Book Reviews Search CLAMS Catalog


This page contains  book reviews online as well as Reading Recommendations from staff and volunteers at the Brewster Ladies' Library.

Online Book Reviews

New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/books has an extensive archive of reviews, bestsellers, discussions, first chapters and more.

The New York Review of Books - http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/index.html offers selections from its literary review.

Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/books/ includes reviews, first chapters, bestseller lists, and other resources.

Booklist - http://www.ala.org/booklist/index.html is the digital counterpart to Booklist magazine. Includes brief reviews on a wide range of new books.

Reviews from library staff and volunteers

Please note that opinions expressed here are those of the individual reviewers, and are not necessarily shared by the Library as a whole, its employees or directors. 

April 2008

Click here to read reviews on the following titles:

The Appeal, by John Grisham {Suzanne McInerney}
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust {Jim Mills}
Returning to Earth, by Jim Harrison {Suzanne McInerney}
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, by Mark Lynas {Jim Mills}
Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang, by Paul J. Steinhardt and Niel Turock { Don Boink}
In an Uncertain World, by Robert Rubin and Jacob Weisberg {Don Boink}
Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction To The Next Big Idea, by Mark Ratner and Daniel Ratner {Don Boink}
Truelove Knot: A Novel of World War II, by Arturo Vivante {Suzanne McInerney}
The Bush Tragedy, by Jacob Weisberg {Jim Mills}
Confessions of a Lapsed Standard-Bearer and The Woman Who Waited, by Alexei Makine {Susan Carr}

February 2008

Click here to read reviews on the following titles:

Night Fall, by Nelson DeMille [Suzanne McInerney]
Sea of Thunder, by Evan Thomas [Don Boink]
The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson [Jim Mills]
Feathers, by Jacqueline Woodson [Claire Gradone]
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin [Suzanne McInerney]
First into Nagasaki, by George Weller [Jim Mills]
Harvard Yard, by William Martin [Don Boink]
Marshes: The Disappearing Edens, by William Burt [Susan Carr]
Cheating at Canasta, by William Trevor [Suzanne McInerney]
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Lawrence Sterne [Don Boink]
The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia, by Orlando Figes [Jim Mills]

Winter 2007booklovers

 

The March

by E.L.Doctorow

reviewed by Suzanne McInerney

When this dazzling novel opens, General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union troops have captured Atlanta and started their 300-mile advance to Savannah. Marching with the soldiers as they battle their way to the sea will be a host of civilians: medical personnel, thousands of freed slaves, reporters, dispossessed whites, and even Confederates escaped from prison. 

In an early scene, plantation owner and slaveholder John James has ordered all livestock shot, food bins and crops burned. Rugs, chairs, and china are packed and readied for warehouse storage. James' obsession is to leave nothing for the Union foraging parties. When the wagons are loaded John James snatches up wife and sons as they take their hurried flight. Left behind is white-skinned Pearl, the daughter he sired- borne by his black slave mistress.
Pearl's story - how she passes as a drummer girl to march with the Union Army; how she learns to nurse the sick and dying soldiers, how she comforts and somehow redeems from deadly anguish, the once-haughty and hateful wife of John James, her father and the slaveholder of her beloved mother - is only one of the many interlacing tales that Doctorow weaves together. A novel, it seems clear, can convey both the heart and the implications of enormous historical events more powerfully than a book of facts. Doctorow's gifts of language in The March exceed anything he has ever written. In less than 400 pages he draws on his great capacity for imagination and poetic expression. Nothing eludes his powers, for he is equally in charge of describing the woods, fields, and streams of the South as the inner speech of Pearl, the child of a slave who only knows the most simple kind of speech. Yet, in Doctorow's hands, she becomes a bard:
Pearl didn't mind if the brothers fell, she just didn't want the stepma'm to find them because she was a poor shaken woman with her brains already addled . . . 
Pearl knew brother one and brother two as rotten boys, mean to the slaves for no reason . . . they spied on the women bathing in the creek and did other bad things, like stealing from the kitchen and blaming black folk. And once . . .[when one of the field hands had been whipped] it was the boys who had come running with the salt to rub into him.

