Tesla: Man Out of Time

Author: Cheney, Margaret
ISBN-10: 0-7432-1536-2
Year Published: 1981
Date Read: January, 2008
Why I Read This Book: I enjoyed the movie Coffee and Cigarettes which referenced him repeatedly in one of vignettes.
File Under: Character study

Comments: A very intriguing man, and a great biography that's careful not to dehumanize Tesla with myth and legend. The first chapter is just a sensational read, exciting and filled with wonder, which, like an album with an amazing opening track, the book never really recaptures in the chapters that follow.

It's a great character study of the evolution of young genius to unrecognized father of electricity. Tesla has gained cult figure status recently after being portrayed by David Bowie in The Prestige, referenced in the music of the White Stripes, the Red Alert games and in Coffee and Cigarettes, but the sad, old Tesla living out his days nursing pigeons in a hotel room is a part of the character you rarely see in modern references, and probably the more interesting and enduring character.

The curve of Tesla's life as portrayed by Margaret Cheney is that of a tragedy– his martyrdom for the pursuit of knowledge is anything but heroic. She does a fine job of balancing technical details with character description and evocative language. If only the rest of the book were as exciting as the beginning.

As an added bonus, here's video of Tesla as a "mad scientist" in an old Superman catoon.

Now and Then

Author: Robert B. Parker
ISBN: 978-0-399-15441-6
Year Published: 2007
Date Read: February 26, 2008
Why I Read This Book: Long time Spenser devotee.
File Under: Murder mystery, clever investigators, Boston
Pages: 296

Comments: 60 chapters and a typical Spenser book. For those who don’t know, Spenser is a private eye working out of Boston. He is an ex-cop and ex-fighter, a champion of English literature, and is in love with Susan. Each book presents a problem laced with trips to local restaurants in Boston at which Spenser and his dinner companion discuss the nuances and morality of his latest investigation. It’s not all fun and food. Each story has its own grit, sex, violence, twisted morality and mystery.

In this book Parker has brought in all of the old stories into one. A husband (he’s an FBI Special Agent) has asked Spenser to watch his wife who he suspects is having an affair. Not only is the wife enjoying time away from her marriage but her new bed partner has a hazy past and is associated with brokering guns and jobs for radical groups around the world. Just exactly how one acts as a broker for various radical groups is left out of this story. Spenser knows not of the FBI employment of the man hiring him nor of the gun-running propensities of the wife’s playmate when he takes the assignment. Spenser, master sleuth that he is, tails the trysting twosome and tapes torrid transfers of bodily fluids. Then things go very wrong and the soon-to-be divorcee ends up dead.

Spenser has a score to settle but it is never clear if he is evening up with the perpetrator in this story or if he is making up for action not taken in a Spenser tale from twenty years ago. Will Spenser avenge a long simmering but lost chance at revenge by crushing the current bad guy who resembles the maniac who stole away the extremely lovely Susan two decades previously? Is the story about now or then? Hawk, Chollo, and Vinnie are called up to provide cover for the princess while Spenser goes to Ohio to sleuth. All too friendly cops and agents look the other way while Spenser and his buds “anonymously” collect deal bodies like firewood. Spenser solves the case and gets his chance to exact his revenge.

Good story – quick read - all but done on the first leg of a flight to Denver. Unfortunately, if you do not recognize the names of any of the characters above you might not catch the value of having all of these characters in one story. I think Parker may be relying on his core readership to carry the day instead of plugging holes in his story. Those who have read Parker know more about all of these characters than is presented on the pages in this book. Loyal readers will paint in all of their prior knowledge of the characters to supplement the somewhat wanting storyline. It’s a buddy fest with Spenser pulling in all of his markers from cops and villains alike to subdue the mysterious bad guy. This antagonist recruits his worker bees from half-way houses using his background in psychology to create mindless devotees. Of course, the former winos pose no real threat to the professional cadre recruited by Spenser but why take any chances when Susan is being dangled as bait. Susan is a shrink and the bad guy, just to complicate matters, comes to her for help. He knows he is being pursued by Spenser and knows of the Spenser / Susan relationship. So he has his weekly session with Susan and tries to seduce her while Spenser is trying to solve the crime and tries to create the connection between the outlaw and the dead bodies accumulating around the city.

All of the story is told through conversation. Parker does this well. It is a gift. Even when Spenser is alone in his car, driving to and from Ohio, he talks with himself and goes over the day’s events. He wonders aloud about the mystery he is trying to solve and ponders the glorious mystery of his developing relationship with Susan.

Each Parker book comes with a special feature – a recipe. Parker tells us of the ingredients and means of preparation of at least one of the meals consumed by Spense, usually in his or Susan’s kitchen. All of the recipes are simple and use readily available ingredients. A wine recommendation is usually included in these meal time interludes.

