Ian C Robertson

More Fun with B and M

Revisado: 03-30-16

Another in the Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi series, this one is perhaps not as interesting as the previous three, but still fun. I like the direction the series is taking (into the politics of the DA system, a system that is completely foreign to the way we practice in Oz). Butch is on the cusp of the big jump into the political arena, but is he cut out for the half-truths and even more deals than he has to do just to get through a regular day?
I also like the slowly evolving relationship between the genders (pitched in and at an age when equality hadn't become the byword it now is). Karp is a big goofball, but not dump; perhaps the opposite of dumb. He's tough and sharp (in a good sense) in Court. Ciampi is smart, not yet a feminist (in the modern sense), but militant and sexy at the same time. She's on the verge of motherhood. How will that change her career path? Will it change it at all?
Then there's the surrounding entourage of quirky dingbats that populate the DA's office in NY in the aftermath of the Knapp Commission's drive to identify and eliminate systemic corruption in the NYPD. They're forever getting into one scrap after another (Guma's play on the Judge had me in stitches, for example), but all to the betterment of the overall plot, both funny and serious.
Finally, Burns is by now the voice of them all.
I look forward to the next installment of fun with a spoonful of the seedy underworld to help it go down; deep.

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Pleasing Discussion

Revisado: 03-30-16

Another in the highly entertaining 92Y series, this features popular novelist Follett discussing the essential ingredients of a "thriller". Plainly, Follett is very well read and researched and his part-time lecturing comes in handy, here. He is easy to listen to, has an interesting thesis and responds well to questions from the audience.
This is another worthwhile listen in this usually very consistent series and won't eat into much more than a lunch hour (if such things still exist).

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Of Historical Value

Revisado: 03-30-16

This collection of articles and speeches is of historical value, if nothing else. Darrow was, of course, passionate upon this topic. I am not sure I agree with all his contentions. Many of them are much better expressed by Dawkins, Hutchens, etal in more recent times and others are just superficial. However, many others are as strong today as they were when he first articulated them and show the foundation for his "examination" of William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial and the meticulous work that went into that endeavour. I am not persuaded that Darrow's agnosticism shouldn't have given way to atheism, but he would have resisted that almost as fervently as christian fundamentalism.
I enjoyed the debate (albeit one-sided), even given the repetition from time to time of some of the arguments and examples between respective papers. Nolan does a good job capturing Darrow's nuance of speech. At times I could make him out as Darrow, standing on a glorified soap box between the parting cigar smoke, preaching to the audience. Occasionally there is a glitch in the production/recording, but by and large it is passable.

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An Entertaining Summary

Revisado: 03-30-16

I didn't expect to get chapter and verse on this trial when I downloaded this title, so I was not disappointed. However, don't be trapped into expecting too much, either. This is a fun and entertaining hop, skip and lope through parts of the trial, some lovely purple verse and the occasional irate outburst. It is not the heart of the matter, the guts of the trial or an explanation of its importance in the pantheon of great trials. Some "great" trials just weren't that great. Some are boring. Some are frustrating. Some are plain stupid. However, what makes them "great" is that they influenced a generation or generations. This trial fits that bill.
Most people know the story. Mr Skopes, a teacher, flaunted a law that prohibited him teaching matters inconsistent with the Bible. It was an act of civil disobedience. Darrow (then in his 70s) took the trial to advance his agnostic agenda. William Jennings Brian took the prosecution to advance his fundamental teaching agenda. Each was utterly outrageous to each other and, at times, to the Court. All that makes for entertainment better than HBO!
Lustgarten, the collator of this series of Famous Trials, is also the reader. He does a more than serviceable job with the characterisations. Unfortunately, the production values are a bit wanting (it's not a flash recording), but the content makes up for that provided you listen carefully. In my opinion, this is worth the listen, and not just for lawyers or the clergy.

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Very Listenable

Revisado: 03-30-16

In a modern era when, generally, we think so little of politicians, it is always a breath of fresh air that blows away these fetid thoughts. Elizabeth Warren is that breath. She is the fighting grandma (no disrespect intended) of my youth; the one everyone who ought to be afraid, was afraid of. My gran was as feisty as they come when she was defending something she believed in. Warren strikes me the same way. Passionate in her beliefs, personable in her presentation of them and, above all, tough as old boots.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story of her life, from a small town to the seat of power, and points in between. She is gracious when she needs to be, brutal when it's required and very, very sympathetic (unless you area Giant Bank, in which case you can take a short step of a high cliff). I enjoyed the detail of the Bail Out and the Consumer Bureau. I missed some of the detail of her life at Harvard Law School.
The best part of this autobiography is that Warren reads it herself. She has the nuances to give it a life beyond the mere words. If she ever retires, she has a new career in narration that awaits her.

