Five Years

Tempus fugit as the saying goes (time flies). It has been a little over 5 years since I started this blog. Lots has gone on in my life since I began here; rebuilding I guess you could call it. Hoping that the next 5 will be better.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

This book is by Philip K Dick. It was the inspiration for the movie, Blade Runner.

The book and the movie have some resemblance, but there are significant differences. If you have not seen the movie, my advice is to rent it and take a look. It is worth seeing for the sets alone. The only thing I did not like about the movie is that the fight scene near the end is VERY long and the end dangles a bit.

Similarly, I really liked the book, but the ending was a little "off" so to speak. I think that the author was going for something deep/mystical, but it didn't work or maybe I just didn't get it. I have no objection to deep/mystical, but it has to be a little clearer than this to work for me.

That being said, the rest of the book is great. I really felt that I was there inside the story while reading it. In case you don't know, the book and movie both focus on the adventures of a bounty hunter of sorts who retires (kills) androids who return to Earth from off planet - androids are not allowed on Earth because of dangers they pose or that they are perceived to pose I guess.

In the course of the book, many issues are examined. I thought the discussion of empathy and the comments regarding morality were quite interesting. The religion (I guess that's what it was) of Mercerism was on the surface a little strange, but made a lot of sense in the context - depressing loneliness after massive depopulation due to a big war and emigration off planet. The discussion of the silence relating to this was thought provoking and a little scary. Interaction with artificial life was also explored - both animal and humanoid (android), as well as the android point of view.

Important in the book, but only briefly picked up in the movie, is the issue of the loss of most of the animal life on Earth. Real animals become an obsession. People spend fortunes on them and much time caring for them. If they cannot afford the real thing, they get realistic fakes and go through the motions - the title seems to relate to this.

There were a few kind of "funny" parts in the book - like about Deckard (the main character) reading blurred carbon copies of papers. OK, the book was written in 1968, but is portraying the year 2021, so this seems a little funny to someone reading today. If you are very young, you might not even know what a carbon copy is. Well, predicting the future is not easy. People also smoke a lot in the book (as they do in the movie) which seems a bit outdated, but then there has been a devastating world war, so maybe people would take up that habit again. Who knows.

All in all, I would recommend watching the movie first and then reading the book. They complement each other well, even though somewhat different. I found it helpful to have a picture of the characters from the movie while reading the book, although here, not all the characters act the same way in both and some are not even in both.

Recommended.

Spaceland

If you ever wondered about the 4th (spacial) dimension, but didn't want to get too technical, SPACELAND by Rudy Rucker might be the book for you. In some ways, it picks up and/or expands on the much earlier book FLATLAND by another author (Abbott), which you might want to read first if the subject interests you (and it is not too technical either). Both books employ fictional stories to illustrate what a world with 4 spacial dimensions would be like.

In any case, SPACELAND is set in Silicon Valley during the dot com boom - remember that? The main character is Joe Cube (great name huh?) an MBA in a high tech company pre-IPO. Other important characters are Jena Cube (nee Bonk) Joe's wife, Spazz (reminded me in some ways of Spike on the BBC series Clatterford, except Spike is way more trustworthy) who works for Joe, Tulip who is Spazz's (sometime) girlfriend and Momo a lady from the fourth dimension. In the background at least, the book pokes fun at the craziness that went on in Silicon Valley at the time portrayed.

The main plot line involves Momo showing up and offering some great technology from her dimension that will revolutionize cell phones here. Suffice it to say that one should "beware of Trojans (in this case in the guise of Kluppers from the 4th dimension) bearing gifts". That is, the stuff seems great, but then we find out that there is a "little" problem that goes along with it.

Important to the story line is that our world of 3 spacial dimensions separates two 4th dimensional worlds that do not seem to be on the best of terms. The Kluppers are from one side and seem to be humanoid in at least a 4 dimensional sense, and the Dronners are from the other - there are several different kinds of strange creatures depicted from the Dronner side including a God like being. Yes, Joe has a religious experience near the end of the book, but it is well done. The author spends a lot of time helping readers "visualize" things that Joe sees in the 4th dimension (and elsewhere) and does a pretty good job with it - there are helpful diagrams as well. By the way, Momo gets a special eye to grow on Joe to help him see in the 4th dimension.

The story moves quickly and there is a lot of action. The world is saved (barely) at the end, and Joe makes a lot of money (less than if Momo's technology would have been "feasible" though). Joe also gets his wife back - why he wanted her back is beyond me.

The book can be a lot of fun if hyperdimensions and all that appeal to you - they do to me. As I mentioned, Abbott's FLATLAND might be a good "prequel" for readers of SPACELAND; I read it, and it is very good. SPACELAND's author also wrote some books more directly about the 4th dimension as well that I hear are good - I even have one on my shelf to read soon (THE FOURTH DIMENSION).

If the 4th dimension appeals, give SPACELAND a try.

Idenics

This is a book by Mike Goldstein with the subtitle "An Alternative to Therapy". The book is about the Idenics procedure for getting rid of unwanted conditions in life. I have had some positive results with it already and have not done all that much yet. It seems to be quick and painless.

Before going much further, let me say that I think you have to get the book directly from Mr. Goldstein on his www.idenics.com website. I am going to email him after I write this and suggest that he get it on amazon at least so that more people can find it.

It is a long story how I found Idenics and this book. Ironically, it was almost exactly 5 years after my California disaster (another long story), and I was looking something up totally unrelated on wikipedia and ran into something about my disaster then ran into Idenics. Well, you know what they say - there are really no coincidences.

Anyway, my advice is check out the Idenics website, get the book and read it. The book is short and easy to understand. There are even things you can easily apply as you read the book and see some results. All you have to do is look - that's basically it.

Very highly recommended!!

Complete and Utter Failure

This book (that the title suggests is on failure) is by Neil Steinberg.

First, I think the title might give readers a slight misconception as to what the book is about. Sure, it talks specifically about failure, but it also talks about other things such as success and many amusing aspects of human nature not necessarily limited to failure.

For the most part, the author writes very well, making for a pleasant read, although he does use some odd words now and then - maybe he was inspired by the spelling bees he spends a lot of time discussing in the book. I had to laugh out loud sometimes, especially when he relates certain personal anecdotes - the first one at the very start of the book involving Captain Kangaroo was especially funny. At other times, I had to admit to myself that I had done something (goofy) like that - see for example his discussion of trying to solve the impossible (or nearly so) type problems.

I thought he went on a little too long about the climbing of Everest, although it was still interesting mostly; the part about the Sherpa possibly setting foot first on the summit was intriguing. The chapter on the spelling bees and Odyssey of the Mind was interesting, but just went on too long; he made the point that these were both weird/surreal activities through some very amusing (at times) anecdotes. Why he didn't discuss the kiddie beauty pageant circuit, I don't know, as this would have fit in well with what he did here and could have added to the humor with proper handling.

