Russian Roulette by Michael Isikoff and David Corn

It is a very current event. It concerns a larger radius of personal than we are being told.
It is the current subject of Russia and the tampering with the 2016 election for President of the United States.
A book like this covering the subject in a calm journalistic way is needed. Years from now when the historian looks back to see what legacy has been left by Trump, he will need this.
Putin did attack and try to influence the outcome of the election. But he did not do it directly or through his business relationship with Trump.
It is true, Trump needed Putin when it came to access to real estate in Moscow.  Trump Towers was expanding.  To let you know, Trump did not get his Moscow location.
Meanwhile, elections were coming up. The DNC started a file on Trump and how to exploit him. Clinton's E-mail files were attached. Even cyberspace was searched to keep up with the information.
And through malware released by the Russians and downloaded by one of the handlers of Hilary Clinton the files were duped into the Russian data base.
You may think I am making this up to excuse Trump. No. It is detailed in this investigative book.
Also recorded in this report is the part Obama had in not protecting our elective system from being tampered with.
It was a pure case of political espionage. In essence no one has clean hands.
It is subtitled, The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.
I recommend this book . It is an interesting tale that held my interest and I am sure will hold yours. I don't know the investigative reporters but am informed that Isikoff has worked for the Washington Post and NBC News. Corn is the Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones magazine and an analyst for MSNBC.
Stay informed by reading. Maybe if you don't want this in your permanent collection, you can find it in your local library. But do read it.

The President is Missing by Bill Clinton & James Patterson

You just knew soon or later a former president would try to write a fiction story using the fate of the nation in the balance.
If it wasn't for the name of James Patterson who's books  offer some form of escape, I would not have pick it up. It would  not be because Clinton used to be president.
So, how did he do?
I felt there was too much plot--that is--too much was introduced ad later quickly resolved. Tension was followed by wrap up before fully playing out
The false promise of impeachment was no doubt heavy in his mind since he had gone through the impeachment process directly during his term. But that is not the thread that runs through the story.
A terror  involving a cyber virus pulls one through the story. How to stop it? Can it be stopped? Who put it there?
The president has a blood condition and must take medication. This is one of the tensions running through the book.
Clinton tries too hard to tell a story and therefore, if it wasn't for Patterson, I feel, this book would never have see  the light of day. It was a nice try.
It is too long for the story line. But Clinton had to try.
It can be found in a local library and at a book store if you can find one. Amazon has it and Barnes and Noble.

The Shadow President by Michael D' Antonio

Everyone who gets into politics sooner or later gets a book written about them. Since Pence is vice president at the moment it is time for him to start to get his anal exam.

It is very important that we know just who it is we have in office. Politics is not an easy profession to do. There are thankless hours and tedious events. Most politicians you never hear about. I mean, how many vice presidents can you name? Not too many, I would venture.

I have heard someone say a person doesn’t enter politics because they love it. They enter politics to make a difference. When it comes to Mike Pence, I am sure, it is something he feels would make a difference doing.

He didn’t start out seeking political office. “Radio was Pence’s medium and as soon as he had arrived in Washington, he made sure he would some presence on the airwaves,” records D’ Antonio.

 He sought to live a lifestyle that was compatible with his Christian values and at the same time a life marked by aggression. Being third born in a family of six children he needed to be different from those who were born before him. A typical trait of middle children. In other words, he became, a person more complex than we know.

Which is one reason we need books such as this one.

D’ Antonio puts forth that Pence may be leaning toward a future role as president. Underneath what we see could very well be a striving for power.

It is not easy being a vice president. You must appear to agree with your mate and at the same time be your own person. That is the game plan for each person that gets this place on the ticket.  Expediency finds members of a party embracing programs to solve problems they should stay away from, he has once put forth.

Pence in the past has called for immigrants to be treated with compassion but now serving under Trump, Pence has become branded a hypocrite. Yet if he is seeking to move into the office of president he must act as Trump’s surrogate. Trump, as you know, has a record of firing people who don’t agree with him, so Pence has to play the part.

If this is so than this book is a good start to understand the person. In fact, I would highly recommend a person first understand what they are ranting against, so they act with knowledge.

It is published by St. Martins Press and retails for $28.99. It could also be found in your local library. Read it and be informed.

Pandemic 1918 by Cathrine Arnold

   One hundred years ago we faced an epidemic that was just as bad if not worst than our present- day HIV or Ebola. And since it was 1918 we had not yet discovered through research exactly what it was.

