My Picks of the Month
For policy
wonks like myself, a number of new books will provide a variety of insights. In
2012, the U.S. Supreme Court became the
center of the political world when, in a decision that astonished
constitutional scholars or ordinary citizens, it voted 5-to-4 to save the
Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. The story of how the case
reached the Court is told by Josh Blackman in Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare ($27.99,
Public Affairs) and, given its impact, affecting individuals, physicians, the
increase in the size of the government to administer and enforce it, and the
economy, it will be one of those decisions that has far-reaching effects on
life in America. The fight to overturn Obamacare became a legal firestorm, but
the best way to understand it was the broadening of the
already-stretched-to-the-limits Commerce Clause. The ruling said in effect that
the government had the right to require people to purchase health insurance
even if they did not want to and the right to fine them if they did not. This
is unprecedented. Ultimately, the Chief Justice cast the deciding vote on the
grounds that Obamacare was a tax and the constitution assigns that right to the
government. The law goes into full effect this month and has already been
unilaterally altered by the Obama administration and is replete with waivers for
various favored constituencies.
In the Balance: Law and Politics in
the Roberts Court by
Mark Tushnet ($28.95, W.W. Norton) will likely appeal to lawyers and those with
an interest in the way shapes public policy. Most certainly, Chief Justice
Roberts’ vote that permitted Obamacare—the Affordable Care Act—to proceed on
the basis of its being a tax will be of greatest interest to readers. The
author is a professor at the Harvard Law School and a prominent scholar on
constitutional law, so those concerned about the role the Court plays will find
much of interest as he and others try to determine the outcome of future votes
and the thinking behind previous ones. He reviews cases involving First
Amendment, gun control, abortion rights, business regulations and other issues,
concluding that law and politics exist side by side on the Court.
Two new
books take a look back over the politics and issues that have shaped and
changed life in America since the 1960s. Front
Porch Politics: The Forgotten Heyday of American Activism in the 1970s and
1980s by Michael Stewart Foley ($30.00, Hill and Wang) recounts the history
of campaigns both famous and forgotten, from the steelworker’s fights against
factory shut-downs to farmer’s struggles to save their farms and communities,
along with other examples of community activists and neighborhood groups
demanding toxic waste clean-ups. The better known battles of the time included
gay rights, and helping the homeless. He concludes that Americans were more
inclined to get directly involved in issues that affected them while today they
seem to have lost their belief in direct political action. All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the
1960s by Robert O. Self ($17.00, Hill and Wang) examines the way the changes
affecting marriage and the nuclear family affected the politics of the last
five decades as more single-parent families occurred, as programs such as
Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty actually worsened the situation, particularly
for African Americans, than anticipated, and as issues such as same-sex
marriage emerged. The changing role of the white heterosexual male as the
breadwinner was significantly changed and the issues of “traditional values”
regarding the family came under attack. It is a very different society from
that which existed following the end of World War Two and this book explains
the how and why of that change.
A massive
campaign to demonize people who enjoy lighting up a cigarette, a cigar or a
pipe has led to bans on smoking just about everywhere, including in some
places, in one’s own home if children live there. Michael McFadden has written “TobakkoNacht: The Antismoking
Endgame.” (Aethna Press, $27.95, softcover) The title is a play on Kristallnach,
a 1938 event in Nazi Germany that revealed the depths of that regime’s hatred
of Jews, leading eventually to the Holocaust. Smokers are not being rounded up
and killed, but they are subjected to bans and meritless increases in the cost
of smoking; taxes that greatly benefit the states imposing them while using the
power of taxation to denigrate smokers. McFadden’s research is extensive and in
depth when it comes to exposing the many myths about smoking and his expert
knowledge of statistics debunks how they are cited to further efforts directed
against smokers. To learn about the scope of the effort to ban smoking, this
book will provide the answers and I highly recommend it.
