BOOK REPORTS—

Overload by Arthur Hailey

This oldie from 1979 is another in a long string of good reads by Hailey which included Airport, Hotel, Wheels, The Moneychangers, etc., all of which I enjoyed many years ago. Overload is a chilling look at where we could easily be if we do not escape our dependence on OPEC’s control of the oil supply. Hailey died in 2004 at the age of 84. He published 11 books in 40 countries and sold more than 170 million copies. I’ll be checking to be sure I haven’t missed reading any of them.


High Wire by Peter Gosselin

Subtitled “The precarious financial lives of American families” this book examines the disappearing safety nets that once protected US citizens from financial calamities. The vignettes of real people and their financial horrors were poignant but the bulk of the book was done in textbook-style which requires a strong scholarly instinct to make this either an informative or enjoyable read.


The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig

This novel chronicles the heroics of a Montana college’s football team’s 11 varsity starters who go off to their death in World War II. The main character of the book is Ben Reinking, the son of the town’s newspaper editor who goes to war with his teammates but suffers the burden of surviving while he writes their individual stories. There is a “breath of actuality” to the book’s premise as 11 starting players from a Bozeman, MT college did perish in the war; thus blurring the line between truth and fiction.


The Flat Earth by Christine Garwood

Aristotle had it figured out before Christ was born, “Observation of the stars...shows not only that the earth is spherical but that it is of no great size....” Then, along comes PhD Garwood’s current tome in 436 pages of academic scribbling; seeking to evaluate all sides of the debate on the Earth’s shape. Never mind her book. Aristotle’s opinion is good enough for me.