Will Fight Evil for Food, Atk Butterfly, Oak Tree Publishing, 1999
This is the story of Jake Mordant, a private eye in Spaceport City, at least until the aliens came. They though the best way to make friends with humans was to solve crimes (even domestic surveillance cases), which reduced Jake's workload to nearly zero. But Jake, his beautiful blonde secretary Sherry, and his ex-wife Connie, do manage enough work to keep away the bill collector, just barely.
Along with Aaannnkkk, an alien whose ship crashed on Earth, and is saving money for an interstellar cab ride back home, the trio have plenty of adventures. Much of the book takes place at a nudist club, which is just fine for Jake, because he is one of those who usually has One Thing On His Mind. On one occasion, he is called to the club because Pan is playing his magic flute, and the women at the club can't stop dancing. Jake gets turned into various things, including a dragois, an elfis (half elf, half Elvis impersonator) and Santa Claus.
Jake investigates the disappearance of a gargoyle from the top of a building, and finds it alive, and not in a good mood. A group of people at a Demons & Dragons convention are suddenly transported to France, far in the past. The nudist club is also attacked by bikers and satanists.
This is quite a change of pace novel. It's a quick read, it's humorous (a la Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett), it has something for everyone and it's quite well done.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Jirel of Joiry
Jirel of Joiry, C.L. Moore, Ace Books, 1977
This series of fantasy stories, first published in the 1930s, is about the head warrior (for want of a better term) at Castle Joiry, a person who is very fearless and handy with a sword, and has led troops into battle many times. Oh, and Jirel is also a woman.
In one story, Castle Joiry has fallen, and Jirel is captured. She swears eternal hostility against Guillaume, the leader of the enemy troops, in terms that would surprise even a hardened warrior. She escapes from captivity, and through a secret passge beneath the deepest dungeons of Castle Joiry, descends into Hell itself to search for the Ultimate Weapon to use against Guillaume. In another story, Guillaume's soul cries out to Jirel for mercy, because of the way he was killed, so Jirel returns to Hell to release him.
A further story is about a solo journey by Jirel to a land that is found only at sunset, a place that is violently haunted at night, a place of marshes and quicksand, to search through the ruins of a castle for a thing for which men have searched for hundreds of years that will buy the lives of twenty of her men in captivity, a place with the fitting name of Hellsgarde.
These stories are masterful. No matter when they were first published, swashbuckling fantasy stories with plenty of sorcery do not get much better than this.
This series of fantasy stories, first published in the 1930s, is about the head warrior (for want of a better term) at Castle Joiry, a person who is very fearless and handy with a sword, and has led troops into battle many times. Oh, and Jirel is also a woman.
In one story, Castle Joiry has fallen, and Jirel is captured. She swears eternal hostility against Guillaume, the leader of the enemy troops, in terms that would surprise even a hardened warrior. She escapes from captivity, and through a secret passge beneath the deepest dungeons of Castle Joiry, descends into Hell itself to search for the Ultimate Weapon to use against Guillaume. In another story, Guillaume's soul cries out to Jirel for mercy, because of the way he was killed, so Jirel returns to Hell to release him.
A further story is about a solo journey by Jirel to a land that is found only at sunset, a place that is violently haunted at night, a place of marshes and quicksand, to search through the ruins of a castle for a thing for which men have searched for hundreds of years that will buy the lives of twenty of her men in captivity, a place with the fitting name of Hellsgarde.
These stories are masterful. No matter when they were first published, swashbuckling fantasy stories with plenty of sorcery do not get much better than this.
Hellspark
Hellspark, Janet Kagan, Meisha Merlin Publishing, 1998
During a survey of the newly discovered planet of Lassti, one member of the survey team, named Oloitokitok, is found dead under mysterious circumstances. The team had found a native species, called sprookjes, that look like something like a blue heron that walks upright, and was trying to determine whether or not they were intelligent. A lot of people, especially the group that wants the planet for development, have a stake in the answer. Was one of the survey team, a group from several different planets, responsible? Was one of the sprookjes to blame?
Into all this comes Tocohl, a Hellspark trader. After being attacked during a religious festival on another planet, and going before a judge, she gets roped into going to Lassti to see if she can find an answer to both questions. She doesn't go out of her way to tell them that she isn't exactly a judge (the only people authorized to make such decisions). Anyway, she does her best to negotiate a cultural mine field, solve a murder, and decide what makes a species "intelligent".
This is an excellent novel. Kagan does a very good job with alien culture/sociology, it's a good mystery, and an all around interesting story. It may not be the easiest read in the world, but it is very much worth it.
During a survey of the newly discovered planet of Lassti, one member of the survey team, named Oloitokitok, is found dead under mysterious circumstances. The team had found a native species, called sprookjes, that look like something like a blue heron that walks upright, and was trying to determine whether or not they were intelligent. A lot of people, especially the group that wants the planet for development, have a stake in the answer. Was one of the survey team, a group from several different planets, responsible? Was one of the sprookjes to blame?
Into all this comes Tocohl, a Hellspark trader. After being attacked during a religious festival on another planet, and going before a judge, she gets roped into going to Lassti to see if she can find an answer to both questions. She doesn't go out of her way to tell them that she isn't exactly a judge (the only people authorized to make such decisions). Anyway, she does her best to negotiate a cultural mine field, solve a murder, and decide what makes a species "intelligent".
This is an excellent novel. Kagan does a very good job with alien culture/sociology, it's a good mystery, and an all around interesting story. It may not be the easiest read in the world, but it is very much worth it.
Protektor
Protektor, Charles Platt, Avonova, 1996
The pleasure plant of Agroima is the place where citizens of the 100,000-planet Protektorate go to party and otherwise let themselves go in all senses of the term. That is, until someone sends a very contagious virus into the system which causes, for instance, the lights to go out, and burning debris from mid-air crashes to rain down on the ground. Protektor Tom McCray, a sort of interplanetary troubleshooter with total authority, has very little time to find the source.
The Protektorate is the sort of place where citizens are biologically immortal, there is no need for anyone to work, and smart machines fulfill every need, breeding the independence out of humanity. The planet is quarantined, to prevent the virus from spreading to other planets, leaving McCray on his own. Not completely alone, he does get help from Eva Kurimoto, a local reporter.
Set in the 2600s, when everyone has bio-implants of some sort, this novel is especially recommended for those who can't get enough cyberpunk in their daily reading. It's also recommended for those who like good writing and a good mystery.
The pleasure plant of Agroima is the place where citizens of the 100,000-planet Protektorate go to party and otherwise let themselves go in all senses of the term. That is, until someone sends a very contagious virus into the system which causes, for instance, the lights to go out, and burning debris from mid-air crashes to rain down on the ground. Protektor Tom McCray, a sort of interplanetary troubleshooter with total authority, has very little time to find the source.
The Protektorate is the sort of place where citizens are biologically immortal, there is no need for anyone to work, and smart machines fulfill every need, breeding the independence out of humanity. The planet is quarantined, to prevent the virus from spreading to other planets, leaving McCray on his own. Not completely alone, he does get help from Eva Kurimoto, a local reporter.
Set in the 2600s, when everyone has bio-implants of some sort, this novel is especially recommended for those who can't get enough cyberpunk in their daily reading. It's also recommended for those who like good writing and a good mystery.
Bible Stories for Adults
Bible Stories for Adults, James Morrow, Harcourt Brace, 1996
This group of stories could be thought of as religion through satire. A woman gives birth to, not just a globe, but, a fully functional ecosystem, with oceans, weather and dinosaurs. A man suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder has not just a couple, or a couple of dozen, personalities, but millions. The personalities are forming countries and war has just been declared. Another story looks at the Unknown Soldier memorial at Arlington Cemetery from the point of view of the person in the casket.
God. living anonymously in the penthouse of a giant skyscraper, gives mankind a new plague. A planet full of androids base an entire religion around Darwin's "Origin of the Species". Another story is about a present-day version of slavery. Job is back on a modern dung heap, and he wants a rematch with God.
