The Suburban Dragon – Garasamo Maccagnone, Al Ochsner (Illus.)

©2007 BookSurge Publishing, Shelby Township, MI

Booksurge is a way to re-issue some older or little-known titles that may have fallen through the cracks. The Suburban Dragon bears an original copyright date of 1992 by Crate & Fly. Sometimes we wonder why people bother to drag their old manuscripts back from oblivion. Sometimes we wonder why people waited so long.

What are three children to do on a cold and wet day? Instead of stare out the window at the rain, Mom suggests that Garret, Anthony, and Aimee let her read their favorite book to them. But the book is well-known and has lost the interest of the children. And then they are surprised by a dragon who sweeps their mother away. The children devise a plan to rescue their mother and they become knights and a princess along the way.

The story itself is very endearing and gives many ideas for how families can use their imaginations on bad-weather days. The themes of imagination, family, and love come ringing clear in this cute little book.

The artwork, more than the story, is what captures the attention of the child with whom you read this book. You will enjoy the story well enough, but buy it for the story in the pictures.

Three and one-half reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter February 2, 2009

Baron Thinks Dogs Are People Too! – Laurie Dean, Kevin Collier (Illus.)

©2008 Big Tent Books, Savannah, GA

There are lots of things to love about children’s books. They are easy to read. They are short. They are filled with great illustrations. There are also lots of things to love about dogs. They are loyal. They are playful. They are fun.

When Laurie Dean decided to write a book for children, she wanted to write one that her grandchildren would enjoy and want to read to their own grandchildren. So she turned to an inspiration that would stand the test of time – her dog. And in doing so she hit on a combination that would fit the bill: pets, friendship, and children.

Baron is a playful dog who just wants to have a friend. He knows that he must be a friend to have a friend, so he does everything he can to be a friend to the people around him. A trip to the obedience school for dogs helps him to act more like many of the people around him think he should act, but it is his observant nature that will help him realize his dream.

This book will speak to the hearts of parents and children alike, and will appeal especially to the dog lovers in the reading audience.

The accompanying artwork has a tendency to distract the reader at times – almost overwhelming the page. But the pictures are appealing to the eye and consistent with the story. Small children will be especially happy when Mom or Dad reads this to them. I’m looking for more great books from this talented team. And give Baron Thinks Dogs Are People Too! a hearty four reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, January 31, 2009

Adam – Ted Dekker

©2008 Thomas Nelson, Nashville

Ted Dekker doesn’t always hit the mark for me (see my review of Skin). Even so, he hit a home run with his recent thriller Adam.

Adam is the story of a serial killer known to the FBI as Eve. He has killed fifteen young women in as many months, and law enforcement officials are hoping to catch him before number sixteen. He kills every new moon and has developed the habit of writing the word “Eve” on the wall over his victims in blood, leaving the victims in basements, cellars, and caves.

Daniel Clark is the behavioral psychologist who leads the chase of the elusive Eve. His obsession with catching the killer has cost him his marriage, and perhaps his sanity. Upon locating victim sixteen alive, Daniel comes face to face with Eve and is shot for his effort. New team member Lori Ames, a pathologist imported from Phoenix to help in identifying and catching Eve, works feverishly to resuscitate Daniel after the fatal wound. Through some miracle (which Daniel doesn’t believe in) her efforts are rewarded, and Daniel lives again to obsess over Eve.

When Eve takes Daniel’s ex-wife, Heather, as victim number 17, Daniel determines to catch up to the killer and save Heather, even if he must die in the process.

Adam reads like a procedural part of the time and a suspense/thriller at other times. Dekker throws in the cleaned up “reporter’s” account in the form of periodic interruptions throughout the book that claims to be a “Nine part series” of reporter Anne Rudolph. For Crime Today, Rudolph chronicles the lifelong travails of kidnap victims Alex and Jessica Price. In essence, you get two takes on the same tale from two different perspectives.

This is a work reminiscent of Dekker’s earlier rocker Thr3e. If you’re fond of suspense or thriller writing (especially with a whopper of a twist) you’ll enjoy this read. I know I did. I give Adam 4.5 out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, January 30, 2009

The Bomb that Followed Me Home – Cevin Soling & Steve Kille (Ill.)

©2007 Monk Media, New York

Disguised as a children’s book, Cevin Soling presents a cautionary tale about bringing home a stray. On his way home from school one day the narrator notices something following him. He tries to avoid being followed even by cutting through the crotchety old neighbors’ yard.

