I want a helicopter, too!

The Shooters by W.E.B. Griffin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoy The Presidential Agent series by Griffin, for all its flaws. It has many of the same characteristics I don't like in Tom Clancy novels (too much throwing away of names and specifications of various hardware), and the agency infighting can get a bit tedious in both. However, I enjoy them both for some of the same reasons--active story lines and interesting characters.

I could have done without the soap opera sub-text in this one, and all of the city hopping struck me as...not helpful in achieving the goal (i.e. it took way too much time to mount a rescue). But, even with its flaws, I'll pick up the next one and see what kind of fallout there is from this that Lt. Col. C. G. Castillo will have to make right now.



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Life Itself by Roger Ebert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Since I read this for free, and now intend to buy it, I suppose that's a strong endorsement.

The book itself is uneven, and as is true of memoirs, occasionally comes across as self-absorbed, but Ebert writes well, and his memories come across with strong senses of place, and at times you can almost hear the voices of the various, very diverse personalities whose lives have intersected, or run beside, his. Martin Scorsese jumps off the page, the wonderful woman who helped his get sober, the friends who stayed with him through the years.

If you love films, read this book for the insights on how to watch films and the people who make them. If you love babyboomers read this for a snapshot of life at the beginning of that group.

(Oh, and how did I read this for free? In one hour increments at Barnes and Noble on my Nook. I never would have borrowed it from a library, or bought it, but being able to open it up and read it over lunch or tea, a bit at a time, I found a book to treasure that would have slipped past me unremarked. Thank you, Barnes and Noble.)



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