The One with All Quiet on the Western Front

110. Title & Author: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (256 pages)

Genre: Fiction--War

Completed: 11 August 2009

Summary & Review:

The novel follows Paul Baeumer, a young twenty-year-old solider along with his classmates as they face and try to cope with the horrors of World War I trench warfare. Paul watches as one by one his friends and comrades, whom he has grown indescribably close to, fall. How is he expected to move on with life after the end of the war, if the end of the war ever comes?

In my German readings art history class we read the last chapter of this in its original German so I was interested in reading the rest. Since my German reading skills are okay, but reading it is still a laborious process, I read the English translation. Remarque's depiction of war was graphic and unrelenting. The brutal realities of the war, including the psychological stresses the young soldiers underwent, were told without any hint of a romanticizing lens.

Rating: 7.5

The One with The Ghost War

109. Title & Author: The Ghost War by Alex Berenson (561 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Thriller

Completed: 9 August 2009

Summary & Review:

After a series of extremely aggressive actions by the Chinese government and a series of counter-actions by the United States, war seems eminent between the two countries. CIA agent John Wells is sent into the tumultuous heart of Beijing to meet with a defector who has information that can stop the coming war.

This is a relatively new author that my dad found and really enjoyed, especially his first book The Faithful Spy. He passed this one along to me (since he couldn't his copy of Spy) and I had fun reading it. The plot was fast-paced and action-packed with an interesting protagonist. If it weren't for the occasional snide comment about the Iraq war or the Bush administration, I would have enjoyed it even more. But, the author is a New York Times reporter, so, what do you expect?

Rating: 7.5

The One with Archangel

108. Title & Author: Archangel by Robert Harris (373 pages)

Genre: Fiction--Mystery & Suspense

Completed: 5 August 2009

Summary & Review:

A Russian man approaches historian "Fluke" Kelso and tells him that he knows where the long-lost personal journal of Russia's most infamous ruler, J.V. Stalin, lies hidden, and that some will do anything to keep it that way. With the help of an American journalist named O'Brian, Kelso finds the book whose shocking contents lead him to the extreme northern edge of Russia and back into the dark past of the Soviet era. In a cabin nestled deep in the woods, Stalin's heir has lived waiting for his moment to restore Russia to its rightful place as a world superpower.

Harris never disappoints me. I was actually a little reluctant to read this one because I had rented a BBC made-for-TV-movie version of it that was a major let down. I saw the movie at RedBox, recognized that it was based on a book by Harris and that it starred Daniel Craig (James Bond was in it! It had to be good!), so I got it. For being based on one of Harris' novels and starring the best James Bond ever, the movie was amazingly so-so. Thus, I didn't have very high expectations for the actual book. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. Like always, Harris' knack for setting and atmosphere showed through and really created an air of mystery and intrigue throughout the novel.

Here was a passage that I found interesting: "The drumming of the tires was hypnotic and Kelso's thoughts were random, disconnected. He wondered what O'Brian would have been like in a real war, one in which he actually had to fight rather than just take pictures. Then he wondered what he would have been like. Most of the men he knew asked themselves that question, as if never having fought somehow made them incomplete--left a hole in their lives where a war should have been.

"Was it possible that this absence of war--marvelous though it was and so forth: that went without saying--was it possible that it has trivialized people? Because everything was so bloody trivial now, wasn't it? This was the Trivial Age. Politics was trivial. What people worried about was trivial--mortgages and pensions and the dangers of passive smoking...he shot a look at O'Brian--is that what we've been reduced to, worrying about passive smoking, when our parents and grandparents had to worry about being shot or bombed?" (221-2)

Rating: 8.0

The One with Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith

107. Title & Author: Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (564 pages)

Genre: Nonfiction--Religion & LDS

Completed: 2 August 2009

Summary & Review:

The life and teachings of Joseph Smith, the first Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are present in this manual organized according to topic. Each chapter is introduced with a short history of the prophet's life and then direct quotes from his sermons and journals, etc. are used to teach the doctrines.

I really appreciated how there was little to no commentary in this manual so that the words of Joseph Smith were presented directly. The student was able to see exactly what he taught about a subject without the buffer of anyone else's opinion. the only thing I thought was missing was that there was no context given, for the most part, to the passages. It would have been interesting and educational to see what situations caused Joseph to teach what he did.

Rating: 8.0

The One with Strangers in Death

106. Title & Author: Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb (373 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Crime

Completed: 31 July 2009

Summary & Review:

Eve Dallas, a New York City detective in the year 2060, is called in to solve the murder of a prominent businessman and philanthropist. Her eye immediately falls on the man's widow but she struggles to find the evidence necessary to charge her with the crime until a seemingly unrelated murder that had been cold for months appears to hold the missing pieces.

First of all, why was this book set fifty years in the future? Despite a few frivolous details thrown in about "airboards" (which I can only picture looking like the hover-boards in Back to the Future II) and "Pepsi Tubes," the futuristic setting had absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the book. Also, apparently in fifty years we will have completely forgotten, as a society, anything about American history since Eve Dallas was completely perplexed as to who Alexander Hamilton was. Aside from the utterly pointless futuristic setting, Eve Dallas was an thoroughly unlikable character who was full of obnoxious pseudo-bravado like telling her friends she would rip off their fingers and feed them to them if they didn't do what she wanted. I won't be reading another Robb, or any Nora Robers (as Robb is a pen name for Roberts), again.

Rating: 3.5