Echo Burning by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When people ask for my advice, I feel frustrated when they don't take it. I was feeling frustrated when Carmen was not listening to the advice Jack Reacher gave her about getting out from an abusive marriage before her husband was released from prison. Of course, it turns out Lee Child was just setting up another page-turning action thriller.



It is worth the read if you are a fan of this series. It also holds up if you are reading the books out of sequence.



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Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I included this book on my genealogy-history shelf for the fictional protagonist Lyman Ward is doing something that I imagined doing some day. He is writing the history of his paternal grandmother. The book takes a turn from my own reason for choosing this book when Lyman reveals to his irritating son Rodman that he is really writing about a marriage. By this time, I'm caught up in the fictive drama with these human-like characters and the strong sense of the places they lived.



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Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques, Second Edition by Steve Nison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques is a classic book for study and reference for those who use charts as part of a trading plan. It has been recommended to me by several different traders who are much more successful than I am.



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Die Trying by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed yet another book of the Jack Reacher series, and yet this book's first paragraph hooked me without Reacher being nearby.



"Nathan Rubin died because he got brave. Not the sustained kind of thing that wins you a medal in a war, but the split-second kind of blurting outrage that gets you killed on the street."



Thank you, Lee Child.





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Naked Heat by Richard Castle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed it and I have no problem recommending it to readers who enjoy watching the TV series. It gets only 4 stars because I will never read it again now that I know who dunnit.



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Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America by Michael Williams

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I like the concept of this book: the USA history as depicted by snapshots of ordinary people, right there, right then. I was not fond of the execution of the concept but I don't know that I could do better selecting snapshots from the sources they chose.

The last snapshot of the book is compelling. It was taken by an astronaut who photographed a snapshot of his family he left on the moon.

This last snapshot was taken in 1972, 37 years before this book was published. To end the book so far away from current history reminded me too much of outdated school history textbooks and teachers who never got to the Korean conflict even though our country was in the midst of the Vietnam War. It left me feeling frustrated because it seems inadequate as a history book and it seems inadequate as an art book to spark creativity in those who read it.



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One Shot by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"...Reacher checked his watch. Time ticking away.He stepped up close.

"You got medical Insurance?" he asked.

The guy nodded.

"Dental plan?"

The guy nodded again.

Reacher hit him in the mouth. Right-handed, short swing, hard blow."



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Pelham Fell Here: P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery #1 by Ed Lynskey

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I wanted to like this book more for I am interested in this genre of rural noir and for its introduction to ex-MP and part-time gunsmith Frank Johnson and his pet ferret Mr. Bojangles.

A reason I did not like it more was sentences like, "The door, our objective twenty paces away, laughed at us." My fictive dream was broken repeatedly, and I was confounded by eyes that clashed, crescendos that died down, and many other examples of descriptions that did not work for this reader.



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Nature's Keepers : On the Front Lines of the Fight to Save Wildlife in America by Michael Tobias




This has been on my to-read shelf since 1998. I hope some of the concerns about wildlife protection have been addressed in the time period of 1998-now.



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Lost Empire by Clive Cussler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Sam and Remi Fargo took me on so many twists and turns I forgot what treasure they were seeking in the first chapter. Oh yeah, they were just scuba diving in an interesting location in Tanzania. Then they travel the world before they solve the mystery and find two sites for archealogists to dig.

Sam and Remi Fargo remind me of the tv series Hart to Hart, but that comparison really dates me.

I enjoy the history and geography lessons in these books.



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One Thousand Moons by Eddie Soloway

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Seventy-seven photographs and twenty-one essays from Eddie Soloway are in this self-published book. By self-publishing, he could control the color of the images and could publish what others may think are highly personal.

I attended a Nature and Outdoor Photography seminar taught by him and Michael Melford. This book provides some inspiration and motivation to expand my idea files and photo sketches.



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