The Continental Risque

On our drive up to LA for Thanksgiving this year Suzy and I were able to have a nice long conversation. How is that possible you ask? Well, the key was plugging in the boys. While visiting Jeff and Cassi last I revelled in the amazing peace and quiet of a car ride with children watching a video while wearing headphones. They are watching a video, so odds are they are not fighting (worse case scenario) or incessantly chatting (best case scenario). We had long ago discovered the benefits of video watching while driving, but Jeff and Cassi added the key piece to the pie of headphones. You mean it is possible to have a conversation with my wife? Uninterrupted? With the boys mere feet away? Really?

Yes, it is possible, and Suzy and I had a very nice conversation during the two hour drive Thursday morning while the boys watched Ratatouille. One of the topics that we covered was my envy of Suzy's focused abilities. She has a lot of broad based skills, but is particularly adept at anything having to do with visual arts. Thus her amazing skills while we worked together at designing user interfaces. She has a particular skill set, she loves using that skill set, and the results are what you would expect. I, on the other hand, have a reasonably broad based list of interests as well as skills, but have no focus. There is no one activity or past time that I am love, no area of skill that I excel at. Jack of all trades, master of none, kind of thing.

One of the things that I am interested in is history. I also enjoy reading, so combining my strong interest in history, with my strong interest in reading leads to an unusual, at least for me, attraction to historical novels. Sharpe, Hornblower, Aubrey, all characters who have made history a little more real to me. I have recently added Biddlecomb to that list.
The Revolution at Sea series covers the Revolutionary War from the perspective of the fledgling U.S. Navy. The Continental Risque is the third book in the series and in particular deals with the first fleet actions of the U.S. Navy. It is hard to call this motley group of converted merchantmen a navy, in particular when compared to the forces that the British navy could put to sea, but much like the early U.S. Army, you do the best you can with the hand you are dealt. The goals were modest for the Navy, but the valor required was not. This book also focused on the tensions that already existed between the Southern colonies and Northern ones. The Northern colonies were dominating what little navy existed, so the politicians, in order to maintain good relations between the northern and southern colonies, forced promotions and appointments. These promotions and appointments were based more on political expediency rather than skill at sea. The outcome was predictably bad.

As this is the third book in a series you are already familiar with the characters, and that for me always adds to the enjoyment of the book. The sense of getting back in touch with an old friend and picking up right where you left off. The book was interesting throughout and definitely had some exciting parts. A solid three and a half stars. If you are interested in historical naval novels, and who in their right mind isn't?, then this series is well worth your time.

Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu

The In-Laws were in town this weekend. Suzy and I were just discussing how lucky we are to have them involved in our, and our boys, lives. Suzy's dad is great about playing and having loads of fun with the boys, as well is amazing with all of the stuff that he builds for our house. He is currently working on bunk beds for the boys. Very cool. Suzy's mom is great, but in totally different ways. She loves to read with the boys, snuggle with them, give them comfort when their grandpa is too rough, or gets them calmed down after all of the crazy things grandpa does. Tutu is also always ready with something interesting to talk about or think about. I have had great discussions with her about an amazing variety of things. The other way that she has made herself near and dear to my heart is that she is a librarian by trade. That means that she is always ready with a book, a new author, or an opinion on something that I would like to read. Since they were down this weekend she let me read Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu, which she had brought down for me.

While not a classic read by any stretch of the imagination, it was just what I was in the mood for. Sometimes SciFi books can be a bit preachy. I am not too interested in preachy SciFi, but I have to put up with it if I want to fly around the galaxy. When I have had enough of SciFi authors telling me how the world or humanity could be better I like to escape into a mindless mystery. Mysteries are good for me because they go quick, they generally hold your attention, and almost never do they preach to you.

Mr Monk, if you haven't seen the TV show, is an extremely obsessive compulsive detective who consults for the San Francisco Police Department. The reason he consults is that his OCD makes him incapable of functioning in society without the help of an assistant. The book is told from the perspective of that assistant, and deals with a time that the Police department is on 'strike', and hires Mr. Monk to help pick up the slack. Mr. Monk and his fellow misfit detectives have to find a way to solve the raging murders in the city (don't go to San Francisco, lots of killing going on there!), by embracing their various disorders (OCD, paranoia, impulse control, senility). I have watched the TV show a few times, and thought it had some funny moments, but have never watched regularly. The book was about the same, pretty funny at times, and easy to follow, but I don't think that I will rush out to by the rest in the series. Maybe it is on the order of a book that you would pick up in the airport, assuming that you don't have to entertain kids that is. Oh, to remember the time when my only concern on a plane ride is what book to read. It seems like that was a long time ago.