As a patent attorney, I did appreciate his discussion of the battle over who invented the telephone and thus deserved the U.S. patent. I can't swear that he got the whole story right as I have never studied it in detail, but I did not notice that he made any glaring errors that so many make when talking about patenting.

There are a variety of other interesting subjects taken up in the book as well.

I recommend the book, though it might be a little hard to find now. It got 4 and not 5 stars from me, because it did get a little tedious in the spelling bee and to a lesser extent the Everest chapters.

Storm Front

This is the first in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

I should have titled my review "Wish I'd Thought of This Myself" which is taken from a quote by Glen Cook on the front of the edition of this book that I read. I have to agree with him. This is a great concept, and Butcher handles it quite well in most respects.

To digress just a moment, there was a recent TV series based on the Dresden Files books - unfortunately, it lasted only one season. If you did not see it, I recommend that you buy or rent the DVD's and take a look, as the episodes are quite good. The present book is really the only one of the book series actually depicted in the TV series from what I have read. Even that episode is a little different from the book, although quite similar. I do have to say that after reading this book that the TV series followed the concept in the books very well if not all the actual stories. People who liked the TV series should like this book and vice versa.

In any case, in both the book and TV series, the main character, Harry Dresden, is a wizard who works as a private investigator on paranormal type cases. He also consults for the Chicago police in this regard. In the present book, he is involved in multiple "strange" matters that turn out to be related as the book proceeds. The title is relevant to the story in a major way as thunder storms are the source of power (helped along by lust, greed, anger and the like) that the bad wizard uses to do his dirty work - brutal murder, creating a new illicit drug and the like.

There is something for everyone here. Good wizards, bad wizards, vampires, demons, pretty girls, hard nosed cops, gangsters, a new illicit drug that lets you see visions, a little sex, a few murders and more. Don't get the wrong idea, as this is no hard to believe fantasy world nor violence fest. The author sets things up very well, so that all the magical stuff seems quite believable happening in present day Chicago and the action seems necessary (for the most part at least) and not gratuitous.

There is plenty of action, but there is not the overload (except maybe near the end) one often sees throughout books of this type. Harry Dresden is a good and likeable guy. Someone who would probably make a good friend even without his magical powers. He actually has to do a lot without using magic as well - things are never too easy for him.

The reason I gave the book 4 and not 5 stars was I did not care for the caption that the author decided he should tell readers about that was on the T-shirt that Harry puts on mid-way through the book; I don't know why the author did this as it will offend a lot of people, was totally unnecessary to the story and will even give people who think that books about wizards are "evil" something to point to to make their argument (remember the anti-Harry Potter protests?). I also thought that the final "battle" scene went on a little too long and had a few too many things going on in it as well.

Overlooking these issues that I had with the book, I liked it a lot and would recommend it to others. The author writes very well and makes a really "fantastic" plot line seem (almost) totally believable. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Royal Scandals

For the most part, I found this book sensationalist and shallow, but then I guess I should have figured that out from the cover - look it up and notice the location of the man's hand. That being said, I did learn a few non-sordid facts here and there.

I did not like the way the book is organized - more by subject than person or time period. Some people are thus mentioned more than once which got a little confusing.

It all seemed so out of context as well. As the British would say, "just the nasty bits" were covered without more for the most part. Some of the people covered were truly awful or had very bad luck generally, but for some this was only true a few times, yet the book might lead one to think this is all there was to their lives. The book might also lead some people to some false generalities like say that all the popes were lecherous murderers given how the book went on and on about some who were.

Maybe the author (Michael Farquhar) intended it all to be taken lightly, so no harm no foul you might say, but then so much of it was about deadly serious stuff. It all seemed depressing at best. So much like the usual fare on TV and in many mass type publications today.

There are also some clear errors - like on page 314 where the book tells readers that Cortes conquered the Incas in Mexico in 1521; the Incas were from Peru and never in Mexico to any extent that I ever heard, and I think it was Pizarro who did them in, while Cortes fought the Aztecs in Mexico. This is more than a mere typo.

I make it a habit to finish a book once I start, so I was very happy to get to the end of this one. I would skip it if I were you.

Prometheus Rising

This is a book by Robert Anton Wilson.

I'll say right upfront that I thought that this book has some strange stuff in it in places, but readers should put that aside long enough to read through the whole thing. Don't let the cover art put you off either, readers; I know that the green guy creeped me out, but he is not really mentioned in the text. This book is well worth reading.

I found this book while looking around for something easy to get through on General Semantics. However, it is mostly concerned with the eight neurological circuits (bio-survival, emotional-territorial, semantic, moral, neurosomatic, neurogenetic, metaprogramming and quantum) that Timothy Leary was big on - don't panic, there is no need to do LSD to understand what is going on here. The author also includes discussion on other topics like yoga and quantum mechanics (no math required here) as well as on many interesting subjects that I for one had never heard of before as he goes along. If they are like me, readers will give wikipedia a real workout right after finishing each chapter to learn more on many of these topics. There are very thought provoking exercises as well - I still haven't found any quarters, but I may have not tried hard enough yet. It may take some people a while to get through the book as a result, but it is worth the time to do the outside study as needed and to do the exercises.

The author spends a lot of time on the first 4 circuits and less on the others which is understandable I guess as the latter are newer and less understood. The chapters on brainwashing are frightening and probably all too accurate - readers might want to give these some more thought after finishing them. There is much more presented that warrants further thinking by readers as well. For example, one might get some insight into why certain people that they know behave as they do and maybe even gain some insight as to their own behavior as well. As the book winds up, the author presents some ideas about where we might be heading as individuals and as a species; some of his predictions did not come true, at least not yet, but there seems to be a ring of truth at least in much of this.

I found the book a little disorganized in many spots, but readers should be able to follow it for the most part anyway. I did find several apparent errors in the book early on, but noticed fewer as it went. Please note that sometimes at least it seems that the author meant melancholic when he wrote choleric - this may save some readers a lot of time trying to figure out Chapter 4.

Despite some real strangeness and disorganization here and there, most readers probably will learn a great deal from this book - at least if they are ready. If anyone wonders what I mean by that, they will have to read the book.

Highly recommended, but be prepared as there may be some shocks.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

At this point in time (late 2009), what can one say about the first Harry Potter book? Almost everyone must know the story by now, so what is left to say? Well, I'll put my two cents in on why one might want to read it as an adult so late in the game by telling why I did it.

I went to see the movie corresponding to this book when it came out - that was late 2001 I guess - and really enjoyed it. Didn't think of reading the book, since it was a kid's book, and I was over 40. A co-worker soon after admitted to me that she was reading or had read the book and that it was very good.

Later, I saw the second movie and found it a little hard to follow and thought that the books might be worth reading before seeing the films. Since I had seen the first two movies and was short on time, I started reading with the third book. After that, I read all the later books as they were available and saw the movies as they came out in theaters. Recently, when I saw the 6th movie, I decided that maybe I would read the first two books and watch those movies again as the series was almost over and maybe I did miss something.

