John Le Carre's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

I mentioned last month that I'd be finishing up John le Carre's third novel, and his first big hit both with literary critics and in theaters when the story was adapted as a Richard Burton-starring vehicle a few years after. This is about my third or fourth time to read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

While not an official trilogy, it is the third novel to include his most well-known character, George Smiley, however, in this book he is very much a minor supporting character. While Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality both featured Smiley in stories that were more murder-mystery than spy-themed, this novel focuses on a man named Alec Leamas and it is very much a spy story. Set primarily in Berlin and London, it follows Leamas as he becomes involved in one last mission to sow disinformation to the Communists and bring an end to an East German intelligence officer.

I mentioned before that these three le Carre novels are not a trilogy, per se. However, there are callbacks to the events from Call for the Dead in this novel that I never realized in my first readings. I just figured it was historical characterization for this novel's villain. Yet, after reading le Carre's first novel, I realized what is being referenced directly were the exact events of that novel. Obviously I didn't have to read Call for the Dead to understand the plot of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, however, those references now are much clearer on my re-read.

This novel is pretty much the quintessential spy novel of the Cold War era. Featuring a night-time crossing of the Berlin Wall, clandestine meetings between agents, interrogations of our hero by East German agents, and a convoluted plot that is all explained in the final chapters to sort out the good guys from the bad and clear up any twists that might not have been fully understood, this is the spy novel to which others would be compared when it comes to a realistic spy world. While Ian Fleming and James Bond is the gold standard in fantastical spy adventures, le Carre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is what most readers think of when citing a realistic spy novel.

Another common element of today's spy thrillers is the burnt-out agent, which is fantastically rendered in this novel. This novel gets better every time I read it and le Carre has become one of my favorite writers of the genre, but that shouldn't really be too surprising considering he is pretty much at the top of the list when it comes to spy authors.

John Le Carre's A Murder Of Quality

John Le Carre's second novel, a follow-up to Call for the Dead, is in no way a spy novel, but instead a straight murder mystery story. A Murder of Quality sees Le Carre's most famous character, George Smiley, called upon to help solve the murder of a woman at an English private school. I enjoyed this book, despite it not being the spy novel I thought it was going to be. However, I don't have a ton to say about it.

The only complaint I do have is how unabashedly British it is. What I mean by that is there are descriptions and settings that somewhat flew over my head and I found myself a little confused at what was actually being discussed. I'm not entirely sure if it was because it was set in the early 1960s and things were just quite different back then or if it was how the British-isms weren't fully explained for an American reader. It quite possibly was a bit of both.

Overall, the story was very engaging and I found myself not wanting to put it down. Keeping track of who the characters were when it came to all the school faculty and their wives was a little difficult, but didn't take away from my enjoyment.

I've already started Le Carre's next novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and I've read that story before, along with watching the movie. I know I like it, so the first three novels Le Carre published are all worthy of your time.

John Le Carre's Call For The Dead

Late last year I went on a little John le Carre run of novels in what is known as the Karla trilogy. It is made up of the stories Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. While reading those three novels I learned that le Carre's most famous character George Smiley was part of his debut novel, Call for the Dead.

I knew about George Smiley because he is a supporting character in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which I have read previously and seen the film adaptation several times. I had also watched the most recent film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. After finishing the Karla trilogy, I decided to dive into other Smiley adventures and in doing so discovered that Call for the Dead and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold were directly linked.

All this being said, I am now in a run of stories by le Carre and the first was Call for the Dead. It was a very engaging spy thriller, but was a little more of a who-done-it murder mystery than a straight spy story. John le Carre is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, spy novelists of all time, known for his stories being the most realistic, complex, and morally ambiguous. This likely stems from the fact that he worked for both MI5 and MI6.

The Karla trilogy of books is certainly what most readers will point to when thinking of his best works. However, I wasn't entirely hooked by the two later stories in the trilogy. I found Call for the Dead to be much more of a page turner and found myself treating it more like an Agatha Christie mystery than an Ian Fleming spy adventure.

