Every month we show what is on our reading table.

This month we added eleven new books! And we actually finished reading several but did not get around to our Floating Book Reviews yet. We finished reading “As Time Goes By”, “Men of Steel”, “The Boy in Abruzzo”, “Hold”, and “Shinano!”. And late edition, also “City of Dark Corners”.

  1. “Stand” (114 pages, paperback, 2022) by Pastor Jon Benzinger: From a local church we visited: “You are in the midst of the greatest attack on Christianity in your life. Make no mistake, the war is coming for you. The question is, will you be ready for it and will you fight or fold? This easy-to-understand book clarifies the change you’re sensing in our culture, at your church, your job, or your school, and gives you tools to stand faithfully against this aggressive and heretical attack on the gospel. Jon Benzinger is the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona, contributor to the Redeeming Truth podcast, founder of helpingpastors.org, and President of the Redeemer Center for Church Leadership.”
  2. “As Time Goes By” (432 pages, paperback, 1998) by Michael Walsh: The Amazon description is: “You know what happens right after Casablanca‘s Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) walks off with Capt. Louis Renault (Claude Rains) into the mist? This novel. Walsh, a former crime reporter and Timemagazine music critic, can’t equal the beautiful relationships in the classic film, but he does give us a clever takeoff on the tale, with less romance but much more action. As Time Goes By is both a prequel and a sequel, fleshing out Rick’s mysterious life by flashing back to his 1930s New York gangland past and taking us with him, Ilsa, and Sam the piano man as they plot to kill Reinhard Heydrich, the Hangman of Prague. Rick Blaine started out as Yitzik Baline, who learned to shoot in the booze-fueled underworld of Tick-Tock Shapiro and Dion O’Hanlon. A fracas that made Walter Winchell’s column explains why Rick wound up in the Casablanca gin joint.”
  3. “Memory’s Legion” (432 pages, paperback, 2022) by James A Corey: I picked this up at a Barnes and Noble visit along with the next book. The Amazon description is: “From Leviathan Wakes to Leviathan Falls, James S. A. Corey’s Hugo Award-winning Expanse series has redefined modern space opera. Now, available in print for the first time comes the complete collection of short fiction set in the Expanse universe, including both a brand-new novella set after the events of Leviathan Falls and author’s notes on each story.”
  4. “It’s Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything” (304 pages, paperback, 2022) by Kate Biberdorf: I picked this up at a Barnes and Noble visit along with the previous book. The Amazon description is: “Have you ever wondered what makes dough rise? Or how your morning coffee gives you that energy boost? Or why your shampoo is making your hair look greasy? The answer is chemistry. From the moment we wake up until the time we go to sleep (and even while we sleep), chemistry is at work—and it doesn’t take a PhD in science to understand it.”
  5. “City of Dark Corners: A Novel” (256 pages, paperback, 2021) by Jon Talton: We bought this book and the next two because we are researching the history of The Gold Spot Building in Phoenix. Last year in April we bought the Gold Spot building that was originally built in 1925! We are coming up on the 100th Anniversary and plan to celebrate. The 12,000 sq ft building currently has five tenants, Lola Coffee, Pita Jungle, Elevate Yoga, Salon RO5 and First and Last. The Amazon description is: “City of Angels” is a noir detective, roman a clef story set in Phoenix in 1933. The Amazon description is: “Talton shines in weaving together the mystery elements of the plots with historical events from the Prohibition period. Fast-paced, gritty, and exciting, this one will have fans of both Depression-era and southwestern-set crime fiction begging for more!” Talton mentions Otis Kenilworth’s barbershop that was at Gold Spot in the 1930s. He also puts hard boiled ex-Detective Hammons (fired for wanting to tell the truth in the infamous Winnie Ruth Judd murder case, of course) in the Rexall at the Gold Spot.
  1. “A Brief History of Phoenix” (144 pages, paperback, 2015) by Jon Talton: We bought this book and the previous and next because we are researching the history of The Gold Spot Building in Phoenix. Last year in April we bought the Gold Spot building that was originally built in 1925! We are coming up on the 100th Anniversary and plan to celebrate. The 12,000 sq ft building currently has five tenants, Lola Coffee, Pita Jungle, Elevate Yoga, Salon RO5 and First and Last. The Amazon description is: “In 1950, Phoenix ranked 99th among the largest cities in the United States; today it ranks 6th, a growth driven by a remarkable quartet of men who promoted sprawl instead of personal spoils. This book, written by a fourth-generation Arizonan, is the first to outline the shady side as well the sunshine promotions that fueled this growth. It’s a brief account in just 134 pages [sic]; but Talton balances lyrical detail and sordid scandal.”
  2. “Downtown Phoenix (Images of America)” (128 pages, paperback, 2012) by J. Seth Anderson, Suad Mahmuljin, Jim McPherson: We bought this book and the previous two because we are researching the history of The Gold Spot Building in Phoenix. Last year in April we bought the Gold Spot building that was originally built in 1925! We are coming up on the 100th Anniversary and plan to celebrate. The 12,000 sq ft building currently has five tenants, Lola Coffee, Pita Jungle, Elevate Yoga, Salon RO5 and First and Last. The Amazon description is: “I have to admit that I follow J. Seth Anderson’s blog and am familiar with his writing. As such, I was incredibly excited to read this. First, the images in this book are amazing. I imagine he had to go to great lengths and do a ton of research to find these pictures. I used to live in Downtown Phoenix, right by the Hotel San Carlos, the Rialto and Orpheum Theatres (pages 44, 47 and 117) actually, and I feel my heart flutter when I see those pictures. Everything is so different now, but it’s so cool to see what it used to look like in the 1920s!” The Gold Spot is featured on page 124:
  1. “The Seeds of War” (347 pages, paperback, 2022) by Alaric Bond: The 15th, and last(?) in our series. Great and getting better The Amazon description is: “Spring 1814 and, after four exhausting years on the North American Station, HMS Tenacious is finally heading home. With the war in Europe drawing to a close, it is even doubtful whether she will be needed again while her captain has his own reasons to reach England. But their journey is broken by a strange encounter, and many are soon robbed of the peace they have earned as a new and particularly wicked enemy emerges, one that threatens far more than their personal safety.”
  2. “Men of Steel” (298 pages, paperback, 2018) by Louis Rosati: I bought this nonfiction book by Louis Rosati after buying his fiction book below in the airport on the way to Bakersfield to complete our purchase of an 36 bed assisted living facility. The Amazon description is: “Men of Steel is an engaging journey through an abandoned steel mill. It interweaves memoir, interviews with retired steelworkers and the history of steel through the mill’s rise and demise in a narrative and photographic tapestry. The origin of Simonds Saw and Steel, an early 20th century specialty alloy steel producer on the banks of the Erie Canal in Western New York is traced through successive owners to modern times through the voices of men involved in the work of manual steel making, the labor movement, social issues of race and gender, and the human and environmental costs of a secret contract tor radioactive steel. The ultimate bankruptcy of the mill is examined in the context of the root causes of the steel industry’s decline that left the steelworker as bereft and abandoned as the property where they worked, one of the nation’s industrial tombstones–where time has stopped and layered up, and where things left behind blend with the action of nature reclaiming the site.”
  3. “The Boy in Abruzzo: A Novel of WW II Italy” (276 pages, paperback, 2022) by Louis Rosati: I bought this novel on the airport on the way to Bakersfield to complete our purchase of a 36 bed assisted living facility. It was good enough to buy his nonfiction book “Men of Steel” above. The Amazon description is: “Motivated by severe food-rationing imposed on his Italian village in the rugged Abruzzo region, a fifteen-year-old boy hikes to a nearby town where a family takes him in. He soon discovers the family, disillusioned by the Fascist government, is also sheltering two fugitive British Army soldiers who have escaped a nearby prisoner-of war camp. Francesco takes on the challenge to reunite the soldiers with the British Eighth Army advancing north along the Adriatic, risking discovery in dangerous encounters with German soldiers. On his journey, boy becomes transformed by the brutality of war, the plight of residents and refugees and an unexpected personal tragedy; yet he is rescued by the renewal of a friendship and his resilience of sprit.”
  4. “Shinano!: The Sinking of Japan’s Secret Supership” (250 pages, paperback, 1987) by Joseph F. Enright and James W. Ryan: I forgot how I came to buy this book, but it was great. Firsthand accounts by Enright on the submarine side and recreation of Abe (who literally went down with his ship) dialog on the carrier side based on discussions with those who were there. The Amazon description is: “Shinano was the largest warship in history to be sunk by a submarine, and Enright was the skipper of the sub that sank it. This firsthand account, based on Enright’s recollections and statements by American and Japanese veterans of the action, can be recommended without hesitation as a WW II naval classic. While the basic story is simple, its unfolding is as complexly gripping as a chess match between grandmasters. The opponents: Commander Enright and his counterpart, Capt. Toshio Abe, commander of Shinano.”
  5. “HOLD: How to Find, Buy, and Rent Houses for Wealth” (320 pages, paperback, 2012) by Steve Chader, Jennice Doty, Jim McKissack, Linda McKissack, Jay Papasan, Gary Keller: Recommended by my TMP2 partner, Jeff. This is similar to Gary Keller’s book “The Millionaire Real Estate Investor” which we reviewed in October 2019. Not surprising since Keller is a co-author. The Amazon description is: “Take HOLD of your financial future! Learn how to obtain financial freedom through real estate. The final book in Gary Keller’s national best-selling Millionaire Real Estate Investor trilogy teaches the proven, reliable real estate investing process to achieve financial wealth: 1. Find – the right property for the right terms and at the right price. 2. Analyze – an offer to make sure the numbers and terms make sense. 3. Buy – an investment property where you make money going in. 4. Manage – a property until it’s paid for or you have a large amount of equity to leverage. 5. Grow – your way to wealth and financial freedom.”
  6. “Ireland: A Concise History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day” (272 pages, paperback, 2005) by Paul Johnson. Paul Johnson passed away this month. He was a historian, a GIANT. I’ve read some of his other books and came across this ‘small’ book on the history of Ireland. Since Michelle’s father’s father emigrated from Ireland and in memory of Johnson, I bought this book. Outstanding. The very first sentence states the thesis and is both interesting and provocative “The English presence in Ireland arose from the failure of Irish society to develop the institution of monarchy.” The Amazon description is: “Drawing from a wealth of historical and scholarly sources, Johnson traces the important social, religious and political development of Ireland’s struggle to become a unified, settled country. Johnson describes with accurate detail Ireland’s barbarous beginnings, Oliver Cromwell’s religious “crusade,” the tragic Irish potato famine, the Ulster resistance and the outstanding fact of the constant British-Irish connection and the fearful toll of life it exacted. Among the anonymous multitude are famous names such as “Silken Thom” Kildare, Thomas Wentworth, Archbishop Plunkett and Lord Frederick Cavendish. And yet many great men marshaled their energies and wits to settle Ireland: Sir Henry Sidney, Sire Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, Churchill and others.”

