Killing Rommel - Steven Pressfield

This was a book I listened to on my last trip to the Philippines. At least, I listened to most of it then. I found this book in NetLibrary. After charging my MP3 player, the licence for it was no longer valid and I was unable to finish listening to it until I visited the NetLibrary site with my MP3 plugged in and requested the licence again.

Despite those travails, I thought it worth the effort. I found the plot and the storytelling quite compelling. Although it was billed as a biography on NetLibrary, it is really a work of fiction. The central mission described in the book never happened. The main characters are fictional.

The book itself, develops like a biography would. Giving us a rather complete background of the main character, Lawrence Chapman. Describing in some detail the pivotal developmental moments in his early life and schooling before dropping us into World War II. Chap is assigned to the Long Range Desert Group shortly after he arrives in North Africa. This group did exist at the time and carried out missions beyond enemy lines.

Many of the descriptions of events are accurate even though the story itself is fiction. We are treated to an experience of what life was like for the men of the LTDG. We get exposed to the passion they had for their role in the war and a feel for the turmoil they experienced when taking time to think about their families and friends.

This was a terrific book. Not the biography I was expecting but an accurate and compelling portrayal of life during the desert campaign of WWII. I highly recommend it to any history or WWII buff.

Absolute Certainty - Rose Connors

There is always a bit of risk when a lawyer writes a crime novel. Especially when the protagonist happens to be a lawyer. The level of detail that goes into the lawyerly aspects of the story can easily get out of control. Fortunately, Rose is able to balance the plot and the law fairly.

This is a modern story told in an innocuous setting. Marty Nickerson is district attorney for Barnstable county MA and a divorced mother of a teenage son. In this tight-knit community on Cape Cod, she finds herself arguing a string of murder cases while trying to raise her son and take care of family and friends directly impacted by loss of loved ones.

The story is filled with a rich and diverse cast of characters. She endeavors to develop each character fully even when they have a fairly minor role. For a first novel, this is exceptional work. I am looking forward to reading her future efforts.

I say reading but, I listened to this one. Bernadette Dune read the book. She makes a good effort to keep the voices of the characters distinct. Sometimes though, she struggles with the males and they all seem to be the voice of retirees who smoke 2 packs a day and have for the past 50 years. She does, however, do an excellent job of pacing. The story is compelling and moves at a brisk pace.

Rose Connors is an up and coming author. I recommend you start reading her now rather than waiting until she has 15 or 20 novels on the shelves.

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

I have not read Ayn Rand before. Going to school in northern California, I heard a lot of positive things about her work. It is generally agreed that Atlas Shrugged is her masterpiece.

Well, it certainly is a piece. I have to dispute the masterful part though. Some of my disgust probably has to do with the fact that I consumed this work in audio form rather than written. With a book I can start skimming the pages when the author gets into a rut. With an audio book it is a bit more difficult. Especially if you are driving at the time. I listened to an almost 2 hour description of a train ride in the Rockies. A boring description of the mountainsides and the feel of the train on the tracks with next to no dialogue, internal or otherwise.

Which brings up another major problem with this book; the dialogue. The tripe that came out of her characters mouths was mind numbing. Her penchant for having them voice in minute detail the reason they were doing or thinking what they were at every single opportunity made me daydream fondly of steering my car underneath a semi.

This was her last work of fiction. From here she went on to develop her philosophy of objectivism. I have not and do not intend to read these later works but, I trust she did a better job with them. Her transparent and clumsy effort to develop such a philosophy in fiction fell terribly short in my opinion.

More than 1000 pages. I cannot express how grateful I am that this was never assigned reading during my formal education. I forced myself to listen to it through to the end. I couldn't do it all at once and honestly, I only got through the last 25 hours or so because I had no other books on my MP3 player and I was in the middle of a trip to the Philippines.

NetLibrary

I have been travelling a fair amount for work and have found audio books to be a good way to fill those stretches where I cannot find a radio station that appeals to me. My local library subscribes to a couple providers.

NetLibrary allows you to download the audio books and transfer them to your iPod or other MP3 player. The ebooks are delivered in a single file. This is nice if your MP3 has bookmarking capability. You can mark your spot and return to it later. If your MP3 player doesn't have bookmarking capability this can be a pain.

You will need to remember how far into the book you were and then fast forward to that spot if you listen to anything else or if your MP3 doesn't resume from the spot it was shut off at.

I bought a new MP3 player for a trip I recently made to the Philippines. I bought it because it has a battery life of 24 hours. It charges via the USB port on my computer. I loaded a couple books onto it from NetLibrary and was off. Once in the Philippines I needed to charge it so connected it to my computer.

Here is the problem with NetLibrary. The licencing process needs to validate every time the MP3 connects to your computer. Your computer must be connected to the Internet because the licence is not on the computer but is validated against the NetLibrary website. Needless to say, this was more than a little inconvenient.

Personally, I will not be using NetLibrary again. There must be better options out there. If you have any suggestions, let me know and I will give them a try.