Finding this novel to be so entertaining, I followed it up with a viewing of the film adaptation, titled The Deadly Affair, from 1967 starring James Mason as the George Smiley character, but renamed due to the film rights being owned by a different production company. Unfortunately, the movie didn't quite live up to the book. The changes made didn't enhance the viewing and there was a subplot created around Smiley's wife's infidelity that dragged along. In the book his wife is simply out of the picture, having run off with a new lover. You get references to her throughout the book, but him having to cope with her running around on him isn't actively part of the story.

I very much enjoyed this book and after finishing it wanted to dive right into le Carre's second novel, also featuring Smiley, A Murder of Quality. It should be a quick read if it is at all as interesting as Call for the Dead.

Elmore Leonard's Raylan

We've come to the end of the road for our favorite U.S. marshal, Raylan Givens, at least in literary form. The final novel featuring the lawman who seemed more suited to live in the Old West than current times was aptly named after our hero, Raylan.

Having read the previous stories by author Elmore Leonard, this novel is based solely in the reality of the FX television series and is not a direct follow-up to the previous tales. The biggest sign that this is the case is the fact that, spoiler alert for the short story Fire in the Hole, Boyd Crowder is still alive. It seems the writers or producers of the show liked Walton Goggins so much as Boyd that they kept him alive on the television show. The details of his introduction play out nearly the exact same way as they do in the short story he was featured in, however, the ending changes with him surviving his shootout with Raylan.

I'm not sure when the last novel was written in comparison to what season was taking place, but there were also some slight (and in certain cases major) differences between Raylan and the TV show. The one that comes to mind most easily are two characters by the name of Coover and Dickie. In the novel they are part of the Crowe family and end up dealt with rather quickly in the first few chapters. However, in the show they are part of the Bennett family from season two and their fates are quite different.

Despite these difference and inconsistencies with how the literary Raylan Givens compares to his television counterpart, the novel was interesting. However, many elements of it were repurposed into the series, so it all felt a bit familiar. It was sort of like a mirror episode of Star Trek or being in an alternate Spider-Man universe. Everything was nearly the same, but the inconsistencies were jarring.

I'll be taking a little break from Leonard, but will get back into his novels a little later.

Elmore Leonard's Fire In The Hole & Other Stories

Another week, another Elmore Leonard book. This time it was a collection of short stories that included his two most famous characters, U.S. marshals Raylan Givens and Karen Sisco. I've previously gone over who Raylan Givens is, so I don't need to really touch on that much again. Karen Sisco is from Leonard's novel Out of Sight, which is in line to be read soon. Filmgoers would recognize her as Jennifer Lopez from the film of the same name, which starred George Clooney.

The title story, Fire in the Hole, is the basis of the pilot episode from the TV show Justified. So a lot of it was familiar as I was going through the book. However, all the other stories were new territory, but after reading a couple of Elmore Leonard novels, each character felt familiar and it seemed like they could all be living in the same fictional universe.

This leads me into the final novel about U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. After that I will take a little break from Elmore Leonard, but jump back into his stories later with Out of Sight and City Primeval. I've never kept track of how many books I read in a certain amount of time, but I would never have thought I averaged one book per week.

Elmore Leonard's Riding The Rap

Continuing the tales of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, I read the second novel featuring the character featured in FX's hit show from the 2010s, Justified. I was expecting a completely new group of characters for Raylan to face off against in Riding the Rap and maybe a few cursory references to the previous novel. However, I was taken by surprise to find that this second story was as much of a continuation of Raylan as it was a guy named Harry Arno from the first novel.

This time around, Harry is kidnapped for the money he has been skimming from the bookmaking gig he had for the previous 20 years or so. Raylan takes it upon himself to find Harry at the request of Joyce, who is Harry's ex-girlfriend and Raylan's current girlfriend, further complicating the relationship between the three of them.

