Hitler's Spies – David Kahn, 1978 ★★

Keeping Hitler in the Dark

Titles are funny things. Sometimes they are disarmingly bland, suggesting nothing of the page-turning dynamite within.

Others are short and sweet and promise killer content, only to offer a damp squib. Such was the case with this, historian David Kahn’s promisingly-titled follow-up to his landmark examination of cryptography, The Codebreakers.

The Shawshank Redemption: A Shooting Script – Frank Darabont, 1996 ★★★½

Plotting for Hope

As revealed in the pages of this Newmarket Screenplay publication, the story of writer/director Frank Darabont resembled that of the protagonist of this, his breakout film, one Andy Dufresne. When you find yourself stuck in a hole, with everyone telling you there’s no way out, don’t give up hope.

Underworld – Don DeLillo, 1997 ★★

Everyone's a Philosopher

Can reality be both random chaos and yet somehow mapped out like some endless Fibonacci sequence?

Does the idea of dancing around possible answers to that question over the course of over 40 years and 800 pages strike you as time well spent?

Well, here’s a novel that takes on the whole second half of the 20^th century as it revolved around two concurrent events, the first aerial detonation of a Soviet A-bomb and a home run that decided a National League championship.

Controversy – William Manchester, 1976 ★★½

History Is His Story

Paul McCartney had a lyric in one of his early albums, Ram. “You took your lucky break and broke it in two…” 

I kept hearing it as I read through the title essay in this collection by the noted historian William Manchester.

The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie, 1926 ★★★★½

Murder Most Sharp

Diabolical is the word to describe this wonderful mystery novel, as twisted as a vine and as charming as a cuckoo clock. Those who might question the notion of a tea-cozy mystery blowing a reader’s mind (much like me, back when) will most likely enjoy this happy rebuke.

Critics have called this the best of the Christie novels; many place it in the top ten of crime fiction overall. In terms of mechanical skill, there’s nothing to argue with there. Nor will I do too much explaining, it being a matter of spoilers. More even than most mysteries, you have that issue here.

The Amazing Mets – Jerry Mitchell, 1964 ★★★

How to Succeed in Baseball without Ever Winning

For very few lucky people, greatness is something that comes easy. Is it possible to say the same rule applies with ineptitude?

In the realm of professional sports, few have ever done so much with so little result, and been so celebrated in the process, as were the early New York Mets.

Capote – Gerald Clarke, 1988 ★★★½

Tracing the Fall of a Little Giant

There’s a mystery behind every great author; behind Truman Capote the mystery may simply be this: Which of his books wound up killing him?

If you accept the movie adaptation of this biography, the one which Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for the title role in 2006, the villain is clearly In Cold Blood, a “nonfiction novel” whose emotionally harrowing subject matter sent the sensitive Capote over the edge.