I really liked these stories. Morrow knows how far to take the satire without going too far. These are different, humorous, well done and highly recommended.
This group of stories could be thought of as religion through satire. A woman gives birth to, not just a globe, but, a fully functional ecosystem, with oceans, weather and dinosaurs. A man suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder has not just a couple, or a couple of dozen, personalities, but millions. The personalities are forming countries and war has just been declared. Another story looks at the Unknown Soldier memorial at Arlington Cemetery from the point of view of the person in the casket.
God. living anonymously in the penthouse of a giant skyscraper, gives mankind a new plague. A planet full of androids base an entire religion around Darwin's "Origin of the Species". Another story is about a present-day version of slavery. Job is back on a modern dung heap, and he wants a rematch with God.
I really liked these stories. Morrow knows how far to take the satire without going too far. These are different, humorous, well done and highly recommended.
Legends: Tales From the Eternal Archives #1
Legends: Tales From the Eternal Archives #1, Margaret Weis (ed.), DAW Books, 1999
The Eternal Archives are the repository for all that has ever happened on Earth, the myths, stories and legends that have formed our destiny. Now the doors have been opened, and the tales can be retold.
This all-original fantasy anthology covers much of human history, from ancient Egypt to the present. Genghis Khan was rolling through China like a steam roller, until he was taken to a land beyond human understanding. The Egyptian Pharaoh Khafre decreed that a giant sandstone mound in the desert should be carved into the shape of a god, but which god would be so immortalized? Also included is a different view of the legend of King Solomon involving one baby claimed by two women. During a tunnel clearing contest through a mountain, John Henry, the steel-driving man, descends into Hell to rescue the son of the man who designed and built it (Hell, that is). Another story is about the capture of Billy The Kid by an old friend, now a sheriff. Monsters in the present-day Chicago sewer system engage in a sort of natural population control above ground.
I enjoyed these stories. There's something here for everyone, along with the potential for this to be better than the average fantasy anthology series.
The Eternal Archives are the repository for all that has ever happened on Earth, the myths, stories and legends that have formed our destiny. Now the doors have been opened, and the tales can be retold.
This all-original fantasy anthology covers much of human history, from ancient Egypt to the present. Genghis Khan was rolling through China like a steam roller, until he was taken to a land beyond human understanding. The Egyptian Pharaoh Khafre decreed that a giant sandstone mound in the desert should be carved into the shape of a god, but which god would be so immortalized? Also included is a different view of the legend of King Solomon involving one baby claimed by two women. During a tunnel clearing contest through a mountain, John Henry, the steel-driving man, descends into Hell to rescue the son of the man who designed and built it (Hell, that is). Another story is about the capture of Billy The Kid by an old friend, now a sheriff. Monsters in the present-day Chicago sewer system engage in a sort of natural population control above ground.
I enjoyed these stories. There's something here for everyone, along with the potential for this to be better than the average fantasy anthology series.
The Engines of Dawn
The Engines of Dawn, Paul Cook, ROC Books, 1999
For hundreds of years, man has traveled the stars with the help of Engines from an alien race called the Enamorati. As part of the arrangement, the Enamorati jealously gaurd the secret of their Engines.
One day, Eos University, built inside a hollowed out asteroid, comes out of hyperspace, stranding it with a failed Engine. One of the effects of Engine travel on humans is called the Ennui. It isn't so much a sickness as a general lack of initiative. Students from the Physics Department start their own unofficial investigation, even going into the Enamorati section of the ship, off limits to humans. There they find signs of what looks like an Enamorati civil war.
While the Engine is being replaced with another from the Enamorati home world, a nearly religious process also off limits to humans, a group of students from the Archaeology Department travel to a nearby earth-like planet. Amid the ruins of ancient cities, they find some Very Interesting Things about the Enamorati and their Engines.
I really liked this novel. It works as space opera and as a conspiracy story. The climax was also noticeably above average.
For hundreds of years, man has traveled the stars with the help of Engines from an alien race called the Enamorati. As part of the arrangement, the Enamorati jealously gaurd the secret of their Engines.
One day, Eos University, built inside a hollowed out asteroid, comes out of hyperspace, stranding it with a failed Engine. One of the effects of Engine travel on humans is called the Ennui. It isn't so much a sickness as a general lack of initiative. Students from the Physics Department start their own unofficial investigation, even going into the Enamorati section of the ship, off limits to humans. There they find signs of what looks like an Enamorati civil war.
While the Engine is being replaced with another from the Enamorati home world, a nearly religious process also off limits to humans, a group of students from the Archaeology Department travel to a nearby earth-like planet. Amid the ruins of ancient cities, they find some Very Interesting Things about the Enamorati and their Engines.
I really liked this novel. It works as space opera and as a conspiracy story. The climax was also noticeably above average.
Lifeburst
Lifeburst, Jack Williamson, Del Rey Books, 1984
The Seekers were cyborg war machines in a war eons ago. They subsisted on a diet of heavy metals, the more radioactive, the better, and destroyed all life in their paths, including their creators. Now a pregnant Seeker has made a nest in the solar system's asteroid belt.
Meantime, in the mid 2100s, Earth is totally ruled by the Sun Corporation. There are two kinds of people on Earth: those who have been genetically tested on their ability to withstand long periods in outer space, and those who are not so lucky.
Quin Dain is one of the unlucky ones. Having spent his whole life at a research station on an asteroid in the Oort Cloud, far beyond Pluto, he wants nothing more than to actually walk on Earth. One of the factions fighting for control of the Sun Corporation is totally convinced there is no such thing as aliens, so the research station is closed. The people there decide to go it alone, and send Quin to Earth to bring back a new type of fusion engine to power the station.
Williamson has been publishing for more than 70 (that's right, 70) years, so he really knows how to tell a story. This is a strong, well done and quite satisfying novel.
The Seekers were cyborg war machines in a war eons ago. They subsisted on a diet of heavy metals, the more radioactive, the better, and destroyed all life in their paths, including their creators. Now a pregnant Seeker has made a nest in the solar system's asteroid belt.
Meantime, in the mid 2100s, Earth is totally ruled by the Sun Corporation. There are two kinds of people on Earth: those who have been genetically tested on their ability to withstand long periods in outer space, and those who are not so lucky.
Quin Dain is one of the unlucky ones. Having spent his whole life at a research station on an asteroid in the Oort Cloud, far beyond Pluto, he wants nothing more than to actually walk on Earth. One of the factions fighting for control of the Sun Corporation is totally convinced there is no such thing as aliens, so the research station is closed. The people there decide to go it alone, and send Quin to Earth to bring back a new type of fusion engine to power the station.
Williamson has been publishing for more than 70 (that's right, 70) years, so he really knows how to tell a story. This is a strong, well done and quite satisfying novel.
Darwinia
Darwinia, Robert Charles Wilson, Tor, 1998
One day in 1912, Europe disappears. It is replaced by thick jungle, full of plants and animals not native to earth.
Several years later, a major expedition is planned up the Rhine river as far as possible by boat, and then by foot to the Alps. Guilford Law, a young American, joins the expedition as official photographer for the National Geographic Society. Many months later, after everyone has given up on the expedition, and Guilford's wife has moved to Australia, thinking him dead, Guilford emerges from the jungle as the only survivor of the expedition.
Guilford meets a ghost/double of himself in an army uniform with tales of another earth where Europe has just finished a world war. The double tells Guilford of a galactic-scale Archive of all the intelligent civilizations that is under attack from within. Everyone in the new Europe, called Darwinia, has been enlisted in battle on one side or the other.
This one is in a class by itself. If I could, I would give it three thumbs up. I thoroughly enjoyed this superior piece of writing.
One day in 1912, Europe disappears. It is replaced by thick jungle, full of plants and animals not native to earth.