Honestly, this one didn't grab me quite like the previous story. It was a completely new tale that had nothing to do with the television show, although there was a brief moment at the very beginning of the story that was utilized for the revival miniseries Justified: City Primeval. This novel was likely realistic in the way that a U.S. marshal actually does track down missing people, as every other chapter spent with Raylan was him going from one location to another and back to the previous location chasing down leads and questioning suspects or friends of suspects. The most interesting part of the book was actually when we spent time with the kidnappers.

Leonard's style of writing is very interesting and I still look forward to the other novels and short stories I'll be reading of his, but so far the dip from Pronto to Riding the Rap was a bit disappointing.

Eric Ambler's Passage Of Arms

I have a list of books I am always interested in reading if I can find them at one of my local Half Price Book stores, however, sometimes certain titles get pushed to the back of the line and don't get read for several months or years. And when that happens, the reason for my interest in that particular story can become lost to time. That is definitely the case with Eric Ambler's novel Passage of Arms.

At some point in the past it was suggested in an article or some other area of influence that Ambler's novel about arms dealing in southeast Asia would be a good read. I honestly can't remember why I felt this book would be interesting or in my wheelhouse of interest, but I have to say that I ultimately was not let down.

The little information I do know about Eric Ambler is that he generally wrote thrillers, and more specifically, spy stories. However, his protagonists were rarely professional spies. In Passage of Arms, the story has several characters involved in the selling of a cache of weapons and ammunition, however, the group we are with the most is an American husband and wife who are on holiday and get wrapped up in the scheme.

I had no expectations going into this novel and knew nothing about it other than the author's name. Coming out I was pleasantly surprised and found the story to be engaging, precise, and overall thrilling, despite it being a slow burn of a story. We start and end with an Indian servant, but the story expands as it goes along the line of people who become involved in the selling of the weapons. To modern audiences who expect a thriller to constantly reveal new mysteries and every chapter to end on a cliffhanger, this novel is not for you. However, if you want varied and realistic characters who provide relatable motivations and morally grey incentives, then I cannot recommend this more. Since nearly every character throughout is dealing directly with the arms deal, there isn't really a good guy to be rooting for. Yet, no person represented is a black-or-white type of character. There are sensible motives provided for everyone and it becomes understandable as to how each character is involved in the plot of the story.

I'm still not sure how Passage of Arms got onto my radar, but I'm glad it did. I would recommend taking the time to check it out. It is a short novel and not a huge investment of time.

Jim Dent's Twelve Mighty Orphans

My mom gifted me a book for Christmas called Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent. It is about a group of boys from the 1930s that competed at a very high level in Texas high school football. What makes the story so compelling is that the ballclub was made up of orphans from the Masonic Home orphanage in Fort Worth.

Having grown up in Arlington and very familiar with all the cities that are highlighted throughout the book, it was a pleasure to go through this book. The history that is detailed for the local residents was extremely interesting and I could visualize exactly what was happening as it was explained because I've been to all of these places before. I've driven past the Masonic Home and the stadium where the Mighty Mites played their games so many times and didn't realize how much that team during the Great Depression meant to the residents of this metroplex and the state.

The story of how good the team was able to be, considering they only had 12 kids each season, no funding, and were smaller than nearly every other player on the field, is an unbelievable tale. If you have any interest in sports, I would recommend the read. And if you are a resident of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it would be an even more fulfilling study.

Homer's The Odyssey

After reading through Homer's first epic poem, The Iliad, in about three weeks, I knocked his follow-up poem, The Odyssey, out in only about 10 days. Due to the upcoming Christopher Nolan film starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland, I wanted to refresh my memory of the tale of Odysseus' return from the Trojan War. I had studied this book when in high school or college, but I had not revisited the tale since that time.

While the themes in The Iliad were a little more interesting, I sometimes let my mind wander during the pages upon pages of violence and war during that book. With The Odyssey, it held my attention a bit more and I enjoyed the sprawling adventure and multiple locations of the story. Here are a few overall thoughts about Homer's epic poem featuring the "crafty" and "wise" Greek king.