The language of generals, in beautiful letters home, is heard in this book. The language of Confederate soldiers fighting for their lives and falling, is heard. The language of an apparently cold-hearted physician on the battlefield and in bed is heard. They are the actors in scenes that contribute to a large, orderly picture, yet are complete in themselves. Doctorow doesn't create a simple montage of appearances, but rather a beautifully orchestrated and profound study of the varied multitude of humanity in extreme situations who prove that in spite of the horrors of war and of the world, the love of life can be steadfast. This is what, ultimately, makes The March an uplifting, unforgettable work.

 

The Coldest Winter

by David Halberstam

reviewed by Jim Mills

In The Coldest Winter, David Halberstam has written what is possibly the definitive history of that long forgotten war in Korea (1950-3 to refresh your memory). Halberstam's scope extends well beyond the immediate war to include the world situation that led up to the conflict and the background and orientation of the major protagonists (MacArthur, Truman, Stalin, Mao, and North Korea's Kim Il Sung to name but a few).

The Korean War, unlike many previous wars, was characterized by a series of sudden reversals. The surprise North Korean attack on the South in June 1950, that drove the American and Korean defenders into the diminutive Pusan Perimeter, was suddenly reversed in September by the brilliantly conceived US landings at the port of Inchon. The resulting US invasion of the North was, in turn, reversed in November by the military entrance in force by China, which drove the US led forces back into the south. The war was then to drag on for another three years ending with a stalemated division of the north and south that differed little from the situation existing pre-war. The Korean War had a special impact on this reviewer since it was the first war that I could remember as a child of 11. With a large map of Korea in my room I would plot the current front line positions and could feel a special empathy for those who had to endure the misery and terrors of this seemingly endless war.

By providing a comprehensive description of the military and political environment existing in the early 1950s, Halberstam has provided a clear picture of the motivations and fears that directed the decision making during this critical period. The painfully slow US response to a possible Chinese intervention in the war, is explained by Halberstam by the strained links between MacArthur's Tokyo headquarters and the military and civilian leadership in Washington. This strain was exemplified by Truman's comment prior to his Wake Island meeting in October 1950 with MacArthur, " Have to talk to God's right hand man tomorrow". MacArthur's strong belief that China would not intervene led to the lack of US preparation and the resulting chaos when it did occur. In 1951, a new tough commander, Matthew Ridgeway, was able to reverse the Chinese tide and stabilize the military balance in Korea, leading to the 1953 armistice that ended this unfortunate war.

Recent access to Soviet records show that the Communist World was far from the monolithic structure that the West had assumed at the time. In fact, the relationship between Stalin and Mao could not have been more strained. The US possibly missed an opportunity to have normalized relations with China over twenty years before Nixon's China trip and to have perhaps avoided the protracted Korean stalemate. Fifty years after the war, South Korea has become a flourishing, prosperous democracy, providing a measure of justification for the terrible sacrifices paid by our troops.

The author's detailed portrayal of the many key military conflicts of the war, much of which was gathered from the recollection, after 50 years, of still living participants, re-emphasizes the utter horror of modern war. Unlike many war books, The Coldest Winter, is provided with many detailed maps aiding in visualizing the textual descriptions and in this reviewer's opinion is one of the finest war books written, certainly on a par with Halberstam's landmark epic, The Best and the Brightest. Earlier this year, having just added his final touches to The Coldest Winter, Halberstam was heading to an interview for his next book when he was killed in an automobile accident.

 

Absolute Friends

by John Le Carré

reviewed by Don Boink

This is Le Carré's latest book of a respectable series of spy thrillers. This does not include Smiley and his cohorts however. It is a character study of two unlikely friends, Sasha, and Ted Mundy, and how their friendship came about and weathered the turbulent period of the '60s.
The setting is Europe, principally Berlin, Germany, and involves a group of hippie activists who hope to save the world from despoliation by the worldwide military/industrial complex.

