain, and the blind guys?

All of this is answered, to varying degrees of satisfaction. There's an intent to make this some sort of fantasy noir, and I can't say that it fully succeeds in either case. The fantasy aspects of the book is more solid than the noir aspect - not surprisingly, as Shan made his name in young adult fantasy.  The fantasy aspects of the book also feel a little rough, which I suppose is also not surprising, as Shan wrote the book early in his career and saw it re-released when he became better established.

It's not a bad book, but there's an ambiguity in the story line that can make things confusing and, at times, a little ponderous. It's the first book of a trilogy, which makes me wonder if there was a focus on establishing things that took away from the book. Anyway, read with caution.

Book Log 2011 #34: The Complaints by Ian Rankin

With Inspector Rebus now retired after 17 novels, Rankin has moved on to Malcolm Fox, an officer in the Complaints and Conduct department - "the Complaints" - a Scottish version of what we'd know as Internal Affairs. After finishing a case involving a cop with a history of breaking rules, Fox is put on an investigation of a young officer suspected of involvement with child pornography. As this investigation unfolds, Fox also becomes involved in the murder of his sister's boyfriend and the suicide of a local property developer. When it becomes clear that all of these cases are related, Fox has to walk a tightrope to solve them without getting himself killed - or get caught by his own department for his own lapses during the investigation.

I've only read one of the Rebus novels, so it's hard for me to compare the two men. Publisher's Weekly did and found Fox- and this book - wanting, but like many reviewers I disagree. I found Fox an interesting character, someone who willingly takes on a job that leads most of his colleagues to hate him but who also crosses the lines he typically defends. I did think the plot was a bit too convoluted, though I did appreciate the way it allowed Rankin to show off various bits of Scotland, which is one of his strengths.

Perhaps it will take a couple of novels to fully flesh Fox out - the second one came out this year - and I'd say it's worth the effort to find out.

Book Log 2011 #33: The Holy Thief by William Ryan


A Stalin-era cop gets a case where a woman is found murdered on an altar in a church that's now a youth center. As he gets into the case, it becomes obvious that the case involves high-ranking members of various military and intelligence services. Warned off the case, he continues anyway, getting help from the local crime syndicate and writer Isaac Babel.

This isn't the most surprising premise for a historical mystery - it sometimes seems like there wasn't a killing before World War II that didn't involve a far-reaching conspiracy - but it's a pretty decent example of the type. Not the greatest, and apparently involving some glaring errors where this era of Soviet history is involved (this from a review written by a Russian expert in the New York Times), but it's not bad. I'd certainly keep up with things if it becomes a series.

Book Log 2011 #32: Eat My Globe by Simon Majumdar


When Majumdar hit 40, he rediscovered a list of life goals that included going everywhere and eating everything. Bored with his job, he set out on a year-long trip around the globe to do just that, hitting over 30 countries to eat what the locals eat. Consider it a male version of Eat, Pray, Love, just without the praying or the loving.

There's great fun in seeing Majumdar wade right into the cultures and foods of all his stops, though the entries for some stops were too short for my taste (although necessary, as the book would be about 800 pages if all of the stops got a full treatment). He also reflects on his family, most notably his brother and mother, and how food was a central focus for them.  While he ascribes this to the Indian side of the family, I wonder if there's an English aspect to this, as my English relatives have a similar focus on food (for examples, recollections of past vacations tend to be defined by meals or visits to markets).

Anyway, liked this one quite a bit, even if it did make me jealous.

Book Log 2011 #31: The Third Miracle by Bill Briggs

In 2001, the caretaker of an Indiana convent stopped into a chapel and asked God to help heal his eye, which was responding poorly to a previous surgery.  He wasn't a Catholic - not even really religious - but he figured it couldn't hurt to ask. The next morning he woke up and found his eye had improved greatly, without any medical intervention. While you or I might call that a miracle, the nuns at the convent used that term much more seriously, as they thought that this would be the thing that would finally get their founder's case for sainthood approved.

This book tells the story of the founder, Mother Theodore, and the process by which the Catholic church names saints. Both are interesting tales in their own right; Mother Theodore established her convent in Indiana at a time where people in general were thin on the ground, never mind Catholics, while the process of naming a saint is replete with the political and legal hurdles one might expect and the personal struggles - within the mind of the handyman, the nuns of the convent, and so on up the line - one might not expect.