Three stars for Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu.

1633

There are numerous ways that Suzy and I try to maintain a harmonious marriage. Some work better than others. I know that Suzy needs to have a specific type of cheese in order to make nachos. Not shredded. Not a block. Only the cheese that comes in a soup can will do. We spent a LONG time wandering around our grocery store early on in our marriage, me wondering what was going on, and Suzy looking for the cheese. After much anger, borderline tears, and some stomping later, we stumbled upon the cheese, and she was happy.

One of my quirks is that I am not allowed to read books by Harry Turtledove. I like the idea behind most of his books (historical novels, but something happens to change history, the genre is called alternative history), but not the execution. They always end up frustrating me.

So one day while in Mysterious Galaxy I stumbled upon 1812, a book about the War of 1812, with some alterations to history. The idea was there, the execution was there, and it ended up being a pretty good book. Boy, was I excited. Nothing like finding a new option for picking up books. Especially an option with plenty of choices out there for you to catch up on. So 1812 lead me to try 1632, which plops a region of modern day West Virginia into 1632 Germany, smack in the middle of the 30 Years war. Again, interesting idea, good execution.

I went to the well again while in Mysterious Galaxy by picking up 1633. We pick up the story again of how these hillbillies from West Virginia deal with the life and times of war torn Europe. The premise of the book is obviously ridiculous, some kind of time warp grabbing a big ring of West Virginia and flinging it back in time. But, as long as you can suspend your disbelief of that premise the rest of the series covers what would happen next. Local coal miner Mike Stearns leads the formation of new country in central Europe called the United States. Using what weapons and technology that came with them the intrepid hillbillies defend themselves, protect the innocent peasants and introduce the ideals of modern day democracy to monarch dominated Europe. A good read for me, I gave it 3 and a half stars and am looking forward reading the next in the series, strangely named, 1634.

You gotta have what?

You Gotta Have Wa is one of those books that I have heard about for years, but never read. It is one of the books that people recommend when someone asks for good books on the baseball sites that I frequent. You know, like Ball Four, Bums, and more recently Moneyball. I finally added 'Wa' to my Amazon wish list this spring and when my birthday rolled around Suzy took great care of me, like she always does. Having a spouse feed your reading needs, and matching you in many of your reading desires, greatly enhances a relationship.
You Gotta Have Wa is not simply a baseball book. In fact, I would say that primarily it is a book that discusses Anglo-Japanese relationships, at least covering the period of the mid to late eighties. As I recall that was a pretty tense time, I seem to remember one higher up Japanese official calling the American worker 'stupid' my freshman year of college (1991). True or not, that reveals some of the undercurrents of unhappiness that were crossing the Pacific. The Japanese style of baseball is very regimented, every player plays predominantly the same way, and it is assumed that the best players are the ones who have dedicated themselves to the team the most. Their practices are brutal compared to those in the United States. This difference of styles leads to great resentments when the North American (gaigin) players come over to play in Japan. 'Wa' talks about some of those players (Bob Horner, Leon and Leron Lee, and many others) and how they did or did not adjust to Japan, and how Japan did or did not adjust to them. I don't know if the problems between the American players and the Japanese management were based more on xenophobia, ethnocentricity or just the natural clashing of different methods to reach the same goal. Any way about it 'Wa' makes you think about what it would be like trying to survive and live your life in a different culture. It also reveals what kinds of people were able to make it in this particular setting, the Lee brothers flourished and Bob Horner struggled mightily. How do you think that you would do?
Woops, I realize I got to the end of this without explaining what 'Wa' is. Any Japanese speaking readers will quickly cringe at my attempt to define wa, but here goes anyway. Wa is a sense of camaraderie or team spirit, that was often broken up by foreign players and their attitudes.

