2023 had seen me reading less. Altogether, I’ve averaged three books per season. Ergo, one catalogue every quarter. Altogether, this trio are all period pieces. Two are set in WW2 while the sports book transpires in the eighties. Mitch Albom’s latest anchors the season’s list. As I’ve noted in the past, his books are the easiest to crest. Four months since being released, The Little Liar hovers above ninety percent on Goodreads. I followed this one with Matthew Reilly’s latest. Mr. Einstein’s Secretary is a hopscotching epic that humanises the past century’s greatest physicist. The author provides insight into key moments in history. The plot reminded me of Forrest Gump. Like Liar, the Reilly book was well received on GR. Finally, Magic is Roland Lazenby’s massive tribute to the Laker legend. I’ve read his take on Kobe. In both works, he utilises a plethora of interviews, subplots, and vignettes. Like LeBron and The Jordan Rules, this one was an ebook.

1. The Little Liar (Albom). I’ve devoured most of Albom’s oeuvre, including three of his nonfiction texts (Tuesdays with Morrie, The Fab Five, and Finding Chika). One critic described Grisham as a ‘gifted storyteller’. For me, Albom is a master storyteller. He plays his cards really well, he sculpts his characters like Michelangelo. His attention to details mirrors da Vinci. Looking at Liar, a lot of research and effort was put into the novel. On the surface, his writing appears clean and crisp. How he’s able to construct such a seamless piece is breathtaking.

Liar is set in WWII. Nico is the titular character. The eight year old boy is a zealous Jew, attending synagogue every Saturday. They lived in Salonica (now Thessaloniki), where Ladino was the mother tongue. The metropolis held the biggest Jew diaspora. Everybody loves him, including Fanny, his friend. Only his brother, Sebastian, doesn’t dote on him. This was a classic case of sibling rivalry. More importantly, Nico was known for his veracity. He never told lies.

All this changed when the Nazis invaded and transported Jews to Auschwitz. Nico was led to believe that a new life awaited them. He sold it pretty well, not knowing the deception. Fifty thousand Jews were shipped to the camp. Upon figuring out that he was bamboozled, Nico was crestfallen. He had just sent his family and loved ones to limbo. He vowed never to tell the truth again.

The plot is centred on four punto de vistas: Nico’s, Sebastian’s, Fanny’s, and Udo’s. The latter is the Nazi commander who prompted Nico’s big lie. Fanny was fortunate never to have endured the camp. She lived in the shadows in Austria and Hungary. Sebastian wasn’t as lucky. Nico’s compulsive lying saw him forge passports and create bevies of fake identities. After chancing upon Nazi loot, he became rich. Though well off, he remained hollow inside. He kept changing countries and fabricating truths.

Fanny married Sebastian and they had a daughter, who lived in Israel. Sebastian though was consumed with wrath towards the Nazis. This led him to work in Austria, where his job was hunting Swastikas. This drove a wedge in his family. Ultimately, they divorced. Fanny was the polar opposite. She did not see the point of bearing a grudge. She made a conscious effort to avoid talking about the war.

For most of the book, Nico isn’t a very likeable chap. He has everything…and yet nothing. He is a Hollywood kingpin but no one sees him. He yearns for companionship but stiff arms anyone who gets close. In his productions, he explores his past but dismisses any mention of the Holocaust. Surreptitiously, he attends synagogue. Later, we learn that every year, on August 10, he showers Holocaust victims with cash. He does so anonymously and is ridden with guilt. Like Sebastian he craves to track down Udo. In his most heartfelt film, he chronicles his life and highlights his greatest happiness: his time with his family and Fanny. When he takes a bullet for his brother, he dies a fulfilled man. You can always count on Albom to give a feel good ending. Book done, after a week.

Rating: 5/5

2. Mr Einstein’s Secretary (Matthew Reilly). This marks my first Reilly read since The One Impossible Labyrinth. I like the narrative’s pacing. The action is swift and addictive, a real page turner. We progress from the protagonist’s humble beginnings in Germany, where she was Einstein’s next-door neighbour. We watch as she migrated to New York via steamship, to escape the Nazis. She then attends secretary school, where she finishes at the top of her class. After completing the course, she works for an older Yankee businessman. Though his schedule is packed, she gains valuable insight. Subsequently, she takes a front row seat to Word War II as the private secretary of high ranking Nazis. She then reports their operations to the US.

Einstein is a supporting yet visible character. Hanna is the star of the show, but the former acts as her all important mentor, father figure, and friend. As mentioned, this period work was mainly set in the 1930s and 40s. Aside from Einstein, Norma, Hanna’s twin, is another central character. Norma is the supporting antagonist. She has her issues and is a master troublemaker. She even gives her twin some tips on how to escape camps and prisons. She uses her uncanny resemblance to Hanna in order to get ahead in the world. She has done this for a long time has no qualms about doing it. She’s a quick learner but her lack of Hannah’s technical knowledge would ultimately doom her.