A few
miles from where I live is West Orange where Thomas Edison lived and had his
laboratories after his early years in Menlo Park. We now take for granted those
early and many inventions, the incandescent light bulb, movies, phonograph
machines, even Portland cement.. Edison was the first business celebrity, along
with Ford and Firestone, and it is fitting that another innovator, Bill Gates,
would have written the foreword to Edison
and the Rise of Innovation ($29.95, Sterling Publishing). It is a really
wonderful book about the prolific inventor and the way he combined scientific
knowledge, well-equipped laboratories, talented collaborators, investment
capital, and a real talent for showmanship in ways that transformed how new
technologies were funded and created as the last century dawned. Leonard
DeGraaf, the archivist for the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, was the
ideal man to write this book that, in a large format, is filled with Edison’s
examples of his personal and business correspondence, lab notebooks, drawings,
all lavishly illustrated to bring his life, his success and his era to life in
a way that anyone who loves history will thoroughly enjoy. Thinking ahead to
Christmas, this book would make a great gift for anyone with an interest in
history, technology, and innovation.
There is
endless discussion and debate about the educational system in America and
everyone agrees that kids in the inner cities are often cheated of the benefits
of those in wealthier suburban area. Ilana Garon has done them a big favor with
“Why Do Only White People Get Abducted
by Aliens?: Teaching Lessons from the Bronx ($24.95, Skyhorse Publishing)
as she tosses out political correctness and the popular image of the
“teacher-hero” and reveals the true stories, sometimes hilarious, often
shocking, that she encountered as a new teacher navigating the public school
system. From gang violence to teen pregnancy, to classrooms infested with mice,
Garon say it all. In the process, her wily students made her realize how little
she knew about teaching, about poverty, and about life in urban America. In the
process she provides the reader with some real insight to what is occurring (or
not) in classrooms where securing an education must cope with many other
challenges.
The Topic is Health
One need
only listen to radio or watch television to realize how health-conscious
Americans are. They are obsessed with the topic. It is no surprise, therefore
that there are also a regular flow of books on various health-related topics.
Here are some of the latest.
Every
parent wants their baby to grow up healthy and happy. Ruth Yaron has updated
and revised Super Baby Food ($19.99,
F.J. Roberts Publishing, softcover) topping out at just over 650 pages! When
her twin boys were born prematurely and very sick, she applied herself to
learning everything about how to prepare natural, healthy foods for them. While
she knew how to program satellites for NASA, she was an inexperienced cook, but
she put her research and mathematical skills to work as she studied all aspects
of homemade, mostly organic, whole grain cereals, fruits, and home-cooked
vegetables, along with the best storing and freezing methods. Within this
remarkable compendium of information on the subject is a whole world of healthy
foods for newborns and infants.
Making Peace with Your Plate: Eating
Disorder Recovery by
Robyn Cruse and Espra Andrus, LCSW ($16.95, Central Recovery Press, softcover)
addresses anorexia, an eating disorder that has the highest mortality rate of
any mental illness. Then there is binge eating and bulimia as well that can
bring misery and death. Ms. Andrus is a clinical therapist who specializes in
working with people suffering a range of eating disorders. Ms. Cruze recovered
from an eating disorder that had crippled her spirit for more than a decade.
She is a freelance writer and, together, they have produced a book that will be
of enormous help to anyone struggling to overcome an eating disorder with its
unique three-phase approach to eating that provides a concrete plan for
long-term recovery. If this describes someone you know, I would recommend you
give them this book. Also from the same publisher is Love in the Land of Dementia: Finding Hope in the Caregiver’s Journey by
Deborah Shouse ($15.95, CRP, softcover. This book provides compelling evidence
that love is the greatest healing force on earth and the author tells of how
Alzheimer’s disease began to claim her mother, it threatened the fabric of her
parent’s long and loving marriage, and strained relationships with family and
friends. However, over time when even memory and identity were all but gone,
they found ways to make their peace with her disease. For anyone facing a
comparable experience, this book will be a blessing. Both of these books has an
official publication date in November.
A problem
that is all too common is establishing and maintaining relationships and, in Forging Healthy Connections: How
Relationships Fight Illness, Aging and Depression ($14.95, New Horizon
Press, softcover) Trevor Crow and Maryann Karinch join forces to explore
strategies that anyone can implement in order to create and maintain a healthy
network of connections that provide an emotional safe haven in our professional
and personal lives. They examine why so many of us fail or lose relationships
as we age, explore trust issues, and other causes of a loss that has a direct
effect on our health and mental well-being. Ms. Crow is a licensed marriage and
family therapist and Ms. Karinch is the author of 18 books, many of which focus
on human behavior. Together they make a great team and this book can help
anyone, older readers and those who will be older, resolve some of the problems
they may be encountering. A useful book is 9
Realities of Caring for an Elderly Parent: A Love Story of a Different Kind
by Stefania Shaffer (19.95, Pressman Books, softcover) is written for the 43.5
million American adults who provide care for someone—their spouses, friends,
and most of all, their parents. This guidebook will provide a treasure of
useful advice, but perhaps the most important is for the caregiver to attend to
their own health because it does take a toll if you do not. And it can be
costly, too. If you are a caregiver or know one, this book is filled with the
kind of information and advice that is invaluable.
