book-reviews news: July 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Why Twitter Can Change You

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Book Review - Ginger High by Melissa Burmester

Ginger High

BY: Melissa Burmester

PUBLISHED BY: Infinity Publishing.com

PUBLISHED IN: May 2009

ISBN: 0-7414-5363-0

Ages: teen & up

Reviewed by Billy Burgess

Growing up in the 90’s, I was a big fan of teen horror novels – Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine and Lois Duncan were some of my favorite authors. The teen horror/thriller trend has died down, except for the ones where vampires sparkle. I found Ginger High a breath of fresh air. Teen girls will easily connect with the main character, Daisy – a smart, strong young woman.

The novel begins in 1901 where a series of murders take place. All of the victims have bite marks on their necks. Could it be vampires? The story jumps forward to modern days and focuses on teen Daisy Fisher. After her school is burnt down, Daisy is sent to a new school in New York.. Ginger High is a private school for students with extraordinary powers and abilities. She befriends some of the students who can teleport, heal others, and create fire. She soon finds out that people came to Earth from a parallel world called the Kingdom of Animists.

A murder occurs at Ginger High, bringing the supernatural beings Amanta, Matthias, and Taeru from the parallel world. While they investigate the death, Daisy struggles with her supernatural powers, and with her mysterious new friend, Fredrick. Amanta must deal with a long time, buried family secret.

Fourteen year old, Melissa Burmester has written a fast paced debut novel; combining horror, mystery and fantasy. I love the cover of the book – it reminds me of the horror movie posters of the middle 80’s. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery. The author has a bright future in the world of writing.

Book Review: <em>Finding An Unseen God</em> by Alicia Britt Chole

In this book, Chole writes about her journey from adamant atheist (she used to deliberately antagonize her Christian friends in high school) to ardent believer. It’s an interesting read. Chole keeps some suspense going throughout the book, leading up to the moment, the encounter that made her a believer (which I found anti-climactic, but sometimes real life is anti-climactic).

The book is also an apologetic, or an explanation of why the Christian faith is true. A lot of this does make sense and matches my own experiences, but some of it irked me.

For instance, Chole says that she’s grateful for “the privilege of learning from Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Christian friends.” However, she also implies that pluralism (the idea that other faiths are equally good roads to God) is wrong, and that Christianity is the only correct faith. I wonder how her Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh friends feel about that?

Chole explains four filters she uses to determine whether a faith is a valid one:

Is it consistent at its core?
Is it livable and not just quotable?
Is it sustainable through life-size pain?
Is it transferable to others (will it work for people in other cultures, economic situations, etc.)?

She makes a good case that Christianity passes these filters, but I suspect that devout people of other religions could make a strong case for their faith passing as well.

I did like Chole’s statements that God is not bothered by questions about faith, and that it’s OK to question.

“Believing does not mean that you will no longer have questions. Believing does not mean that you will turn off your brain.”

And another good quote:

“God neither dilutes discrepancy nor ignores complexity. God does not conveniently edit out the uncomfortable.”

Although this book irked me at times, it was an interesting read. I’m not sure it’s the kind of book an atheist would be willing to read, but it will be interesting to believers, and maybe to people on the edge of faith.

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Book Review: The Urban Homestead

The Urban Homestead

This spring I got this book on my then-fiance’s recommendation, who spotted it in the Piragis catalog. I loved it! I skipped some sections, like livestock and foraging, and focused on the gardening section. I learned so much and it validated things I was planning to do but was unsure about, like having pulled up our landscape fabric and wanting to mix veggies in with the flowers. So many good ideas.

What this book really had going for it, as far as a novice like me is concerned, is the simple how-tos, complete with diagrams and step-by-step descriptions. It gets into the why just enough for understanding to start to take root, but not overwhelm.

I plan to buy this one – and that’s saying a lot for me!! There have been several instances when I’ve wanted to consult it and it is at the library.

Resource Saturday- Two Great Books on Biblical Theology

Right interpretation of God’s Word is probably the most crucial aspect of our faith. Without a proper understanding of the Scriptures we can never know the truth that they reveal. Because of this many Christians pour over commentary upon commentary and systematic upon systematic gaining deeper and better knowledge of the things which God has said.

Yet so much time is spent in trying to unwrap the individual books and topics of the Bible that its easy to lose track of another important level of interpretation, namely biblical theology. This is the point at which we interpret the Bible as a whole, the Bible as a story, from front to back, in light of its focus and intent. As I said, this is another level of interpretation and so has obvious overlaps with the others already mentioned, but still has its own distinct purpose. One such purpose is gaining a fuller grasp of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, the Old and New Covenants, Israel and the Church.

When considering biblical theology there are two books that I have found most helpful. The first one is According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy. Dr. Goldsworthy is a retired Australian professor and in this book he sets out a template for placing the various themes of the Scriptures together as they arise in order to make the separate books of the Bible fit together into one coherent image. I first picked up this book on recommendation of a friend during John Piper’s Desiring God Conference last year and had it most of the way read before I even arrived back home. This is a well organized, easy to follow text that carries you step-by-step through deciphering and connecting biblically relevant information and, judging by its prevelance in the classes at Southern Seminary, it really is as good as I found it to be myself.

The second book, or actually set of books, is Mark Dever’s sermon collections The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made and The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept. This set contains a sermon on each book of the Bible which describe both the book itself and its place in the greater canon of Scripture. I have found this set to be very nice to use when I move into new books in my personal study time. They are nice introductions to the book and wonderful reminders of how all of God’s Word reveals the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you are looking for great resources to build up your interpretative library, please consider these as foundational texts every serious student must have.

Book review No. 5 - "Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish Shaped America" by (Senator) James Webb

In Book review No. 1 – a review of Ken McGoogan’s book on the amazing explorer John Rae’s discovery of the Northwest Passage (as well as the fate of the Franklin expedition) - I mentioned this book by the Marine and Senator from the great state of Virginia, James Webb. Senator Webb’s book came to mind again this evening as I was reading another book, which shall comprise my next book review (subsequent to the present one). That said, I felt it incumbent to give Senator’s Webb outstanding book it’s own place within this blog.

To put it simply, this book by Senator Webb is exquisite. It chronicles these individualistic, independent, stubborn/head-strong and often fearless people who emigrated from Scotland and Ireland and truly laid the foundation – the backbone as some might call it – of the United States, the greatest country the world has known. With a fighting spirit unlike any other, the Scots-Irish battled and overcame every obstacle placed before them. These are a people made up of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Andrew Jackson, Stonewall Jackson, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton and Chesty Puller. The list could go on and on but no one can really follow Chesty Puller, so I was obliged to stop.

