My Picks of the Month
There are
so many pressing issues facing Americans these days that we are fortunate that
2013 begins with a number of books that address and clarify them.
The first
of five volumes, America: The Grand
Illusion—Book I, Orphans of the Storm by Jeffrey Bennett represents a
herculean task he set for himself to bring together the defining documents that
set in motion the creation of America, going back to the Magna Charta in 1215
and moving forward through 1620 as men of extraordinary courage and vision
rebelled against the world of their time, filled with monarchies and restraints
on freedoms, and sought to build a better world in a place called America from
a wilderness known only to the native tribes that inhabited it. Their
achievement is stunning, even to this day. Book I has some familiar documents
(that we often have heard of but not read) but there is much that further
illuminates them. For example, as Bennett notes “September 25, 1789 – During
the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents repeatedly
charged that the Constitution as draft would open the way to tyranny by the
central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British
violation of civil rights before and during the Revolution. They demanded a
‘bill of rights’ that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens.”
And it was a good thing they did! This is a book whose individual elements need
to be read as such but which ends up weaving a story of America’s beginnings
that seem to have come together as inevitable. It was never inevitable and it
is the result of some brilliant minds and brave souls. The book can be
purchased from www.the bookpatch.com for $22.95 via a credit card and from
the publisher, Kettle Moraine, Ltd., PO Box 579, Litchfield Park, Arizona
85340, for $29.95 by check (includes postage and handling). Anyone who loves
America will find this book to be an exciting, inspiring adventure.
Since the
late 1980s, Americans and others around the world have been told that the Earth
is warming and that “greenhouse gas” emissions, chiefly carbon dioxide, must be
reduced to avoid a terrible fate. The fact is, however, that the Earth is has
been in one of its periodic cycles for the past sixteen years and it is a
cooling, not warming, one. Global warming will go down in the history books as
one of the greatest, orchestrated hoaxes to have ever been perpetrated and you
can learn the facts in E. Kirsten Peters’ The
Whole Story of Climate: What Science Reveals About the Nature of Endless Change
($26.00, Prometheus Books). Dr. Peters is a geologist and geology has a lot
to say about the epochs through which the Earth has passed for the 4.5 billion
years of its existence. For two hundred years, geologists have been studying
the history of the Earth’s dramatic and repeated revolutions, as revealed in
the evidence of rocks and landscapes. It is a fallacy to believe that the
Earth’s climate has been essentially stable, but it is understandable that
people believe this since the human race thrived in the current Holocene epoch
of the last 11,500 years that followed the last major ice age. It was not
greenhouse gases that brought that ice age to an end. It was, as always, the
cycles of the Sun, increasing and decreasing the warming of the planet. Dr.
Peters’ book is the most readable and accessible descriptions of the
discoveries that, in combination with those of meteorologists, have provided an
understanding of those cycles. Dr. Peters says “Because there’s no way to
predict complex systems with many feedback influences we don’t understand,
there is simply no way to know with certainty what global climate change will
be like in twenty-five, fifty, or seventy-five years.” What we do know is that
the interval between ice ages averages 11,500 years and the planet is at the
end of its current interglacial period.
The month
of December was taken up in the Congressional struggle to avoid going over “the
fiscal cliff”, a combination of higher tax rates on everyone who has a job or
is self-employed and the mandated spending cuts of the “sequestration” that
Congress voted for after being unable to come to any agreement on how to deal
with an economy that requires the government to borrow $4.8 billion every day!
The theme the President has been talking about is “fairness” and his belief
that taxing the “rich”, those earning $250,000, to solve the need for more
revenue. In truth, the few billion that might be raised would keep the
government going for about a week or so. If you want to learn the truth,
however, you can and should read Stephen Moore’s new book, Who’s the Fairest of Them All? The Truth About Opportunity, Taxes, and
Wealth in America ($21.40, Encounter Books). It is blessedly short, but
filled with the facts about our present economic mess and why raising taxes on
everyone is the well-known worst way to get out of a recession. Moore is a
member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal and a frequent contributor
on CNBC-TV and Fox News. He has a gift for making complex economic issues easy
to understand. Putting more and more people on government programs like food
stamps or eliminating the requirement that those on welfare seek work has
resulted in a growing number of the poor. In a nation where 47% of its citizens
pay no taxes at all, the need to reform the tax code and repair “entitlement”
programs like Social Security and Medicare is the only way to get the nation
out of the deeper and deeper debt which has been increased $6 trillion just
during the President’s first term.
Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of
How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds by Jim Sterba ($26.00, Crown
Publishers) will astonish most readers with its abundant facts about the
reforestation of a stretch of land between Maine and Virginia, as well as other
parts of the nation, a process that has been taking place since the end of the
nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth. It is about a part of the nation’s
history that is widely misunderstood as early Americans pushed west beyond the
Appalachians both the early history of deforestation was reversed by nature. As
suburbs developed where Americans could escape cities, yet take a short commute
to their jobs, nature ensured the growth of wildlife creatures such as deer,
bears, coyotes and turkeys, among many others literally adapted to life and
thrived! It examines the way Americans now live isolated from nature in homes
that provide a multitude of ways to enjoy the forest in which they live and how
the increase in wildlife has created problems for the millions who no longer
raise livestock or grow their own crops for food.
I
recommend that everyone read this intriguing look at modern life.
A new year
means a new edition of The World
Almanac® and Book of Facts and it is now available ($12.99, The World
Almanac®, softcover). I know that most folks go to Google to get facts, but the
Almanac offers the value of bringing the most important facts together between
its covers. In addition, it chronicles 2012’s most notable stories, people and
places. (It is available as an ebook as well.) The 2012 edition boasts
brand-new features that include the 2012 Election Results, as well as its
annual sections like “Year in Pictures”, “Offbeat News Stories”, and “Time
Capsule” that recount the last year. There are sections on last year’s sports
including the 2012 Olympic Games. All the key facts are literally at your
fingertips from the world at a glance to health and vital statistics, the
economy and employment, et cetera! For students or anyone else, it is a
terrific resource. Another fact-filled book is John Withington’s Disaster! A History of Earthquakes, Floods,
Plagues, and Other Catastrophes ($14.95, Skyhorse Publishing, softcover).
No question that Hurricane Sandy was a super-storm and did a lot of damage, but
this book demonstrates that all manner of horrible weather-related and other
events have filled history and, in the process, blighted and snuffed out the
lives of millions of people. This is a useful book to read in order to put
current events in context.
The
reelection of America’s first black President was a historic event in 2012, but
the history of blacks in America is filled with such events and Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and
Pioneering Events by Dr. Jessie Carney Smith ($24.95, Visible Ink,
softcover) is testimony to their achievements. Now in its third edition, it is
800+ pages that celebrate African-Americans from all aspects of the nation’s
society, including the arts, entertainment, business, civil rights, education,
government, invention, journalism, religion, science, sports, music and more.
The book itself is an achievement and is filled with surprises such as the
black explorer who joined the famed Lewis and Clark expedition. As taught in
our schools, there is little emphasis on the facts presented in this book. For
young black students, it is a treasure trove of information about black history
and surely an inspiration.
The Noisiest Book Review in the Known
World—The Best of Ralph: The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the
Humanities ($50.00, Mho
& Mho Works, Box 16719, San Diego, CA 92176, a boxed set of two volumes)
drawn from the Fessenden Review, famed for its saucy take on books and the
publishing industry that featured reviews by media writers at the Washington
Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Library Journal, and on
National Public Radio among others. The Fessenden Review had too many creditors
to survive, but it made a return online and to date more than 230 issues have
been posted, receiving between 10,000 and 20,000 hits a day. For the lover of
books, philosophy and the humanities, this two-volume set will be a treasure
that will offer countless hours of enjoyment.