Several years later, a major expedition is planned up the Rhine river as far as possible by boat, and then by foot to the Alps. Guilford Law, a young American, joins the expedition as official photographer for the National Geographic Society. Many months later, after everyone has given up on the expedition, and Guilford's wife has moved to Australia, thinking him dead, Guilford emerges from the jungle as the only survivor of the expedition.
Guilford meets a ghost/double of himself in an army uniform with tales of another earth where Europe has just finished a world war. The double tells Guilford of a galactic-scale Archive of all the intelligent civilizations that is under attack from within. Everyone in the new Europe, called Darwinia, has been enlisted in battle on one side or the other.
This one is in a class by itself. If I could, I would give it three thumbs up. I thoroughly enjoyed this superior piece of writing.
Not of Woman Born
Not of Woman Born, Constance Ash (ed.), ROC Books, 1999
This group of science fiction stories gives various, and unique, answers to the question Where Did I Come From?
One story is about a woman wrestling with the decision whether or not to have a child, grown in an artificial womb, go through a genetic process that will give him or her virtual immortality. Because of restrictive immigration laws, a young Mexican woman, studying in the US, is forced, on her 21st birthday, to choose Mexican or American citizenship. If she chooses Mexican citizenship, travel north over the border is then forbidden. An obsolete religious sect turns to cloning to create new members.
Pre-programmed copies of the same person are clerks at a shopping mall, until one of them decides to break the mold. An Alaskan sled dog racer still uses "real" dogs, when everyone else goes with cloned canines. A woman scientist sends 31 identical clones into the world with predetermined destinies. What happens if all of them rebel against that predetermination and against the woman who created them?
These stories are excellent. In a time when Where Did I Come From? is a multiple choice question, this is a good place to get a glimpse at the answers.
This group of science fiction stories gives various, and unique, answers to the question Where Did I Come From?
One story is about a woman wrestling with the decision whether or not to have a child, grown in an artificial womb, go through a genetic process that will give him or her virtual immortality. Because of restrictive immigration laws, a young Mexican woman, studying in the US, is forced, on her 21st birthday, to choose Mexican or American citizenship. If she chooses Mexican citizenship, travel north over the border is then forbidden. An obsolete religious sect turns to cloning to create new members.
Pre-programmed copies of the same person are clerks at a shopping mall, until one of them decides to break the mold. An Alaskan sled dog racer still uses "real" dogs, when everyone else goes with cloned canines. A woman scientist sends 31 identical clones into the world with predetermined destinies. What happens if all of them rebel against that predetermination and against the woman who created them?
These stories are excellent. In a time when Where Did I Come From? is a multiple choice question, this is a good place to get a glimpse at the answers.
Timeshare
Timeshare, Joshua Dann, Ace Books, 1997
In 2006, America has generally fallen apart. Bankruptcies are everywhere, colleges are closing, and political correctness is out of control. Through a very exclusive travel agency called Timeshare Unlimited, people can travel back in time to earlier in the twentieth century, for a short or long vacation. John Surrey, an ex-L.A. cop, goes after those who want to stay permanently in the past.
On his first trip, to 1940 Hollywood, he becomes friends with John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart, gets a bit part in The Maltese Falcon, and falls for an up-and-coming actress named Althea Rowland. The attraction is very mutual.
Having studied World War II, Surrey says, perhaps, more than he should about what is, and will be, going on in Europe. He attracts the attention of high-level people on both sides.
He decides to stay in 1940, and marry Althea, who is heading to Europe, even though he knows she'll be dead in a few months. That is, until he gets yanked back to 2006 by Cornelia, his boss.
This one is very good. It's well done, easy to read, enjoyable and with good characters, too.
In 2006, America has generally fallen apart. Bankruptcies are everywhere, colleges are closing, and political correctness is out of control. Through a very exclusive travel agency called Timeshare Unlimited, people can travel back in time to earlier in the twentieth century, for a short or long vacation. John Surrey, an ex-L.A. cop, goes after those who want to stay permanently in the past.
On his first trip, to 1940 Hollywood, he becomes friends with John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart, gets a bit part in The Maltese Falcon, and falls for an up-and-coming actress named Althea Rowland. The attraction is very mutual.
Having studied World War II, Surrey says, perhaps, more than he should about what is, and will be, going on in Europe. He attracts the attention of high-level people on both sides.
He decides to stay in 1940, and marry Althea, who is heading to Europe, even though he knows she'll be dead in a few months. That is, until he gets yanked back to 2006 by Cornelia, his boss.
This one is very good. It's well done, easy to read, enjoyable and with good characters, too.
Red Spider, White Web
Red Spider White Web, Misha, Wordcraft of Oregon, 1999
The sealed city of Mickey-san is a reasonably nice place to live. Crime and pollution are unknown. The sky is still blue. The major industry is entertainment. The grim underside of the city, literally and figuratively, is in subterranean tunnels collectively called Dogton. It's a dirty, garish sort of place. Surrounding it all is a grim and violent area called Ded-Tek. The major occupation of its inhabitants is staying alive.
In Ded-Tek are Tommy Uchida, thought of by some as a god, who is too smart for his artificially enhanced body, and Kumo, an artist living by her wits.
It is a place of fifteen-minute viruses, a blistering sun requiring that everyone be masked, police "wire-dogs", off beat cult groups, and there is also a murderer on the loose.
This is a very stark novel, at times maybe too stark. There is a strong feeling of disease and garbage everywhere. Perhaps a way to think of this story is having the feeling of a cyberpunk novel, but light on the 'cyber' part. It may not be an easy read, but for something very different, this one is well worth reading.
The sealed city of Mickey-san is a reasonably nice place to live. Crime and pollution are unknown. The sky is still blue. The major industry is entertainment. The grim underside of the city, literally and figuratively, is in subterranean tunnels collectively called Dogton. It's a dirty, garish sort of place. Surrounding it all is a grim and violent area called Ded-Tek. The major occupation of its inhabitants is staying alive.
In Ded-Tek are Tommy Uchida, thought of by some as a god, who is too smart for his artificially enhanced body, and Kumo, an artist living by her wits.
It is a place of fifteen-minute viruses, a blistering sun requiring that everyone be masked, police "wire-dogs", off beat cult groups, and there is also a murderer on the loose.
This is a very stark novel, at times maybe too stark. There is a strong feeling of disease and garbage everywhere. Perhaps a way to think of this story is having the feeling of a cyberpunk novel, but light on the 'cyber' part. It may not be an easy read, but for something very different, this one is well worth reading.
The Wood Beyond the World
The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris, Ballantine, 1969
Walter is a young man who lives in the seaport town of Langton. Married to a nagging, complaining wife, Walter's father gives him permission to get on a ship and live somewhere else, ending the marriage. At the seaport, just before leaving, Walter sees a troll leading a young woman, and a stately, well-dressed woman, obviously a queen.
After several months away from home, Walter runs into an old friend who tells him that his father has died. On his way home, Walter's ship is blown off course. It docks in this strange land where an old man lives alone between mountains and the sea. Walter is in an exploring mood. After walking for several days over the mountains, he finds a great castle with the same troll, maiden and queen. After several adventures, and after the troll and queen die under less than clear circumstances, Walter takes the maiden back to the lands of Christendom. On their way, they find this other civilization living in the mountains whose throne is empty. With no male heirs nearby, Walter is tested to see if he is worthy of becoming king.
The story may seem kind of simple, but this is highly recommended for another reason. First published in the 1890s, this is The First major fantasy novel set totally in a world of the author's imagination. In a way, everyone who has ever written a fantasy novel, from Tolkien to Terry Brooks, owes a debt to this book.
Walter is a young man who lives in the seaport town of Langton. Married to a nagging, complaining wife, Walter's father gives him permission to get on a ship and live somewhere else, ending the marriage. At the seaport, just before leaving, Walter sees a troll leading a young woman, and a stately, well-dressed woman, obviously a queen.
