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Andrea Kay's Bookshelf
Chicago Hitman, A Confession
R. C. Sautter
Mystic Publishers Inc.
https://mysticpublishersinc.com
9781941271759, $24.95, HC, 240pp
https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Hitman-Confession-R-C-Sautter/dp/1941271758
Synopsis: Who was the real target for assassination in February 1933? President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as most people at the time assumed? Or the Chicago Mayor, Anton J Cermak? Two months earlier, Cermak's "hoodlum squad" shot and nearly killed Al Capone's successor, Frank "The Enforcer" Nitto (a.k.a. Frank Nitti). Was the Miami hit a vendetta?
With the publication of "Chicago Hitman, A Confession", transcriber, annotator and editor R. C. Sautter presents the alleged "confession" of Augusto (not his real name), who for over a decade laundered millions of dollars of the Syndicate's illegal gains into legitimate properties and businesses across the city and beyond.
When Nitto/i was almost killed, he turned to Augusto, a fellow secretly sworn member of the Mafia/Camorra and one of the people he totally trusted, to organize a hit squad to even the score. Augusto's "confession" is supported by authentic newspaper quotes of the day by on-the-scene witnesses.
Who was the real target, Roosevelt or Nitto/i? The readers of this fascinating work of "historical fiction" or "true crime" must decide for themselves.
Critique: Supported by genuine newspaper quotes from witnesses at the scene, "Chicago Hitman, A Confession" balances on the boundary between "historical fiction" and true crime narrative. Intriguing, riveting, compelling, and exceptionally well written, "Chicago Hitman, A Confession" by R. C. Sautter will be of immense appeal to readers with an interest in organized crime, political assassination, and a really good (albeit controversial) true crime story presented by an author with a genuine flair for engaging storytelling. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "Chicago Hitman, A Confession" from Mystic Publishers is also readily available in paperback (9781941271742, $16.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).
Editorial Note: R. Craig Sautter (https://midlandauthors.org/bio-sautter) was the 47th president of the Society of Midland Authors.
Andrea Kay
Reviewer
Andy Jordan's Bookshelf
It's Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn
Greta Eskridge
Nelson Books
c/o Thomas Nelson Publishers
www.thomasnelson.com
9781400250608, $19.99, PB, 224pp
https://www.amazon.com/Time-Talk-Your-Kids-About/dp/1400250609
Synopsis: Raising kids in the digital age comes with many challenges, but one of the biggest currently facing parents is how to navigate the prevalence and accessibility of pornography. Parents desperately want to protect their kids from being exposed to porn, but what happens when they can't? How do they connect with their kids and navigate those tough conversations?
Greta Eskridge, mom of four and unlikely porn fighter, knows that it's not easy for parents to start a frank conversation about porn. The fear of saying the "wrong" thing or worry about how to answer uncomfortable questions can prevent them from connecting with their kids, but avoidance isn't the solution.
With the publication of "It's Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: A Parent's Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity", Greta will be of immense and practical help to parents understand how essential it is to push through the awkwardness and show them how to create a safe space for conversation while tackling the toughest topics with confidence.
With her support and encouragement, parents will uncover biblical resources to help kids develop a healthy, God-honoring sexuality. They will learn principles and action steps to create open, honest dialogue on the prevalence of porn and the importance of sexual integrity. They will also be well equipped to lead an age-appropriate and honest talk for kids from preschool through high school.
With practical tips, scripts for conversation, and a topical resource guide, "It's Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn" will help parents move from fear and frustration to hope and confidence so that they can support their children in a God-honoring life of sexual health and wholeness.
Critique: With the proliferation of accessible porn on the internet, through social media, as well as the traditional avenues of movies, books and magazines, the old 'birds & bees' approach to a child's sex education is no longer enough. Taking a practical and Christian based approach, "It's Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: A Parent's Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity" by Greta Eskridge is especially and unreservedly recommended reading for parents of children, teens and young adults on the sensitive subject of pornography, the damage it does, and how to resist/avoid/deal with it. Also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99), this paperback edition of "It's Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: A Parent's Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity" is an important pick for family, church, and community library preschool through young adult Parenting collections.
Editorial Note: Greta Eskridge is a second-generation homeschooling mom to four and wife of twenty-six years to Aaron. She's also the author of Adventuring Together and 100 Days of Adventure and the host of the popular Greta Eskridge Podcast. She loves nature, books, and coffee. Greta is passionate about helping families create connection, preserve childhood, and chase adventure. (https://www.focusonthefamily.com/contributors/greta-eskridge)
Andy Jordan
Reviewer
Carl Logan's Bookshelf
Untamed: The Psychology of Marvel's Wolverine
Suzana E. Flores
McFarland & Company
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476674421, $19.50, PB, 205pp
https://www.amazon.com/Untamed-Suzana-Flores-Foreword-Jenkins/dp/1476674426
Synopsis: Wolverine. Logan. Weapon X. By any name, Marvel Comic's savage, brooding antihero is, in his own words, the best at what he does -- killing with gratuitous precision. Paradoxically violent yet humane, the beer-swilling, cigar-smoking mutant with retractable claws is universally misjudged in the Marvel Universe yet esteemed by fans worldwide.
With the publication of "Untamed: The Psychology of Marvel's Wolverine", author Suzana E. Flores deftly explores Wolverine's development from bit character to modern legend over more than four decades, with a focus on his enduring appeal as an allegory for resilience through torment.
Critique: It is with characters such as Wolverine that Marvel Comics has such an enduring impact upon popular culture in the form of comics, graphic novels, and block-buster movies. The focus here is on the psychology, ethics, and violence of a character that has metal claws that pop out in a fight, a healing factor that borders on the supernatural, a strong sense of what can be called Samurai honor, and a person of lethal violence who has just enough understanding of right and wrong to find himself (usually) on and at the side of heroes. Absolutely recommended reading for the legions of Wolverine fans in the Marvel Universe, "Untamed: The Psychology of Marvel's Wolverine" is highly recommended for community and college/university library Comic/Graphic Novel Literary Criticism & History collections. It should be noted that this trade paperback edition of "Untamed: The Psychology of Marvel's Wolverine" from McFarland & Company is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99).
Editorial Note: Suzana E. Flores (https://drsuzanaflores.com) is a licensed clinical psychologist, TEDx and keynote speaker, and media commentator.
Carl Logan
Reviewer
Clint Travis' Bookshelf
No Lie Lasts Forever
Mark Stevens
https://www.writermarkstevens.com
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662529597, $16.99, PB, 460pp
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1662529597
Synopsis: When a reporter dies in a shockingly familiar way, the media rushes to announce the return of the PDQ Killer. The city of Denver reels, but no one more than Harry Kugel. After all, he is the PDQ Killer -- or was fifteen years ago. And he didn't do this.
Still working to reform his ways, Harry won't let some amateur murderer ride his twisted coattails and risk drawing the police back his way. To protect his legacy and quiet new life, he'll have to expose the copycat. Without exposing himself.
Disgraced TV journalist Flynn Martin holds the key. After a botched hostage situation, she'll do anything to revive her dying career -- even hunt down a monster who executed one of her own.
Harry must convince Flynn to follow him into the heady world of a killer. But with the law closing in and a rival at large, he starts to feel the familiar pull of old urges...
Critique: An original, memorable, and deftly scripted psychological thriller of a read from start to finish, "No Lie Lasts Forever" showcases author Mark Stevens' impressive mastery of the genre and a narrative driven storytelling style that makes for a fun and compulsive page turner of a novel. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this trade paperback edition of "No Lie Lasts Forever" from Thomas & Mercer is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.99).
Editorial Note: Mark Stevens (https://www.writermarkstevens.com) is the author of The Fireballer (Lake Union, 2023), Antler Dust, Buried by the Roan, Trapline, and Lake of Fire. Stevens's short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, and Denver Noir (Akashic Books). In both 2016 and 2023, Stevens was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Writer of the Year. He hosts a regular podcast for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and has served as president of the Rocky Mountain chapter for Mystery Writers of America. Stevens also writes book reviews (https://markhstevens.wordpress.com).
A Dead Draw
Robert Dugoni
www.robertdugonibooks.com
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662524738, $16.99, PB, 399pp
https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Draw-Tracy-Crosswhite/dp/1662524730
Synopsis: Detective Tracy Crosswhite isn't one to lose her cool. Until her interrogation of the taunting and malicious Erik Schmidt, a suspect in two cold case killings. Schmidt also has unnerving ties to the monster who murdered Tracy's sister, stirring memories of the crime that shaped Tracy's life. After a critical mistake during a shooting exercise, Tracy breaks.
Haunted by nightmares and flashbacks, Tracy heads to her hometown of Cedar Grove to refocus. Just a peaceful getaway with her husband, her daughter, and their nanny at their weekend house. But Tracy's sleepless nights are only beginning. A legal glitch has allowed Schmidt to go free. And Tracy has every reason to fear that he's followed her.
Forced into a twisted game of cat and mouse, Tracy must draw on all her training, wits, and strength to defeat a master criminal before he takes away everyone Tracy loves.
Critique: A deftly crafted and simply riveting read from cover to cover, "A Dead Draw" by novelist Robert Dugoni demonstrates that he is a gifted, original storyteller and a master of the suspense thriller mystery genre. Especially recommended to the attention of readers with an interest in Police Procedural and Psychological Thriller style mysteries, "A Dead Draw" is especially recommended for community library Contemporary Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this trade paperback (5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches, 13.6 ounces) edition of "A Dead Draw" from Thomas & Mercer is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $5.99).
Editorial Note: Robert Dugoni (www.robertdugonibooks.com) is the author of several series, including Tracy Crosswhite, Charles Jenkins, David Sloane, and Keera Duggan. His stand-alone novels include Damage Control, The 7th Canon, The World Played Chess, A Killing on the Hill, and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, which was named Suspense Magazine's 2018 Book of the Year and won Dugoni an AudioFile Earphones Award for his narration. The Washington Post named his nonfiction expose The Cyanide Canary a best book of the year. Dugoni is also the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for fiction and a multitime winner for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest.
Don't Turn Around
Harry Dolan
Grove Press
c/o Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
www.groveatlantic.com
9780802165206, $17.00, PB, 400pp
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Turn-Around-Harry-Dolan/dp/0802165206
Synopsis: When Kate Summerlin was eleven years old, she climbed out her bedroom window on a spring night, looking for a taste of freedom in the small college town where she was living with her parents. But what she found as she wandered in the woods near her house was something else: the body of a beautiful young woman, the first of Merkury's victims. And before she could come to grips with what she was seeing, she heard a voice behind her (the killer's voice) saying: "Don't turn around."
Now, at the age of twenty-nine, Kate is a successful true crime writer, but she has never told anyone the truth about what happened on that long-ago night. When Merkury claims yet another victim (a college student named Bryan Cayhill) Kate finds herself drawn back to the town where everything started. She sets out to make sense of this latest crime, but the deeper she gets into the story, the more she comes to realize that it's far from over.
Her search for the truth about Merkury is leading her down into a dark labyrinth, and if she hopes to escape, she'll have to meet him once again -- this time face to face.
Critique: A deftly scripted psychological suspense thriller of a read from start to finish, "Don't Turn Around" by novelist Harry Dolan is original, compelling, and memorable. While especially recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this trade paperback edition of "Don't Turn Around" from Grove Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Harry Dolan (https://www.harrydolan.com) is the author of the mystery/suspense novels Bad Things Happen (2009), Very Bad Men (2011), The Last Dead Girl (2014), The Man in the Crooked Hat (2017), and The Good Killer (2020). He graduated from Colgate University, where he majored in philosophy and studied fiction-writing with the novelist Frederick Busch.
The Sleepers
Matthew Gasda
Arcade Publishing
www.arcadepub.com
c/o Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
9781648211256, $27.99, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Sleepers-Novel-Matthew-Gasda/dp/1648211259
Synopsis: Four New Yorkers' paths collide in the days ahead of the 2016 election. Dan teaches Marxism while secretly courting a student. His girlfriend Mariko, an actress, finds refuge in her dying mentor's bed. When her sister, Akari, arrives from LA (in flight from her own dead-end romance) she becomes the unwitting witness to their mutual destruction...
In the crystalline prose comprising "The Sleeper", author/storyteller Matthew Gasda maps the territory between who we pretend to be and who we are -- and how far we are willing to go when we think the internet isn't looking. "The Sleepers", offers a ruthless and revealing portrait of educated Millennials who know better but act worse, throws a jagged, electric light on how desire upends our carefully curated social personas.
Critique: Original, eloquent, clever, deftly crafted, and emotionally engaging, "The Sleepers" novelist Matthew Gasda's genuine flair for distinctive, narrative driven storytelling style that creates the kind of novel that will linger in the mind and memory long after it has been finished and set back upon the shelf. While also available from Arcade Publishing in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99), this hardcover edition of "The Sleepers" from Arcade Publishing is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and college/university library Contemporary American Literary Fiction collections.
Editorial Note: Matthew Gasda is a writer, director, and critic. He is the founder of the Brooklyn Center for Theater Research, where his plays appear regularly. You can read his "Writer's Diary" on Substack. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Gasda)
Clint Travis
Reviewer
Debra Gaynor's Bookshelf
Lizzie's Little Mouse
Anne Blackburne
Barbour Fiction
https://www.barbourbooks.com
9798891510685 $14.99 PaperBack, $32.99 HardBack, $9.99 EBook
https://www.amazon.com/Lizzies-Little-Mouse-Heart-Amish/dp/B0D79X86LL
Our main character is Lizzie Miller, an Amish young woman. Her dream is to open a French bakery complete with beignets. When she was fifteen, she attended a wedding in New Orleans and fell in love with the New Orleans style of bakery and bake goods. For two years she interned in a French bakery in New Orleans. After completing the internship, she returned home and spent the next few years working in a local Amish bakery, when the business came up for sale, she purchased it. On opening day two strange men came in and strongly suggest she close the bakery. Then someone broke into the bakery. Someone threw a note wrapped around a brick through the window. Lizzie is determined not to let anyone spoil her dream. As Lizzie and her friends search for the answer to who is trying to stop Lizzie from baking, they uncover an old mystery that has repercussions on Lizzie's business.
Lizzie and John have been friends for a long time. Slowly they come to realize that they have more than friendship. However, could their growing feelings damage their friendship?
This is a great cozy mystery! Lizzie is a strong, independent, compassionate and heroic character. She is dedicated to her new bakery and doesn't want anything to come between her and her dream. Fans of Amish romance and mysteries will enjoy the dual genre. This book has a focus on faith.