Healing Pain and Injury by Maud Nerman ($24.95, Bay Tree
Publishing, softcover), an assistant professor at the Western University
College of Osteopathic Medicine and an adjunct clinical professor at Tuoro
University Medical Center, brings over thirty years of experience to the
subject of recovery from all manner of neurological problems from brain injury
to epilepsy. The book’s focus is
treating pain and injury resulting from trauma. The author offers three simple
steps to understanding and treating the hidden and little recognized causes of
traumatic pain. If you continue to experience pain despite treatment, this book
may unlock the doors to relief.
Biographies, Autobiographies
& Memoirs
You could
fill a library with books about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only man to win
four elections to the presidency, a man who led the nation through World War
II, and a master politician. It is the younger Roosevelt who is often
overlooked and Stanley Weintraub fills that gap with Young Mr. Roosevelt: FDR’s Introduction to War, Politics, and Life ($25.99,
Da Capo Press). Anyone interested in
American history and, in particular, the portion that FDR dominated, will
welcome the way FDR’s formative years prepared him. Remembered for his
successes, his early life taught him how to deal with failure and, of course,
the Polio that left him crippled. During his presidency, few Americans ever saw
a photo of him in a wheelchair. To stand, he required heavy metal braces. By
the spring of 1913, however, he began his political career with an appointment
as the assistant secretary of the Navy. That would be followed by a failed
initial run for vice president, and, as noted, Polio. What the noted historian
demonstrates is that Roosevelt not only learned from those trying times, but
grew past them. It is a remarkable journey.
I often
wonder what kind of courage it must take to be a war correspondent and, to a
great extent, Paul Conroy’s new book, Under
the Wire: Marie Colvin’s Last Assignment, ($26.00, Weinstein Books)
provides the answer. Ms. Colvin wanted to be where the war zone was, wanted to
report on what was occurring, and she paid for that with her life in Syria in
2012 after both had been smuggled in by rebel forces. She died during a hellish
artillery attack that also seriously wounded Conroy who was a former British
soldier with fifteen years covering conflicts in Iraq, Congo, Kosovo, and
Libya, prior to Syria. Both shared a compulsion to bear witness to events.
Anyone who has spent any time in a war zone, in combat, or just wondering what
it is like will thoroughly enjoy this book. One might say they shared a foxhole
or two together and the story he tells is gripping and a great tribute to his
friend, a great journalist. Wars, of course, generate all manner of books and
World War II is still a rich source.
Military historian and retired U.S.
Marine, Dick Camp, the author of a slew of books, has written Shadow Warriors: The Untold Stories of
American Special Operations During WWII ($30.00, Zenith Press) which,
despite the nearly seven decades that have passed, still have the capacity to
amaze. It is the story of the top-secret exploits of the brilliant, courageous,
and previously unacknowledged heroes. Only in recent years have their exploits
been declassified and Camp provides an action-packed narrative of units that
composed the special forces, laying the groundwork for many of our present-day
units such as the SEALS and others. Camp’s book addresses both the European and
Pacific theaters which required elaborate spy networks, covert parachutists,
amphibious raids, and, yes, even the occasional catastrophic mission failure.
Joseph
Wheelan goes further back in our history with Terrible Swift Sword: The Life of General Philip H. Sheridan ($16.99,
Da Capo Press, softcover), one of the great generals of the Civil War, part of
a triumvirate that included Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. He was the
youngest of the three, but his fame came not only in winning battles, but for
his skills as a strategist and his personal leadership in battle. It was
Sheridan who applied the concept of “total war”, a scorched-earth approach that
is credited with winning the war and one he had ruthlessly used in campaigns
against the Plains Indians to bring them to reservations. Once there, he became
one of their most high-profile protectors. This is a first-rate biography that
would be enjoyed even by a son of the old confederacy for its attention to
detail and portrait of a man of courage and honor.