I was surprised to find out the poem doesn't even start with our hero, but his son and the troubles he is having at home with men trying to woo his mother into a new marriage. It doesn't get to Odysseus until about the fourth book (chapter). Also a bit shocking, and spoiler alert if you plan to read this magnificent story, Odysseus makes it back home at about halfway through the story and the remaining books deal with him overcoming the suitors who are taking advantage of his family's hospitality.

The themes found in The Odyssey weren't as varied or interesting to me, but at a later age in life I did find the theme of homecoming hit a little closer to home (pun unintended) than when I was in my teens and 20s.

For the casual reader, I would highly recommend The Odyssey. It was a pleasant read and the tales of endless trouble Odysseus found himself in while wandering his way back home from Troy more than held my attention. It has given me great anticipation for the upcoming film and I hope Nolan stays true to the source material. With the recent announcement of the Academy Awards nominations, a disappointment I had with the inclusion of Frankenstein in several categories, including Best Picture and Best Writing, was that Guillermo del Toro completely corrupted the original story by Mary Shelley. The changes he made for his film, in my opinion, were actually to the detriment of the story and its great themes. I'm hoping Nolan doesn't do the same with Homer's classic tale.

Homer's The Iliad

When I'm not watching movies or playing poker, the other hobby I fill my time with is reading. I always have a book by my side and any downtime is filled inside a book. Since I constantly have my nose inside some pages, I decided to start keeping track of what and how many books I read.

It just so happened that I started my most recent story, Homer's epic poem The Iliad, on January 1 when our family left for our ski trip in New Mexico. I finished it this morning and will now pick up his next epic poem, The Odyssey.

I wanted to read The Odyssey prior to Christopher Nolan releasing his version of the story this summer. I hadn't planned to read it until closer to the July release date. However, my niece Lizzie lent me her copy of the book and I felt obligated to get it back to her as quickly as possible. So that led me to jumping into The Iliad first.

I remember studying these two poems in school. I don't recall if it was high school or college, where I did take a Greek mythology course at some point, but I don't think I've ever read them in their entirety. Here are some takeaways from Homer's first epic poem.

The Iliad is extremely violent. Because it is set during the tenth year of the Trojan seize you might think it obvious that a poem about war and warriors is going to be brutal, but Homer gives some detailed gore and death scenes throughout.

Despite the poem's central story being about the battle between the Achaeans and Trojans, I also found the subplots featuring the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus to be quite interesting as well. Seeing how these deathless beings interact with and have to outmaneuver one another depending on their loyalties between the two armies was fascinating.

It didn't occur to me that Achilles, who after Helen might be the most recognized character from this story, is sidelined for most of the action due to pride. I hadn't realized pride was as much of a theme in this story as was honor, war, or heroism.

I'm not sure if it is because I am 20 years older or due to the translation I bought, but I certainly could follow and understand The Iliad much easier than I remember doing so when I was in school. There were only a handful of times I wasn't quite sure of the action taking place. What actually surprised me the most was the parts where the action of battle dragged on for several pages lost my attention more quickly than I would have thought.

While I very much enjoyed The Iliad, I am looking forward to The Odyssey even more. Like I said before, I studied the poem in school and from what I remember about it I think I will enjoy the obstacles Odysseus finds himself having to conquer while making his way home. I remember there is a cyclops and the sirens at some point, and I think an archery contest near the end. Yet, other than that I don't really know what to expect.

The Wager

I am in the middle of a new book I got for Christmas and it is a very riveting story about a British group of sailors who are shipwrecked, mutiny, and murder one another off the coast of South America. The book is called The Wager and it is written by David Grann, who authored the recent Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Something that really jumped out at me was the description of a captain in the British navy. His position required, "command of temper, integrity of purpose, vigour of mind, and abnegation of self." Abnegation of self means rejection of one's self and tending to the needs of your crew. I think that is a very astounding description of what all people should strive for. If only we could all control our tempers, have the highest commitment to a goal, a healthy mind, and put others before ourselves.