Both Sasha and Mundy have come from, not very happy, childhoods. Mundy is a British national and for a time attended Oxford. Sasha is German, of Saxon and Lutheran origin. They get to know one another in a commune housed in an abandoned factory building in Berlin.
The story carries on at length about the activities of the movement, the idealism, the girls. As time passes their paths diverge and reconverge. They both become involved in passing information from the Communists to the governmental spooks. Eventually they become double agents. After the collapse of communism they are lauded as heroes, but in a non-auspicious way.

The characters reach middle age and have put their spying days behind them. That is, until Sasha reappears and convinces Mundy to engage in reopening the school he had started but ran into bankruptcy, in Heidelberg.

The benefactor that is behind the idea appears to be too good to be true -- which he is. At this point some old spooks emerge from the past and complicate the picture. The author goes to great lengths to exhibit his attitude about current world affairs. From a reviewer at Time: "a searing startling novel that sweeps through much of the 20th century and up to the present conflict in Iraq".  "He shows us without sentimentality or self-righteousness...an urgent, immediate, sense of grievance and the melancholy perspective of an old man looking back on a long life lived in a tragic, tumultuous century". Another says : "it is intentionally provocative and will win the desired outrage from those who support the Bush policies just as it will please those who oppose them. To take on the White House with such ferocity is a political event of note."

Frankly I found the book over long and tedious. The explosive ending was a surprise.

 

Blackwater - The rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

by Jeremy Scahill

reviewed by Don Boink

The title itself indicates the portent of the subject matter. To realize the ominous risk involved in having such a tremendous armed force outside of governmental control is black indeed.

Eric Prince, a multimillionaire or billionaire, and former U.S. Navy Seal (a highly trained Special Forces officer) who is an Evangelical and strong supporter of President Bush, is the head and founder of the Blackwater organization. This ideologue is in control of a highly paid band of mercenaries (contractors) that hires out to provide security for governmental agencies (Paul Bremer's government of occupation of Iraq), private corporations (Halliburton, et al) as well as Iraqi agencies.

Under Bremer's government these contractors were exempt from criminal prosecution. The Bush's administration's Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, trimmed the Armed Forces by privatizing several aspects of the Pentagon's operations. This opened up opportunities for entrepreneurial types to hugely capitalize on the changed scenario. No more Army cooks; food services are now catered.
The author has researched the several aspects of the Blackwater organization, its background, beginning, and present status. Included is the account of how several high-ranking public officials, i.e. Kissinger, Baker, former President Bush, and several large corporations have connived to benefit financially from the Bush initiated preemption war in Iraq.

The reader can't help but be more than a bit disheartened and disillusioned by what is going on under the guise of the "war on terrorism". 


The World Without Us

by Alan Weisman

reviewed by Jim Mills

In a short 10,000 years or so humans have altered much of our planet beyond recognition. Mankind has been responsible directly and indirectly for the extinction of a significant proportion of life on Earth and this process continues at an accelerated pace. In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman explores the impact of the sudden disappearance of our species on our planet and estimates the length of time it would take to eliminate all traces of our existence here on Earth.

Even major cities, such as New York, where man's impact has been greatest would rapidly revert to a natural state. The loss of electrical power and normal human maintenance would result in the quick flooding of the subway system (48 hours) and initiate the process of undermining the city's towering skyscrapers. Species that depend upon us, such as domesticated animals (with the possible exceptions of cats), and rats and cockroaches would rapidly disappear from non-tropical regions. Many other species, such as the declining bird and fish populations, would almost immediately rebound.

In arriving at his conclusions, the author cites a number of historical events where man's influence has been removed from certain areas, such as the Korean Demilitarized Zone and the region around the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant, and the resulting impact on the natural world.