These are a people that have long fought (and died) for our great Nation and made up large portions of armed forces. These are a people who have made up numerous Presidents as well, from the era of our Founding Fathers to modern times. Their fierce spirit developed this Nation, comprised its heritage and formed its identity. Without these people, it is scarcely imaginable that our Country would have developed as it has. The “pilgrims” and colonists, the explorers, the determination and fortitude of the plains settlers and westward migrating/settling pioneers, those who were obligated to rid themselves of an oppressive (and harmful) government, forming their own government by creating the United States, who thereafter continued to fight for its continued existence and prosperity…from the American Revolution through modern-day warfare…all unimaginable without the Scots-Irish.

This is a proud, storied and vital heritage that has been presented in a most eloquent manner by Senator Webb and I am thankful he has provided it to us. Definitely pick up a copy of this book if you have not had the opportunity to do so thus far; I cannot recommend it highly enough.

My Sister's Keeper... So Disappointing

**Warning: This post contains spoilers. If you haven’t read the novel, I suggest you don’t read the post unless you want a shocking ending to be completely ruined.**

So, I just finished My Sister’s Keeper. It’s a brilliant novel, until you get to the end. I don’t know about you, but I felt completely cheated in those last few chapters. What on earth was Jodi Picoult thinking?

This whole novel centers around Anna Fitzgerald fighting to have control over her own life. She finally gets it and in the end, she gets into a freak car accident and dies. That is a cheap ending if I ever read one. It completely undermines what this novel is essentially about: freedom to control your own destiny. So basically, we follow Anna for 400+ pages, sympathize with her struggles, and in the end it’s all for absolutely nothing. Since Anna’s life is snuffed out by forces beyond her control, everything she fought for, and essentially the whole storyline of the novel, is pointless. And the fact that Kate lives and defies the odds because she now has the blessing of her sister’s kidney, oh please. It’s so sappy I can barely stand it.

You know, for once in my life I actually like the ending of the movie version better. Of course, I don’t like all of the movie, because there are a whole set of characters in the novel who aren’t even mentioned in the movie. But at the end of the movie things are as they should be. Kate dies, which of course is sad and tragic, but Anna gets a chance to have her own life. Anna finally gets to be her own person and her mother, Sara, is finally able to let go.

Is anyone as disappointed as I am?

K is for Kadohata: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Finally! A book I really enjoyed. Katie, the main character in Cynthia Kadohata’s Newbery Award-winning Kira-Kira, is someone many people could relate to. She loves her family, including Lynn, her older sister that seems to be more talented at school, and life in general, than Katie. Lynn and Katie’s parents, immigrants from Japan, work in a hatchery in Georgia and struggle to give their children a better life.

It’s an American Dream story. It’s a Death in the Family story. It’s really very good.

Mitch Albom Writes at a 3rd Grade Reading Level, Stephen King at an 8th -- The Reading Levels of Your Favorite Authors

[This post first appeared in November 2006 and since then consistently has ranked among the most popular on the site. I am on a short semi-vacation.]

For One More Day: A Novel. By Mitch Albom. Hyperion, 197 pp., $21.95.

By Janice Harayda

It’s official: Mitch Albom writes at a third-grade reading level, according to the readability statistics on Microsoft Word 2004.

I know this because For One More Day struck me as so dumbed-down – even for Albom – that it fell below the level of the sixth-grade books I once edited for a test-prep company. So I typed a couple of paragraphs from the novel into my computer and ran the Word spelling and grammar checker, which gives you the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Statistics at the bottom. Albom, it showed, writes at the level of Grade 2.8. This was startling enough that I wondered if the paragraphs I had used, from page 24, were atypical. So I typed in the full text of pages 24 and 25 and found that they were atypical. Albom actually writes at a third-grade level, Grade 3.4, according to Flesch-Kincaid.

I used pages 24 and 25 because the first pages of a book sometimes don’t represent the whole of it: Authors may be clearing their throats or writing in a different tone than they will use after they have found their rhythm. So it’s often fairest to look not just at the first chapter but also at something that comes later. A chapter typically has about 20 pages, so I used the first full section of Albom’s book that follows page 20, a total of 305 words.

All of this raised a question: Does a novel written at a third-grade level deserve the same sort of review as books by authors who write at higher levels? Especially if the book appears to be a naked attempt to combine the theme of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life with the kind of framing device Robert James Waller used in The Bridges of Madison County (which tries to lull you into believing that a novel tells a true story)? Maybe not. So here instead are the grade levels I got for a half dozen other authors when I checked the readability statistics for 305 words of their prose:

Nora Ephron I Feel Bad About My Neck Grade 12.0
Alex Kuczynski Beauty Junkies Grade 10.3, an exposé by a New York Times reporter
James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson Grade 8.6
Stephen King Lisey’s Story Grade 8.3
Danielle Steel Toxic Bachelors Grade 4.8
Emily Arnold McCully An Outlaw Thanksgiving, a picture book for 4-to-8 year olds by a Caldecott Medalist Grade 4.3
Mitch Albom For One More Day Grade 3.4

I also ran the statistics for the Lord’s Prayer, using the punctuation in a 20th century edition of The Book of Common Prayer. And it turns out that Jesus, too, “wrote” at a third-grade level, Grade 3.8, according to Microsoft Word (although he spoke the prayer). So there you have it. Mitch Albom, writing at the Grade 3.4 level, doesn’t quite come up to the level of Jesus at Grade 3.8. But who would know it from all the attention he is getting?

Best Line: A quote from Louis Armstrong: “If ya ain’t got it in ya, ya can’t blow it out.”

Worst line: Many. Samples: “He chuckled.” “My mother chuckled.”

Editors: Leslie Wells and Will Schwalbe

Furthermore: This review has a reading level of Grade 9.5, excluding the supplemental information at the end, according to the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Statistics on Microsoft Word 2004.

Published: September 2006. Albom also wrote Tuesdays With Morrie (Anchor, 2005).

How to find the reading level of a book: Go to the Microsoft Word pull-down “Help” menu. Search for “readability statistics.” Select “display readability statistics.” This will walk you through the process of finding the grade level for any text you enter, including your own writing.

Grade levels and their corresponding ages in American schools: In the U.S, children typically begin grades at these ages: kindergarten, 5; first grade, 6; second grade, 7; third grade, 8, fourth grade, 9; fifth grade, 10; sixth grade, 11; seventh grade, 12; eighth grade, 13; ninth grade, 14; tenth grade, 15; 11th grade, 16; 12th grade, 17.