I finished the first book today. It was very good as most people know already. From what I can remember, the movie followed it pretty closely, but I think I did pick up some details that I had missed. I congratulate the author for her wonderful contribution to literature and movies - for children and otherwise.

One thing that I will say to an adult who is hesitating to read this or any book in the series is this. They aren't written all that simply, and there are some good vocabulary words thrown in now and then. As the series progresses, I think the author wrote aiming at an older audience as well - in subject matter, style and length.

One thing about this first book that an adult might notice that is a little off is that it was weak on continuity from one chapter to the next here and there. That is, it seemed more like several closely related short stories strung together than one coherent story at times. This was not the case in the later books from what I saw. This may be because the author had so much to introduce to get the series going and/or it was to keep a younger audience from getting bogged down otherwise.

The author did a great job in making the wizard world seem all so real. It was great fun - maybe as adults we could all use a little more of that in our lives, especially when times are tough otherwise.

I'm glad I read this one and look forward to reading the second book and re-watching the first two movies before seeing the final two movies due out in future. Well done, Ms. Rowling!

The Hermit of Eyton Forest

This is number 14 in the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. In this book, with the 12th century English civil war in the background, several unhappy events take place in and around Shrewsbury and beyond. Peters fits these seemingly unrelated events together for readers making for a good story.

As the book opens, the Lord of Eaton finally dies due to battle wounds; his son and heir named Richard is ten years old and in school at the abbey in Shrewsbury. The boy's grandmother is determined to take him home and marry him off right away to a neighbor who has only a daughter and very good lands. She is thwarted in her plans by the abbot, since the boy was put into his charge by the boy's father who wanted him educated.

At the Lord of Eaton's funeral, readers get the first glimpse of the hermit for whom the book is named. The grandmother installs this hermit in a small dwelling in a forest on Eaton land. Soon after, some disasters take place nearby on abbey land which are reported to the abbot. Not long after this, the hermit's servant appears at the abbey to announce that the hermit believes the disasters are God tying to tell the abbot to send Richard back to his grandmother. The abbot is not convinced.

Somewhere around this point in the book, news concerning some treasure of the Empress Maude's that has apparently been stolen comes to Shrewsbury. The messenger carrying this treasure is presumed dead given the condition of his horse when found. This turns out to be very important in the story.

A very unpleasant man named Bosiet shows up to lodge at the abbey. He is in search of a bondman of his who has run off - apparently for good reason. Bosiet shows up dead in the forest not long afterward. It looks like the hermit's servant is the missing bondsman.

The servant has made friends with the boy Richard. The boy finds out that Bosiet is heading off to find the servant, so he goes off to warn him, and does so, but disappears on the way back to the abbey. A massive search is started for the servant now suspected of the murder and for the boy.

As the story progresses, the boy is found, the hermit is killed and the mystery of the missing treasure is solved. The details are left out here so as not to spoil the plot.

I figured out what happened before it was actually revealed by the book, but only about a page or so beforehand. It is always exciting when that happens. I mean figuring it out ahead of time, but only at the last moment, so the book was indeed worth finishing.

Cadfael played a major part in this book, but he was not involved in several scenes. This may be why this book was not used for the TV series, which is a shame because it tells a very good story.

Anyway, if you like the Cadfael series, certainly give this one a try.

An Excellent Mystery

This is the 11th in the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. The title, An Excellent Mystery, is actually very appropriate.

This book is set at a point in the 12th century civil war in England when the city of Winchester is burned. Two monks from an abbey that was destroyed there make their way to the abbey at Shrewsbury where Brother Cadfael lives. One is a former crusader who is gradually dying from wounds he got in battle; the other is much younger and mute and cares for the elder.

The former crusader was engaged to a young girl from near Shrewsbury, but because of his wounds, he releases her and becomes Br. Humilis. She apparently goes off to a nunnery, but it is discovered as the book goes on that she never got there and may have been murdered. This possible murder is (at least the main) mystery in the book.

Leaving out details so as not to ruin the book for future readers, there is a storm and Br. Humilis is drowned on the River Severn after a lighting strike knocks a tree into the boat he is in at the time. His mute caregiver, Br. Fidelis, is presumed lost and dead from this accident. As the story moves on, the missing girl is found and returns to her home. There is a surprise ending rolled into all this.

There are some subplots as well to keep things interesting. One might seem a little shocking to some actually, but it seems to turn out OK in the end.

The book really held my interest. I really wanted to see how this one came out. It did seem that Cadfael was less involved here than might be expected, but the story was still a very good one.

If you would like to read an excellent mystery, give this one a try.

Mansions of the Soul

This book is by the late H. Spencer Lewis, once head of the Rosicrucian Order (AMORC). The title probably derives from a comment by Jesus regarding the "many mansions" in the Kingdom.

Overall, I liked the book. In it, Mr. Lewis attempted to explain reincarnation (and major ramifications) and using logical argument in large part, to support its existence. I think he was successful in many respects, even though his logical development did have a few holes in spots, and he may be slightly faulted for being a bit too "wordy" at the start.

Perhaps to set Western readers at ease (realize that this book was written in about 1930), he presents evidence early on that the concept of reincarnation was at least not an alien one to Jews at the time of Christ. One major feature of his argument in support of reincarnation is simple justice seems to require it, in the sense that getting only one chance to get things right seems, if nothing else, very unfair. Lewis also takes up "practical" topics such as the nature and origin of the soul (and Oversoul), what happens at transition (death), between lives and around birth, how Karma fits in and others - how he knows these things is unclear, however.

Interested readers may also want to see his related book entitled (as I recall), A Thousand Years of Yesterdays.

The Players of Null-A

This book is the second in the Null-A series by A. E. van Vogt.

In my opinion, it was a very good book and much better than the first. The present book had a tighter storyline than the first and came to a more "satisfying" conclusion - one that explained a lot and only left the reader hanging a little. The technology and "special effects" in this second book do not seem "outdated" and "quaint" as in the first and should be more "believable" for readers of the present time - the book was written in the 1940's. There is better explanation of General Semantics/Null-A in this book as well, including information on the "pause"; readers don't have to take quite so much about it on faith (so to speak) as they might have to if all they knew was as given in the first book.

I have read that the third book in the series was written much later and was inconsistent with the previous ones and not well liked. It has been said that maybe van Vogt was already ill when he wrote it. There is "another" third book in the series, Null-A Continuum I think it is called, written by someone else that follows the first two better apparently - this is the one I plan to go to next.

Not to give too much away, but in this the second book, a very shadowy character called the Follower appears and creates havoc. Gosseyn's mind is shuttled back and forth without his consent between his body and that of a Prince Ashargin who is closely connected to Enro - the latter mentioned in the first book as the head of a great interstellar empire. We meet the race of the Predictors. Gosseyn discovers new abilities like prediction of the future and hones others. On Enro's home world, there is a strange religion involving the Sleeping God which plays a very important part in the book as revealed towards the end - this is tied up with the origin of humans in the galaxy no less! Crang and Patricia from the first book reappear.