Scoundrel

Bernard Cornwell is certainly one of my favorite authors. He is most popular for his Sharpe's series, which follows Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British army around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. I say around the time because Cornwell started during the Napoleonic wars, has gone on to write some prequels that take place in India, and has even written some (one?) post-Waterloo Sharpe's novels. They are historical fiction by nature, but Cornwell does a great job taking some history and making it into a tale.
Scoundrel is a different sort of tale all together. As a departure from the typical Cornwell novel (he has also written a Civil War series, a King Arthur series, etc.) Scoundrel takes place in near modern times. It is hard for me to say it, but it certainly seems like most of the strife in Ireland has died down. Not to say that everything is peaceful there, but compared to how it was in 1992 when Cornwell first published Scoundrel things are downright quiet. Fourteen years ago that was definitely not the case. Scoundrel takes place in the middle of all of that strife. The lead character, an American living in Europe, acts as a gopher to the IRA. The book follows Paul Shanahan as he tries to get out of a life he no longer wants to live. It certainly is not my favorite Cornwell, but if you enjoy nautical themed adventure stories it can keep your interest. I would give it three out of five stars. For a first time Cornwell reader try Sharpe's Rifles instead.

Future Thoughts

One of the reasons that I enjoy reading science fiction books is the different perspectives the genre gives you on yourself and your perceptions of 'normal'. I remember reading a book that was about a war that took place between humans and an alien race. Since the space ships travelled close to the speed of light many years passed in society while the soldiers were flying around in space. Each time the soldiers returned home home had changed pretty dramatically. One such change was that in order to control over population on Earth the government had encouraged homosexuality, and all births were test tubes. The poor soldier went away when he was normal, and when he came back everyone was horrified at his sexual tendencies. I found that pretty funny for some reason.
Peter Hamilton puts one of those perspective check experiences in Fallen Dragon. The main character is visiting his girlfriend's family when he finds out that he has been fed real meat. Horror of horrors they gave him something that wasn't grown in a protein vat!
Fallen Dragon is a pretty good book. It follows Lawrence Newton in his journey from being a science fiction loving youth to a disenchanted adult when he finds out space travel is not all he thought it would be. Like all of the Peter Hamilton books that I have read there is an undercurrent of today's environmental movement to the book, but it never comes across as 'preachy'. I enjoyed Hamilton's science fiction mystery series more than this book, but they covered pretty different topics. Fallen Dragon dealt with issues of terrorism, planetary exploitation and corporate greed, while the Mindstar series was more just a mystery set in the future.
I wanted a little break from science fiction when I finished this one, so I went to one of my favorite authors, Bernard Cornwell, and his book, Scoundrel.

Trip Books

My regularly scheduled reading is sometimes interrupted by 'Trip Books'. A trip book is a book that you pack in your carry-on for the plane ride, or your bag for a road trip. This book should be fast paced, easy to read, and you should be able to finish it before your trip is complete. Since the family and I were headed to L.A. last weekend I needed to grab a trip book to throw in the bag while packing. After perusing my 'to be read' book stack I settled on God Save The Child, by Robert Parker. Parker is an author that I started reading not too long ago, mainly because I remember Spenser: For Hire fondly. As an author he is amazingly prolific, and his books definitely fit the trip book category. The Spenser character is a private detective in Boston who is standard for the genre: ex-cop, ex-boxer, Vietnam war vet, smart mouthed, has a long term girl friend but doesn't ever get married. As the series moved on he develops a close friendship with a hood named Hawk. The early books are mainly Spenser, with the later books almost always including Hawk.
God Save the Child is one of the earliest Spenser novels, it actually is the book where he meets his long term love interest, Susan Silverman. The story centers around Spenser searching for a missing teenager, who may or may not have been kidnapped. After getting to know the parents Spenser begins to have doubts about the kidnapping aspect, and the rest of the story follows Spenser as he pulls at the strings of the tale to get at the truth. Entertaining, fast paced, lots of action. A great example of a Trip Book.
One aspect of Parker's writing that I enjoy is Spenser's no-nonsense look at life, he calls a spade a spade. I don't know why, but it sure seems like we have trouble doing that today.
My thoughts on Fallen Dragon should be arriving soon...