   It seemed a flu. But a flu, or influenza, would only last a few days. But this new disease took twenty-four hours incubation and appeared up to four or five days later. It would bring about headaches, chills, dry cough, fever, weakness and loss of appetite. You would experience fatigue and, in some cases, bronchitis and pneumonia.

   This new strain also caused people to collapse in the streets, hemorrhaging from lungs and nose. The person may also go blue because of oxygen failure. Pus would gather in the lungs.

   It became known as the Spanish flu, but it was worldwide.

   “It was the H1N1 influenza virus and it inflicted higher casualties than the war itself, from Europe to Africa, from the Pacific to the Arctic, from India to Norway. Ten to 20 per cent of those inflected died, a third of the world’s population. As many as 2.5 million are believed to have perished during the first twenty-four weeks of the epidemic.”, Arnold reports.

   It was thought of as a plague.

   Some names you may recognize who survived this disease are John Steinbeck, Lloyd George, Mahatma Gandhi, Katherine Anne Porter.

   Arnold details the story using eyewitness accounts. It must not have been an easy time to live through.

   It is easy reading. I like her writing style. You can see she did her research.

   Yes, I recommend this book for those who want to have an account of the time covered.

   It is published by St. Martin’s Press and sells for the retail price of $27.99. I am sure you can purchase it from Amazon, but it is better you support your local book store.

Open to the Spirit by Scot McKnight

The Trinity is a hard subject to handle. You know. Three in one. One in three. Father. Son. Holy Spirit. Each a person. But one in essence.

Each has his own role in the Godhead. The Father creates. He begets the Son.  Begets in the same sense we beget children. The Son reveals in Human flesh. The Spirit comforts us and reveals the Son.

McKnight claims that we don’t allow ourselves to be open to the Holy Spirit as we should. Since, he contends, not many Christians understand the work of the Holy Spirit, they don’t completely know how to handle being open to Him. Thus, he has written this short 204-page book. It has the footnotes following the text and this adds thirteen more pages. He divides it into five parts.

It is easy reading and compels you to keep reading and interacting with the areas spoken of (new creation, the people, the virtues, the victory). As you read, you find yourself involving yourself in a safe non-threatening way.

In some of his illustrations used to clarify what to him are important aspects, he gets away from what is written in the Bible as the basis for our belief. He does differentiate between Pentecostals and Charismatics, but then quotes a Monica A. Coleman, professor of Constructive Theology and American religion at Claremont School of Theology in Southern California. She fellowships at an African Methodist Episcopal Church. In her book named “Bi-polar Faith: A Black Woman’s journey with Depression and Faith “, on the subject of the gift of tongues, having prayed in tongues with her friend Cynthia and a minister from a Harvard doctrinal program to each other, standing in a corner talking to each other in tongues.

That is not found in the Bible. In fact, in 1 Corinthians we are told tongues does not edify the body but is a sign for the unsaved. He slips here.

His background is Anglican with a leaning toward Anabaptist. His profession is that of a Professor of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary at Lombard, Il. And that should be considered while reading this book.

Still, it is well done and, yes, I would say it is one I would consider looking at. It is important to be open to the Spirit

It is published by WaterBrook, Penguin Random House.. It retails for $15.99.

A Measure of Darkness by Jonathan Kellerman & Jesse Kellerman.

Here once again we have the team of father and son writing another mystery. Both Kellerman men write well separately and when writing together they add extra depth to the tale.

I guess what I am saying is, I enjoyed it very much and look forward to their presentations as co-authors. I major in reading Jonathan’s tales when they appear since he has a psychologist/sleuth as a major character in his stories, but from time to time I pick up and read Jesse’s. It is just a preference.

I guess if you were to ask a mystery reader why they read mysteries they would answer ‘for the thrill of the chase.” This genre needs a victim, a person who solves the puzzle, and one who commits the crime. Basic plot and red herrings help in the story.

When two authors come together and write a book together they must bind their styles into one unified voice. The Kellermans seem able to do this.

People are throwing a party. Gunshots are fired. Chaos follows. Bodies are found. One body is unidentified., A female. Who is she? Why was she murdered? What is the story this female has to tell?

This question leads our sleuth-- a coroner—along with a young female officer to seek answers in the past. Soon other incidents crop up. A cult is found, or maybe a different type of educating kids. What is Jane Does link to this school?

Along with this case, our hero must deal also with his brother who is trying to fit back into society after a period in prison.

It is purely plot driven. Characters are only there to keep the story moving forward. The police are police. Our hero is a coroner, but we don’t spend any time in a coroner’s theatre as you would if you were reading a Patricia Cornwell story with Dr. Key Scarpetta. Our victim is not anything but a body.