32 Days in May
Betty Corrello
Avon
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063426474, $18.99 PaperBack, $45.95 AudioBook, $11.99 EBook
https://www.amazon.com/32-Days-May-Betty-Corrello/dp/0063426471
Nadia Fabiola returns to her roots along the shores of New Jersey. She was recently diagnosed with lupus. The disease has taken on a life of its own. She feels as if she no longer has any control of her body or her life. Her depression is severe; she considers suicide. Her sister is very worried about her and so is her doctor. Her doctor sets her up on a date with his cousin, Marco Antoniou, a former actor. Nadia is surprised that they have so much fun on their first date. They decide they will have a no strings attached relationship for the month of May. She doesn't tell him she has lupus.
It is obvious that Nadia and Marco go together. They have chemistry! Nadia has to come to terms with needing someone she can depend on; she must learn to trust him with her health crisis. Both Nadia and Marco have flaws. While their plan is to have a no strings relationship their emotions and bodies are telling them that isn't enough. Their relationship strengthens despite their fighting it.
When a person is diagnosed with a serious/fatal illness they must come to terms with it. Nadia was struggling to understand and come to terms with lupus. An ill person must become aware of their body and its signs and warnings. Your life changes in so many ways. You must have tests run, take medications, evaluate your needs, evaluate your limitations, and you must learn to rely on others. The disease almost becomes a character.
The story is told through Nadia's point of view. Nadia is depressed and has attempted suicide. Her illness is causing migraines, joint and body pain, and depression. This story is great romance but it is more than that; this story educates readers on how devastating lupus can be.
Save the Date
Allison Raskin
Canary Street Press
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9781335081322, $18.99 PaperBack, $12.99 EBook
https://www.amazon.com/Save-Date-Allison-Raskin/dp/1335081321
Emma Moskowitz has a book deal on the line. She is a couple's therapist. She carefully planned her wedding then six months before the date her fiance dumped her. She was devastated. How does it look for a couple's therapist to be dumped. She knows what she needs! She needs a new groom! Why change the wedding and reception when all she needed was a new man. She opens up publicly and discusses her wedding plans. She doesn't find a new man, she finds two! Will is a podcast producer; he is charming. But Will isn't interested in being her second-choice groom. Matt is a sweet, recently divorced male that wants to settle down.
Emma must decide what she wants. She must decide her goals, her dreams, and how she wants to live.
This is a Rom Com. Author Allison Raskin offers readers a exceptional and compelling tale. The title of this book is perfect. What begins as a struggle to find a new groom quickly changes to which man does she want for the groom.
There is a focus on mental health, self-doubt, distress, and apprehension, etc. This tale was based on an actual event in the author's life.
This is a cute book, but I am taking off 2 stars for the Trump and Republican bashing. Politics should not have been part of this book. I resent MY political stand being bashed.
The Record Keeper (Murphy Shepherd #3)
Charles Martin
Thomas Nelson
https://www.thomasnelson.com
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780785255963, $18.99 PaperBack, $14.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Record-Keeper-Murphy-Shepherd-Novel/dp/0785255966
This is the last book in the Murphy Shepherd trilogy. It's a good read but took me a bit to get into it. I have not read the first two books, "The Water Keeper" and "The Letter Keeper" and that may be why it took me a while to connect. This book is not for the faint of heart. Human trafficking is a large part of this tale. I found it difficult to listen to this story. Human trafficking is evil.
Murphy Shepherd and his cohorts rescue women and children that have been taken for trafficking. There aren't a lot of graphic details but enough to break your heart. The first two books focused on Murphy, his encounters and operations. This the last book has more of a focus on Bones. His story will break your heart. We learn why Bones has a mission to rescue. Bones' twin brother is the evil in this tale. Bones and Frank lived a life of hell as children.
This story is well written, so well written that I wondered if the story was inspired by actually events. There is a Christian message within the pages of this book, but it is not an in-your-face message. The message is like the shepherd and the sheep, when one wonders off you go retrieve it. The genre of this book is thriller and deals with issues of integrity, suffering, and faith. One of my favorite quotes from this tale, "You can't know who you are until you've settled whose you are."
Making a Killing (DI Fawley Thriller #7)
Cara Hunter
William Morrow Paperbacks
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063271098, $18.99 PaperBack, $9.99 Kindle
$45.95 Unabridged Audio MP3 CD, $49.99 Unabridged Audio CD
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Killing-gripping-detective-sensation/dp/0063271095
This is the seventh book in the DI Fawley series. This tale revisits the Daisy Mason case from book 1. I highly recommend you read book 1 and then you can skip right to book 7.
In 2016 Daisy Mason was declared dead; she was a mere 8 years old. Daisy's mother, Sharon, was accused, convicted and sentenced to no less than 25 years for Daisy's murder. But the conviction is questionable. The body was never found. The conviction was secured based on strong forensic evidence. Daisy's father, Barry, is sure that Sharon is guilty; he believes Sharon murdered her own daughter out of jealousy.
The original investigator, Adam Fawley, believes it is a strong conviction. Journalist Nick Vincent is the host of a true crime show; he receives new evidence. The evidence is being examined to see if it is real. During the summer of 2024 a dog walker makes a grisly discovery a shallow grave, with the body of a female, under a tree; the tree was linked to a witch trial many years ago. The woman was murdered a couple of weeks ago. A hair stuck to the duct tape links the DNA to Daisy. DI Fawley is revisiting the case. Were there mistakes in the original investigation? Could Daisy have been kidnapped? What really happened to Daisy?
Author Cara Hunter's characterization is wonderful. This is a police procedural book. Hunter uses photographs, police reports, cell phone records/transcripts, newspaper articles, social media posts, emails, and documents. It is well written and held my attention throughout the tale. The story is told through multiple points of view. This is a classic mystery filled with twists and turns. The plot of this tale will have you thinking and pondering the clues. I was surprised at the role of Daisy. She was an eight-year-old child, and the premise of the plot seems far-fetched. The ending will surprise most readers.
Falling On A Duke
Stefany Nunes
https://www.stefanynunes.com/en
Book Guild Publishing
9781835741948, $12.99 PaperBack, $6.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Duke-Stefany-Nunes/dp/1835741940
The setting is England in the 1800s, the Duke of Waldorf, Benjamin Gerard Waldorf is a man with responsibilities and duties. His life is boring until he is transported 200 years into the future by an antique cameo. He meets Isabella Souza Kato, and she changes his world. Isabella is a frustrated writer; after a painful break-up she wants no part of men, love, dating, etc. However, that changes when she meets an unusual male purporting to be from the past. He claimed to be from the 1800s. Life in the present. 2022 is hard for him to comprehend, airplanes, cell phones, television, and automobiles; they all seemed strange to Benjamin.
Isabella was on her scooter when they accidentally met... she was on her scooter and ran into him. The present is so strange to him, he wants to return to his time, his world. Isabella invites him to stay with her, and she offers her assistance; she doesn't believe he is really from the past at first. Isabella and Benjamin are falling in love. If he finds a way back will he go?
The author's first language is not English and that does show in the text; this is her first English novel. Some of the sentences are read in a strange manner. The premise behind this tale is a good one. Unfortunately, the timing was off; the characters fell in love too fast. It needed emotional complexity, instead it was rushed and there was little true passion. Once Isabella and Benjamin were intimate the book lost its direction. There was a lot of sex in this tale which isn't surprising since it is considered erotic. This could have been a passionate love story but that got lost along the way. I love time travel novels and this could be a good one with some tweaking.
Black
Ted Dekker
Thomas Nelson
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9781418509156, $18.99 PaperBack, $12.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Circle-Trilogy-Ted-Dekker/dp/1595547304
Author Ted Dekker is a great writer. Throughout his many books there are messages. His plots are exceptional. He uses tension that keeps you turning the pages, villains that you look down on and characters that disturb you and yet you cheer them on.
The plot is exceptional. Let's look at the elements of this tale:
Plot: The plot is really good! There are two worlds with two plots that intertwine. This plot is filled with doubt, curiosity, vision, practicality, dismay, plausible characters, and absorbing script. This is a very suspenseful tale.
Characterization: The characters were realistic. I was waiting for them to jump off the page and take a run around the house. Kara and Thomas are siblings. Their interactions were one of the best parts of this tale. Kara was my favorite character. I did not like Rachelle, she was obnoxious. Thomas was a unique character; he had flaws which made him realistic. He is appealing, amusing, and spirited.
World Building: In this tale we have two vastly different worlds and yet the world building was fantastic. The world building is so good I had to stop and think which world was real and which wasn't. World 1 is real with all its faults and challenges. World 2 is where the character goes when he is asleep; in this world evil is black, and the good are naive and inexperienced. In World 2 everything is either black or white, no gray areas.
Fantasy: Well done! The author created a rainbow forest, an unusual bird and fruits.
Action: There was a lot of action and violence in the modern world.
Abigail and the Waterfall
Sandra L. Richter, author
Michael Corsini, illustrator
IVP Kids
c/o InterVarsity Press
https://www.ivpress.com
9781514008935, $17.99 HardBack, $17.10 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Abigail-Waterfall-Loving-Gods-Earth/dp/1514008920
This tale is a celebration of God's wonders and all His creations.
Abigail loved the first Saturday of the month because she and her family went on a hike. They hike into the woods where the trees are old. They hear the waterfall before they see it. Abigail thinks it sounds like the forest is laughing. Birds and dragonflies are everywhere. The waterfall makes Mom smile. There are maidenhair ferns everywhere, the plants help keep the water healthy and they give the dart fish shade. It is fun to watch the fish as they dash to and from. God made the fish, the plants, the birds and the dragonflies. While they eat their lunch sandwiches, they listen to the waterfall. They gather their trash and leftovers.
"Mom says that God gave the wilderness as a home to all the fish and birds and dragonflies at our waterfall--- and that God put us in charge of making sure their home is safe and clean."
"We are so grateful that God h given it to us-and to the dragonflies, the darters, and even our new friend the Mountain Dusky Salamander."
Author Sandra L. Richter uses scripture to back up her text. The end of the book has A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR AND DID YOU KNOW?
It would be remiss if I didn't mention the cover and illustrations. Michael Corsini illustrated this book and it is beautifully done with bright colors. The cover is wonderfully done.
Vanished: A Novel
Dr. David Jeremiah
Thomas Nelson
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9781400350735, $29.99 HardBack, $11.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Vanished-Novel-Dr-David-Jeremiah/dp/1400350735
John (Haggs) Haggerty is a problem solver and has a stubborn will. Which explains why he is the leader of a military unit; their mission is to prevent the spread of diseases that cause a pandemic. Haggs observes the increase in natural catastrophes. There are epidemics, seismic activity, food shortage, conflicts and allegations of war. The world seems to be falling apart. His demanding career as a Army Physician hasn't been good for his family. He knows he placed work before the people he loves; he's made poor decisions, which he regrets. He wants to reestablish a relationship with his family if it isn't too late. The death of his young son is devasting and the cause of his failed marriage. He is on assignment in Italy along with his adult daughter who is working with him as an interpreter when a natural disaster hits. Haggs has a heart for helping others, but does he know Jesus as his Savior?
Author Dr. David Jeremiah is a well know Christian speaker; he has written numerous books, but this is his first foray into fiction. The characters are interesting and well developed. Book, one helps set the scene for the following books. This tale ended with a cliffhanger. I enjoyed reading this tale and look forward to the next installment.
This is the first book in a new series with the focus on the Christian faith and end times/rapture.
The Highland Heist (Fredrick & Grace Mystery #4)
Pepper Basham
Barbour Fiction
https://www.barbourbooks.com
9798891511415, $15.99 PaperBack, $20.74 AudioBook, $15.19 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Highland-Heist-Freddie-Grace-Mystery/dp/B0DJN13J5C
This is the fourth book in the Fredrick & Gracie Mystery.
Lord Frederick and Gracie Astley are on their way home from their fabulous honeymoon. They toured Egypt and Italy. Frederick surprises Gracie with a trip to visit her family in America. Lillias, Grace's sister, is suspected of murdering her husband. Gracie and Freddy investigate the murder. As if that wasn't serious enough, the two sisters receive a visit from a solicitor; the sister's must head to Scotland as soon as possible to claim their mother's inheritance. Of course, Lillias name must be cleared of all suspicion. Could someone be trying to stop the sisters from arriving in Scotland in time. Freddie and Grace rush to Scotland after Lillias vanishes; they are sure they will find the answers to their questions in the old castle.
Mr. Kane, an odd man, is just waiting to claim the inheritance for himself. A person from Frederick's past leaves hints for him. It is up to Freddie and Grace to storm the castle. They must save Lillias, but will they all survive?
This is the first book I've read in this series. It won't be the last. This is a humorous tale. The characters are well done. I love watching Freddy and Grace as their love grows deeper. They are so good together, it is as if they are made for each other. Gracie leads the investigation and Freddie, who will follow her anywhere, assists the woman he adores. Trouble/murder seems to follow Grace. Zahra, the adopted daughter of Freddie and Grace, listens and observes. She stays quiet, rarely drawing attention to herself. This tale is Christian fiction; however, it is not an in-your-face tale nor is it preachy. While this book stands alone, I do recommend reading the books in order. I love this book and you will too.
Psycho Shifters (Cruel Shifterverse#1)
Jasmine Mas
Canary Street Press
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9781335919953, $15.99 PaperBack, $2.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Shifters-Cruel-Shifterverse-1/dp/1335919953
This book has great potential but needs some tweaking. I liked the premise of the plot but the writing needs work. The narrator's voice lacked something.
The characters were well fleshed out. Sadie was aware of her strengths and weaknesses. She self-deprecations due to her lack of self-confidence. Sadie was a strange character, I'm not sure the author knew where she wanted to go with her. I liked Sadie but she had too many personalities; sometimes she was strong and brave and other times she seemed so weak. The story didn't flow smoothly.
This is a reverse harem tale.
Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)
Carolyn Arnold
https://carolynarnold.net
Bookouture
https://bookouture.com
9781835259184, $10.99 PaperBack, $0.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Save-Her-Life-completely-addictive/dp/1835259189
Special Agent Sandra Vos is a member of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group and the Crisis Negotiation Unit. Over thirty years ago Sandra's twin brother was murdered. He was an innocent victim caught in a kidnapping gone wrong. The incident changed Sandra's life; it is the reason she joined the FBI and became one of their most successful hostage negotiators. This tale begins with Sandra at a parole hearing for the man that shot her brother.