James Bond One-Off Continuation Novel Rankings

Hope all had a good New Year holiday.  With three kids in tow, New Year's Eve isn't exactly the party night it once was in my younger years.  The real party for me was Saturday when my film club got together to watch Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2.  It had been probably a decade since I had watched either of those movies, and I have to admit that with time my appreciation for them has increased.  I will probably get to a ranking of Quentin Tarantino's films after seeing The Hateful Eight.

 

However, that is not what this post is about.  While restoring the house to its normal order and putting our holiday decorations in the attics and closets they collectively belong in for 11 months of the year, I came across a list of the solo books for James Bond continuation authors and saw that I had made a ranking of them.  Yet, that list had not made it to the archives of this blog.  So that is the true purpose of my writing today.

 

The following four books are my ranking of the novels about British superspy 007, otherwise known as James Bond.  I have included the author with each title since no writer was asked to return.

 

1. Trigger Mortis - Anthony Horowitz

2. Solo - William Boyd

3. Devil May Cry - Sebastian Faulks

4. Carte Blanche - Jeffery Deaver

 

It should be noted that Horowitz did have the benefit of composing his work from an unfinished manuscript by original author Ian Fleming, with a single chapter completed by Fleming himself.  However, Horowitz does an excellent job with what he was given and comes the closest to replicating Fleming's original style.

'Trigger Mortis' Announced & Raymond Benson Books Ranked

It was announced today the newest entry in the literary James Bond series will be titled Trigger Mortis.  The book, to be published September 8, was penned by Anthony Horowitz, but the really special treat about the upcoming story is that a portion of the book includes an unreleased story written by 007's creator, Ian Fleming.  Fleming's material was a treatment for a television series titled Murder on Wheels, which will be set in the world of motor racing.  The announcement was made on what would have been Fleming's 107th birthday.

 

Another few interesting tidbits from the book's title announcement are that it will be set within the original timeline of Fleming's stories and it will bring about the return of Bond girl Pussy Galore.  The exact timing of Horowitz's new story will take place two weeks following the events of Goldfinger.  Bond's globe-trotting adventure will involve the American-Soviet Space Race.

 

Horowitz has published more than 40 books and his literary talents include continuation novels for Sherlock Holmes.  He is also the author of the teen spy series Alex Rider.  Horowitz is also the creator of Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle's War.

 

Today's 007 announcement made me realize I never put my rankings of Bond continuation author Raymond Benson's novels on the blog.  I listed Fleming and John Gardner's continuation novels nearly a year ago and the Benson stories were ranked soon after that, but I just didn't take the time to put them on the blog for posterity's sake.

 

Below are the six James Bond novels from Raymond Benson, listed from best to worst:

 

1. The Facts of Death

2. Zero Minus Ten

3. Never Dream of Dying

4. Double Shot

5. The Man with the Red Tattoo

6. High Time to Kill

Book Idea

Every now and again I have a dream or a thought pops in my head that is the smallest grain of an idea for a book.  Sometimes I chase that concept down the rabbit hole and come up with a formulated synopsis or even the vaguest of plots.  However, most just end with me shrugging the entire thing into oblivion, never to be revisited again, which normally comes after watching an episode of Mad Men or a great movie and realizing my level of writing is nowhere near adequate enough to make it to bookshelves.

 

There is one idea I've had in my back pocket for about a year now that I have not yet been discouraged enough to drop.  I have even gone so far as to write out a couple of chapters, only to be thwarted by a busy work schedule or hectic family life, but in all reality it will never likely be completed.

Ordinarily I wouldn't take the time to blog about these book ideas because they ultimately will not go anywhere, but for some reason I had a dream the other night about a time travel story that I thought was interesting and I don't know that it has ever been done before in a way that gained popular traction.  I'm sure this notion has made it into a book or television episode as some point in history, but as far as I know I haven't seen it.