If you liked the first book, you should really like this one. If you didn't care for the first, you may still find this one worthwhile. It seems to be out of print, but used copies are available. Give it a try.

Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life

This book (subtitled Living the Wisdom of the Tao) is by Wayne Dyer and gives readers his take on the Tao Te Ching and how one might apply its teachings in life. Some may not like what he did with it, but it seemed to me to be a lot easier than trying to get through a more "philosophical" interpretation. The verses tend to be very "Zen" and an approach like Dyer's is very helpful to people (like me I'll admit) who don't want to spend a lifetime trying to decide if the Tao is "for them".

Overall, I liked the book. It starts out with some introductory material, then presents each of the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching with an interpretation and a suggested application. There is an Epilogue which is a VERY worthwhile read - please do not skip it as it puts the whole book into perspective. I read only one of the 81 sections per day to allow time to digest what I read which is probably the best way to handle getting through the book.

Personally, I thought that the concepts presented relating to allowing and accepting things as they come up in life (the recent TV commercial for that cereal showing the surfer going with the wave and not fighting it comes to mind) and being less concerned about amassing material possessions are things to give some serious thought to adopting, at least to some extent. However, there seemed to be too much emphasis on taking a passive/going with the flow stance for my taste; bending like a palm tree when there is a hurricane seems the way to go, but the book suggested going MUCH further than this which I find questionable. These suggestions to passivity went on and on in a long section of the book which made me a little glad that I got to the end. Maybe I am just too Western for this (or just missed the point). Readers will have to decide this one for themselves.

I did like Mr. Dyer's book, The Power of Intention, and do enjoy watching him on TV. I recommend both - maybe a little more than the book reviewed here actually.

On the Meaning of Life

This is a book by Will Durant of THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION fame.

I was convinced that I really had to read this book given Durant's reputation and some "promo" for it that I saw which I paraphrase here:

In the fall of 1930, Will Durant found himself outside his home raking leaves. He was approached by a well-dressed man who told him that he was going to kill himself unless the philosopher could give him a valid reason not to. Durant did his best to furnish the man with reasons to continue his existence, and the man left never to be seen again. Haunted by this encounter, Durant contacted 100 luminaries of the day, challenging them to respond not only to the fundamental question of life's meaning but also to relate how they each found meaning, purpose and fulfillment in their own lives. Durant turned their answers and his own into a book entitled "On The Meaning Of Life", which was released to the general public in 1932. Unpromoted, the little treasure found its way into few hands, and almost no copies of the original book exist today. It is only recently available again in a new release. Within their varied insights, the reader will note a consistent thread running through their viewpoints, revealing a commonality among human beings who not only seek meaning in life, but who actually achieve it.

Shockingly, Durant's advice to the potential suicide was (as readers will see described early in the book) to get a job and/or have a good meal. Maybe I am not taking this the right way as I was not standing there to hear how he said this, but this sounded pretty flippant to say to a potential suicide (and it being 1930, the depression and all). As it turned out, the man had a job and was not hungry. He left unimpressed and was not heard from again. Should we be surprised?

I thought to myself at this point that maybe I did not want to read this book after all, but I had gone to a lot of trouble to get it, and it is rather short at only about 110 pages, so I kept going.

The letter that Durant sent out and some initial comments were pretty depressing stuff. He was not big on God - maybe that was part of his problem, but I won't speculate any more on that. Oddly, he did seem to think that atheists should leave "believers" alone about what they believed even if the "believers" were probably wrong - he said that atheists who liked to burst bubbles exhibited the "mark of a shallow and ungenerous mind". Guess Durant was really an agnostic as I hear he claimed to be.

The answers he got to his letter or at least those he published here were fairly superficial in my opinion for the most part - most of the more intelligible points made (vaguely) involved work and/or family as giving meaning to life. Some were almost rudely superficial - I felt bad for Durant in those cases. Some of the "ruder ones" never seemed to have a problem from what I have seen going on and on about a lot of nonsense in other writings, but could not or maybe would not make an effort here. Makes one wonder. God did not figure very much in most replies.

That being said (about superficiality), a few of the replies were good, but I think two were especially so and worth pointing out. One was from Abbe (Ernest) Dimnet, who for example, took Durant to task (although he did it politely) about reaching such pessimistic conclusions on the subject at hand with what might be incomplete data. I had never heard of this guy before (and I must admit that I had never heard of many of the others who replied either but 1930 was a long time ago), but apparently Dimnet wrote a book called THE ART OF THINKING that made him as popular as Dale Carnegie when the book reviewed here was written. Interestingly to me at least, it seems that Dimnet also wrote a book on French grammar (available in full on google books) that looks quite useful if that subject interests you. If nothing else, I learned about Dimnet by reading this book. If his "ART" book is anything like his letter here, it is worth finding and reading.

The second of the replies that I will mention specifically is by one Owen Middleton - then a life-term convict at Sing Sing in New York state no less. This guy wrote very well and had a lot of positive things to say, especially considering where he was writing from here. Apparently, it was the publisher's idea to get this viewpoint not so much Durant's.

Durant finishes up with a reply to a letter he got from a suicide - what is it with him and suicidal people? This was much more hopeful I think that what he wrote before it, even if not all that profound - well it was a little profound here and there I guess. He seemed to be big on work, home and family. As to God, well, he was the sketchy agnostic.

All in all, I would only weakly recommend this book. I had hoped for more. Maybe that says something about me and my search for meaning. I'll have to think about that some more.

The City

The City by Joel Kotkin is a very short (about 160 pages of text) and to the point survey of the history of cities in all areas of the world.

Overall, I liked the book, but it left me wanting more AND wondering why Kotkin just didn't provide it to his readers. There were about 45 pages of notes (really just giving the reference citations with very little footnote type text) and suggested readings FOR A BOOK WITH ONLY 160 PAGES OF TEXT!! Was there a paper shortage or something? He did a lot of research and seemed to have very little to say about it. The book ends up coming off as very superficial in many spots.

Kotkin's thesis (seemingly a reasonable one to me) is that cities must remain somehow sacred, safe and busy in order to survive and thrive. He does not do a great job of "pushing" his thesis in the book as one might expect though. He makes a good effort when discussing some earlier cities, but does not carry this forward all that well later. I think that the issue of the sacred in the modern city was something he really could have explored much more.

It is almost like the book was a detailed working outline for a more complete text that he never got around to writing. A real shame, as I think he would have done a pretty good job if he had expanded it some more before publication. His writing style was pretty good, but it seemed so compressed that it made it hard to get through the book quickly even given its short length.

Kotkin does point out many issues that face modern cities that maybe many people do not fully consider. They might be summarized as relevance, at least for cities in the developed world. With the appearance of the internet, telework and all that, are cities as necessary as they have been in the past for "progress"? I guess one could then ask, can great cities survive, just because we like them, even if they are unnecessary?

