The Reagan Diaries

The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan (Edited by Douglas Brinkley)

When anyone (myself, anyway) first buys one of those Amazon Kindles, it’s very tempting to spend hours each day browsing through all of the free and/or bargains that are available.  For a brief time, this book was advertised at only $1.99.  How can you pass up a deal like that?  Especially when the regular price was about 8 or 9 times that amount.  And, unlike a real book, Kindles purchases that you decide you didn’t need are much easier to be disposed of after your initial disappointment.

Apparently, Ronald Reagan kept a diary when he was President from 1981 through 1989.  He did a pretty good job of keeping his entries consistent.  There are some noticeable gaps (like, you know, when he was shot), but he was pretty faithful in journaling his daily activities.  And this is just what this is, daily entries in a personal diary.  Most deal with the presidency, but there’s a lot of personal stuff here as well.  As lengthy as this volume is, it's also heavily edited, which is probably a good thing.  I must say that, while I can’t say that I’m disappointed in this book, it’s definitely not something I would want to read again, nor would I recommend this to others.  It’s, well, a diary.

When President Reagan does mention his day to day work schedule, there are so many different world leaders, cabinet officers, and members of congress that flow in and out of his office, that you simply can’t keep up with all of the names unless you’re a devout study of history and you have a sharp enough memory to retain such minor players in world politics 33 years after the fact (yes, it has been that long).  When political leaders are mentioned, there’s never much thought nor detail around the major events of Reagan’s presidency here.  Some of the most auspicious occasions of his tenure are barely glazed over, or even talked about at all.  Example, there’s nothing in here about his famous “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” speech, but there might have been a flighty reference to him “going to Berlin to make a speech”.  So you may feel cheated, but again, it is what it says: a diary.

You do, however, get to see many of his idiosyncrasies which can be quite interesting.  The man definitely had a big heart, and regardless of your politics, his journals dictate that he only wanted what was best for his country, and put up with a lot of left-leaning journalistic flak.  There are a lot of entries that go something like: “Delivered a great speech to the Working Women of Tomorrow and received four standing ovations during my talk.  Of course, none of the three major networks mentioned any of that”.  He also loved his wife tremendously, loved his kids as well even though he felt they were a bit flakey, got a lot of haircuts, and ate a lot of lunches with his Vice President.  He also, as you may recall, had a lot of medical issues.  He goes through these in quite nauseating detail, but I suppose that if I were keeping a diary, I might write about such things as well.  He never curses beyond “damn” or “hell”, and when he does, he enters the words in his diary as “d_ _ n” or “h _ _ l”.  He also misspells Quayle (“Quaale”) and AIDS (“AIDES”) several times as well.

As I read this book, I found the first couple of years enjoyable, so I decided to plow through once I had reached that point even though I had lost interest.  I found myself reading this diary as one might write a diary (i.e. I would spend a few minutes a day going through maybe one month’s entries at a time).  Again, I imagine a diehard admirer or astute historian would deeply enjoy this book, but I can’t see many other people finding that much to enjoy.  I imagine that there are many other detailed retrospectives that give a much better perspective of the presidency.  I can’t be too critical, though, because the book is essentially exactly what it says it is (again) a diary.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

My first reaction after completing this Pulitzer Prize novel from 1980 was “Wow.”.  Not “wow, this was a great book” (which it was, more on that later), but “wow, what an incredible human being.”  Let’s just say I now have a new hero.  Like most Americans, I knew what could be described as the “Cliffs Notes” version of the life of Theodore Roosevelt - a few sporadic highlights from his life, and the fact that he was one of the four faces on Mount Rushmore.  And, I mean, if he’s on Mount Rushmore, he had to have been one of the “good ones”.  Right?

This book details his life from his birth, up until he’s nominated as William McKinley’s Vice President in 1901.  In other words, before he got to the White House.  For starters, let’s just say that this man was simply incredible.  I don’t see how he could possibly have done all of the things that he did throughout his life.  The man had unorthodox energy and drive, simply couldn’t sit still, and even when his ventures were less than 100% successful, he always took his shortcomings in stride, and relished the learning experiences that these lessons would provide.