I am a fan
of books that provide entertainment and information that is often called
trivia. One such book is How Long Can a
Fly Fly? 175 Answers to Possible and Impossible Questions about Animals by
Lars-Ake Janzon ($12.95, Skyhorse Publishing, softcover). The author is the
on-call biologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History and, over the past
decade, he has researched the fun facts in the book in response to the
questions he has received. The answers involve more than animals to include
insects as well. If you ever wondered if
fish can swim backwards or whether a mosquito hit by a rain drop will die, this
book will provide the answer along with a lot of other interesting and
entertaining information. If, by chance, you have questions about chickens
other than how to prepare one for dinner, then Chickens: Their Natural and Unnatural Histories by Janet Lembke
($24.95, Skyhorse Publishing) is the book you have been waiting for. The
award-winning author of nineteen books, she knows how to pull together a lot of
information and, it turns out, chickens have quite a history. Lembke surveys
chickens in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 19th
century and modern times. It is, in many ways, an amazing story.
If
you have trouble figuring out what people are actually telling you, then I
recommend you pick up a copy of The
Secrets of Body Language: An Illustrated Guide to Knowing What People Are
Really Thinking and Feeling by Phillippe Turchet ($14.95, Skyhorse Publishing,
softcover). In poker body language is called “tells” by which one player can
deduce what kind of hand another has, but in ordinary life, we try to perceive
what others are thinking by picking up whatever clues they body language can
suggest. Since we do this ourselves, the books tells you what kind of negative,
positive, neutral or mixed messages we are sending those around us. Filled with
illustrations, you can learn how to read visible and hidden emotions, what the
hands have to say and gestures that convey a message. The author has spent the
last twenty years developing these insights and they can improve your own body
language as well as interpret other’s.
Getting Down
to Business Books
There
are only a few new books on business topics as the year begins. What Management Is: How It Works and Why
it’s Everyone’s Business by Joan Magretta ($26.00, Free Press) is an
excellent guide that will help any reader understand what it takes to make an
organization perform. Published initially in 2002, it has been reissued with a
new preface by its author. It presents the basic principles of management
simply, explains why you need a business model and a strategy, and why it is
impossible to manage without the right performance measures. It is a beginner’s
guide, and a very good one. The author is a former editor at the Harvard
Business Review and has boiled all that she has learned over the years into a
simple, clear volume, explaining both the logic of successful organizations and
how that logic is applied in practice.
In
these days when the Internet and social media have transformed out to market
goods and services, companies are learning how they can grow bigger and faster
by “reversing their business plan.” Start
at the End by Dave Kavinsky ($22.95, Wiley), the cofounder of GrowThink, a
consultancy that helps entrepreneurs and business owners identify and pursue
new opportunities, has written a book for anyone that wants to sell millions of your product, expanding operations to a new
location, and generate more profits, His book offers a unique approach and
action steps to redevelop your business plan and readers will learn how to
re-create your long-term vision and then make continuous progress in achieving
that vision while continuing to hit your short-term goals. His book offers inspiring stories of
entrepreneurs who have achieved success while providing easy-to-follow
exercises and next steps.
Many people these days are turning to writing to generate income
and to satisfy the itch to write a non-fiction book or novel. The publishing
industry is changing rapidly these days, from self-publishing opportunities to
major publishers purchasing self-publishing firms as a pipeline to acquiring
books they can turn into bestsellers. Writers, however, even if they have been
professionals for many years, are learning there are all manner of new rules to
the game, particularly if one is seeking to secure a mainstream publisher.
Jennifer Lyons is well respected as a literary agent with her own international
agency. She has written The Business of
Writing: Professional Advice on Proposals, Publishers, Contracts, and More for
the Aspiring Writer ($19.95, Skyhorse Publishing). For anyone with
aspirations to be published, I would heartily recommend reading this book and
absorbing its advice. The book is enhanced by personal essays and interviews
from a wide range of publishing experts, published authors, an ebooks editor,
translators, a magazine editor, agents, an expert on self-publishing, and many
others who will provide the kind of insider knowledge and insight that could
take years to learn. A good companion book for beginning writers is by Stuart
Horwitz. Blueprint Your Bestseller,
($16.00, Penguin Perigee, softcover) lays out his method to take a text from
first drafts to a successful, published book. Asserting that every book can be
broken down into individual scenes, the author describes how to identify each
one, put them in order, and thus be prepared to construct a finished book. The
first to say it is not easy Horwitz has a proven track record for helping
writers.