The answer from Mom (and Dad when he arrives home) to the question of keeping the object is “no.” Mom insists that the bomb might have an owner who misses it. Failing to assuage the feelings of the narrator that way, she insists – as does every parent trying to avoid a new pet – that the child will soon neglect his duties in caring for the bomb. The tale is the third in a collection of “fairly twisted fairy tales” that will surely bring a smile and even a stifled guffaw from the reader.

The artwork of Steve Kille is the perfect companion to Soling’s tale of “ka-BOOM!”

Need a quick sardonic pick me up? Then this book is for you. If you have trouble unpacking your sense of humor, I’d leave this one on the shelf. (three and one-half reading glasses for the pure pleasure of it)

—Benjamin Potter, January 12, 2009

Seven Steps to Becoming a Healthy Christian Leader – Doug Munton

©2004 VMI Publishers, Sisters, OR

Doug Munton is the Sr. Pastor of the First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, IL. He is a personable minister with a heart for helping believers be all that God wants them to be. In that respect he wrote this short book on leadership.

In a world filled with books on leadership, one might ask why we need another. In answer, Munton offers a book that is decidedly Christian in its approach. This limits the audience, but removes it from the ever-growing stack of leadership manuals published both inside and outside the Christian community that propagate principles based on a business mindset. The resulting “Seven Steps” is more a prescription for getting off on the right foot rather than a “how to” book. The title of the book is a bit misleading because one “step” doesn’t necessarily build on another. Instead the reader will find an organized look at practices of a healthy Christian leader. The idea of steps leads many to follow the philosophy that he should work on the first one until he gets it right, and then move on to the next. I reality, the advice about each practice of a healthy leader is all-encompassing. It is more of a pool to swim in than a ladder to climb.

Each chapter develops another needed practice in the life of the leader. Munton uses personal anecdotes along with engaging examples to get each point across. Many of the principles espoused are either obvious for the Christian leader, or a re-hashing of many of the principles developed (often at much greater length) elsewhere. The closing chapter is probably the most unique to this book and the most needed advice to people who would be leaders in some Christian church, ministry, or arena.

Munton’s “Steps” are as follows: A healthy Christian leader . . .

• Deepens his intimacy with God . . .
• Discovers a vision of what could be . . .
• Develops a passion for reaching people . . .
• Sacrifices for God’s Kingdom . . .
• Perseveres through difficulties . . .
• Strengthens his people skills . . . and . . .
• Enjoys the ride.

Each step includes short segments dealing with various aspects of that particular practice and is peppered with parenthetical asides giving the reader a window into the humor of the author. The book is short (much shorter than most books on leadership) at 120 pages and easy to read. It is a great thumbnail sketch of the kinds of things necessary to stay healthy in ministry. I would recommend it for anyone in vocational ministry or working as a volunteer Sunday School teacher or ministry leader.

Given its limiting title, the book is decidedly aimed at a limited audience—people outside the Christian community would find little helpful in the book, and even within the Church society, only those who desire to be the best worker in the Kingdom will be interested in reading it. I might suggest, though, that any church or ministry might be well-served by having all of its members or workers read this book.

I give Seven Steps to Becoming a Healthy Christian Leader four out of five reading glasses and highly recommend it to all who are or would be leaders.

—Benjamin Potter, January 12, 2009

Marked for Murder – Brett Halliday

©1945 Dell, New York

As a mystery reader there are a few standards that I like to get to from time to time. Hammett is a must; Chandler is excellent to read occasionally; it’s nice to enjoy Poirot or Miss Marple once in awhile. So there are some standards I like to pick up when I can find them. I don’t always like them, though I know I ought to try them. I’ll admit that I’ve never made it through one case with Perry Mason, though I’ve tried two or three. But until 2008 I hadn’t had the opportunity for several great detective stories. As readers will recall, toward the end of 2008 I finally took the opportunity to join the 87^th Precinct in a case or two and look forward to more book fairs to find more of those good cases. Also, as the year drew to a close and I was looking for a good relaxing mystery, I discovered my first Mike Shayne story in a stack of book fair finds. Halliday’s Shayne has been one of those characters, like Hammett’s Nick Charles or Sam Spade that everyone should at least try out if you want to read mysteries.