Sandra drove her teenage daughter to school. She is called to a possible hostage situation. A man in a grocery store has a gun; he refuses to allow anyone to leave the store until he gets his daughter's medicine. As a hostage negotiator Sandra calmly talks to the HT. She is there for hours. As the HT surrenders, she receives a call, her daughter, Olivia, didn't show up for her violin lesson. Olivia has been abducted. She has twenty-four hours to meet their demand. While Sandra knows she is too close to the case, and she should step down, but this is her daughter. Even knowing her daughter's life is at stake she remained calm and allows her training to kick in.
I enjoyed listening to Save Her Life. I stayed glued to my tablet not wanting to miss a moment of the action. The character of 47-year-old Sandra is well developed. She is strong and calm although inside she was terrified. I look forward to learning more about her boyfriend. Her ex-husband was overconfident, egotistical and arrogant. I liked the way her team were there for her. The book had a feeling of tension. The grocery store hostage situation set the atmosphere. The story is told by the third person. The genre of this story is thriller, and suspense.
New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis: Advances in the Origins Debate
John H. Walton
IVP Academic
c/o InterVarsity Press
https://www.ivpress.com
9781514004913, $23.72 PaperBack, $23.72 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/New-Explorations-Lost-World-Genesis/dp/1514004917
This is the 8th book in author John H. Walton's The Lost World of Genesis series. This series is a look at Genesis through the eyes of the ancient Near Eastern world. I would like to read his book on Adam and Eve. Walton shares his background; he was raised as non-denominational which is a traditional church.
Walton suggests we ask the correct questions when researching Genesis: Why is this here? What did this text change about the audience's thinking? Walton's thesis is to study the book through the culture and the people of the Near East. We should be aware that we cannot fully understand without knowing the context of the culture.
This book is easy to understand even by laymen. Walton summarizes his earlier work in each chapter. In this book he focuses on chapters 1-3. I found his book interesting. He discusses the first three chapters is not to discuss the origins. The creation story is more about God brining order to the world. He also discusses Adam and Eve as Adam means man and Eve means woman. Scripture says that man was created in God's image is this a statement about humanity or individuals? There is also discussion on the fall of could this be how humans bring and cause disorder by wanting things their way rather than God's way. Creation is God bringing order, not creating the world out of nothing. Evolution is not in contradiction with scripture unless it denies God exists.
I have only covered the surface there is so much more to this book.
Fire Mountain
Dana Mentink
Fleming H. Revell Company
c/o Baker Publishing Group
https://bakerpublishinggroup.com
9780800746520, $18.99 PaperBack, $12.99 Kindle
$49.99 unabridged AudioBook, $45.95 MP3 CD
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Mountain-Dana-Mentink/dp/080074652X
Kit Garrido owns her 18-wheeler; she drives it with great pride. She gains consciousness to discover she crashed her truck. She has no idea what happened, but her truck is stuck between two trees. She doesn't remember the crash or much else. She has no way to escape the crushed cab of her truck.
Cullen Landry is a loner, a hermit. An incident during his law enforcement career has filled him with guilt. He has separated himself from people, including his relatives, friends and colleagues. He refuses to leave his cabin despite the order to evacuate. The mountain is about to blow. He is the only one left that can offer Kit any assistance. He tries to get her out of the cab only to discover a baby in a car seat in the sleeping area. Kit has no idea how the baby got there or who the child's parents are. Cullen hesitates to get involved with Kit and a baby. He has no choice when he notices a bullet hole in the windshield and a bloody handprint inside the cab.
Two men up to no good, armed with guns approach the truck. Cullen realizes he is the only hope if Kit and baby, Tot, are going to survive. The child's mother is missing. and possibly dead. It's up to Kit and Cullen to protect the child, try to find the mother, and survive the killers and a volcano erupting.
The best quote in the book: "You are your own judge, and you've decided you're not forgiven. You. Not God."
What a read! This is the first book I have read by Dana Mentink, it certainly won't be the last. The plot is well written and EXCITING. There is a volcano threatening to erupt and crazy men gunning for Kit and Cullen. The action in this tale is non-stop. I highly recommend Fire Mountain.
Debra Gaynor, Reviewer
www.facebook.com/bookreviewsbydebra
www.hancockclarion.com
Eric Green's Bookshelf
The Israeli: A Work of Historical Fiction
Phillip Kurata
Dorrance Publishing Company
https://www.dorrancepublishing.com
9798892112970 $30.00 pbk / $25.00 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Work-Historical-Fiction/dp/B0DYQ7CTRC
Surprises are the most surprising thing about Phillip Kurata's new novel, The Israeli. You can never predict the plot twists. In a nutshell, to paraphrase the song from Nat King Cole/Natalie Cole, the book is unforgettable.
The Israeli, based loosely on the true story of a spy for Israel, Eli Cohen, takes the reader through a hair-raising ride through Egypt, Israel, and Syria, among other places. The book is 506 pages long. And it is long. It's full of minute details about the early life of Cohen in Egypt and how he eventually is assigned to spy for Israel against its bitter enemies in the Middle East.
Because of its length, it serves as a reminder of Leo Tolstoy's 1,174-page opus, War and Peace. When War and Peace was about to be published, Tolstoy suddenly remembered, "The yacht race! I forgot to put in the yacht race!"
That won't happen with The Israeli. In this book, the author doesn't appear to leave anything out. Like a Russian novel where the reader is introduced to its many characters, you have to remember at first who's doing what with who.
What's exceptional about The Israeli is though it's based on ancient mutual tribal hostilities between Arabs and Jews, it has a universal application to ask why and how enemies around the world have learned to hate each other. Kurata's novel traces the source of the Arab-Israeli divide and whether that hate can ever be healed.
One surprising turn about the book is that Cohen, working undercover in Syria, becomes great friends with those he's asked to spy on, almost to the point he's more comfortable with them than with his own countrymen in Israel.
What's clear about the book is the author's intimate knowledge of Middle Eastern mores and customs, having lived and worked in the region for a number of years. Though the action takes place in the 1960s, it feels as contemporary to today's hostilities in the Middle East. Unfortunately, nothing much has changed since then.
The enemies still want to kill each other, even if they might not even remember why anymore. It's like the American version of the Hatfields and McCoys, who on the Kentucky-West Virginia border share an age-old grievance against each other even when the descendants of the two families have forgotten the original source of their bitter feud.
As you continue reading through the book, and without giving away the plot, the tension begins to mount. The reader starts to wonder--will Eli Cohen's real identity be unmasked? You root for him and his new wife, and later his children, that they will stay safe. But if his spy role is exposed, what will happen to him?
The only reservations this reader might have about the novel is its slow start. It might try your patience. But if you stick with it through the formidable early chapters, you are rewarded for doing so. The tension builds to the point you viscerally feel it in your own body. If only for my blood pressure not to rise, I had to sometimes take a five-minute break from the book to calm down. I was almost afraid of what was going to happen next. As they say, a page-turner. A real thriller leaving you drained and emotional.
I rate the book a 4.8 on a scale of five. Not a perfect five, only because you have to wade through the book's aforementioned complicated and detailed beginning. It's a story you can't easily forget about even if you wanted to erase it from your memory banks. For this reader, that was the real surprise about The Israeli.
Eric Green
Reviewer
Fred Siegmund's Bookshelf
The Economist's Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and The Fracture of Society
Binyamin Appelbaum
Little, Brown and Company
c/o Hachette Book Group
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com
9780316512329, $30.00, 332 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Economists-Hour-Prophets-Markets-Fracture/dp/031651232X
Economics education in the United States walks a fine line between education and indoctrination. Applied economics in the United States walks a fine line between economic policy and religious faith. Author Binyamin Appelbaum understands this well. In his 2019 book the Economists' Hour he writes a lively, clearly written narrative of the post WWII economist ideologues, their rise to influence, their one and only policy and trail of devastation.
Appelbaum defines the economist's hour in the introduction as the period 1969-2008. Before 1969 economists struggled to be heard and economics remained the dismal science where scarce resources limit choices and opportunities. In the post WWII economists campaigned to make free markets the best way to bring annual economic growth and benefits to all. The book narrates the economist's rise to power with brief biographies of economists and their pitch for growth and happiness via free markets, which in combination Appelbaum calls a biography of a revolution. Readers should be advised Milton Friedman's name appears first on page six of the introduction and in every chapter and the conclusion after that.
The book has 332 pages divided into ten chapters between the introduction and a conclusion. The first chapter tells the story of the campaign to end the draft and convert the army to "volunteers" recruited by offers of pay and benefits. Here Milton Friedman leads the way in a political campaign to make troops just like hires in the private sector. This chapter includes a four page biography of Friedman, one of the longest of many more to come.
Chapters two, three and four can be called the macroeconomics chapters. Chapter two entitled Friedman v. Keynes follows the debate between monetary and fiscal policy, also known as the AM-FM debates, after economists Ando and Modigliani on the fiscal side and Friedman and Meiselman on the monetary side. The ideologue Friedman insisted the money supply set to grow at a predetermined rate should be the one and only policy. Keynes died in 1945, but his famous book the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money lives on. The General Theory is not a general theory at all but a book of special cases. For decades Keyne's colleagues in the economics profession counseled, wait, because they insisted an economy self corrects; prices and interest rates will fall, generating an increase in spending and production, and so depressions end automatically. Free market ideologues believe an economic system works like Newtonian physics
In 1936 after 5 years of worldwide depression Keynes filled his book with examples where an economy might not be self-correcting, where the spending needed to restore production and employment might not recover. He was so bold as to suggest the government could help by putting funds in the spending stream to restore the economy. Since then Republicans and free enterprisers have hated Keynes as readers will find in chapter two.
Chapter three and four continue the macro debates by following the key economic advisors through the presidents of 1969 to 2008. Chapter three follows the "stagflation" debate with Nixon and Arthur Burns, Jimmy Carter and Paul Volker and on to the Alan Greenspan era. Chapter four covers the demand free enterprisers make for lower taxes and less government spending and their conviction these will be an aid to economic growth.
Chapters five, six and seven cover domestic microeconomics issues and policies. Appelbaum describes the ideologues opposition to Antitrust law, market regulation in the airline and truck transportation industries, safety and environmental regulation and their preferred arguments against them.
Chapters eight, nine and ten shift to international economic issues. Chapter eight, the longest chapter in the book, recounts the death of the gold exchange standard established in the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement and the ideologues view that nothing should be done to influence international exchange rates after the end of the fixed exchange rate era.
Chapter nine covers the ideologues advance into the economies of Chile and Taiwan. I learned that during the 1960's a third of the graduate students in economics at the University of Chicago came from Chile; they were known there as the Chicago boys. They campaigned for the free market policies they absorbed under the tutelage of Milton Friedman. There was stout resistance at first, but with a few visits from Friedman and several colleagues the ideologues got their way, although not with the happiest results for Chile.
Chapter Ten makes a review of the people and financial concoctions of the 1990's that brought the 2008 financial meltdown and two year recession. Those entrusted to manage the nations financial assets used their protected political status and new concoctions to gamble with the nations loanable funds. They lost the gamble, but not to worry "W" and the Republicans were there to bail them out. It was all supported by free market ideologues like Alan Greenspan and approved by the ever helpful Bill Clinton.
It turns out Republicans and their corporate allies support all of the free market arguments of the free market ideologues. Milton Friedman and some of his confreres made themselves into unpaid corporate spokesmen by effectively advocating growth while ignoring the troubles it generates, especially the inequality. Generations of economics students in the United States read Milton Friedman's "Essay in Positive Economics" that explains so well how economics should be an empirical science where hypotheses about free markets should be proved. While "Uncle Milton" as we graduate students of the 1960's used to call him, made a good salesman he marched along from theory to policy without the empirical proof, a still common practice, especially in microeconomics.
In each of the chapters Appelbaum names the players, often with some biography, narrates the arguments, the disagreements and the consequences when the ideologues prevail, as they inevitably did after 1969. As an example, chapter 7 gives a history of the use and abuse for cost-benefit analysis for health and safety regulations. In 1967 actress Jayne Mansfield and two others were killed when their car slid under a truck stopped in a fog of pesticide. The Johnson administration proposed a regulation to require installing a safety bar to prevent future accidents. After stalling for years President Ford killed the regulation because it would only save 180 lives a year they valued at $200,000 a life. The benefit of lives saved did not justify the cost of installation, estimated at four times the benefits.
True blue free enterprisers cite the workings of the market place as the best safety protection. Milton Friedman was adamant the health department does not need to regulate health standards in restaurants: "the quality of restaurants was assured by the availability of other restaurants" i.e. the competition. When the coast guard found 90 percent of Bayley "survival suits" were defective the ideologues at the FTC blocked recall and correction: "If deaths actually occur market forces - such as lawsuits by surviving heirs - may be adequate to remedy the problem."
When Carter Administration economists Charles Schultze and William Nordhaus demanded to scrap "brown lung" air quality regulations in the textile industry Senator Edmund Muskie objected "that it was undemocratic for economists to substitute their own tallies of costs and benefits."
Senator Muskie saw the problem exactly, corporate America and their economist spokesmen do not care about democracy; it can interfere with markets and hurts profits. Since the benefits of regulations go to individuals and the larger society, corporate America objects to any costs they incur from regulations. The use and abuse of benefit cost analysis lets them disguise their aims in a haze of economist's easily manipulated cost-benefit justifications.
The chapters report many failures of free markets, which Appelbaum pulls together in a seventeen page conclusion. He suggests the broader consequences of all these failures on the economy: growing inequality of income and wealth, the dismal job prospects for the powerless working class and the threat to public civility and democratic institutions. Here he reminds readers that markets function from the constructs of property and contract rights determined in a political process. They do not come down from heaven.
The book avoids economic jargon and while it will be of special interest to economists it can be read by a much broader audience. There are 88 pages of footnotes, which give references but also include some long background discussions his editor may have convinced him to take out of the text. The more engaged reader should take a look.
Appelbaum tells readers in the introduction his father was born in 1951 while he was born in 1978. I am closer to his father's age and went to graduate school in the 1960's and finished a doctorate in economics in the 1970's. Finally, I say, the younger generation has assembled a thoughtful and readable attack on doctrinaire economics. It's about time.
Fred Siegmund, Reviewer
www.Americanjobmarket.blogspot.com
Israel Drazin's Bookshelf
Jewish Values in the Torah Portion
Rabbi Dr. Nachum Amsel
Gefen Publishing House
https://www.gefenpublishing.com
9789657801239, $24.95, 301 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Values-Torah-Portion-Nachum/dp/9657801230
Readers will enjoy Rabbi Dr. Nachum Amsel's 2025 301-page book, "Jewish Values in the Torah Portion," published by Gefen Publishing House. Rabbi Amsel writes interestingly and openly about subjects that will fascinate readers.
