Book Lovers Come On In

 Based on a true story about a man Allen and I actually knew while teaching at Ricks College.  Although we knew nothing of this amazing story.  In fact, almost no one did, until just a year or so before he died.  Robert (Bob) Inama - a man of incredible faith and fortitude. Bob was headed to law school, but was drafted into the army.  As an excellent marksman and speaker of German, Bob was given an assignment to spy on military targets in East Germany during the Cold War.   The German professor he was working for turned him in and Bob spent six months as a Prisoner of War.  He endured daily beatings, watery gruel, and was offered coffee, but never drank it.  He figured out when fast Sunday was, and fasted once a month in spite his meagre rations.  He made up his mind to be grateful for little things, including the guard who gave him the food.   As he was taken to the interrogation room, he spoke to "Adolph" the name he gave the guard. ...

 Recommended by Bonnie Rawson. A little too sappy for me and a LOT too improbable.  This is the story of a 9 year old girl who travels across America with her "father" in a camper van.  One day she spots a picture of her in a Walmart store under a missing child bulletin.  That makes her wonder what is really true about her entire life.   It's a crazy story.  A terrible mother, a man pushing a car into the lake - not knowing there was a baby girl inside - and a wounded warrior jumping in the lake to save the little girl in the back car seat.   It's one big improbability after another.  Bonnie loved the story, but it's just too sappy for me; the father was a perfect dad, the daughter too precocious to believe, and a sheriff too kind hearted to be true.   Not my type of story.  Time to move on.

  I must have a morbid fascination with this book because this is the 2nd time I've listened. It's very long and upsetting. This is the story of the Sackler family.  According to one Senate hearing member, "the most evil family in America!"  The father, three sons, and then the grandchildren.  The three sons became doctors and bought a small pharmacy.  They invented and marketed a drug called OxyContin.  They sold it using hundreds of sales reps on the basis that was was non-addicting, if used under a doctor's care.  Which was a blatant lie.  Thru the invention of that drug, the family became multi millionaires.   They were very philanthropic, BUT, it was all on the back of the thousands of people who died taking their drug.  Which they heavily marketed early on as NON-ADDICTIVE.  Which, of course, was  a total lie.  How it got past the FDA is so sordid and points out that money can buy anything, as Satan says in the templ...

  Delightful book; recommended by Bonnie Rawson.   A radio station (The Best Country Music in the Country!), a treasure hunt, a stuttering young teenager, a drunk disc jockey, a lady who runs a junk yard, a young man trying to find himself and what he values, and the man that binds them all together in a small town.  All rich and unique characters. It is a true Fairy Tale, but who doesn't need that every once in a while?  Of course, the whole thing is improbable, but maybe that's what made it so entertaining and heart warming.  I give it four stars.   I'll probably read more by Chris Fabry; he's a good story teller.