War as a Human
Enterprise
The
Civil War was the bloodiest conflict the nation engaged into until World Wars
One and Two. Some 700,000 men died with the South losing far more than the
North. It kept the Union together, but at a terrible price and it is an
interesting aspect of it that it is reenacted to this day. Battlefields of Honor: American Civil War Reenactors ($34.95,
Merrell, London and New York) features the photographs of Mark Elson and a text
by Jeannine Stein with a foreword by James Lighthizer, president of the Civil
War Trust. The Civil War ended in 1865 just 72 years before I was born, so in
terms of a generation or so, it is not ancient history, but one of the most
interesting aspects of it are the groups that gather on its battlefields to
reenact it, devoting themselves to learning its history down to the smallest
details of uniforms and weapons. From Pennsylvania to Georgia and beyond, these
living historians keep this history alive and this book is the most
extraordinary collection of photos of real people representing those who fought
or witness the great battles of that conflict. This book will appeal to anyone
with an interest in that conflict and a lesson about it that is quite unlike
traditional books of history, bringing its participants to life again.
World
War Two was captured by the photos of John (Jock) Candler, MD, MPH, who takes
the reader on an emotional journal behind the front lines. As a conscientious
objector, Cobb volunteered as an American Field Service ambulance driver,
serving from 1942 to 1944, saving lives when and where he could. Fragments of Peace in a World at War ($19.95,
animist Press) is the story in text and 107 b/w photos of Cobb’s experiences,
beginning with his training in Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria where he shows what
life was like among the Arabs and then onto the North Africa desert war from
Egypt to Tunisia from March to October 1943 and then onto the Italian campaign.
The book and its photos focus on the lives of the men fighting it and the
civilians who had endure and survive it. It is quite extraordinary in its own
way and a reminder not just of that increasingly distant time but how
contemporary it all seems today.
Perhaps
the greatest difference today is the creation of Special Forces, the Green
Berets, who came about during the Kennedy administration. In The Guerrilla Factory: The Making of
Special Forces Officers, the Green Berets ($26.00, Free Press), Tony
Schwalm takes the reader inside the grueling training regimen endured by every
Army officer who aspires to become a leader in the Special Forces and explores
the important, stand-apart role these highly specialized forces play in today’s
often unconventional wars. The author is a retired lieutenant colonel with the
Special Forces and a veteran of multiple combat deployments around the world.
As Douglas Waller, an author of several books on military affairs, says, “The
Guerrilla Factor isn’t just an account of how Green Berets are made. It’s a
highly personal, compellingly written and thought-provoking story of one man’s
journal from conventional soldier to unconventional warrior.” To understand
this aspect of today’s wars, this book is a major contribution and, I might
add, a real page-turner.
Memoirs,
Biographies, Real People
I
have always had a fondness for biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs
because they deal with the lives of real people. A recent biography of John
Quincy Adams, recommended here, was a lesson in the early history of the new
republic that was fascinating.
Biographies
are often testimonies to the way a single man can change the course of history
and Young Thurgood: The Making of a
Supreme Court Justice by Larry S. Gibson ($28.00, Prometheus Books) is an
excellent example of that because Marshall transformed the nation’s legal
landscape by challenging segregation, ending this backlash against the laws
that freed the slaves, but left them second-class citizens for decades, indeed,
for nearly a century after the end of the Civil War. Marshall won twenty-nine
of thirty-three cases before the Supreme Court, was a federal appeals court
judge, served as the U.S. solicitor general, and, for twenty-four years, sat on
the Supreme Court. His biographer shows him to be a fascinating man of
contrasts who fought for racial justice without becoming a racist. This is the
only biography of Marshall to have been endorsed by his immediate family and
anyone interested in law, civil rights, and American history will find much
here to enjoy and celebrate. A bit further back in U.S. history, Prometheus
Books offers Dear Mr. Longfellow:
Letters To and From the Children’s Poet by Sydelle Pearl ($18.00,
softcover) One of the most famed American poets of the late 19th
century and his name is now enshrined among the great ones the nation produced.