Few of our man-made artifacts would survive even a few centuries after our passing. The world that man has ruled for several thousands of years will revert essentially to the pre-human environment. Granted the species that man has driven to extinction will be gone but given enough geological time new species will evolve to fill the missing ecological niches. The elevated greenhouse gas levels will continue to have their impact on the Earth's climate for several thousand years but this last trace of man will also pass. An interesting aspect of Mr. Weisman's book is the detail he devotes to the current efforts required to maintain our lifestyles. Even the impact of man in more rural and suburban areas will rapidly be reversed with individual homes decaying and collapsing and farmland quickly reverting to a natural state. The detail that the author provides on the impact of past societies such as the Maya also helps to place our current position in perspective. This reviewer found the topics discussed in The World Without Us to be a fascinating intellectual exercise and one that places our short tenure on Earth in perspective.

 

Lincoln

by David Herbert Donald

reviewed by Jim Mills

This reviewer has read numerous Lincoln biographies but decided to read David Donald's 1995 Lincoln based on a very positive reference made recently in the New York Times Book Section. This book presents two contrasting views of Mr. Lincoln's life. The coverage of his early years up to his assumption of the presidency in 1861 seem the more interesting part of the biography. It is inspiring to vicariously experience the rise of an individual from the bleakest of origins to world-wide prominence based upon unremitting hard work and a basic subtle understanding of human nature. To many of his contemporaries Lincoln frequently came across as unsophisticated and at times shallow. It was only upon closer examination and through prolonged contact that Lincoln's wisdom and savvy became apparent.

Mr. Lincoln's early years as president are filled with many basic missteps as his lack of experience on the national political scene showed. His previous Washington experience had been limited to only one congressional term. Reading about this portion of Lincoln's career can be painful at times. At the end of his first two years in office Lincoln was not considered to be as successful president by most of his peers, However his basic strength was his ability to learn from experience and to accept advice from those who were more experienced than he. Lincoln would never hesitate to change an unsuccessful policy. Changes to his basic outlook on major issues, such as the need to emancipate the slaves, were also made but at a more gradual pace. 

A frequently unpleasant aspect of reading history is that the outcome to the story never changes. As with all Lincoln biographies, Mr. Donald's account comes to its inevitable end. You steel yourself for what you know is coming. This is not fiction and there is no suspense involved in the outcome. The president's goal of preserving the union is finally triumphant after four long painful years of the unspeakable horrors of a war that pitted brother against brother. And then Lincoln makes that fateful decision, one that he had made so many times before, to go out for a night of entertainment at the theater. A whole sequence of chance events clears John Wilkes Booth's path on that night. The outcome for the South and for the entire Nation could not have been more tragic. Knowledge of Lincoln's basic philosophy towards the South, leads one to the conclusion that the whole painful reconstruction period would have had a much happier outcome had he still been at the helm. As he so frequently said in reference to the South, "let em' down easy". The century long history of segregation and of black lynchings need not have occurred. Even today we live with the legacy of that Friday night at Ford's Theater in April of 1865 . No matter how many times you read this story, the ending is always the same.


Looking for a Ship

by John McPhee

reviewed by Don Boink

To me, John McPhee is an excellent writer. Any book of his that I have read has been interesting, informative, and simply delightful to read. In Looking For A Ship the author attaches himself to a sailor licensed as a Third Mate in our dwindling U.S. Merchant Marine Service and follows his every move.
I suspect many folks are as ignorant as I am about what is involved in our countries very important worldwide trade, involving ocean going cargo vessels. During the various wars the U.S. has been engaged in the Merchant Marine has been the lifeline for transporting the vast bulk of men and materials to what ever destination.

Since the end of World War II, what had been a vast armada of ships has shrunk to a mere skeleton of its former size. Economics has forced the downsizing of the number of these ships as well as the size of the crew on each ship. Modern technology has played an important part in that regard also. As a consequence the manpower demands have shrunk proportionally. This has brought about a unique labor management system that in effect rations the working time for merchant sailors.

