Kessler was able to interview many agents and ex-agents for the book, most of whom actually went on the record with their names. From the agents, readers learn what some of the presidents and first families were like when the cameras were off — and the picture isn’t pretty. For instance, while Tipper Gore was generally considered gracious, husband Al was anything but. Hillary Clinton might as well be named the Ice Queen. The Bushes (both George H.W. & Barbara and W & Laura) were very nice and respectful to the agents, but first daughters Jenna and Barbara were a handful — as were Amy Carter and one of Gerald Ford’s daughters.

Kessler also does a fair amount of bitching and moaning throughout the book, as he complains about how higher-ups in the Service are more concerned with saving money and padding statistics than with actual protection. He says that agent recruitment is low, attrition rates are high, weapons are outdated, training is waived, overtime is mandatory and often uncompensated, promotions and transfers are hard to come by, and security measures are often skipped as the start of an event nears so the crowd can get in to see the president or other dignitaries.

The author also touches a little bit on what goes into actually protecting a high-profile person — though the book is understandably short on details in this regard.

Liked:

• The anecdotes about the presidents, vice presidents, and first families were undoubtedly the book’s strong suit. They were interesting for the most part — yet at the same time, they were of a rather superficial nature and gave the book a decidedly tabloid-y feel.

Disliked:

• The writing was pretty bad, with few transitions between topics or chapters, and with many details seemingly tacked on without real context. This book really could have used a good editor.
• Kessler repeats himself many, many times — especially when railing against the way the Secret Service is run today. All of that “office politics” stuff was boring to outsiders like myself. What do I care if the Secret Service is stingy about buying new office supplies? I’ve got my own problems at work and am not exactly prepared to weep for Secret Service agents who don’t get that cushy transfer to the Hawaii field office that they wanted.

Rating:

In The President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect by Ronald Kessler could have been a very interesting book, if the author had stuck to talking about the topic in the title. But he veered off into complaining about how the Secret Service is run, and as a result simply sounded like a guy with an ax to grind. Lots of people hate their jobs. Just because the job you hate happens to be with the Secret Service doesn’t automatically make the story exotic and interesting. At the end of the day, it’s still just someone bitching about their job. I give this book 2 stars out of 5.

With Apple and its iPad, expect publishers to increase the price of ebooks to $12.99 or even $14.99.

I think this is absolutely ridiculous. I love my Kindle because of its storage capacity, ease of use, and portability. I can read a number of different books at the same time (I’m currently in the middle of three titles right now) without having to lug around anything extra. I can take the Kindle on the deck and read it by my outdoor fireplace or slip it into a Ziploc bag and bring it to the beach.

What I will NOT do is pay $14.99 for an electronic copy of a book — especially one with highly restrictive DRM. If I buy a hardcover at the store for $30, I can read it and then loan it out to 10 friends. Or I can borrow it from the library for FREE. When I buy an ebook, I cannot share my copy unless I hand over my entire device. What a crock!!

All this price increase is gonna do is promote piracy. Just watch.

While Archie is in the hospital, some travelers come across a gruesome discovery at an interstate rest stop: they’ve found what appear to be eyeballs and a spleen stuffed into one of the toilets. Archie’s former partners from the Beauty Killer Task Force, Henry and Claire, arrive on the scene, and fear that Gretchen Lowell might be up to her killing ways again — particularly since one of the bathroom walls was decorated with hundreds of tiny red hearts, which of course was Gretchen’s signature. Henry gets Archie to leave the hospital in order to check out the crime scene too. Archie wonders if this was really Gretchen’s work. After all, they had a pact and Gretchen promised not to kill anyone else.

While the eyeball investigation stalls, the cops soon have other problems to worry about. That’s because dead bodies begin popping up at various locations around the city. The bodies are not fresh kills, but rather have been exhumed. And they’re being left at former Gretchen Lowell crime scenes. Is this Gretchen, just screwing around with the cops, flaunting all the dead bodies that they never found? Or is something else going on here?