After several months away from home, Walter runs into an old friend who tells him that his father has died. On his way home, Walter's ship is blown off course. It docks in this strange land where an old man lives alone between mountains and the sea. Walter is in an exploring mood. After walking for several days over the mountains, he finds a great castle with the same troll, maiden and queen. After several adventures, and after the troll and queen die under less than clear circumstances, Walter takes the maiden back to the lands of Christendom. On their way, they find this other civilization living in the mountains whose throne is empty. With no male heirs nearby, Walter is tested to see if he is worthy of becoming king.
The story may seem kind of simple, but this is highly recommended for another reason. First published in the 1890s, this is The First major fantasy novel set totally in a world of the author's imagination. In a way, everyone who has ever written a fantasy novel, from Tolkien to Terry Brooks, owes a debt to this book.
Maureen Birnbaum: Barbarian Swordsperson
Maureen Birnbaum: Barbarian Swordsperson, George Alec Effinger, Guild America Books, 1993
Maureen "Muffy" Birnbaum is your average prep-school senior from the suburbs of New York City. One day, she is skiing down a Vermont mountain, wearing the latest from L.L. Bean, when, suddenly, she has this weird feeling, and finds herself on the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs. This very handsome prince, who happens to speak English, was having a hard time fighting this hideous monster, so Muffy grabs a sword and lends a hand. After the monster is vanquished, she returns to Earth and tells the story to Bitsy Spiegelman, her best friend. Muffy plans to return to this handsome prince, but keeps missing the mark.
She becomes the queen of a group of apes, again speaking English, at the Earth's Core. She becomes involved in a warped version of the Civil War 800 years in the future. In a London shopping mall called Sherwood Forest, Muffy takes part in a clothes shopping contest against Maid Marian, with Robin Hood and Little John as judges. She finds herself in the middle of Isaac Asimov's classic story "Nightfall". (It takes place on a planet with six suns. Every 2000 years, all of the suns set on the same day, plunging the civilization into chaos. On this day, five of the suns have set and the sixth is about to set.)
For a look at some famous science fiction series from a very different perspective, definitely check this out. It's well worth reading.
Maureen "Muffy" Birnbaum is your average prep-school senior from the suburbs of New York City. One day, she is skiing down a Vermont mountain, wearing the latest from L.L. Bean, when, suddenly, she has this weird feeling, and finds herself on the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs. This very handsome prince, who happens to speak English, was having a hard time fighting this hideous monster, so Muffy grabs a sword and lends a hand. After the monster is vanquished, she returns to Earth and tells the story to Bitsy Spiegelman, her best friend. Muffy plans to return to this handsome prince, but keeps missing the mark.
She becomes the queen of a group of apes, again speaking English, at the Earth's Core. She becomes involved in a warped version of the Civil War 800 years in the future. In a London shopping mall called Sherwood Forest, Muffy takes part in a clothes shopping contest against Maid Marian, with Robin Hood and Little John as judges. She finds herself in the middle of Isaac Asimov's classic story "Nightfall". (It takes place on a planet with six suns. Every 2000 years, all of the suns set on the same day, plunging the civilization into chaos. On this day, five of the suns have set and the sixth is about to set.)
For a look at some famous science fiction series from a very different perspective, definitely check this out. It's well worth reading.
Waterdance
Waterdance, Anne Logston, Ace Books, 1999
Peri is the impetuous daughter of High Lady Kayli of the land of Agrond. It's no surprise that Peri has picked up some of her mother's talent in the areas of magic and sorcery. The problem for Peri is that she would much rather be known as someone who knows how to handle a sword.
One night, while accompanying her father on an official trip, Peri comes across an injured person being held captive by a group of very nasty people called bone hunters. She rescues him, only to find that he is from a neighboring land called Sarkond. She has been taught all her life that everyone, and everything, from Sarkond is to be avoided at all costs.
Instead of killing the Sarkond, named Atheris, which is Peri's first thought, they have the now upset bone hunters to deal with. They enter Sarkond and join a religious pilgrimage, which, for Peri, is traveling in the wrong direction. Atheris is a heretic with a price on his head, and if Peri is recognized as not being from Sarkond, her life expectancy will be very short.
This novel is somewhere in the realm of pretty good. It's easy to read, and contains enough sorcery for everyone, but, ultimately, I found it to be nothing too special.
Peri is the impetuous daughter of High Lady Kayli of the land of Agrond. It's no surprise that Peri has picked up some of her mother's talent in the areas of magic and sorcery. The problem for Peri is that she would much rather be known as someone who knows how to handle a sword.
One night, while accompanying her father on an official trip, Peri comes across an injured person being held captive by a group of very nasty people called bone hunters. She rescues him, only to find that he is from a neighboring land called Sarkond. She has been taught all her life that everyone, and everything, from Sarkond is to be avoided at all costs.
Instead of killing the Sarkond, named Atheris, which is Peri's first thought, they have the now upset bone hunters to deal with. They enter Sarkond and join a religious pilgrimage, which, for Peri, is traveling in the wrong direction. Atheris is a heretic with a price on his head, and if Peri is recognized as not being from Sarkond, her life expectancy will be very short.
This novel is somewhere in the realm of pretty good. It's easy to read, and contains enough sorcery for everyone, but, ultimately, I found it to be nothing too special.
The New Adam
The New Adam, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Avon, 1969
First published in the 1930s, this is the story of Edmund Hall, superman. He's not a superman in the sense of a caped crime fighter, but a superman in the sense of his intellect being so far off the scale as to make the rest of us look like neanderthals.
Born to average, middle class parents, Edmund's mother died in childbirth. As Edmund sails through school, he begins to notice that there is something different about him. It could be the fact that he never has to study, it could be the six fingers on each hand, or maybe it's the extra brain in his head that allows him to literally talk to himself.
After his father dies, Edmund sets up a laboratory in the family house to start unlocking the secrets of everything. The royalties from the development of a vacuum tube that will work for seven years keeps him financially comfortable. After years of experiments, Edmund hires an old high school nemesis, Paul Varney, to take him to the bars, the nightclubs, the places where people congregate, an area of life that is uncharted territory for Edmund. There he runs into, and eventually marries, a childhood friend named Evanne. She shows him the passion in life, but is nowhere near him intellectually.
Perhaps this book is best as an example of 1930s science fiction. It's very much a psychological sort of novel, and I couldn't really get involved with the characters. This one can be skipped.
First published in the 1930s, this is the story of Edmund Hall, superman. He's not a superman in the sense of a caped crime fighter, but a superman in the sense of his intellect being so far off the scale as to make the rest of us look like neanderthals.
Born to average, middle class parents, Edmund's mother died in childbirth. As Edmund sails through school, he begins to notice that there is something different about him. It could be the fact that he never has to study, it could be the six fingers on each hand, or maybe it's the extra brain in his head that allows him to literally talk to himself.
After his father dies, Edmund sets up a laboratory in the family house to start unlocking the secrets of everything. The royalties from the development of a vacuum tube that will work for seven years keeps him financially comfortable. After years of experiments, Edmund hires an old high school nemesis, Paul Varney, to take him to the bars, the nightclubs, the places where people congregate, an area of life that is uncharted territory for Edmund. There he runs into, and eventually marries, a childhood friend named Evanne. She shows him the passion in life, but is nowhere near him intellectually.
Perhaps this book is best as an example of 1930s science fiction. It's very much a psychological sort of novel, and I couldn't really get involved with the characters. This one can be skipped.
Ellison Wonderland
Ellison Wonderland, Harlan Ellison, Signet, 1974
Here is a group of imaginative (not just science fiction) stories first published in the late 1950s. When first published in 1962, this was one of Ellison's first fiction collections.
Included is the story of an absolutely foolproof do-it-yourself murder kit. What if you knew, with absolute certainty, that the world will end next Wednesday and you had never been to bed with a woman? A death row inmate, figuring that they will wait until he has finished his last meal, makes a deal with the devil to never stop eating his last meal. A robot is sent on a faster than light trip deep into the galaxy. Its creator planned things very well, having it made a civilian employee of the Space Patrol beforehand. When it returns, 365 years later, it demands payment of all back wages and interest. A commuter gets on the wrong train, and finds himself on an alien planet, one that considers earth the suburbs, all because his neighbor has this. . . thing growing in his garden.
