Bony and the Kelly Gang + Bony and the White Savage

Two more excellent stories by Arthur Upfield, featuring the half aborigine detective, Napoleon Bonaparte. Bony and the Kelly Gang is delightful! As usual, the setting is Australia, but this time in a deep, nearly inaccessible, valley populated by two lively and rebellious extended Irish families. A good mystery filled with warm human interactions***. Bony and the White Savage is an excellent mystery/thriller - still some light touches and good fellowship, but a darker theme and deeper mystery.

***Amazing coincidence! Today's NY Times has a story about Ned Kelly:

"In Australia, Kelly needs no introduction; for Americans, it may help to think of him as Jesse James, Thomas Paine and John F. Kennedy rolled into one. Born about 1854 to an Irish convict exiled to Australia, Kelly became a folk hero as a very young man. He took up arms against a corrupt British constabulary, robbed banks and wrote an explosive manifesto. He was shot and arrested in a final shootout in which he wore homemade metal armor, and in 1880 he was hanged by the Anglo-Irish establishment he despised. "

Kelly and these events serve as a key backdrop to the story in Bony and the Kelly Gang!

Branch Rickey by Jimmy Breslin

This quick, pleasurable read sketches the very interesting life and character of Branch Rickey, for many years the general manager and part owner of the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers and the man who single-handedly integrated major league baseball by recruiting Jackie Robinson and, immediately after, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella. Breslin is a master of the lively anecdote and a shrewd commentator on American life - highly recommended!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

This excellent book more frequently made me uncomfortable than anything I have read in a long time. The Berglund family and their relatives and friends are interesting and troubled - and their weaknesses and vanities are placed under the klieg lights of Franzen's simple but powerful prose. I identified at least a little with all the characters but one, so I felt uncomfortable in turn when the faults and troubles of these characters were highlighted. I identified least with the disaffected and cynical rocker Richard Katz, so I guess that's why I liked him the most - I didn't squirm when he was under the light! But there were many laugh out loud moments also.
In a way, the book seems like a well-crafted puzzle - though the narrative was composed largely of grim events afflicting not-so-likable people, these people all eventually and convincingly achieved some peace and the ending was moving and uplifting. Very interesting. Highly recommended.