The author follows his chosen subject as he goes through the rituals necessary to locate a "berth" aboard a ship. The author is allowed to tag along as "A person in addition to crew". In McPhee's inimitable fashion he takes you along too, explaining, in exquisite detail, everything you need to know to understand what is involved. Once aboard ship, and underway, you meet in turn, the various crew members telling of their jobs as well as their lives and backgrounds. The captain turns out to be an especially interesting and competent individual.

Having served aboard two U.S. Navy vessels, a destroyer and an escort carrier, and being well acquainted with conditions in their engine rooms, I enjoyed McPhee's vivid description of the noises, vibrations, heat and drama that are daily occurrences.

The ship left an East Coast port -Charleston SC. It then sailed southward and through the Panama Canal. It proceeded down the west coast of South America. It is a huge vessel loaded with trailer size containers stacked, several tiers high, on deck. The manifest simply states that they are "STC" or "said to contain" whatever.

An interesting fact of seafaring life is a modified version of the scourge of merchant men-- pirates. They operate very brazenly even as ships are pulling into port. They strike quickly and appear to know what containers have what they are after. Loading their acquisitions into their small, fast, boats they are gone before police vessels make their perfunctory appearance.

The most devastating aspect of seafaring is intensely violent weather and the occasional rogue waves that can overwhelm even a large ship and sink it in a matter of seconds. This happens much more often than we are made aware of. The book had great appeal to me because I've always enjoyed sea stories; additionally this is about the real thing.


The Lemonade Wars

by Jacqueline Davies

reviewed by Suzanne McInerney

Here's a children's book that drew me right in. I kept turning the pages to find out how the easygoing, popular brother Evan, and his brilliant but shy math whiz sister, Jessie, overcome a major predicament in their otherwise close relationship. 

The problem happens to be Evan's worst nightmare: Jessie, a second-grader is invited to skip a year in school- probably due to her great math skills (a subject Evan can't seem to master). This will put her into the same grade as Evan (fourth), an embarrassing situation for the upcoming new school year that has made him moody and cranky. Jessie has no idea what has suddenly happened to their relationship. She misses their old, easy camaraderie and feeling of protection from her big brother. 

It is the end of summer. Lemonade will be in big demand. Jessie proposes a serious competition to see who can sell the most lemonade: Brother Evan at his stand, or sister Jessie at hers. Jessie is determined to forget her shyness. When she gets the courage to ask someone to help her, to her surprise she makes a new friend. With her friend's help and with good public relations skills learned from her mother, Jessie makes the lemonade stand she runs a real hit. Evan, to whom everything (except math) has always come easily, finds many friends to help. He attracts a very good business, too. But eventually his nonchalance causes him to make some unsound business decisions and it looks as though he will lose the competition.

In the end, of course, nobody loses. Jessie and Evan learn a great deal about themselves and the meaning of having a sibling whom you can always count on to be honest and to have lots of fun with. Reading this book, a child can begin to learn one of the great lessons in life: What we finally value and love the most has been right in front of us all the time.

 

Exit Ghost

by Philip Roth

reviewed by Suzanne McInerney

A stage direction from Hamlet becomes the title for Philip Roth's newest and last novel to star his alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman. 
But who is the ghost in this modern, disturbing story? The ghost of the young Nathan Zuckerman whom surgery has left without potency? The ghost of the dead E.I. Lenoff, Zuckerman's great mentor, whose literary reputation may shortly be sullied by a brash journalist who believes he has uncovered Lenoff's dark secret? Or is the name of the ghost of Desire? 

In his later books, Roth has become highly economical in the use of his blazing and elegant prose. Exit Ghost is a mere 292 pages, yet his words seem to ring more true and more brilliantly than ever. He succeeds, somehow, in approaching the unapproachable- the innermost caves of consciousness, those realms which dwell almost on the edge of insanity.