The Dangers of Botox, Restylane, Liposuction and More -- Alex Kuczynski's 'Beauty Junkies' Looks at the Risk of Trying to One-Up Mother Nature

This review was first posted in January 2008. I am on a short semi-vacation.

Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With Cosmetic Surgery. By Alex Kuczynski. Doubleday, 290 pp., $24.95.

By Janice Harayda

A radio station in Detroit had a contest called “New Year, New Rear” that gave the winner $15,000 worth of liposuction. A film executive’s wife in Bel Air had her genitals surgically altered through labiaplasty. An Irish woman died in Manhattan after a face-lift by doctor who sought publicity by giving interviews to Elle and Cosmopolitan.

How did we get to a point that all of this seems almost normal? What are the social, emotional, and medical costs of the cosmetic surgery boom? Alex Kuczynski gives fearless and persuasive answers in Beauty Junkies, a skillful blend of reporting, social commentary, and advice to people who are thinking of going under the knife.

You can argue with Kuczynski’s thesis that “looks are the new feminism, an activism of aesthetics.” You can argue with some of her conclusions, which reflect life in New York and Los Angeles better than in the Heartland (though the coasts are bellwethers for the rest of the country). And you can argue with advice such as: “Distrust doctors who are too tan.” If you’re having surgery, wouldn’t you prefer a rested doctor to one with a hospital pallor induced partly by too little sleep?

But Beauty Junkies is so well-written and — researched that it may stand for years as the definite book of reporting on its subject. Nearly every page has an “Oh, my God” moment. A study found that “overweight job applicants are judged more harshly than ex-felons or applicants with a history of mental illness”? Oh, my God. An urgent care center in Malibu gives Botox shots because wrinkles are now considered an “emergency”? Oh, my God. Kuczynski’s upper lip swelled up to “the size of a large yam” after a Restylane shot and took five days to return to normal? Oh, my God.

A writer for the New York Times, Kuczynski shows a particularly admirable willingness to expose the conflicts of interest that abound in the portrayal of cosmetic surgery in “women’s magazines, men’s health magazines, and some city magazines,” the first line of information for many Americans about new procedures. The unpleasant truths include that writers and editors often get free surgery in exchange for writing “something wonderful about it.” One physician who has appeared in these magazines is “one of the most-sued doctors in the country, with a jaw-dropping record of 33 settled malpractice suits since 1995.”

The Devil Wears Prada startled many people with its fictionalized portrayal of all the editorial freeloading at women’s magazines, the fashion-and-beauty industry equivalent of a permanent Iran-Contra affair with regular arms-for-hostage negotiations. Beauty Junkies is much scarcier, because it’s true.

Best line: “In a city like New York, people like to talk about their addictive personalities, as if having an addictive personality were a mark of achievement.”

Worst line: “The New York Times does not allow reporters to receive anything from any news source for free – no free face-lifts, no free shoes, not even a bottle of champagne at Christmas that costs more than $25.” So the editors of the New York Times Book Review pay for the hundreds of books they get every week? Or at least reimburse publishers for any that cost more than $25?

Recommended if ... you’ve ever looked in the mirror and wondered if there could be any harm in smoothing out a few of those crow’s feet with a little Botox.

Editor: Stacy Creamer

Published: October 2006 (first edition), January 2008 (Broadway Books paperback edition).

One-Minute Book Reviews is for people who like to read but dislike hype and review inflation.

God Is Not Great part 2: A charge of absurdity

Belief in religion is absurd in itself. To call something “absurd” means to call something “illogical” since belief in that which can’t be proven is certainly part of the definition of “faith” ontologically religion is absurd. Yet, many are loathe to use the adjective because of it’s other connotation which is “ridiculous”–giving the impression that faith is for the stupid, the childish, and the slow-witted.

As I said in my previous post, most atheistic arguments come off this way. The atheist tends to get smug and condescending as the religious gets…well about the same but angrier. What I liked about Hitchens is that more often than not the religious masses are viewed by him almost as victims of a charade being perpetrated on them by followers of the desert monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Nonetheless, he also views such followers as being gullible having bought into something that they wouldn’t have if the institution of the population into religion was postponed until the age of reason. It’s not just that the masses are tricked but that they also refuse to look at the trick and figure it out themselves. So we come to the absurdities.

Hitchens isn’t without admiration of the achievements of those people that were religious, for instance he laudes praise on the Jewish archaeologists who have combed the desert of the middle east and have come up with many interesting and ancient finds. He then points out that despite the stories in the history of the three monotheisms large important events have not left even the trace of evidence that they occured. The wandering in the desert of the Jews after their flight from Egypt is doubted to the extent that it is completely discounted. This lack of evidence is confirmed from both Jewish archaeologists and Egyptian archaeologists. The former not being able to find traces of a large group of nomadic people wandering a swath of the world which is odd given that there is a book allegedly chronicling their locations and deeds. The slaughter by the Levites should have been discoverred given the amount of people that Moses commanded them to kill. Those working the Egyptian angle cannot locate any mention of a slave uprising or exodus, nor of a mass murder of the first born infants. Odd, considering the mention of the pharaoh losing his son in popular tellings of the story. Or the case of Noah’s ark, where every couple of years some expedition sets out to mount Ararat to find the ark but comes up empty.

This should be enough, he says, but then hints at the likely response, “…yet.” The evidence hasn’t been found yet, which is a claim that is unfalsifiable. “Unfalsifiable” doesn’t mean “true” it means that it is a claim that is beyond proof, it can’t be given a truth value which makes it weak, so weak that in science it is considerred “not even wrong.” Yet this story makes up the basis for the beliefs of a majority of the world’s religious.

His second important absurdity seems to focus on the personhood of the individuals for whom the divine revelation occurs. Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, Joseph Smith are said to be those for whom the absolute has had direct contact. The disbelief at this centers around their capabilities and social standing. If god is so omnipotent and omniscient, why is it chosing people that seem to be the least off? Why not allow for a leader or someone with authority to carry the message thus gaining the largest amount of people with the least amount of effort? God apparently is not an economist. In the case of Muhammed we are presented with a person who was illiterate, told by the angel Gabriel to “read,” who then has to transliterate the word of Allah and spread it to the masses. Joseph Smith, a charlatan and convicted criminal, is given golden tablets by the same angel; Moses was admittedly the less intelligent between him and his brother yet it is he, not Aaron that is charged with leading the Jews from servitude. Hitchens asks, “what is this if not populism?” Simply it doesn’t make sense as to why the poor and uneducated are given this charge where, again, it would be simpler to reveal the truth to everyone–a task not unfit for an all powerful absolute.

