Bodhidharma

 "To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss," is attributed to Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who brought Zen, tea and Kung Fu to China. In today's Austin, if you saw the Buddha, he would be a homeless panhandler standing on a corner, with his bowl out, seeking nothing.

Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard - Two Stars ☆☆

I just finished four of Leonard's novels. I think Agnes Lowzier describes all the characters best: "A half-smart guy, that's what I always draw. Never once a man who's smart all the way around the course." All of Leonard's people are half-smart.

George W. Parker

Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich - Jochen Hellbeck. - One Star ☆

I am always looking for new material on the WW2 Eastern Front. Hellbeck presents fresh material, but are the interviews with Commissars reporting the bravery of other Commissars accurate? I didn't finish the book.

George W. Parker

The Boys from Biloxi

 The Boys from Biloxi - John Grisham. - Two Stars ☆☆

It's been years since I read a John Grisham novel. I wish I had kept that streak alive. He gives us cardboard characters and an obvious plot. The only surprise in the entire book is how the DA managed to live as long as he did.

George W. Parker

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

 Night Has a Thousand Eyes - Cornell Woolrich. - Two Stars ☆☆

This is a Twilight Zone episode. I have read it before but did not recall it until about halfway through. I wish I had remembered sooner. 

George W. Parker

Game of Thrones

 Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin - Two Stars ☆☆

I read the book. I do not think I would read it again and I chose not to read the next in the series. I found Arya Stark the only interesting character in the book. That lack of interest reflects on the writer. I was disappointed.

George W. Parker

Tune In: The Beatles

Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years - Mark Lewisone - One Star ☆

This is a five-star book if you are a fan of the Beatles' minutiae. If you want to know what clothes Paul wore when he was 14 or what brand was Geroge's third guitar then this book is for you. I didn't finish it so the one star from me.

George W. Parker

Leon Russel

Leon Russell - Bill Janovitz - One Star ☆

Russell was a very talented musician/songwriter/arranger/producer. Janovitz tells a great story and the book is filled with interesting material. But in the end, Leon Russell was an asshole. As I've stated before I don't have time for that type of person so I did not finish the book. Maybe you can overlook Leon's little character flaw.

George W. Parker

Red Harvest

 Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett- Five Stars ☆☆☆☆☆

The Continental Op drops into Poisonville "Hard BoiIed" incarnate. He's angry because they try to kill him and he's disgusted by the lying, backstabbing, double-dealing leaders of the city. His solution: everyone sufferers.

This is Hammett's first novel (1929) and his angriest look at the world. It's worth your time. 

George W. Parker

Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond

 Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond - Sandra Tooze - ☆☆

I have been a fan of Levon Helm and The Band most of my life. There was a lot of material new to me in this book, from Levon's early childhood, his drug usage, and his post-cancer career. Robbie Robertson still doesn't come out very well. I enjoyed the book but I don't think I would re-read it which is why it is only two stars for me.

George W. Parker

A Legacy of Spies

A Legacy of Spies - John le Carré - Four Stars ☆☆☆☆

Four Stars - I will reread it.

This last book from Carré has a fresh feel to it with a different approach (kind of) to its storytelling.  I enjoyed the new perspective on the Alec Leamas story and immediately reread The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which is a five-star book.

George W. Parker 

Cathedral - Raymond Carver

 Cathedral - Raymond Carver - One Star ☆ 

I did not finish this collection of Carver short stories. The protagonist in the short story Cathedral is an asshole. "Ah, but he changes," everyone will say. I believe the protagonist does not have a "Road to Damascus" moment. He just has a moment. In the morning when he rolls out of bed he will still be an asshole.

In Chef's House Edna leaves a budding relationship to return to a former failed relationship. She seems to have forgotten there was a reason it had failed. What is that saying about repeating something over and over and expecting a different outcome? Edna is a fool. 

If I want to spend time with assholes and fools I can go for a drive on the freeway and sidestep the Raymond Carver.

George W. Parker

Love and Let Die

Love and Let Die - John Higgs -Two Stars ☆☆ 

I have been a fan of The Beatles and Bond movies since 1964. But I was never one to run out into the weeds looking for "facts." (Unless you count playing a record backward a couple of times.) This book is filled with trivia like the bird sounds on "Tomorrow Never Knows" is Paul's laughter speeded up. And then there are Higgs' psychological interpretations. And psychological interpretations are like opinions, everyone has one.

 Not a book I would reread, hence the two stars. 

George W. Parker

 

Ike’s Spies

 

Ike’s Spies - Stephen E. Ambrose -Two Stars ☆☆ 

I don't foresee myself rereading this book.

