R. Campbell

Great Classic Radio

Revisado: 01-05-24

I didn't review this on Goodreads because it's not a book. It's a compilation of radio shows from the 30s, 40s, and 50s featuring Frank Sinatra. His voice in this era is distictly different, lighter and more pure. He sings many of the standards in a simple direct way which set the standard for the time. I also love the banter of the guests and the old time announcers. Listening to this it's easy to imagine it being 1945 and the radio being the only media most Americans had access to. Lots of fun if you enjoy big band jazz with vocals.

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Jefferson's Woman and Her Family

Revisado: 08-06-18

This is the story of the Hemings family whom Thomas Jefferson famously owned for 5 decades. The story begins with Elizabeth Hemings, Sally's mother. Elizabeth was purchased by John Wayles who had several children with her. When Jefferson marries Martha Wayles, her father John gave Jefferson several Hemings family members. When John Wayles dies, Jefferson inherits farms and slaves including the remaining Hemings family members. After the death of his wife, Jefferson becomes involved with one of Elizabeth's children, Sally. This is not historical fiction, it is a straight historical study of documents, diaries, letters and archeology. After 250 years the relationship between Jefferson and his slave Sally Heming are presented in the context of Jefferson's relationship with her whole family - it's complicated.

It is fascinating to learn the details of so many aspects of Jefferson's relationship to slavery and the Hemings family. Sally would have been 3/4 white and the half sister of his dead wife. On a 5 year trip to Paris, Jefferson pays her and her brother salaries, pays for medical expenses including small-pox inoculation as well as education and experiences that would give them a taste of life as international diplomats. Since France had no slavery, Sally and her brother James were legally free, yet they worked with Jefferson to make a deal to return to Virginia. Both received special allowances that made it their choice to live as slaves at Monticello rather than stay in France as free people. Again, it's complicated.

There is no excuse for slavery, but there was nuance this book explores. It is easy to apply political correctness to the knowledge now widely acknowledged that Jefferson not only owned slaves but had 6 children with the poor beleaguered Sally Hemings, but Annette Gordon-Reed doesn't bring political correctness, she brings scholarship and the stories of individuals who made individual decisions. Fascinating, well read and enjoyable.

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Child Abduction, Supernatural Mystery and Love

Revisado: 08-06-18

This is really a novella - barely 80 pages. As I expected, it was atmospheric and entertaining in the tradition of The Hounds of the Baskervilles. However, there is a twist. The love story in this one is between the burly village cop and a psychic who is called in to help find a missing child. I picked this one up as a deal of the day and didn't expected a graphic gay sex scene. I should say that I don't particularly like graphic sex scenes in general, but it didn't take away from the book. I am a teacher and always mention whether a book is appropriate for young people. I wouln't have an issue with same sex couples or a love story, but I always mention that I would recommend any book with graphic sex to a teenage student regardless of the gender of the lovers. This sex is very descriptive. Never the less, the book was compelling. I liked the characters and the mystery. It was somewhat contrived, but well done. This is easily read in a couple of hours and well worth the time. Nothing amazing, just good entertainment. The haunted moor with a supernatural edge and investigators in love! This is also the first in a series. Beautifully read and well worth a few hours.

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Wolves Became Dogs

Revisado: 08-06-18

I love dogs. I've watched several documentaries about how wolves became dogs. I learned that there was an experiment in Siberia involving foxes. This entertaining and amusing book tells the story of the scientists behind the Siberian fox experiment which domesticated foxes over a period of surprisingly few generation.

The USSR was not the easiest place to experiment with the process of domestication in order to answer questions about evolution, but a geneticist found a way to do it. Under the guise of trying to make it easier to raise and harvest valuable fox fur, our hero explores what it would have taken to create domestic dogs out of wolf ancestors by selectively breeding foxes.

The story covers the science, the politics and the joy of the years it took to create domesticated foxes. The story is fascinating, educational, touching and at times, laugh out loud funny. The performance is excellent and overall experience of listening to this was wonderful. Well worth a listen!

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Amazing Adventure!

Revisado: 11-14-17

This is a classic hero tale. Bilbo, a hobbit, leaves his cozy home in the Shire to explore the world beyond and finds adventure. There are trolls, giant spiders, a dragon and battles of epic proportion. As a young reader, this may have been the most formative book I read. As an adult listener, this performance brought me back to my childhood. Amazing book, well read, Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry!

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This One Is Different

Revisado: 07-13-17

I've read everything from Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot to Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. This one is different. While Franken's humor is on the mark, this book is more of an actual biography/memoir. He always puts in details about his life in his books, but this one starts with him as a child, going to school, meeting Tom Davis and so on chronologically through to the present. I love Al Franken and have been a fan since his SNL days. I even saw Franken and Davis live back in the 80s. His performance of this book is hilarious and many of his episodes end with a huge laugh. But again, unlike his other books which were comedy with a political edge, this one is a biography with a comic spin.

Addendum: Since having written this review, Franken resigned his senate seat amid charges of sexual misconduct. Sadly, as open and forthcoming as some public figures and celebrities appear, aspects of their character may be obscured. I am sorry we lost the liberal voice that he clearly was, though much of his criticism of the characters he lampooned was based on hypocrisy. Turns out, he could have been a target of his own brand of political humor. Despite this, in the light of the pre-fallen Franken, this was an entertaining read. However, it would be difficult to bring the goodwill required to indulge the author in his sentimental reflections abundant in this biography knowing what we know now.