Mystery readers form a unique group of readers and have their own special preferences. Not all read police procedurals. Not all read who dun’ its. But they all enjoy a good puzzle. That may be why they come back again and again to favorite authors. I think this one is a good Kellerman tale and should be enjoyed by fans. It has 31 chapters.

The Outsider by Stephen King

Once again, he is on the best sellers list. If you are looking for a good read, you can’t go too wrong by picking up a novel by this writer. Sure, there have been a few that are a bit disappointing, but this one is worthy of his skills.

All writers worth their salt, so to speak, seem to slow down as they age and put out a few books to keep their name before the public. That is especially true of those the world deems authors of best sellers.

King likes to write in the genre of horror. That is, mostly. He has also written in the mystery realm (End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes) as well as the western realm (The Dark Tower trilogy). But he seems to be more at home in the horror realm.

He has tried to make a statement about the environment (Under the Dome) using the horror motif. He has lots of short story anthologies in print of his works. So, we know he can produce.

This story starts with an arrest. Did they arrest the right person? What are the repercussions of that event? Who gets hurt? Is it possible there is a supernatural element at work?  What is going on?

Kings use of senses and his use of words, not large or complicated, move the tale along. He has control, as he should after writing all these years. It is something to admire his craft about. You can sense the rewrites to find just the right verbiage.

He has said in the past in his book ‘Danse Macabre’, a book explaining this writing technique, he likes to shock people. In this book, as the reader gets involved in the flow and texture of the tale, he is pleasantly rewarded by spurts of uneasiness.

 King is weaving his magic.

I enjoy finding out in each book what kind of monster it contains. In Cujo it was a rabid dog. In Misery it was a zealous fan. In this one; No, I will not do a spoiler.

When you finish this book, you are satisfied. And isn’t that why you read books?

It is published by Simon & Schuster, Inc and can be found at your local bookstore or online. It may even be in your local library. That way you can save some money and enjoy the tale at the same time.

Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff

 
Here we go again. But wait, are we picking on President Trump or trying to explain him? It would seem this author, Michael Wolff, is writing a book to explain Trump.
  Wolff spent some time tracing Trump and observing the activity around him.
 Up to this point Wolff seems to have been writing books exposing other great figures. And with this book, Fire and Fury, he may have hot a jackpot. But you have to ask yourself, how much of this is true? It comes down to how much can you trust the media? Forget the rant and raving Trump makes about the media. Just how much truth does the media actually put out?
   The left has for along time been allowed to infiltrate the news media both in print and on the air. It just sells better. And since our schools no longer as a whole are training students to think but to accept without questioning what some grownup at the front of the room or who writes a book says as proven truth, how are we to know just how much of what Wolff discloses is true truth.
   How are we to know which details disclosed are true and which ones are bias?
   The answer is , we can't
   But the first step is to discern.
   If what Wolff has written is true we have a person in the White House now who doesn't know what he got himself into. If that is the case we need Christian to pray for him and for the vice president to get us through the next few years without destroying America and its' foundation.
    I would be very careful about accepting the facts presented in this book as true truth. Read with an open mind.
   Try to get this at a library and read it. I am not sure it is worth having in your personal library as something to keep.
   Should you decide to buy it at your local book store it is your money. Save yourself the cost.

Origin by Dan Brown

Here we have another entry into the saga of Robert Langdon, the renowned Harvard professor. We have met him in the Da Vinci Code, the Inferno, The Lost Symbol- all recorded by Dan Brown.

This time we have Langdon interfacing with his former student, Edmund Kirsch, who is revealing to the world his take on the origin of man. This is information that could reshape the religious world. The question he is dealing with is; Where Do We Come From ?  And Where Are We Going? Before Kirsch can revel completely what he has deduced he is assassinated.  Langdon must run, and his guide is a computer hookup called Winston.

Technology plays a big part om this story.

This is a plot driven tale. The characters are shallow with action pulsating throughout.

For some reason, Brown enjoys writing in this realm.  He seems to like writing tales that concern the Catholic mind set. He enjoys tweaking them.

It doesn’t take place in Vatican City. It starts in Spain and moves around. The so-called discovery of our origin, so Brown would have us believe, is important enough to base a whole 461 pages on.

Brown, as a writer, can grab the reader and pull him along. The problem with this one is, does it really matter? The ending is weak.

But what can we say about it in a positive light? It has a different kind of villain It has a different feel than his other books concerning Langdon.

For the reader who can really suspend unbelief this will be one to read. For fans of Langdon it will also satisfy.

It is published by Doubleday and retails for$29.95.

