Nevermore: Bertie, Joseph Anton, Moving the Mountain, Black Box

Jud read Alexander McCall Smith’s  Bertie Plays the Blues, the new book in the 44 Scotland Street series. For the uninitiated, the stories revolve around the inhabitants of a neighborhood.  Sometimes their paths intersect but overall there are usually several stories all going on at once.  Bertie is a little boy with a genius for music.  He has an over-the- top mother who is determined to see to it that Bertie is well rounded, whether Bertie wants to be or not.  She enrolls him in various classes (yoga, music, etc.) and wants him to play with girls.  Bertie’s father is a feckless sort, allowing the mother to take the lead in childrearing.  He’s also more than a bit absent-minded.  Like many of McCall Smith’s books, the theme here is everyday ethical challenges and how people handle them.  They’re slice of life tales, day to day parables, and are utterly charming.

Moving the Mountain by Feisal Abdul Rauf asks Americans to take another look at Islam.  Rauf, the so-called “Ground Zero Iman,” argues that it’s up to American Muslims to show the way forward for the rest of the Islamic world.  He explains the tenets of Islam, making distinctions between the parts that sprang from local custom and those that are central to Islam. 

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie is a collection of essays about the thirteen years he had to spend in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him.  The title refers to the name he picked as an alias to use for his own safety, combining the names of Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov.  Our reviewer felt there was too much personal information, especially about his former wives, and not enough consideration given to political, intellectual, and practical concerns.  One comment was that Rushdie was not a likeable character.

The Black Box by Michael Connelly has Harry Bosch trying to solve the twenty year old murder of a journalist who was killed during the Rodney King riots.  Most reviews have been good, but our reader didn’t think it was one of Connelly’s best.