What I'm Reading 4/13

I finished Blood Relation, my jaw remaining on the floor. The character, Kayo Konigsberg, was indeed a collosal character, a truly interesting and amazing psychopath. Very good book.

Immediately following, I got Randy Wayne White's new novel, Dark Light (Putnam Adult, 2006), from my beloved library. Finished that puppy in an easy couple of days, as is usually the case with his books. While I think it wasn't his best work, it was still very good. All of his books are set around the sea, of course, but this one has more nautical flavor than most of the others. For one thing, it involves diving on a shipwreck. The other notable thing about this one is its post-2005- hurricane-season setting. White was directly affected by the string of storms that hit western Florida, and this book sure shows it. The hurricanes are an ever-present character in the story.

I am now about halfway through Spook, by Mary Roach (W.W. Norton & Co., 2005). I'd actually had this one on reserve earlier (there was a wait list of well over 100!), but when it finally came time for me...I missed the hold! So, back to the end of the line. Now, by George, I've got it, and it's definitly been worth the wait. A very entertaining book! Not only intrinsically interesting, with its perennial subject matter (life after death), its history of science and medicine and medical quackery, but also very very funny. I've laughed out loud several times at Roach's dry humor.

What I'm Reading 4/3

I'm now reading another off-the-shelf whim, Blood Relation, by Eric Konigsberg (HarperCollins, 2005). It's a non-fiction book, a look at the life of the author's uncle, who, it turns out, was a rather serious mobster from the '40s up to the 60s. His name is Harold Konigsberg...aka Hesh, aka Hershey, aka Kayo! He's been in prison since the '60s and is kind of the author's family's "skeleton in the closet" that no one wanted to talk about. By the account in this book, he was one BAAAD dude in his heyday. The interesting twist to this account is that the family is Jewish. It's no big secret that there were Jewish mobsters; Meyer Lansky is one of the most famous mobsters bar none. So the book is a look at early Jewish immigrant history as well as a close look at a sociopath.

This book has an interesting resonance for me right now because I've been watching the Sopranos on DVD. Not having cable, I'd never seen the show until recently, but had always wanted to because I have a long-standing interest in the history of the mob. The anecdotes in the book certainly confirm much of the authenticity of the tv show. In fact, there's a Jewish Soprano associate who has the same name as the subject of this book...Hesh! However I'd say the Sopranos' Hesh is much less brutish than Kayo. And Kayo's stomping ground (word used advisedly) was in fact New Jersey.

So far, I must say, Kayo is a truly fascinating guy, scary but fascinating.