Newspaper reporter Susan Ward soon gets involved because of an anonymous tip that leads to yet another body, and before you know it, she and Archie are off tracking down leads on their own. Archie has a feeling that Jeremy Reynolds, the only other Gretchen victim to survive (a fact never made public to the media), might be involved.

That is indeed the case. The rest of the novel then deals with Archie and Susan trying to figure out why Jeremy is acting out now, and what his ulterior motive might be. In addition, Archie still wants to capture Gretchen, who has had an iron grip on his life for far too long.

Liked:

• Susan Ward was actually likable in this novel! I had come to pretty much hate her after Sweetheart, what with all the endless descriptions about how cool she is with her wild hair colors, skechers shape ups, and weird wardrobe, but Chelsea Cain toned the annoying factor waaay down with this character. What a pleasant surprise!
• Archie seemed more like himself this time around, too. While I could have done without all the “flaccid penis” demonstrations about how he doesn’t care about Gretchen anymore, it was nice to have him functioning almost at a normal level.

Disliked:

• This book was advertised as Part 3 of the Archie-Gretchen series, but Gretchen is hardly even in it! She makes a few appearances through flashbacks in the early part, but doesn’t actually arrive until the final part of the book. That was kind of a ripoff, if you ask me.
• The whole Jeremy Reynolds angle was convoluted and boring. What was the point of introducing him into the plot? What was the point of the body suspension crap? Ugh, that whole second act just dragged on and on. I’m surprised I made it all the way through the book.
• I thought all the descriptions of Portland’s “serial killer fever” were way over the top. I don’t know, even in today’s twisted society, I can’t imagine a place like Portland embracing a serial killer like that. Tours, manicures, posters, billboards, restaurant specials, t-shirts, television shows… gimme a break. I’m sure most people would be scared, not playing cheerleader. I don’t recall this kind of fuss over, say, the BTK killer. Yes, there is a subculture that is into this kind of thing, but Cain wrote as though all of mainstream Portland were involved in celebrating Gretchen Lowell.

Rating:
I found Evil at Heart to be a disappointing entry into the Archie-Gretchen series. I’m not even sure why I continue reading these books, as none of them has really grabbed my attention in a positive way. I guess this could very well be the last one I pick up. I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

The protagonist in the story is Guy Montag, a fireman whose job it is to set fire to private libraries and burn any books he comes across. The problem is, Montag is not convinced that books are a bad thing. In fact, he has been stealing them from crime scenes for a long time, and has more than 20 books hidden in his house. This is obviously a very dangerous thing to do, as he could be arrested or put to death if discovered.

One of Montag’s greatest wishes is to be able to talk to someone, to communicate deeply, as humans did before they became mindless drones like wife Mildred, who enjoys nothing more than sitting in front of the three-walled television screens all day long or listening to programs broadcast by her in-ear “Seashell” device at night. Montag finds this someone in neighbor Clarisse McClellan. They have some interesting conversations, but then suddenly the McClellans move away and Mildred tells Montag that Clarisse was killed by a car.

Later, Captain Beatty, Montag’s boss, stops by Montag’s house to talk to him. It’s clear that Beatty knows Montag has at least one book in his possession, but Beatty gives Montag an opportunity to fess up and come clean. It’s only natural, Beatty says, for firemen to become curious from time to time. Montag’s transgression will be excused if he returns the book in a couple of days.

This sets Montag off into a panic. He ends up contacting Faber, a former professor whom Montag had met a few years before. Faber is a fellow book-lover, and together they come up with a plan to try to get Montag off the hook. But things go wrong when Mildred herself turns Montag in to Captain Beatty.

Montag manages to kill Captain Beatty and a few other firemen before they could arrest him. He then escapes to St. Louis, where a group of intellectual hobos (Faber’s friends) will welcome him. Montag arrives safely, the group watches from afar as a bomb destroys the city (and presumably other parts of the country), and they decide to go help rebuild society from the rubble.