The rest of the absurdities take place in the form of simple questions: if Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead why is there no record of what eventually happened to him? Why are his experiences not recorded? Lazarus would be the only person to have charted Hamlet’s “undiscoverred country” but no one seems to make a big deal of it afterward.

Or my personal favorite regards Judas and the prophecy regarding the Messiah. Judas had to betray Jesus according to the prophets, but how could he? Jesus, a man well known to the local Jewish authorities as they had confronted him many times, who were actively looking for him, needed someone to point him out to the guards.

Despite all of this the religious still cling to their beliefs. Which makes Hitchens’s job all the more frustrating. He tries to show the power of the rational mind, of the fact that atmoic theory is millenia old derived from the power of reason rather than revelation, but none of this matters. Faith, it seems, the power of belief is stronger than anything else.

BOOK REVIEW: Good to Great

Good to Great by Jim Collins

About a week ago, I finally finished up Good to Great by Jim Collins. I had read almost the entire book and then put it aside for a few months. Not one to leave things unfinished, I picked it up and read the last two chapters. First, let me tell you after reading Good to Great, I found myself wanting to read Jim Collins previous book, Built to Last. What I enjoyed about Good to Great is that Collins used empirical data to support his claims. Collins doesn’t launch into a conjecture contrived of the “wisdom of ages” to guide a good company to greatness. Instead, he and his colleagues reviewed the entire data set, not a sample, of the companies that went from good to great.

I took away three concepts from Good to Great. The Hedgehog Concept, Level 5 Leadership, and the Flywheel. In a nutshell, the Hedgehog Concept has one ask, about one’s own company, “What are you deeply passionate about?”, “What can you be the best in the world at?”, and “What drives your economic engine?” The Level 5 Leader builds greatness “through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” And, the Flywheel Concept summarized states there is no “miracle moment” in greatness but rather a buildup of greatness through “continued improvement and the delivery of results.”

I recommend Good to Great to any startup employee and management in any ongoing concern. Both entrepreneurs and “old hats” will find at least one nugget of gold, if not more, in this book.

Outliers

By Malcolm Gladwell Buy on Amazon Published November 2008 (Hardcover) Little, Brown More Info: Malcolm Gladwell

I save highly desirable objects for dessert. Which explains why — although I’ve owned Outliers: The Story of Success since November when the book pubbed, I only read it today. This delay is only made more mysterious because its contents became exquisitely seductive by best-selling author James Patterson. When I interviewed JP in November for the March Writer’s Digest issue, he had read an advance copy of Outliers, and told me about one fascinating key to success — that 10,000 hour concept.

Outliers is a double-hot caramel sundae with dollops of whipped cream. It is New York cheesecake with divine cherries. It is delectable brownies with a hot fudge sauce drizzled over the top.

I’m not supposed to eat that stuff. But Outliers is the perfect dessert. Btw, I’m going to change my style and eat dessert first from now on.

In this world of instant fame — usually of the fifteen-minute variety — it makes me wonder what are the ingredients of success. I love Gladwell’s writing — he is the consummate storyteller, and he teases out the answers to that question at just the right pace. So while I encourage you to read the book — yes yes! — I also feel honor-bound to not reveal the answers to why certain among us are successful, and others, despite hard work, are not. The term Outliers is scientific — it is used to describe that which lies outside normal experience.

But the 10,000 hour aspect has become nearly synonymous with Outliers. Simply stated, it takes about ten-thousand hours to become expert. The Beatles, Bill Gates, Mozart all had an amazing number of hours of practice before they hit it. It struck me that while I’m relatively new to print, I’ve received no rejection letters for magazine articles or pieces for anthologies. For that, I’m extremely grateful — but, duh — I’ve written at least twice that 10,000 hour mark in stories that I read on the air as a news anchor. I’ve had to write fast, and I’ve had to write a lot. There is no such thing as a blank screen, because dead air is a worse threat. You may already have reached that magical mark in something you love to do — check it out!

One of the resounding themes in the book is that no one becomes a success all alone. In fact, we need a certain kind of family. Culture is a predictor of success. And, surprisingly, birthdates are as well. And, no, Gladwell has not turned into an astrologer.

I love that he tells his own family’s story — because, he, indeed, is a success. As I read the book, and observed how certain events and heritage lined up, leading to success, I wondered about my own family, wondered if I could dare ask my mother if I could interview her about her own family. She cut me off some twenty years ago, and will not speak to me — the short reason, I took my birth name, Jordan, instead of my stepfather’s last name. No matter, I would love to learn more. For myself, I would love to know how a woman of such amazing heritage would marry — and stay with — a violent pedophile. I won’t ask her that.

I will ask her about her mother and father, and their heritage. What I know so far — in scant detail — my mother’s mother was born in Peru, and when she was about four, her family made its way to New York City where her father was a bank president. While I knew my grandmother had traced her mother’s line back to an Incan princess, I didn’t know until a few years ago, that her father was a Russian Jew. My mom — despite growing up in New York — was anti-semitic in later years. Now, my mother’s father was born in Sydney, Australia, and played his violin so tenderly that when he was thirteen, he began playing his Stradivarius for royalty around the world. I carefully played with a ring — a seal, with a coat-of-arms — as a child. My mother says the ring belonged to a king on her father’s line.

She is, unfortunately, the only one left with these stories, so it’s up to her and to me to keep this history. I wonder if she’ll say yes.

As for Outliers, I take away a peaceful sense of being. I have been wondering a lot about success, some days feeling successful, others, feeling anything but. And the largest message I get is to live a good life, be grateful for the forces that delivered you where you are, and that will be success enough.

With a cherry on top.

HPHBP Review (warning - contains spoilers)

Yes. Potter. Very pleasantly surprised by the sixth film, since the same director did the fifth one well, but not too wisely – ie it was much too short. I guess he looked at the length of the book and panicked. As anyone would. So. Yes. I’m impressed by how the same cast has followed through all the films – not only in the main parts – which, as the actors have gone through adolescence and are now young adults, is no mean feat, but all the minor parts as well. So far as I can see, the only change occurred when Richard Harris, who was a great Dumbledore, had the temerity to die after the first film. One of the great pleasures for me is in watching the children grow up.

