Books I Read in 2022, Vol. VII

 

HELL IS EMPTY: A Longmire Mystery
Craig Johnson

With Hell Is Empty, Craig Johnson delivers an action-packed Western thriller, rife with evocative setting and literary allusion. This seventh novel featuring wise-cracking Sheriff Walt Longmire creeps stealthily out of the corral with an increasingly tense setup. (The Boston Globe)

Two interesting bits about this time around with Longmire:

     1)  The entire action of the book takes place in less than 48 hours. That's slightly unusual.
     2)  At one point in the sheriff's searching for an escaped prisoner, he says this: "It was about a mile up to the Battle Park cutoff, where I assumed they'd turn west and try for the Hyattville Road that led toward the tiny town and eventually to Manderson, which was situated alongside the Big Horn River. Then what  -  north to Basin or south to Worland?" That decision-making point of Manderson? That's where my brother-in-law lives...on a bluff overlooking the Big Horn River and just across the street from the fire station where he's the chief.

First Line: "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?"

Page 56/5th Line: "I'll take a sweep between here and Boulder Park to make sure the convicts are not in a ditch."

Last Line: I held the ring up where they could all see it and then turned it sideways so that I could look through it and focus on the platinum strip of dying light at the very top of Cloud Peak.

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. VI

 

NEVER A DULL MOMENT - 1971: The Year that Rock Exploded
David Hepworth

A rollicking look at 1971, rock's golden year, the year that saw the release of the indelible recordings of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Who, Rod Stewart, Carole King, the Rolling Stones, and others. The year that produced more classics than any other year in rock history.

I had read an excerpt of this book, and even used it in Truth Is..., but as interesting as that excerpt was, Hepworth couldn't keep it up for a whole book. In fact, the book seems like a series of magazine articles, rather than a long-form account of a pivotal year. Also "in fact," I realized about halfway through that reading the second half would be just as much of a waste of time as reading the first half was...so I stopped.

First Line: On New Year's Eve 1970, Paul McCartney instructed his lawyers to issue a writ at the High Court in London to wind up the Beatles.

Page 56/Line 5: When Led Zeppelin played the University of Kent in Canterbury on March 12, tickets were sixty pence (twelve shillings for those who hadn't yet adjusted to decimal), and they were sold out immediately to the people who queued up outside Eliot College on the appointed day.

Last Line: Now it belongs to everybody.

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. V

 

ALL FOR THE BEST: How Godspell Transferred from Stage to Screen
Andrew Martin

The Off-Broadway hit musical Godspell emerged as a worldwide cultural phenomenon in 1972 when, just over a year after its award-winning emergence on stages around the world and with the Top 20 Billboard hit "Day by Day," Columbia Pictures decided to film and release it on the silver screen across the globe. In [this book], film historian Andrew Martin has captured every step of the show's journey, from school play to an indelible part of modern culture, and depicts in glowing detail all the highs...and lows...of a production that will always live on in the hearts and minds of all who watch and enjoy.

Notwithstanding the author's overestimation of Godspell's lasting impact, this is still an interesting read. I bought it at the same time as the far-superior The Godspell Experience and I think this smaller book suffered in the comparison between the two. My biggest "complaint" would be how the author had to stretch the material to make it book-length. For instance, instead of listing the movie's production credits in an appendix, he put it in paragraph form: "They hired so-and-so to do this job and found such-and-such to fulfill these duties." And all without adding any information beyond the names and job positions. Other than that, the cast member quotes derived from Martin's interviews were revealing and sometimes even heartwarming.

First Line: The weather was warm and seasonable on the evening of May 17, 1971, and the small cul-de-sac of Commerce Street, in the western part of New York's Greenwich Village, had become suffused with the energy of a brand-new musical hit Off-Broadway, known as Godspell.

Page 56/Sentence 5: In light of the fact that different portions of New York would be the easel upon which the cast and crew would ultimately paint the picture (pardon the pun), it made perfect sense in the long run.

Last Line: Ergo, as guessed, it was all for the best.

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. IV

 

THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL: What Does God Expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World
Richard Stearns (President, World Vision U. S.

Is our faith just about going to church, studying the Bible, and avoiding the most serious sins  -  or does God expect more? Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?

[This book] is the compelling true story of a corporate CEO who set aside worldly success for something far more significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change his own life. He uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel  -  the whole gospel  - was always meant to be a world-changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with us.