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A Clever Yarn

Revisado: 03-03-16

Grisham needs no introduction nowdays. You know what you will get and he usually delivers. This is one of his earlier outings and, in my opinion, one of the more interesting plot lines. Darby Shaw is innocently drawn into a conspiracy to eliminate SCOTUS Justices. She's a law student having an affair with her burnt-out lecturer one day and on the run from hired gunmen the next. Then we have the makings of a cover-up in the Whitehouse and an intrepid reporter from the Washington Post who threatens to expose the lot. Good Grisham stuff. Not formulaic, but entertaining. Weekend reading rather than beach holiday pulp (not that there's anything wrong with the latter on beach holidays).
The reason I rate this plot line more than some others is that it in fact required Grisham to apply some of his practical legal knowledge. The legal investigative parts of the story are accurate and detailed; as they should be. Strangely, when he came to write the screenplay, I think he did an even better job. The exposure of the plot is a bit early in the book as compared to the screenplay, and the casting for the latter now dominates the psyche when listening (it's hard not to picture Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington). But that is what it it.
Adams does a good job of keeping the engine moving at high speed. I've no complaints on that score.

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Modern Queen of Goth

Revisado: 03-03-16

Anne Rice is the modern Queen of Gothic literature. Not pulp, not softcore written for the hopeful serialisation on a Cable channel, not gratuitous violence - just good literature. This second installment of the Vampire Chronicles is as good as the first ("Interview with a Vampire") and, in my opinion, better. It considers those deep questions of lore and longing and compels you to keep listening because, just possibly, you will understand the origins of these dark and evil creatures. Yes, it's fiction, but fiction real enough to bite. I especially enjoyed the adventure back to the deep origins sandwiched between the rock and roll of Lestat's re-awakening. The post modernist meets the goth. Terrific.
And Simon Vance is one of my favourites. If he can do wrong (which I doubt), then it can't be when reading this genre.

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Fun(d) Raiser

Revisado: 02-23-16

This Guide was obviously an adjunct to a fund raising venture to assist the Terry Higgins Trust, a UK HIV charity. It is a collection of 42 (in honour of the late Douglas Adams) short essays read by the respective authors. This makes for an eclectic mix of style, quality and interest. Some were very entertaining listens; funny or thought provoking. I enjoyed Simon Singh's ode to star watching and Simon Le Bon's simple message of festive (secular) cheer, to name but two. Some are a bit dull and some downright annoying. Some are from the famous (Dawkins etal) and some are a bit unknown (at least to Australian audiences). But overall, it's a bit of fun and was for a worthy cause.
PS: I suggest that you listen at Christmas. It makes it more pertinent.
PSS: the last two essayists are repeated, so don't sit through the same thing twice by accident, like I did!

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Interesting and educative

Revisado: 02-22-16

I think I misread the blurb for this title, or the title itself. In my professional life I deal with a number of people that I think fit the description "manipulative". I cross examine them, negotiate with them and take instructions from them. I thought this book would help me understand where they are coming from and help me to deal with them. That was not entirely correct, but that was my mistake. It is really about learning about what most of us are inclined to be predisposed to and how others take advantage of the predisposition. It really comes down to what the author means by "manipulative".
For all that, I found the book very informative and I did (inevitably) see the ghosts of acquaintances and girlfriend's past in the illustrative examples. That was interesting and educative to the point of wanting to learn more.
So success from a false start, but success none the less. On reflection, this is a better guide for dealing with interpersonal relationships that it is for dealing with professional ones, but the classes are not mutually exclusive.
There was nothing wrong with the narration and nothing that grated on me other than the occasional strange pause, but I attribute that to post production, not to the narrator.
Finally, and for the record, I think lawyers are a sub-class of covert-aggressive and obsessive compulsive personality types, rather than the channeled aggressive sub-type argued for in the text; but then again, I would say that according to the author's theory!

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A Time to Live and to Die

Revisado: 02-22-16

Blanville captures so beautifully both the time to live (the coming of age, young love or lust) and the time to die (oneself, and to reflect on the death of loved ones) in the rightly acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize. It evoked in me so many of the times of my youth, many of them painful, embarrassing or both (like the misapprehended longings and misjudged romances) and put into perspective so many of the things that I saw my grandparents go through toward the end of their lives. The language is languid and precise; placed together like a purposefully created ceramic mural. And that language is old and new (the resonance of the frustrated swearing juxtaposed to the prose still echoes in my minds ear). Really lovely.
By comparison (and I know that I wade into deep water here), I find John Lee's reading challenging. I am not sure why that it. Perhaps the Celtic rasp doesn't suit my ear. But like "100 Years of Solitude", the cadence just didn't sympathetically meet my expectation, albeit Irish-like. Alas, there are so many Irish lilts that I just wasn't taken with this one. That doesn't mean that the performance was bad; just not as I expected.

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