I am woefully behind on my book reviews. I keep having good intentions to get caught up, and then I finish another book and fall farther behind. Therefore, I'm just going to give you short reviews of the books I've read recently, and I'll start up with regular reviews with the next book. So, in the couple of months I've read:
#3 -- "First Family: Abigail and John" by Joseph J. Ellis (2010). I'm a big John Adams fan so I was excited to read this book. It was strange after reading "Founding Brothers" immediately before this, because much of the John Adams chapter from "Brothers" is repeated verbatim here. The book didn't present much that I didn't already know, but by now that would be hard to go given all the Adams books I've read. For someone new to the Adams relationship, this book would be a great start. 3 stars out of 5.
#4 -- "American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia" by Joan Buskupic (2009). I'm not on Justice Scalia's end of the political spectrum, but I find him fascinating to listen to or to read his opinions. He's a very interesting character. Therefore, I found this book to be very interesting and I learned a lot about Scalia that I didn't know. The book does focus on a lot of the cases he's been involved in, and it was interesting to read about his role in cases I studied in law school. However, I wonder whether someone without a legal background would find the book a little too academic. I thought it was great. 4.5 stars out of 5.
#5 -- "Quentins" by Maeve Binchy (2002). I'm not a big fiction reader, but if I'm in the mood, Maeve Binchy is always a good bet. I've got a few of her books on my shelf. This book is a bit of a mystery surrounding a restaurant in Ireland. All the main characters have some sort of connection to the restaurant. The mystery has to do with a Madoff-esque scheme whereby a man steals money from people and flees to Spain when he's about to get caught. As usual, a very good book by Binchy. 4 stars out of 5.
#6 -- "Chester Alan Arthur" by Zachary Karabell (2004). This book is part of a series of presidential biographies. I have six of them and I hope to obtain them all. They're very short books -- this one was 144 pages -- so they do not go into a whole lot of depth; but I'm not sure there'd be much to say about Arthur anyway. He only served one term, and came to the Presidency only upon the death of President Garfield. I really knew nothing about him so found the book interesting. Arthur comes across as an ethical man and politician in an era marked with corruption. He never wanted to be President, and isn't marked as one of our best; but he made it through without scandal, which was really all that was needed at the time. 3 stars out of 5.
Let's hope I can bet back on track with book #7 for the year!
So no five stars yet? What was your last five star read?
ReplyDeleteMy very favorite book is the John Adams biography by David McCullough. It is therefore the book by which all others are measured. I actually considered giving the Scalia book a 5, but determined not to do so because it didn't quite meet the Adams test.
ReplyDeleteWhat did the Adams book have that makes it such a tough standard to meet? Well, I couldn't put it down. I was up until the early hours of the morning finishing it. I couldn't wait to see how it would end, even though I knew exactly how it would end because, well, Adams dies. But it read like a novel. That's a tough standard to live up to, but that is the standard nevertheless.