Born in New York City shortly before the beginning of the Civl War, he was fortunate to be brought into the world by an affluent, yet very kind and loving family.  Money was never a concern for the Roosevelts, yet this family was tenderhearted and very socially progressive - something you tend to not associate with wealth and privilege,  especially over a century ago when there weren’t as many laws about to protect the under privileged.

I simply can’t go into detail in terms of all of the paths and directions this man pursued.  I confess I get exhausted just thinking about the man’s life.  To be somewhat brief, he was fortunate to receive a Harvard education, began life as an amateur zoologist, travelled to Europe with his family a few times, frequently took trips out to the wild west and started a cattle ranch, became the police commissioner of New York, served as the Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Navy, became the Governor of New York, and charged up San Juan Hill with his team of Rough Riders during the brief Spanish American War - with no military background nor experience.  And he managed to write about five or six books (the first while he was still a teenager).  All of this before he became Vice President, which he was only 42 years old when he assumed the office.

In addition, author Edmund Morris also spends a lot of time detailing Roosevelt’s personal life as well.  Strangely, the focus on his family life does diminish as the book progresses, and you have to wonder if this is simply because the man had so many irons in the fire of his life.  Particular detail is paid to his courtship of his first wife, Alice.  This affair could have made a beautiful book in and of itself.  Roosevelt, in addition to being such a fastidious task master, he had a brilliant way with words.  Whereas his voice and tone was a bit high pitched and annoying (he’s one of the first Presidents to have his actual voice recorded for history), he had a masterful command of the English language, and reading his prose and observations were delightful.  Many times during my reading, I would break out in laughter while reflecting on his observations - especially when describing callous people (he briefly described one adversary as “mainly wind”.  I don’t know why I find that so humorous, but I’ll probably steal that line sometime.  I must! ) So his wooing of his first bride was a delight to read about as well, and the two were very much in love.

Of course, any life is bound to contain some sort of tragedy, and Roosevelt’s is no exception.  While his wife was giving birth to their first child, she died due to complications.  To compound the tragedy, Roosevelt lost his mother on the exact same day, which happened to be Valentine’s Day.  He would never really recover from the incident, and refused to even talk about his departed wife throughout the remainder of his life.  Ironically, his second wife was a friend of his before he married Alice, and whereas their early relationship was more platonic, there were definitely hints of courtship.  Edith Carow would bear Theodore five more children during their life together, and whereas they were deeply in love as well, you can’t help but wonder if his first marriage still held a grasp on his heart that he could never quite let go.

This books moves at a very fast pace.  It simply has to, when you consider all of the avenues that Roosevelt pursued, yet it never feels rushed and is always such a delightful read.  Each chapter in this book seems to take such an abrupt turn in the man’s life, that you feel like you’re reading about the lives of many men rather than just one.  It helps, as mentioned before, that Roosevelt was such a purveyor of decency.  As soon as he takes over as Police Commissioner of New York City, he sets out to clean up and clean out all of the corruption.  He even goes as far as to stop the sale of alcohol on Sundays.  Not very radical by today’s standards, but he always met up with several walls of opposition throughout his crusades, yet he was never daunted by anything.  The man knew what he was doing was right.  

About the only flaw that I saw in the man’s character, was he seemed to believe that the Anglo-Saxon race was the most pure, and therefore, tools such as war were necessary to keep such standards at a high rate.  There should be some amount of forgiveness in retrospect, however, as this was just common thinking at the time (along with such things as not giving women the right to vote - which he opposed).  This behavior may have lighted an inner fire of passion which help set up Cuba’s independence from mother Spain, which is where the Rough Rider phase enters the story.  Too much detail for me to go into here, but again, a fascinating story within a story.

Morris would go onto to write two more retrospectives on the live of TR.  One about his presidency, and the last one on the life after the presidency.  Although those two volumes don’t have quite the reputation as this one, they’re still regarded very highly in the literary community, and I have added them to my ever growing list of books to read in the future.

