We Have Met the Enemy by Daniel Akst

What do economists, psychologists, philosophers and clergy have in common?  They are all in interested in self-control.  Akst explores research and writings of all of these people and more in exploring what self-control is in the modern world.  Be it harmful addictions or a simple inability to sit down and attend to the work at hand, self-control is what gives us the discipline to eat, sleep, and enjoy our lives.  About America's the recent economic collapse, he says, "Suddenly we were all Emma Bovary, bored, entitled, and aghast when the piper at last demanded to be paid.  'It is because she feels that society is fettering her imagination, her body, her dreams, her appetites," Mario Vargas Llosa writes in The Perpetual Orgy, 'That Emma suffers, commits adultery, lies, steals, and in the end kills herself.'"

No one is spared.  If you are at all interested in why we do, or do not do, what we should be doing, read this.

Google-a-Day Puzzle

Check out this google-a-day puzzle. Guess where I'm going soon.

Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This may be the last long - 608pp. - book I read in print. It's getting hard to hold on to such a long book for a long time. The Nook is sounding better and better.

Inspector Lynley is sent to the Lake District for a little off-the-record investigating. AC Hillier, Lynley's superior, asks him to look into the supposed drowning a wealthy friend's nephew. The victim slipped, fell, and drowned getting out of his scull in the dark. The only question, is did someone loosen the stone that slipped, or had it become loose? Soon, Simon & Deborah St. James arrive to give some expert advice. While this trio are skulking around, pretending to be on holiday, there is also a tabloid reporter trying to dig up some dirt on the Fairclough family. Lynley and Simon St. James cannot find any evidence of a crime, but the investigation itself leads to the destruction of several people's lives.



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Damaged by Alex Kava
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Number 8 in Alex Kava's Maggie O'Dell series. Special Agent Maggie O'Dell goes to Pensacola Beach to investigate body parts that were found in a cooler by the Coast Guard. Col. Benjamin Platt is in Pensacola to deal with a nasty virus that is killing recovering soldiers. And, by the way, a Cat 5 hurricane is bearing down on the Florida Panhandle, stretching local resources. O'Dell is working with the Coast Guard rescue swimmer who discovered the body parts to figure out where they came from and who they belong to. The story is full of twists and turns, is tightly crafted, and well worth listening to, or reading.

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I have a NOOK!

I bought a Nook color tablet last Friday.  I'm finding it very handy, it's lit so I can read in the dark.  It is basically an android operated tablet computer.  The only downside is that I have to pay for the books at this point.  My library will soon have an Overdrive subscription, which will allow me to read books for free.

Meanwhile, I'll also be reading some "real" books.

The Guards by Ken Taylor

The Guards by Ken Bruen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first in Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series. Set in Galway, Ireland, Taylor has been expelled from the Guarda (police) for alcoholism. Between bouts of inebriation, he seeks people (being a private eye is not p.c. in Ireland). The mother of an apparent suicide asks Jack to try to find the killer. Jack's lists and quotes from existential authors lend levity to the story.

Read as an ebook on my new Nook Color Tablet.

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Hunter by John Lescroart

The Hunter by John Lescroart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wyatt Hunt tries to find out who killed his mother and what happened to his father. Apparently, his mother's killer is still around, as further murders ensue. Great plot - lots of feelings from Hunt and a growing closeness with Tamara.

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