In his time he was known as the children’s poet because school children
memorized his poems and they wrote hundreds of letters to him from all over the
nation. The life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is charmingly told by drawing on
the letters he received and those he wrote in response. His most famous poem
was “The Village Blacksmith” with its opening line, “Under the spreading
chestnut tree, the village smithy stands.” Here’s an opportunity to visit a
distant, less complex time in the history of our nation.
Some
humans demonstrate an extraordinary capacity to survive the worst that life can
hand them and Ping Fu, the author of Bend,
Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds, ($26.95, Penguin Portfolio) is testimony
to that. It begins when eight-year-old Ping is living a privileged life in
Shanghai, China, with her intellectual father and loving mother. All that ended
with the Cultural Revolution let loose by Mao Tse Sung, the communist dictator.
Her family was deemed an enemy of the state and forcibly split as Ping was
placed in a camp with her four-year-old sister. She persisted despite horrid
conditions and was briefly detained by authorities again after her college
thesis on infanticide was objected to. She persevered during the Revolution
that affected 36 million Chinese and in which three million were killed or
maimed. Her salvation came with exile and, in 1984, she arrived in the United
States with just $80 in her pocket. Despite that, she would graduate in 1988
with a degree in computer science from the University of California, San Diego,
working with a team that created NCSA Mosaic, later known as the Netscape Web
browser. She is the founder and CEO of Geomatic, a global technology company,
was an Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, among many other achievements.
This is an inspiring book and a look inside the early decades of Communist
China.
Peggy
Parsons Sands tells a personal, heartwarming story of a boy born with
developmental disabilities and the family that loved and supported him. A Cup of Joe ($14.95, softcover), says
the author was her way of showing everyone “that mental retardation isn’t a
curse or a hardship, and that people with special needs are just like everyone
else. My brother Joe had good days and bad, but mostly he was a funny guy who
got into some crazy situations.” A collection of short stories, anecdotes, and
recollections of her brother, born with brain damage, relates a story familiar
to many other families with the same experiences and an insight for those who
do not. Zoo Station, ($12.99, Zest
Books, softcover), a memoir by “Christine” is written as a cautionary story for
younger readers, but older ones will find it of interest as well. For the
author, growing up in the 1970s, Berlin was a struggle. Her family was poor,
her father was abusive, and she never seemed to fit in at school. By the age of
12, Christine was smoking pot and drinking and, by 13 she started snorting
heroin and going to clubs. By age 14 she was shooting up before school and
selling her body to pay for her addiction. It is not a pretty story, but
Christine wanted a better life. When first published in Europe in 1978, it
became a great success and was made into a popular movie. Even now it will
resonate with many younger people and remains relevant when you consider that
an estimated 20% of high school students have abused prescription drugs, 12%
have been forced to have sex, almost 40% drink alcohol, and that 19% of girls
have seriously considered suicide, along with 12% of boys.
An
interesting, alarming memoir, Fatlash:
Food Police and the Fear of Thin—A Cautionary Tale is by Karen Kataline,
($14.99, Swift Ink Books, softcover) in which she relates being restricted to
500 calories a day as a child and, by age seven forced into the spotlight by
her weight-obsessed mother, trapped in a world of pageants, performances, and
perpetual hunger. To escape she began using food and weight-gain to shield
herself. The media is filled with stories about an obesity epidemic, food
regulations, and child beauty pageants. Her memoir is particularly timely and
tells the story of an adult who finally came to understand how her experiences
affected her. She exposes the consequences of putting children on display and
policing what they eat. She urges action against both. On a happier note, there’s Memories of The Catskills: The Making of a
Hotel by Alvin L. Lessor ($16.50, GSL Galactic Publishers, softcover, $9.50
ebook) is a memoir his family asked him to write about his parent’s hotel
called the Lesser Lodge in an area of Sullivan County, New York that became
famous for the vacationers, mostly Jewish, who went there to enjoy the
outdoors, the recreation, the entertainment and the food. What began as a
modest house and some out buildings became a resort where unknown newcomers learned
their art as entertainers to become stars. From 1922 until it burned down in
1963, Alvin’s life reflected a special time and place.