There’s a lot of humour in this film, necessarily so because the stories grow darker as the books progress. Clearly some of the people in the cinema hadn’t read the book, because they were totally shocked when Snape killed Dumbledore. I was completely gripped throughout the 2 1/2 hours and my first thought on exiting was that i wanted to see it again.

One thing they didn’t do so much (or at least, i didn’t notice it) was to tell the minor stories in the background (eg by a look exchanged, or some people arguing – something which is never explained but which those who know the books will understand.) I think that what they’re doing, now the series is coming to its climax, is concentrating on the main plot – which in itself is complicated enough to demand all your attention.

I count myself a sophisticated reader – but I couldn’t guess what would happen at the end of the seventh book. If you don’t know, here’s what happened:

Oh, damn! We’re out of time. See you tomorrow.

Kirk out.

PS Read it yourself. It’s good. Honest.

The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut by Paul Nowak

Title: The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut (Based on the Life and Works of G.K. Chesterton)

Author: Paul Nowak

Paperback: 55 pages

ISBN: 0977223493

Miscellaneous: This book is intended to be the first of a series on “Uncle Chestnut.”

Challenges: 2009 ARC Reading Challenge

“You see, Jack, an adventure is only an inconvenience considered the right way, and an inconvenience is an adventure considered the wrong way,” said Uncle Chestnut. “When someone complains about the inconveniences in their life – such as hats blowing away, or drawers getting stuck, or delays at the airport – they are missing the adventure in those experiences they cannot control. The only thing we always can control is how we react.”

“In other words, we can choose to enjoy life, with all its adventures that take place beyond our control, or we can be miserable with all the inconveniences life hands us. It’s up to you to choose.”

-page 9

Uncle Chestnut is a great storyteller, and he enjoys telling them as much as Jack enjoys listening to them. He makes faces, uses voices and acts out parts of the tale he’s telling. When I read this, my mind immediately went to my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Crawford (whose first name, coincidentally, was also Jack). Mr. Crawford didn’t teach history to us, he performed it. His face reflected the Pharaoh as he covered ancient Egypt. I still remember when he was telling us about Israel’s crossing the Red Sea, and he was pretending to be one of the Egyptian cavalry soldiers pursuing them: “Whoa, Nelly… you can’t drink that water!” was his command to his horse as “Nelly” was getting ready do sample the wall of water. Mr. Crawford, like Uncle Chestnut, made the stories come alive.

The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut isn’t a story, specifically, but rather more anecdotal. In the book Jack, the narrator, is remembering life with his eccentric writer-uncle. It’s full of wisdom and good sense that’s definitely lacking today. The author, Paul Nowak, was inspired by G.K. Chesterton, an early 20th century writer who inspired C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, Mahatma Gandhi, just to name a few. More recently, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett have referenced, credited and even created characters based on Chesterton.

As I first started reading this, I thought it was written by the actual nephew, but I quickly realized that wasn’t possible. Then I thought maybe Nowak was updating Jack’s diary, or that Jack would turn out to be C.S. Lewis. It wasn’t until the American Idol reference that I finally understood that this book was really a work of fiction. Yes, Nowak based Uncle Chestnut on Chesterton and used Chesterton’s work to be as true to him as possible, but it is fiction. It’s such a surprising little book, not at all what I was expecting. As it is the first in what the author intends to be a series, I really hope the next book isn’t far off, because I can’t wait for my new favorite uncle to visit some more.

Some little things about the book, though… The only fault I could really find with it other than the few typos about which Nowak warned in the accompanying letter is this: It is too short. I had hardly settled in before it was over. I’m not saying it to be funny, I really mean that the length of the book actually left a negative feeling. You know, like when you go to the ice cream shop and order a large, thinking you are really going to get a treat, and they hand you a kiddie cone? Ultimately, somewhere down the line, it might be a good idea to consolidate books into a 200-300 or so page book. The other off thing I had to say about it is that it’s supposed to be kinda-sorta a kids book, but I’m not really sure it fits that. Maybe, IDK… it’s a bit Winnie-the-Pooh like in style, which was actually a very surprising thing to have captivated my kids attention. I haven’t read this book with them yet, so maybe they would really like it, but it just seems like something the kid inside the grown-up would like.

I really do hope The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnutby Paul Nowak catches and takes off, it’s very much a needed book and voice of wisdom and reason that could tip the balance a little more toward sanity than it’s been leaning lately. I know my copy isn’t leaving my library, so y’all will have to get your own I know I will re-read this one. 5 out of 5 stars, in case you didn’t catch that I liked it.

By the way, make sure to check out the book’s site at http://unclechestnut.com/ . There you can learn more about the man who inspired this book, G.K. Chesterton, as well as search quotes and sign up for the Uncle Chestnut’s quote a day newsletter.

Book Review - Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Were you ever lucky enough to read the perfect book at the perfect time it your life? It is an amazing feeling for any person, and not just for book nerds like me. Today I finished my most recent perfect book, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is a book I’ve picked up and put down in bookstores for several years now. Lately, I’ve been lingering by it, and about eight days before it was mailed to me as a gift, I almost bought it. I didn’t buy any books that day, and I can’t answer as to why. But when my friend sent me this book as an act of kindness due to complications from my hysterectomy, I knew somehow that destiny wanted me to read it, and as a gift rather than my own free will, because it was fates way of sending me a message – You must read this, and now. This book was my perfect book of 2009 because I’ve been struggling with my health, and the loss of adventure and living life to the fullest. When you have some of the stupid conditions I have, you can’t even make it out of bed on some weekends after a long week of work. I miss doing things like driving across the country for 19 days in a $75,000 borrowed Cadillac, seeing a pack of wild mustangs running through the dessert while rock climbing, snorkeling under the influence in the possible shark filled waters of Puerto Rico, or hiking in Yellowstone violently hung over after a hard night of drinking with college professors and Australian cowboys. I once traveled the world, had many adventures with total strangers, good friends and my hubby, and took notes and photos of it all. It is a dream of mine to combine my love of travel and writing and do something like what Ms. Gilbert has done, by writing an inspiring book about my adventures in life and how they healed my soul. I have decided that I’m going to stop thinking of myself as sick, and perhaps I can get back my old outer strength by having a strong inner strength first. I can’t afford traveling to Bali like Ms. Gilbert did, but maybe I can find something here in the state of Michigan that I once had while on my road trip out west. In the end, life isn’t about what you wore, where you lived, what you did for a living, but how you lived and enjoyed your life. Now that I’m losing my job in two months due to a lot of unfair and crappy reasons, it is a perfect time to try and find myself again.