A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

Now that Comey is no longer with the FBI he is free to tell the truth as he perceived it. What happened that Trump decided to fire him? How much truth is there in the last election? What was it like working under Obama?

Why did he decide to get into politics?

Back in 1992 he was the U.S. Attorney in New York City. He was confronting Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano as a federal witness. Because of what Gravano told him then about the life of lies “Men of honor may only lie about the most important things.”  Comey felt he had made the right career choice.

“I once questioned another government witness, Sicilian Mafia Killer Francesco Marino Mannoia about this rule.

“Franco,” I said, “that means you can trust me unless we are about to kill you.”

“Yes,” he replied.

No one is about to kill Comey. So, there is no reason for him to lie. I get the feeling no one can push Comey around.

He joined the United States Attorney’s office in Manhattan in 1987, so he has quite a history as a lawyer.

He was put in the place as FBI Director by Obama who he reports saying, “I don’t want help from the FBI on policy. I need competence and independence. I need to sleep at night knowing the place is well run and the American people protected.”

As a writer, Comey is okay. Not a powerful wordsmith, but when you are dealing with a slice of history you just must be adequate. In this respect he passes.

Since no doubt he had to keep quiet while in government this is a welcome look at the facts. Years from now when the historian looks back he will have a document that will help them parse the details.

The book is published by Flatiron books and retails for  $29.99.

You Bet Your Life by Spencer Christian

The title tells you a little about the main problem, the addiction holding a grip on life.

I picked up this book mainly because I like books of survivors. I don’t know Spencer Christian. I have never heard of him. I don’t watch the news on television. I don’t have a television set. There is really no reason I should know the name.

That aside, Spencer had one big problem. It was larger than his color or his personality. He had an addiction that almost destroyed him. That addiction was not to drugs. It was to gambling.

He had it all.

“I was a high roller. This meant that casino-hotels from Las Vegas to Atlantic city to the Caribbean Islands offered me the finest luxury suites, gourmet meals with thousand-dollar bottles of wine, first class air travel, and on-the-spot limousine service—all for a few hours a day of “action” at their gaming tables.”

Outwardly he had it made. But he drove himself and his family into bankruptcy and debt because of his addiction.

His life as an on-line broadcaster, a reporter and then a weather man, helped in his addiction since it gave him the freedom to travel.

Spencer had the American dream. He was a center piece on Good Morning America from 1986 to 1999. He had a loving wife and children. He had a home and a great career.

But the addiction wiped it out. He loss over three million dollars, his home, his job, his wife.

But he rebuilt his life and overcame his losses.  He regained his hope and happiness.

This autobiography is a must read.

Post Hill Press is the publisher and it retails for $26.00.

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The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg

The game is afoot in this story of Joanna Blalock. The time is 1910 and Joanna is pleasantly comfortable in her position as nurse. She is married with a ten-year-old son. They live at home with her father in-law.

A man has fallen from a building. The sister comes to Dr. Watson with the problem. “They say his death was a suicide, but that is something my brother would never consider,” she says to Watson.

Watson takes the case because, as he says to his son, “I am merely an old man trying to remain relevant.” He still uses things he learned from his friend, Sherlock.

The witnesses are the gardener and Joanna’s ten-year-old son. The police, and here we find that the son of Lestrade, same name, is the inspector, believes the gardener over against the child.

It is reported that a wise man has written, “Of the writing of books, there is no end.” And it seems to be true when it comes to the lore concerning Sherlock Holmes. Once again, we have an author attempting to inject the legend with life.

No doubt this will develop into a series. As most first books in a series we are presented with the main characters and the bit players.  We find Dr. Watson still alive. Holmes is dead. People still come to 221b Baker Street.

The elderly Dr. Watson has a son, named after him, John Watson. Also, a doctor. He is a professor of Pathology at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. We have the daughter of Mrs. Hudson still at 221b Baker Street still the housekeeper.

Nothing much has changed in the characters. It is still a comfortable place to be if you are a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

As the story begins, Joh Watson, Jr, is visiting his father at 221b Baker Street on a cold London Morning.  Watson is trying out his observation technique. The woman comes to see him as reported above. After she leaves, Watson and his son go to the Blalock house to meet Joanna.  Why? Because it is reported she is the first female detective and they need help.

John junior is struck by her beauty. “Joanna Blalock was tall, only a few inches shorter than I, (John Watson, Jr. is the one recording,) with soft patrician features and sandy-blond hair…”

Watson (Sr.) asks for her to show them the scene of the fall.

As I said, the game is afoot.

Finally, Watson reveals a secret to his son.