As much as the average person tends to think that the church and science are always at odds, this book does suggest that the role of science, at least in the case of investigating potential saints, is pretty large. Much of the investigation into the miracle involves talking with doctors and reviewing the case files to see just how likely it is that the healing resulted from medicine. 

If this sort of thing interests you, this is a book you'll want to read. The story is engaging, well-written and balanced. Briggs doesn't normally write about religion, and I think that helps him avoid forcing the story into a pro- or anti-sainthood slant. He just reports the story, gives us the facts and the feelings of those involved, and allows us to make a decision on sainthood in the modern age. 

Book Log 2011 #30: The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst


Liking The Spies of the Balkans, I picked up this previous book set in Poland in 1937. The French military attache finds himself stuck in the middle of events, paying lip service to his country's commitment to Poland while acknowledging that in the case of a German invasion, Poland will need to stand on its own. The attache does work to help the Poles (and the French) understand German capabilities and Polish defenses, all in the face of the onslaught that everyone knows is coming.

As with the other book, the man in the middle also gets into a personal entanglement, as he develops a relationship with a Polish attorney who is herself mixed up with a Soviet reporter who may or may not be in trouble with the folks at home.

And, as with the other book, Furst creates a great story that balances the plot lines skillfully and uses period detail to great effect. While I am concerned that all of his books use the same template and thus will become less interesting the more of them I read, it's a chance worth taking.

Book Log 2011 #29: Endgame by Frank Brady


Most people know two things about chess prodigy Bobby Fischer: he was world chess champion at some point and, in his later years, he was an American Jew who very publicly hated America and Jews. His genius - and his madness - were fodder for all types, and in this biography Frank Brady does his best - as both a writer about chess and as someone who knew Fischer for most of his life - to untangle the threads of Fischer's life as best he can.

That's kind of a thankless task. While there are clear markers for some changes - such as when Fischer stopped being the young, carefree wunderkind and started to wear suits and speak more critically of pretty much everything - there are other changes, from Fischer's reclusive period in the 1980s and '90s to his turn as an international pariah - that are harder to explain. And to Brady's credit, he doesn't try to pull the pop psychology nonsense that other writers would. Instead, he relies on his own life in chess and his personal contact with Fischer and others who were close to Fischer to fashion best guesses where he can.

The book is written so that someone with almost no chess knowledge can follow, and is engaging enough that the lack of technical information is not missed. Brady's portrait of Fischer illustrates the complexities of the man without being too sentimental or critical, and his refusal to play what-if keeps the book on a solid factual footing. A great read for anyone who is interested in Fischer or who want to get some insight as to what can turn a genius into a madman.

Book Log 2011 #28: Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst


In the early days of World War II, Greece remains stubbornly independent, waiting for the inevitable German invasion. A police detective in Salonika finds himself made the department's fixer, answering the call for the difficult cases that require more tact than procedure. He's good at it, and it helps keep the war at bay.

His skills are noted by his British girlfriend, nominally a ballet teacher whose return to the UK is followed by the appearance of a man who is nominally a travel writer, who approaches the detective to help set up a way to get persons threatened by the Nazi policy towards Jews to a safer residence in Turkey. This requires all of the detective's skill and nerve, as it becomes increasingly more difficult to move between countries and make the arrangements to keep this underground railroad going.

On top of this, the detective has to keep an eye on him family so he can get them out of the city before the Germans arrive. And for good measure he enters into a relationship with the wife of the city's largest shipping magnate, a man of some power. The marriage is loveless, and the detective vows to save her - from both the Germans and her husband.

Few novels about World War II take place in the Balkans, so it's refreshing to have one set there. The espionage plot line is the better of the two, both in the way the refugee pipeline is run and in how Greeks were preparing for war. The romantic subplot is not as interesting, and from what I've read it's more awkward here than in other novels by Furst, who typically weaves a romantic subplot into his books.

I don't know how this one compares to those other books. but it's worth a read. It's on the short side, flows well, and has a well-drawn main character, so even when it's not at its best it's pretty good.

Book Log 2011 #27: Limitations by Scott Turow


A criminal defense attorney turned judge, George Mason is already juggling his wife's cancer battle and the appearance of threatening emails when a notable rape case lands on his docket. This leads him to reconsider his life, most specifically his role as a judge and lawyer, as current events and past experiences come too close for comfort.