The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

First, let me say that I haven’t seen any of the recent onslaught of Jason Bourne movies.  Apparently if you love the books, you hate the movies.  If you love the movies, you hate the books.  If you’ve never been exposed to either, you wonder just what all of the fuss is about.  The first of (what I think is) a three volume series was actually written almost forty years ago (around 1975), and I almost have to wonder why it took so long to make the adaptation to screen in the first place based on the apparent popularity of the series .

Our story opens up somewhere in Europe (I forget specifically where).  Some local fishermen discover a body floating out in the ocean and they haul in this near-corpse that is miraculously still alive.  In the nearby small port town, there’s only one doctor, who apparently moonlights as an alcoholic.  The doctor slowly nurses back this mysterious shodden figure back to health, and the specimen is definitely a unique find.  The doctor discovers that this man has had many parts of his body surgically altered to radically change his physical appearance.  Definitely something sinister here.  It doesn’t help when the patient slowly regains consciousness over a period of weeks only to be suffering from amnesia.  He has no idea who he is nor where he came from.  The doctor finds a microchip embedded on the man’s body, which only contains some random information about a bank account in Switzerland.  So this is basically all the patient has to go on if he wants to discover his identity.

So this is where the ride really starts.  Without going into too much detail, let’s just say that the man (he later finds out his name is Jason Bourne) is part of a clandestine government operation, and although he’s supposed to know who he is, no one else is.  So when he starts arbitrarily showing up in places, such as the above mentioned  Switzerland bank, casually announcing who he is in attempt to find out who he really is, chaos, panic and a lot of shooting commences.  A lot of shooting.   Over a lot of pages.

All of this is only the beginning, and we’re taken on an incredibly complex labyrinth of details from this point of the book forward.  It’s very easy to get lost with all of the mysterious figures coming and going, and this is a book that must be read (at least by me) slowly and carefully.  There’s simply too much to digest.  For someone like myself who only speaks one language, it doesn’t help that 95% of this novel takes place in a different country other than the United States.  The author describes a lot of detail in these strange countries, along with elaborate, but appropriate names and descriptions.  I simply found myself getting lost with all of the foreign names and locations.  Example:  If this story took place in the good old U.S. of A., with American characters, it might describe a scenario in this manner:

“When I walked out of the Hilton, I saw a man that looked like Charlie, who was riding in a taxi when they drove past the Olive Garden on the way to the Main Street parade.”

Since, however, we’re in places like Switzerland and Germany, what we get instead is:

“When I walked out of the Les Feltehtraum Sherrabere Deuz Kaptin, I saw a man that looked like Monsieur Von Klappentooff Schertzanhous who was riding in an AutoFrankenheis when they drove past the Gotte Zer Plettz Der Frouihenheppenhurffer on the way to the Des Mont De Shlavovitz on Perre”.

I realize that what I wrote is extreme jibberish, but this is exactly what it felt like to me after reading a couple of hundred pages or so of this book with all of its pristine details.  It made me wish that I kept a notebook on the side so I could take some copious notes that I could use for future reference.  There were several times when I just couldn’t juggle and remember all of these complex foreign names and places.

Another key fault of this book is the female “sidekick”, or “accomplice”.  Apparently, Robert Ludlum decided that if this story was going to have some teeth, he simply needed to give Jason Bourne an ally to help him through this complex nightmare.  That, in itself, is o.k. and probably even desirable.  It also doesn’t hurt that she’s young, has auburn hair, beautiful, etc.  What the problem is, is how she’s thrown into the story.  Near the beginning of this adventure, Jason kidnaps her.  Not out of cruelty, but necessity.  Remember, he doesn’t even know who he is.  Of course, after the initial kidnapping, she’s rightfully terrified out of her wits, and seems to scream “Please let me go!” at least a bazillion times during a dozen or so pages.  Well, without drudging up the plot, let’s just say that these two somehow, amazingly, become not only allies, but lovers.  It seems a bit preposterous for her to address him throughout the remainder of the pages as “my darling...” after what this man put her through.  She’s overall a good character (as I write this, I can’t remember her name.  Not really important),I just wish a bit more care would have been taken into how she becomes involved.