The book has a lot of interesting facts about Ike's nurturing of the CIA and his leadership style. You can see why other countries distrust us when you read about our blithely organizing, backing, and forcing governmental changes around the globe often creating the problems we were trying to solve.

It's not a history I am proud of as an American.

George W. Parker

The Pirates of Shan

 The Pirates of Shan - John Blaine - Five Stars ☆☆☆☆☆

I have read it several times and I will read it again.

This is my favorite Rick Brant Science-Adventure story. It's a middle school-level adventure story where Rick, Scotty, and Chahda travel through the Philippine archipelago fending off pirates as they search for their missing friends.

I first read this when I was in middle school. Now my youngest grandson is in middle school. When I recently reread the book I followed the boys' trip using Google Maps and Wikipedia which added another layer of entertainment to the reading.

George W. Parker

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - Rebecca West - Five Stars ☆☆☆☆☆

Five Stars ☆☆☆☆☆ - I have read it more than once and I will read it again.

I have a complaint with this five star title. I think it should be three books: a history of the Balkans, a travelogue of the Balkans, and West's personal opinions on the Balkans. West has woven these three aspects into one mammoth book. It would be much more accessible as three titles. 

The history parts are a tour de force. The travelogue is still a great outline for visiting the area. (Watch out for the partisans.) But West's personal opinions are outdated.

George W. Parker

Flags of Our Fathers

 Flags of Our Fathers - James Bradley with Ron Powers - Three Stars ☆☆☆

Three Stars ☆☆☆ - I might read it again.

This is the very emotional story of US Marine Company E (Easy), 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment, 5th Division, and some of their contributions to the WW2 assault and capture of Iwo Jima, including both raisings of the US flag on Mount Suribachi. Additionally, it is the author's attempt to understand his father through the father's actions during the battle on Iwo Jima.

Per the author during the battle for Iwo Jima, Easy Company's total force comprised 310 men, including replacements, who at the end of the battle, counted 50 survivors. The total force of the 2nd Battalion, including replacements, was 1,688. The number of killed or wounded during the action was 1.511. 177 walked off the island, 91 of whom had been previously wounded and returned to combat.

George W. Parker

Planet Gor Series

Tarnsman of Gor - John Frederick Lange Jr. as John Norman - Two Star ☆☆
Priest-Kings of Gor - Two Star ☆☆
Slave Girl of Gor - Two Star ☆☆
Kajira of Gor - Two Star ☆☆

Two Stars - I read them but I don't think I will ever reread them.

There are 37 titles in John Norman's Gor Series. I've listed these four together as I feel they all work at the same level. And I figure all thirty-seven titles would fit in this category. There's a thin overarching interplanetary plot in each title. Then an individual protagonist plot provides the grist of the title. There are large areas of Gorian factoids (How the boats are designed. Where the metal in the slave's collar was obtained. What letters in the Gorian language mean. And on and on and on.) And then there are the female slaves and how they find their freedom in their slavery. 

I found the interplanetary plot interesting. Mostly the individual protagonist was fun and action-oriented. My eyes glazed over while reading the Gorian factoids until I just started skimming them. What should I say about the female slaves? (Have you seen the Megan Fox SI swimsuit photographs? All her poses look like they were lifted from the pleasure slaves of Gor.) Sex sells. That's why there are 37 titles in the series.

George W. Parker

Armies of the Night

Armies of the Night - Norman Mailer - Five Stars ☆☆☆☆☆*

Wait. What? Five stars?

I have read Armies of the Night at least three times and will probably read it again. By my rating system that makes it a five star book. There is an asterisk up there though. 

I have only read the "History as a Novel" section once. Now, after my initial reading, when I pick up the book, I go to the "The Novel as History" section. I enjoy it a lot. What Mailer was trying to do as a writer in providing two distinct views of the Pentagon March is interesting. I just don't equally enjoy both views. Does that make it a two-and-a-half-star book? Maybe. But then again, when I reread Moby Dick I now skip over the "Is a whale a fish?" discussions and stay with the meat of the story. Does that lessen Moby Dick? I don't think so.

George W. Parker

Doctor Zhivago

 Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak - One Star ☆ 

Yeah, yeah, I know... won the Nobel Prize and the Soviet Union would not let Pasternak leave the country to accept his award. But I didn't find it an interesting enough read to finish. One Star.

It's just another windswept Russian steppe story withering in the summer heat, freezing in the winter cold with a war to supply some action. Isn't that a Russian genre? Tolstoy did that. Solzhenitsyn did that.

I'm not saying it isn't a good read. I am saying I didn't finish it.

Oh, and the movie is too long also.

George W. Parker