“This Joanna Blalock is a very remarkable woman,” my father began. “You would agree?”

“Most certainly.”

“Well, she is even more remarkable than you could ever imagine.”

“How so?”

“She is the daughter of Sherlock Holmes.”

Seems Irene Adler and Homes had a child between them.

But that is not the center of the story. The center is the mystery of the falling body. It takes the sleuths to the very highest levels of British society.

Joanna Blalock who by the end of the book becomes Joanna Watson is a welcome addition to the family.

I recommend this series to all lovers of Sherlock Holmes.

The form of writing is close to Doyle’s, but I found it easier to follow and not as boring.

The book is published by Minotaur Books, and costs $25.99.

Hype by Nina Shapiro, M.D.

Let me ask you a question. When you need to have information about your health do you first go to your primary doctor or do you go to the Internet? Who do you trust? Your doctor of the article you Googled?

The answer is obvious. But how many of us are guilty of putting our health in the hands of someone or something that offers us bad advice?

Or how many of us believe the ads we see as being 100% accurate? Too many of us.

Misinformation is all around us. Fortified foods, enhancement drinks, supplements, the list goes on.

Dr. Shapiro offers us a guide to help us venture through the jungle of exaggerated claims and bad advice. She will show you how to discern what’s real and what is not.

For me this is an interesting and informative book. Shapiro doesn’t speak down to you but starts to make you think just how much of what you are accepting as tested claims are really backed by facts. For example, organic being better is a claim you hear. There is no foundation of truth to that. The claim helps the industry justify the bigger price in most instances. It is hype. Another hype is about water. No improvement over tap water.

The problem seems to be around medicine there is no black or white but rather lots of sound data to allow you to make the best decision. The internet offers a smorgasbord of information especially when it comes to medical information. Most of what you find in your search will be ads. This helps the hype. They are your snake oil companies, so to speak. You need to find the information that is out there.

You need help and this book I do recommend. The notes are helpful.

It is published by St Martin’s Press.

The Dark Before Dawn by Laurie Stevens

Recently in a Sisters in Crime presentation held in a local library, I chanced upon Laurie Stevens who authors the Gabriel McRay series of psychological mysteries. “Dark before Dawn” is the first in the series. Her main character is male and broken by past events in his life. This story is told in multiple viewpoints.

This is done in the suspense genre, a sub-genre of the mystery/crime family. A suspense story has a strong and logical structure. This is so to be able to hold an inner and outer story. The outer is the series of events presented to the reader with the secondary inner story showing the conflict within.

Stevens has chosen to use the male viewpoint. She does a fair job. She must have spent time observing and trying to figure out what maleness is. Femaleness and maleness are not interchangeable in my opinion.

It is a bit choppy on transitions in places.

Stevens is writing in the genre of psychological suspense. Her characters are flawed not super heroes. That fact makes for an interesting story. You will get emotionally involved and start to root for the characters.

Every suspense story should have a crisis. The crisis here is enhanced by the psychological state of the main character as I have mentioned above. We are fighting the  monster within and the monster without.  It grips you and is hard to read just one chapter. You must find out wat happens next.

As required for suspense writing she starts with a crisis and intensifies the pressure on the main character. Her secondary characters: the psychiatrist, the girl friend, the boss, are well developed.  The viewpoints of the protagonist and the antagonist are given, heightening the suspense. This makes it a can’t put down type of a story.

 Stevens seems to have control.

As this is the first in a series it may seem to be heavy on the background of the situation, but most if not all first books in a series must provide the foundation on which the rest of the books will grow. I feel Stevens does a good job in this area.

I would recommend this series based on this one book. I plan to read through the series, so I am looking for a good long period of enjoyment.

Still she has done three in this series, so someone must be doing okay. And somehow, they are finding their way into libraries.

She used CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform to handle this book. I advise against self-publishing, As I see it, it is done by people who lack confidence in their skills. That may explain the gaps in transition and the flashbacks in strange places.

The copyright is 2011.

Broad Band by Claire L. Evans

We need to be reminded from time to time that inventions are a group effort. By this I mean there is no gender wall. Both male and female had a part in what we have today.

It seems when we as a group look at technology, which is the area covered in this book, we put on blinders when it comes to those who had a part in creating things. In this case, the computer.

Evans wants us to remember females also played a part in what we have today. In fact, we could look back to Byron, not him, his daughter, Ada Lovelace. She had a sharp analytic mind. She was unfortunately living in a time where females were not allowed a university education. So, she was home schooled. In the nineteenth century she read and absorbed. She had something to do with the differential engine of that day, a mathematical machine.