Originally a story written for the New York Times Magazine, this is an expanded version of the story, albeit one that is more of a long novella than a full-fledged novel. This is only a problem in that we get less of Turow's great writing and less time with George Mason, an ancillary character in previous novels whose personal life (and turmoil) is barely hinted at, if even that, before now.

I would say that this is Turow's most introspective novel, as while there is an external thrillerish plot line with the emails, it's really about Mason's inner struggle to find his place in his profession (with wider considerations about the law and lawyering in general).  It's easily as good as Turow's other legal writings, and well worth reading.

Book Log 2011 #26: Resistance by Owen Sheers


A successful German invasion of Britain during World War II leads the men of a remove Welsh valley to leave their homes under the cover of night to become guerilla fighters. This leaves the women of the valley, not told of their menfolk's plans, to do the best they can to keep their farms and herds going. On top of that, a unit of Germans has taken up residence in the valley to keep an eye on things. They're led by an officer with his own agenda, searching for an ancient map.

While the set-up suggests alt-history, the story is really about the people in the valley and the various levels of resistance they try to put up. There are the women, who resist telling the Germans the truth about their men. Then there are the Germans, who are trying to resist re-entering the war by keeping a low profile. The main characters, a young wife and the leader of the Germans, also work to resist each other. As they grow closer they share their resistance, trying to find a way out of their predicaments.

I was expecting more of an alt-history, but once I shifted focus I enjoyed this book quite a bit.

Back when it looked like we may not get NFL action this year, I wrote a post about replacing the pro teams with the "best" college team that shared their nickname (or coming up with something fitting if no one shared the nickname).

I didn't do this for the NBA because (a) I don't follow basketball as closely as I do football, and (b) I forgot that I'd done that for the NFL. But, for completeness' sake, here's what I'd come up with for the NBA. Just without most of the exposition, because that NFL post is long.

Atlantic Division


Carlow University for the Boston Celtics - Carlow, located in Pittsburgh, is a graduate school that gets to play in the NAIA. Their basketball team plays at a local high school.

Farleigh-Dickinson University for the New Jersey Nets - no colleges use Nets or Americans, the team's first name. So as they originally played in Teaneck, I went with the one school located in Teaneck.

Union College for the New York Knicks - no Knicks or Knickerbockers, so as that was a name for the area's Dutch settlers, I went for the Dutchmen.

UNC-Charlotte for the Philadelphia '76ers - no '76ers in the college ranks, so I went with the closest number I could find - the '49ers.

Bard College for the Toronto Raptors - hey, someone else really liked Jurassic Park!

Central Division

University of Buffalo for the Chicago Bulls - South Florida plays in a better conference but is almost always under .500, so we go with the MAC.

University of Virginia for the Cleveland Cavaliers - with the added benefit of going back to the orange and blue unis.

Murray State University for the Detroit Pistons - no Pistons, nothing really car-related out there for nicknames, so thinking about what people do with cars I went with the Racers.

University of South Carolina - Aiken for the Indiana Pacers - the younger Pacers have been making the D2 playoffs of late, which is more than you can say for the NBA version.

Fairfield University for the Milwaukee Bucks - no Bucks in the college game, and Ohio State seemed like cheating as buckeyes have nothing to do with deer. So I went with the Stags.

Southeast Division


St. Joseph's University for the Atlanta Hawks - plenty of schools to choose from, but not at the same level.

Montana State University for the Carolina Bobcats - I have no idea if they're the best team with the nickname (I suppose Quinnipiac may be better?), but they seem like they're the best of the bunch. Plus Craig  Kilborne used to play for them. Remember him?

Liberty University for the Miami Heat - no school is dumb enough to use Heat as a nickname, so as there are flames on their unis I went with the schools with that as a nickname. I suppose UIC might be better, but I tend to remember seeing Liberty in my NCAA bracket more recently. I could be making that up.

LeMoyne-Owens College for the Orlando Magic - no school is dumb enough to use Magic as a nickname, but there is one that uses Magicians.

Gettysburg College for the Washington Wizards - no Wizards on the college level, but one Bullets.

Northwest Divison


University of Texas-El Paso for the Denver Nuggets - no Nuggets, go with the guys who find them.