What with the holiday bustle and the endless travel that accompanies it, I took a bit longer to read Marked for Murder than I would have desired, but here’s what I found:

Mike Shayne is all he’s cracked up to be. He’s a quick thinker, a man’s man (not to mention a ladies’ man). He solves the case with dogged persistence that is sometimes lacking in the police. In this case, his best friend, Tim Rourke, is stirring up a Miami Beach hornet’s nest as he reports a series of murders that seems to be connected to the burgeoning gambling racket on the Beach. Each of three victims has been seduced away from winning tables by a gorgeous blond, and subsequently found dead minus the winnings and with .32 bullets managing the murder at close range.

For all the trouble he’s causing with his stories, Rourke is found shot in his apartment. It doesn’t hurt that a number of blonds have been seen visiting, or that he is known to have an affinity for blonds. At the news of his buddy’s misfortune, Shayne hops the first train from New Orleans to work with his friends at the Miami Police Department to the chagrin of the Miami Beach Police Chief. Amid the incompetence (or lack of initiative) of the police, Shayne investigates by following leads that the Chief Painter wants to ignore. . . and finds the killer in the sea of blonds.

Lovers of mystery stories will like this one. I know I did. The dated language and setting are easy to overlook because the characters and the plot itself are so enjoyable. Halliday doesn’t waste time with intricate plot twists, but instead lets us watch while his private detective methodically tries every piece of the puzzle until it fits.

Brett Halliday, Mike Shayne, and Marked for Murder, get three and one-half stars for a fun story. I’m looking forward to more outings with this master detective.

—Benjamin Potter, January 6, 2009

O. Henry a la Carte – O Henry

©1973 Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO

Sometimes finding the right holiday reading occurs at the annual book fair. In June I picked up this little gift book from days gone by at the local hospital fund-raiser. The $3.00 price clip on the dust jacket made this an excellent buy for the holidays in 1973. The seventy-five cents I paid at the fair seemed a good exchange.

As an O Henry fan, I was happy to get a great little collection of his writing at a pocket-change price. Specifically, I was interested in having a simple copy of his famous Christmas story “The Gift of the Magi” (which is the only selection mentioned in the sub-title of this little volume). The collection, selected by Jan Miller Gilmore, includes both short stories and poems by the author.

The poetry leaves a bit to be desired, being much the same as the simplistic verse I was writing in high school. I was mildly entertained by the selection “Nothing to Say” which presents a politician who has nothing to say on the matter and proceeds to discourse ad nauseam on the topic of which he has nothing to say.

Among the short fiction included in the book are (of course) “The Gift of the Magi” which causes me to ask each time I read it, how can one have “sixty cents of it in pennies” when the total amount is $1.87 cents? Also you will find the age-old favorite “The Ransom of Red Chief” which is always good for a laugh and a sigh.

New to me, but well worth the reading were the stories “The Last Leaf” and “Hearts and Hands”. I was not quite so impressed (save with the exercise of superb language) with “Springtime a la Carte”. Another selection that is awkward for the collection is the little two-page snippet entitled appropriately enough “A Strange Story” which provides a good foundation on which to build a story by Edgar A. Poe.

For holiday fare, this is an excellent little volume because it is filled with easily read, wonderfully written stories that touch the depths of the English language while remembering the hearts of the reader. One thing that the editor did well was to anchor the book (begin and end) with two of the more powerful stories (“The Gift of the Magi” and “Hearts and Hands”) included.

As a reader, I’d give the book three stars; as a gift-book, it could easily reach the coveted five-star rating. So, I’ll split the difference for purposes of rating and give O. Henry a la Carte four out of five reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, December 17, 2008

Shotgun – Ed McBain

©1969 Signet, New York

I’ve found a new “go to” collection whenever I’ve run out of good reading material—or when I’m waiting on the next “must read” to hit the streets. I found them down at the 87th Precinct.

Shotgun is another masterful procedural that makes you know that somebody in the seventies and eighties was reading McBain. How else could we explain the resemblance that shows like Hill Street Blues had to the boys in blue at the 87th? At any rate, true to form, Shotgun opens on the scene of a bloody murder—not just a murder but a double murder, and Carella and Kling swing into action.

I think what makes these books work so well is that it doesn’t focus so much on the cops as it does on the crime. True, the cops are the ones that solve the crime, but it is the solving of the crime that is the star of the show. In this case, Andrew and Rosie Leyden have been murdered in their uptown apartment. Not just any murder, but murdered with a shotgun. Not just any murder with a shotgun, but two blasts each to the face. As an afterthought, the murderer tried to make the husband look like a murderer turned suicidist. The job is a sloppy one, though that will not fool even the greenest of beat cops.