I am WAY late to the party in terms of coming to terms with this book (published in 2009). And the thing is, I'm not sure what I'm going to do as a result of reading it. I was certainly shocked and moved by the way Stearns brought the reality of poverty and its effect on the planet into crystal clear focus. But I admit to being guilty of feeling so small in the face of such a huge problem.

The encouragement that hit home toward the end of the book is that God has equipped each person to contribute to the cure in his or her own way. What do I do best, and how can that be useful to the poor, the starving, and the subjugated? Lead on, O King Eternal.

First Line: His name was Richard, the same as mine.

Page 56 / Line 5: This sounds a lot like what I described earlier as the "whole gospel," the good news inherent in a kingdom based on the character of God rather than of men.

Last Line: We have work to do, and it's urgent. Join Me...

The Adam Project: Blood, Sweat, and Tears

 

There's plenty to enjoy in the Netflix Original movie, The Adam Project, starring Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, and Mark Ruffalo: Flying time machines, thrilling sky battles, fast and furious hand-to-hand combat, and the clever quips of Ryan Reynolds.

Netflix describes it thusly: "After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future."

I watched it by myself because that description would have totally turned off Beloved. However, that description isn't totally accurate. Yeah sure, that's the plot...that's what happens in the movie, but The Adam Project isn't just a sci-fi action comedy. In fact, to get the most out of it, don't waste too much energy trying to keep all the time travel stuff straight in your head.

What the movie is really about is the relationship between Ryan Reynolds' character and each of his parents.

A scene close to the end had me sobbing, when Mark Ruffalo, playing Reynolds' dad (don't worry, the time travel aspect makes it make sense), declares his utter love to his son.

Yes, they used enough four-letter words to earn its PG-13 rating, but if that doesn't bother you too much, this flick is a fun hour and a half with a deeply satisfying emotional payoff.

1883: The Wild West Through the Eyes of a Poet

 

I finished watching the Paramount+ series, 1883, last night. It didn't bring me to tears, but a deep sense of life, liberty, and the acceptance of bad things happening to good people.

It's the story of a just-entering-adulthood young woman and a group of people heading to Oregon in a wagon train. The series had me interested when I saw Sam Elliot was in the cast, but it set the hook with the opening scene's narration, spoken in a soft Tennesee drawl:

I remember the first time I saw it. Tried to find words to describe it... but I couldn't. Nothing had prepared me... no books, no teachers, not even my parents. I heard a thousand stories but none could describe this place. It must be witnessed to be understood. And yet... I've seen it, and understand it even less than before I first cast eyes on this place. Some call it the American Desert, others, the Great Plains. But those phrases were invented by professors at universities surrounded by the illusion of order and the fantasy of right and wrong. To know it, you must walk it. Bleed into its dirt. Drown in its rivers. Then its name becomes clear. It is hell, and there are demons everywhere.

Don't want to spoil anything by saying more, but if you can put up with some harsh-but-not-overwhelming language, I recommend 1883 with as many thumbs up as I can round up.

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. III

 

THE BOYS: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family
Ron Howard & Clint Howard

In [this book], for the first time, Ron and Clint Howard tell the story of their childhoods as two of the busiest child actors of the 1960s and '70s. Their father and mother were not typical stage parents. Rance and Jean Howard, farm-belt Oklahomans who bucked family tradition, moved to California to make a go at show business. While pursuing their own dreams could prove frustrating at times, they happily adjusted their lives to also become mentors and managers to their sons  -  a tremendous act of love and sacrifice. The Boys is the surprising, funny, and heartwarming story of an all-American family whose kids just happened to grow up on TV.

If I could give this book more than two thumbs up, I would. The way the two authors weave their separate-yet-connected stories is perfect, and the tale of a sacrificially-loving set of parents who kept their could-have-been-messed-up sons on an even keel is heartwarming. Yes, Clint went through several rough years of substance abuse, but he came out on the other side with an appreciation for all that his folks did for him.  In addition, it's an informative behind-the-scenes look at the acting process and the business of show business. Per Tom Hanks: "This extraordinary book is not only a chronicle of Ron's and Clint's early careers, and their wild adventures, but also a primer on so many topics: how an actor prepares, how to survive as a kid working in Hollywood, and how to be the best parents in the world! The Boys will surprise every reader with its humanity."

First Line: Look him in the eyes and really listen to what he's saying, Ronny.

Page 56, Line 5: But in the '60s, that little complex was a hive of popular television: we coexisted there with, to name just a few shows, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Jack Benny Program, Hogan's Heroes, That Girl, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and I Spy.

Last Line: He's on the floor in front of my fireplace, Opie Cunningham.