One point that I noticed made several times in the book was the apparent importance of diversity in the development of cities - BUT this was diversity not for its own sake, but where the minorities really brought something to the table. Think the Greeks in Rome NOT the Visigoths.

Kotkin also brought up how city life is very important in Islam and how this led to development of some very great cities; he presents some ideas on what may have gone wrong later. He also made interesting points about other cities in many other cultures as well.

In any case, I would recommend the book as a starting point for people interested in the topic, but probably only that.

Decadent Societies

This is a review of a book by Robert Adams.

Overall, I liked the book, but cannot give it my highest rating. The writing style left something to be desired in many spots - lots of very long and convoluted sentences with obscure words, including untranslated and uncommon foreign phrases.

As to the information in the book, there was quite a bit there that I had never heard before or had not seen all in one place. The Byzantines seem quite "redeemable" from Adams' point of view. I had no idea that the Old Regime in France had a tax structure that horrendous to all but the top dogs - the only wonder is that the regime did not collapse sooner. Similarly for the Romanovs in Russia. There are also interesting points made about (western) Rome and the British Empire. It seems that the main issues come down to bad leaders, tax exhaustion, social inequity, excessive regulation and complacency (of the ruling class at least).

Adams does spend a bit of time discussing what decadence means generally and how this all might apply to us today in light of the history previously mentioned. This is not as easy a thing as might be expected.

The last part of the book makes some very interesting points on how things stand in the US. At first, it seemed that Adams was going to beat up on conservatives only, but then he really did a number on liberals and their non-judgmentalism (especially in its more extreme forms) and other foibles. He wrote this in the early 1980's, but it is still/more relevant to our current situation if you ask me. I nearly laughed out loud a few times!

Look past the sometimes not so good writing and focus on the points being made. There is lots here worth considering.

Comrades and Strangers

This is a book by Michael Harrold about his life during his almost seven years in North Korea where he worked as a translations adviser.

First, let me say that a main reason that I bought this book was because of a few comments in the amazon.com product description:

"For seven years he lived in Pyongyang enjoying privileged access to the ruling classes and enjoying the confidence of the country's young elite. In this fascinating insight into the culture of North Korea he describes ... and many of the fascinating characters he met ... socialite friends. After seven years and having been caught passing South Korean music tapes to friends and going out without his minder to places forbidden to foreigners, he was asked to leave the country."

I think this description was a bit exaggerated and/or misleading. I was expecting to gain some insight into how the elite lived and thought; the author had little if any contact with the elite, and there was not much insight given there. He did drink a lot of beer while having some light chats with some North Koreans who could speak English, but no heavy weights from what I could see; even these people seemed to keep him at arms length most of the time, but then he was a foreigner and that is a problem there. On his being asked to leave, the music tape thing described happened a long time before he left it seems, and I am not at all sure that went to any forbidden places at all. That fight he got into in front of a hotel not long before he left seems to have had much more to do with his departure. BUT, then again, he was later asked to return to his old job.

In any case, I still liked the book. Harrold does relate many interesting anecdotes and also explains how the scene there and internationally was viewed from inside North Korea - or at least how he thought it was viewed there, as the North Koreans were not big on sharing their innermost thoughts I gathered. It is written with some attention to chronological order, but is also a little stream of consciousness (disorganized) at the same time, so be warned. I did think that he spent way too much time talking about his beer drinking and not enough on (other) local color and what it was really really like to live there on a day to day basis throughout the year(s).

Harrold has gotten some criticism for being too sympathetic to the North Korean viewpoint, but then to be fair, he is clear that things there are far from OK. It is true, as he points out, that things in South Korea are not all freedom and prosperity for all either. The Kim regime in the north has done some good things for the people, but then again, the bad has out-weighted the good for many many years at least. It is instructive to hear how the North Koreans themselves probably see things. But then, is their viewpoint based on less than complete information?

It was a little sad to see how much it appeared to have hurt Harrold when he apparently reached the conclusion that he had never really been accepted there after almost seven years.

The book is rather long (about 400 pages), but is pretty entertaining and should keep a reader interested. Is it the best one could have hoped for from someone who spent so long there? Well maybe not.

General Semantics: An Outline Survey

I have been curious about General Semantics for quite a while, but after I recently read a science fiction book by Van Vogt that talked about it, I finally decided to actually find out more.

I was not sure that I would want to spend the time reading some very long book on the subject, but as luck would have it, I guess, I came across this outline of the subject by Kenneth Johnson. The outline itself is only 34 pages long (in the version I read) and was very easy to follow and very informative to me at least.

The main point to take from it is, I guess, that we take many things for granted in how we observe the world around us and communicate with it. We leave out many details, and then act as if we we have the full picture or at least what is truly important, while this is often not the case. This can lead to innumerable problems.

It seems that even merely being and staying aware of this issue on details goes far in solving such problems or at least in minimizing their bad effects. Going a little further and applying the scientific method when evaluating would probably result in something even better as the outline explains.

I recommend giving the outline a try at least. By the way, it is available free on the Institute of General Semantics website.

The World Of Null-A

In his book, The World of Null-A, author A E van Vogt gives readers an Earth far in the future that is being run using Null-A philosophy and is seemingly better off than today. Or is it? There are some not so enlightened aliens apparently set to take over. The hero, Gilbert Gosseyn, a Null-A'er and a man with two brains and apparent amnesia, gets tangled up in the invasion plans and tries to stop them with the help of some other interesting characters. It is hard to tell if he is successful at the end.

For the most part, I enjoyed the book, as the author used some clever and at times amusingly quaint plot devices, but it does have some downsides.

First, the book was written a long time ago (the 1940's), so presents the future in a somewhat strange fashion, at least viewed from our "more modern" perspective. The author apparently tries to extrapolate future technologies/discoveries based on what existed in his time. For example, he keeps talking about "tubes" whenever dealing with devices - I think he means something like vacuum tubes. Transistors as we know them today probably were not invented or widely known back then. Another example is Venus being covered with plant life and inhabitable by humans without environmental suits. To be fair, he does come up with some Star Trek like transport technology - well sort of like that.

Second, the author does not do a very good job explaining the Null-A philosophy used by the hero in the book. Null-A refers to non-Aristotelian type logic (from the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski) as opposed to classical two valued logic. Interested readers might take a look at articles on wikipedia if interested in Null-A/General Semantics, but they should be warned that it is not easy reading.

Third, I believe that this book was originally published in serial form which seems to result in some choppy, short chapters which I found most noticeable towards the end.

Fourth, the book ends in a somewhat unsatisfying manner. However, there are sequels.

Despite the downsides mentioned, the book is entertaining, and I think worth reading. Younger readers might find it a bit old fashioned though.

The Lessons of History

This book by Will and Ariel Durant was written to present what lessons they saw that history teaches us considering what they learned in the writing of their mammoth series, The Story of Civilization. It is truly amazing that they seemed to have pulled this off in only about 100 pages.

The book looks at various "factors" and discusses what history generally has to say about each. These "factors" include morals, religion, economics, government and war.