The
Italian courtier, author of “The Prince”, Niccolo Machiavelli, has had his last
name immortalized as a synonym for the options and methods a ruler has in order
to stay in power. As Joseph Merkulin, the author of Machiavelli: A Renaissance Life ($21.95, Prometheus Books,
softcover) reveals,the often vilified Machiavelli as both a diabolically
clever, yet mild-mannered and conscientious civil servant. In 720 pages, his
life was a true adventure, filled with violence, treachery, heroism, betrayal,
sex, bad popes, noble outlaws, menacing Turks, and a cast of others who peopled
an era famed for the power of the Medici family and shared with both Leonardo
da Vinci and Michelangelo. At one point he as imprisoned, tortured, and
ultimately abandoned, but he remained the sworn enemy of tyranny and, to the
surprise of many who will read this book, a champion of freedom and the
republican form of government! Anyone who loves biography and history will most
surely enjoy this book. Another man immersed in the politics of his era is the
subject of Upton Sinclair: California
Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual ($28.95,
University of Nebraska Press). Lauren Coodley provides an opportunity to learn
about a man famed in his time as the author of “The Jungle”, and an inveterate
embracer of all manner of causes. He has largely vanished in terms of any
legacy despite the fact that he wrote nearly eighty books and even won a
Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In the first half of the last century, his writing
and activism made him a household name who dedicated himself to helping people
understand how society was run, by whom, and for whom. It was a time when
socialism was on the rise in America and much of its agenda has been written
into an entitlement society that exists today. His interest and support of
feminism and a devotion to healthy living put him ahead of his time. He’s worth
getting to know.
God’s Double Agent by Bob Fu with Nancy French ($19.95,
Baker Books) may surprise you with the fact that tens of thousands of
Christians live in China today, living double lives to avoid a government that
relentlessly persecutes them. By day, Bob Fu was a teacher in a communist
school and by night he was a preacher in an underground house church network.
He tells of his conversion to Christianity, his arrest and imprisonment for
starting an illegal house church, his harrowing escape along with his wife in
1997, and his life since in the United States as an advocate for those who want
to enjoy the freedom to worship as they wish. This book is worth reading not
just for the inspiring story of his life, but to remind ourselves of freedoms we
take for granted. Richard Rodriguez has authored Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography ($26.95, Viking) and the title
refers to a friend who has since passed away who he met on the day her divorce
was finalized. “As a homosexual man, at a time of growing public acceptance of
homosexuality,” says Rodriguez, “I find myself thinking about my intimacy with
heterosexual women, and my debt to them for my formation as regards both my
spirituality and my sexuality.” His book is a Roman Catholic’s personal
exploration of, not only Christian history, but of Judaism and Islam, and the
roles each played that have brought them to the present times. There may not be
a large audience for this book, but those that read it will find it challenging
and entertaining at the same time.
A very
different kind of autobiography is found in Heist and High by Anthony Curcio and Dane Batty ($15.95, Nish
Publishing Company, Portland, OR, softcover). Curcio was an all-American high
school football star, a kid with a short at being an all-star college wide
receiver, and maybe even going onto the NFL, but an addiction to a prescription
pain-killer drug led him to pull off a robbery of a Brink’s armored truck that
netted him more than $400,000. He headed for Las Vegas where he was subsequently
caught. It was a sensational crime at the time and the detective who caught him
said the robbery had “all the preparation of a top-notch heist by an
experienced criminal.” This is a cautionary tale because it is estimated that
more than eleven million people abuse these drugs. Curcio is rebuilding his
life after serving his federal prison sentence in Texas and Florida, having
been released in April of this year. His co-author has assisted in telling a
fast-paced, very moving story.
Books for Younger Readers
A very
cute book, Summer Saltz: I’m So
Hollywood, by Connie Sewell and illustrated by Elyse Wittaker-Peak ($16.95,
Tiny Hands Publishing, Hilton Head, SC) has a lesson for young readers, ages 3
to 8, about just being oneself and not taking on airs. When fun-loving Summer
gets a pair of an ever-so-sassy pair of white sunglasses, she takes on the
personality of “I’m so Hollywood” and plans a party to show off a bit. When her
best friend shows up wearing the same glasses and the fun begins as she learns
that it is not what one wears, nor adopting the attitudes of movie stars. Young
readers (and those being read to) will learn a valuable lesson along with
Summer and thoroughly enjoy it. For those youngsters who love wordplay there’s Sir Silly: The World Where Words Play by
David Dayan Fisher ($6.95, Sunnyfields Publishing) where Sir Silly thinks in
rhyme and lets his imagine dance freely. Illustrations by Patricia Krebs
enhance the text and the book is sure to impart some lessons in the way
language, plus imagination, can open the mind to useful lessons in the way the
world works.
