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The living does not outnumber the dead: since the creation about 60 billion people have died.
And Now You Do
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16:31, The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.
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Mystery: ''Murder In The Chateau''
by Elliott Roosevelt
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Published: 1996; Pages: 200; Rating: No Good
Too many Roosevelts in this book, writing this book, and hanging around otherwise. In fact, I had just finished a biography of Harry S. Truman when I sat down to write this review and did not get a favorable impression of Franklin from between those pages either.
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Biography: ''His Excellency'' George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
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Published: 2004; Pages: 320; Rating: Excellent
Book Review by Ivan Vernon
“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” This eulogy by George Washington’s contemporary Henry Lee struck exactly the right note, and has set the tone of remembrance for the more than 200 years since the first president of this nation died in 1799.
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Published: 1851; Pages: 614; Rating: Good
During my senior year in high school Mrs. Curington assigned me Herman Melville as the subject of my last high school thesis. Lo and behold within the fairly finite resources of the Kerens High School Library there was indeed a copy of Moby Dick and so after the big whale I went. This whale was probably too big for a kid with Saturday night on his mind and not a 500 page book. I did read it and read all of it, but when I started it for the second time around here recently I could remember virtually nothing about the book other than some of the characters. But, the thesis did get written and Mrs. Curington grudgingly handed out an A minus on the paper. She just had to put that minus sign on it because she was Mrs. Curington.
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Published: 2000; Pages: 449; Rating: Decent
These two guys have paired up to write a half dozen or so decent science fiction books and a couple of real good ones. They wrote “The Relic” about a monster that gets loose in the Chicago Natural History Museum and also one about the “Oak Pit” on Oak Island that has baffled treasure hunters for years. I think there is a book review floating around here somewhere about the latter one. A sequel was written after “The Relic” called “Reliquary.” I haven’t read that one yet, but it is sitting on my shelves somewhere and will come down some day.
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Religion: "Nicolae"
by Tim Lahaye & Jerry B. Junkins
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Published: 1997; Pages: 415; Rating: Good
Nicolae is the bad guy, no doubt about it. In fact, he is the Antichrist or at least it appears that way. This is the third book in the recently famous “Left Behind” series that novelizes Revelations from the Bible.
As we begin this book there is an underground command center built beneath the original church where the left behind Christians have their meetings. Nicolae has taken over the world via the United Nations and has dropped atomic bombs on a few odd and end places, such as Chicago, to make people behave. He is tired of the wife “Hallie” he married and, but she is pregnant. Can an Antichrist have children? I guess so if I am understanding the plot correctly.
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Novel: ''Trojan Odyssey''
by Clive Cussler
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Published: 2003; Pages: 485; Rating: Good
Dirk Pitt rides again as he and Al Giordino gallop off into the sunrise of ancient lands and adventures with exotic women. Long legged women too. I think the first Dirk Pitt novel I ever read was “Raise The Titanic” which was an excellent book full of history regarding the ship sunk in 1912. I call these books Dirk Pitt novels although they are written by Clive Cussler. Dirk just happens to be his recurring character and action hero that flogs the bad guys and wins the women in each book. Al Giordino is his trusty sidekick (like Poncho with the Cisco Kid) and does the blocking for Dirk when he is carrying the ball.
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History: "Gone For Soldiers"
by Jeff Shaara
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Published 2000; Pages: 424; Rating: Good
This is the first in a series of historical Civil War novels that father Michael and son Jeff wrote. The books cover the very beginning of careers followed by Lee, Jackson, Grant and others in the U.S. Army.
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History: ''Gods and Generals''
by Jeff Shaara
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Published: 1996; Pages: 498; Rating: Good
Gods and Generals is the sequel to “Gone For Soldiers” and the prequel to the Pulitzer prize winning novel, “Killer Angels.” The former being about the Mexican War that preceded the Civil War and described the various Civil War generals as young men as they were first coming out of their respective military academies. The latter being about Gettysburg. Everytime I see, hear, or write the word “Gettysburg” small shiver and sharp memories run down my legs. If you have never been to the Gettysburg battleground or have never read your history about this battle, it is simply a must do thing.