The dream in question was about a group who discovers a way to travel back in time and after fiddling with the most popular uses of time travel, such as making lots of money and changing past decisions in minor ways to have a better life in the present without completely rearranging things that would create a time paradox (are you lost yet Joanna), the team decides to make major historical changes to better mankind.  I haven't ironed out all the details as to what they would do in the past, but the third act would be assassinating a dictator that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

Okay, you might be thinking this sounds very common in time travel stories as every science fiction writer and their dog have created a story about going back in time to stop Oswald from assassinating President Kennedy or killing Hitler some time prior to his reign of Germany, but what makes mine a little different is that it would be of a ruler that nobody has ever heard of.  It would be a fictional dictator of some real civilization and the final chapters of the book would see the group planning and executing the project to stop this fabricated madman.

My Twilight Zone ending for the story would be that once they accomplish their task in the past, by returning to the present they learn of a new person named Adolf Hitler that never existed in the previous timeline and by executing one madman who had caused the killing of less than one million people it led to the ultimate birth of a worse madman who caused the killing of more than six million.  By tampering with a previous timeline that we believe doesn't exist, they created the current timeline we are living now and have no knowledge of ever having had a different course of events.

Like I have said before, I won't do anything with this idea, but I feel like there is just enough there to make it interesting for a Syfy TV movie or paperback adventure story found on a Half-Price Bookstore shelf.

James Bonds' John Gardner Novels

Listed below are my ranking of the 007 continuation novels penned by John Gardner.  Gardner was the author selected to revive James Bond in print following a one-off in 1968 by Robert Markham, which was a pseudonym for Kingsley Amis.  Gardner's novels ran from 1981-1996.  In my humble opinion, Gardner's best Bond novel was about on par with Fleming's average works.

 

Gardner started out in his Bond writing career leaning heavily on gadgets, but gradually got away from those gimmicks.  Some of my biggest complaints with his writing was that he seemed to either get too technical, as he was an ex-Royal Marine commando, or use stale cliches for cliffhangers and plot twists.  In the example of Brokenclaw, the novel is moving along just fine and is actually one of his better works until the ending when he has our hero making the most foolish decisions a person could make, and the worst part is he doesn't even try to provide some sort of explanation for Bond's motives.

 

Here is my rank for the best to worst James Bond novels by John Gardner:
 

1. No Deals, Mr. Bond

2. Death is Forever

3. Icebreaker

4. Scorpius

5. The Man from Barbarossa

6. Cold Fall

7. Never Send Flowers

8. Brokenclaw

9. Role of Honor

10. For Special Services

11. License Renewed

12. Win, Lose or Die

13. Seafire
14. Nobody Lives Forever

James Bond's Ian Fleming Books

My wife pointed out the other day how much I love movies and love lists, so it is an obvious correlation that I love lists about movies.  This love is easily seen in all things James Bond, but something I haven't ranked is the books of 007.  I recently re-read all of the Ian Fleming thrillers of James Bond and have come up with a ranking.  Below is my ranking of the James Bond books in order from least enjoyable to most.

14. Diamonds are Forever

13. Live and Let Die

12. You Only Live Twice

11. The Spy Who Loved Me

10. The Man With the Golden Gun

9. Octopussy and The Living Daylights

8. Thunderball

7. Moonraker

6. Dr. No

5. Goldfinger

4. For Your Eyes Only

3. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

2. From Russia, With Love

1. Casino Royale

Book Recommendation

There is a lot of reading going on in my life.  In fact, pretty much every night before I go to sleep I will wind down with a book in bed.  I enjoy a lot of the classics and spy thrillers (especially James Bond, but that is pretty well established by all who are familiar with my tastes and interests).  Recently I started a book of short stories by Ray Bradbury.  I bought it in order to read A Sound of Thunder and enjoyed it so much that I decided to give all of the stories a go.
I have found most of the short stories to be entertaining, if not down-right enthralling.  Although a few haven't grabbed my attention, but that is what's great about a short story.  While you may not get into the narrative at first, it isn't a burden to finish the thing as it is only a few pages long.
One story that I found to be the most insightful of all so far was The Murderer.  It was written in 1953, but reads like it could have been penned in today's culture.  It reveals a world where machines that were created as a convenience have become hindrances on humans, but we have become so embracing of technology that we ignore the bombarding noises and cumbersomeness it has created.
It will only take a few minutes to get through and I highly recommend taking the time to do so.  Were I a literary teacher, this story would be required reading in my classroom.