Northwood University for the Minnesota Timberwolves - which is unfortunate, as I really wanted to use the Colorado State-Pueblo Thunderwolves. Apparently, adding "Thunder" to your nickname is the 2000s equivalent of the 1980s/90s practice of sneaking black into your uniform.

Wheaton College for the Oklahoma City Thunder - that's the Wheaton in Illinois, just in case Anne Curry is reading.

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts for the Portland Trail Blazers - and easy call, as the nicknames match and both are in the woods.

Oklahoma City University for the Utah Jazz - no Jazz, so I went with the Stars based on Utah's ABA franchise. Not related, but easier than coming up with something else.

Pacific Division


University of Hawaii for the Golden State Warriors - I expect the team to revolt when told they have to move from a tropical paradise to Oakland.

Concordia University for the Los Angeles Clippers - I was going to go with the University of Maine-Machias, but the NBA Clippers have had enough pain.

Grand Valley State University for the Los Angeles Lakers - too lazy to see if they're actually better at basketball than Lake Superior State or Mercyhurst.

Florida Christian College for the Phoenix Suns - if what I'm reading is correct, basketball is the only men's sport at FCC.

Old Dominion University for the Sacramento Kings - I suppose Kings as a college nickname got the boot once women's teams became common. So Monarchs seems like the next best option.

Southwest Conference


University of Texas-Arlington for the Dallas Mavericks - that'll be an easy move.

University of Toledo for the Houston Rockets - we have liftoff.

University of Montana for the Memphis Grizzlies - what are the odds that two teams from Montana would figure in this?

Alabama State University for the New Orleans Hornets - more Hornets out there than I expected.

Lubbock Christian University for the San Antonio Spurs - no Spurs at the college level, but as they started their ABA life as the Dallas Chaparrals I went with that.

OK, let's have labor peace, professional sports leagues. I don't think I have the strength to do this again.

Welcome to Making it Better: the Boston.com top 100 New England books list edition.

Usually this feature covers five items, but today you get a bonus replacement. Aren't you lucky?

Remove: Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

Add: The Lobster Coast by Colin Woodward

Danticat's only connection to New England is that she earned her MFA at Brown. She was born in Haiti, grew up in New York, and now seems to split time between New York and Miami. Her listed book doesn't appear to have anything to do with New England at all.

If we want a book that deals with identity but also has a New England connection, The Lobster Coast fits the bill. It discusses the history and current social crises of Maine's Down East population, and how their traditional ways are threatened by fishery problems and the increased number of non-Mainers who now live in the area. I don't doubt that Breath, Eyes, Memory tells a more dramatic story, but it is not, in a basic sense, a New England story (outside of the number of Hatian immigrants who live in New England).

Remove: Sophie's Choice by William Styron

Add: Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

Both authors have a connection to the region - Styron lived his later years on Martha's Vineyard and is buried there, Stephenson is a BU grad. But between Sophie's Choice and Zodiac, the latter is much more steeped in New England, as it's set in and around Boston and involves a group of harbor fishermen, late night escapades among the Harbor Islands, our (then) nascent biotech industry and a thinly-disguised version of Teddy Kennedy. 

I'm not saying Zodiac is the better book - I've never read Sophie's Choice - or even that it's Stephenson's best book (either Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon). But if we're talking about books by authors who were temporary New Englanders, might as well list a book that's actually set in New England.

Remove: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Add: New England White by Stephen Carter

I'll admit that I've not fully read Tuesdays with Morrie, but I have a kind of visceral reaction to Albom and his books based on excerpts and reviews that I've read. I see treacly overly-sentimental hogwash where others get inspiration. That may be a problem with me rather than him, but as I'm making the changes, off this goes.

New England White isn't sentimental or inspirational at all. It's about a murder in a small town near an unnamed Ivy League school, and the involvement of that school's president and dean of the divinity school - who are married to each other. The book expertly probes race, class, and education from inside the world of upper-class African-Americans. You'd do as well to read The Emperor of Ocean Park and Palace Council, all of which make up an interesting trilogy.

Remove: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Add: Harvard Yard by William Martin

While there's at least some connection between New England and The DaVinci Code - Robert Langdon teaches at Harvard, and Dan Brown is a life-long New Englander - the vast majority of the book takes place in Europe. 

If you want an historical thriller written by a native New Englander, go with Harvard Yard, one of a series of novels that Martin has written featuring antiquarian Peter Fallon that is actually set in New England. You could just as easily go with Back Bay or Cape Cod, which is not part of the Fallon series but is equal to those books.

