Rob presents some of his favorite authors and books for #BookLoversDay!

Tropical Disturbance by Theodore Pratt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An uneven book of sex and a monster hurricane in Florida.

The sex: For a 1961 book, this is very explicit in, what might be called, a soft-core kind of way. If the focus was the sexual activity of a small town, the amount of pages of sexual activity might make sense. But a hurricane is the plot of the novel and the excess adds nothing to the overall story.

The hurricane: in my opinion, this book has the best explained hurricane and affects to an area I’ve read outside of non-fiction. Even MacDonald’s ‘Condominium’ doesn’t measure up to Pratt’s more thorough approach.

Pratt sets up the story with folks from out of state to learn from the Florida Cracker. From the Cracker’s introduction, Pratt lays out a How-to-be-a-Cracker, which is informative, but a bit too academic at times.

The characters are pretty stereotypical across the board. Though well written stereotypical. The setting is extremely well done. Especially as the hurricane settles in.

The book ends abruptly for some reason leaving too many loose ends and making the entire experience unsatisfactory.

For the hurricane part: I recommend the book
As a whole: i don’t recommend the book. 4 out of 10 points.

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The Deep Six by Randy Striker (Randy Wayne White)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well known Florida author Randy Wayne White started off his published novel career with 7 books written about Dusky MacMorgan, hero-at-large, in the Florida Keys. The books are all tightly written with a decidedly John d. MacDonald feel to all of them. White is a huge fan of MacDonalds and that’s loud and clear in this book. Lots of JDM reflection and meanderings. The violence is a more blatant and charged than JDM. There is also little mystery in the book. The drive is action.

I’m more of a fan of these 7 MacMorgan books than White’s current long run of Doc Ford. I find the Ford books over long, too politically preachy and too many set in an area of the world I don’t care for, Latin & South America. All of that weighing down simple skeletal stories. MacMorgan are also simple stories, but, in my opinion, better constructed.

White’s strength in the series and this book in creating very strong, if not often stereotypical, characters. The dialogue is weak, but the narrative is good.

Bottom line: 6 out of 10 points.

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Dreams of Eagles by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Anyone seeing the other reviews here will think I was reading a whole other book. I just found this Johnstone Clan entry to be strung together stories between a linear set of historical happenings. The stories all remind me of stories in many other Johnstone novels. I’ve recognized a repetition of stories before, but, at least, some had some differences. This entire book is full of yet to be written Johnstone books. I had to check my Goodreads list twice to be sure I hadn’t read this before.

That even might be OK if the stories were good. But these stories have little complexity as earlier Johnstone Mountain Man stories or the recent Flintlock series. It’s just a prolonged Mountain Man book over 400 pages of the same story over and over and over again. Good editing would’ve solved this.

How about presenting the offspring of the main character as something other than a carbon copy of the father. It’s actually written blatantly that they are carbon copies! Not all are carbon copies. But those that are not carbon copies are barely heard from again.

There are hints of adding layers to the book involving a couple of young people who have a secret that gets revealed the hard way. (I know I’ve read this also in another Johnstone book). But this thread is in sharp contrast to the rest of the book and, thus, making it a clunky, out of place addition.

To me, this book is the product of scattered ideas on a table that got badly stitched together to create this volume.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 4 out of 10 points.

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The Mordida Man by Ross Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a rollicking good time. All of the foreign intrigue thriller writers of today should note Ross Thomas’ writing of ‘The Mordida Man’. The fun, humor and similar ridiculous circumstances portrayed in current same-genre novels, but with this one’s sense of tongue-in-cheek.

This also works both ways. It’s too bad Thomas didn’t see what writers, like Vince Flynn, recently did with the genre and he might have grounded his book a bit more involving the action part, certainly the weakest written part of ‘The Mordida Man’.

Clearly the Carter Administration and Nixon’s shenanigans influenced the plot of this book. Imagining Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy gets into the trouble written here isn’t too far a stretch. Knowing who Billy Carter is really helped swallow this story. Someone not knowing Carter, might find this book beyond preposterous.

The many, many, many characters and their motivations and goals are written superbly. Along the way the story swerves in and out of characters, actions and locations. All written with great skill and humor. Where writers like this today?