This book is based on the real life experiences of the writer and her one year quest to do what she always wanted to do, which was learn to speak Italian, to study under an Indian Guru to find her spiritual path, and to learn how to live in this world and enjoy its delights while devoting herself to God. I find all three quests fascinating, especially her desire to spend four months in Rome learning the language. I am an Italian who was raised in an Italian home where people only spoke the language when they needed to talk in private or needed to swear badly. I never learned the language (Just the swear words) and I’ve always wanted to experience Italy as a person rather than just a world traveler. As for the yoga and the search within, I’ll say that I’ve always been fascinated by eastern religions and philosophy, and I give thanks to The Beatles, my English professor Dr. R., and an ex-wife of an old friend who introduced me to the beliefs of the east. I’ve never been able to pick one religion and stick with it, as I wasn’t raised as a true Catholic (Being a bastard and all in the 70s) but being raised by them certainly gave me the old fashioned guilt. Having a spiritual guide sounds very interesting to me. And learning to live in the world and enjoy life, who doesn’t want that? So, after reading the first seven or eight chapters, I was in it for the long haul.

I don’t want to give away too much, that is not fair to anyone who hasn’t read this book. Let me say that I loved this book, loved it so much that I had to stop reading it for an entire week, so I could savor it. I love to travel, to write, and, my god, to eat, and I have been searching for my own religion and inner peace since childhood. This book really has me thinking about my life, and what I want to do with the rest of it. And, one spoiler, just wait until you get to page 274. I’m honestly sad that I finished this book today, because no longer can I look forward to reading it in small doses every day. Eat, Pray, Love is the best book I’ve read in all of 2009.

“[My guru] says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it…”
—Elizabeth Gilbert

If any of you have had the same experience with another book, please share your story here. Also, those who have read this book, tell me what your WORD is. Mine has always been ADVENTURE.

Review: "The Visibles: A Novel" by Sara Shepard

This book took me a long time to read, over a month, which for me is at least 3 weeks longer than usual. I kept thinking “where is the plot?” and “what is this book really about?”

I found that the characters didn’t get fleshed out enough and I didn’t go on the journey with them, rather I watched (apathetically) from a distance. There were some characters that seemed randomly thrown in the book. They were developed enough to be characters rather than “book extras”, but just when they became real, they disappeared suddenly for most of the book only to reappear briefly, much later on and for no good reason. I daresay the cameo characters could have more interesting stories to tell than the main one told in this book; two of these characters had unresolved subplots when the book ended and I found that a bit frustrating.

There were also a few chapters sprinkled throughout the book written in a different font (and no explanation in the title as to the voice behind them) and they were just plain confusing. I knew it wasn’t the main character but I didn’t know who it was and was more perplexed with trying to figure that out than to care or understand what that voice was saying. By the time I connect the character with the voice (right far into the book), I had completely forgotten what was said in those first few confusing chapters and didn’t care to go back and read them. If it would have spoiled some of the plot to reveal that voice right away then I just don’t see the point in having those random chapters in there at all; they came across as a gimmicky (like those movies that are out of order chronologically and don’t make much sense until the end) and did nothing to move the story along.

There is a story in the Visibles and it could have been a great one; parts of the book were very readable and interesting. The plot, as it turned out, was there in the beginning and in the end, it just got lost—really lost— in the middle. It’s almost as if Shepard had a great idea for a book, sold the publisher on the idea, wrote the first and last few chapters, and then struggled to fill in the 220 pages in between. Or maybe I just struggled reading the inner 220 pages…

[REVIEW] White Is for Magic - Laurie Faria Stolarz

Laurie Faria Stolarz
White Is for Magic (Blue Is for Nightmares, Book 2)
Llewellyn (US: 1st May 2004)
Buy (US: Kindle) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Stacey Brown awakens vomiting from nightmares. Remnants of her past, and perhaps future danger, appear in her sleep. But in real life she’s also receiving threatening messages.

I really like this series, particularly how Stacey’s spells are more about the ingredients and how they work together, rather than “magic”. The suspense is psychological as well as the norm, and the characters feel like real people. (Okay, except for Amber and PJ. Having one of them would be fine, but both of them together is just over-the-top.) And there are some seriously screwed-up teens, like the “ghost groupies”. These books are like comfort reads to me, and combine for one of the most underrated series in YA fiction.

"The Secret Life of Bees"

This is a very well written coming of age story about a young girls’ search into her mother’s past. Lily Owens is haunted by the memories of her mother’s death. An odd memento draws her from her home to a small town in South Carolina which will unlock secrets to her mother’s past. Befriended by an unlike family of black sisters, Lily — a young white girl in 1964, learns life lessons by working the loving beekeeping sisters.

“The Secret Life of Bees” is well worth reading. Kidd’s writing is moving. She draws you into the vivid characters. It’s a story that will make you laugh and cry.

Personally, I was drawn to Lily’s inner struggle with her memories and her intense unhappiness of the life she was forced to live at home. This is a book that I would recommend to anyone who likes to read stories about love of family and the strength of the human spirit.

Check Out These Productivity eBooks

Leo Babauta's ZTD eBook

The growing ebook market has given rise to a host of new authors writing on the subject of productivity. These authors are oftentimes bloggers who have been writing snippets on the topic for a while now and decided to compile their writings into an ebook. For many, these writers are buried due to the stacks of published books waiting to be reviewed. Viral marketing of their work (such as this writing) is the way most all of their readers have heard of them. So today, I wanted to share with you three quality ebooks you can purchase and enjoy immediately without breaking your budget. One note, I’m not paid by ANY of these authors and profit nothing by promoting their work other than to spread information I hope you find useful.

1. Zen To Done (Leo Babauta). ZTD is the first ebook I purchased. Even before I purchased formatted books for my Sony Reader, I decided to take the plunge into the ebook market with Leo’s first work. ZTD is the culmination of ideas gathered on Leo’s popular Zen Habits blog. I’ve reviewed this elsewhere but will post a full review soon. In short, Leo distills the popular points of David Allen’s GTD and Steve Covey’s 7 habits and add in some other ideas and innovations to create ZTD. The book is a quck read, effective, and worth the $9.50 purchase price. You can buy a copy here.

2. Todoodlist (Nick Cernis). Nick is a British author who writes for his Put Things Off blog. Todoodlist is a collection of funny stories and some productivity ideas built around Cernis’ “Todoodlist” sytem. You can read my review of his ebook here. Todoodlist is available as a download for $14 at this site. I purchased this as well and my only advice would be for Cernis to drop the price to under $10. With Amazon and Sony offering many formatted ebooks for this price and most ebooks on the market today being budget minded, I think dropping the price would trigger increased sales. There’s something psychological about saying the ebook is “under ten dollars”.