Rabbi Amsel is the Director of Education at Rabbi Berel Wein's Destiny Foundation, which aims to excite and entertain people with Jewish history.
He devotes each of his fifty-four chapters to the fifty-four portions Jews read weekly from the Torah each year. Rather than attempting to prove he is a scholar, what he does not need to confirm, or tell readers mystical or sermonic lessons, he devotes each chapter of generally five pages to a single fundamental Jewish value, which he examines at length insightfully.
Among the fifty-four values Rabbi Amsel discusses are how to live forever, whether Judaism is a culture or religion, the attitude to less observant Jews, the primacy of the Land of Israel, keeping a Jewish name, the Jewish attitude to animals, God, prophecy, lying, dreams, war, revenge, time, jealousy, holiness, birthdays, family, and antisemitism.
For example, the biblical portion Behar examines eight Jewish thoughts that prohibit making people feel bad. It gives examples from various Jewish sources, such as the biblical and talmudic commentator Rashi, born in 1040.
Rashi tells readers the lesson of Leviticus 25:17, based on the Talmud Bava Metzia 58b, that overcharging a person in a financial transaction violates the Torah because it makes the person feel bad. Rashi adds that the following verse, 18, can cause bad feelings simply by the use of improper words or by teasing others.
Rashi quotes Talmud Bava Metzia 59a, which states that inflicting distress "is not just another sin, but indeed one of the most serious sins in the Torah."
He also tells us what Nechama Leibowitz, Sefer Chasidim, Shulchan Aruch, Igeret Hateshuvah, Maharal, Tosafot, and others say.
Another example is the biblical portion, Bechukotai, which focuses on retirement. He tells us that the "idea of ending one's profession or work due to old age seems to be antithetical to Jewish thought." The Talmud Kinim 25a states that Torah scholars' minds hold firm as they age, and the Talmud Shabbat 152a states that the brains of Jewish scholars grow stronger as they grow older. Avot d'Rabbi Natan 11 warns that old people may die if their brains are not sufficiently engaged. According to Rashi's commentary on Genesis 37:2, the patriarch Jacob wanted to end his days in shalvah, serenity, but God told him that humans cannot live leisurely in this or even the next world.
He also discusses other views, such as how practices in the USA are not consistent and how sometimes people must retire. Still, Supreme Court Justices and government officials have no retirement age, and there are some curious historical events.
The concept of retirement, for example, where a government pays citizens who leave work because of old age or sickness, is modern. The German statesman Otto von Bismarck, who unified Germany (1815-1898), instituted the system in 1879. He gave the money only to people over seventy when the average age of death was under forty. Why?
Similarly, when US President Roosevelt started the Social Security system in 1935 to pay workers when they reached age sixty-five, the average age of death in the USA was fifty-nine. What was he thinking?
The unusual examples of Bismarck and Roosevelt aside, it appears that there is no universal rule about retirement; ideas change regarding it, but generally speaking, but not always, there is no mandatory requirement to retire today in Judaism - just the opposite.
In short, Rabbi Amsel's book is excellent. It teaches values, informs readers of lots of new information, and entertains them.
The Magic in the Tragic
Rabbi Dov Lipman
Gefen Publishing House
https://www.gefenpublishing.com
9789657801772, $29.95, 216 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Tragic-Dov-Lipman/dp/965780177X
How could the Bible describe God saying in Genesis 1:31 that "all He did was very good" when we see that people are frequently hurt? The Laws of Nature that God created do much good. A strong wind, even a violent one, cleans the air, but it often hurts and even kills some people. No law benefits most of a nation or world that does not harm some people. I do not know why God created this situation. But I do know that good can be achieved even in tragedies. Difficulties in life can prompt people to improve. As the saying goes, even storm clouds have silver linings. Dov Lipman's book is an example.
Rabbi Dov Lipman's 2024 191-page book "The Magic in the Tragic, Inspirational Stories from the Hamas War against Israel," published by Gefen Publishing House, is a surprising, emotional, and moving volume. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, praised it, and his two-page compliment introduces the book.
The volume contains seven parts, with ninety-seven emotional heroic stories. Each is usually told on a single page, followed by a colorful portrait of the person involved. Each Israeli mentioned is named, except for some who helped fellow citizens but wanted no praise.
Each tale dramatizes Israelis' positive reactions to one of the darkest days in Jewish history, the savage attack upon their land and people on October 7, 2023, and the rape and murder of many people.
The author, Dov Lipman, is a former member of Israel's Knesset, its parliament, who received rabbinic ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland.
The book's Foreword is written by Iris Haim, mother of Yotam, a Hamas hostage for sixty-five days, who Israel's soldiers tragically killed as he was escaping captivity in Gaza. Like other mothers who tell their tales, she accepted the tragedy positively. "I have chosen to act for the good of the Nation of Israel in Yotam's name. I have chosen to unify our fractured parts and to raise awareness that we all have the same gene. We all have the same goal."
The book is filled with many positive, heroic sentiments.
The book's cover shows a son lighting a Hanukkah menorah. His parents were murdered on October 7 by Hamas savages. Their family home was looted and set on fire. The only item salvaged from the rubble was the menorah. He returned to his demolished home and lit the menorah where his mom and dad were murdered, setting an example of light shining in the darkness.
An ultra-Orthodox man was driving to Jerusalem and saw a husband and wife stranded by their car, which ran out of gas. He pulled over and said he would drive to town and bring back gas. When he returned, the stranded man tried to pay his ultra-Orthodox helper, but the helper replied, "No charge. This is a mitzvah, and I am not willing to sell my mitzvah." The man was surprised. He said, "Come here. I have to show you something." He showed him his car bumper sticker that read, "Run over all ultra-Orthodox people." He ripped off his sticker and became a defender of ultra-Orthodox Jews. This is not the story's end. While most tales are on a single page, this one is told in four.
Several tales of Israelis paying for food purchased by soldiers are included. One picture shows an unidentifiable woman who saw a group of soldiers eating in a restaurant, who, unknown to the soldiers, went to the counter and paid for all their meals.
An IDF paratrooper was critically wounded while fighting Hamas in Gaza. His family fulfilled his wishes and gave six of his organs to six people. The accompanying picture is of his mother, a Black Jew, listening to her son's heart beating in a white man's body.
Some men and women were not required to go to war, such as the retired sixty-four-year-old who had served as a government minister. He put on his former uniform and rescued injured soldiers under fire.
There was a non-Jewish Israeli in the process of converting who begged the rabbinate to expedite his conversion, "So that if I am killed, I can die as a Jew."
There are many other tales, such as a Muslim Israeli who went to war for Israel, how injured soldiers who were amputees handled their post-battle lives positively, and how so many Israelis supported the soldiers who sacrificed their lives so that Israel would be secure.
Dov Lipman tells us that these stories are just the tip of the iceberg, and he verified that each is true. They give us a glimpse of the special nature of the Israeli army soldiers and the country's heroic, positive-thinking non-soldiers.
We Are Black Jews
Roni Fantanesh Malkai
Gefen Publishing House
https://www.gefenpublishing.com
9789657801796, $18.00, 272 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Ethiopian-Journey-Equality-Israel/dp/9657801796
Discrimination in Israel
It is hard to believe, but unfortunately, it is true. Although many Israeli Jews accept Black Ethiopian Jews as they accept white Jews, there are Israelis who discriminate against them, including government officials and religious leaders. The Babylonian Talmud Yoma 9a states that the destruction of the Second Temple was destroyed in the year 70 because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred. The Talmud explains that despite Jews observing Torah laws and charity, the Second Temple was destroyed, and people were killed due to "hatred without cause." Had the Jews in the year 70 worked together, the united Jews could have worked out matters with the Romans. When will we learn?
In "We Are Black Jews: Ethiopian Jewry and the Journey to Equality in Israel," Roni Fantanesh Malkai provides eye-opening, need-to-know information about the history and difficulties of Ethiopian Jews. We should read it and do our best to get people to treat others as they want others to treat them.
Malkai is a lawyer, activist, entrepreneur, and journalist who promotes equality and works to reduce inequality. As a little girl, she immigrated to Israel, walking hundreds of miles from Ethiopia to her historical homeland despite many hardships. She has a master's degree with honors from Hebrew University. She managed the Spokesperson's Department in Israel's Ministry of Welfare for about a decade.
She tells the legends about Ethiopian Jewry's origin about three thousand years ago, what they are, their leaders, and their observances. We read the letter sent in 1845 from Ethiopia to the Jewish Diaspora in Europe. It is the first written contact the Ethiopians had with other Jews. The letter is filled with yearning to return to their ancestral home, Israel.
We learn that the first documented arrival of Ethiopian Jews was only a father and son in 1855. Later, the larger attempt of Ethiopian Jews to reach the Holy Land occurred in 1862. As many as a fifth of those who journeyed, the walk of hundreds of miles, died of hunger and disease. But this did not stop others from trying to return home. From the 1950s to the 1970s, there were sporadic secret immigrations contrary to the position of the Israeli government. It was not until 1979 that the first authorized Israeli government operations began. Tens of thousands of immigrants came home.
But upon arrival, many suffered discrimination and foul treatment that continues today. Even though Ethiopian Jews were regarded by Jewish scholars as early as the nineteenth century as full-fledged Jews, many in Israel felt they were not Jews and did not belong.
The following are some of the many discriminatory acts described in this book.
The discrimination resulted in a high dropout rate of students of Ethiopian descent from schools.
In the mid-2010s, the enlistment rate among Ethiopian Israelis in the military, both men and women, was 86 percent, 90 percent of the men. This was far higher than the enlistment rate among the average enlistment rate of all Israelis, which was around 70 percent. However, there are only several dozen Ethiopian officers in the Israeli military, most of whom are not in the highest ranks.
There have been instances of blood donated by Ethiopians being tossed into the toilet after the donors left the hospital.
Once, as a test, two applications were sent to large firms. Each contained identical information, except for the applicant's name. One had an Israeli name, the other an Ethiopian. The former was accepted, the latter rejected.
Some rabbis refused to conduct a marital ceremony for even rabbinically converted Ethiopians. The office of the Chief Rabbinate refused to recognize the kesim as spiritual leaders despite the kesim having this function for centuries.
Some stores prohibit Ethiopian Jews from touching wine bottles because they were convinced that the touching makes the wine non-kosher.
As in the USA, the Black Ethiopians are "over-policed," that is, they are investigated by police officers when the same officers would not have done so with white individuals.
My thoughts:
Of course, discrimination is not limited to Israel and America. It is worldwide.
I think discrimination is a subdivision of an inferiority complex. Individuals subconsciously, without realizing it, feel inadequate about a thing or things in themselves. They feel somewhat relieved when they can identify and vigorously attack what they see as inferior in another person or group. I have not thought of a way to cure people of this problem.
The current thinking is to stop it by punishing the offenders. This is similar to punishing people for other crimes. It involves incarcerating the offender, removing their privileges, or confiscating their money. Hopefully, it will stop many who do not want these punishments.
But it will not stop everyone. We know of many convicts released from prison who resume their prior evil deeds.
Israel Drazin, Reviewer
www.booksnthoughts.com
Jack Mason's Bookshelf
The Friendship Bench
Dixon Chibanda, MD
New World Library
www.newworldlibrary.com
9781955831024, $18.95, PB, 208pp
https://www.amazon.com/Friendship-Bench-Fourteen-Grandmothers-Revolution/dp/1955831025
Synopsis: When Dr. Dixon Chibanda lost a patient to suicide, he began a soul-searching journey that eventually led to a mental healthcare revolution. As one of only six psychiatrists in all of Zimbabwe, a country traumatized by decades of conflict, Chibanda quickly realized that millions there were suffering from mental illness with no hope of receiving care. He saw that the only way to narrow this care gap was to leverage existing resources in the community, and one such resource was the compassion and understanding of grandmothers.
With fourteen of these wise elders as partners, Chibanda pioneered the Friendship Bench program, a community-driven initiative addressing loneliness, depression, substance abuse, and suicide by fostering intergenerational connectedness. Since then, more than 500,000 people worldwide have sat on a park bench to share their personal stories with an empathetic grandmother.
A primer on how human connection forms the bedrock of our resilience, with the publication of "The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution" Dr. Dixon Chibanda gives readers the tools to facilitate transformative healing by reaching out to those who are struggling and isolated from the world around them. It's basically a case study of how interventions supported by robust scientific evidence can be made accessible for all.
Ultimately, "The Friendship Bench" is a celebration of the collective wisdom and knowledge of those rooted in their communities and their profound ability to foster belonging, purpose, and healing.
Critique: Fascinating, informative, insightful, inspiring, "The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution" by Dr. Dixon Chibanda is a compelling and motivating read from cover to cover. Covering the value and effectiveness of simple conversations with elderly women while sitting together on an informal and literal bench, "The Friendship Bench" will be of immense interest to readers concerned with problems ranging from suicide ideation, to dealing with the ordinary and extraordinary stress of life, to the loneliness of the marginalized because of aging, mental/emotional issues or illness. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), this hardcover edition of "The Friendship Bench" from New World Library is a high value, high priority, highly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library collections.
Editorial Note: Dixon Chibanda, MD (https://www.dixonchibanda.com) is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The director of the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI), he has written about his work for The Guardian and LA Times and spoken to audiences at the World Economic Forum, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and the TEDWomen conference.
Jack Mason
Reviewer
John Burroughs' Bookshelf
Biopolitical Garden: Space, Lives, Transition
Paola Vigano
Actar D
c/o Actar Publishers
https://actar.com
9781638401209, $44.95, PB, 336pp
https://www.amazon.com/Biopolitical-Garden-Space-Life-Transition/dp/1638401209
Synopsis: In all the new research on the future of urban space, the renewed interest in life, tragically affected by health, ecological and socio-political crises, raises a crucial theoretical and projective question: what role can space play in maintaining and promoting life in the broader sense of bios?
"Biopolitical Garden: Space, Lives, Transition" by Paola Vigano is based on the conviction that there is an urgent need to revisit the Foucauldian notion of biopolitics (free, however, from the privilege given to the goal of control) in order to rethink the project of the city and territory in transition in an affirmative and emancipatory way.
The 'biopolitical garden' designates both the mental place and the set of concrete spaces in which the critical thinking developed in this study takes place. Profound and original, it starts from a consideration of the modern and contemporary project as one committed to the maintenance and emancipation of a population.