Liked:

• I thought the idea of future firemen being used to burn books/start fires instead of put them out was an interesting one. It’s sort of scary when you think about it, which is of course what Bradbury was aiming for.
• Guy Montag was a decent protagonist. I liked him at times, and was frustrated by his action (or inaction, as the case may be) at others. Again, I have a feeling the author intended readers to have this type of response. Montag wasn’t supposed to be a true-blue hero, but neither was he completely bad. He had his share of faults, but that just made him all the more believable.

Disliked:

• The plot seemed pretty uneven to me. At times it was exciting, and I couldn’t put the book down. But then I’d run into a patch where the characters started talking about something completely irrelevant or boring, and I’d have to really push myself to slog through.
• What the hell happened to Clarisse? One day she was there, the next she was gone. What was the point of her character? Was her disappearance supposed to have a larger meaning? If so, that meaning was completely lost on me. I would have liked a bit more of an explanation here.
• I thought the book would have benefited from more detailed descriptions of the future society. We know that books are banned, but why? How did three- or four-walled interactive televisions become the norm? When did the firemen start spying on folks using video cards implanted in robotic dogs? Were the Seashells ever used for brainwashing purposes? What other kinds of jobs were there in the society? It seemed like there were firemen… and no one else. Did regular folks just sit at home watching TV?

Rating:

I know Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is considered a classic, and is the kind of book that many junior high English teachers assign to students because of the themes and symbolism it contains. Although there are hints of an interesting story with good, solid characters, I didn’t think the book ever reached its full potential. Perhaps with a bit more development, this would have been great. As it stands, though, I give it just 2 stars out of 5.

What sorts of issues got buried or received far less ink than you’d expect? Here’s a short list: Obama’s refusal to release his undergraduate transcripts; his association with the racist, America-hating Rev. Jeremiah Wright; his friendship with former terrorist Bill Ayers and others from the Weathermen; and his links to ACORN (an organization known for election fraud). When left-leaning papers like the NY Times or Washington Post did bother to mention the stories, they usually did so in an almost cavalier manner, disdaining to get into specifics and railing at the “racism” driving the people questioning Obama on these matters.

Moreover, in interviews, whenever Obama declined to answer a question or just gave one line and then said, “I’ve now dealt with the matter”, the media allowed his answers to stand. They didn’t ask follow-up questions, preferring instead to agree with Obama that he had sufficiently covered the ground before.

In stark contrast, the media hounded Hillary Clinton about tons of issues during the Democratic primaries, and followed that performance by attacking Sarah Palin with vigor during the presidential election. Want proof? There were more articles in the NY Times about the cost of Palin’s wardrobe than about Obama and his radical minister Jeremiah Wright. And there were more stories about Palin’s speaking blunders than about Joe Biden’s references to FDR getting on TV to comfort folks about the Great Depression or calling “jobs” a three-letter word.

Goldberg concludes by saying that all Americans lose when we have a media that’s so in love with a particular candidate (now president) that they shirk their duties and refuse to report on issues that other people might find important. By treating Obama as a “rock star” and glorifying him all the way to the White House, the mainstream media has lost credit with lots of average folks.

Liked:

• I liked that Goldberg didn’t blame the media for Obama’s presidential victory. I happen to agree that the real damage was done during the primaries against Hillary Clinton. She’s the one who has a real beef with them. McCain did just as much damage to his own campaign as the media did, and probably wouldn’t have been able to win even if the press had been completely neutral.
• It truly angers me to see how the media pumped Obama up for the past two years. This simply isn’t far to the American people, many of whom still believe what they read in the papers or hear on TV. And to learn that Sarah Palin’s wardrobe received more coverage than actual political issues… well, that’s just utterly ridiculous.
• There were lots of great examples in this book about how much of a pass Obama gets in the press. There’s no way a white male candidate or a Republican would have been able to skate by just by saying, “I’ve answered that already.” Why didn’t anyone push Obama for real answers when leadership of the entire country was at stake?