Mermaid Sails the Bay marks the debut of Greg Trybull
($16.66, Amazon.com, softcover) will particularly please young adults. It is
springtime in 1908 in a San Francisco still recovering from the Great Quake of
1906. It is a time of advances that include electricity, automobiles, and
radio, but is also a time when the era of the great sailing ships will give way
to more modern vessels. Three brothers, Ed (16), Bill (14) and Ted (12) are
about to embark on an adventure when their father buys them a 16-foot Whitehall
boat which they christen the Mermaid. That summer they encounter Teddy
Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet and end up the target of pirates that shoot rotten
fruit for cannonballs. They surmount the rough seas, save the lives of new
friends, and learn to get along with one another. This is a great way to enjoy
history and indulge young dreams of adventure. Another kind of adventure is
found in Mickey Price: Journey to
Oblivion by John P. Stanley ($15.99, Tanglewood) a science fiction romp
that even NASA astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, liked. He said, “This rocket-speed
adventure captures all the danger, mystery, and excitement of NASA moon
missions with laugh-out-loud moments along the way. It also reminds us that
there are still great mysteries on the moon and beyond, just waiting to be
discovered and explored. I know kids will love this story and I hope it
inspires them. Go outside at night—look at the moon—dream big!” Written for those ages 8 to 12, even a
slightly older reader like myself, like Aldrin, thought this book was terrific.
Another
novel that will appeal to younger readers, as well as older ones, is Fifteen Minutes by Karen Kingbury
($22.99, Howard Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster) that examines the
price of fame as it raises questions about compromise, character, and cost in a
celebrity-focused culture. Kingsbury has been called “the queen of Christian
fiction” and draws on her friends among the music industry elite where she
lives in Nashville. When the former winner of a TV talent show takes her turn
as a judge, she has a secret motive to save others from the perils of fame. The
focus of her concern becomes Zack Dylan, the most popular contestant, who has
kept his strong faith as well as a girlfriend back home secret. Will the glare
of fame cause him to lose everything he holds most dear? It is a question worth
asking and answering. Teens will likely enjoy Crypto-Punk self-published by George Traikovich ($9.00, Kindle 99
cents, Amazon, softcover) about the latest fad at Bixby Elementary, dressing
like B-movie monsters. What is driving the strange compulsion? That is what the
Zero Avenue kids, Drew, Clementine, Grady, Newton, and Spider, as they unravel
the threads of a conspiracy that blurs the line between science and magic,
friends and enemies, and which draws them into an adventure that tests their
character and their loyalties to one another. This one is scary and lots of
fun.
Novels, Novels, Novels
I say it
every month, but it is no less true that there is a torrent of novels being
published, either by mainstream publishing houses or, increasingly,
self-published. No need complain for a lack of fiction these days. My fiction
team is recommending a bunch this month.
One new
novel feels like it comes right out of the daily headlines even though it is
set ten years into the future. Jack Belmonte makes his debut with The Octavian Latticework ($22.00,
Voltaire Publishing) in which a rookie counter-terrorism agent for the
fictional U.S. Anti-Subversion Authority is hot on the heels of Brigade 910, a
domestic terror group that is led by the shadowy Octavian. Johnny Luca and his
partner discover plans for a major attack. In the White House, President Reed
Wilkins has vowed to veto a draconian Total Information Awareness Act that
would turn the U.S. into a total surveillance state. It’s up to Luca to save
the president from assassination and to thwart the plots. Well, suffice to say,
it is a story filled with political secrets, government cover-ups, and domestic
terror plots. Another novel, The North
Building ($15.50, Munroe Hill Press, softcover) takes one back to the days
of the Cold War. Jefferson Flanders, the author, obviously finds this an
interesting period of history as he set a previous novel in it as well. This is
a sequel to “Herald Square.” Whether you know anything about the Cold War or
not, you too will find it of interest as Flanders takes us back to the years
just after World War II when the Soviet Union became the greatest challenge to
the U.S. and Europe, a threatening presence in the world. Set in New York in
1951, Dennis Collins is returning from covering the war in Korea. The last
thing he wants is to be sucked into a world of spies, counterspies, and the
leaked military secrets that may have contributed to the retreat to the Chosin
Reservoir, a low point in the conflict. The novel has some familiar names from
that era that include President Eisenhower, Allen Dulles of the CIA, and the
British spy ring led by Philby and MacLean. The North Building of the title is
the office on the CIA campus where agents out of favor with their higher-ups
get exiled to ponder their errors. This is a taunt and heart-racing
geopolitical thriller that includes a nicely interwoven romance as well. A
Washington Times reviewer loved it; I did too, and so will you.
