True Blue

False. The plot of David Baldacci’s new novel, True Blue, moved quickly and provided lots of suspense. While I kept wanting to savor the development of the interesting characters, I found that with every passing chapter, they became more cardboard-like rather than human. Set in Washington, DC, two sisters are featured: one the police chief, the other, a former cop who’s being released from jail as the story opened. A hundred or more pages could have been edited out of this novel without much loss. Readers looking for a thrill will find some pleasure here, but those who want more depth to characters, should look beyond True Blue for something else.

Rating: Two-star (Mildly Recommended)
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Last Night in Twisted River

Loss. I didn’t appreciate how much I missed reading a John Irving novel until I plunged into his latest, Last Night in Twisted River. Sweeping back and forth across northeastern landscapes and decades in time, a multi-generational cast of characters deal with loss and extend the reach of love across the miles and years. In a delightfully quirky way, part of the voice of the novel is a writer constructing the way to best tell the story, ending up with the first sentence. What Irving does so well is construct: he writes careful, beautiful sentences; he builds a character level by level until a reader feels the depth; and he delights and surprises us with the way the plot unfolds. Irving is one of the finest architects of finely written, accessible fiction. Last Night in Twisted River is a worthy addition to a formidable oeuvre. Any reader looking for hours of reading pleasure that will immerse you into the lives of interesting people will likely enjoy Last Night in Twisted River.

Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)
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The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Obsession. Alice Schroeder’s comprehensive biography of the sage of Omaha is titled, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Rather than hauling around the 976 page hardcover, I purchased this title for my SONY e-Reader, and picked it up and put it down dozens of times over the past year. I found The Snowball to be best devoured a few snowflakes at a time. Schroeder covers Buffett’s personal and business life at a level of detail that bordered on “too much information.” From a personal perspective, Buffett comes across as a quirky and needy person whose demands on others came across as unreasonable and excessive. Buffett’s obsession with making money comes across as something he focused on so completely that when he needed to pay attention to other areas of life, he seemed lost and confused. Any reader with an interest in Warren Buffett will find the anecdotes and insight on these pages to be a joy to read.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)
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How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities

Ideas. John Cassidy’s new book, How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities is a call for reality based economics. This is a book of ideas, along the lines of Economics 201. Cassidy explains in plain language the ideas behind lots of economic theories, and how some dominant theories have come in and out of favor. I especially enjoyed his exploration of rational irrationality. For those readers who are looking for an understanding of the context in which the recent financial crisis occurred, there’s a viewpoint expressed here that shows the consequences of the expectation that markets are self-correcting. How Markets Fail is well written, and will provide every reader with some increased level of understanding.

Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)
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The Upside of Turbulence

Agility. Donald Sull’s new book is titled, The Upside of Turbulence: Seizing Opportunity in an Uncertain World. Sull makes a great case for building an organization that’s agile enough to exploit opportunities rapidly, and one that can absorb the inevitable setbacks that face every organization. The style of writing reflects Sull’s current job as a professor at London Business School. The content reflects both the case approach he learned at Harvard, and the clear communication and analytic approach he learned at McKinsey and in doing leveraged buyouts with Clayton & Dubilier. The result: a readable presentation, packed with cases and examples that illustrate his points clearly. The Upside of Turbulence provides interesting reading to general managers, and will be of particular interest to any manager involved in strategy, innovation, or development.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)
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The Wrecker

Competence. There’s a certain comfort to the reliability that a reader can count on from any Clive Cussler novel: the hero is competent and will succeed by the end; the villain is evil and can be a worthy adversary; the action moves quickly and usually involves incredible feats by many characters. A new novel, The Wrecker, fits the formula well, and will entertain those readers who can overlook the doggedness of the formula. Protagonist Isaac Bell (reprised from the earlier novel, The Chase) is the son of a prominent New England banker who works as a private detective. In The Wrecker, Bell is hired by the head of the Southern Pacific Railroad following a number of events that destroyed rail lines and facilities. While readers know the identity of The Wrecker early on, it takes a while for Bell to put all the puzzle pieces together in a mad scramble across the country and back several times. Along the way, there’s murder, deception, engineering feats, and loads of competence. Cussler fans will want more novels featuring Isaac Bell. Readers looking for a few hours of entertainment and who have a willingness to overlook the clumsiness of a formula novel, are likely to enjoy The Wrecker.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)
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The Year of the Flood

Survival. Margaret Atwood’s new novel, The Year of the Flood, does something that I can’t recall her doing before: she reprises characters from a previous novel, and expands their story. Several of the characters from Oryx & Crake, (which I also rated with four stars in 2003), appear in the new novel, and the two novels merge pleasantly to create a more complete view of a future possible world. The Year of the Flood is a story of survival in a world devastated by genetic experiments gone foul, and a plague that wiped out much of the population. One group in The Year of the Flood is called God’s Gardeners, and the hymns that Atwood creates describe their beliefs and their world with humor and insight. A collaborator composed music for these fourteen hymns and they can be heard and purchased at www.yearoftheflood.com. Atwood’s writing is superb, the characters believable, and the future world she creates is a scary place.

Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)

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