Remove: The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

Add: Let Me Tell You a Story by John Feinstein

Like Breath, Eyes, Memory, this book gets on the list due to the author's New England ties (though in this case, she is a native New Englander). It does not get on for any New England content, as there is none.

My replacement is kind of the opposite. Red Auerbach had no real New England ties - he was born in Brooklyn and spent a lot of his adult years in Washington D.C. - but became one of the most iconic figures in Boston sports. I also incuded this book because all of the sports books included on the list seem to have as much to do with the Yankees as the Red Sox.

Remove: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Add: The Siege of Salt Cove by Anthony Weller

Here I'm taking out a book with which I feel absolutely no connection to one that absolutely connects. The Siege of Salt Cove starts with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts deciding that they are going to replace the town of Salt Cove's wooden bridge with a concrete span. Turns out the locals hate the plan, and the rest of the book unfolds with the locals fighting the state, real estate developers, and each other. Weller has a good eye for capturing the local spirit, and his inspiration for the book - the Annisquam Bridge, located in Gloucester - is something I saw every time we went to my grandmother's house in Rockport.

The folks at Boston.com came up with their list of 100 essential New England books, and for the first 20 or so it's a pretty solid list. The books either have a significant New England setting or are by authors with strong New England ties. But as the list goes into the other 80 books, we start to get more books that take place outside of New England written by people whose only tie to the region is a college of university where they were a student or are faculty. I'm thinking this is why I've read so few books on the list, even if in reality it's because I prefer books where time travelers give the Aztecs tanks so they can beat Cortez.

Anyway, here's what I've read on this list, with ranking in parentheses:

Make Way for Ducklings (3) - a fitting place for Robert McCloskey's best known work, but his books set in Maine are equally worth exploring.

A Prayer for Owen Meany (5) - this might be my favorite book on the list. It is infinitely better than that crap movie based on it, so don't let the film hold you back from reading this. 

Mountains Beyond Mountains (6) - Tracy Kidder could easily have four or five books on this list, from his '80s tech classic The Soul of a New Machine to the exploration of Northampton in Home Town. This book, which introduces us to Paul Farmer, a doctor whose dedication to improving health care in places as disparate as Haiti and Siberia is richly detailed and inspirational, even when countered with the pages on the red tape and personal intransigence that frustrate Farmer on a regular basis.

Empire Falls (9) - Richard Russo has a gift for writing about broken down people in broken down towns finding some sort of redemption, and this is his best of the bunch.

The Scarlet Letter (19) - Nathaniel Hawthorne's best known work. Read it in high school. Do not feel particularly motivated to read it again, though comparing it to the novelization from the movie version starring Demi Moore could be an entertaining exercise.

The Rascal King (25) - really interesting bio of James Curley. Should be higher.

Cod (29) - one of Mark Kurlansky's books that enumerates the impact of a single thing on society. Salt is better known, but I think this book does a better job thanks to the focus brought on by its comparative brevity.

Mystic River (38) - liked the book and the movie, surprising as reading the book first so often leads to being disappointed in the movie. I do often find the Southie/Dorchester stereotypes grating, but thought the treatment here wasn't too bad.

The Crucible (43) - read it in high school, and was lucky enough to have it taught by someone who worked in relevant local history (living as close to Salem as we did) and didn't soft-pedal the Communist witch hunt subtext. 

The Catcher in the Rye (61) - read it in high school, never quite got the fascination. 

A Civil Action (64) - Jonathan Harr's recounting of a David versus Goliath legal battle in Woburn, where a cancer cluster was blamed on a local industrial site. Exactly the sort of book an impressionable law student with an interest in environmental and health issues would love. And even when that student wound up in a completely different career, it's still a gripping story that shows truth is oftentimes better than Grisham.

Memoirs of a Geisha (68) - this is not a book that I would normally gravitate towards, but between the buzz and its constant appearance on the library shelf, I took a flier on it. I'm glad I did. 

A Walk in the Woods (73) - Bill Bryson's hikes on the Appalachian Trail form the basis of this book, which shows of both his attention to fact and detail and his trademark sense of humor. 

The Da Vinci Code (76) - the only way this book should be on here is if there were only 100 books with a New England connection. And even then I don't think it'd be higher than 98. I get that it was a publishing phenomenon, but if that's the metric that matters we might as well have Michelin give McDonald's three stars.