Shotgun is a fast read that will while away a few moments when you don’t want to think, but don’t mind a puzzle. Prop up your feet and grab a paperback reissue of an 87th Precinct novel and you’ll enjoy a good story. Shotgun would be a good choice. Four out of five reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, December 15, 2008

The Paper Bag Christmas – Kevin Alan Milne

©2006 Center Street, New York

As the Christmas season rolls around, finding new (or new to me) stories with a Christmas setting captures my fancy. This year my habit got a start with a re-issue of a 2006 feel-good called The Paper Bag Christmas.

Nine-year-old Molar (named for his orthodontist father’s favorite tooth) and his eleven-year-old brother, Aaron, are whisked away the day after Thanksgiving to see Santa at the local mall and present him with their wish list. What they found was the most interesting Santa with a more interesting suggestion. After they filled both sides of the paper given them to put “Everything I ever wanted for Christmas . . .” on, the boys are challenged to meet Santa at a local children’s hospital where they will find everything they never wanted for Christmas.

Assigned as elves to help Dr. Christoffer K. Ringle (aka Santa Claus) bring Christmas cheer to a floor full of young cancer patients, Mo and Aaron find themselves in the perfect place to find the real meaning of Christmas.

With an international cast of characters like the Scottish doctor, the janitor/elf from the Bronx (the story takes place in Oregon), and an intriguing but wise patient from India, this little book is great holiday fare. Bring a box of tissues with you to handle the obligatory jerk of tears that accompanies any good Christmas story.

The Paper Bag Christmas is a heartwarming reminder of what Christmas is all about that struggle

s in the telling. The dialogue is a mixture of great and mediocre writing owing most likely to the fact that this is Milne’s debut novel. The awkward writing found mostly in the conversational passages in which Molar sounds more like a boy of fifteen with a limited vocabulary than a nine-year-old with an advanced one do not distract from the story itself.

As regular reading I’d probably give this book only three reading glasses, but because it is the season and it is a Christmas book, and I did enjoy it very much, and I think anyone wanting to read Christmas fare (whatever time they want to read it) will want to read this book, I recommend it with four out of five reading glasses.

Merry Christmas—Benjamin Potter, December 6, 2008

Killer’s Choice – Ed McBain

©1958 Dell, New York

Ed McBain. The name strikes a chord in the hearts of mystery lovers everywhere. Of course, we know that it’s one of the more notable pseudonyms for celebrated novelist Evan Hunter. Still, along with the name our minds jump to the 87^th Precinct.

Killer’s Choice is one of McBain’s 87^th Precinct stories, and it is an excellent example of why the author enjoyed celebrity as one of the foremost crafters of the police procedural.

The book opens at the crime scene involving the murder of Anne Boone and the wanton destruction of the liquor store where she worked. It is easy to get lost in the pages of the story while following the detectives of the 87^th squad. Carella and Kling question suspect after suspect. Among them are the boss, the ex-husband, and a variety of boyfriends. Throw into the mix a green transfer from the much more genteel 30^th with a crazy moniker like Cotton Hawes who must redeem a blunder by finding the punk who killed fellow detective Havilland and you have great mystery reading.

Finding Annie’s killer turns out to be a chore that involves a variety of the bulls of the 87^th because the suspects’ alibis are air-tight, and with every new suspect we discover a new Annie Boone.

Once or twice the dialogue slows down because the book was written at another time, but generally the read is very forthright. McBain shows why people love his police procedurals with just the right amount of repetition and just the right amount of personality. Typical of the descriptive passage is the set-up of Stewart City:

Stewart City had been named after British royalty. It was a compact little area of Isola, running for perhaps three square blocks midtown, three square blocks that hugged the curve of the River Dix Stewart City had been named after British royalty, and the apartment buildings which faced the river in terraced luxury were indeed royal.

The mystery unfolds pleasantly with just such descriptions and tight concise dialog that includes both interviews of witnesses, suspects and various other characters and the daily banter that occurs between the bulls of the 87^th squad room that make life bearable.

Killer’s Choice was my first 87^th Precinct novel (though I’ve long wanted to read some of Hunter’s or McBain’s writing), and you can bet it won’t be my last. It’s just entertaining police work. (Four out of five reading glasses.) Though I’ve come late to the precinct and (sadly) McBain shuffled out of his mortal coil, I can relish the fact that I have a whole new set of mysteries to keep me busy when my favorites are between publishing dates.

—Benjamin Potter, December 2, 2008