So the story continues, and each page is packed with action.  Although I couldn’t give you a very thorough explanation of who everyone in this book was, and what purpose they served, the story was overall enjoyable even though my head was spinning much of the time due to the complex plot.  The book manages to have a very satisfying conclusion, yet leaves room for more story, which I’m assuming will be picked up with the next books in the series.  I look forward to reading the next couple of volumes.   Some day.

Wish You Well

Wish You Well by David Baldacci

David Baldacci is slowly becoming a very popular, best selling author.  For years, he seemed to be more of a “B” list author, meaning maybe a new book might crack the top ten eventually, but nothing from him was ever earth shattering news upon release.  The vast majority of his works could be classified as “political thrillers”, and there’s plenty of variety from book to book.  Strangely, every now and then Baldacci will release a novel that is nothing of this type of genre, and curiosity gets the best of his readers.

Such is the case with this piece of work, which was about the fifth or sixth book he released.  For whatever reason, this book became a sort of “classic”, not because of depth, but because of sweetness  (think Oprah’s book club).  You have to give the author credit for trying such a radically different angle.  Plus, the masses seemed to fall in love with this one.  There’s even a reissue with a “discussion guide” for book clubs at after the conclusion.  That was a new one for me.  Perhaps I’m being crass, but I didn’t think this book was that great.    Sweet, innocent, and charming, but not really that great.  Reading this book made me think of the television show The Waltons from the 1970s.

Our main protagonist is a 12 year old tom-boyish girl named Lou, who has a fairly simple life along with little brother, 7 year old Oz along with Mom and Dad.  Dad is a very well respected author.  That’s not to say he’s rich - his books are too good for mass circulation, but the family lives fairly comfortably.  Well, early on in the book, the family is in a car accident.   Dad is immediately killed and Mom is reduced to a vegetative state.  The two kids (along with the mother, who can’t communicate in the slightest) are forced to live with their only relative, their Great Grandmother Louisa, whom they’ve never met and lives up in the mountains - miles away from civilization.  Ironically, it’s Louisa who helped raised the father - which turns out to be where Dad got most of his ideas from his books from, and will serve the same sort of inspiration for young Lou.

So obviously, the kids are heading for a major transition.  They don’t even have electricity where Great-Grandma Louisa lives.  So the kids arrive, and although there’s an obvious culture shock, it never really feels that drastic.  Great Grandmother literally lives off the land, so there are chores a-plenty, yet the book almost makes the entire experience seem like one long summer vacation.  There are plenty of characters up in the mountains - some good, some not so good, yet the kids manage to do o.k.  Young Oz is convinced that one day Mom will be Mom again, and resorts to all sorts of wishing and dreaming.  Big sister Lou is much more of a realist, and she’s convinced that Oz is only setting himself for a major disappointment with all of his dreaming.  Lou doesn’t think Mom will ever “come back”.  One of the new neighborhood kids even takes the pair to a “magic wishing well”.  All you have to do is throw the one thing that matters the most to you down the well, and your wish will come true.

Well, a wish is made, but life goes on.  So much of this story seems a bit too typical of a sappy Hallmark movie.  There’s lots of tragedy - it seems like the author can’t figure out how to advance the plot without several senseless accidents tossed in every few chapters or so.  Again, though, the point of a “feel good” book is to make you “feel good”, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

As the story winds on, there’s apparently a “wealth” of natural gas in one of the mountains, and a gas company arrives wanting to buy Louisa’s land.  Such a move would not only provide a lot of jobs for the struggling depression laden community, but it will also make Louisa and her kin very rich indeed. Predictably, of course, Louisa tells the gas company “no”. True, she’s poor, but she’s always been poor.  This, naturally, outrages the neighbors, so threats are made, “accidental” fires are started, people are threatened, and there’s a big courtroom drama that serves as the books climax.

