Great Ideas from the Great Books by Mortimer J. Adler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I started this book with the intent of picking it up every so often and get a dose of Adler. That’s what I did. Trouble was as I picked it up and put it down,the book got a away from me for months. I couldn’t find it and I was busy. Finally it was found and I was back to picking up and putting down. In the past couple of weeks I realized I need to finish this thing! i have most of the rest of the Adler library. Best finish this and get on to the next book. So I did.

This is a wonderful collection of columns covering a slew of issues in a question and answer fashion. The book is like a Q & A version of Adler’s ‘Six Great Ideas’. As usual, Adler’s writing is crisp and clear. The answers also balanced with various views. Amazing to realize that Adler crafted his answers into such a short column. I wonder how much work was done in editing? Must have been really tough to make the column inch each week. He surely wrote far more than seen. Hundreds of years of philosophical thought boiled into a column.

That’s the other amazing thing to realize, this column would not survive in a newspaper today. Today’s crowd is lacking the intellect to read writings like this weekly.

Bottom line: i strongly recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.



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Ghost Sniper by Scott McEwen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I peeked at a couple reviews before reading and thought I would be disappointed with this book. After finishing the book I learned the reviewers were not paying attention to the story or maybe only read the 4 th book oin the series. That is a must before reading this entry: Read the series in order to under stand what is happening to these characters.

This is the best of the four novels. In each the characters are being manipulated by one person. The author duo do not overtly explain this.There is plenty of evidence, but the reader has to pay attention. In the 4th book, the manipulator has had a jolt and finds themselves in a position of control, the last place this person should be, because here he can lose full control. The author duo do a top notch job job of setting up and unfolding a very complex plot where some of the best parts are not written.

The writing is still OK, but the story is well worth it.

Bottom line: i recommend this book: 9 out of ten points.





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Ruling Passion by Reginald Hill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Author Reginald Hill tosses one of his main characters into the witness role of a murder and has fun working out his character in the role and as a member of law enforcement. I believe Hill handles this well and better fleshes out his character Pascoe and his girlfriend. There’s another active set of mysteries also brewing that pitches character Pascoe back and forth from mystery to mystery. Seems to me Hill could’ve worked that part out much better. Hill makes it all confusing with little effort to establishing setting from one to the other.

Set more to the side is the second of Hill’s duo, Dalziel, who is relegated to humorous sidekick. Dalziel does help with wrap up, but still more a minor role.

The writing is excellent. Especially with characters. The settings are so-so. The plotting should have been reworked.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 5 out of ten points.

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Preacher’s Showdown by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I admit as I close in on reading 100 Johnstone Clan books that the stories are getting very similar. This one is treading ground done in it’s own series and others, too. Conclusions nearly identical, also.

The writing is standard Johnstone further cutting into the value. The characters, from bad guys to children, are particularly familiar. No surprises in the story and encounters are typical Johnstone. There are some really nifty turns these books could make, but it seems the publishers don’t want to mess with what sells. That’s one of the great things involving the Johnstone ghost written Flinlock stories that veers off from other Johnstone stories.

I do grade the books with the knowledge that each book is being picked up for the first time of a series.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 6 out of 10.
If you’re reading all Johnstone books: This one can be skipped.

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Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very well written book. The story is fine and the characters are outstanding. It’s just typical of contemporary novels to be waaaaaay over written. Certainly the case here. A series of novels could have been assembled from this one. As I finished the book it was obvious how a good editor could have cut out large parts of this book and created an even better written and a really great story. Instead this is a long way to go to get to the end. Basically, about 150 pages of the middle could be skipped and the novel would read as well with more satisfaction.

It is fun to read all the quirky this and thats of the characters and setting. It’s just not needed. The writing is so good, it is worth the hundreds of pages for that. The ending was a bit obvious to me from early on, which made this book even harder to get through. Hill could have swung a few more curves.

I won’t mark down my rating of the book due to length, since it is being done by everyone. Though, I would recommend Edmund Crispin to read for a keen mystery before Hill.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 out of 10.

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The Name of The Game Is Death by Dan J. Marlowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A power packed novel that does in 159 pages that most authors can’t do in 10 novels: A thorough story with much depth. The writing is top notch, though the plotting is clunky.

This book follows a bad guy from Arizona to a small city along the west coast of Florida, “Hudson”. More about that below. What makes this book so well done is that it is very hard to imagine where the story goes while reading the early part of the book. The complications and characters encountered are excellent.