Not all may agree, but I think the Durants effort here was a success in most respects. I actually laughed out loud at times, because they were often so very right.

Keep in mind however that the book was written in 1968, so it is not always politically correct, and they followed some (then) current trends and (may have) incorrectly predicted the future - like the Catholic Church would increase in influence in the USA and that the communist and capitalist systems might move toward each other and each survive that way. Some might say that the opposite of these two predictions happened, but then maybe we need to wait a little longer. After all, the Hispanic population is growing in the USA and most are Catholic. Also, China is still communist to some extent and becoming more important and market oriented. We'll see, I guess.

Give it a try and see what you think.

The Center Within

I'll admit it, I was not willing to commit the time to read all 2000 or so pages (or whatever it is) of the entire Urantia Book. Still, I was curious to know a little about it.

I read excerpts and commentary complied/written by Elstrott in The Fifth Revelation (which I do recommend and reviewed a while back), but I wanted more. I thought that this book, The Center Within, would be like that, but unfortunately it was not so.

The Center Within appears to be a collection of "channeled" (not sure what else to call them) messages that are said to be related to the Urantia teachings. There are quotes from the Urantia Book after each message on a similar point, presumably selected by the editors (Harris and Belitsos).

I realize that the Urantia Book itself may have a similar "channeled" origin (again using this terminology for lack of better), but this makes "double channeling" I guess and a bit much for me.

In fairness, the messages are not bad, although a little repetitive and preachy at times. I did find some to be quite inspirational, but overall this book was just not I was looking for when I got it.

Bamboo and Blood

This is a review of the latest (third) installment in the Inspector O series by James Church.

Of the three books in the series (so far), I think this one is the second best. The first in the series, A Corpse in the Koryo, is the best in the series (and a really great book).

This book is set in the 1990's during the North Korean famine, but this stays more or less in the background in many respects. Inspector O spends a large part of the book in Geneva in any case - plenty of cloak and dagger there and even a love interest of sorts. Strangely enough, his boss Pak is back, although he died in an earlier book - maybe they are not coming out "chronologically". Pak was a really good character, so it is nice to see him again.

The thing that I missed here was the local color of North Korea that was so extensive in the first book - there was some here, but not that much. As in all the books, Inspector O investigates, but things are never quite fully resolved (or not resolved at all) by the end, which is a little less than satisfying. It is never quite clear (even to the Inspector) why things are being investigated, or if they really tie together. But then, North Korea is a bizarre place and maybe this is all part of a game generated by the jockeying for power among the top dogs. Unlike the other books, there is some attempt to explain at the end, but it does fall a little short.

Overall, this is a much better book than the second in the series, but no where near as good as the first. It is still worth a read.

Cultural Literacy

This is a review of "Cultural Literacy" by E.D. Hirsch. In it, he explains this concept of cultural literacy, why we should care, how we are losing it as a people and what can be done about it. Hirsch makes many good points, but goes off on some tangents now and then - the small font did not help.

Cultural literacy refers to knowing certain basic information on our shared culture - the author focuses on the shared culture of the United States, but other bases could be used I guess for different (large) groups. The major importance of this, other than being able to make interesting conversation I suppose, is to be able to follow what one reads, since writers cannot possibly explain every detail in things that they write. This type of literacy may explain why some people do better than others on reading tests and function better in the work force.

To digress a bit, I guess we should not be surprised that we are becoming a country of cultural illiterates, given what is popular on TV. Fortunately, we can get old TV series of better quality on Netflix and ignore most of today's TV. But that would not solve the problem of the younger generation for the most part not knowing what they should about our shared culture.

One problem is in defining the "list" of topics one needs to know about to be culturally literate. The author recognizes that some will complain about who decides and what is included on the "list". Of course, many of these same people are responsible for where we are now, so maybe we should not care what they have to say. Hirsch says to the remainder of the complainers that we can argue about that as we go, but we need to start. Wise man! He goes on to say that the "list" should only change slowly with time, making it possible to keep up, so to speak, as well as to be able to communicate over many generations.

Something REALLY worth noting was the comment regarding science topics for the "list". Actually, it may have not been Hirsch who made this comment, but a physicist who helped him come up with the first "list". In any case, the point was that people in today's society have to understand the basic concepts in the major sciences, or we may be in big trouble with newer technologies; public complacency or overreaction due to ignorance may allow dangerous technologies to develop or prevent good ones from coming off the drawing board. By the way, "drawing board" might need to be on the list for the youth of today to get my meaning in that last sentence given how computers have taken over recently.

The book is a bit old now, but still a worthwhile read. It was mentioned in the new book (reviewed previously) "Real Education" - another book worth reading on a similar topic. There is also a dictionary now on the topics on the "list" which also looks good.

The Pilgrim of Hate

This is the tenth book in the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. It differs quite a bit from the PBS TV version.

There is a lot going on in this book. The (actual) Stephen-Maude struggle for the throne of England is in the background, but plays quite a role in the plot of the story. There is a murder, but it happens far from Shrewsbury Abbey where most of the story takes place. The story is set during the St. Winifred festival.

The festival attracts a number of pilgrims, as well as some shady characters. There is one group, an aunt and her niece and crippled nephew, who owe a lot to good old St. Winifred by the end it seems. I enjoyed the character of the aunt, although she is not a major one. In addition to these, there are two men traveling together on a bizarre pilgrimage who stop for the festival. In a surprise turn, Cadfael's son, Olivier, makes an appearance.

It is hard to see how all will turn out which makes for a good read waiting for the truth to be revealed. The title is a clue, but not a very big one. I highly recommend this book!

Down with Facebook

I recently read an article with this title in the Weekly Standard - starting at page 21 of the 3/16/09 issue I think it was. The author is Matt Labash.

In it, Mr. Labash really rips the Facebook "phenomenon". There are many memorable lines in the article; I laughed out loud many times, even though I was in the public library while reading it, as it was impossible not to given what was being said. My personal favorite had something to do with the bad habit of collecting (superficial/too many) Facebook friends - "collecting Facebook friends is the equivalent of being a cat lady". I think you get the picture of how this article went.

Maybe I am just old and out of touch, but I had to agree with at least most of the article. The point being that we as a society are getting a little too crazy about Facebook and MySpace and texting for that matter and should actually start talking to people as individuals and in mostly complete sentences. You can do that in person, by voice via a phone or even by email specifically for that person - the order here in descending preferability. Save Facebook and all that for a (tasteful) selection of photos of some very special event - like a wedding. Texting should only be used in dire circumstances like if the recipient is in church, and it is a real emergency.

As to Twitter, don't get me started. Who thinks up stuff like Tweets?

Blogs can be just as bad as Facebook. I guess I will have to watch myself on that one.

Think about it.

Real Education

This book is by Charles Murray, and it will probably have many in the "educational establishment" howling, but then that is probably a sign that it is getting something right.