Re-reading a series of paradigmatic projects from the twentieth century, Paola Vigano acknowledges the long-term validity of the three fundamental concepts of functional space, natural space, and social space. She then proposes a theoretical renewal that considers the value of space as an agent subject endowed with its own vitality. Finally, the projects developed by the author in recent years provide a laboratory for 'situating' her thinking within a perspective of spatial, social, and environmental justice.
Critique: A meticulous, original, seminal and groundbreaking study, "Biopolitical Garden: Space, Lives, Transition" by Paola Vigano is exceptionally well written, organized and presented. This trade paperback (5.9 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches, 1.54 pounds) edition of "Biopolitical Garden: Space, Lives, Transition" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Landscape Architecture, Urban Land Use, and Architectural Criticism collections and supplemental curriculum studies list.
Editorial Note: Architect and urbanist Paola Vigano (https://www.studiopaolavigano.eu) is the Full Professor in Urban Theory and Urban Design at the EPFL (CH) where she directs the Habitat Research Center and the Lab-U and at IUAV Venice (IT). She received the Grand Prix de l'Urbanisme in 2013, the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the UCLouvain in 2016 in the frame of "Utopia for our Time", the Flemish Culture Award for Architecture in 2017, and the Golden medal to the career of Milano Triennale in 2018. In 2022, she receives the Schelling Prize for Architectural Theory. Together with Bernardo Secchi, she founded Studio (1990-2014) working on numerous projects and visions in Europe. Since 2015, StudioPaolaVigano works on the ecological and social transition of cities, landscapes and territories designing urban and territorial projects and realizing public spaces in Europe. In 2019, her work has been exhibited at the Shenzen Biennale and in 2021 at the Venice Biennale.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Julie Summers' Bookshelf
There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift
Kevin Evers
Harvard Business Review Press
http://hbr.org/books
9798892790178, $30.00, HC, 304pp
https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Nothing-Like-This-Strategic/dp/B0DD2XL7C5
Synopsis: Singer-songwriter. Trailblazer. Mastermind. The Beatles of her generation. From her genre-busting rise in country music as a teenager to the economic juggernaut that is the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has blazed a path in the music business that is uniquely hers.
But how exactly has she managed to scale her success (multiple times) while dominating an industry that cycles through artists and stars like fashion trends? How has she managed to make and remake herself time and again while remaining true to her artistic vision? And how has she managed to master the constant disruption in the music business that has made it so hard for others to adapt and endure?
With the publication of "There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift", Kevin Evers (who is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review), answers these questions in riveting detail. With the same thoughtful analysis usually devoted to iconic founders, game-changing innovators, and pioneering brands, Evers chronicles the business and creative decisions that have defined each phase of Swift's career.
Mixing business and art, analysis and narrative, and pulling from research in innovation, creativity, psychology, and strategy, "There's Nothing Like This" presents Swift as the modern and multidimensional superstar that she is -- a songwriting savant and a strategic genius.
Swift's fans will see their icon from a fresh perspective. Others will gain more than a measure of admiration for her ability to stay at the top of her game. And everyone will come away understanding why, even after two decades, Swift keeps winning.
Critique: Part biography, part business profile, part illustrative example of what it takes to succeed in the 'business' part of the music business, "There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift" by Kevin Evers is an informative, thought-provoking, insightful, and inherently fascinating read from start to finish. Manifesting a side of the Taylor Swift phenomena that her legions of fans are probably not aware of, this hardcover edition of "There's Nothing Like This" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Music Business, Popular Culture, and Communications/Media collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "There's Nothing Like This" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.90, Amazon) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Publishing, 9798228509863, $49.99, CD).
Editorial Note: Kevin Evers is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review. Passionate about shaping groundbreaking research and amplifying pioneering ideas, he has edited bestselling and award-winning books on high performance, creativity, innovation, digital disruption, marketing, and strategy. He has also written popular articles on brain science, Hollywood blockbusters, the art of persuasion, and the unpredictability of success.
Just Emilia
Jennifer Oko
Regal House Publishing
https://regalhousepublishing.com
9781646035779, $19.95, PB, 224pp
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Emilia-Jennifer-Oko/dp/1646035771
Synopsis: When Emilia Fletcher finds herself trapped inside a Washington, DC Metro elevator, getting out is the least of her problems. Sharing the confined space with her are Em, a troubled teenager plagued by suicidal thoughts, and Millie, an elderly woman yearning to mend ties with her estranged daughter. As the hours drag on, hunger, exhaustion, and panic set in, revealing an almost incomprehensible truth: they are the same person. Locked in an uncompromising match of memories, the three women excavate and attempt to reckon with the shared shame and suffering stemming from an unresolved trauma that has cast a profound shadow over their lives.
Critique: The past, present, and future collide in a DC Metro elevator as three women get caught up in a gripping time-traveling tale of memory, emotion, and unspoken truths about their shared history. Laced throughout with biting humor, compassion, and quick-witted insight, "Just Emilia" by Jennifer Oko is a remarkable and original story of self-discovery. One of those novels that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book has been finished and set back upon the shelf (and an inherently fascinating, original work raised to an impressively level of literary excellence) "Just Emilia" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists as well as community and college/university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted that this trade paperback edition of "Just Emilia" from Regal House Publishing is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Jennifer Oko (https://www.jenniferoko.com) is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker. Her memoir, Lying Together, was a New York Times Book Review "Editor's Choice". She is also the author of two previous novels; Gloss, a satire of morning television which was a USA Today " Hot Summer Read," and Head Case, a comic mystery about psycho-pharmaceutical trafficking which she swears is not autobiographical in any way.
Julie Summers
Reviewer
Margaret Lane's Bookshelf
Voices From the Prairies: The Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Ranch Women
Dorothy Louise Beasley
https://voicesfromtheprairies.ca
Prominence Publishing
https://prominencepublishing.com
9781990830594, $19.95, PB, 311pp
https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Prairies-Extraordinary-Stories-Ordinary/dp/1990830595
Synopsis: Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Canadian prairies, the stories comprising "Voices From the Prairies: The Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Ranch Women" by Dorothy Louise Beasley illuminate the challenges, triumphs, and everyday realities faced by generations of ranch women. From early homesteaders to modern-day ranchers, their experiences serve as a testament to the enduring power of family, community, and an unwavering connection to the land.
This seminal collection of stories shatters stereotypes and celebrates the diverse roles ranch women have played, not just as wives and mothers, but as skilled horsewomen, tireless laborers, innovative problem-solvers, and pillars of their communities.
Through heartwarming anecdotes and moments of raw emotion, readers are invited into the lives of these women, witnessing their struggles against the harsh prairie elements, economic hardships, and personal tragedies.
"Voices from the Prairies" is more than just a compilation of individual stories; it is a tribute to the unbreakable spirit of ranch women and their vital contributions to Canada's agricultural heritage. This groundbreaking and original study serves as a reminder that behind every successful ranch stand women of courage, determination, and grace.
"Voices from the Prairies" is an engaging, eye-opening, and ultimately inspiring read that sheds light on a part of Canadian history too often overlooked. Through these powerful stories, author and editor Dorothy Louise Beasley ensures that the voices of these remarkable ranch women will continue to resonate for generations to come.
Critique: Extraordinary, fascinating, informative, memorable, "Voices From the Prairies: The Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Ranch Women" is a unique, impressive, and entertaining read from cover to cover. This collection of personal stories from Canadian women is especially and unreservedly recommended pick for community and college/university library Canadian History/Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "Voices From the Prairies" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Dorothy Louise Beasley (aka Grandma Beasley) is a proud baby-boomer from Alberta, Canada, who was raised on a cattle farm where she learned to drive tractors and work with machinery as a young girl. Riding horseback and rounding up cattle were also part of her daily routine. Her ranch life was hard work, fun, and sometimes dangerous. (https://voicesfromtheprairies.ca)
Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Healing
Harpinder Kaur Mann
https://www.harpindermann.com
Broadleaf Books
www.broadleafbooks.com
9781506495026, $25.99, HC, 232pp
https://www.amazon.com/Liberating-Yoga-Harpinder-Kaur-Mann/dp/1506495028
Synopsis: In the West, the practice of yoga comes to us stripped of cultural context. Colonized and appropriated by capitalism, dominant culture, fitness trends, and body shaming, yoga in America today is associated with expensive classes, trendy athleisure products, Corepower, Lululemon, and white women. However, yoga is not a one-hour fitness class aimed at stretching and flexibility. Yoga is a spiritual practice from South Asia with the ultimate goal of connection, self-realization, and liberation.
With the publication of "Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Healing", yoga teacher Harpinder Kaur Mann draws from her own perspective as a Sikh-Punjabi woman who was alienated by the way yoga is practiced in the United States but found her way toward reclaiming the spiritual practice for herself.
Mann demonstrates that moving away from appropriated forms of yoga and back to yoga's roots is the only true path to healing -- both for yoga practitioners who desire to engage responsibly in the practice with cultural appreciation, and especially for folks who have been marginalized who wish to reconnect with their ancestral spiritual practices and reclaim their full identity.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented for the benefit of the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the historical and cultural aspects of yoga, "Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Healing" by yoga expert and instructor Harpinder Kaur Mann is an impressively informative and fascinating read from start to finish. An extraordinary introduction to Yoga for both novice and experienced practitioners of yoga, this seminal and groundbreaking study is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Yoga, Meditation, and Eastern Spirituality collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for yoga students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this hardcover edition of "Liberating Yoga: From Appropriation to Healing" from Broadleaf Books is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note: Harpinder Kaur Mann (https://www.harpindermann.com), is a yoga teacher and mindfulness educator living on Tongva Land (Los Angeles). Her lineage in Sikhism and ancestral roots in Punjab, India, guide her to teach yoga authentically as a spiritual practice. She founded the Womxn of Color Summit and is known for her work in decolonizing yoga.
Margaret Lane
Reviewer
Matthew McCarty's Bookshelf
Material World
Ed Conway
Knopf
aaknopf.com
c/o Penguin Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780593534342, $35.00 Hardcover, $12.99 Kindle, 502 Pages
https://www.amazon.com/Material-World-Materials-Modern-Civilization/dp/0593534344
The modern world is full of fascination. Every day brings new technological advances, updated modern conveniences, and new ways to improve our leisure activities. However, many people do not often stop and think about how our natural world is interwoven with the modern world. The Economist columnist Ed Conway, in his latest book, Material World: The Six Raw Materials that Shape Modern Civilization, has chronicled how six specific minerals/elements have shaped the technological developments of human history and their impact on our modern society. These drivers of civilization have been present in the lives of humans since the dawn of time.
The six raw materials are lithium, sand, salt, iron, copper, and oil. Each of these materials is used to create products such as glass, plastic, gasoline, and other essential things that modern humans use every day. They have each been mined, extracted, changed, or refined. Each of these raw materials does have a finite use. There is the potential for future societies to have to adapt to not having one or all of these resources. This potential is a strong foundation of Material World.
Conway has written a narrative that is easy to read and easy to understand. The terminology surrounding each raw material is well explained and easy to comprehend. Material World contributes to the same conversation that hearkens back to Guns, Germs, and Steel. It is a primer for anyone interested in the transition from fossil fuels to an increased reliance on natural gas, electricity, and green chemicals. Material World should have a much deserved place on the bookshelf of anyone concerned with climate change, the future, and our population.
Matthew W. McCarty, EdD
Reviewer
Michael Carson's Bookshelf
Continuum
Martena Smith
ORO Editions
www.oroeditions.com
9781961856448, $45.00, HC, 328pp
https://www.amazon.com/Continuum-Marlena-Buczek-Smith/dp/1961856441
Synopsis: Since the poster images comprising "Continuum" by Martena Smith are socially conscious, they will speak as examples to any social-political non for profit organizations, for example Amnesty International, who also fight for human rights.
Many graphic design books are currently available, but none that juxtaposes poetics and the visual language of graphic design so cohesively. "Continuum" challenges designers to leave their comfort zone to become "part poet" thereby having the potential to meld two communities into one. We project as our society is more digitized, any product released to it has more potential to transform itself into digital noise rendering the product itself ineffective. Effectiveness is the key and printed material is hands down more effective.
The hope is for "Coninuum" to appeal to a broad readership, including graphic design students, artists, political activists, poets and writers seeking to permeate and penetrate the awareness of society and social movements.
Critique: This large format (7.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches, 3 pounds) hardcover edition of Martina Smith's "Continuum" from ORO Editions will prove to ber instructional, inspirational, and motivational for anyone wanting to promote learning about global issues in a different but quite effective way from what traditional mass media (television, newspaper, social media) expose the public to. Featuring contributions by Jose Luis Ansaldo, Dogan Arslan, and Joao Bandeira, "Continuum" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition for personal, professional, community, art school, and college/university library Graphic Design & Illustration collections.
Editorial Note: Marlena Buczek Smith (http://marlenabuczek.com) moved to the US from Poland in the early '90s, where she attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Her body of work includes posters, commercial graphic design, and paintings. Her posters have been printed in various publications including Print Quarterly and Graphis, the latter elevating her status to Graphis Master in 2023. She is featured in Graphis Journal 377 publication (Fall 2023). Marlena is frequently invited to judge and/or participate internationally in poster exhibitions, including the 8th International Biennale of the Socio-Political Poster, the 14 International Triennial of Political Posters, What Unites Us 2, and the 2021 New Jersey Arts Annual: Revision and Respond.
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Robin Friedman's Bookshelf
Three American Hegels
Ryan J. Johnson
Rowman & Littlefield
c/o Bloomsbury
https://www.bloomsbury.com
9781538195222, $120.00, hardcover / $45.00 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Three-American-Hegels-Brokmeyer-Williams/dp/1538195224
An Overlooked Story In American Intellectual History
There is a frequent tendency to downplay the depth and breadth of American intellectual and spiritual life and its wide range. For example, the names of Emerson and Thoreau are known in American philosophy, as is the American philosophy of pragmatism, but many people and many movements remain almost unknown. Among these movements is philosophical idealism, a tradition with strong historical roots in the United States. With many forms of idealism, American philosophers learned from and expanded the difficult Absolute Idealism of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Fredrick Hegel (1770 -- 1831). In his outstanding recent book, "Three American Hegels," Ryan Johnson introduces the reader to three American thinkers deeply influenced by Hegel: Henry C. Brockmeyer, Horace Williams, and John William Miller. These three individuals are little-known, even in the academic community. Johnson explores their lives and thoughts and makes a convincing case that they have something important to teach. Johnson, associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Elon University, North Carolina, writes with passion and commitment.