Agent Dan Kessler is Hannah’s point of contact and future flame. His fluency in German certainly helps. They enact a risky but exciting liaison under the Nazi sun. Their link was crucial in fooling the Nazis about the US War effort, ensuring victory for the Allies. Hannah worked for Speer, the Nazis’ chief architect. She describes him as an affable chap, though he lies about his involvement in his party’s infamy. Martin Bormann also employed her. He was a Hitler puppet who stayed with him through to the end. He was also vile and manipulative.

This is a really cool discourse. The author did his research over five years. The result is a very polished product. There are real life characters, including Einstein, General Omar Bradley, Speer, Bormann, Hannah Reitsch, Lucky Luciano, and a few others. Even though it involves Einstein and physics, the work is very accessible. I didn’t even notice the different fonts, which is reminiscent of Jodi Picoult. He uses various fonts for four different voices. I borrowed the ebook from the library. This marks the first text that I’ve crested in 2024. Prior to Einstein, I’ve tried finishing three other books. With the glowing reviews, this is a summer read that you ought to checkout.

‘A book can also give you insight into that person’s character: first and foremost, that the person is curious, because it is only the curious who read. The boorish and the arrogant do not read because they think they know everything already.’

Rating: 5/5

3. Magic (Roland Lazenby). ‘There had been many big men before him eager to dribble and pass and display their own genius, but Johnson would prove to be the one, the single figure with the iron will and supreme talent to impose his imprint on the game.’

This biography on Showtime’s mastermind is different. For starters, Lazenby takes an inside look at the star point guard’s formative years. Over two hundred pages is dedicated to his youth in Lansing, Michigan. A long (and pointless) family history through the American South is offered. Earvin’s close bond with his dad is canvassed. He won a state chip in school, before bagging the national title at Machigan State. He clashed with his college coach, but was the outfit’s leader even as a frosh. For his efforts in the 1979 chip match, he was adjudged Most Outstanding Player. The Final Four offered Magic a chance to be seen by the average American.

‘In and around the championship night, American finally got the first full look at this guy called Magic Johnson, a man with a smile so tall and wide that his cheeks seemed to strain mightily just to hold it all together’.

Secondly, the book is far from a one trick pony. Yes, there’s loads of basketball. However, Magic’s position is foregrounded as a go-between among the black and white communities. Magic’s megawatt smile and easygoing personality is no secret. His competitiveness, legendary. However, Roland looks into his various relationships. Whether it’s with his future wife, Cookie; his on-court brother, Kareem; his high school teammates; his business partner; his agent, lawyer, and competitors.

The author presents Magic as a sponge. People saw his no-look passes and junior, junior sky hooks. They witnessed his patented set shot that was streaky. In time, he extended his range to beyond the three point arc. Roland concedes that the Magic Man had Lady Luck on his side. He began his NBA journey with a playoff team. In his rookie year, he avoided any major time off despite some scares. As a sophomore, he was generating the most publicity even as he spent so little court action due to injury. By his third season, he wielded so much power that he essentially fired his own coach.

There’s some mention of Magic’s lifestyle. On the whole, the author does not dwell on the former’s conquests. He does point out that Magic was careless and loose. He allegedly bedded five hundred women a year. Despite all that was going on, despite his busy schedule, Magic was always there for his friends. He made time, too, for reviewing game tapes. He never came to a fixture unprepared. His videotape usage was way ahead of his time. He bonded with every egg on the roster, whether you were an all time great or the twelfth man.

In his eleven full seasons, he only missed the Finals thrice. His rivalry with Celtics star, Larry Bird, was epic. They contested three NBA Finals, with Johnson winning twice. For most of the eighties, the pair battled for NBA supremacy. He stands as the greatest point guard ever. His combination of size, strength, and court vision, were second to none. More importantly, he preserved his finest performances for the duels that matter. Magic holds the best assist per game average (11.19) in the regular season. However, his playoff average (12.35) is even higher. Given his contributions, Magic was the finest all-around player of his era. He had more career triple doubles (138) than Bird (59) or Jordan (28) combined. He won three season MVPs in four years. When he announced his retirement due to HIV, his passion was never extinguished. He applied his greatness to other endeavours, be it in business, coaching, television, or philanthropy.

A massive read at over seven hundred pages. It took me a while, off and on, bit by bit, until I crested this mountain. I’m proud to say that I only skipped the section on slavery and maybe two or three other short paragraphs. The language could be improved. Conciseness is clearly not the author’s strength. However, being a hoops fan, I could get what Roland wrote about. In short, the book has a niche audience.

‘Life, however, is a mosaic that reflects a total of many pieces’.

Rating: 4.7/5