I really enjoyed these stories. They're to the point, and they pack quite a punch. They are all types of imaginative stories, and they're highly recommended.
Here is a group of imaginative (not just science fiction) stories first published in the late 1950s. When first published in 1962, this was one of Ellison's first fiction collections.
Included is the story of an absolutely foolproof do-it-yourself murder kit. What if you knew, with absolute certainty, that the world will end next Wednesday and you had never been to bed with a woman? A death row inmate, figuring that they will wait until he has finished his last meal, makes a deal with the devil to never stop eating his last meal. A robot is sent on a faster than light trip deep into the galaxy. Its creator planned things very well, having it made a civilian employee of the Space Patrol beforehand. When it returns, 365 years later, it demands payment of all back wages and interest. A commuter gets on the wrong train, and finds himself on an alien planet, one that considers earth the suburbs, all because his neighbor has this. . . thing growing in his garden.
I really enjoyed these stories. They're to the point, and they pack quite a punch. They are all types of imaginative stories, and they're highly recommended.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Winter of Our Discontent
The Winter of Our Discontent, John Steinbeck, Bantam, 1961
Ethan Allen Hawley used to own the grocery store in the Long Island seacoast town of New Baytown. Because of bankruptcy problems, he now clerks in the store for the new owner, an older Italian man named Marullo. The two get along, but they're not friends.
One day, Ethan is offered a bribe by a food distributor, wanting him to send some business their way, without telling Marullo. The head of the local bank wants Ethan to put money his wife inherited to work in a plan to revitalize the town, with the bank head, named Baker, and his cronies the main beneficiaries. Ethan gives $1,000 of the money, without telling his wife, to Danny Taylor. He is a childhood friend who was thrown out of the Navy and became the town drunk. This is despite Danny's assurances that he'll drink the money away. Before Danny drinks himself into a grave, he gives Ethan ownership of a piece of nearby land that is perfect for an airport, the central linchpin of the revitalization plan.
This is a quiet, but excellent, novel about concepts of morality that have become flexible in modern times. Steinbeck does his usual very good job putting the reader right in the middle of the story. Highly recommended.
Ethan Allen Hawley used to own the grocery store in the Long Island seacoast town of New Baytown. Because of bankruptcy problems, he now clerks in the store for the new owner, an older Italian man named Marullo. The two get along, but they're not friends.
One day, Ethan is offered a bribe by a food distributor, wanting him to send some business their way, without telling Marullo. The head of the local bank wants Ethan to put money his wife inherited to work in a plan to revitalize the town, with the bank head, named Baker, and his cronies the main beneficiaries. Ethan gives $1,000 of the money, without telling his wife, to Danny Taylor. He is a childhood friend who was thrown out of the Navy and became the town drunk. This is despite Danny's assurances that he'll drink the money away. Before Danny drinks himself into a grave, he gives Ethan ownership of a piece of nearby land that is perfect for an airport, the central linchpin of the revitalization plan.
This is a quiet, but excellent, novel about concepts of morality that have become flexible in modern times. Steinbeck does his usual very good job putting the reader right in the middle of the story. Highly recommended.
Reason Enough to Hope: America and the World of the 21st Century
Reason Enough to Hope: America and the World of the 21st Century, Philip Morrison and Kosta Tsipis, The MIT Press, 1998
Written by a couple of MIT scientists with great experience in arms control issues, this is a look at a global approach to the issues of global security and development in the next century.
The US needs to rethink its policy of being able to fight two major wars at the same time. Against whom? The US has, by far, the world's largest defense budget. Some say the world is a dangerous place; a major reason is the fact that the US is the world's biggest arms dealer.
The authors propose something called Common Security, where multinational troops would enter a war zone with the authorization to fight back. These would be more than just peacekeepers, the major countries would contribute soldiers and weapons, and this would happen only after more moderate approaches like diplomacy and trade sanctions had failed.
Common Development would change the system of aid and technology transfers to poorer countires, raising their standard of living, while keeping First World standards at approximately present levels.
This will not be quick or easy to implement. The authors have written a very interesting and plausible look at how to reduce the gap in quality of life between the US and the rest of the world. It's highly recommended.
Written by a couple of MIT scientists with great experience in arms control issues, this is a look at a global approach to the issues of global security and development in the next century.
The US needs to rethink its policy of being able to fight two major wars at the same time. Against whom? The US has, by far, the world's largest defense budget. Some say the world is a dangerous place; a major reason is the fact that the US is the world's biggest arms dealer.
The authors propose something called Common Security, where multinational troops would enter a war zone with the authorization to fight back. These would be more than just peacekeepers, the major countries would contribute soldiers and weapons, and this would happen only after more moderate approaches like diplomacy and trade sanctions had failed.
Common Development would change the system of aid and technology transfers to poorer countires, raising their standard of living, while keeping First World standards at approximately present levels.
This will not be quick or easy to implement. The authors have written a very interesting and plausible look at how to reduce the gap in quality of life between the US and the rest of the world. It's highly recommended.
They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted
They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor, Regina Barreca, Penguin, 1991
All their lives, women are taught to giggle or laugh at a man's joke, even when they don't think it's funny. A very bad thing to say about a girl is that she can't take a joke, even if it involves abuse or insults. Good Girls are those who do what they're told, and don't support revolutionary causes like equal rights for women. Wanting to go to college, or to medical school after college, was, until recently, considered "showing off", something else that Good Girls never do. Good Girls don't draw attention to themselves.
On the other hand, there are men who laugh at women's jokes when they understand them, or who allow women to laugh when they want to, not when they should laugh. One of the reason slapstick humor, like the Three Stooges, appeal to women far less than men is that women are more likely to console than laugh at anyone considered a victim.
This excellent, and very thought-provoking, book also looks at how to deal with aggressive humor, differences in how the sexes appreciate sexual humor, and politics and women's humor. It does a very good job combining academics and the real world. Well worth reading.
All their lives, women are taught to giggle or laugh at a man's joke, even when they don't think it's funny. A very bad thing to say about a girl is that she can't take a joke, even if it involves abuse or insults. Good Girls are those who do what they're told, and don't support revolutionary causes like equal rights for women. Wanting to go to college, or to medical school after college, was, until recently, considered "showing off", something else that Good Girls never do. Good Girls don't draw attention to themselves.
On the other hand, there are men who laugh at women's jokes when they understand them, or who allow women to laugh when they want to, not when they should laugh. One of the reason slapstick humor, like the Three Stooges, appeal to women far less than men is that women are more likely to console than laugh at anyone considered a victim.
This excellent, and very thought-provoking, book also looks at how to deal with aggressive humor, differences in how the sexes appreciate sexual humor, and politics and women's humor. It does a very good job combining academics and the real world. Well worth reading.
Crossing
Crossing, Manuel Luis Martinez, Bilingual Press, 1998
Sixteen-year-old Luis, restless and haunted by his father's death, leaves his Mexican village and heads north to make his fortune in America. He meets up with an unscrupulous coyote, who locks him and a dozen other men in a boxcar, with the promise of jobs in Texas.
Based on a true story, as the days become endless, and the water disappears in the heat, the men sink into delirium, madness and death. Luis befriends an old man named Berto, who is convinced that the devil himself has come to get him, because of a terrible secret in his past. Looking around at the situation in the boxcar, Luis thinks that Berto may not be kidding. As the other men die, Pablo, a ruthless leader determined to survive at all costs, seems to get stronger.
This is a very good, but quiet, psychological sort of novel. It does a fine job of showing why a person would undertake such a trip, and shows what can happen when people are trapped in an enclosed space. Well worth reading.
Sixteen-year-old Luis, restless and haunted by his father's death, leaves his Mexican village and heads north to make his fortune in America. He meets up with an unscrupulous coyote, who locks him and a dozen other men in a boxcar, with the promise of jobs in Texas.