The book consists of an Introduction titled "A Plea for Patience" followed by three parts, one for each thinker covered in the book. Each part is divided into three sections discussing each philosopher's life, works and thought. The conclusion of the book summarizes each thinker with an emphasis on the way each was complicit in the evils of the time, particularly racism and sexism. Johnson acknowledges his own complicity as well and promises the reader and himself that "this will be the last time I write on only white, male philosophers". (242) To me, this is a limited ending to a book that otherwise offers so much of value.
In the Introduction, Johnson explains briefly how he became fascinated by Hegel and how he came to study the three American Hegels of his book. He offers a brief introductory summary of each American Hegel and, broadly, what he finds of value in them. Each of the three wrote relatively little. What Johnson finds of importance is how each lived philosophy (with a reference to the thought of Pierre Hadot) and how each developed Hegel into a philosophy of activity and life rather than of only reading and contemplation. Johnson writes that what distinguishes his three American Hegels is "their shared emphasis on philosophy as lived action. Brockmeyer, Horace, and Miller all prioritized acting over recording; living over writing; teaching over publishing. I call it a practice-oriented Hegelianism." (xvii) Again, Johnson writes that "practice is the highest form of Hegelianism..... After writing this book, I am convinced that Hegelianism must be practiced--acted out, lived through, and with others." (xviii) He develops his main theme in detail in the three parts of his study.
Henry Brockmeyer (1826 -- 1906) was born in Prussia and came to the United States as a child. He was a founder of an American school called the "St Louis Hegelians" a group of thinkers who were not professional philosophers. The St. Louis Hegelians published a philosophical journal, "The Journal of Speculative Philosophy", the first English-only philosophical periodical without a theological agenda. Brockmeyer had a wide-ranging life and served as the lieutenant governor and briefly as the governor of Missouri as well as working in factories with iron. He spent much of his philosophical life in the daunting task of reading and translating Hegel's "Logic", which he largely did while living isolated, in a cabin in the woods. The translation remains unpublished. Johnson describes Brockmeyer's thought as "Frontier Hegelianism" and elaborates what he sees as Brockmeyer's key Hegelian term: Aufheben, which Johnson develops as a "bawl of negation".
Horace Williams (1858--1940) grew up on a farm in Gates County, North Carolina and went on to study philosophy at Harvard and Yale. He taught philosophy for 50 years at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and developed what he called a "Live Hegelianism" and a "Logic for Living" focusing, as did Brockmeyer on Hegel's "Logic". Johnson calls Williams, a born and bred Southerner, the "Honeysuckle Hegel", while novelist Thomas Wolfe called him the "Hegel of the cotton patch." Johnson sees Williams's key Hegelian term as Begriff, meaning concept or notion and its development in the day to day activity of life. Johnson writes that Williams endeavored to develop a particular form of Southern Hegelianism which would be "a means for awakening the South out of its former habits, customs, and prejudices, thereby uplifting the region into a leading role in a greater dynamic, organic, global whole." (xxiv)
The third American Hegelian, John William Miller (1895 -- 1978) was born in Rochester, New York, studied at Harvard, and taught philosophy from 1924 until his retirement in 1960 at Williams College. Connecticut. Johnson sees Miller as influenced by Hegel's Phenomenology more than by the Logic. He sees the key Hegelian term for Miller as Wirklichkeit or actuality. The pragmatist John Dewey is often called the philosopher of American Democracy, while Johnson styles Miller as "The Teacher of the Metaphysics of Democracy". Johnson offers a detailed, difficult introduction to Miller's thought focusing on his philosophy of history and of his use of terms such as act, actuality, concrete universality (a difficult Hegelian term) and midworld, Miller's own term. Miller emphasized that philosophy was not an abstraction but was instead a matter of everyday life, developed in such apparently mundane activities as raking leaves or walking to the post office. Johnson describes Miller as practicing "Metaphysics on Elm Street" (233). Miller has received more attention than Johnson's other two American Hegels. An active philosophical society, The John William Miller Society at Williams College is devoted to studying his work, and a growing number of prominent American philosophers have written or are writing books on Miller.
I have been a student of American philosophy and of American idealistic thought for some time and I found this book inspiring. It calls attention to three thinkers who deserve recognition and it works towards developing a distinctive contemporary form of idealism or, perhaps, pragmatic idealism. It is a philosophy of actuality rooted in everyday life which does not lapse into skepticism or relativism. It was heartening to see that idealism, once given up for dead, is receiving increased scholarly attention. This book is written for an academic audience but its appeal and underlying thought may be substantially broader.
British Idealism: A History
W.J. Mander, author
Oxford University Press
https://corp.oup.com
9780198705840, $73.00, paperback
https://www.amazon.com/British-Idealism-W-J-Mander/dp/0198705840
W.J. Mander's Study Of British Idealism
W.J. Mander's book "British Idealism: A History" (2012) offers a lengthy, detailed and scholarly study of a philosophical movement that, until recently, had been neglected. British idealism arose in about 1865, flourished until the end of the Nineteenth Century. and continued through about 1930. After that time, some thinkers still carried forward its influence. Analytical philosophy, beginning with G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russell, lead to the demise of British idealism and used it as its chief target. Mander, Professor of History of Modern Philosophy at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, performed an invaluable service in writing this book in saving the British Idealists from undeserved obscurity and allowing interested readers to think with them. I came to this book through an interest in American pragmatism and American idealism, roughly parallel movements to the British idealists. I deferred some other reading to read Mander's book.
Mander's Introduction stresses the importance of thinking philosophically from varying perspectives. He sees the British Idealists as forming a movement or school of thought with large, collegial commonalities as well as differences among them. The British Idealists had "a distinctive conception of the world of knowledge and of the place of philosophy within it. They insisted on its essential underlying unity." (3) This synoptic view of philosophy is of critical importance and sets it apart from most of the philosophy which replaced it. Mander's Introduction continues to develop common themes of the British idealists in the importance they placed on metaphysics, the strong, if varied, religious dimension in their thought, and their focus on social and political questions under which "they advance a societal conception of the individual. They argued that people could not be understood as distinct individuals, but made sense only in the context of a community which gave to them their thoughts, character and role in life." (6)
Mander discusses the history of British Idealism and its relationship to the thought of Kant and Hegel as well as to British Empiricism. By far the largest part of the book consists of an exploration of the thought of the British Idealists themselves arranged by subject matter, thinker, and time. Much of the book consists of expositions of the works of thinkers, many of whom are unfamiliar. These include the earlier figures of T. H. Green, F.H. Bradley, and Edward Caird and the slightly later figures, Bernard Bosanquet and J.M.E. McTaggart, among others. Their writings and thoughts are explored in successive chapters on Idealistic metaphysics, philosophy of religion, ethics, social and political philosophy, and logic.
About at the mid-point of the study, Mander discusses how the Idealist movement split into two related parts, one continuing in an absolutist spirit of the unity of reality, including persons, and the other taking a more personalistic tone, sometimes called personalism or personalistic idealism. Here as well, personalism also took root in the United States and elsewhere. (Martin Luther King, Jr. was an adherent of personalism.) Mander continues to develop the growth of British Idealism in both its absolutistic and personalist lines, exploring the thought of several new thinkers. There is a degree of repetition but further development as well as Mander discusses the continuing idealist thought in metaphysics, religion, ethics, social philosophy, and logic. He gives some attention to idealism and pragmatism and to the interactions of idealism with philosophers including Henri Bergson. Philosophers considered in the latter part of the book include Henry Jones, H.H. Joachim, R.B. Haldane, and more.
The book's final chapter considers "The after life of idealism". Mander considers the reasons for idealism's eclipse including the World Wars, the rise of analytical philosophy, the growth and acceptance of secular outlooks, and developments in formal logic. With all this, idealist influenced philosophical voices continue to be heard. The book ends with a chronology of the British Idealists and their writings and with a lengthy, detailed bibliography.
This is an outstanding book and for readers with a passion for philosophy worthy of the time and attention its reading demands. There has been a small upsurge of interest in idealism in recent years in the early part of the Twenty-First century. Idealism remains in broad outline a feasible and challenging philosophical position which continues to be restated among alternatives. Its emphasis on meaning, on the whole of reality, religion or spirituality, and of the relationship of individual and community remain provocative and valuable. I have long been fascinated by it and learned from reading Mander.
The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen
Oxford University Press
https://corp.oup.com
9780190625368, $21.99,hardcover / $9.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Ideas-That-Made-America-History/dp/0190625368
How Ideas Make America
Some years ago, I read and reviewed Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen's book "American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and his Ideas" (2011) which examines the reception of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) in the United States and Americans' ongoing and continued fascination with Nietzsche's writings and character. I was impressed with the erudition of the book and its portrayal of the American life of the mind in response to Nietzsche. Ratner -Rosenhagen's more recent book, "The Ideas that Made America: A Brief History" (2019) is shorter but substantially broader than her book on Nietzsche. It consists of the play of ideas that helped to make America from the earliest days of European contact, and perhaps earlier, to the present. A major goal of the book is to show the importance of ideas to the making of the United States; or, as the title suggests how ideas made America. It is valuable at the outset to see the importance of ideas and thought to our country's history. The book reminded me of Louis Menand's well-known study "The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America" (2002) and of Carlin Romano's book "America the Philosophical" (2014). Ratner-Rosenhagen is the Merle Curti and Wilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison where she teaches US intellectual and cultural history. I have fond memories of the University of Wisconsin, both in Madison and in Milwaukee, as the home of my efforts when young in the study of philosophy.
Ratner-Rosenhagen explains her project in the book's Introduction as presenting "a brief survey of some of the most compelling episodes and abiding preoccupations in American intellectual history." She explains her project further by stating that it is "fueled by the desire to come into contact with interesting people we might not otherwise know but for the records of their minds they left behind." She describes her book as "thinking about thinking" and, even though her book uses traditional sources of intellectual history such as philosophy, literature, social and cultural criticism, these "are only some of the sources that can awaken us to all the ways Americans have constructed their realities and made meaning in their lives." Her book focuses over time on the movement of ideas across national borders, as was the case in her study of Nietzsche, the movement of ideas across time, such as the influence of nineteenth century feminism on its contemporary successor, and the movement of ideas across borders within American culture, including the movement of ideas from intellectual sources in, say, the academy to more popular culture and vice versa.
The book consists of eight chapters chronologically arranged each of which presents some of the leading ideas and books of the age, how they developed in their time, and how they influenced American development. The chapter on early European settlement focuses largely on the Puritans and on their interaction with Native Americans and on the introduction of slavery. Next, Ratner-Rosenhagen ties revolutionary America in with Enlightenment thought. Consideration of Pre-Civil War America concludes with the third chapter which traces the growing influence of romanticism in the United States, both North and South and on the incipient feminist movement in the person of Margaret Fuller.
Chapter four, "Contests of Intellectual Authority: 1850--1890" is pivotal in the book in its consideration of the consideration of the Civil War and in showing the impact in the United States of Darwin's "Origin of the Species" published in 1859 and of the theory of evolution. Darwin's influence became central to further intellectual activity in the United States and remains so today, not least in the development of American pragmatism which receives substantial discussion for a short book, especially in the figure of John Dewey (1859 -- 1952).
Chapters 5-8 have a contemporary feel as Ratner-Rosenhagen examines the growth of modernism in philosophy, literature and the social sciences, the impact of two World Wars and the Depression, the resurgence of religious thought and the response to it, the growth of American intellectual conservatism second-wave feminism, the civil rights movement, identity thinking. and much more. She shows that the contemporary battle of ideas in America has roots not only in foreign movements but even more in earlier stages of American thought were current ideas, including anti-foundationalism and postmodernism and its aftermath could be found in embryonic form. Ratner-Rosenhagen considers the late American philosopher Richard Rorty (1931 -2007) as emblematic of some of the tendencies of contemporary American thought.
With so much to cover in a short book, Ratner-Rosenhagen's treatment of individual figures and works is necessarily brief. Still, Ratner-Rosenhagen displays a fascination with ideas and people and with their relations through time. She draws, a little too easily, an analogy between American thought and an ongoing conversation. But American intellectual iife and the search for meaning continue in a way, the book shows is fascinating and inspiring if tumultuous. The book includes an excellent eight-page bibliography of suggestions for further reading. Ratner-Rosenhagen's study concludes:
"Over the course of the centuries, Americans learned and self-taught, native born and immigrant, religious and secular, and left and right have contributed to this long conversation by offering new arguments and key terms for Americans to think about the world, themselves, their truth, and their America. No one, so far, has been successful in answering these questions once and for all. They only came up with provisional explanations and then posed new questions. Perhaps we should not want it any other way. And so the conversation of American thought continues."
Let us hope that Americans continue to think, to engage with each other, to agree and to disagree, and to explore further the life of the mind.
Her Hidden Genius: A Novel
Marie Benedict, author
Sourcebooks Landmark
https://www.sourcebooks.com
9781728260105, $16.99, paperback / $9.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Her-Hidden-Genius-Marie-Benedict/dp/1728260108
A Novel About Rosalind Franklin
Marie Benedict's novel "Her Hidden Genius" (2022) is based upon the life and work of the British chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin (1920 -- 1958) centering upon her work in the discovery of the structure of DNA. In 1962, after Franklin's death, Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. The Nobel Prize is awarded to living persons, and Franklin was dead. Still her large role in the investigation of the structure of DNA had been forgotten. The omission has been rectified in recent years with Franklin receiving a great deal of recognition and honor for her scientific accomplishments.
Marie Benedict is the pen name for Heather Terrell (b. 1958). Like Franklin, Terrell is highly gifted. She worked for ten years as a litigator in two prestigious law firms before finding that she was born to write and to tell the stories of gifted but neglected women. She has written many novels about women and about women's issues. She is married with two sons. This novel about Franklin is my first experience with Benedict's work.
The story is told in the first person by Franklin through diary entries beginning February 3, 1947, in Paris and concluding April 16, 1958, in London with Franklin's death. The chapters are short and engagingly written. I was drawn into the book from the outset. The character comes to life, personally and professionally, in Benedict's telling. The book includes much detailed scientific discussion necessary to understand Franklin's work and its importance. The book still flows well for the non-scientifically trained reader.