Deep Thinkers
For
those who like to immerse themselves in subjects that challenge the mind there
are a number of books that fit that description. For the record, I do not take
sides in taking note of these books.
Kore: On Sickness, the
Sick, and the Search for the Soul of Medicine by Andrzej Szczeklik ($26.00,
Counterpoint Press) examines the connection between sickness and the soul. His
first book, “Catharsis”, put him in the ranks of physician-philosophers and
this one combines his immersion in art, music, and literature. To that he
brings his thoughts on experimental medicine and daily clinical experience. It
is a life-affirming work of science, philosophy, art, and spirituality. The Science of Consequences: How They
Affect Genes, Change the Brain, and Impact Our World by Susan M. Schneider
($21.00, Prometheus Books, softcover), an internationally recognized
biopsychologist, tells the story of how something so deceptively simple can
help make sense of so much. For better or worse, we all learn that there are
consequences from the decisions we make and the book addresses how our life
experiences teach us to choose between short-term and long-term consequences. Personhood Revisited: Reproductive
Technology, Bioethics, Religion and the Law by Dr. Howard W. Jones, Jr.,
MD, ($19.95, Langdon Street Press, softcover) visits the issues involving invitro
fertilization. This is his eighth book and reviews his battles with the
Vatican, the policy surrounding personhood, and society’s ever-growing ethical
questions.
The Inner Philosopher by Lou Marinoff and Daisaku Ikeda
($12.95, Dialogue Path Press, Cambridge, MA, softcover) brings together
Marinoff, a professor and chair of philosophy at the City College of New York,
and Ikeda who writes and lectures widely on Buddhism, humanism, and global
ethics. He heads the Ikeda Center for Peace, He is the founder of Soka Gakkai
International, a lay Buddhist organization with twelve million members
worldwide. Both share an optimism about humanity’s capacity for improvement and
the book examines the many cultural problems throughout the world and the way
philosophy can play a role in treating culturally-rooted problems that include,
in their view, obesity, bullying, hedonism, and consumerism. The Fact/Faith Debate: Why Science Hasn’t
Killed Religion by Jack Gage ($15.99, Two Harbors Press, softcover) looks
at the way 18 major Christian religions and 9,000 denominations often lead to
conflict, but share common beliefs. Gate pulls together religious history, both
ancient and modern, to create an intriguing look at their connections, Doomsday
predictions, and creation stories. It is a history lesson and analysis of
religion.
Cataract by John Berger with drawings by Selcuk
Demirel ($22.00, Counterpoint Press) records the effects of cataract removal
operations on each of his eyes and the result is an illuminating take on perception.
Berger ponders how we can become accustomed to a loss of sense until the dulled
world becomes the norm and how the operation reawakened his sense of sight with
an acute attention to sensory detail. This little book beckons us to pay close
attention to our own senses and wonder at their significance.
Children’s and
Books for Younger Readers
A
favorite children’s book series of mine has at its central character, Howard B.
Wigglesworth, a young rabbit with whom any child can identify. The artwork
rivals the text for fun. In the eleventh book in the series, Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Courage,
by Howard Binkow, Reverend Ana, and Jeremy Norton, ($15.00, Thunderbolt
Publishing, www.wedolisten.org) aimed at ages 4 to 8, it teaches how to work with
issues of fear and Howard begins by being afraid of everything until he sees a
young bird work up the courage to fly from her nest for the first time and is
told “If you’re not afraid, you can’t be brave.” There’s another series I have
been following called “The Teacher Who
Would Not Retire” and in this one she Becomes
a Movie Star ($17.95, Blue Marlin Publishers). In others she discovers a
new planet and goes to camp in stories told by Sheila and Letty Sustrin with
illustrations by Thomas H. Bone III. When a Hollywood film study holds a
contest for student’s favorite teacher, Mrs. Bella wins and her adventure
begins. The story and artwork will keep younger readers turning the pages to
find out what happens next.