Half Broke Horses By Jeannette Walls

Her follow-up novel to the best-seller The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls's Half Broke Horses presents the exciting tales of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith.  From life on a Texas farm breaking horses at the age of 6 to teaching destitute children in the smallest of towns and running a gigantic ranch, Smith's story is a triumphant one.  She overcame poverty to make a happy existence for herself, never letting bad times get her down.  The woman's outlook on life was, "When God closes a window, He opens a door.  But it's up to you to find it."
While Half Broke Horses doesn't amount to the same level of astonishment as to what the author had to go through growing up the way she did in The Glass Castle, this book does have a great insight into life for an independent, tough-as-nails woman growing up in the early 1900s.  If you haven't read either book, I recommend starting with Half Broke Horses as it will give you a glimpse into the author's father, Rex Walls, as well as some background of what the author's mother's childhood was like.  Both are great books, but if I had to recommend only one it would be The Glass Castle.  However, Half Broke Horses is a great, easy read for all lovers of American history and stories about personal triumph.

Through My Eyes By Tim Tebow

Getting a little too much insight into every game he ever played in college, the book Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow is an adequate book that covers the life of a fascinating sports story.  If you haven't heard of the polarizing Denver Broncos quarterback, then what rock have you been living under.
Tebow is an inspiration to young people and Christians everywhere, but has sport pundits shaking their heads stating he can't compete at this level and should be moved to a different position as he mounts another (and another) miracle drive to win games late.  Tebow's accomplishments every Sunday has supporters puzzled at how he works his magic, giving fans all the same response to those who say he shouldn't be a starter in that Tebow "just wins games."
His book follows the Heisman winner's story from before his birth until after his rookie season in the NFL, with insightful thoughts from Tebow himself about his faith and how it applied to every single moment in his life.  Overall I give the book a B- as I like what he has to say about his faith and where his wisdom and understanding of the Lord comes from, but the middle half of the book about his days at the University of Florida are meticulously detailed.  Not being a fan of the Florida Gators, it was not overly interesting to hear about each week's game and what it took to win (or sometimes lose) against every opponent.  Some of the highlights from each season could have been touched upon and dissected with how his faith was tested or upheld through those few moments, but it just wasn't necessary to read every single game's outcome and what he did in those games.  I'm not going to say that it was all put in there to be self-congratulating, but it did seem unnecessary.
Tebow's story is a really great one to hear about and I think he is a genuine guy.  I believe that even more so after reading his book, but without the Florida Gators play-by-play documentation it would have been a more enjoyable read overall.

Ulysses By James Joyce

Having spent countless hours reading and unknown time limits re-reading the so-called masterpiece Ulysses, I can now say I have finished the toughest novel I've ever had the displeasure to lay eyes on.  Ignoring that the plot itself is painfully boring, the narrative styles are nearly impossible to follow.
If you haven't read the book then a tiny glimpse into the torture that is Ulysses is that the final chapter is eight paragraphs long over about 40 pages with absolutely no punctuation.  You read that correctly.  For 40-something pages you have to constantly decipher stream-of-consciousness narrative with no end and no beginning in between paragraphs.  A "well" could be well or we'll, but you have to read the line through to figure out if it is necessary to go back and re-read it so that it makes some sort of logical sense.
Should you happen to attempt reading this novel, all I can say is good luck.  You are going to need it.  I suggest getting a copy of Cliff Notes to help you understand what the heck is going on.