Murray makes 4 main points in this book: (1) ability varies; (2) half of children are below average; (3) too many people are going to college and (4) the future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. With the possible exception of (3), these points seem to state common sense principles, but as reader's will see, things go terribly wrong "in practice". Read the corresponding chapters and see if you don't believe me.

Point (3) will probably get a lot of people in a big uproar and is quite timely, especially considering how our new president wants to throw a lot of money around so as to get almost everyone to go. But does this make any sense? Does that manager at Starbuck's really need 4 years of college?

Murray makes the point that more should be done in the area of vocational education to prepare those who don't and shouldn't be going to college for careers where they can make a living. He did not discuss the German system in this regard which might be worth taking a look at for ideas.

Relating to point (4), an area that Murray seems to mostly pass over is how science and math education fit in. It is almost as if he does not realize that people with liberal arts only backgrounds may not have what it takes in all instances to lead us in these times of rapid technological advance and change.

Give it a try and see what you think.

Child 44

This a recent book by Tom Rob Smith about a serial killer with the story set in Stalinist Russia - where such things as serial murder are officially denied. It has been described as a real "page turner". Usually, when I see that, I am disappointed when I actually read the book. This book, however, was the real deal as far as page turning went. I lost a lot of sleep, because I could not put it down.

I would warn readers that this book has some very disturbing things in it. It presents a pretty graphic portrayal of Stalinist Russia, including the famine and the methods of the secret police. Add to this a serial killer who targets children, and you have some rough going in many spots. But, it is a great story with lots of well done suspense. It is hard to put down once you get started.

The author makes reference to the Chikatilo serial murders in Russia in his Further Reading page at the end of the book. I looked this up on Wikipedia and could see how much he based his killer on this actual one. Surprisingly, I knew someone who lived in the Rostov area where a lot of the actual murders took place and around the right time and don't remember ever hearing about this from him - maybe this was too unpleasant to discuss in a letter.

Readers may find it strange, but the dialogue is all in italics without quotation marks. Must have been easier to write this way, but I have never seen this device before. It took me a little while to get used to it.

I did like the first 2/3's of the book better than the last part. It did get a little contrived towards the end, but by then I was hooked too well to care all that much. Still, I would highly recommend the book.

How to Travel Incognito

A few months ago, I was reading an article in the New York Times on Ludwig Bemelmans, who is best known for the Madeline children's books. But, he also wrote many books that were for adults probably not as widely remembered that this article highly recommended. The book reviewed here was one of the latter.

By all accounts, Bemelmans had a very "eventful" life. He claimed that (at least his books for adults) were based on actual events he encountered. Well, maybe he exaggerated a little considering the current book.

In this book, Bemelmans narrates a story about some adventures in travel with a certain Count de St. Cucuface. They are amusing, if not quite laughing out loud so. Very entertaining at least. Sort of almost believable tall tales I guess you could call them. Great reading for relaxing. Give the book a try.

150th Post

This is my 150th post. Had this blog a long time now. Guess I will a while longer.

Dead Man's Ransom

I really enjoyed the Cadfael TV series and was sorry when I got to the last installment. Then, I found out that not all the novels had been used. There are 7 (really 8 as one was not followed all that well) left over - not counting the related book of three short stories. The novel here, Dead Man's Ransom, is the first of the novels not used for TV which is the ninth in the overall series of the Cadfael chronicles/novels by Ellis Peters.

I enjoyed the book, but it seemed to start off a little slow and some of the "expressions" used were a little hard for me to understand - maybe you have to be British. In any case, things do pick up and there are numerous plot twists/surprises along the way to keep things interesting. The author managed to do a lot in only a short number of pages - 190 in the edition I read.

I did manage to figure out who the killer was before it was "announced", but maybe it was pretty easy by that point as there were a lot of clues by then. There is at least one other crime as well which was resolved in a somewhat "unexpected" way. Some may think the ending a bit of a cop out, but at least it is a happy one.

I look forward to the other 6 or 7 novels remaining for me.

A Rare Benedictine

I am a fan of the Cadfael TV series. I noticed that 7 or 8 of the Cadfael chronicle books were not included in the TV series and decided to read those. In the process of locating them, I found out about the book I review here, A Rare Benedictine by Ellis Peters. It tells three short tales from what I think is the time before the first of the Cadfael chronicles books.

The first tells how Cadfael came to be a monk - and there is a mystery solved in the process (or at least one of two). The others take place with Cadfael as a monk in Shrewsbury and are both great stories as well. The second deals with the seemingly miraculous disappearance of some donated silver candlesticks and how justice prevails in this case. The third story involves stolen rent money, and the clever way that it is found. All fit in well with what one would expect from Cadfael.

These are three great stories, and I highly recommend them to Cadfael fans and as an introduction to the series for those who have never heard of it.

Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels is subtitled, The Secret Gospel of Thomas. There is a translation of this gospel given at the end of the book, but there is little in the way of explaining it anywhere. The book focuses much more on the gospel of John and how Irenaeus helped to shape what was to become orthodox Christianity.

That being said, and it is a little troubling (was her editor asleep?), I am still recommending the book, because it is a good read. Along its way, it explains the other way(s) Christianity could have gone (and might still go perhaps now that Gnostic writings are becoming widely available) quite well I think. I am not sure that I would have included all the personal details that Pagels stuck in here and there, but then it is her book, and they did sort of fit in.

Maybe she will write a second edition and actually write more about Thomas. She does write very well - something I seem to see less and less of these days. Hope she does, as Thomas is an interesting subject, and she would probably do a good job with it - assuming her editor keeps her on track.

Slan

Written many years ago, Slan by A E van Vogt, is considered by many to be a classic Sci Fi novel. Personally, I had never heard of it until very recently when I saw it mentioned in a recent book based on other books by van Vogt - his Null-A series.

Slans are mutant "super-humans". There are apparently at least two types of them as is explained in the book. Many years before the time the story is set, Slans and regular humans have fought it out with the Slans driven into hiding. The book focuses on the adventures of a young Slan, Jommy Cross. Jommy is trying to bring an end to the persecution of the Slans without destroying regular humanity.

The first three-quarters of the book is very well done with lots going on and is much better than the last part in my view. I was really hooked into the book from the start, so was a little disappointed in the "bumpy" way the last part progressed. The ending was rather abrupt for me as well - there is a sequel (Slan Hunter) that was written many years later which I will now have to read to see what happens. The author seemed in too great a rush to finish writing Slan, only to take a long time to come back to it years later and with the help of another author.

Some people have commented that the "special effects" (technologies) in Slan are outdated. I would have to agree with this in many respects. For example, video is presented as if it is a real big deal - which I guess it was in the early 1940's when this book came out. It seems all very quaint in many parts, but still fun if you keep in mind when it was written. Those who like nostalgia will appreciate this. Sort of like how much fun it can be to watch old episodes of Flash Gordon, I guess.

Despite the defects mentioned, the book is worth reading.

Pyongyang

This is a book in graphic format by Guy Delisle. Its subtitle is A Journey in North Korea.