Why did I read this book? This group of characters has been part of my collection of imaginary friends since 1985. I want to see the strong principles of Spenser work themselves out in his callous and spoiled world in which he must travel. Sure, I want truth and justice to prevail and I want Spenser’s nemesis to be caught. [There appears to be no lasting effect of Spenser’s work in Boston. Each book brings a new bad guy operating with total disdain of law and order – as if Spenser never existed.] However, why I really read the books is that I want to listen to the banter and pointed flirtatious discussions of Susan and Spenser. She always gets the better of him as she does have her PHD from Harvard. After these many years in deep love and having already tried unsuccessfully to live together, Susan and Spenser now are talking about marriage. True love glows off of each page. The thuggish knight protects and loves his princess. They discuss marriage but with the condition that they continue to live in separate quarters? They have one dog. What about the dog? I read the Spenser books for the righteously placed left hooks but for sure I dwell on the romance which bubbles to the surface in every other chapter. Entertaining, forceful, recommended, clever, realistic, not deep but not shallow.

NOTE: "Now & Then" is the title which shows up on the paper cover and on the spine of the book but the ampersand is not found in the text of the book.

Nature Girl

Author: Carl Hiaasen
ISBN: 978-0-446-58175-2
Year Published: 2006
Date Read: January 22, 2008
Why I Read This Book: I always like a little Hiaasen.
Number of pages: 304
File Under: Comic novel

Comments: I read this book on a trip back from Denver on Delta, in an ice storm. So the flight to Atlanta turned into a flight to Huntsville for more fuel. As we taxied out of Huntsville the back of the cabin filled with smoke and the Captain announced that we should not worry about the smoke, that he thought it would be okay, and that we should push on to Atlanta. The swift cabin attendants slipped into the bathrooms and disabled the smoke alarms. Nature Girl provided a necessary distraction.

I picked up the book at the Denver airport and had it finished before I got home the next day. Carl Hiaasen books are like chips. They are definitely crisp, salty and sure to provide a certain taste sensation with every crunch. However, you can eat too many so it’s best to keep the Hiaasen readings at least nine months apart. Read two in a row and you see the same patterns and quirky behavior in the new characters brought to each book.

Nature Girl has a library card listing of “Manic-Depressive Illness” as one of the subject tags. That’s because of Honey Santana. She has a precocious teenager (Fry), a not so estranged hunk of an ex-husband (Perry Skinner), and she has a tendency (common enough) to stay off of her medications for longer than prescribed. A crass cold calling phone solicitor rings during dinner and sets Honey off on a wandering wacky scheme to teach the telecommunicator a lesson about ecology, life and civility. He had called Honey a “dried up skank”. The solicitor is a philandering baboon at home in Texas and must be lured to Florida so Honey can carry forth her plan to even the score.

Honey’s son gets a hint that something is up when he comes home from school to find his mom painting the trailer to look like an “Eco-Lodge”. The telemarketer is reeled in with a promise of a weekend vacation in Florida. He brings his not so enamored and bored girlfriend. The two of them are tailed by an earnest private eye who is retained by the telemarketer’s wife to get close up coitus pictures. Meanwhile, Sammy Tigertail who is a man wrestling with alligators and his heritage, kidnaps a zonked out college girl on spring break in the Ten Thousand Islands National Refuge in Florida. A Mr. Piejack is of the opinion that Honey only wants him so he follows Honey, the telemarketer and the girlfriend in their kayak eco-adventure. All of the characters end up on Dismal Key for the climax to this cleverly written and entertaining tale. The story is packed with local Florida color and has an ending we all root for. No one gets it as close to perfect as Hiaasen in depicting the characters of our state. He has a great mix of scenes and careful story development. Our sympathies lie with Honey. We all want her to prevail in her scheme to set the world right by making sure the telemarketer never disturbs another family’s mealtime. Good book with a good ending. Thanks Mr. Hiaasen, keep them coming.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J.K Rowling
ISBN: 978-0-545-01022-1
Year Published: 2007
Date Read: January 2-8
Why I Read This Book: Why did I read the book 3 times you mean? Because Harry Potter is a favorite of mine.
File Under: Magic, Fiction.

Comments: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is easily my favorite book out of the whole series. Like many other children, Harry Potter was my 'gateway' book into the world of reading, and is solely responsible for my failing grades throughout middle school.

Anyway, J.K Rowling did a beautiful job writing the 7Th book, carefully weeding out characters, and introducing new and important ones. The Deathly Hallows is the only book in which Harry Potter does not have his adventures during and at school, he sets off on his own to destroy the remaining Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione at his side. Dumbledore left him very little information after his death, and it is up to harry to save the Wizarding world as Voldemort rapidly gets stronger and takes over the ministry, and is slowly killing the Muggle race.

You might have seen, or been part of the controversy about whether not Snape is good, or evil. In the deathly hallows, Snape shows where he stands in a heart touching scene that involves Harrys mother. Filled with action and drama...this book is a hard one to put down! Of course, that's how I feel about any Harry Potter book, but that truly shows how incredibly involved one can become in a story. I also feel that J.K did an amazing job closing out the end of the book, it doesn't keep you yearning for more and makes it quite okay that there will be no more books added to the Harry Potter story.