The Secret History (81) - to paraphrase Roger Ebert, I hated hated hated hated hated this book. As a New Englander, higher ed professional, and classics major, there was not one thing I could identify with in this book about a small group of students and a classics professor at a New England college. I read this for a book group that never actually met, which made it doubly infuriating that I slogged through this for no good reason.

The Handmaid's Tale (87) - I read this somewhat early in my interest in alternative history, and thus read it with that more in mind than the feminist or religious themes. Not that you can avoid them, but I think I spent a decent part of the book not quite seeing the forest for the trees.

Bringing Down the House (88) - the blurb for this list should use "true" rather than true when discussing the story. I can't accept the way Mezrich beats the facts into a shape that best fits his narrative. I think if you can't make a non-fiction story exciting using the facts as they stand, either the story's not that good or the writer's not that good.

The Old Patagonian Express (93) - I like Paul Theroux's travel work, and think this is probably the best choice for this list, as it does actually start in Massachusetts, with Theroux leaving his family home in Medford as the first step of a journey to the edge of the Americas.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (100) - what can I say, I have a kid.

Not surprisingly, there are other books I've not read whose presence on this list I can't quite accept. I'll tackle some of those next.

Book Log 2011 #25: The Gun by C. J. Chivers

So here's the thing: while this book claims to tell the history of the AK-47 and its impact on the world, it's actually a much broader work than that. It's really the history of automatic rifles, and for the first third of the book you're going to see the names Gatling and Maxim much more often than Kalashnikov. And while we do get to spend quality time with the credited designer of the world's most popular weapon, we also spend a fair amount of time at the end going over the creation of the M-16, whose troubled development is a good counterpoint to the pride of Soviet engineering.

You should not let this expansive nature get in the way of reading the book, if this is the sort of thing that interests you. I did wish for more detail on the AK itself, but understood the limitations presented by trying to write something authoritative when there are multiple - and conflicting - "official" histories. This part of the AK's history - the inside baseball of Soviet engineering and politics - is probably its most interesting aspect, but it's hard to get a full grasp on it through the propaganda.

So if you were really looking for a focused book about the AK-47 and Kalashnikov, this isn't it. As a broader work about automatic weapons and their impact on warfare, it's worth a read.

Book Log 2011 #24: The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl


When Charles Dickens suddenly dies, the pressure on his American publisher to print his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, increases greatly, especially when there are other publishers doing what they can to obtain the manuscript once it arrives from London. James Osgood represents the publisher, and as events unfold he not only has to fight off the publishing competition but solve a series of murders which claimed an employee and are seemingly related to the ending. Throw in a subplot set in India and flashbacks to Dickens' American tours and you have the setting for Pearl's most recent novel.

Thankfully, the book is less confusing than my attempt to summarize it so long after actually reading it, though it does take some time to see how the pieces fit together (especially the parts taking place in India), though it's certainly worth the work to get to where everything fits together. The Publishers Weekly review suggested the ending could be considered a cop-out, and while I don't recall feeling that way it's worth a warning, I suppose. The level of detail is good as always, and as a local I did appreciate the amount of action that took place in greater Boston.

All in all, I think I liked The Dante Club better, but did enjoy this one quite a bit.

Book Log 2011 #23: Heat by Bill Buford


There's a lot going on in this book: the author quits his day job at The New Yorker so he can work for Mario Batali in the Babbo kitchen, works his way up the ladder a bit, and then decamps to Italy to meet and work with/for the people Batali worked for and found his inspiration for traditional, hand-made Italian cuisine. Then there's the autobiographical part about Batali, whose full-tilt personality and colorful work history make him define the idea of being larger than life. And on top of that is the author's own developing obsession for making this food, which underscores why people will put up with lousy hours and often hostile working conditions to make great dishes.

On top of this we get a mountain of engrossing detail. The minutae about working at Babbo is similar to what's come up in other books about working in high-end restaurants, but is well recounted and not repetitive of other works. Buford goes out of his way to look at the history of the food he prepares, from the elevation of the short rib to the development of the traditional recipie for hand-made pasta.

If you have any interest in Batali, Italy or the culinary field, this is a must-read, and I'd think readers with a casual interest would get sucked in as well.  Definitely recommended.