We spent seven days driving around Ireland in June of 2015. We were driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road that was only 1.5 cars wide. Watch out for oncoming traffic, especially tractors.

Here we are at the Cliffs of Moher; cold, windy and rainy.

Michelle flew a falcon at The Ireland School of Falconry at Ashford Castle.

  1. “The Laws of Human Nature” (624 pages, paperback, 2018) by Robert Greene. I came across this book at Barnes and Nobel and passed it in favor of “Memory’s Legion” and “It’s Elemental” above. But it intrigued me, so I searched on Greene and ended up buying this book and the next, “Mastery”. The Amazon description is: “Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of readers, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all – understanding people’s drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves. We are social animals. Our very lives depend on our relationships with people. Knowing why people do what they do is the most important tool we can possess, without which our other talents can only take us so far.”
  2. “Mastery” (368 pages, paperback, 20113) by Robert Greene. I came across this book at Barnes and Nobel and passed it in favor of “Memory’s Legion” and “It’s Elemental” above. But it intrigued me, so I searched on Greene and ended up buying this book and the previous one. The Amazon description is: “Each one of us has within us the potential to be a Master. Learn the secrets of the field you have chosen, submit to a rigorous apprenticeship, absorb the hidden knowledge possessed by those with years of experience, surge past competitors to surpass them in brilliance, and explode established patterns from within. Study the behaviors of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci and the nine contemporary Masters interviewed for this book.”

 

Not pictured:

  1. “The One Year Bible” with help from the “Lutheran Study Bible“.