At the turn of the twentieth century computers—this is what people who worked upon the coding of the machines were called—were needed and females who were mathematically inclined answered the need.

Just part of the history involving females in the cyber history. It is almost as if they have become ghosts. The evidence Evans presents in this book will help put the women back in the spotlight where they belong along side the male partners. It may have been the tendency of the male prejudice to see women as only secretaries even those who were coding and maintaining the discipline.

Even our internet as we know it today had females n the background. Their stories get told here.

Women were there at the very beginning of every important wave in technology. God did not only give brains to men. Women also were blessed in that area.

It was a woman named Grace Hooper who gave us a look at machine independent programing languages after World War two, for one example.

Pioneers all. It is time we acknowledge the women. Claire L. Evans does a good job.

 I recommend this book. It is put out by Portfolio/Penguin. It is copyrighted 2018 and costs retail $27.00.

A Necessay Evil by Garry Wills

Even though this book has a copy right of 1999, it is still worthy of being read and considered even in the twenty first century. We still have government and that is what Wills refers to as a necessary evil.

It was Henry David Thoreau who said, “that government is best which governs least.” That is because the more power we allow the government to have the less personal liberties we, the people, retain. We can see that in our loss of a liberty when it comes to health care. If we allow the government to provide our health care as to what we can or cannot receive, we lose.. If we hand the power to have in our possession our guns, all our liberties are gone.  As the states cede power to the central government, tyranny impends.

You see, the size of government inevitably decreases freedom, is something Wills contends.

On the other hand, we the people, must know the facts before we react. Become knowledgeable, not reactionary. This book can be a starting point for researching. You don’t have to agree with all things presented. But ignorance is not acceptable. You may not like the author. Tough. Grow up. Read both sides and form your own conclusions. Garry Wills is a good teacher  and presents the facts in an easy to digest way.

But we do need government to provide the protection for the common defense. Wills Talks about some myths we have grown up with. He exposes some of our early leaders from Washington to Martin Luther King Junior, to the SDS. He talks about the insurrectionists and the vigilantes, to name a few areas handled in this book.

Facts. Become knowledgeable. Know what you stand for and the ground you stand upon.

This is a good sound history of the American Distrust of Government. Read it.

It is published by Simon & Schuster.

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D. Houston

For sixteen years the Santa Monica Library system has held a reading program called Santa Monica Reads where one book is read and discussed by readers. In years past they have had fiction and graphic novels. This year they choose this true story of life inside a Japanese American internment camp.

The idea of the read is to gather people together reading one book and discussing it over a period 0f time.

 This year they made a better choice than last years’ graphic novel.

With the present state of political instability – Muslim fear—this book shows a true historical knee jerk reaction. In this case it was against the Japanese American’s who resided in the United States during the outbreak of America’s response to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

If this is to be one point discussed in the groups, the present-day concern about Muslims and trying to make a template out of what happened in the 40’s, I think there is very little ground to do that. You should not interpret events of history with twenty first century lens. Back then it was a president who wanted us in war and egged the Japanese government to attack us. Today it is just a reminder that we must be careful how we treat our citizens.

The story told by Houston is well written and easy to read.

Being taken from the place where you live to be placed in an interment camp located elsewhere brings about changes. It disrupts families and societies. This is a coming of age story that is also a historical reminder. History should never be forgotten.

History is people, not events. Yes, events happen but people are there. It puts flesh to the event.

This book is copyrighted 1973. The reason it is still in print could be because it is human interest.

It is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishing company and the paperback retails for $9.99. See if your library has a copy.  

The Trump White House by Ronald Kessler

Wait. Before you turn away from this review because you feel it is just another poorly constructed praise job for Trump, think again.

This book is written by Kessler who for twenty years has been a friend of Donald Trump. That should be enough time to see the warts under the exterior.

This book concerns the people Trump choose to bring into the White House. It also concerns the issues he has had to face in his first year as president.

Sure, it concerns Trump. Kessler points out there are two faces to Trump. The one we see is his public face. Brash, making outrageous comments on television to get attention, a persona. The second one, the private face, is the dearest, most thoughtful, most loyal, most caring side that only insiders know.

Childhood scars. We all have some. Trump didn’t have it easy, growing up in Queens, New York. He would erupt in anger and pummel other boys or break baseball bats when he struck out. In school he often could be found in detention. He will admit that he created mischief “because for some reason, liked to stir things up, and I liked to test people.”

He seemed to have a need to be first at everything and wanted everyone else to know he was first.

We do see that in his actions today.

When he was forming his staff, he seemed to have let his family loyalties blind him. He has for some reason allowed his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared, to function on his staff.

