Overkill vs. Lesson Learned

Just Kidding...

What do you think?  Is this a prime example of "overkill" or a valuable "lesson learned" for one little girl and her mother?  It seems that local cops, at the request of the little girl's library, showed up at her front door and left with the overdue library book her parents had checked out for her.

Of course, there's more to the story, some of it involving a misunderstanding as to just what book the police were actually asked to retrieve, but this Daily News article clears everything up (well, mostly):

Shannon Benoit told CBS Boston that little Hailey, 5, was worried she was going to be cuffed and arrested when Sgt. Dan Dowd arrived at their door in Charlton Dec. 27 asking for the book.

With the cops standing at the door, the family searched the house and found the text, and returned it to Dowd, according to the report.

But when he left, Hailey began to cry.

"I thought it was way overboard," Shannon Benoit told the TV station.

Read the article for the rest of the details (and to find out what the cops were really asked to retrieve) - including the fact that the child's mother apparently embarrassed herself during her phone call to the library by using some inappropriate language.  I feel sorry for the little girl, naturally, but maybe her parents should explain to her that it's not cool to ignore due dates and requests to return overdue materials to the library - or to curse at some librarian on the phone when you get caught doing it.

I'm on the library's side on this one.  I suspect that's the minority opinion, however, because cute kids win every time.

The Detour

Andromeda Romano-Lax (more on this fascinating name, later) struck it big in 2007 with her debut novel, The Spanish Bow, a story set in Spain and Western Europe from the days of the Spanish-American War to the beginning of World War II.  That fascinating novel became a New York Times Editor’s Choice and was ultimately translated into eleven languages.  Her follow-up novel, The Detour, scheduled for a February 2012 release, is set in 1938 Italy and Germany and shares a theme similar to that of its predecessor: the wartime ethical conflict that often occurs between the worlds of art and politics.

Young Ernst Vogler is already having his doubts about Hitler’s Third Reich when he is chosen to travel to Italy to bring a famous Classical Roman statue, the Discus Thrower, back to Germany for Hitler’s private collection.  Even at this point in the history of the Reich, Hitler and the Gestapo are using intimidation to move Europe’s greatest art to new, permanent homes in Germany and Austria.  However, what is described to Vogler as a simple three-day job to move the Discus Thrower to the German border is complicated by the fact that there are those in Italy who see the looting process for what it is, and are determined to stop the piece’s transfer. 

Ernst Vogler, whose Italian skills are almost nonexistent, might not be the best man for the job.  Things go off track almost immediately when a misunderstanding makes him two hours late for the meeting at which the Discuss Thrower is to be inspected and packed for the run to the German border.  Way too suddenly to suit him, Vogler is riding in a beat up old truck with Italian twin brothers charged with the responsibility of getting him and his cargo safely out of the country.  When the truck’s driver abruptly breaks from the little convoy and makes a run for it on his own, things get interesting for Ernst Vogler and his little team.

Andromeda Romano-Lax

Vogler finds himself trying to navigate a world of secret agents, thieves, hapless lovers, and murderers - a world in which he can barely communicate and must, instead, rely on his instincts to separate the good guys from the bad ones.  The question is whether, when things fall apart as it appears they surely will, Ernst Vogler will have the skills to survive the bad guys on both sides of the border?

The Detour is based on Adolph Hitler’s actual purchase in 1938 of the Discus Thrower from Italian authorities.  This buy was one of Hitler’s earliest steps in his seven-year project to loot the rest of Europe of its most important art, a project so successful that it took years of work following World War II to accomplish its reversal. 

Finally, we return to the author’s interesting name and background.  Her first name is Greek, she shares a mixture of German and Italian ancestry, and she married into a Jewish family - a combination of factors almost certain to ensure that she have strong interest in Europe’s World War II history.  The Spanish Bow and The Detour are the product of that interest.

Rated at: 4.0

Somebody Jump-Start Me, Please

For some reason I can't pin down, it's taking me longer than usual to get back into regular posting this year. Maybe I just got exceptionally lazy with all the vacation days I saved up for the end of December, but it's not as if I quit reading.  I already, in fact, have two really good novels under my belt for 2012. It's more, I think, a case of being overwhelmed by the number of reviews (5) that I need to catch up on...plus all the great football match-ups that have been televised in the last ten days, eating heavily into my free time.

 I decided against posting specific reading goals for 2012 because I didn't even come close to reaching my 2011 and 2010 goals. I'll just aim, in general terms, for consistency in the number of books I read during the new year and, more importantly, in the quality of my choices - especially when it comes to accepting review copies.  2011 was the best year I can remember in a long time regarding my selection of Advance Reader Copies - with only a dud or two among the 63 I read.

 I do seem to have reached a steady rhythm of sorts in the last three years: 123 books read in 2009, 124 in 2010, and 127 in 2011. I doubt that I could have been that consistent had it been a conscious goal of mine to do so. One more goal that's always in the back of my mind is to make some real progress on my huge TBR stack - but I can't remember the last year I didn't end up with more books in the stack than I started with. Maybe, by signing up for C.B.'s TBR Double Dare challenge, this will be the year I can make it happen.   This is going to be an extremely busy month at the office, but I'm hopeful that I wll find the time for a review or two soon. So, ready or not (and it's obviously "not" in my case, let's get started on 2012.