Also
for the younger readers, 4 to 8, is The
Adventures of Lisbeth ($13.54, AuthorHouse Publishing, by Liesel F. Daisley
with artwork by Omni Illustrations that has the unique feature of having a text
in both England and Spanish. This one, the first in a series, is devoted to a
day at the beach with her parents where she enjoys all the activities the beach
provides. Another learning experience is provided in The Case of…Itch and Rash by Erika Kimble, illustrated by Laurel
Winters ($14.95, Bandages & Boo Press, Medina, Ohio) and, as you may have
guessed it has a medical theme featuring Malcolm Finney, a fourth grader who
will no doubt grow up to be a doctor. The book is filled with useful
information for any youngster who encounters the various things that cause an
itch or a rash. It may even inspire a young reader to become a doctor. Draw Plus Science by Freddie Levin
($8.99, Peel Publications, Vancouver, WA) uses art instruction combined with
different aspects of science for some fun activity that teaches life cycles,
scientific classification, and other topics for those age 6 and up who love to
draw and, as all children, are interested in the world around them.
American
Girl is a publisher that knows just what girls, age 8 and up, love to read.
They have just introduced a new character, Saige,
and one of a series of three books built around her is about an effort to save
the school’s art program and Saige’s training of her friend’s horse. The plot
moves along engaging in a variety of themes that teach relationships and
problem solving. Also in the series is Saige
Paints the Sky (both $6.95) and just out this month. Another American Girl
book that is debuting this month is Express
Yourself: Use Art to Explore the Emotions Inside You! ($9.99) that is
filled with questions, quizzes, and projects to help the reader, 8 and up, how
to explore their emotions and use art to discover more about themselves and the
world around them.
Novels,
Novels, Novels
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Over
recent years, I have learned to look forward to Lior Samson’s new novels. A pen
name for an award-winning writer, designer, and university professor, his
previous novels include “Bashert”, “The Dome”, “Web Games”, and “The Rosen
Singularity”, all published by Gesher Press. His new novel is Chipset ($14.95, print, $3.99 Kindle).
Samson combines the details of places and technology with the events of your
times as they occur or affect Israel. In this novel, Karl
Lustig and Shira Markham are expecting an easy excursion to the picturesque
Portuguese island of Madeira, where Karl is delivering new military microchips
to MIRI, the Madeira Intelligent Robotics Institute, and lecturing at the
University of Madeira. The two of them look forward to exploring the island
together, but Karl’s talent for trouble leads him to uncover a puzzle in the
advanced avionics chipset he helped design with Israel’s IsTac Systems. His
digital detective work will put him in danger and demand decisive action from
Shira. I guarantee that you will not be able to put this novel down once you
begin to read it. 
Just out this month is a novel that has already begun to get
raves. Truth in Advertising by John
Kenney ($24.99, Touchstone, a Simon and Schuster imprint) is a wickedly funny
and honest debut novel about the absurdity of corporate life, the complications
of love, and the meaning of family. Drawing on his own background in
advertising, Kenney imbues the main character, Finbar Dolan, with details that
enhance the story of a mildly successful career at a Madison Avenue agency. Though
he regards himself he’s happy, in truth it’s a mess. He has kept a careful
distance from others, perhaps the result of having a formerly abusive father
that neither his brothers nor sister intend to visit despite the fact he is
dying and alone. He has recently called off a wedding. This is the story
reevaluating his life at age 39 and single. None of this may sound like a lot
of laughs, but the author’s sardonic humor ensures that the reader will find
much to laugh at. In Y: A Novel by
Marjorie Celona ($24.95, Free Press, an imprint of Simon and Schuster) a
comparable story is told. As a newborn, Shannon is abandoned at the local “Y”
and then spends much of her young life asking ‘Why?” Celona reconstructs Shannon’s life as she
moves through several foster homes before she settles in with Miranda, a single
mom with a daughter, Lydia-Rose. The relationship is rocky. Shannon is not the
easier child to rear and throughout she struggles to understand her
abandonment. This is an impressive debut novel.