Chief strategist Stephen Bannon has said, “They are nice people, but they don’t know anything. If their name wasn’t Trump they would be midlevel marketing managers somewhere.”.

 Neither Jared nor Ivanka have any experience in government yet they can influence his decisions. They also lack the judgment necessary to maneuver in Washington. A case in point is the firing of Comey. Both Ivanka and Jared pushed for Trump to fire Comey without understanding it would be impossible to get a new nominee through the Senate. This step Trump took opened him to the special council being formed.

Trump seems to be treating the Presidency as a business and not an office. As a businessman he would need to cower other businesses and push his brand over theirs. He doesn’t seem yet to understand how to act as a politician. Calling the leader of North Korea “Rocket Man” is not the way to gain friends and influence others.

Former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter has said, “I think the media have been harder on Trump than any president certainly that I’ve known about. I think they feel free to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without hesitation.”

Kessler with his years of knowing Trump can give us a picture and an understanding we need to fully parse this man. He used twenty-five chapters and a Prologue to do so. Chapter twenty-four is titled “Interview with The President.” This alone is a good reason to read this book.

The subtitle of this book is” changing the rules of the game.” One should read this book also to be up on what is the dream Trump has. Everyone who has ascended to the level Trump has carries with them a dream.

Random House is the publisher and the price is $29.00 retail.

Garden State Gangland:the rise of the mob in New Jersey by Scott M. Deitche

Most of us like to think that the mob is a thing of the past, that it is not here anymore. But we would be foolish to think so. The mobs are still around, just not as active.

At least, one can hope.

In this book we have Deitche tracing the mob families into the twenty first century in a certain area of the great land of America.

A welcome book for those who wish to read about the mob history in New Jersey.

Each chapter takes up a mob figure and the family they ran with. It is interesting as the reader walks the time line with the author.

There is a whole section in our library concerning real life crimes and murders. This will be another addition to that section. I guess the rational for that section is we should be aware of evil. Not that we don’t already know of evil.

I guess some people just enjoy reading this genre of nonfiction writing.

I personally enjoy mystery stories, so I guess I get a thrill reading true cases.

Most of the mob figures recorded here do finally get the due of their actions as a good percentage of them get executed some time later by other mob figures. As the Bible says, what so ever a man sows, this he will reap.

The writing is not too technical or scholarly. The prose flows. There is a picture section in the middle of the book, so you can refer to head shots of most of the figures mentioned. It has a 2018 copyright, so it is current. It is published by Rowman & Littlefield

It would also serve as a source book when further research is needed.

Screen Schooled by Joe Clement and Matt Miles

The present generation of students are no doubt dumber. Not dumber because they are not being taught correct information. No, more likely they are heading toward the distinction of being dumber because of technology.

What do I mean by that? Dumber? Why they are smarter because of technology. They have the computer handy and can access so much more information quicker than the earlier generations. Why do I make this statement?

I am not the one inferring this. But when we can see digital screen technology having a negative impact on our brains, it is time for us to slow down and consider.

“Our brains adapt to the environment,” states Oxford Neuroscientist. Susan Greenfield. “The human brain is an extremely complex yet malleable piece of the human hardware.”

This means that our brains can adapt to what we put in it. The use that students make of their iPhones, iPad, and other devices, the screen time, can tend to stunt the mental growth and possibly tend to lobotomize rather than enhance.

The idea of education is to enrich the process of learning by giving the student skills that are useful for adult life.

Instead technology addition leads to increased depression, anxiety, withdrawal, demised focus and diminished cognitive function. Not at all what is desired.

When the student beings his technology device into the class room and starts to multitask, which is what they attempt to do when they sit in class and listen to the teacher, read email on their screen, play games, they tend to slow down and increase their mistakes.

The sad truth, as our authors point out, is that unfortunately the ill effects created by an entire childhood of multitasking may be irreversible, severely impairing one’s ability to focus as adults.

I feel this book should be read by concerned adults. It is stated that the more we shield students from the consequences of their inability to focus and complete the work, the more they will continue to struggle.  Therefore, we should know what is happening in education and take steps to help our young ones adapt.

The two authors are teachers and they know what they are writing about.

It is copyrighted 2018 and published by the Chicago Review Press. It retails for $18.99. Better yet, see if your library has it. Either way, get it and read it.

Inventing Joy by Joy Mangano

Inventing articles you need because no one else has thought about it is something very few of us have the follow through to accomplish.

Gutsy women with a plan for business can’t be stopped.

