Collected Miscellany

The newly translated novel by Antonio Manzini, Black Run, is a great mystery that takes place in northern Italy. Manzini is an Italian actor, screenwriter, director, and author. Black Run is the first of two novels that have been translated into English.

Here is a bit about the plot from the publisher:

Getting into serious trouble with the wrong people, deputy prefect of police Rocco Schiavone is exiled to Aosta, a small, touristy alpine town far from his beloved Rome. The sophisticated and crotchety Roman despises mountains, snow, and the provincial locals as much as he disdains his superiors and their petty rules. But he loves solving crimes.

When a mangled body has been discovered on a ski run above Champoluc, Rocco immediately faces his first challenge—identifying the victim, a complex procedure complicated by his ignorance of the customs, dialect, and history of his new home. Proud and undaunted, Rocco makes his way among the ski runs, mountain huts, and aerial tramways, meeting ski instructors, Alpine guides, the hardworking, enigmatic folk of Aosta, and a few beautiful locals eager to give him a warm welcome.

It won’t be easy, this mountain life, especially with a corpse or two in the mix. But then there’s nothing that makes Rocco feel more at home than an investigation.

As with many novelists, especially mystery writers, Manzini has good insight into human behavior. He expresses this insight through Schiavone and his sarcastic wit. Schiavone is a fascinating and conflicting character. He is not easy to like – he is vulgar, smokes pot, and treats most people with contempt. But, he is superb at observing the smallest of details and solving the hardest crimes.

Although Schiavone’s attitude and behavior was a bit off-putting at first, he warms to the reader. Maybe it is his unapologetic acidic temperament or his ability to seek justice in whatever manner fits.

The plot is very engaging and does not give anything away as to who is the real killer. You have some false trails thrown in – Schiavone believing in one of these trails. The reader is kept guessing until the very end.

Excellent first book from Manzini.

Edward G. Lengel again brings his extensive knowledge of George Washington to his latest book entitled First Entrepreneur: How George Washington Built His – and the Nation’s – Prosperity. At 280 pages with 8 pages of black and white pictures, the book is a good read.

The United States was conceived in business, founded on business, and operated as a business—all because of the entrepreneurial mind of the greatest American businessman of any generation: George Washington.

Using Washington’s extensive but often overlooked financial papers, Edward G. Lengel chronicles the fascinating and inspiring story of how this self-educated man built the Mount Vernon estate into a vast multilayered enterprise and prudently managed meager resources to win the war of independence. Later, as president, he helped establish the national economy on a solid footing and favorably positioned the nation for the Industrial Revolution. Washington’s steadfast commitment to the core economic principles of probity, transparency, careful management, and calculated boldness are timeless lessons that should inspire and instruct investors even today.

The book is a treasure trove of unpublished knowledge on the business mind of George Washington. It is a fascinating look at a man many see only as a military and political leader. According to Lengel, Washington was  a businessman first and foremost. His thoughts on business influenced him throughout his life from beginning as a surveyor to leading the nation.

The book is an interesting and engaging read.

Continue reading →

In the second book of the Tearling series, The Invasion of the Tearling, Erika Johansen delivers another well-written book. Although the book is 514 pages, it is a quick read.

Below is a synopsis of the plot from the publisher:

In this riveting sequel to the national bestseller The Queen of the Tearling, the evil kingdom of Mortmesne invades the Tearling, with dire consequences for Queen Kelsea and her realm.

With each passing day, Kelsea Glynn is growing into her new responsibilities as Queen of the Tearling. By stopping the shipments of slaves to the neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne, Kelsea has crossed the brutal Red Queen, who derives her power from dark magic and who is sending her fearsome army into the Tearling to take what she claims is hers. And nothing can stop the invasion.

But as the Mort army draws ever closer, Kelsea develops a mysterious connection to a time before the Crossing. She finds herself relying on a strange and possibly dangerous ally: a woman named Lily, fighting for her life in a world where being female can feel like a crime. Soon Kelsea herself begins to change; she does not recognize either her reflection in the mirror or the extraordinary power she now commands. The fate of the Tearling—and that of Kelsea’s own soul—may rest with Lily and her story, but Queen Kelsea is running out of time.

In the second book, we finally start to get an idea of the pre-Crossing world. The Queen of the Tearling only made mention of the pre-Crossing time without any details. As described above, Johansen uses Lily as an avenue of portraying what was happening in the world then and how the Crossing occurred. This story line fills in some of the gaps in understanding the pre-Crossing and the post-Crossing worlds.

Continue reading →