Book Chase 2011 - in Numbers

Being the statistics nerd that I am, I've managed to pull together some end-of-year numbers that reflect the kind of reading year 2011 was for me. I think I was more consistent in my reading this year than I ever have been, with seven months at 10 books read, three with 11 read, and two with 12.  I didn't hit one of my normal "slump" periods in 2011, and that probably means that I chose my reading material more carefully this year then in past years.  I did, however, abandon 9 books again this year, same as in 2010.  I continued to make good use of my public library, and was lucky enough to get my hands on a bunch of really great Advance Reading Copies.  It was a good year.

This, according to the stats, was how it happened:

Number of Books Read - 127

Fiction - 92:

Novels - 90

Short Story Collections - 2

Nonfiction - 35:

Memoirs - 12

Biographies - 5

Literary Criticism - 2

Education - 3

Travel - 2

Sociology - 4

Sports - 1

Science - 1

History - 5

Written by Men - 84

Written by Women - 43

Co-Authored by Both - 0

Audio Books - 15

E-Books - 17

Library Books - 41

Review Copies - 64

Started but Abandoned - 9

Translated: 9

Pages per Day: 93

Length of Average Book Read in 2011 - 306 pages

Total Number of Pages Read (Excluding audio books) = 34,000+ 

I'm excited about moving into the New Year and beginning the sixth year of Book Chase on January 20. I hope to come up with something special to mark my fifth anniversary because that's definitely one I never thought I would be celebrating.  Let's have some fun in 2012; I can't wait to get started.

Authors, Poets, and Playwrights Lost in 2011

As happens every year, 2011 claimed a long list of writers, poets, and playwrights from around the world.  Here's the list that I've pulled so far - with just three days to go (the ones in red are simply the ones most readers will be familiar with):