Another
excellent novel. Rising Sun, Falling
Shadow by Daniel Kalla ($27.99, Tor/Forge) occurs in 1943, during the
Japanese occupation of Shanghai, China, trapping droves of American and British
citizens, along with thousands of “stateless” German Jewish refugees, behind enemy lines. Despite the hostile environment, newlyweds
Dr. Franz Adler and his wife, Sunny, adjust to life running Shanghai’s only
hospital for the refugee Jews. Bowing to Nazi pressure, the Japanese force
their Allied friends into internment camps and relocate the twenty thousand
Jews into a one-square-kilometer “Shanghai Ghetto.” Heat, hunger, and tropical diseases are constant
threats, but the ghetto demonstrates miraculous resistance, offering music,
theatre, sports and Jewish culture despite the condition. This is a tale of
espionage, survival, and the power of love and family. World War II generated
another novel, Brave Hearts by Carolyn
Hart ($13.95, Seventh Street Books, softcover) as it tells the story of
Catherine Cavanaugh, caught in a loveless marriage with a British diplomat. It
is wartime London and the Germans are bombing London. She meets an American war
correspondent, Jack Maguire, and rediscovers hope and love again, but the war
intervenes when she and her husband are unexpectedly transferred to the
Philippines. Jack follows, but shortly after their arrival the Japanese attack
and trapped civilians are forced into a harrowing adventure to escape them.
Hart is a cofounder of Sisters in Crime and won many awards for her novels—more
than fifty—so you know she knows how to tell a gripping story.
Murder has
long been a staple of fiction and Jonas Winner gives it a new twist in The Beginning: Berlin Gothic ($14.95,
Thomas & Mercer, softcover). Long after the Iron Curtain has come down,
Till Anschutz has been taken in by the Bentheims and, along with his new
brother, 12-year-old Max, the boys explore the office where their cold, distant
father, horror novelist, Xavier Betheim, writes his novels. They discover a
secret door that leads to a dark hallway that connects to the city’s
underground tunnels. They also discover gruesome photographs and films, leading
them to conclude that Xavier has been leading a disturbing double life.
Meanwhile, Berlin Police Inspector Konstantin Butz is working on the case of a
mutilated corpse of a woman. It is the latest in a series of related murders.
This novel is full of twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages. Another
novelist, James Sheehan, knows a lot about the law. He practiced it for thirty
years and has written three acclaimed legal thrillers. His latest is The Alligator Man ($23.00, Center
Street, Hachette imprint). Someone has
killed Roy Johnson, the former CEO of Dynatron, famous for preying on smaller
companies, stripping them of their assets and leaving their employee out in the
cold. Lots of people have a motive for killing him. Pieces of his clothing have
been found in alligator-infested waters. The assumption is murder and one of
those on whom suspicion falls is Billy Fuller who lost everything, but is now a
New York Times columnist. A former childhood friend, Kevin Wylie, a Miami
attorney, learns of Billy’s problem and, though all the evidence points to his
guilt, he believes Billy is innocent. I recommended Sheehan’s last novel, “A
Lawyer’s Lawyer”, and I definitely recommend his new one.
The Last Animal by Abby Geni ($24.00, Counterpoint
Press) is a treat for anyone who loves reading short stories. Geni is a
graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop and someone who observers
expect to become a major name. She is off to a great start with this
collection, ten remarkable stories unified around the theme of people who use
the interface between humans and the natural world to cope with issues of love,
loss, and family life. The stories are thoroughly researched, giving them an
authenticity. This collection has already garnered many accolades and I will
add my own to them.
That’s
it for October! Come back next month and don’t forget to tell your friends,
family and co-workers who love a good book about Bookviews.com.