The clunkiness comes as the writer moves the character across the country. Marlowe would have been best to have truncated that part as it seems he hasn’t actually driven that area before and it showed in his writing.

The Florida part: Hudson does exist in just the area he mentions. However his description better fits Spring Hill above Hudson. I believe he swapped one for the othe. He nails Spring Hill nearly exactly as it was when he wrote the book.

Bottom line: I recommend the book. 8 out of 10 points.

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The Renegades by Jackson Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is like reading an episode of a television program, which is what this book is. I’ve not seen an episode of ‘Gunsmoke’, I believe, since it was originally on some 50 years ago, so the program has little effect of my view of this novel.

The story is a good one where circumstances pushes one too far and the results of this pushing leads to problems that involve Marshall Dillon. The resolution is wrapped a bit too simply, but sends a nice moral message.

The writing is far stronger than might be found even today on television and is the best reason to read the book. It’s a speedy book that the writer did a very fine job of keeping in the confines of.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 7 out of 10 points.

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Death Rides Alone by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another great entry in the Luke Jensen series. An more involved book that\n most Johnstone books with better writing and plot.

The story starts as most Johnstone books do with a quandary. Most johnstone books see an obvious ending. This does not have that ending and there are many turns in the story to add complexity to the tale. The ending is standard Johnstone and this is a repeat ending of other Johnstone tales.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 out of 10 points.

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Primal Waters by Steve Alten
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a lively book and Alten stretches his authoring skills as few successful writers ever do, as he breaks out his story in many directions that each could have been it’s own book. Thing is, the whole still feels like an effort to retell the same tale, via editors, to sell books.

I believe Alten does a great job taking on three simultaneous tales. This can be tough to write and make easy for a reader to follow. I believe he accomplishes that. The characters are mostly the same, or a variation of earlier characters.

The writing is so-so. In the effort to weave in three threads, there are kinks and some unbelievable scenes. Alten drives up the action and the creatures and thrills are clearly the main goal to achieve. The book ends rather sudden;y with lots of questions unanswered and seemingly still with a world of megladons, and other creatures, roaming about.

The creatures written are a major slip-up of Alten’s. These are written differently and do what was claimed they were unable to do in his other books. The descriptions well done in the two previous books are missing and the creatures are written more as current sharks than the megladon. The creatures written in the second book are no where to be found in the same location Alten takes his characters.

I found the entire book fun, but with a lot of repetition of generally similar scenes with similar conclusions. The writing is fun, but so much of this book felt mechanically staged. As I read, i could read sections that editors demanded to sell another Allten book.

Bottom line: I recommend the book: 6 out of 10 points.

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The Trench by Steve Alten
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alten continues the fun in this second in the Meg series. This one shows a maturity in Alten’s writing as there is far more science and complexity to the Story.

As with the first, i like Alten’s build up to events with plots twists and various levels of storytelling going on. Alten uses the technique of cutting back and forth from scene to scene. This can become very confusing, but Alten lays it out well.

Again Alten does an excellent job writing the settings. There are times you feel you should be wearing a face mask. He also excels writing the dialogue of a lot of characters. Most all of the characters are distinct.

Alten slips a bit with all of the scenes in an underwater facility that becomes confusing to imagine at times. I also find it hard to believe that the megladon waited so long to wreak such havoc. Other prehistoric monsters are also introduced that seem to indicate there are a myriad of sea monsters that no one has ever seen before. Great science fiction, but too much beyond believe ability for me.

A side note: The film, ‘Meg’, is based more on this book than the first.

Overall this is a great book for adventure and fun.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.

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Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since I saw a movie version of this film was coming up, I picked this book up a couple of months ago. I was surprised how much fun this book was to read. It appears long, but the story grips you into reading and not getting up.

My major complaint of the book is the idea that some prehistoric critter would hide out for so long and then get so active. It’s explained, but I can’t buy Alten’s reasoning. But the story has to have a Megladon. So it does.

I like how Alten develops the story from the perspective of the main character, Jonas Taylor, and then how many pieces are presented all pieced to a more and more exciting story.

The writing is surprisingly good for a first time author who apparently had written little before this. The dialogue is particularly good. There are also plenty of scientific descriptions that Alten handles makes very palpable for the lay reader.

The settings are extremely good and Alten puts the reader in the depths of the sea or on a dock in the ocean.

The best compliment to Alten is that he wrote a book very exciting and fun!

Bottom line: i recommend this book: 8 out of ten points.

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