Well, did I mention that this is one of those “happy” books?  Not only is the ending predictable, but Baldacci then throws in an Afterward, that makes the story even more unbelievable by simply telling us what happens to all the characters many years after the conclusion of the story.  Let’s just say that the happy ending gets even happier.

So, although I obviously had a different overall feel for the book than the masses that ranted and raved, I have to conclude that it’s not necessarily that bad of a tale, I was just hoping for something a bit more believable.  I prefer the author’s “thrillers”.    

“Waiter! A bit more, you know, testosterone, please?”

Kennedy

Kennedy by Ted Sorenson

When I was 13 years old, I was fortunate enough to take a trip with my family to Walt Disneyworld.  It was a wonderful, magical experience that has stayed with me for decades ever since.  The only downside to that excursion was that anytime that I have ever visited any other theme park (Six Flags, Opryland, Astorworld, etc.), it’s been a major letdown.  Nothing can ever compare to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.

The reason say this, is that I can’t help but wonder if reading the mega volume series on Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro has potentially done the same thing to my literal tastebuds.  Those books were so enriching, that I’m thinking that every thing else that I’ll read on similar subject matters won’t have the same effect.  Sadly, when I read Ted Sorenson’s Kennedy, this is exactly what I felt like.  It just didn’t compare.  It just couldn’t compare.

Ironically, it was the references to JFK in the latter two Robert Caro volumes that started my interest in LBJ’s predecessor.  I wanted to learn more about the man, the nation’s 35 president.  What was it that made him tick?  And how did he come from relative obscurity in the late 1950’s to be, arguably, the most popular president of the 20th century?

To be fair, this book has several, what I would call, disadvantages from the start.  First, the piece was written in 1964, shortly after Kennedy was tragically murdered.  Also, the book was written by one of his closest insiders and speechmakers, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but this book is horribly biased.  Horribly biased.

Oh how it’s biased.  It doesn’t help when Sorenson includes a ridiculous weak forward to a 2009 reissue of this book that could have been better written by a high school sophomore.  In this new puerile forward, Sorenson essentially says that Kennedy was a great, flawless president, and every other president we’ve had since (and he goes through them in detail) has sucked.  Well, this ridiculous rant is almost enough to turn you off from the main body of work immediately, but fortunately the main piece isn’t as juvenile.  Perhaps the author was getting senile.  Sadly, though, the book is simply too one-sided.  Sorenson was obviously a disciple that thought Kennedy was some sort of god, and would probably gladly drink the man’s bathwater if it was asked of him.  Some of the syrupy praise that he lauds on the man over and over again is simply too much to stomach.

It’s not that you really want the book to be a slinger of mud, I’m not sure a book such as that could have been released and/or accepted so shortly after the abrupt end of Camelot.  The public really didn’t want to read about stolen elections, Carlos Marcello and the mafia, nor Marilyn Monroe at this point, so it’s perfectly acceptable that Sorenson stays clear of the darker side of the man’s life.  It’s simply that every event in the man’s presidency tries to show that Kennedy was simply infallible, and even The Bay of Pigs disaster is blamed on everyone else except Kennedy himself  (to JFK’s credit, he takes much of the blame for the fiasco in this retrospective, but Sorenson will hear nothing of it.)

Then there’s the shear volume of this work.  Since I read it on a Kindle, I can’t accurately state the page length, but I believe the printed work was over 900 pages.  Sorenson could have easily trimmed this by about one third.  He simply goes into too much detail.  Speaking of detail, this book really isn’t about the life of Kennedy, but rather the life of President Kennedy.  There’s very little about the man’s past here, which makes the length more unbearable.  I don’t think anyone could successfully write a book  over 900 pages detailing only three years of a presidency.