Disliked:

• Well, this isn’t exactly the fault of the author, but I’ve read several similar books recently, so I didn’t feel as though Goldberg covered any new ground here. I’d already heard of most of the examples of media bias that he gave, and therefore ending up skimming a lot.

Rating:
A Slobbering Love Affair by Bernard Goldberg is a decent read for anyone wanting to learn more about the ways the mainstream media obviously favor Barack Obama. But this title is more suited towards someone who hasn’t explored the topic very much. If you’ve already read some things about Obama’s treatment in the media, this book won’t hold your interest for long. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett
2. WORST CASE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
3. THE LOST SYMBOL, by Dan Brown
4. POOR LITTLE BITCH GIRL, by Jackie Collins
5. WINTER GARDEN, by Kristin Hannah

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. GAME CHANGE, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
2. THE POLITICIAN, by Andrew Young
3. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Rebecca Skloot
4. I AM OZZY, by Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres
5. WILLIE MAYS, by James S. Hirsch

Paperback Trade Fiction:
1. THE LAST SONG, by Nicholas Sparks
2. A RELIABLE WIFE, by Robert Goolrick
3. LITTLE BEE, by Chris Cleave
4. DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks
5. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson

Paperback Mass-Market Fiction:
1. DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks
2. FIRST FAMILY, by David Baldacci
3. SHUTTER ISLAND, by Dennis Lehane
4. PLEASURE OF A DARK PRINCE, by Kresley Cole
5. THE SCARECROW, by Michael Connelly

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. THE BLIND SIDE, by Michael Lewis
2. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
3. THE LOST CITY OF Z, by David Grann
4. ARE YOU THERE, VODKA? IT’S ME, CHELSEA, by Chelsea Handler
5. MY HORIZONTAL LIFE, by Chelsea Handler

I started this book more than a year ago, and have put it aside and picked it up again more times than I can count. I was able to make it more than halfway through (about 400 pages), but by that time Adams was just serving as an ambassador or something in London. The presidency was still a long way off, but I just didn’t have the patience or the inclination to keep going.

McCullough’s biographical style is pretty straightforward. He quotes extensively from Adams’s own letters and papers, as well as those of wife Abigail and some of their friends and contemporaries. McCullough also provides some analysis of key events, and does a good job of putting Adams’s life in historical context. In addition, it’s clear that McCullough thought Adams was a great guy. The parts that I read sounded like a puff piece that you might find in Parade magazine rather than an objective take on Adams.

Congratulations to those of you able to finish this book; you have far more determination than I! Personally, I knew I wasn’t gonna finish this when I found myself reading term life insurance pamphlets instead of Adams while waiting an hour for my doctor’s appointment.

Liked:

• Well, you can’t say that McCullough isn’t thorough! For those interested in the life and times of John Adams, you likely won’t do much better than this book.

Disliked:

• I thought there were far too many extended quotations used throughout. Some of these quotes ran on and on for so long that I forgot what the point of the passage was. Sure, attribute that to my own ADD if you must, but it was still something I disliked.
• Where was the “good stuff”? If I read a biography about a former president, I’d like to get to the presidency somewhere before the halfway mark. After all, you’d think that a majority (i.e. more than half) of the pages would be devoted to the subject’s most important years. But what I’ll take away from this book is that John Adams enjoyed his time in Paris, but missed his wife while they were separated. BFD.

Rating:
Based on my own personal rating system, as spelled out right here, I give John Adams by David McCullough 0 stars out of 5 because I was unable to finish it. I will qualify my rating by saying that I am not a fan of Adams in particular or that period of history in general. If you are an avid buff of either of those things, you’ll probably love this book. But if you’re just an average reader thinking of tackling this book because of the rave reviews and awards, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. WORST CASE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
2. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett
3. THE LOST SYMBOL, by Dan Brown
4. WINTER GARDEN, by Kristin Hannah
5. FLIRT, by Laurell K. Hamilton

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. GAME CHANGE, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
2. THE POLITICIAN, by Andrew Young
3. STAYING TRUE, by Jenny Sanford
4. I AM OZZY, by Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres
5. ON THE BRINK, by Henry M. Paulson Jr.