Based on a true story, as the days become endless, and the water disappears in the heat, the men sink into delirium, madness and death. Luis befriends an old man named Berto, who is convinced that the devil himself has come to get him, because of a terrible secret in his past. Looking around at the situation in the boxcar, Luis thinks that Berto may not be kidding. As the other men die, Pablo, a ruthless leader determined to survive at all costs, seems to get stronger.
This is a very good, but quiet, psychological sort of novel. It does a fine job of showing why a person would undertake such a trip, and shows what can happen when people are trapped in an enclosed space. Well worth reading.
The Falling Woman
The Falling Woman, Pat Murphy, Tor Books, 1986
Elizabeth Butler is the leader of an archaeological dig on the site of an ancient Mayan city in the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. She basically ran away from home years before, leaving a husband and young daughter, because she was very uncomfortable with the domestic life. One day, Diane, her daughter, shows up at the site to try and connect with the mother she never knew, and to tell Elizabeth of the death of her ex-husband. Because of Elizabeth's inexperience as a mother, the relationship between the women is strained.
Meantime, Elizabeth has the ability to see shadows, or ghosts, of the people who lived there centuries before. She is actually able to converse with one of them, a Mayan priestess whose skeleton Elizabeth finds in a crypt.
The Mayan calendar consists of several cycles at the same time. The very bad part of the calendar is approaching; to appease the Mayan gods, a human sacrifice is expected from Elizabeth.
This is an excellent novel. It is a very good mixture of myth and reality, of ancient and present-day culture, with a bit of fantasy and horror included. Here is a brilliant piece of writing.
Elizabeth Butler is the leader of an archaeological dig on the site of an ancient Mayan city in the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. She basically ran away from home years before, leaving a husband and young daughter, because she was very uncomfortable with the domestic life. One day, Diane, her daughter, shows up at the site to try and connect with the mother she never knew, and to tell Elizabeth of the death of her ex-husband. Because of Elizabeth's inexperience as a mother, the relationship between the women is strained.
Meantime, Elizabeth has the ability to see shadows, or ghosts, of the people who lived there centuries before. She is actually able to converse with one of them, a Mayan priestess whose skeleton Elizabeth finds in a crypt.
The Mayan calendar consists of several cycles at the same time. The very bad part of the calendar is approaching; to appease the Mayan gods, a human sacrifice is expected from Elizabeth.
This is an excellent novel. It is a very good mixture of myth and reality, of ancient and present-day culture, with a bit of fantasy and horror included. Here is a brilliant piece of writing.
Hollywood Rat Race
Hollywood Rat Race, Ed Wood, Jr, Four Walls Eight Windows Press, 1998
Known as the director of such films as "Plan 9 From Outer Space", Ed Wood, Jr, spent most of the 1960s writing this how-to on the acting biz. To local beauty contest winners or college drama stars who think that Hollywood is the logical next step, Wood's advice can be summed up in two words: Stay Home.
The first step in entering Hollywood is to get an agent, which, by itself, is not easy. Without one, your chances of getting past the studio receptionist are in negative numbers; with an agent, your chances are better, but not by much.
In all things, whether it's agents, producers or getting a screen test (another requirement to be seen by the right people), be double and triple sure that the person you are dealing with is reputable. Too many people are in this simply to separate you from your money.
Speaking of money, how do you survive between acting jobs in an expensive town like Hollywood?
Wood also explores such subjects as writing, the casting couch, making cheap movies and the porn movie biz.
This is a short book, but Wood packs in a lot. For anyone who has read too many movie magazines, and thinks that Hollywood isn't such a tough nut to crack, read this book first.
Known as the director of such films as "Plan 9 From Outer Space", Ed Wood, Jr, spent most of the 1960s writing this how-to on the acting biz. To local beauty contest winners or college drama stars who think that Hollywood is the logical next step, Wood's advice can be summed up in two words: Stay Home.
The first step in entering Hollywood is to get an agent, which, by itself, is not easy. Without one, your chances of getting past the studio receptionist are in negative numbers; with an agent, your chances are better, but not by much.
In all things, whether it's agents, producers or getting a screen test (another requirement to be seen by the right people), be double and triple sure that the person you are dealing with is reputable. Too many people are in this simply to separate you from your money.
Speaking of money, how do you survive between acting jobs in an expensive town like Hollywood?
Wood also explores such subjects as writing, the casting couch, making cheap movies and the porn movie biz.
This is a short book, but Wood packs in a lot. For anyone who has read too many movie magazines, and thinks that Hollywood isn't such a tough nut to crack, read this book first.
Everyday Sexism in the Third Millenium
Everyday Sexism in the Third Millenium, Carol Ronai, Barbara Zsembik, Joe Feagin (ed.), Routledge, 1997
Sexism in America is dead, or close enough to dead so that women can stop complaining, right? Very wrong, according to the contributors to this volume.
Black lesbians are made to feel like they're committing racial genocide if they are not with a black man having black children. It gets even worse if their partner is not black. Federal laws against sexual harassment at work don't protect part time workers or independent contractors like real estate agents. Also considered is the use of violence to enforce a family ideal of male dominance and subordination of the female. At what point does normal, everyday rudeness become sexual harassment?
Black women are under a sort of double jeopardy, having to experience sexism and racism. What was supposed to be a place for women to discuss sexual harassment on the Internet was hijacked by men on more than one occasion. Included is sexual harassment among Asian-American women and growing up biracial.
This is a very good book. It is a well-written interesting and very topical book for everyone.
Sexism in America is dead, or close enough to dead so that women can stop complaining, right? Very wrong, according to the contributors to this volume.
Black lesbians are made to feel like they're committing racial genocide if they are not with a black man having black children. It gets even worse if their partner is not black. Federal laws against sexual harassment at work don't protect part time workers or independent contractors like real estate agents. Also considered is the use of violence to enforce a family ideal of male dominance and subordination of the female. At what point does normal, everyday rudeness become sexual harassment?
Black women are under a sort of double jeopardy, having to experience sexism and racism. What was supposed to be a place for women to discuss sexual harassment on the Internet was hijacked by men on more than one occasion. Included is sexual harassment among Asian-American women and growing up biracial.
This is a very good book. It is a well-written interesting and very topical book for everyone.
Forever Peace
Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman, Ace Books, 1997
This science fiction novel takes place in the middle of the next century. The Ngumi War has raged for the previous eight years, with Atlanta and San Diego having been destroyed by tactical nuclear weapons. Think of it as the First World against the Third World. The war is fought by soldierboys, indestructible war machines whose human controllers are actually hundreds of miles away. Julian Class is one of them, and he begins to think, because of what he has seen and done during the war, that killing himself is not such a bad idea.
He and his lover, Amelia Harding, have discovered a scientific process that could recreate the Big Bang and destroy everything. But there is a group of religious fanatics in high government positions who want the project to go ahead, thinking that God wants it to happen.
Also revealed is a process where being jacked into a soldierboy for just a few days longer than usual totally, and permanently, removes a person's violent, warlike tendencies.
This is a great novel. It has emotion, it has good characters, it has alternatives to war, and it has lots of blood. It is also highly recommended.
This science fiction novel takes place in the middle of the next century. The Ngumi War has raged for the previous eight years, with Atlanta and San Diego having been destroyed by tactical nuclear weapons. Think of it as the First World against the Third World. The war is fought by soldierboys, indestructible war machines whose human controllers are actually hundreds of miles away. Julian Class is one of them, and he begins to think, because of what he has seen and done during the war, that killing himself is not such a bad idea.
He and his lover, Amelia Harding, have discovered a scientific process that could recreate the Big Bang and destroy everything. But there is a group of religious fanatics in high government positions who want the project to go ahead, thinking that God wants it to happen.
Also revealed is a process where being jacked into a soldierboy for just a few days longer than usual totally, and permanently, removes a person's violent, warlike tendencies.
This is a great novel. It has emotion, it has good characters, it has alternatives to war, and it has lots of blood. It is also highly recommended.
