Framing the Dialogue

Archive for September, 2014

The Monster of Florence

image“When the monster of Florence arrived, Florentines faced the killings with disbelief, anguish, terror, and a kind of sick fascination.  They simply could not accept that their exquisitely beautiful city, the physical expression of the Renaissance, the very cradle of Western civilization, could harbor such a monster.  Most of all, they could not accept the idea that the killer might be one of them.”

The The Monster of Florence was written about a series of murders in the Tuscany region of Italy. The crimes were shocking…but the real shock was how the Italian “Justice” system works. Beautiful country…crazy system. I think the tendency of Americans is to think of police and courts as the “innocent until proven guilty” as is prescribed in our laws. Italy is different and eye-opening and dysfunctional and SCARY!

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Night Over Water

night over waterAs the war breaks out across Europe in advance of the Nazi horde Pan American Airlines has a luxury seaplane that astonishingly can get passengers across to American in little more than 24 hours.  As a luxury plane it is filled with rather fortunate souls…some escaping, some running away…some trying to get home in time to stop tragedy.  In Night over Water author Ken Follett gives the glimpse of lives thrust together in the confines of a large and opulent airliner.  Though rather large and roomy the intrigue and inter action between and among the passengers makes for some interesting reading.

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David Horowitz’s School For Idiots

Conservative commentator and writer has an interesting outlook as he was raised by liberal parents.  He is giving a talk and was confronted by this twit who thinks she is smarter than anyone and fortunately for her gets a lesson that she didn’t expect and she got it for free.

They are all around us and political correctness may yet be our undoing.

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The Scorpion’s Gate

scorp gateThe tag line one the dust jacket is “Sometimes you can tell more truth through fiction.”  The setting for The Scorpion’s Gate is mainly the Middle East and though written in 2005 some of the action is somewhat prophetic and a vast Islamic state has been created.  Iran is causing trouble.  The Chinese are not behaving.  And those damn Russians.  Sounds a bit like today?  As the world races toward war to quench their thirst for oil it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.  A small group of individuals put their careers and lives at risk to expose the bad guys and are determined to avoid World War III.

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Death In Little Tokyo

death in little tokyoKen Tanaka is a bit down and out, but has found a love of murder mystery weekends he discovered when he attended one on a lark.  He had just won one and it was his turn to develop a mystery for the group.  As he was planning his event he became involved in a Death in Little Tokyo.  Cute how I did that?  Written by Dale Furutani it is obviously set in Little Tokyo.  Tanaka gets involved to clear his name and becomes tied to the case and finds himself in a bit of trouble.

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The Giver

The giverSo I am sitting at home and started hearing about this new movie on commercials, in news and on some blogs and news sites that I frequent.  The weird thing is that I am seeing rave reviews from folks from all over the spectrum.  I had not heard of the book so I asked my kids if any had read this.  They actually all had read it as required reading in middle school.  Their reviews were so so, but I wanted to read it and for them they read it many years ago.

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Rain Gods

rain godsI have only read a few of James Lee Burke’s novels, but I find them very descriptive as he paints a detailed picture of the scenery.  In Rain Gods you almost feel like you are in the dry, arid desert towns as Sherriff Hackberry Holland tries to solve a gruesome murder in his small town.  He searches for a killer known as the Preacher as he fights his own demons.  The story is gritty just like the environment.

There are not many authors who write this way anymore.  Many just skip to the action.  That’s okay, but it is refreshing to read a more detailed picture of events.

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