I normally do not like graphic format, but I made an exception here because of the subject - North Korea - and the bizarre cover illustration. You have to see this cover to believe it! It does come up in the story as well.

The book is well worth a read, but I found it a little inconsistent in parts, and it ended rather abruptly. It also did not dig all that deep in places - although considering the subject and the graphic format, that might have been very hard to do.

The book depicts the adventures of an animator who is in North Korea supervising a project for a French television company - apparently artists are cheaper there than in Europe these days, and the Dear Leader needs some hard currency for cognac or some other "essential". The author's handlers try to keep him under control while he does his work and sees what they want him to see.

North Korea must be a truly bizarre place. I guess like the author, you have to have a sense of humor to get by there, but as he recognizes, it is a pathetic place in many respects. I wonder what will happen there when the people finally figure out what has been done to them by the two Leaders.

If you liked this book and like mysteries, you might want to check out the Inspector O series that has recently come out. It features a North Korean police detective who knows what the regime really is and is just trying to get by and still do his job as honorably as he can under the circumstances. I have reviewed two of these books in this blog previously, A Corpse in the Koryo and Hidden Moon.

The Buried Age

I just finished Christopher Bennett's book, THE BURIED AGE. Overall, I liked the book, but as I seem to say too often lately about many books recently published, it could use some more editing. Has there been a big cut back on editors at publishing houses or what? This book involves many of the Star Trek Next Generation characters in the time before what is covered in the TV series; a synopsis is available on the amazon website.

That being said, I will share (other) observations I made on the book. First, the book flows much better in the first half than the second. I thought the court martial scenes were well done. Unlike some other reviewers, I thought the science was interesting - why do people who are bothered by science read Star Trek books anyway? If anything, I thought the author could have explained the science a little MORE than he did as not everyone can follow quantum mechanics and related topics with ease. I did find it interesting how the author illustrated the immensity of both time and space in the galaxy in the archeological parts of the book.

I thought the author did a wonderful job with the Data character in this book! Guinan figures in quite a bit and is pretty well done. I had some problems with the handling of the Picard character. Picard here didn't seem enough like the Picard we know from the TV series - too many girl friends and a little too trigger happy in the latter part of the book. It isn't like this was supposed to be a very young Picard and that he matured before we see him in the TV series. The Ariel character could have used some work in the middle of the book - she was too different from what she was at the start and then at the end; maybe an editing issue.

As some other reviewers have noted, the book does explain much of the background that the TV series apparently didn't. This may have been part of the flow problem in the second part that I mentioned earlier. Things seemed choppy. Maybe the author just tried to do too much here and/or needed some better editing. This was a good (4 star) book, but could have been a great (5 star) one.

The God Who Risks

This is a book by John Sanders with the subtitle, A Theology of Divine Providence. I noticed this book on an expedition I did on amazon.com looking for books on process theology - something once of interest to Whitehead. This one was in a more Christian context and a lot easier to understand and relate to than the more Whiteheadian texts which I believe I talked about in earlier posts. I found two others similar to the current one which I will describe after I have read them.

The Sanders book describes open theism and concepts important to it like dynamic omniscience and contrasts it and its implications with those of more traditional theological models. This book is written in a Christian context, but it might be applicable more broadly.

For readers unfamiliar with the general idea of open theism, it is basically one where God has chosen NOT to determine everything. God is seen as desiring a truly interactive relationship with his creation (especially us) and is responsive to things that happen in creation not caused by God. For example, open theism allows for God to change his mind based on requests made by people. This seems to be completely counter to Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin, who appeared to view God as immutable to an extreme with the implication being that humans are actually puppets. In my opinion, the God Jesus described was certainly more of the open theists than that of Calvin and the like.

Open theists allow for God to have some broad plan for the creation and individual people, and he can take action to guide things in that direction, but the important thing is that he (at least usually) will not force the issue. The implications of this make for a more hopeful existence than the alternative.

There is actually quite a lot more to this, at least as to implications - those involving the problem of evil being some of the most interesting. (I would argue that even quantum mechanics and its probabilistic picture of the physical universe could be another of these implications, but the author did not seem to mention this one in particular.) The author takes readers carefully through a series of arguments to show basic implications and how open theism makes good sense and is even well based on very old tradition and the Bible itself. I thought that these arguments also made the alternatives look illogical, but the author tried to be respectful and didn't beat on that too much.

Overall, I liked the book. My only complaints are that (1) the author seemed to be a little inconsistent in terminology now and then, (2) the notes should have been footnotes, not endnotes and (3) the text should have been edited a little more to hone the language/argument and to cut the length down 10 to 20%, as it was a little long for what it had to say. Don't take this the wrong way - the book is still well worth reading in my opinion.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I have been at this blog for over 4 years now. Hope you find it worthwhile.

Postwar

This is a review of Tony Judt's book, POSTWAR - A History of Europe Since 1945.

When I first saw mention of Judt's POSTWAR, I put it one my book list. It took me a while to get to it, but I finally did. Although it did seem to have some good points, it had more bad ones.

The book is too long (it takes forever to finish) and superficial at the same time. Add to this that Judt jumps all over the place and very abruptly - as another reviewer mentioned, subheadings would have helped. He also seems to flip flop on many points as other reviewers have noted. I found his overuse of the colon to separate clauses irritating, and his sentence structure was "overburdening" many times - don't editors fix this sort of thing any more?

One of the main reasons I am giving this book such a bad review is that I found it to be unfairly anti-American. Frankly, if Judt thinks that the USA is so bad, why does he live here? Of course, he seems to dislike his native country (the UK) about as much. It seems he can't make up his mind about "Europe" either. In any case, "Europe" does owe its very existence to the USA, since neither the Nazis nor the Stalinists would have allowed it to exist if they had been left to decide.

Some reviewers say he is anti-Israel which I did find hard to match up with his Epilogue. In any case, I did find the Epilogue to be somewhat contradictory and thought it a bad way to end the book - I like a "happy ending". This information should have been placed elsewhere in the book in my opinion with the contradictions removed.

There were a lot of interesting statistics presented in the book, but this got tedious at times. I did find his summaries of the events around the collapse of Communism helpful, even if his analysis of them might be a little suspect. Same for the Yugoslav wars. I had hoped for something more in depth about life under Communism though.

Being of French descent, I can get away with saying something here about the French, so I will. I have always been proud of my French heritage, but in the period covered in this book, the French have behaved on several occasions in ways that I find disappointing. I always suspected there was something not being acknowledged that was behind this behavior. Judt's analysis here (one of the times I thought he was right) confirmed what I had always imagined it to be - wounded pride has a lot to do with it. Pride is not called the worst of the seven deadly sins for nothing.

I used to think that European culture/outlook/ways were in many ways superior to American, but more recently I have come to think this is not really the case. Judt's book (which might come as a surprise to him) gave me further support for my newer way of thinking. His analysis showed me that many Europeans are likely suffering from another of the seven deadly sins, but I'll leave that to another time.

Overall, I will put it like this. Read the book if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you about its bad points.