TITLE

AUTHOR

COMMENTS

Enemies: A History Of The FBI

Tim Weiner

Weiner's 2007 book about the CIA was well-written and well-documented.  This mostly negative story is, if anything, even better.  During the J. Edgar Hoover era, and the years immediately after his departure, the Bureau was little more than a Gestapo, running roughshod over the law of the land.  Under the leadership of Robert Mueller it has been transformed into a law-abiding first class information agency.  Don't be discouraged by the size of this book.  Twenty percent of the pages are the end notes.  (05/12)

Chomp

Carl Hiaasen

Oddly my last two fiction books have been about alligators in the South Florida swamps.  This one is a typical Hiaasen romp with lots of funny characters and situations.  Unfortunately, it isn't up to his normally high standards.  The main  protagonists are a hard-bitten gator wrangler and a phony TV star.  The star is the centerpiece of a weekly reality show where he appears to escape from dangerous situations.  The trouble starts when the star starts to believe his own hype.  (04/12)

Brave Dragons

Jim Yardley

The Brave Dragons is the name of a pro basketball club in China whose megalomaniac owner hires former NBA player and coach Bob Weiss to lift his team's game.  The story is more about culture clash than basketball.  As such, it is informative as well as entertaining.  Each team in the Chinese league is allowed two imported players, most of which turn out to be NBA rejects of has-beens.  The Dragons hire former NBA all-star Bonzi Wells who, despite being overweight and out of shape, is a cut above the rest of the team talent-wise.  Highly recommended. (3/12)

Swamplandia!

Karen Russell

A family of alligator wrestlers runs a tourist attraction on a remote island in the Florida Everglades.  When the mother succumbs to heart failure, the father and his three children head in different directions.  What follows is an entertaining novel of each of their stories unfold.  Good but not great, this book could have benefited from some judicious editing. (02/12)

Boomerang

Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis has done it again.  He is the great explainer of things financial in modern times.  This time he helps us understand the economic turmoil in Europe and why it affects all of us.  Each of the countries experiencing financial meltdown is examined in turn, but perhaps the saddest case is Ireland.  Banks there borrowed money from German banks at low interest rates and loaned the money to Irish commercial property developers at high rates.  At the start this looked like easy money, but the problem was that there was no demand for the developments.  When the developers stopped paying back the loans, the Irish banks had no assets with which to repay the Germans.  Not too smart. (01/12)

In the Garden of Beasts

Erik Larson

In the early 1930's William Dodd was an academic looking forward to writing a book about the old South.  Through a series of unexpected events he Dodd wad tabbed to be the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.  Dodd had done graduate work in Germany so could speak the language.  He moved to Berlin with his wife and flirtatious daughter, and was witness to the rise of Hitler.  Dodd did not have much support in the State Department where the ambassador was not highly regarded.  Well worth reading. (01/12) 

The Sense Of An Ending

Julian Barnes

This well-crafted novel recently won the prestigious Man Booker award.  A very ordinary man, Tony Webster, narrates a review of his life from his schoolboy years to his old age.  A brief affair with a girl named Veronica during his university years ends badly, and the breakup turns out to be the key event of his life.  An inheritance he receives late in life causes Tony to reconnect with  Veronica, although he's not quite sure if this is a good idea.  Throughout the book there is a sense that something is no quite right.  All this is resolved on the last page of the book.  Highly recommended. (01/12)