Reading List

As a long time reader, I find (as time allows) that I can & will enjoy any number of things–from pure escapist fiction (for example, W2GD turned me on to John Sanford’s work recently), to history or otherwise non-fiction works. Recently, two titles caught my attention, & I’ll provide some background here.

First is Thomas Kessner’s The Flight of the Century, which is a look at Charles Lindbergh & the rise of American aviation. With plenty of background material, he presents a unique look at what happened to a young, unknown & unassuming airmail pilot after he successfully flew alone from New York to Paris. To call the reaction (on both sides of the ocean) euphoric barely begins to encompass the scope & scale of what happened. Kessner details the flight itself, as well, in complete detail.  Of more interest is what happened not only to Lindbergh after his trip, but to aviation itself. It was, indeed, a transforming moment in world history.

Following this theme is Elgen M. Long’s Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved. Having read it, I’m 99% convinced he has indeed done exactly that–solved the riddle of what happened when & why. The primary reason for her failure stems (as you may know) from her incompetence with radio, along with some serious mis-communications between the US Navy & Earhart about those abilities. There’s so much detailed & clever examination & explication about radio that I searched on QRZ.com & sure enough, that name belongs to W7FT. No email address is provided, & there have only been a few searches for the call, so he’s probably not very active. But once you finish this book, I’m sure you’ll find yourself agreeing with the author’s conclusions about not only where the out-of-gas Electra could be found (a very pricey proposition, but still…), but why that “area of uncertainty” (a navigational term, which is the perfect metaphor for that failure to find Howland Island) is the only logical choice.

May 2011  In the months following these posts, I’ve read any number of things, often simply “escapist” fiction–thrillers and police procedures and mysteries, and so forth.  But yesterday, I finished Mitchell Zuckoff’s LOST IN SHANGRI-LA. In a word, wow!  What a story, all of it true. Simply amazing stuff. I’ll be surprised if Hollywood doesn’t snap this up. If your taste runs to military history, aviation themes, cross-cultural investigations, and stories about how people deal with crisis, you’ll find this book a real page-turner I believe. It’s that good.

Wow…the last update was back in September, 2011. Herewith, some things I’ve read, which deserve mention.

Lee Childs latest Jack Reacher novel, THE AFFAIR.  Michael Connelly’s THE DROP, one of the better Harry Bosch books.  Erik Larson’s IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS. All of Michael Prescott’s novels–yes, ALL of them. Amazon had these for 99-cents & I must say, they were a tremendous bargain, great fun! The new ARRL Antenna Handbook–the very first hard-cover ARRL publication I’ve ever owned. Nicely done by Ward Silver, although having K7LXC write the section on Towers was a disappointment to find, but understandable, considering their history.

Awaiting delivery of the latest from Elmore Leonard, his Raylan Givens book, obviously following closely on the heels of the success of the JUSTIFIED TV-series success, which turned out to be a terrific show, very nicely done, with great acting by several of the characters, along with swell production values.

Yes, I’m addicted to the KINDLE at this point!

29 January 2012

In no particular order, some recent titles:  THE GARNER FILES, a surprisingly good autobiographical collection of stories, memories, and history of James Garner’s life before, during and after Hollywood. The old cliche, you can actually “hear” Garner saying some of these lines certainly applies.

TAKEN, the latest Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novel from Robert Crais. Dealing with immigration (both legal and not), it’s carefully plotted and nicely done. One of these best in the series.

RAYLAN:  A NOVEL, referenced above as something I was looking forward to, it’s a departure for Elmore Leonard, all right. Clearly driven by the TV-series, it has less of the Leonard event-driven plot, more of the dialogue we’ve grown accustomed to, and a lot more of the “coming attractions” feel to things. But still…it’s Elmore Leonard…

TITLE SEARCH and DOUBLE by Richard Givan.  I stumbled across the second one first on Amazon for 99-cents. It was good enough for me to buy the first one afterward. Boy are very, very good. Clearly, Gavan has some chops. The hero is the closest thing yet to the successor to Travis McGee–John D. MacDonald’s knight errant, et cetera. That’s high praise, indeed!

SHIVER, NEXT VICTIM, IN DARK PLACES, RIPTIDE, DANGEROUS GAMES, LAST BREATH, & MORTAL FAULTS, STEALING FACES, BLIND PURSUIT, & MORTAL PURSUIT, all by Michael Prescott. Again, Amazon bargains that will keep you turning pages.  I enjoyed each and every one. They made those motel nights while working on the road way more interesting than TV, that’s for sure.

THE DEAD ROOM & THE LOST WITNESS by Robert Ellis. I knew Bob when he was an undergrad at Ohio University (when I was working there, running the OU Film Production Laboratory). He was a student of Walter Tevis’s at the time. But who knew he’d end up writing these winning mystery novels? Swell stuff…

ANGLE OF INVESTIGATION by Michael Connelly, a simple collection of three Harry Bosch stories. It’s simple:  any Harry Bosch story gets my attention. Now and forever. And then there is THE DROP, which is the latest Harry Bosch novel. Certainly one of the best in the series, which implies Connelly continues to grow or improve as a writer, and to understand and appreciate the complexities of his creation. Again, swell stuff.