3. The Little Book of Productivity (Scott H. Young). This is the only ebook of these three I do not own at present. I’ve read the first chapter which Young allows you to download for free. Young’s blog, much like Leo Babauta’s, is a collection of ideas on productivity and this book is the culmination of that work. The book is a collection of 99 ideas divided into seven chapters. Several independent reviewers give the total work high marks. I might pick this up at some point when I’m caught up with my other reading but wanted to give you a tip for now so you could check it out if you wish. The ebook is $9.95 and is available for download here. You can also download the sample chapter at that site as well.

As you seach the blogosphere for ebooks, you will find many good free ones as well. That’s another blog post altogether. The growth of this medium has spurred me into working on an ebook I hope to release in the next year or so (Lord willing) but I have to work on it as time allows. For now, enjoy these and others you find that address topics you enjoy. It’s only going to get better for this market in the years ahead.

Reviews About Employment

‘The belief that life- work included- is essentially miserable was for centuries one of mankind’s primary bulwarks against bitterness, a way to avoid dashed hopes.‘ de Botton.

Tony Dokoupil made a very good review of 2 books— ‘The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work’ (Alain de Botton) and ‘Shop Class as Soulcraft’. He wrote: ‘…with the creation of meritocratic America, toil was transformed into… a way for people to measure themselves and others.’
In his book ‘Shop Class as Soulcraft’, Matthew Crawford advices that ‘…more people should consider manual labor, which offers the comfort of objective results and… ‘quiet and easy”. Dokoupil concludes excellently:

‘In the future, the difference between the haves and have-nots won’t be who wheedled their way to an A-minus in art history so much as whose work cannot be outsourced overseas’.

Book Review: <em>The Prince</em> by Niccolò Machiavelli

Author: Niccolò Machiavelli
Title: The Prince
Publication Info: New York : Knopf, c1992. (1532) (read on DailyLit)
ISBN: 0679410449

Summary/Review:

This is a book I never wanted to read mainly due to my preconceptions about what it meant to be Machiavellian. But I figured it would be worth reading over 54 installments on DailyLit. Shortly after beginning reading I came across this Britannica article about reconsidering The Prince as well. A short summary of The Prince is that it is a guidebook on how to be a successful monarch. He basically sets out standards for a Prince to balance kindness and cruelty, avoiding being hated but also avoiding being seen as a patsy, and appear to be virtuous without always being virtuous. Machiavelli’s directness often comes across as comical and according to some commentarties I’ve read may have been intended to be satire. In toto, The Prince is not quite what I expected although it is also not necessarily a book I’ll love. But it’s worth reading a book I don’t want to read every once in a while.

Favorite Passages:

And he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget.

Because men, when they receive good from him of whom they were expecting evil, are bound more closely to their benefactor; thus the people quickly become more devoted to him than if he had been raised to the principality by their favours

Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you.
And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.

Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite.

And this question can be reasoned thus: the prince who has more to fear from the people than from foreigners ought to build fortresses, but he who has more to fear from foreigners than from the people ought to leave them alone. … For this reason the best possible fortress is:not to be hated by the people, because, although you may hold the fortresses, yet they will not save you if the people hate you, for there will never be wanting foreigners to assist a people who have taken arms against you.

Recommended books: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel by Salman Rushdie
Rating: **

Review: The Monsters of Templeton

The Monsters of Templeton. Lauren Groff. Fiction.

The only real problem with Lauren Groff’s lovely debut novel is that I read her short fiction collection Delicate Edible Birds first and gave it 5 Stars (a rarity on this blog) – and so she had set the bar incredibly high in my mind. She didn’t quite clear the bar of Delicate but I was thoroughly engrossed, enchanted, and enthralled by Groff’s Templeton world.

The Good: Groff sets the stage beautifully as Willie Upton returns to her childhood home in infamous Templeton (loosely based on James Fenimore Cooper’s Cooperstown) with her tail between her legs after an affair gone awry with her professor and a pregnancy to show for it.

The book opens with a Loch Ness type monster long believed to exist in the town’s nearly bottomless lake to be found dead. It’s a great entry into the book – a book of myth, history, legend, and the loss of innocence that comes with development both in a town and in a person. It sets a perfect stage for everything that Willie learns and the evolution that must come with those lessons.

Without a doubt however, the most fascinating aspect of Groff’s book – is her sublime blending of the contemporary story of Willie, with the history of Templeton as she searches for clues from the town’s past to find her real father. It’s a rich tapestry that must have been quite an undertaking to weave so perfectly. There were areas that dragged for me a little personally, but only I think because I was sometimes anxious to get back to Willie and her more present (and pressing) woes. Overall, and especially as a framework to hang Willie’s story on, it worked tremendously.

The Bad: There is nothing really bad to report in this book. The ending overall, is the only part that didn’t work for me as well as I would have liked. I found myself disappointed in the final arc, particularly in how Groff handles the pregnancy, which toyed with my emotions unnecessarily and for me personally didn’t resolve as authentically as I had come to expect in the pages prior.

Additionally (and I won’t ruin the ending by getting too detailed) but I felt the resolution with Willie finding her father was a bit neat and phoned in considering it was the arc that held the entire book together.

Clarissa’s arc also faltered a bit at the end. She’s a character I loved, but like the arc of Willie’s father, the end of Clarissa’s arc is a bit abrupt and too easy…it didn’t feel earned the way the rest of the book did.

So I suppose I did feel let down by the ending of Monsters in general, as I liked all of these arcs (the pregnancy, the father search, and Clarissa) but I didn’t feel they concluded with the same levels of excellence I had come to expect based on the rest of the book. As complaints go, not so bad.

The Ugly. Nothing. This book is stunningly written. Groff’s prose is absolutely pitch perfect, with not a word out of place.

4.0 Stars

Gettysburg: The Film, The Books, The Battle

Little Round Top Union Breastworks (Source: The National Archives) Brady

Each July we bring out the film Gettysburg and watch it in a couple of sittings. (My husband can’t wait for the four plus hour epic to come out in Blu-ray.)

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s more than a bit hokey here and there but the scene of the defense of Little Round Top by the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment is always a highlight.

My current reading for class discusses the legacy of bayonet charges from the Mexican War and the debate over the frequency of their use during the American Civil War still goes on. Undebatable is the inspired use of a downhill bayonet charge by Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and its standing on the list of well-known actions at Gettysburg.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

I’ve been enjoying the perspectives of several ACW bloggers on their top ten books on Gettysburg which Brett over a TOCWOC has nicely organized for us here.