January

2                                  Robert Trumble – Australian writer – 91

3                                  Eva Strittmatter – German writer – 80

4                                  Dick King-Smith – British author – 88

6                                  Susana Chavez – Mexican poet – 36

9                                  Ruth Cavin – American writer – 92

11                               Marcel Trudel – Canadian author – 93

15                               Romulus Linney – American playwright – 80

17                               M.K. Binodini – Indian writer 0 88

17                               Jean Dutourd – French author – 91

19                               Wilfrid Sheed – American author – 80

20                               F.A. Nettlebeck – American poet – 60

20                               Reynolds Price – American author – 77

22                               Park Wan-suh – South Korean author – 79

23                               Novica Tadic – Yugoslavian poet – 62

24                               Anna Yablonskaya – Ukrainian playwright – 29

25                               Vincent Cronin – British writer – 86

26                               R.F. Langley – British poet – 72

27                               Diana Norman – British author – 77

29                               Loreen Rice Lucas – Canadian author – 96

30                               Hisaye Yamamoto – American author – 89

31                               Nikolay Dorizo – Russian poet – 87

31                               Stuart Hood – Scottish writer – 95

February

2                                  Eric Nicol – Canadian writer – 91

5                                  Brian Jacques – British author – 71

8                                  Jorma Ojaharju – Finnish author – 72

11                               Bo Carpelan – Finnish poet and author – 84

15                               Judith Binney – New Zealand author – 70

16                               Hans Joachim Alpers – German writer – 67

17                               James McLure – American playwright – 59

17                               Perry Moore – American author – 39

19                               Max Wilk – American playwright and author – 90

25                               Aminath Faiza – Maldivian poet and author – 82

25                               Manny Fried – American playwright – 97

28                               Netiva Ben-Yehuda – Israeli author – 82

March

1                                  Hazel Rowley – Australian writer - 59

2                                  John Haines – American poet – 86

2                                  Thor Vihjalmsson – Icelandic author – 85

3                                  May Cutler – Canadian author – 87

3                                  Al Morgan – American author – 91

12                               Olive Dickason – Canadian author – 91

14                               Giora Leshem - Israeli poet – 71

15                               Amos Bar – Israeli author – 79

15                               Jean Liedloff – American writer – 84

24                               Lanford Wilson – American playwright – 73

26                               Joe Bageant – American writer – 64

26                               Diana Wynne Jones – British author – 76

27                               H.R.F. Keating – British writer – 84

April

2                                  Paul Violi – American poet – 66

3                                  Ulli Beier – German writer – 88

3                                  Marian Pankowski – Polish writer – 91

6                                  L.J. Davis – American writer – 70

10                               Stephen Watson – South African writer – 56

14                               Arthur Marx (son of Groucho) – American writer – 89

23                               John Sullivan – British writer – 64

25                               Ira Cohen – American poet – 76

29                               Abdul Hameed – Pakistani writer – 83

30                               Ernesto Sabato – Argentine writer – 99

May

6                                  Oniroku Dan – Japanese author – 80

7                                  Kate Swift – American writer – 87

7                                  Doric Wilson – American playwright – 72

9                                  Newton Thornburg – American author – 81

10                               Patrick Galvin – Irish writer – 83

13                               Pam Gems – British playwright – 85

14                               Birgitta Trotzig – Swedish author – 81

15                               Martin Woodhouse – British author – 78

18                               Dick Wimmer – American author – 74

19                               William Kloefkorn – American poet – 78

22                               Bob Gould – Australian bookseller – 74

25                               Edwin Honig – American poet and translator – 91

25                               Yannis Varveris – Greek poet – 56

27                               Johanna Fiedler – American author – 65

June

2                                  Josephine Hart – British novelist – 69

3                                  Harry Bernstein – American author – 101

4                                  Lilian Jackson Braun – American author – 97

4                                  Andreas P. Nielsen – Danish author – 58

7                                  Jorge Semprun – Spanish writer – 87

10                               Patrick Leigh Fermor – British author – 96

12                               Kathryn Tucker Windham – American author – 93

21                               E.M. Broner – American author – 83

21                               Robert Kroetsch – Canadian novelist – 83

24                               Richard Webster – British writer – 60

26                               Simon Heere Heeresima – Dutch writer – 79

29                               K.D. Sethna – Indian writer – 106

July

3                                  Ian Blair – British romance novelist – 69

3                                  Francis King – British writer – 88

6                                  Warren Leslie – American author – 84

16                               Geraint Bowen – Welsh poet – 95

20                               Blaize Clement – American writer – 78

20                               Gloria Sawai – Canadian writer – 78

27                               Hilary Evans – British author – 82

August

1                                  Stan Barstow – English novelist – 83

2                                  Leslie Esdaile Banks – American author – 51

3                                  William Sleator – American science fiction writer – 66

11                               David Holbrook – English writer – 88

15                               Colin Harvey – British science fiction writer – 50

21                               Edith Tiempo – Filipino author – 92

22                               Samuel Menashe – American poet – 85

25                               Ruth Thomas – British writer  - 66

26                               Susan Fromberg Schaeffer – American novelist – 71

September

4                                  Hugh Fox – American novelist and poet – 79

6                                  Michael S. Hart – Project Gutenberg founder and e-book inventor – 64

9                                  Khairy Shalaby – Egyptian writer – 73

14                               Frank Parkin – British author – 80

19                               Jo Carson – American writer – 64

23                               Jose Miguel Varas – Chilean writer – 83

25                               Denis Cannan – British playwright – 92

27                               Sara Douglass – Australian writer – 54

29                               Hella Haasse – Dutch writer – 93

October

1                                  Ruby Langford Ginibi – Australian author – 77

2                                  Taha Muhammad Ali – Palestinian poet – 80

7                                  Mildred Savage – American author – 92

7                                  Avner Treinin – Israeli poet – 83

15                               Gerald Shapiro – American writer – 61

18                               Paul Everac – Romanian writer – 87

18                               Andrea Zanzotto – Italian poet – 90

21                               Anis Mansour – Egyptian writer – 86

24                               Morio Kita – Japanese novelist – 84

November

1                                  Andre Hodeir – French author – 90

3                                  H.G. Francis – German writer – 75

4                                  Andy Rooney – American writer and journalist – 92

5                                  Les Daniels – American writer – 68

6                                  Isaac Chocron – Venezuelan playwright – 81

6                                  Peretz Kidron – Israeli writer – 78

7                                  Tomas Segovia – Mexican poet – 84

7                                  F. Springer – Dutch writer – 79

9                                  Shmuel Ben-Artzi – Israeli writer – 96

10                               Barbara Grier – American publisher – 78

16                              Rusian Akhtakhanov – Chechen poet – 58

17                               Peter Reading – English poet – 65

18                               Daniel Sada – Mexican author – 58

19                               Michael Hastings – English playwright – 73

19                               Ruth Stone – American poet – 96

20                               Shelagh Delaney – British playwright – 72

21                               Anne McCaffrey – American science fiction writer – 85

24                               Helen Forrester – Canadian writer – 92

25                               Leonid Borodin – Russian novelist – 73

25                               Erling Laegreid – Norwegian author – 72

29                               Mamoni Raisom Goswami – Indian writer – 69

December

1                                  Christa Wolf – German writer – 82

2                                 Christopher Logue – British poet – 85

2                                  David Montgomery – American historian – 84

7                                  Josip Barkovic – Croatian writer – 94

8                                  Gilbert Adair – Scottish author – 66

10                               Jean Baucus – American author – 94

11                               Ahmed Bahgat – Egyptian writer – 79

13                               T.J. Bass – Amerian writer – 79

13                               Kabir Chowdhury – Bangladeshi writer – 88

13                               Russell Hoban – American writer – 86

15                               Christopher Hitchens – British writer – 62

20                               Hana Andronikova – Czech writer – 44

22                               Richard Bessiere – French author – 88

25                               Simms Taback – American author - 79