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.

The Mill On The Floss – George Eliot, 1860 ★★★½

A Current Affair

A great novel doesn’t have to be a fun read. In fact, a case can be made that a certain amount of reader pain is required for any literary masterpiece to be properly appreciated.

But what can you say about a book that focuses on not one, not two, but three coincidences that are each ridiculous and painful in equal measure, all of them involving the river that figures in the second half of this novel’s title?

Don’t work or live on a river if you can at all help it, I guess.

Suez To Singapore – Cecil Brown, 1942 ★★★½

Making Waves, On and Off the Air

When the H. M. S. Repulse was sunk by Japanese aircraft near Singapore less than a week after the Pearl Harbor attacks, not everyone was happy American journalist Cecil Brown was one of its survivors.

The news correspondent for CBS Radio had made plenty of enemies in Singapore, including its British commander, Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival. The officer in charge of Percival’s press office made himself conspicuous by his cold silence when Brown reported back to duty.

My Twenty-five Years In Fleetwood Mac – Mick Fleetwood, 1992 ★★½

Looking Back at "Twenty-five Years," 25 Years Later

Windsor, England is home to Great Britain’s Royal Family; half a century ago it spawned rock royalty, too. Sunday, August 13, 2017 will mark the 50^th anniversary of the debut on a Windsor stage of a blues quartet that became a pop sensation and finally a cultural institution.

Let’s jump back halfway from that auspicious day to 1992, and the publication of this scrapbook-style memoir marking the 25^th anniversary of that band, Fleetwood Mac.