TITLE

AUTHOR

COMMENTS

Benediction

Kent Haruf

Haruf is a writer who sees poetry in the banal lives of the people existence of people who live in the rural heartland of America.   Dad is a man on his deathbed at home uder the supervision of hospice.  He is busy tidying up his affairs. With the exception of his wife, everyone in contact with Dad has a hidden story.  Everything resolves nicely in the end.  Some may find this a tad slow, but I liked it. (05/13)

Sweet Tooth

Ian McEwan

This isn't one of McEwan's best bocks, but even so it is better than most other novelists' best.  This story is narrated by a woman, which must be a chalenge for a male writer.  Serena Frome  works at MI-5.  Her mission is to recruit a young author who could persuaded to give things a bit of a right-wing slant.  She succeeds ao well vinding a young man to whom she becomes attracted.  Mistake.  I'll let it go at that, otherwise I have to start issuing spoiler alerts.  (05/13)

Francona - the Red Sox Years

Terry Francona

This is baseball's version of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.  When Francona managed the Boston Red Sox to two World Series victories, he was the king of New England.  When the Sox failed to turn into a dynasty, Francona was a convenient target.  He, of course, has a different explanation - bad personnel decisions in which he was ignored.  A pretty good book which could have been better by shortening the second half.  (3/13)

Tenth of December

George Saunders

When this book was reviewed in the New York Time, the cover page of the Book Review section stated that this would be the best book you will read this year. So far I have read three and this is in third place.  The book is a collection of unconnected short stories.  I liked the first story but I liked each succeeding story less and less.  I'm not a fan of science fiction, and other than the first story, the stories had a sci-fi element to them.   (03/23)

Dear Life

Alice Munro

Canada's best short story writer strikes again with a fine collection of bit-sized novels, some of which are autobiographical.  What sets her writing apart is the hint of sexual tension lurking just below the surface in most of the stories.  Always interesting and worth the time. (02/13)

Private Empire

Steve Coll

Weighing in at nearly 700 pages, this is the story of America's largest company. This is a firm that doesn't take a lot of risks and as a result has produced a steady flow of earnings for its shareholders.  When they decide to try something new, they do it big.  Although the book is well written, Coll tends to go too far in emphasizing upper management's opposition to climate change, and heavy lobbying effort to sell Exxon's position in the congress.   (01/13)