Check them out. Very much worth perusing.

Book Review: A Gathering of Finches WIN COPY

Title: A Gathering of Finches

Author: Jane Kirkpatrick

Publisher’s Synopsis: Based on historical characters and events, A Gathering of Finches tells the story of a turn-of-the-century Oregon coastal couple and the consequences of their choices, as seen through the eyes of the wife, her sister, and her Indian maid. Along the way, the reader will discover reasons to trust that money and possessions can’t buy happiness or forgiveness, nor permit us to escape the consequences of our choices. The story emphasizes the message that real meaning is found in the relationships we nurture and in living our lives in obedience to God.

Wow. Where do I begin. I didn’t know how I’d like the book when it arrived. It looked interesting, but because of the unusual beginning, I expected to love or hate it. Instead, I developed a love/hate relationship with the main character Cassie. She has all of the spunk and vivacity of an amazing main character, and yet she’s stubborn, irascible, and so very lost– seeking that which will never fulfil her. I found myself wanting to scream at her in nearly every chapter, “You’re making your own misery, woman!”

The most amazing part of this story is that it is a fictionalized true story. Cassie Stearns Simpson was a real woman. This larger-than-life character was real and did many of the very things written about in this book. I found it difficult to read the story and I’ll give away the book if I’m not careful. Suffice it to say, she made many terrible and selfish choices that affected her life until the day she died. Her life was dedicated to “doing her own thing” and without the help or sanction of the Lord.

The author leaves us with the impression that near the end of her life she finally surrendered to the Lord (the book is kind of a fictionalized biography so it starts at the birth of her adulthood and carries you through to her death). I like how the author was careful to leave it as an impression and a hope rather than tell the reader what they might want to hear or leave us with the despair of a life wasted. She balanced Christian hope with probability and left us trusting that the Lord alone knows and He cares far more than we ever could.

It wasn’t an easy read. It wasn’t a happy story, and yet it wasn’t morose. It was real. In this age of an almost insatiable thirst for realness… reality… this book gives it all with a healthy reminder that just because something is real, doesn’t mean it is right.

I never thought I’d read a book that so thoroughly dealt with the topics depicted in this story and not feel sullied or tainted by them, but Mrs. Kirkpatrick managed to do it with a sincerity that only an excellent writer can manage. Five stars on this one. I can’t recommend it enough, however, if you’re looking for fluff… keep on looking.

Giving this book away. I have drawings to do and ship for already so I’m making this one short. You’ve got until 9:00 p.m. PST Sunday so that I can ship everything waiting to go out on Monday.

Review of Martin Millar's "Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation"

Bookforum, July 3, 2009

An air of comical amphetamine dependence pervades Martin Millar’s debut novel, Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation. The protagonist, Alby, is a twenty-six-year-old paranoiac and small-time sulphate (i.e., speed) dealer convinced that both Chinese gangsters and the Milk Marketing Board have contracts out on his life. The book’s plot is chopped into raucous little sections that seem to reflect the characters’ short attention spans, while its sentences, in their haste to catalog the chaos, often forgo punctuation entirely. Indeed, one comes to feel thoroughly under the influence of Millar’s lively, hurtling prose.

Milk was first published in 1987, when Millar was thirty and living in Brixton, in South London. A center of urban decay, gang violence, and ethnic conflict, the area was nonetheless an exciting place to be. The narrator describes the streets as rife with “punks and rastas and communists and any other filthy degenerate you care to name, all of them wearing appalling old ripped up second-hand clothing with their hair in bizarre cuts and colours.” Alby is almost willfully destitute, as any display of ambition risks upsetting the slacker equilibrium, wherein spending one’s unemployment checks at the pub is de rigueur, and he retreats at the least sign of pretension: “She puts on the Gymslips who are a sort of female punk band well not exactly punk but sort of well fuck it I’m not a music critic she puts on the Gymslips.”

Millar paints Alby as a kind of punk-rock Bertie Wooster, who, abandoned by Jeeves, has been left to fend off the assault of daily life on his own. He finds such tasks as drying lettuce overwhelming—further evidence of life’s impossibilities. Mirrors, he thinks, are “malicious objects that are out to make me feel bad.” To deal with the stress of it all, he and his only friends, a pair of anarchic lesbians named Fran and Julie, routinely take “enough sulphate to levitate a rhinoceros.” The novel’s humor stems both from the copious drug consumption and from the reader’s suspicion that Alby’s troubles are self-inflicted. Yet his ostensibly speed-induced paranoia turns out to be well founded: A Brazilian-trained, female assassin is trying to kill him, and a Chinese drug financier is tracking him down. Brixton, we’re reminded, is a legitimately, though often hilariously, dangerous place to live.

Millar has written many novels since Milk’s original publication, including Lux the Poet (1988) and Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me (2002). He is frequently labeled a cult author and would be unlikely to claim Milk as a work of high literature. Yet the story consistently impresses. It is told alternately in the first and third persons—the former reserved for Alby, the better to explore his strange, afflicted consciousness; we see him both as a fully developed human and as a comic-book caricature of young, urban degeneracy. The novel is similarly fractured: Blunt portrayals of squalor and loneliness coexist with fanciful depictions of psychic nurses, magic crowns, and Zen-master video-gamers. A low-life fairy tale, Milk preserves a strong sense of hard-earned realism, excusing the reader for any guilty pleasure he or she might take in reading it.

Writing Book Reviews for Publishing Company

I’ve been hired by Atlantic Publishing Company to read and review three books for publication on several sites. The books I received in .pdf form to review are:

1. The Secret Power of Blogging
2. Painting the Body Beautiful
3. eBay Income Advanced

I started with Painting the Body Beautiful first to get it out of the way. It was only 122 pages with very little to read. It included the steps taken and materials used to, as it says, paint bodies. A few of the results were stunning, but many weren’t that interesting to me. There were a few bodies that I think should not have been used as examples for the book, too! Some bodies are better behind real clothes rather than clothes that have been painted on. (The same is true for real clothes that look as if they’ve been painted on.)

I’m now reading The Secret Power of Blogging, which had a slow start with information about the definition and history of blogging. By the fourth chapter, things get a little more interesting – at least for my personal use of blogs. I have two blogs right now, both on WordPress. In addition to the blog you are now reading, I have a blog attached to my business website, Sheila Karner Photography.

I will post my reviews of these books as separate entries on this blog before sending them to the publisher.

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