The story is set in post-WW II Paris and London in the worlds of rarefied scientific research. Franklin, raised in a prosperous and observant Jewish family in London finds herself at home in the camaraderie of the Paris scientific community until she is sexually approached by her mentor, to whom she is greatly attracted, but who is married and involved in an affair with another. She moves to London where for two years she works assiduously on learning the structure of DNA. The book shows the sharp competition between different research centers in Britain and elsewhere. While partaking of the competition, Franklin appears devoted to science for its own sake and for the benefits it may bring to humanity. Franklin painstakingly works on learning the structure of DNA when, in the course of her tenure, her work is appropriated by colleagues and by those in other laboratories. Her key discoveries are taken and used without her permission and without acknowledgement. The suggestion is that her work was stolen. She feels isolated and ostracized and leaves to take another position in London for the remainder of her short life and she investigates the structure of RNA. Benedict's account focuses on the harassment and patronization she receives from colleagues at the lab based largely with the discomfort the male scientists feel in the presence and accomplishments of a brilliant woman.
Another thread of the book explores Franklin's relationship to her family and to religion. Franklin was a lifelong agnostic who rejected the theism of traditional Judaism. Probably more importantly, her family wanted Franklin to marry, raise a family, and work in charitable community affairs in accordance with their understanding of traditional Jewish practice. The close-knit family remained uncomfortable with Franklin's single state and her total dedication to the world of science.
Franklin has a complex character in this novel. Frequently she is blunt, abrasive, and tactless. It is not difficult to understand the difficulties she might face in a collegial environment. She also is kind, encouraging and helpful to her peers, and devoted to her calling. Throughout, there is a tension between her independence and love of science and what seems to be a wish for male sexual companionship. She remains outside the theism of traditional Judaism but, as the book progresses, she seems, in her passion for nature and the mountains, to come to a sense of the mystery of life beyond the specific teachings and practices of science. As a scientist, Franklin was remarkably factual and detail oriented -- perhaps excessively so and at the expense of scientific hypothesis or theory. Still, she tried to understand and study nature as it is before drawing broad conclusions and especially conclusions involving heavy moralizing. The restraint from jumping to conclusions and from drawing strongly moralistic critical conclusions about people and institutions seem to me valuable perspectives to bring to thinking about Franklin's life and about this novel.
"Her Hidden Genius" is a fascinating, thoughtful book. The book has a strong moral tenor and a sense of heavy wrongdoing making Franklin a victim and destroying her life. The novel stresses the difficulties Franklin endured in her work and attributes them to her gender and to sexism. In the years since her death, Franklin has become an iconic figure for her role as the brilliant woman shunted aside in the world of men.
To my mind, however, the book tells a different story. Franklin's work bore critically important results. They have been recognized at length in the years subsequent to her death. Even though her tragically early death deprived her of the opportunity to share in the Nobel Prize. she has received great public and professional recognition since her death, much more so than most scientists, including Nobel Prize recipients receive. Franklin lead the kind of life she wanted and did so, for the most part, with her eyes open. She had the opportunity to devote herself to science and she did. She was inspiring in herself and in the culture and scientific environment in which she lived which allowed her to learn, and, at a cost, to flourish and to become the person she wanted to be. Franklin faced and tried with mixed results to balance the different goals of human life, including a sexual life, for herself. A scientific career is demanding by its nature, perhaps particularly so for women. This book is valuable because it helped me to think about and to understand and appreciate Rosalind Franklin in a way that may differ somewhat from the understanding of the author.
Second Space: New Poems
Czeslaw Milosz, author
Robert Haas, translator
Ecco
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780060755249, $18.00, paperback / $11.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Second-Space-Poems-Czeslaw-Milosz/dp/0060755245
Milosz's Second Space
"Second Space" is a collection of thirty-two poems on religious themes by Czeslaw Milosz (1911 -- 2004) written when the poet was in his 90s. The poems are heavily autobiographical in tone, meditative, and reflective. They deal with Milosz's struggle for religious, and in particular Catholic, faith in a world of secularism, mechanism, and suffering. They also describe the conflict in Milosz's own life between the call to the religious life and the lure of the world, with its natural beauty, and human sexuality. Milosz tries to reconcile the tensions among these two polarities.
The book is dense and richly detailed with allusions to Polish poets, to Milosz's relatives, particularly to his cousin Oscar Milosz (1877-1939) a French poet and diplomat, and to the mystical thinkers Jacob Boehme and Emmanuel Swedenborg, who have deeply influenced Milosz and his approach to religious questions.
The book is divided into five parts. The first part consists of a series of short poems discussing the poet's struggle for religious meaning. In many of these poems, Milosz revisits and reflects upon his life. The title of the book "Second Space" derives from the first poem of the collection in which Milosz laments the difficulty of conceiving of a "second space" in our modern world -- the space of both heaven and hell. Milosz writes in a clear style with many striking figures and phrases. Thus, he concludes his poem, "The Old Women" with the benediction: "May the day of your death not be a day of hopelessness,/ but of trust in the light that shines through earthly forms."
The second part of the book is a series of eleven interior monologues by "Father Severinus," who describes himself in the first poem as "a priest without faith". In these poems, Father Severnus meditates on the importance, mystery, and difficulty of a spiritual life as he describes his own internal struggles and the struggles of some of the people who come to him for help.
The third part of the book is in Milosz's own voice and consists of 23 poems forming a "Treatise on Theology." These poems are in the voice of the layperson -- the poet himself -- rather than of Father Severnus, but the themes and preoccupations are the same. They are epitomized in the final poem of this group, "Beautiful Lady" in which Milosz describes his responses to the appearances of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes and Fatima.
The fourth part of the book, "Apprentice", is the poet's tribute to the work of his cousin, the French poet Oscar Milosz. This poem is richly personal and allusive, and Milosz accompanies it with extensive notes. I found it helpful to read the poem first with the notes followed by a reading straight through without the notes -- which tend to interfere with the text.
The book concludes with what to may mind is its best section, a brief retelling of the "Orpheus and Euridice" legend in modern garb with Milosz himself as the protagonist. Orpheus in this retelling struggles with the loss of religious conviction as much as with the loss of his beloved. There is an eloquent passage in this poem in which Milosz describes the goal of his poetic endeavor:
"He sang the brightness of morning and green rivers,
He sang of smoking water in the rose-colored daybreaks,
Of colors: cinnabar, carmine, burnt sienna, blue,
Of the delight of swimming in the sea under marble cliffs,
Of feasting on a terrace above the tumult of a fishing port,
Of the tastes of wine, olive oil, almonds, mustard, salt.
Of the flight of the swallow, the falcon,
Of a dignified flock of pelicans above a bay,
Of the scene of an armful of lilacs in summer rain,
Of his having composed his words always against death
And of having made no rhyme in praise of nothingness."
"Second Space" is a moving valedictory volume by a great Twentieth Century poet.
Robin Friedman
Reviewer
Roisin Smyth's Bookshelf
Dancing With Red Flags
Anna Rajmon
https://www.annarajmon.com
Independently published
9798282401820, $8.99
https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-red-flags-charming-bastards-ebook/dp/B0F7FVF45Q
Synopsis: Dancing With Red Flags is the second book of the Czech writer and illustrator Anna Rajmon. It's essentially a handbook to alert women to spot the signs that the man who has won her heart could end up breaking it into pieces without mercy.
With biting wit, brutal honesty, and hard-earned lessons, the book takes you deep into the psychological jungle of narcissists, manipulators, emotional absentees, and men who wear red flags like cologne.
It will help you spot the red flags you were taught to overlook, reconnect with the intuition you've been silencing, and finally stop giving your best self to the worst people
Critique: An unstintingly honest survivor's guide to recognizing the ruthless creeps and pathetic excuses for men who fool us into thinking they're Mr. Perfect, and blind us to the fact that they're a long way from perfection - until it's too late. Almost every woman has met someone like that, and most of us have met more than one, unfortunately.
Anna Rajmon has provided a well-researched and well-written overview of the personality types who play on women's emotions for their own gain and leave behind a trail of broken promises and broken hearts. Her objective in doing this is to warn women to watch out for the 'red flags' that such charming men can often conceal.
Rajmon draws on her own personal experiences as well as her research, and presents her case in a funny, frank, and formidable way. It's advice we'd be fools to ignore.
Editorial Note: Anna Rajmon is a writer and illustrator who lives in the Czech Republic. Her writing has been published on Goodreads, Novelo, Reedsy, Writing.ie, and her own blog at www.annarajmon.com. Her story has been featured in Bella Caledonia, Global Comment, the Irish Examiner, and Slugger O'Toole. In addition to Dancing With Red Flags, she is also the author of the memoir Elis: Irish Call Girl.
Roisin Smyth
Reviewer
S. K. Bane's Bookshelf
Foodways (Volume 7 in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture)
John T. Edge, Volume Editor
Charles Reagan Wilson, Series Editor
University of North Carolina Press
www.uncpress.unc.edu
9780807858400, $39.95, paperback / $9.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/New-Encyclopedia-Southern-Culture-Vol/dp/0807858404
John T. Edge, Director of the University of Mississippi's Southern Foodways Alliance and author of such engaging books as Fried Chicken: An American Story (2004) and The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South (2017), has done a commendable job assembling this indispensable examination of Southern food. This volume, "the first encyclopedia of the food culture of the American South," consists of almost 150 articles and includes both thematic essays and topical entries.
Thematic essays include African American Foodways, Appalachian Foodways, Farming, Game Cookery, Gulf Coast Foodways, Lunch Counters in the Civil Rights Era, Pork, Roadside Restaurants, Social Class and Food, and Soul Food. Topical entries include Carolina Barbecue, Memphis and Tennessee Barbecue, Texas Barbecue, Black-eyed Peas, Bourbon Whiskey, Catfish, Coca-Cola, Cornbread, Crawfish, Deviled Eggs, Gravy, Grits, Jack Daniel Distillery, King Cakes, Krispy Kreme, MoonPies, Okra, Pimento Cheese, Po' Boys, Colonel Harland Sanders, Sweet Potatoes, Tabasco, Waffle House, and Watermelon.
In his fascinating article on Goo Goo Clusters, Duke University professor Tom Rankin observes, "The Standard Candy Company heralds the Goo Goo Cluster as 'A Good Ole Southern Treat.' Often advertised as 'the South's favorite candy'...the Goo Goo Cluster has been a candy staple in Nashville, where it originated, and throughout the South...First created by William H. Campbell in 1912, the Goo Goo Cluster is a combination of caramel, marshmallow, peanuts, and pure milk chocolate...Since 1968 the Grand Ole Opry has been singing the praises of the Goo Goo to those in attendance and thousands more over WSM radio. So closely associated with the Opry is the candy that some have suggested Goo stands for Grand Ole Opry." Considering the mint julep, Athens, Georgia, historian Richard B. Harwell contends, " The mint julep, along with white columns, moonlight, jasmine, and magnolias, is part and parcel of the patrician Southern myth...The origin of what may be the South's most famous drink - excepting only Coca-Cola - has as many claimants as Homer's birthplace: Virginia, Maryland, New England, Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana...The mint julep has been...used for atmosphere by O. Henry, Margaret Mitchell, and a thousand other writers of fiction. It has truly passed into the realm of cliche, but this concoction of bourbon whiskey, sugar, mint, and ice retains both its charm and its good taste."
In short, Foodways is a tasty read and an admirable addition to The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
S. K. Bane
Reviewer
Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf
Rainwater
Sandra Brown
Simon & Schuster
https://www.simonandschuster.com
9781501199677, $17.99
https://www.amazon.com/Rainwater-Sandra-Brown/dp/1501199676
Rainwater is set in Texas during the Great Depression, though judging from the fact that the families there have gardens that actually produce, they are not in the worst areas of the Dust Bowl. Ella Baron runs a boarding house in what was her family's home. Abandoned by her husband and with an autistic child to raise, she lives a rather restricted life, working dawn to dusk just trying to make ends meet. When the local doctor asks her to take one of his family members, David Rainwater, as a boarder she does so reluctantly, especially when told the situation will be temporary as Rainwater is dying.
This book starts out rather slowly, and I initially wondered where the Depression came into play. It quickly heats up, though, and Ella is swept into local circumstances: the killing of livestock both to boost market prices and to keep the animals from starving to death due to the climate, racial tensions with the lynching of a black man, and repeated run-ins with a former high school suitor who's turned into a bully. All with a splash of romance between Ella and Rainwater. And a surprising twist at the end.
The book is bookended by a scene in an antique shop with a couple chatting with the owner and learning the above story. The prose is understated as is the romance and sex scenes. I ended up liking this more than I had anticipated from its slow start.
Recitatif
Toni Morrison
Knopf
https://knopfdoubleday.com
c/o Penguin Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780593315033, $16.00
https://www.amazon.com/Recitatif-Story-Toni-Morrison/dp/0593315030
I absolutely adore Toni Morrison's works and have read most of her oeuvre but somehow missed her sole short story, "Recitatif." This edition has a lovely forty-page introduction by Zadie Smith who analyzes and helps readers grasp the story.
At its heart, "Recitatif" is about two eight-year-old girls, Twyla and Roberta, who are placed in a state home and share a room. Despite their initial prejudices against rooming with someone of a "whole other race," they become friends. Their lives intersect four more times during their lives. What is intriguing is that Morrison deliberately avoids assigning a specific "race" to either girl, so the reader is always left wondering which is which - and does it matter if the black girl or the white girl has the mother who "dances all night" or the mother who is sick? Morrison walks a tightrope balancing the language so that it's never clear from the dialogue or other clues.
A disabled woman, Maggie, shifts into the background though she's the most important character. Readers get so involved in solving the mystery of which girl is black and which is white that they lose track of Maggie and her role in their lives. A disabled woman, she is a scapegoat for the older girls at the home and treated abysmally. As Twyla and Roberta revisit - and revise - their past, they have conflicting memories of Maggie, including her race and their part in a scene where Maggie falls, but no one helps her.
Toni Morrison forces readers to examine ourselves and our racial stereotypes in a profound way in this superb short story. As the mother of a Black son, I found it particularly intriguing and very moving.
The Last Maasai Warrior
Frank Coates
HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780730443469, $4.99
https://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Maasai-Warrior/dp/0732286484
The Last Maasai Warrior is a fascinating historical fiction account of British colonization of Kenya which has many parallels to the invasion of North America by Europeans and the ensuing genocide of Native Americans.
