Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake #1), by C.J. Sansom (author), Steven Crossley (narrator)

Recorded Books, November 2011

The cover image is a link to the abridged edition, because Amazon for some reason won't let me link to the unabridged. However, I listened to the unabridged edition.

This is the first of Tudor-era lawyer Matthew Shardlake's adventures, several years earlier than the book I previously reviewed. He's not quite as established and prominent as in the later book, and the household and strong network of friends we see there has not yet come together. And Matthew is still deep in politics, working for Thomas Cromwell.

Class War?: What Americans Really Think about Economic Inequality, by Benjamin I. Page, Lawrence R. Jacobs

University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226644554, April 2009

Page and Jacobs argue that there is, in fact, no "class war" brewing in America--that in fact a philosophically conservative American public, in a natural fidelity to fundamental American values of hard work, independence, basic fairness, and equality of opportunity, broadly favors some pragmatically "liberal" government policies. Those policies include public education, progressive taxation, food stamps, and other economic support programs that make it possible for the poor to maintain themselves and those born into poor families to have a genuine opportunity to achieve better lives. Merely saying, "you can do it if you work hard enough," is not enough. For our egalitarian values to mean anything, they have to be backed up by access to the tools that a talented and determined young person can really use to achieve success.

New Tricks (Andy Carpenter Series #7), by David Rosenfelt (author), Grover Gardner (reader)

Listen & Live Audio, ISBN 9781593164249, August 2009

Andy Carpenter is a lawyer in the happy position of being rich enough that he only has to take cases that interest him, and over the last few years he has come to be mainly interested in animal welfare cases. So it's not much of a surprise when a judge calls him in and appoints him to represent, and take temporary custody of, a dog who is the subject of a custody dispute between his deceased owner's son and widow. It seems a minor additional complication that the deceased owner was murdered.

The Cerebellum: Brain for an Implicit Self, by Masao Ito

FT Press, ISBN 9780132623087, August 2011

This was an unexpectedly challenging read, due to a simple misunderstanding on my part. I was expecting popular science of the brain, aimed at the educated lay person. In fact, this is not "popular science" at all. It's aimed at the advanced student or young researcher, gathering together in one place the current state of the research on the cerebellum, and Ito's judgment about what it means, as well as next questions to be addressed in future research. It would be beyond foolish for me to attempt a detailed review of this book.

Nevertheless, I found it impressively readable given the distance by which it outpaces my knowledge in this area. Ito has a clear, straightforward style and a gift for explaining complex ideas. I finished this book with a sense that I have in fact increased my understanding of the cerebellum, the role it plays in the overall working of the brain and body, and what it means for the role the cerebellum in creating our sense of identity.

Recommended to the knowledgeable or the fearless.

A Singular Woman, by Janny Scott (author), January Lavoy (reader)

Riverhead Trade, ISBN 9781594485593, January 2012

Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, is an almost forgotten figure in the public story of his life. She died before his political career really took off, but she was still alive when he wrote the memoir, Dreams From My Father, that focused more on his feelings about his absent, and by then deceased, Kenyan father. Her impact on her son, though, was profound, and Scott gives us a fascinating picture of this strong and important woman.

Snuff (A Discworld Novel), by Terry Pratchett (author), Tony Robinson (narrator)

Corgi Books, ISBN 9780552166751, June 2012

I listened to the unabridged audiobook edition of this. However, I am linking to the paperback because Amazon won't permit me to link to the correct audio edition.

Sam Vimes, Commander of the Watch of the city of Anhk-Morpork, is not happy. In fact, he's deeply, deeply unhappy. He's about to undergo a terrible ordeal, due to a terrible betrayal by his beloved wife, Lady Sybil.

He's going on vacation. To the country. To Lady Sybil's family lands, which he now owns.

The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding Americans' Right to Vote (A Century Foundation Book) , by Tova Andrea Wang

 

Cornell University Press, ISBN 9780801450853, August 2012

Wang gives us both a history of voter suppression tactics in the USA since the end of Reconstruction, and a strong case for the illegitimacy of voter suppression as a means of partisan competition.

Some will remember at least some key facts about the use of poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent African-Americans from voting in the post-Reconstruction era. Even those readers may be startled at the extent of the suppression and the strength of its effects, as well as parallel efforts in northern states to limit the votes of "undesirables" there. Wang follows the evolution in both tactics and in who was interested in suppressing whom.

Revelation (Matthew Shardlake Series #4), by C.J. Sansom (author), Simon Jones (reader)

Macmillan UK, ISBN 9780230531932

Matthew Shardlake is absolutely, totally retired from politics. He's not really cut out for the rough play of Tudor politics, and is now devoting himself to his legal career, with the status and distinction of being appointed to practice in the Court of Requests, along with the handicap of being a hunchback. The monasteries are dissolved, Matthew has lost his past fervor for reform--and those now in ascendance at Henry VIII's court are pushing the old, papist ways with as much vigor and brutality as Thomas Cromwell ever pushed Reform. Matthew is glad to be out of it, and happy to agree to his friend Roger's proposal of a fund to create a new hospital for the poor in London, replacing the services once provided by the now-dissolved monasteries.

Then on his way to work at Lincoln's Inn the morning after that conversation, Matthew finds Roger, dead, in the fountain. His throat is slashed, he has bled into the water turning it red, and he has a strangely peaceful look on his face.

The President's Brain Is Missing? by John Scalzi

Tor Books, February 2011

This is an ebook-only short, barely a novella. It's also vintage Scalzi, funny and irreverent and insightful.

A senior staffer for an unnamed president gradually comes to the shocking realization that the president's brain is missing. He's walking, he's talking, he's functioning normally--but his brain is missing! (Yes, insert jokes here; Scalzi is careful to ensure you can't peg this president as being either Bush or Obama. He's not doing contemporary political commentary, here.)

The senior staffer starts digging for an answer to what's happened, and solution to the problem. But is it a problem? Who is responsible? Does this need to be fixed? And what's going to happen to the nosy staffer?

It's wickedly funny, and well worth the time you'll spend reading it. Recommended.

I bought this story.

An Orkney Murder (Rose McQuinn #3), by Alanna Knight (author), Hilary Neville (narrator)

Ulverscroft Soundings, Ltd., ISBN 9781845599209, June 2008

This is the the third book in the series, and the first that I've read. There's some backstory, but it was pretty easy to pick up enough to enjoy this story.

Rose McQuinn is trying to decide whether to marry her new love, an Edinburgh police detective, and is relieved, finally, two years after her return from America, to get an invitation to visit her sister Emily and her family on the island of Orkney, where Emily, Rose, and Rose's first love and now (probably) deceased husband, Danny McQuinn, grew up.