Review: Romeo's Stand

Romeo's Stand by James Scott Bell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Romeo series is fun. I enjoy the philosophic references. I wish the philosophy he discusses played more of a role in the plot, rather than being more or less just a part of Romeo's quirky character. That said, at least one part of the philosophy he mentions does play a small role here. There were a few plot holes and unresolved points, but overall a fun read.

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Review: The Range Detectives

The Range Detectives by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this; a mix of the western and mystery genres. The ah-shucks banter between the two main characters was a bit much at times, but overall I enjoyed it nonetheless.

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Review: Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay

Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay by Reed Farrel Coleman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I continue to enjoy Coleman's version of Stone. I liked how he picked up and closed some of the threads from Robert B. Parker's Blind Spot. The mystery had several twists and turns; it kept you thinking. Coleman captures Stone very well; and I like the edge Coleman brings to the books. The narrator is excellent.

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Review: The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible

The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible by Matti Friedman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating story about the history of the Codex and the mystery of what happened to it. The codex was in an Aleppo synagogue for centuries before anti-Jewish riots broke out in Aleppo in 1947 and it was then smuggled into Israel. Friedman's investigation focuses mostly on what happened between the burning of the synagogue and it's resurfacing in Israel. Along the way, much of the codex went missing. Friedman's book strongly points, tragically and ironically, to the theft of these pages.

The book was not quite the "thrilling mystery" some of the blurbs promise, but I enjoyed the book and learned a lot. That said, of all of Friedman's book, this is probably my least favorite.

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Review: A Debt of Death

A Debt of Death by Jonathan Dunsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lapid finds himself in some trouble and has to solve the murder to both clear his name and a debt he owes to the murder victim. A mystery with several twists and turns. Each novel seems to play or highlight some aspect of early Israeli society. This one has an underlying theme of showing some of the variety immigrants to Israel in the 50s, as well as the class differences between these groups.

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Review: Robert B. Parker's Buzz Kill: Sunny Randall, Book 12

Robert B. Parker's Buzz Kill: Sunny Randall, Book 12 by Alison Gaylin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This picks up a few months after Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence , Gaylin's first in the Sunny series. It has some of the same characters and uses some of the elements from that book, but the story is a more classic murder mystery. The plot got a bit convoluted at points, but the 'big twist' was fairly predictable. I enjoyed it but thought Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence was better.

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Review: Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence: Sunny Randall, Book 11

Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence: Sunny Randall, Book 11 by Alison Gaylin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lupica's Sunny was always a good enough imitation of Parker. It was enjoyable to read and revisit that world. But it was incomplete; only as good as an impression. Alison Gaylin is not doing an impression of Parker. There are noticeable differences in style. The dialogue is not that pithy and punchy dialogue that Parker excelled at; I think there was only one "oh-ho!" The pacing and scene descriptions were also different (though not radically so). But Gaylin captures Sunny in a way Lupica just never did. She doesn't, as Lupica too often did, rely on stock characters from the Spenser-verse. This as original a 'Parker' story I've read in a long time: it takes the character of Sunny and the world Parker created and tells a Sunny story in Gaylin's way. The Sunny Themes are there: the never-ending struggle with the challenges of independence and autonomy; the finding one's own authentic footing in a world often dominated by men; the toughness and willingness to do what needs to be done. But Gaylin uses her own style and approach to bring Sunny to life. It is welcome and exciting.

Kate Burton's performance is top notch. She doesn't over do it on the accents, but just enough to give you the shape of the characters.

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Review: Jerusalem: The Biography

Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Starting in the ancient world of Canaanite and Israelite settlements up through early 2000s, Montefiore tells us an epic, sweeping story of the history of Jerusalem. I was curious why the subtitle "The Biography" was used; but it seems to work better than the most likely other candidate: 'The History'. First, there is something of the city, its past, and present that is alive. In our imaginations but also the streets themselves. I recall from my visits, Jerusalem felt different. I've been to other cities, ancient and filled with ruins, but the ancient stones of Jerusalem are still alive: they are still part of the everyday living of the city in a way the Roman Forum is not. Second, Montefiore uses a lot of personal antidotes and individual biographies of figures through Jerusalem's history to tell his story. While there is plenty of what one might expect in a history book: battles, empires conquering, dates, and archeology, much of the focus is individuals, great and small, who have played some part in Jerusalem's story. This makes it more of a biography than simply a history.

Montefiore walks a fine line between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim views of the city and their respective relationships to it. His point is not to adjudicate between disputes but to layout these views, using their own voices. There is nothing of a polemic here.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned a lot(and John Lee's narration is quite good), there were points where it gets a little bogged down in minutiae or too focused on tangential details of some of the life-stories he uses to tell the history.