The British, in 1904, yield the Maasai control of their traditional lands in perpetuity. A bare seven years later, the Brits betray this trust and force the Maasai into a near-uninhabitable area of Kenya that lacks sufficient water and grass to support the herds of cattle, sheep, and goats of the pastoral Maasai and doesn't permit their to migration to preserve pasture lands. Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), a parasitic disease transmitted by the tsetse fly, is endemic. In addition, there is a new outbreak of East Coast Fever (ECF), a tick-borne disease in cattle that is usually fatal. In an enforced trek to these new lands, akin to the Native American Trail of Tears, hundreds of Maasai and thousands of their livestock perish.
The hero of the story is Paresloi Ole Sadera, the sole Laikipiak in a village of Purkos. He is a slight man with a strong will. He fulfills the legend of a boy child who is birthed in the waters of a river and holds a small stone in each hand. Ole Sadera rises from being a scapegoat to being the spokesperson and leader of his age group of Maasai warriors. The Maasai soon see the rise of whites as being inevitable and agree to give up their lands. Ole Sadera feels strongly that the Maasai should not give in, should not abandon the very ideals that make them Maasai. He learns English and tries to work within the British legal system to keep Maasai lands, even going to England to pursue the legal case. Helping Ole Sadera in all this is the appointed veterinary inspector, the British administrator George Coll .
Essentially, the Maasai, like so many Native American and New Zealand and Australian aboriginals are sent to reservations. This saga has historical meaning and relevance to nations that have indigenous people and the importance of respecting and preserving their history.
Roll the Sun Across the Sky
Barbara Linn Probst
She Writes Press
https://shewritespress.com
c/o Simon & Schuster (distribution)
https://www.simonandschuster.com
9781647428990, $18.99
https://www.amazon.com/Roll-Sun-Across-Sky-Novel/dp/1647428998
I was immersed in Roll the Sun Across the Sky from the first line: "The summer before I ruin his life..." Of course, I had to learn how the protagonist, a twenty-four-year-old woman, destroys someone's life! That the story involves a trip across Europe during the 1970s, just when I was traveling around the world, also grabbed my attention.
Roll the Sun Across the Sky is written in two points of view as well as two timelines. While most of the book is in the point of view of Arden, the protagonist, there is an occasional chapter from her daughter's perspective, showing how she is influenced by both her mother and stepfather.
Probst does a marvelous job of making an unsympathetic character intriguing and showing her character arc. Despite my frustrations with Arden, I literally could not put the book down. It is like waiting for the train wreck you can see coming but can't prevent. Highly recommend!
The Language of the Birds
K.A. Merson
Ballantine Books
c/o Penguin Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780593874523, $30.00
https://www.amazon.com/Language-Birds-Novel-K-Merson/dp/0593874528
The Language of the Birds is a Da Vinci Code-type of young-adult exploit filled with complicated ciphers, codes, puzzles, American history, and conspiracy theories involving Herbert Hoover, the US President who botched the American recovery from the Great Depression. The book involves a seventeen-year-old Arizona, also known as AZ and her dog, Mojo. She has just lost her father in a motorcycle accident and is with her mother revisiting their family's favorite sights to scatter his ashes, when her mother disappears. When Arizona and Mojo regroup at the family's Airstream travel trailer, she finds a note stating her mother's life depends on Arizona solving a cipher.
Arizona sees patterns and hidden meanings due to her family history (her father was a cartographer by trade and a cryptographer by avocation) and her own brand of neurodivergence. She may be intellectually brilliant, but she is somewhat socially inept. Arizona fears involving the authorities, and attempts to solve the mystery assigned to her; however, once it's done, the kidnappers present yet another mystery to solve.
There are lots of literary references to Lewis Carroll, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson as well as archaic texts on alchemy. The puzzles she must solve are encased in writings that in part derive from Alice in Wonderland and other poetry. I found the inclusion of these often-lengthy excerpts and fragments of people's journals and Arizona's own writings to be overdone and thus skimmed a lot of them, especially since they frequently appeared in both Arizona's and the villain's points of view. The novel itself is written primarily in Arizona's point of view with some excursions into that of her mother and the villain. The bad guy and his minions were quite cardboard; a bit more character definition would have been appreciated. I also wondered how a seventeen-year-old paid for a multi-day diving expedition off the California coast as well as her other day-to-day expenses.
I did enjoy the accurate and well-researched details on ghost towns and the California flora and fauna. I also liked Arizona's feistiness, the fact that as a result of this adventure she was able to expand her life with new friendships, and the fact that neurodivergent youngsters can see themselves in this book and identify with her character. In addition, non-neurodivergent young folks can get a glimpse into the lives of the "weird" kids they so often bully and make fun of.
Shadow of the Solstice
Anne Hillerman
HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063433557, $34.00
https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Solstice-Leaphorn-Manuelito-Novel/dp/0063433559
Each year I look forward to the next installment of the Leaphorn/Chee/Manuelito Navajo mysteries by the father-daughter duo of Tony and Anne Hillerman. Shadow of the Solstice is the 28th novel in the series. They are consistently good reads, and I have read every one.
When a U.S. Cabinet secretary plans a trip to the Navajo town of Shiprock, the local police department moves into high gear, canceling time off, approving overtime, etc. When the beaten body of a man is found in a restricted area surrounding a uranium waste site, they wonder if that violence is somehow related.
When a family that runs a venue for revivals and such complains about a group there building a sweat lodge without a permit, Officer Bernadette Manuelito and Lt. Jim Chee investigate. They find abused women, a sweat lodge that is destined to kill those who use it, and a group of militants who plan to protest the Secretary's visit.
In this book, Darleen Manuelito, Bernadette's younger sister and something of a problem child, has matured and is studying to be a nurse. When one of her clients disappears along with the woman's grandson, Darleen investigates and discovers a Medicare fraud scheme that ties in the cases of missing people Jim Chee is investigating.
I enjoy the way the Hillermans weave Navajo beliefs and current events into these novels. They show the gritty underbelly of humanity as well as the human side of law enforcement officials. Bernadette's mother has dementia, and she is coping with finding care for her while continuing to work as a police officer.
My Name is Emilia del Valle
Isabel Allende
Ballentine
c/o Penguin Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780593975107, $13.99
https://www.amazon.com/My-Name-Emilia-del-Valle-ebook/dp/B0DCFSM3XF
My Name is Emilia del Valle has everything I typically look for in fiction, especially women's fiction and historical fiction: an indomitable female protagonist facing sexism, unjust social mores, and other obstacles in her life. Somehow, this novel fails to deliver on multiple accounts, primarily the entire novel seems recycled from Portrait in Sepia, an earlier Allende novel.
Though written in first person from Emilia's point-of-view, the novel has a very distant omniscient feel in which Emilia knows all and tells all that others feel and think, though there is no logical reason she has these insights. She tells constantly and rarely shows what's happening, giving the novel, even the descriptions of the Chilean civil war, the sense of a travelogue. Overall I found it difficult to feel much for Emilia herself or any of the other characters.
Raised in San Francisco by a loving step-father and an ex-nun mother, Emilia begins writing dime novels at an early age. When those no longer satisfy her, she convinces a newspaper to hire her as a reporter; but she must publish under a male nom-de-plum. Eventually she travels to Chile in the company of a fellow reporter, Eric Whelan. She's to cover the government's side of the war, and he's to cover the rebels. She tells his version of the rebels' events, rather than giving him his own POV. Finally at the end of the novel, for one whole chapter, Eric gets a POV chapter - when he goes to Chile to rescue her from herself-imposed search for her roots in a distant jungle.
Having been disappointed in the last couple of Allende novels, I'm wondering if this will be the last I read.
Kills Well with Others
Deanna Raybourn
Berkley
c/o Penguin Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780593638521, $14.99
https://www.amazon.com/Kills-Well-Others-Deanna-Raybourn-ebook/dp/B0D6V415BF
Kills Well with Others is the sequel to Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age. A quartet of "women of a certain age," retired assassins Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are called out of retirement (they're still waiting on their pensions) by the organization they work for, the Museum. In the year since their last assignment they have had enough rest, relaxation, and yoga. They're being targeted for death, possibly by a Bulgarian organization decades after they killed its head honcho. They gallop around the European art scene tracking down Nazi-looted art and Egyptian artifacts and searching for the mole in the Museum.
This is a light-hearted thriller with heroines who may be a bit long in the tooth but are vivacious and prove that age is all in the mind.
Suanne Schafer, Reviewer
www.SuanneSchaferAuthor.com
Susan Bethany's Bookshelf
Brave the Page
Megan Febuary
Baker Books
c/o Baker Publishing Group
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
9781540904980, $39.99, HC, 217pp
https://www.amazon.com/Brave-Page-Writing-Stories-Wholeness/dp/1540904989
Synopsis: When you have endured a traumatic experience or loss, it can feel like your mind, body, and spirit have been hijacked. Frightening, negative, or depressive thoughts intrude out of nowhere. Muscles tighten, teeth grind. Your sense of self-worth plummets. Amid all the swirling chaos, you may even question your faith and the goodness of God as you long for peace, wholeness, and holy calm.
One of the best and most effective weapons against the turmoil and pain you feel is quite possibly within arm's reach right now. It's waiting in your desk drawer, in your car's glovebox, at the bottom of your purse. It's a pen. And if you wield it with courage, it can open the door to freedom.
Weaving personal storytelling with research-based insights, gentle affirmations, and inspired prompts, "Brave the Page: How Writing Our Hard Stories Brings Healing and Wholeness" shows you how to harness the power of writing to process your hard stories and experience healing. This transformative book from trauma-informed writing coach Megan Febuary is ideal for individuals, grief groups, and counselors looking for an effective and accessible resource to offer their clients.
Critique: Many people write their memoirs as a kind of catharsis to personal or family tragedies, illnesses, or other traumatic experiences. May counselors and therapists recommend to their patients that they write down their observations, feelings, experiences, aspirations, fears, and personal life stories as a means of recovery, reconciliation, self- understanding, self-help, self-improvement. "Brave the Page: How Writing Our Hard Stories Brings Healing and Wholeness" by Megan Febuary offers a complete course of DIY instruction (and from a Christian perspective) to anyone wanting to try writing down their own personal stories, all at once or day-by-day. Thoroughly 'reader/user' friendly in organization and presentation, "Brave the Page" is an unreservedly recommended resource for personal use and an highly recommended addition to community and college/university library Self-Help/Self-Improvement and Writing Instructional Resource collections. It should be noted that this hardcover edition of "Brave the Page" from Baker Books is also readily available in paperback (9781540904775, $19.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99).
Editorial Note: Megan Febuary (https://www.meganfebuary.com) is a trauma-informed writing coach and the founder of the global storytelling platform and literary magazine For Women Who Roar. Called a leading expert in creative recovery, Megan received her MA from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, where she focused her research on the body as a storyteller.
Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World
Tara Hackney
IVP Kids
c/o InterVarsity Press
www.ivpress.com
9781514010495, $9.00 Board Book, $8.99 Kindle, 24pp
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Loves-Little-Children-World/dp/1514010496
Synopsis: The classic song "Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World" has been heard in homes and churches for over a century. With beautifully refreshed lyrics by Tara Hackney, this cherished classic celebrates the perfect way God made and loves every child, everywhere. With its updated lyrics for a new generation, children will discover a timeless message of love updated for today in this board book edition of "Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World" by Tara Hackney.
This delightful board book includes three new stanzas that reflect God's inclusive love. The vibrant photographs showcase children from around the globe, creating a captivating reading (or singing!) experience for preschoolers and their accompanying grown-ups. With the beautiful reminder that all children of the world are "made and loved so perfectly," these updated lyrics celebrating God's love will quickly become a favorite in your home, church, or school.
Critique: A fun and entertaining read -- and ideal for sing-alongs with families, and for Sunday School, and Christian school board books collections for very young children ages 6 months to 4 years, "Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World" is absolutely safe and appropriate for babies as it features rounded edges and a non-toxic gloss coating to protect the board book from ripping or tearing. Charming, bonding, and unreservedly recommended, this"Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World" from IVP Kids is especially and unreservedly recommended to all members of the Christian community regardless of denominational affiliation.
Editorial Note: Tara Hackney (www.jesusloves.org) loves Jesus and the little children of the world. From villages in Nigeria and Zambia to orphanages in Romania and India, she has held and prayed over babies, told Bible stories through translators, and danced to songs with silly motions all with the hope of pointing tiny souls to the One who created them. Tara is the founder of Jesus Loves, a ministry of encouragement dedicated to recapturing the wonder, exploring the depth, and spreading the good news of the world's greatest Love.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Willis Buhle's Bookshelf
Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature
David Williams, author
Elizabeth Person, illustrator
Mountaineers Books
www.mountaineersbooks.org
Tantor Media
https://tantor.com
9781680517651, $22.95, PB, 224pp
https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Seattle-Stories-Crossroads-People/dp/1680517651
Synopsis: An award-winning natural history writer David B. Williams maintains that to be connected to a place you need to pause and look deeply at it.
"Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature" is Williams' delightful journey of discovery in this city where not only is nature all around, it's also written in the stones of the urban landscape.
Readers will enjoy this exploration of the geologic history of glaciers, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes as well as the ways humans shape the Seattle topography. From backyards to downtown, watch for coyotes, crows, seals, otters, owls, and so much more wildlife who also call the region home. Look up at the buildings to find terra cotta eagles, stone that traveled over millions of years from Asia to the San Juan Islands, and clues to the horses who used to power the city's transportation network. Wrap your arms around a giant Douglas-fir, appreciate the unsung yet remarkable skunk cabbage, stop and listen to the spring chorus of frogs.
Williams' lively and informative essays are enhanced with the inclusion of artist Elizabeth Person's engaging illustrations that will fire up the curiosity of both residents and visitors alike, inspiring all to take a fresh look at the Emerald City.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, illustrated, organized and presented, "Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature" by author David Williams and artist/illustrator Elizabeth Person features more than 40 essays dive into the geology, animals, plants, and architecture that shape Seattle. Of special note are the many fun and fascinating sidebars explore regional vocabulary, scientific terms, and Indigenous language phrases. A strongly recommended pick for personal, community, and college/university library Nature Writing and American Regional History collections, this paperback edition of "Wild in Seattle" from Mountaineers Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $21.80, Amazon) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Tantor Audio, 9798228538658, $35.99, CD).
Editorial Note #1: David B. Williams (www.geologywriter.com) is an historian, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning books include Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound and Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle's Topography. He publishes a free weekly Substack newsletter, "Street Smart Naturalist".
Editorial Note #2: Elizabeth Person (www.elizabethperson.com) is known for her unique map illustrations, informational art, and Northwest themes. She works primarily in ink and watercolor from her studio in Everett, WA where she also manages an online store and commissions. She can also be followed online or Instagram @elizabeth_person
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
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