The Godmother's Web
The Godmother's Web, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Ace Books, 1998
Cindy Ellis is the type of person always willing to help a friend, so she thinks nothing of traveling to Arizona to train a horse at riding trails in the desert. It also helps her get away from the pressure of being lover and employee of Ray Kinkaid, also known as Raydir Quantrill, famous rock musician.
Alone in the desert, Cindy runs into an old Indian woman who she thinks is an elderly mental patient who wandered away from her caretaker. She soon learns differently. The woman, known to everyone as Grandma, takes Cindy on a journey through life as a present-day Native American. Cindy sees firsthand the less-than-happy relations between the Navajo and Hopi peoples, mostly over land ownership. She sees differing conceptions of right and wrong. Cindy sees lots of pain and heartache, and lots of love, too.
Having been a nurse on the Hopi reservation, Scarborough certainly knows her way around the world of Native Americans. This is a very realistic novel, with several Indian myths and stories included. Well worth the reader's time.
Cindy Ellis is the type of person always willing to help a friend, so she thinks nothing of traveling to Arizona to train a horse at riding trails in the desert. It also helps her get away from the pressure of being lover and employee of Ray Kinkaid, also known as Raydir Quantrill, famous rock musician.
Alone in the desert, Cindy runs into an old Indian woman who she thinks is an elderly mental patient who wandered away from her caretaker. She soon learns differently. The woman, known to everyone as Grandma, takes Cindy on a journey through life as a present-day Native American. Cindy sees firsthand the less-than-happy relations between the Navajo and Hopi peoples, mostly over land ownership. She sees differing conceptions of right and wrong. Cindy sees lots of pain and heartache, and lots of love, too.
Having been a nurse on the Hopi reservation, Scarborough certainly knows her way around the world of Native Americans. This is a very realistic novel, with several Indian myths and stories included. Well worth the reader's time.
House of the Winds
House of the Winds, Mia Yun, Interlink Books, 1998
This connected group of stories chronicles the relationship between a mother and daughter in 1960s Korea, a land and time deeply influenced by the Japanese occupation and the Korean War.
The father is a sort of traveling salesman, always with some new job title, away for long periods of time. The house always felt cold and empty when coming home from school, because Mother worked long hours at a garment factory. But the house always warmed right up when she arrived. There were bus trips to visit relatives in far away villages, both alone and with mother. During her older sister's teen years, there was considerable family pressure to get married (to the right person). In reaction, Sister and a friend run away from home by bus and find themselves in the wrong section of the city of Pusan. Grandmother converted to Christianity years before, and always tried to convert the rest of the family. When Mother was dying of liver disease, Grandmother prayed over her constantly, believing that the illness was caused by Mother's lack of faith.
This book does a very good job of mixing dreams, myth and reality. The writing is lyrical, pure and evocative, and this one is well worth reading.
This connected group of stories chronicles the relationship between a mother and daughter in 1960s Korea, a land and time deeply influenced by the Japanese occupation and the Korean War.
The father is a sort of traveling salesman, always with some new job title, away for long periods of time. The house always felt cold and empty when coming home from school, because Mother worked long hours at a garment factory. But the house always warmed right up when she arrived. There were bus trips to visit relatives in far away villages, both alone and with mother. During her older sister's teen years, there was considerable family pressure to get married (to the right person). In reaction, Sister and a friend run away from home by bus and find themselves in the wrong section of the city of Pusan. Grandmother converted to Christianity years before, and always tried to convert the rest of the family. When Mother was dying of liver disease, Grandmother prayed over her constantly, believing that the illness was caused by Mother's lack of faith.
This book does a very good job of mixing dreams, myth and reality. The writing is lyrical, pure and evocative, and this one is well worth reading.
Free the Children
Free the Children, Craig Kielburger and Kevin Major, HarperCollins, 1998
This is the true story of an average 12-year-old from suburban Toronto (Kielburger), who, one day, reads a newspaper story about a boy from Pakistan who was murdered for escaping from, and speaking out against, child labor.
That day, Craig asked his schoolmates for help researching child labor. Finding that children were not exactly a priority among the major human rights organizations, they founded Free the Children. They started small, speaking to students at other schools and holding tag sales to raise money. National and international exposure soon followed.
At some point, it was necessary to witness child labor in South Asia, up close and personal. With a human rights worker named Alam as his guide, Craig spent seven weeks traveling from Pakistan to Thailand. He met a little girl separating used syringes with her bare hands. He met a boy working at a brick maker who didn't know the meaning of the word school. He saw the Bangkok sex trade in children.
For adults who think that young people are too immature to amke a difference in the world around them, or for young people who want to make a difference in the world around them, read this book. It is excellent.
This is the true story of an average 12-year-old from suburban Toronto (Kielburger), who, one day, reads a newspaper story about a boy from Pakistan who was murdered for escaping from, and speaking out against, child labor.
That day, Craig asked his schoolmates for help researching child labor. Finding that children were not exactly a priority among the major human rights organizations, they founded Free the Children. They started small, speaking to students at other schools and holding tag sales to raise money. National and international exposure soon followed.
At some point, it was necessary to witness child labor in South Asia, up close and personal. With a human rights worker named Alam as his guide, Craig spent seven weeks traveling from Pakistan to Thailand. He met a little girl separating used syringes with her bare hands. He met a boy working at a brick maker who didn't know the meaning of the word school. He saw the Bangkok sex trade in children.
For adults who think that young people are too immature to amke a difference in the world around them, or for young people who want to make a difference in the world around them, read this book. It is excellent.
Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food
Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food, Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey, Common Courage Press, 1998
Biotechnology is the new "risk-free" solution to the world's food problems, at least according to companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemical. The authors of this book say Not Exactly.
If the purpose of genetic engineering of food was to increase productivity per acre, then it would be not so bad. So far, that has not happened. The only reason for the existence of Roundup Ready soybeans is to increase tolerance to Monsanto's Roundup pesticide, thereby forcing it on farmers. In some cases, productivity over regular soybeans actually decreases. Monsanto has also bought several of the major seed producing companies, further limiting the choices for farmers. Genetic diversity of soybeans is also negatively affected. If large areas of farmland are planted with, genetically, the same plant, what happens when a pesticide-resistant disease or bug comes along? This doesn't include the possible long term effects on the soil and on human health. Up to now, the purpose of genetic engineering has been to increase corporate profits, not help the world's poor.
This book does explore a lot more than just Monsanto and soybeans. The authors have created a very readable look at how genetic engineering is no longer of concern just to scientists, but to everyone. Highly recommended.
Biotechnology is the new "risk-free" solution to the world's food problems, at least according to companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemical. The authors of this book say Not Exactly.
If the purpose of genetic engineering of food was to increase productivity per acre, then it would be not so bad. So far, that has not happened. The only reason for the existence of Roundup Ready soybeans is to increase tolerance to Monsanto's Roundup pesticide, thereby forcing it on farmers. In some cases, productivity over regular soybeans actually decreases. Monsanto has also bought several of the major seed producing companies, further limiting the choices for farmers. Genetic diversity of soybeans is also negatively affected. If large areas of farmland are planted with, genetically, the same plant, what happens when a pesticide-resistant disease or bug comes along? This doesn't include the possible long term effects on the soil and on human health. Up to now, the purpose of genetic engineering has been to increase corporate profits, not help the world's poor.
This book does explore a lot more than just Monsanto and soybeans. The authors have created a very readable look at how genetic engineering is no longer of concern just to scientists, but to everyone. Highly recommended.
Nine Visions: A Book of Fantasies
Nine Visions: A Book of Fantasies, Andrea LaSonde Melrose (ed.), The Seabury Press, 1983
This is a group of religious fantasy stories. They aren't meant to be tales of any specific religion, more like part spirituality and part "Touched By An Angel."