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Review: Retrieving the Ancients: An Introduction to Greek Philosophy

Retrieving the Ancients: An Introduction to Greek Philosophy by David Roochnik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic introduction to ancient Greek philosophy. It is surprisingly in-depth for its length (278 pages), avoids jargon, and is never overly technical. Roochnik’s writing is clear and concise, he keeps the exposition grounded and readable throughout.

Roochnik makes Aristotle the hero of the story. Roochnik sees Aristotle as bringing together positive elements from the pre-Socratics and Plato to craft a philosophical approach that provides a moderate approach that can a ground a life-well lived in an understandable world. To tell this story, Roochnik starts with the Pre-Socratics and how these first Greek philosophers start asking new kinds of questions and providing new kinds of answers. He then turns to Plato and the Socratic shift to a focus on human excellence and the Socratic question of “What is it?” He then closes with Aristotle, showing how he brings these threads to an apotheosis. Roochnik acknowledges that a lot of Aristotle’s approach won’t or can’t work in a modern context but pleads his case that studying Aristotle and his predecessors is something essential for a modern person to better understand themselves and their place.

There is an epilogue that briefly discusses various Hellenistic or Post-Aristotelian thinkers, covering quickly the Stoics, Cynics, and Epicureans.

Highly recommend for anyone interested in philosophy, particularly the ancients.


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Review: Saint's Blood

Saint's Blood by Sebastien de Castell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The series continues to delight and surprise me. I love the main characters in this dark, corrupt world. Falcio, Brasti, and Kest are reminiscent of the three musketeers; with the swashbuckling, adventure, and humor. But they are beaten down for more than Dumas' heroes, but still fight for what is right; no matter what. The book is long, but it keeps you engaged and guessing. I found the details on the origins of the saints and the gods and their relationship to the humans to be really interesting.

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Review: The Running Grave

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series continues to impress. Even after seven books, the characters continue to grow and develop. Strike and Robin make such a great team -- though I do get a bit annoyed at times with the way they misread each other's intentions/feelings of each other. Part of me wants them to just get together and be down with it already! But also, I really love how they care and respect each with out being romantically involved.

The story here gets quite intricate. Focused largely on a scientology-like cult, Strike and Robin are hired to get one of the members out. I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't say details. I wouldn't say things get slow or bogged down, but they do take a long time. But there is a point where I couldn't put it down. I had to keep listening.

Robert Glenister's narration is amazing; he really ought to win many awards.

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Review: The Avengers: A Jewish War Story

The Avengers: A Jewish War Story by Rich Cohen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cohen sets out the to tell the lesser told side of WW2 and the Holocaust: the Jewish resistance and partisans who fought back against the Nazis. The focal point is on three main individuals: Abba, Vikta, and Ruzka, and mainly Vilna and the surrounding areas. The author tells us how they met, how they helped to form and lead the Jewish partisan group in Vilna. It follows these three through the war and then to Israel.

There are harrowing and fascinating aspects to this story. The details of life under the Nazis, in the ghetto, in the forests is worth the read. But the way the story is told was not as compelling as I would have liked. It is more journalistic and retrospective, and so harder to get inside the emotions of the characters. It’s not a novel, but I was expecting something more of a story. This jumped around a bunch, moved through events too quickly at times.

It is still worth reading for anything interested in this time period, the experiences of the Jews in the war, and after.


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Review: Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire

Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire by Eckart Frahm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An informative and approachable overview of the history of Assyria. The author takes you through the origins of Assyrian empire, its wars and conquests, and its people. There is information about the religion and statecraft, it's relationships with its neighbors. After discussing the downfall and disappearance of the empire as empire, the last part of the book discusses the legacy of Assyria up through present day. The intersection of the Assyrian history and biblical history is intriguing. The discussion of ISIS and its despicable destruction of ancient sites was disturbing.

This is a good book to look into if you are interested in getting the big picture. There are details, for sure, but that's not really the point here (and I have no way to evaluate the accuracy of those details -- the only minor error I was able to notice was the occasional anachronistic usage of names of geographic areas; that is, using a place name from a much later time to refer to the place in the past without the qualification of, for example, 'now know as' or some such thing). The point is more to get a sense of the uniqueness of the Assyrian empire and how it influenced later empires in the region. In that regard, the book is quite successful.

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Review: An Inside Job

An Inside Job by Daniel Silva
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Allon is up to his old tricks with heists, forgeries, and restoration. The book is a good read, a fun summer thriller. However, it doesn't quite have the magic of earlier novels. Sometimes it feels like Silva has forgotten that Allon is Israeli and Jewish. There are like maybe four references to remind of us that; and nothing at all in the plot hinges on anything Israeli or Jewish. In the post October 7 world, I would have expect something from Allon about that. The other factor missing is there is little of Allon's inner thoughts and struggles. He's just a maestro orchestrating things as they unfold.

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