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Published: 1973; Pages: 371; Rating: Fine
This is a real old book I read a long long time ago in a land far away and just pulled it down out of the library again. Not sure why, except real good hard science fiction is a bit rare, and this is one of the old classics. You have to really wander around a Barnes and Nobles for several hours these days to find a jewel like this one. It seems more authors tend to churn out many more books in the "fantasy" category these days than in the true vein of science fiction. When you think about it for a minute, maybe it is because science fiction is based upon science and therefore requires some knowledge of science? Where as the requirement for fantasy is to purely have an imagination that can create monsters with horns and far off planets with Amazonian women that rule galaxies with amazing bodies and mind control.
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Biography: ''The First American''
The Life & Times of Ben Franklin
by H. W. Brands
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Published: 2000; Pages: 759; Rating: Excellent
Old Ben Franklin. Here is one of those fellows you hear about all the time and has his name associated with so many aspects of our life and our history. Ever heard of the Ben Franklin stove? He invented it during his elderly years because he had trouble keeping himself warm. Is it the fifty dollar bill or the hundred dollar bill he is on? I don’t have either one of them and cannot remember. But there his picture is on the currency even though he was never an American President. But, come to think of it, neither was Alexander Hamilton. Although Alexander may very well have been a President if Aaron Burr had not shot him at the age of 49. That’s another book.
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Published: 2000; Pages: 301; Rating: Poor
Buzz Aldrin was quite an astronaut, and he has many stories to tell, but his talent for telling a story is a little bit lacking in this particular book. I picked this book up off the $4.95 pile at Barnes & Noble one day and I guess the price was an indication it was not selling very well. Plus it had not appeared anywhere on the bestseller lists and I had never heard of the book. Not a good sign, but every now and then you can come across a little jewel in these discard piles. This one was just not one of them. His name caught my eye and it was science fiction, but it was not a well written book and many parts of it were so farfetched that it might have been better categorized as fantasy rather than good hard science fiction. Hard science fiction that is based upon scientific studies, fact, and prophesies are great books and difficult to find. Especially since the decline of Arthur C. Clarke and the passing of Isaac Asimov. Ray Bradbury does not write anything any more and I am not even sure he is still alive.
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Mystery: ''The Lovely Bones''
by Alice Sebold
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Published: 2002; Pages: 328; Rating: Great
The Lovely Bones. The title kind of catches you right away doesn’t it when you first spy this book on a shelf or a list. Kind of an oxymoron. The morose sound of “Bones” together with the smile making sound of “Lovely.” This book is a first novel and also by a woman. Normally I don’t pick up anything that smells of mystery and written by the opposite sex because their characters just don’t identify with my hairy legs. I flat cannot stand Patricia Cornwell. Their female heroines typically have painted toe nails. Mine are just kind of plain toenails. They probably get a little too long from time to time more often than women’s toenails do. That’s enough about toenails.
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Published: 1999; Pages: 320; Rating: Decent
Here is an interesting one about an end of the century Y2K event. You know what that is don't you? Where all the software programs that use only two digits for the year will go from "99" (1999) to "00" (2000). Going from year 99 to year 0 then screws up equalities and who is "less than" and who is "more than" when doing data work. This kind of stuff makes computers go haywire and some had concerns it does not trigger nuclear alarms and mistaken missile launches. Most of the apprehension though surrounded the financial markets. Does that make sense? Probably not.
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Mystery: ''The Vanished Man''
by Jeffery Deaver
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Published 2003; Pages 399; Rating: Good
Pretty good book by Mr. Deaver, although not quite as well done as his early bestseller, "The Bone Collector." But, the Bone Collector movie was not so well done and the casting was horrible.
In this book, maybe a better movie can be made and it has lots of possibilities. The recurring characters of the paralyzed Lincoln Rhyme and his policewoman girl friend, Amelia Sachs, return as the good guys. (or good guy and a good gal). Lincoln is still a paraplegic with only the limited use of one finger. Amelia still sneaks into his bed and night and snoozes beside him. This is a book of literary fiction, so obviously anything is possible.
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Published 1678; Pages 189; Rating: Blah
This was my first volume in the "One Hundred Greatest Books of all Time" series, and was not that impressive. I guess the rating of books by professional critics is kind of like the movies. Sometimes you see a movie that the critics adore for its artistic quality, but you are ready to get up and leave before it is over. This is one of those books. I have a mental block against starting a book and not finishing it no matter how rough it is, thus this was read from beginning to end, each and every last word. I even closely examined the pictures (there were several).
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49 _STORIES (4 _PAGES, 15 _PERPAGE)
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 "What George Washington did for us was to throw out the British, so that we
wouldn't have a fat, insensitive government running our country. Nice try
anyway, George."
-- D.J. on KSFO/KYA
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