This is the feeling I got as I read this book. Joy Mangano always was one person who saw something and said, “there has to be a better way.” She has a mind that could see the possibilities and the ability to conceptualize what it would look like.

She rarely took no for the final answer. She fought back limitations that men put on her because she was female. Some of her items brought to market was the Miracle Mop (the patent for which she fought to regain when some shifty business people treated her poorly and tried to claim ownership of the product.)

The business gave her backbone as she developed her brand.

Some suggestions she shares are: speak directly to the customer, Also, be honest, don’t forget the customer always decides what is a success.

Joy shares her low points as well as the high points of being an entrepreneur.

This is not a how to book but a story of one gutsy female, as I have said earlier.

No business is a one-person enterprise. You need workers and you need good working conditions. Joy was able to get a good group behind her once she reestablished her right to her inventions.

This book is not a how-to so much as a delightful story of a dreamer who put shoe leather to the dream. And this is what needs to be done. You need more than a dream to succeed. you need the muscle applied to the dream to make it a reality.

 It is important that one sits down and does the work of defining what success means to them. Don’t let others define it for you    Success as defined by Joy is doing what you like and enjoying it. Or another way to define success to stay focused on the product—the core of who you are.

She has said “I see objects that aren’t here. I solve problems no one asked me to solve. I’m an inventor, and I make things.” Product is King in her world.

This book should be read by all dreamers.

It is published by Simon and Schuster and costs $26.00 retail.

Soar ! by T.D. Jakes

“If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you are what you know”, is the way T. D. Jake puts it.

If you have within you the dream or entrepreneurship you need something that can help you attain that goal. This book offers you that help. You need to realize you mustn’t give up if the business doesn't take off on day one.

Jake uses the illustration of an airplane to represent the entrepreneur spirit of starting and maintaining a business idea. “Whatever your business may be, it will never work if you can’t get it off the ground and into the air”

When it comes to certain authors there is an expectation. I was surprised to pick up this book and find it a guide book of encouragement for people who have a dream but lack the  pep talk needed to get started.

Jake handles the need for motivation needed to get started. And once you do that, he points out, there is a need to plan the flight and the landing. That is, what do you see as the outcome of your venture? Most of all it is good if you can plain backwards.

In planning backwards, you put down your goal and work back to what is needed to reach that goal. It takes work and time to be a good entrepreneur. Jake does a good job providing that needed guideline to follow to get your plan in the air.

He suggests wings to your plans.  Inspiration is one wing and innovation is the second. And then you are to practice.

This book is a good needed ‘kick’ for those who dream and wish to venture out.

I would recommend this as a starter business book. I don’t feel it will be much help to one who needs help in the middle years of the venture. But it does light the fire under the dreamer future entrepreneur.

It is published by Hachette Book Group under the imprint FaithWords. It retails at $25.00.

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Explanation

She asks a good question. The answer is simple. She lost. She just must get over it and face the truth.  The people didn’t want her in the White House.

There is a principle I learned in my Psychology class—the more you talk about a subject trying to justify an action, the more likely it is that you are trying to convince yourself of a truth which isn’t true.

When I pick up a book written by Mrs. Clinton I get the feeling a snow job is being presented. We may never really know what happened if the only document you depend on is written by a politician. Their job, as I see it, is to snow the people. And with a history such as Hillary has going into this book, the more your snow discerner should be active.

Not that she doesn’t believe her explanation to be truth and as such only she can properly present the facts. In this book she whines (in the fourth grade I wore glasses and the children called me four eyes. That hurt.) and blames.

When the dust settles and historians in years to come research the time covered in this book, from the start to the end, the massive tomes left behind by Clinton will be one of the documents they use. Care must be taken to understand the context, the time in which it was written, and the internal factors that went into the reporting.

This seems to be a popular book. I got my copy through the library. I had to put it on the hold list and I was one of the 325 people who were waiting for one of the 26 books held by the library to be made available. So that is why I am doing this book in 2018

Reading this book, I still don’t know why she lost. What I do understand is her view of the journey. She tries to justify her deserving of the position she didn’t get. She whines and seems in shock. Ultimately, she talks about herself, and do we really need another book about Hillary?

Her chapters are long and rambling somewhat. I do notice when she talks about women she portrays them as strong, independent individuals. Most all. She may be doing this to try to present herself as a strong woman.

 In her chapter about her youth her dad is somewhat absent.

What Happened is more a justification for her than an explanation of why she fought so long and still came short of the prize. She spends a large portion on her political carrier, justifying her right to be president. She tends in portions to become a bore.

It has 464 pages and an index.

Published by Simon and Schuster.

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