21.   So, instead of being handed a license, Max and Mollie got a book to read.

22.   The author is a Greek scholar and has taken care not to make this book read like a scholarly paper.

23.   The book reads like a novel.

24.   The book reads like transcribed tape recordings, with page after page of long quotations that beg for an editor.

25.   The book reads, at times, like an oral history, with quote after quote served up without much in between.

26.   The book reads like what it is, part and parcel of a political campaign.

27.   The book reads not like life described but like life lived and then shaped.

28.   The book reads as if Waller has a bad crush on an idealized self.

29.   The book reads like a classic mystery, the kind where a British inspector assembles everyone in the parlor to dissect a murder.

30.   The book reads like good detective fiction, peppered with tough language and pervaded by suspense.