I have to concede, though, that maybe this is how books were written back in 1964.  I’m guessing that authors didn’t have to necessarily have their printed words singing and dancing in front of a reader keeping their attention.  In other words, people were more content reading a long, drawn out volume, simply because there wasn’t much else to do back in 1964. so news sources and books like this didn’t have to be too concerned with keeping the reader’s undivided focus.

At times, I didn’t feel like I was reading a biography, I felt like I was reading a 900 page Wikipedia article.  It’s amazing just how bored a reader can be trying to digest entire, drawn out chapters that discuss Kennedy’s influence and involvement in the U.S. Steel industry.  This brings new meaning to the word “dull”.

And everything is covered here that the man had his hand in from 1960-1963.  Everything.  Some of the more newsworthy events, such as The Cuban Missile Crises, actually do make a refreshing read.  Perhaps because this event is so predominant in people’s minds, even 50 years after the fact.  Since Sorenson goes into so much detail, this would be an excellent source for a student’s research paper.

It’s interesting to read about the involvement and references to Vietnam.  Remember, no one really knew what or where Vietnam was in 1964,and it certainly didn’t bring up the same connotations as it does now, so I found these portions a good read as well.   Again, it’s very clear that Kennedy was not as “Dove-ish” as some would have you believe, and he was well prepared to do whatever it took to keep the communists out of South Vietnam.  Still, although there are some that don’t like to entertain such a notion, we simply don’t know what Kennedy would have done in Southeast Asia had he lived.  

Another interesting thing about this book is that since Ted Sorenson was a professional speechwriter, there are many portions of Kennedy’s actual speeches sprinkled through the pages - as well as some of his entire speeches.  This doesn’t really hinder the book, it just seems a bit strange since this is not a norm in historical biographies such as this.  In fact, many of Kennedy’s amusing anecdotes that he would quip during his presidency are included here, and the man simply had a strong way with words when illustrating key points, or responding to criticism from an opponent.

Overall, I didn’t think this book was that great, and thought it could have been much better.  This is, however, a great compendium of Kennedy’s accomplishments and overall comings and goings of the three years in his office.  I just wish the author would have practiced the art of summarizing a bit more.

Pursuit of Honor

Vince Flynn - Pursuit of Honor

Ahhhh, nothing like an exciting burst of right wing, testosterone laden, let’s-kill-some-bad -assed terrorists novel!  Vince Flynn has arguably become one of the most popular authors of the last decade.  Although his books are extremely one dimensional, he can pack quite a lot of excitement in a punch.  And I mean that last sentence quite literally.

Flynn is one of those authors that has chosen to focus the majority of his work around one main character (think James Patterson’s Alex Cross or Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone).  Our hero in all of these exciting adventures is named Mitch Rapp.  Even if you’ve never read one of Flynn’s works, a character such as Mitch Rapp should probably be very familiar to you.  He’s a clandestine CIA operative with killer instincts, yet a heart of gold to do the right thing.  He’s the most valuable asset our country has, yet he must spend the majority of his life in secret living in the shadows.  He knows everything about every terrorist organization on the face of the earth, yet he’s mild mannered enough to be your neighbor down the street.  Of course, where espionage is involved, this sort of hero doesn’t “follow the rules”.  You get it?

What’s a bigger headache than all of these terrorists that Rapp tracks down are those in Washington who simply don’t get it.  Yes, there’s terrorism in our world, but that’s because America is a big bad bully, and the CIA uses cruel and unconventional methods.  Mitch Rapp, these extremists insist, “needs to be kept on a short leash”.

So in just about every Vince Flynn/Mitch Rapp novel, a familiar pattern emerges.  There are some terrorists in some remote part of the world planning to destroy “The Great Infidel”.  The CIA finds out about it, dispatches Rapp to destroy these cells.  The radical members of the left-wing in congress cry “foul”.  Tensions are mounted, anger becomes imminent, and congressional inquiries are held. Rapp somehow saves the day anyway.  