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

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Intellect: Mind over Matter by Mortimer J. Adler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All that ‘Intellect’ presents has come more true since it’s first publication. Instead of reasoned conclusions, imaginary fantasy is creating laws and warping mindset. Mortimer Adler would be considered very un-P.C. today. Likely why his name seems to have disappeared during the Great Ideas conferences he developed at the Aspen Institute. I’m almost gald he is not still with us today to asee what has happened in the world. Though I would LOVE to hear what he would say about it.

This volume lays out Adler’s reasoned view of the elements of intellect: the brain and the mind, and why the two are separate. Adler breaks down his view and argues just about every angle. It’s all reasonable and logical. He also addresses counter arguments to his view and lays out why those are wrong.

As was Adler’s goal, the writing is not overly complicated. For those of us that read a lot of philosophy, his writing is too simple. Some philosopher’s have tagged Adler as a Pop Philosopher for spurning academia and writing for the general public and not to justify college tenures. As Adler introduced his simpler approach to writing philosophy, he couldn’t have known how even his approach is overly complicated for today’s American population.

He addresses his concerns about technology and what it could do to the intellect. His concerns, writing almost 40 years ago, are very mild to what has happened so far. I remember reading these views of Adler’s decades ago and thinking the ideas sounded extreme. An iPhone came into human’s lives and made concerns horrors.

Something else that has solidly entered human’s lives is the introduction to the panicky view of being healthy. To most all that means eating well and exercising. To Adler it is only involving reasoning. If you use your brain and mind, the grape-nuts & track run are obvious conclusions. But without the thinking part, it’s just a fad without commitment & dedication.

I found Adler’s arguments that language and communication being the same wanting. His argument is flimsy if that and his “natural & “nurture” arguments. Both chapters are short and he later in the book writes that those are his shallowest views. I agree.

Overall, this should be required reading for anyone wanting to be motivated to greater reasoning skills of the brain and mind.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 9 out of 10 points.

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The Politics of Mis-Representation by William C. Havard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The largest problem this book has is that it has an expiration date of about 1961. It was written to push the idea of a getting the Florida Legislature to widen the range of representatives through out the state. That never happened from within, but by the great alteration of the population.

The construction of the book is nearly entirely focused on the results of the Florida Legislature in the 1950s. A more practical approach would have been to have an historical view over the past one hundred past years. Instead there is only the tiniest nod to the past. This also makes conclusions suspect without support of a larger viewpoint.

Furthering the disappointment is nearly no reference to actual people. The book is written more conceptually. Yet, that further questions conclusions and ideas trying to be pushed in the book. Did the writers really know Florida’s history enough to come to the conclusions they did? Sure the more rural areas had more control over the more urban areas. It was the farmers that built the state. There was no proof that pouring concrete and asphalt would do anything for Florida’s strength in community or economically. As the 50 years has shown, Florida’s economy was solid with farming and the overly urban areas are a heavy weight that has consistently sunk Florida’s economy. Now farming, thanks to the ideas the writers have & the realtors & developers, is nearly illegal in many parts of the state, thanks to zoning.

Nothing is mentioned at the efforts by builders and developers in the 1950s to start the process of over taxing farm areas that could be developed into homes and buildings. This really buried rural control on the peninsular part of the state. But the writers are out to damn the agrarian economy in favor of the plutocrats that only wanted , and still want to, exploit our state of Florida.

A giant chunk of the book takes apart how all angles of the Legislature works. Little applies now or not long after the book was published. If the writers knew Florida’s Legislative history, they would have known how that healthy chunk of their book would be soon useless.

With the narrow view the book becomes nearly useless as soon as it was printed as the Legislature following the book, had a whole new agenda.

Otherwise, the writing is very good with tons of footnotes, bibliography and index.

Bottom line: I can’t recommend this book. 5 out of ten points.

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I Have Gloria Kirby by Richard Himmel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A pretty standard tale well written and with very good characters and dialogue. I really liked the book, but the tale is well traveled territory and rather forgettable.

The main character is particularly well done as he struggles with the past, present and future with well written honesty. Same with the Gloria Kirby character and others. The bad guys are portrayed to such a realistic point that it’s hard to be really angry at them and their badness decreases making the end less dramatic.

Bottom line: I recommend this book: 5 out of 10 points.

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Damned are the Meek by Stuart Friedman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has an interesting story about three siblings trying to make it on their own with nothing going their way. This leads to risks taken and prices paid for those chances.

I didn’t understand when i pulled this book from the staff that it was heavy with sexual parts, something I try to avoid and big reason i don’t rea contemporary novels. It’s wedged into this story in an annoying way that only damages the whole.