The plot of this book is simple. Zuckerman lives a solitary life in the Berkshires, keeping away from all society and tending only to his writing. He returns to New York City, his home of many years, for a medical procedure. During that visit he meets a young couple who wish to exchange homes with him for a year. He also learns that it is up to him to protect the reputation of his departed guide and teacher by convincing a young and aggressive journalist not to publish his planned biography of E.I. Lenoff. Zuckerman takes over the apartment of the young couple as they begin their move into his home in the Berkshires. He falls in love with the exquisite wife, Jamie, and is not prepared for the power of his feelings. 

"I was learning at seventy-one what it is to be deranged. proving that self-discovery wasn't over after all. Proving that the drama that is associated usually with the young as they fully begin to enter life . . .can also startle and lay siege to the aged . . . even as circumstance readies them for departure."

At the same time he tries to unravel the purported deadly secret in Lenoff's life. To do this he must visit ghosts from his own past and perhaps (one can't be certain with Roth) lay them to rest. Throughout the book Roth has Zuckerman use the devise of writing imaginary scenes between himself and Jamie, complete with stage directions. This is a noble way of handling the astonishing feeling of desire Zuckerman experiences and expresses, but is apparently unable to carry out. In these scenes he and Jamie tease each other through a kind of intellectual eloquence. 

But, though I will not tell you how this book ends, I can assure you that the full effect is one of heartbreak.

 

The Omnivore's Dilemma

by Michael Pollan

reviewed by Sue Marcus

Michael Pollan, Director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at Berkeley, has written a book that truly deserves its current place high on the best-seller list and that is likely to change several lives as well. He has undertaken the enormous task of illuminating our food chain and what happens to the plants and animals in it and to us as we eat it. It isn't pretty. He begins with a visit to a farm which grows corn, the staple of the food chain. Why are we growing so much corn? It feeds the cattle in concentrated animal feedlots (owned by a few enormous companies, such as Cargill, of the present e-coli scare, and Archer Daniels Midland), and if the animals become sick, since they're ill adapted to eating corn and to living in such close confinement, they are fed antibiotics, which continue down the food chain to us. Even fish on fish farms are being fed corn. His description of a chicken nugget illustrates how corn is omnipresent: "A chicken nugget…piles corn upon corn: what chicken it contains consists of corn, of course, but so do most of a nugget's other constituents, including the modified corn starch that glues the thing together, the corn flour in the batter that coats it, and the corn oil in which it gets fried. Much less obviously, the leavenings and lecithin, the mono-, di-, and triglycerides, the attractive golden coloring, and even the citric acid that keeps the nugget "fresh" can all be derived from corn." 

There is so much corn on the market that industry needs to find uses for it; thus the glut of high fructose syrups, for example, that are in soft drinks and tempting our culture into obesity. As you read the small print on supermarket boxes and don't recognize many of the ingredients, chances are great that their chief ingredient is- you guessed it- corn. Even much of the packaging is made of corn products. Not only is our food compromised, but a large percentage of our fossil fuel consumption is monopolized by the long-distance transportation of food products from the few large industrial plants- since fewer local small farmers can survive the competition from the giants. In addition, the waste products of animals and the chemicals used in processing agricultural products are flowing into our waters and endangering our resources, responsible for their serious deterioration.

Is there hope? Pollan visits several farms on which idealistic and forward-thinking farmers are into organic production. Regrettably, many are being co-opted into the industrial agriculture system, which transports their products to stores such as Whole Foods. The good news is that worried consumers are putting their money where their mouths are and buying produce, meat and poultry locally, at the forefront of the "locavore" movement.

While much of the information in The Omnivore's Dilemma will disconcert you, there is much pleasure to be found here as well. Pollan goes hunting, discusses the ethics of killing animals, learns to gather mushrooms, fascinates us with the lore of the fungi, and even makes his own yeast. He is an intelligent and genial host on this trip through the food chain, and it's likely the reader of this important book will look at food with new eyes.