Although most of his books are very similar, there is sort of a linear (albeit somewhat inconsequential) story line, so it’s probably in the reader’s best interest to start sequentially with the Vince Flynn novels.  As a matter of fact, this one actually picks off from where the last novel ended, but to be completely honest, I wouldn’t say it’s absolutely necessary to read the prior work beforehand.  That’s actually a compliment to Mr. Flynn, as he gives the reader enough background information from the last story as to not strand a newcomer.

Which begs the ultimate question, “Is this a good book?”  Truthfully, yes it is, but this material does get a bit thin after several renditions.  I’m guessing a large part of Vince Flynn’s popularity has to do with the fact that our country has, in fact, become a much different place since 9/11, and stories such as Flynn’s have only helped in terms of the books’ popularity (To be fair, Flynn started this “series” before 9/11.  He was already on the fourth book by then - so you can’t really accuse him of cashing in to make a quick buck based on the sentiments of the masses).

I’m not sure I would recommend this (or any of Flynn’s) work(s) if your politics lean far to the left as you’re bound to be offended.  To Flynn’s credit, he tries to keep the partisanship to a minimum (if I’m not mistaken, the President in these books is a Democrat and a “good guy”).  For most, though, these books are overall fun if slightly (unintentionally) silly.

To give you an example of some shenanigans from this work, there’s another character in this book who is sort of Mitch Rapp’s “Lieutenant” named Mike Nash (what is it with all the one syllable names?).  Nash is a lot like Rapp, but Rapp has to keep him somewhat at a distance from too much of the dangers in this line of work because, see, Nash actually has a sweet little wife and family of four kids.  “Family life” is not in the cards for Mitch Rapp, but he wants to make sure that his protege puts his domestic life a little higher on the priority list.  This, of course causes a bit of conflict between these two buffed-up brutes.  At one point, Rapp literally has to knock Nash “on his ass” so he can make the man comes to his senses.  Well, about halfway in this book, we’re introduced to Nash’s nice little family, and the author spends a bit too much time going into meticulous detail about and around this nice little family.  You can’t help but wonder “where is this going?”  Sadly, as the book progresses,  a group of terrorists are on the run and are heading to Washington, they just happen to, you know, show up where these kids are out playing and unprotected and....well....it really doesn’t take much of a genius to figure out what’s going to happen.

So give one or two of Vince Flynn’s books a try if you’re so inclined.  Try more if you want.  They’re fun, just don’t expect too much variety.

Never Send Flowers

Never Send Flowers by John Gardner

It is now officially official: I’m going to take a break from the John Gardner penned James Bond books.  As I’ve stated in previous reviews, I am currently fiercely committed to getting through the series of books by the author who ‘officially’ took over this concatenation from Ian Fleming.  These books are overall good, but lacking in originality and depth, and I can’t help but feel that I’m not doing the reviews justice since I seem to be plodding through at a faster pace than what is probably required.

I made a dedicated effort to go through this one a bit slower and really allow the story to sink in, and not hurry through in an attempt to simply “get it over with”.  I think I succeeded overall, yet even going through this one at a less-than manic pace, I can’t help but feel I’ve read all of this before.  Again and again and again.  In all of the other John Gardner Bond novels.

The book starts off well.  Several high profile individuals from around the globe are mysteriously assassinated in what seems to be a well thought out, carefully constructed manner.  In other words, someone powerful must be pulling the strings.  So James Bond is called in to investigate.  Of course he’s paired up with a lovely honey who can best be described as a counterpart from one of the countries where one of the killings has taken place.  Well, here’s a rule for James Bond books - anytime a lady with better than average looks appears within the first fifty pages - well, can you guess what will happen?

Sadly, from this point, the story goes downhill.  The murderer, somehow, ends up being a high profile movie actor.  Of course, during the story, Bond is lured into the bad guy’s lair - before we know he’s the actual bad guy, of course.  And his abode is far from humble.  It’s more like a castle or a fortress with all sorts of bizarre thespian amenities.

The rest is predictable - no real surprises.  I’m actually yawning as I write this.  I’ll definitely pick up on the series again.  It will just be awhile.  I need a Bond break.  At least from the books.