Reader’s Diary

Charles Cumming

It’s really hard to find a good spy novel. Terrorists have replaced Communists and the stereotypical fictional terrorist just isn’t as interesting as the classic sterotypical Soviet spy. Happily, “The Trinity Six” is an old school spy story about a contemporary historian who stumbles on what may – or may not – be the “sixth man” of the infamous Cambridge spy ring.

I enjoyed this tightly-plotted, fast-paced novel – it’s a great example of a fading genre.

Hugh MacLeod

Amusing self-help book about “doing your own thing” (now called “following your passion”, a phrase I’m thoroughly sick of).   The best thing in the book? Here it is:

P. T. Deutermann

This is a very good naval tale about three friends’ experiences in WW II in the Pacific.  The surface combat sequences are particularly good.

Taylor Anderson

Happily, Anderson recovers from the stumble of the last one and this excellent lost in time/alternate Earth series once more hits its stride.

William C. Hammond

“For Love of Country” is a very worthy successor to “A Matter of Honor“.  It continues the story of the seafaring Cutler family and is set in the corsair-infested Mediterranean, the Barbery Coast, and revolutionary Paris.  Unlike the first book in the series, this one doesn’t cram too much plot into too small a book.  I’m looking forward to many more in the series;  number three is due in October, 2011.

Benjamin Roth

Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio who kept a diary during the Great Depression.  Starting in June of 1931, he used it to try and puzzle out what was happening and how he might deal with the situation.  His diaries through the December, 1941, were edited by his son and published as “The Great Depression: A Diary”.

The familiar narrative of the Depression is about out-of-work factory workers and migrant Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl.  Roth reveals another side of the experience, the Depression as experienced by a professional man.  Despite his relatively high status, Roth suffered from a severe loss of income and didn’t participate in the periodic short-lived recoveries.  Reading his diary, I got a strong sense of the confusion and uncertainty of the times.