For those who enjoy detective novels, they will be happy to hear
that Inspector Banks, Peter Robinson’s creation, is back in Watching the Dark ($25.99, William
Morrow). Robinson’s previous Inspector Banks novels have drawn high praise and
the author has more than 20 award-winning and bestselling novels. When
Detective Inspector Bill Quinn is found murdered in the tranquil grounds of the
St. Peter’s Police Treatment Center, and compromising photographs are found in
his room, DCI Banks is called in to investigate. It emerges that Quinn’s murder
may be linked to the disappearance of an English girl called Rachel Hewitt, in
Tallinn, Estonia, six years earlier. When he and a fellow detective visit
Tallinn it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want the past stirred up again. This
novel is sure to please. A new detective due has been created by two Mystery
Writers Association Grand Masters, the husband and wife team of Bill Pronzini
and Marcia Muller. The Bughouse Affair
($25.99, Tor/Forge) introduces former Pinkerton operative, Sabina Carpenter,
and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent, John Quincannon. What
starts as two seemingly separate cases converge in a surprising fashion for the
two when Sabina is hunting for a pickpocket and John is after a housebreaker
who targets the San Francisco homes of the wealthy. The two cases eventually
connect, but not before there are two murders, assorted other felonies, and a
man claiming to be Sherlock Holmes joins in. It’s an entertaining novel that is
sure to please.
Another page-turner is Trompe
L’Oeil (To Fool the Eye) by Caroline Miller ($14.95, Kono Pono, softcover)
whose previous novel, “Gothic Spring”, was recommended by yours truly. When a
young college student, Rachel Farraday, gets an assignment in the French
countryside to chronicle the story of a chateau during height of the
French-Algerian war, she discovers his dark history of murder and, when her
employer dies suddenly, she also learns that she has become the co-inheritor of
the chateau with a likely insane young man. The inheritance threatens her life
and I guarantee that you will want to read it through in one sitting.
Both the real world of insanity and the fictional one continue to
hold our attention. In Shrunk, a
novel by Christopher Hogart ($12.99, Bickerstaff Press, softcover) the author
introduces us to Dr. Albert Prendergast, an eminent psychiatrist, a titled
clinician at a leading hospital with a thriving private practice who is also
crazy as a loon, the sole occupant of a paranoid rabbit hole, and the subject
of a satirical novel that evolves out of his intent to destroy Henry Avalon,
also a psychiatrist, whom Prendergast sets out to destroy both professionally
and personally. This may not strike you as the subject of humor, but Hogart
pulls it off against the background of psychiatric training and practice. We
are reminded that psychiatrists are only human. A novel I previously reviewed, Next in Line to the Oval Office by
David H. Brown ($25.99, AuthorHouse) has undergone a revision by the author
because he took to heart the many suggestions he received regarding the plot
which is filled with twists and turns. The subject, the succession to office,
is not one that I have seen addressed and the revisions have, indeed, improved
the new edition. When explosions kill both the incoming and outgoing
presidents, along with many other notables, the novel takes off like a rocket.
For those who favor historical novels, they are in for a treat
with Tracy Chavalier’s The Last Runaway
($26.95, Dutton) that tells the story of a young Quaker woman, Honor Bright,
who has fled romantic disappointment in her native England only to experience
yellow fever that leaves her awkwardly dependent on her sister Grace in Ohio.
The transition to the rough-and-tumble ways of Ohio in the pre-Civil War days
is jarring and, for the first time, Honor encounters African-Americans, along
with a ruthless runaway slave catcher. As a strong believer in the Quaker
principle of human equality, she soon finds herself assisting fugitive slaves
on their way north to Canada and at the same time befriending two surprising
women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Suffice to say, Honor must
cope with many challenges and the story showcases the author’s trademark talent
of bringing the past to life.
That’s it for January! The new year begins with many new books,
non-fiction and fiction, among which readers with different preferences are
sure to find an abundance of information and entertainment. Be sure to tell
your friends, co-workers and family about any of the books noted this month and
about Bookviews.com.
