Around the World

Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World by Seth Stevenson





A fun read.  Just enough detail without feeling bogged down in another person's over-fascination with place.  The key is the author's experience of places and people along the way.  Just the right amount of "protest" against modern life's fervency and superficiality.  What a challenge to dare to jump into the world's otherness with both feet!  You don't come back the same.  A journey doesn't have to be that far to be that good for you.



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The Greatest Golfer Ever

The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf by Mark Frost

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The best part about this book was the insight into Bobby Jones' high character and how he was a man of his times.  The author did a good job introducing many famous persons from golfing history and describing the world of early 20th century golf, professional and amateur.  He could have saved a lot of pages by reducing the "blow by blow" accounts of the rounds Jones played.  By the time I got to the accounts of the four major tournaments Jones won in 1930, I had become so tired of descriptions of ball flights and such that I skimmed them over.  The closing chapters on Jones' life after golf and his poignant physical decline were well written and detailed enough.  Considering the equipment Jones played with and how consistently well he struck the ball under pressure against great competition, I think there is no choice to declare him the greatest golfer who ever played the game.



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It's a Mystery to Me

Deadstick: An Owen Keane Mystery by Terence Faherty

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I met Terence Faherty at a writing conference last summer where he led a workshop.  I'm not a mystery reader but after learning that the protagonist is a "failed seminarian" I had to give the first book in this series a turn.   I purchased the eBook and read it in my Kindle.  I won't attempt to judge it against other books in its genre.  What I will do is say that I came to care about Owen Keane.  The story started too slowly for me, but I stuck with it and found the pace picking up about half way through.  Maybe I'm more used to the faster pace of current thrillers (i.e. Steve Barry, Greg Iles, James Rollins, etc.).  Another thing I enjoyed was his description of rural and urban locations in the northeast US.



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Short Introduction to the 21st Century's World War

The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I found this at my library's book sale.  After reading it I was surprised it was withdrawn.  It offers the casual reader a good short treatment of the current state of struggle between the worldviews represented by the West/United States and the Middle East/Islamist states.  A little dated by now, but it introduces enough information to help the reader decide what he/she wants to investigate further.



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Terry Brooks at his not quite best

The Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I hold Terry Brooks as one of my formative authors.  I will read everything until he stops writing.  I saw him at an event in Noblesville, IN where he said he has ten more years to write.

This book seemed to not add much to the legend that is Shannara.  Some points were gripping but overall the story seemed forced or stretched -- like butter over too much bread.  If he writes a follow up to this duology I hope he returns to the epic feel of his earlier Shannara stories or even the Genesis of Shannara trilogy.



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