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Rice Turns Toward What It Is To Be Human

Revisado: 11-09-15

In the 4th in the Vampire Chronicle series, Rice returns to the search for meaning that was such a strong theme in the first, Interview with a Vampire. It has always struck me that Rice uses Vampires as metaphor for angels. With all their gifts, they are not the reflection of God capable of creation that humans are. For blood sucking fiends, Rice's vampires spend a great deal of time discussing God, the meaning of their own existence and spirituality.

In the first book, we learn the early story in a dark 18th century New Orleans. In the second we meet Lestat as a sympathetic character. In the 3rd, Lestat is a rock star adventuring in the modern mortal world. In this, the 4th installment, he actually becomes a mortal man. The adventure allows Rice to explores what it means to be human, angel and devil.

I'll confess, I've read ahead in the series, but had skipped this one. I can tell you that this one is not as fast moving or gripping as the first three, but it's still a great story, mystery, adventure... Later books in the series wax very philosophical. It is clear that Rice begins her turn toward the more philosophical in The Tale of the Body Thief. Good book, no foul language or explicitly obscene content, but this is a book for adults.

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The Most Noir City in The World

Revisado: 06-14-15

I love noir films - dark, atmospheric. I was excited to read this one, not sure why Belfast is particularly noir but willing to find out. The first stories in this series of short stories set the scene. Before, during and after "the troubles" in the 80s, Belfast has been a city of ghosts. In struggles against the English, between Catholic and Protestant, Belfast is full of pubs, allies and squares where this one was martyred and those died for no reason or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stories are of children whose bombs went off early and simple folks caught in the cross fire. Dark, cold for much of the year and haunted by needless deaths, the editors begin by asserting that Belfast is "The Most Noir City in the World".

As the book progresses, the hard boiled crime dramas that define noir make their appearance. McKinty is rather clever in his arrangement of stories and though it starts slowly, it makes sense in the end.

I'd also like to mention that this was a real education for me. As bad as I was aware Belfast was in the 80s, the stories provide a window into the ongoing struggles of the good people of North Ireland. These stories are raw, direct, quintessentially Irish and gripping. Again, the dark shadows of the genre extent as the stories progress but all are well crafted, entertaining and educational in so far as they communicate the pain of the Irish experience and the legacy of the struggles of the 80s.

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Funny, Not Flattering

Revisado: 05-22-13

This is a critical, tongue in cheek look at contemporary British culture. Lyall is an American journalist who has lived in Britain for more than 20 years. She points to the usual stereotypes and attempts, rather unscientifically, to rationalize, justify and explain why they are true. Lyall covers bad teeth, bad weather, sexual dysfunction, the House of Lords debating the existence of UFOs, bad public healthcare, bad public schools, intense class division, economic stagnation, hedgehogs and cricket. While the book isn't laugh out loud funny, it is amusing so long as you are not offended by it or take it too seriously.

My grandparents were immigrants and my father, an only child, is very English in his character. Though his teeth and health are fine, even at 80, I know I inherited many attitudes and ideas that are British. So, while my wife and children look on in confusion as I find Monty Python brilliant, eat anything put in front of me and take bad weather in stride, I know I inherited these qualities from my British father. So, it's fun to read another Americans send up of the good people of our little island.

Again, this is a memoir, a series of stories and reflections on the author's personal experience. While she sights some statistics and no doubt emphasizes the bit of truth in many comic aspects of British society, I know that any 2,000 year old community of several million people are bound to have their issues. Immensely readable, fun, funny, though clearly a send up. I almost didn't make it through the first chapter explaining the homosexuality of most British men quoting P. G. Wodehouse and other expert sources (this is sarcasm). However, I am glad I did. I wanted a light read as a break from a series of heavier non-fiction historical studies of British monarchs. The "Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British", was exactly what was called for. Did I mention you shouldn't take this too seriously?

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The Tudors At Their Best

Revisado: 05-22-13

Read from January 21 to February 01, 2013

Excellent read. I have read several books that cover the lives of the Tudors and more specifically Elizabeth, Mary and Henry. However, none had done much with the wives of Henry VIII beyond Jane Seymour having been the mother of Edward VI. So I picked this one up and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Weir has written several first class histories on this period so there is much overlap. The first third of the book was not only familiar, but in some cases a direct re-tracing of steps. However, the details were oriented toward the lives of the wives, not the politics or religion. In the middle of the book the story provides detail on not only the lives of the wives, but of Henry as a husband and private person. Weir creates a portrait of a powerful leader struggling with ruling a nation while growing older, heavier and having massive issues with fatherhood and fathering.

As the book gets to Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr, Weir does not disappoint. In many respects this is the same story I've read from the point of view of the Children of Henry, the Life of Elizabeth and other histories, but from the point of view and experience of these three women. Weir creates portraits of real people which allow the reader a meaningful experience beyond a simple understanding of the facts.

All six of these women had fascinating stories. Having been married to Catherine of Aragon the longest, the largest single portion involves her life. Having been married to Catherine Howard for the shortest interval, the book tells the tale and moves on. I enjoyed Weir's following through with the stories of Anne of Cleves and Catherine Parr who outlived Henry. Thus, this was truly the story of the wives from beginning to end.

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