The actual story and the sexual parts are individually written well, but together is an unbalanced story. The combination leads to an abrupt ending that makes the reader wonder what is the real end.

The characters are good and the dialogue is very good. Settings are also well done. As written, the writing is otherwise good. it’s the forced sex that downs the book.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 4 out of 10 points.

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The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams by Deepak Chopra

What absolute hooey! How did this useless mess get published? This light volume has as much weight as 101 uses for a Dead Cat, with less depth.

Written in a I’m Superior Than You but Won’t Tell You Why style, this tiny waste tacks 7 typical motivational laws found in thousands of volumes of Get Rich Quick tapes, films, books, websites, etc. The “author” then dresses the 7 in some superstitious Hindu hoodoo, never explaining the actual relevance of any of the 7. Basically, follow these …or else!

The writing is sophomoric with no intellectual value. Want this same book better written, explained and by someone with depth? Read Mortimer Adler’s ‘Six Great Ideas’, Bertrand Russell’s ‘Conquest of Happiness’ and so many more. Read a real philosopher and not some TV quack after a quick buck.

Bottom line: This is intellectually dishonest garbage not fit to rate.

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Murder Packs a Suitcase by Cynthia Baxter
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

My goodness, when a well intentioned novel is being put together, this is excellent proof that all can go wrong. I can read the effort to prepare and research and plan quirks in the plot to give the book a strong foundation. But poor writing and a sloppy understanding of travel writing digs a grave for ‘Murder Packs a Suitcase’.

Since I was married to a travel writer, hung out with travel writers, went to many travel writer gatherings and do some travel writing of my own, I know a bit about the subject. Obviously the writer does not. That would be OK, but she should have talked to a travel writer for some idea what happens. Travel writers rarely move in packs to write a story for the very reason of competition. A series of competing magazines knows better than to send their writers all at the same time to Florida or all of their magazines would have similar stories coming out all at the same time. Travel writers gathering as colleagues is something else. We went to travel writer gatherings with the side intent of getting a story, but didn’t tell the others about it to get that certain angle.

Adding to the above is the writer poor writing of the book. All of the characters questioned freely give any information asked. Despite the person asking is a just a writer. She is no part of law enforcement, has no idea where in the world she is and has no motivation involving her job to have experience questioning people. How the writer jumps to the conclusion the reader will buy all of this is preposterous.

The writers inability to write has the characters with similar dialogue making them all similar, with only physical descriptions to set them apart. Then there is the nasty habit of each knowing all sorts of trivia as if reading from an encyclopedia…or copied from one. There are lots of inconsistencies throughout. At one point the main character’s editor claims to stumbled over the story of a murder. Within a page the main character learns the story is splashed all over the news all over the country. How did the magazine editor miss that?

Also, the quotes opening each chapter are trite and irritating.

About Florida: Making all this worse is her lack of understanding Orlando, Orange County, etc.
There are all kinds of names of places that are wrong. Seems most are to simplify to include the Orlando name, though all are actually not in Orlando. Most these days don’t know most all of the Central Florida tourism areas are not in Orlando, which is a small city in a huge county.

There are lots of details that drove me crazy. Like the main character walking by herself in Cypress Gardens. That was beyond impossible. It was a small place with eyes watching everywhere at all times, besides all of the employees about. Something about two haunted houses nearly side by side. A difficulty in zoning, parking, stormwater issues and just trying to make a buck. No investor would’ve let it happen either.

The worse part was the main character looking for “Old Florida” with ZERO understanding what that term means. To us natives, it means a lot. Just about anybody at Gatorland could’ve told her. Did she never speak to Tim Williams there? How on earth could that not have happened?

Dinosaur World is NOT “Old Florida”. It’s in the old Florida area of Thonotosassa, but otherwise barely 20 years old. Old Florida would have sent her to any of our state parks in Central Florida, Beefy King, Lake Eola, etc. of course, that is old Orlando, not old Florida. She was told to write of Old Florida and went after Anything Orlando in a Tourist Area.

I noticed the author claimed to speak to Liz Langley at the Orlando Weekly. i would think Liz could’ve straightened her out. Unless the communication was done through e-mail which would explain the problem of communication.

Did the writer know a character she has in her book, Phil Diamond, was also the name, at the time, of a City of Orlando City Commissioner?

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 3 out of ten points.

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