Paperback Trade Fiction:
1. THE LAST SONG, by Nicholas Sparks
2. A RELIABLE WIFE, by Robert Goolrick
3. DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks
4. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson
5. THE LOVELY BONES, by Alice Sebold

Paperback Mass-Market Fiction:
1. DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks
2. THE SCARECROW, by Michael Connelly
3. HOT ROCKS, by Nora Roberts
4. FIRST DROP OF CRIMSON, by Jeaniene Frost
5. THE LOVELY BONES, by Alice Sebold

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. THE BLIND SIDE, by Michael Lewis
2. THE LOST CITY OF Z, by David Grann
3. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
4. ARE YOU THERE, VODKA? IT’S ME, CHELSEA, by Chelsea Handler
5. THE SURVIVORS CLUB, by Ben Sherwood

This is a radical idea for the time, especially because blacks were still considered second-class citizens. Indeed, one recurring plot point centered on Skeeter’s friend Hilly’s insistence that everyone should build separate bathrooms for their maids to use so they wouldn’t pick up any “black diseases”. And though many maids long for a chance to have their voices heard, Skeeter has a hard time finding anyone besides Aibileen and Minny to step up and tell their stories, even with the promise of anonymity. The fear of retribution and reprisals is far too great.

But Aibileen’s unwavering dedication to the project gets it off the ground, and the jailing of Yule May, who was caught stealing to help pay for her boys to go to college, incites others to join the cause. Skeeter eventually gets the book written and published thanks to the thirteen brave souls that risk their employers’ ire, and though there are consequences, none of the women regret their participation.

Along the way, various other subplots are addressed, including Skeeter’s love affair with a senator’s son and her mother’s debilitating bout with cancer; Aibileen’s experiences with her latest white child Mae Mobley and her hopes that the girl doesn’t grow up to be anything like her mother; and Minny’s adventures with the imbalanced outcast Celia Foote, as well as her ongoing feud with Hilly due to an incident spoken of only as the Terrible Awful.

Liked:

• My favorite narrator of all was Minny. I was absolutely fascinated by her relationship with Celia, and could have read a whole book focused on those two alone. I know Celia wasn’t meant to be a completely sympathetic character (even Minny felt contempt for her most of the time), but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her — perhaps because I saw some of myself in her. I’ve been on the wrong side of “society girls” before and know what it’s like to desperately want to fit in. I know the feeling of going to a big event and being treated like a misfit in public. I didn’t like or approve of Celia constantly trying to get on Hilly & Co.’s good side (I would have taken the hint long ago), but I did feel sorry for her and wanted her to triumph in the end.
• I thought the resistance to sharing stories for Skeeter’s book was portrayed realistically. The maids held out for a long, long time and didn’t give in because of some cheesy speech from Skeeter or Aibileen. They came forward as a show of support for Yule May, one of their own, instead of simply to help Skeeter. It’s just too bad there was no self-publishing or online printing at the time. Then the women wouldn’t have had to worry about the book getting accepted for publication after all the risks they took!
• I liked how Hilly was portrayed. She wasn’t an over-the-top villainess, but she was definitely worth hating. All of her actions seemed very believable and in keeping with the times and her position. She was petty throughout, and though I wish she’d gotten more of a comeuppance at the end, I was satisfied with the character.

Disliked:

• There were a lot of boring patches in the book, which made it a bit difficult to get through. As I said, I loved anything having to do with Minny and Celia, and enjoyed almost everything with Aibileen too. But some of the Skeeter stuff was just unnecessary, IMO, including the whole storyline with Skeeter and Stuart Whitworth. I guess I can understand how some readers would like a little romance in the book, but I was bored with it.
• Much has been made about the abrupt ending, and I have to agree with the critics here… I didn’t like it. We only got to see what happened to Aibileen (which was incredibly heart-wrenching, btw) but not what happened to Minny, Skeeter, or any of the other women. Some have speculated that the open ending leaves room for a sequel or two. I really hope that’s the case because as I said, I would definitely spend time reading about Minny and Celia some more!

Rating:

Overall, I’m not sure that The Help by Kathryn Stockett quite lives up to all the hype it has generated, but it is indeed an admirable debut novel and a worthwhile read. I personally had trouble slogging through the slow patches, though, which is why I give the book 3 stars out of 5.

In Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, Capt. Sullenberger gives readers insight into his life and shows how it was absolutely due to skill and preparation (rather than luck) that he was able to react so quickly and calmly during that mid-flight catastrophe. Sully recounts how his love of flying began at a very early age, how he obtained his pilot’s license as a teenager, and how he went on to the Air Force Academy where he developed the flying techniques and discipline that would serve him so well later in life.

Readers also get a glimpse at Sully’s private side in the chapters where he talks about his wife Lorrie and the adoption of his two daughters Kate and Kelly. The Sullenbergers face the same challenges and financial struggles as other middle-class families, and of course have to deal with Sully being gone four days per week. Plus, their lives were completely altered after the Hudson landing — but mostly for the better.

Sully also talks a bit about the inner workings of the airline industry. Frankly, what he had to say doesn’t inspire me with a whole lot of confidence for the next time I have to fly. With pilot salaries being slashed by 40 percent or more, their pensions being terminated, and qualification standards being lowered, you really have to wonder if the next pilot to face a similar problem as Flight 1549 encountered will have the training and skills to orchestrate another happy ending.

Liked:

• Sully seems like a genuinely humble person who is using his new-found fame and celebrity for good causes. I’m glad he has been interested in airline safety for a long, long time and that he’s using his experiences from Flight 1549 to help the FAA institute new safety standards.
• The detailed account of what went on during the three crucial minutes of the Flight 1549 incident was positively gripping. I had no idea that the whole thing took just three minutes — I thought it was a bit longer than that. I simply cannot believe that the pilots were able to react and make decisions that quickly.
• How fortunate everyone was that Capt. Sullenberger is such a conscientious pilot. Are all pilots like him? Doubtful. We hear reports of pilots being drunk while on duty or doing god-knows-what that causes them to overshoot their destination by more than 150 miles (ahem, Northwest pilots), so it makes you wonder how things might have turned out with someone else at the controls. I know a lot of people have downplayed Sully’s actions, saying, “Well, that’s what pilots are trained to do.” Yeah, right. Water landings are notoriously difficult, so please don’t act like this was another day at the office.
• I’m glad that Sully has enjoyed/is enjoying the nice accolades and perks he got as the result of bringing Flight 1549 in safely. He has received phone calls from presidents, attended Obama’s inaugural ball, thrown out the first pitch at three MLB games, was honored at the Super Bowl, gave the commencement speech at his high school alma mater, and appeared on numerous talk shows.
• Sully is always quick to point out that first officer Jeff Skiles and flight attendants Donna Dent, Doreen Welsh, and Sheila Dail all performed admirably during the incident, so I feel compelled to give them props here as well.

Disliked:

• Well, unfortunately, since Sully was pretty much just an average guy before the accident, some of the things in this memoir weren’t all that interesting. I know he probably had to fill a minimum number of pages for this memoir, but I felt the book would have been better without some of the family anecdotes. Those parts made the story stall (sorry, bad pun) right in the middle and made it a bit difficult to complete the book.

Rating:

Although the passages detailing what happened during U.S. Airways Flight 1549 were undeniably tense and gripping, there were too many slow sections for my taste in Highest Duty by Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. The book is still worth the read for the captain’s account of the action, but don’t expect a page-turner from beginning to end. I give this one 3 stars out of 5.