A young man, son of a Baron, is about to inherit his father's position and title. He is very much not interested; all he wants is to become a priest. Guardian angels can come in different shapes and sizes. What would happen if we not only lost faith in the world beyond this one, but lost faith in this world as well? One of the miracles of Jesus is seen from the point of view of the person who is healed. What is it like to be a guardian angel? A wife and mother takes up meditation and is able to travel to a world of light, where she spends more and more of her time.
These stories are pretty good. One doesn't have to be strongly religious to enjoy this book; these stories are meant for anybody. For those who think that there isn't enough spirituality/religion in contemporary fantasy, check this out.
This is a group of religious fantasy stories. They aren't meant to be tales of any specific religion, more like part spirituality and part "Touched By An Angel."
A young man, son of a Baron, is about to inherit his father's position and title. He is very much not interested; all he wants is to become a priest. Guardian angels can come in different shapes and sizes. What would happen if we not only lost faith in the world beyond this one, but lost faith in this world as well? One of the miracles of Jesus is seen from the point of view of the person who is healed. What is it like to be a guardian angel? A wife and mother takes up meditation and is able to travel to a world of light, where she spends more and more of her time.
These stories are pretty good. One doesn't have to be strongly religious to enjoy this book; these stories are meant for anybody. For those who think that there isn't enough spirituality/religion in contemporary fantasy, check this out.
Behind the Red Mist
Behind The Red Mist, Ho Anh Thai, Curbstone Press, 1998
This is a group of contemporary stories from Vietnam, a country not normally heard from in the fiction world. One story is about an Indian man (several stories are set in India) who promised his dead mother that he would never leave her alone. He falls for a British woman who brings him back to England as the family cook. Not wanting to break his promise to his mother, he digs her up and carries her bones in a knapsack. Another story is about a Vietnamese party official who turns into a goat while watching a porno film. To create a tourist attraction for his poor village, a man asks the director of the local factory for a million rupees to build a great temple. Not willing to take no for an answer, the man chooses a spot on the road that the director must travel twice a day, and stands on one leg, all day, every day, in search of that million rupees.
An Indian woman is a nursing student, until her family says that it's time to get married. Her family barely manages to pay the huge dowry demanded by the groom's family, but the groom seems worth the trouble. The woman, named Neelam, and her mother-in-law don't get along at all. One day, Neelam is severely burned in an act of bride violence. She is sent back to her home village, though no one recognizes her. Whenever a woman in the village gives birth to a girl, Neelam is there to quietly take the child away and dispose of it.
This is an excellent group of tales about a different (to most Americans) part of the world and different culture. They are serious and whimsical, very well done and very much worth reading.
This is a group of contemporary stories from Vietnam, a country not normally heard from in the fiction world. One story is about an Indian man (several stories are set in India) who promised his dead mother that he would never leave her alone. He falls for a British woman who brings him back to England as the family cook. Not wanting to break his promise to his mother, he digs her up and carries her bones in a knapsack. Another story is about a Vietnamese party official who turns into a goat while watching a porno film. To create a tourist attraction for his poor village, a man asks the director of the local factory for a million rupees to build a great temple. Not willing to take no for an answer, the man chooses a spot on the road that the director must travel twice a day, and stands on one leg, all day, every day, in search of that million rupees.
An Indian woman is a nursing student, until her family says that it's time to get married. Her family barely manages to pay the huge dowry demanded by the groom's family, but the groom seems worth the trouble. The woman, named Neelam, and her mother-in-law don't get along at all. One day, Neelam is severely burned in an act of bride violence. She is sent back to her home village, though no one recognizes her. Whenever a woman in the village gives birth to a girl, Neelam is there to quietly take the child away and dispose of it.
This is an excellent group of tales about a different (to most Americans) part of the world and different culture. They are serious and whimsical, very well done and very much worth reading.
Web of Darkness
Web of Darkness, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Baen Books, 1983
Domaris and Deoris are sisters and priestesses of the Temple of Light. Deoris, the younger, doesn't just fall in love with the sorcerer Riveda, she abandons everything to follow him. He is well-known and esteemed in the Temple, but, in secret, he is a practitioner of the dark areas of sorcery. Deoris gives herself to him, body and soul. When the Temple finds out just how far she and Riveda have gone to the dark side, he is convicted of blasphemy and killed. Deoris almost joins him, along with her unborn baby, which may or may not be Riveda's, if not for the intervention of Domaris.
Domaris loses her unborn child, and her spirit. Deoris almost dies in childbirth, and is told her child didn't survive (not true). The two have gone so far beyond just "breaking the rules" of the Temple that the only choice is permanent exile for Domaris. Deoris joins her years later, with Domaris' two children, in a place called Atlantis.
This strong, well-done tale of two sisters is another very reliable novel from Bradley. She knows how to make the story just strange enough for anyone, and to keep the reader involved to the end.
Domaris and Deoris are sisters and priestesses of the Temple of Light. Deoris, the younger, doesn't just fall in love with the sorcerer Riveda, she abandons everything to follow him. He is well-known and esteemed in the Temple, but, in secret, he is a practitioner of the dark areas of sorcery. Deoris gives herself to him, body and soul. When the Temple finds out just how far she and Riveda have gone to the dark side, he is convicted of blasphemy and killed. Deoris almost joins him, along with her unborn baby, which may or may not be Riveda's, if not for the intervention of Domaris.
Domaris loses her unborn child, and her spirit. Deoris almost dies in childbirth, and is told her child didn't survive (not true). The two have gone so far beyond just "breaking the rules" of the Temple that the only choice is permanent exile for Domaris. Deoris joins her years later, with Domaris' two children, in a place called Atlantis.
This strong, well-done tale of two sisters is another very reliable novel from Bradley. She knows how to make the story just strange enough for anyone, and to keep the reader involved to the end.
New Asian Emperors
New Asian Emperors: The Overseas Chinese, Their Strengths and Competitive Advantages, George T. Haley, Usha C.V. Haley and Chin Tiong Tan, Butterworth-Heineman, 1998
In international business, specifically in Southeast Asia, the Chinese seem to be the dominant players. They own, or have an interest in, everything from construction to hotels to media. The major lists of the richest people in the world contain many Chinese names. This book looks at the reasons for their success.
Confucianism prefers conciliation and compromise to confrontation. Under traditional Chinese law, merchants were forbidden to "show off" by wearing fine clothes or jewelry in public; they also had to walk everywhere, concepts that are still important today. An important part of Chinese business is the network; it can be based on family, dialect or the part of China that the members are from. It builds trust, helps build customer satisafction and speeds decision making.
Overseas Chinese are known for speed of decision-making (they don't wait for Western-style business analysis), control of information (through networks and informal talking with friends) and guanxi (concepts of trust). They can also be blindsided by unforeseen events, and away from their home turf there is less intimate knowledge of the local market. Also, an Overseas Chinese company can only grow as far as the limits of the family, another important part of Chinese culture.
This is a very specialized book, but also a very good book. For anyone doing business in Asia, this book is must reading.
In international business, specifically in Southeast Asia, the Chinese seem to be the dominant players. They own, or have an interest in, everything from construction to hotels to media. The major lists of the richest people in the world contain many Chinese names. This book looks at the reasons for their success.
Confucianism prefers conciliation and compromise to confrontation. Under traditional Chinese law, merchants were forbidden to "show off" by wearing fine clothes or jewelry in public; they also had to walk everywhere, concepts that are still important today. An important part of Chinese business is the network; it can be based on family, dialect or the part of China that the members are from. It builds trust, helps build customer satisafction and speeds decision making.
Overseas Chinese are known for speed of decision-making (they don't wait for Western-style business analysis), control of information (through networks and informal talking with friends) and guanxi (concepts of trust). They can also be blindsided by unforeseen events, and away from their home turf there is less intimate knowledge of the local market. Also, an Overseas Chinese company can only grow as far as the limits of the family, another important part of Chinese culture.
This is a very specialized book, but also a very good book. For anyone doing business in Asia, this book is must reading.
Sweet Poison: How the World's Most Popular Artificial Sweetener is Killing Us - My Story
Sweet Poison: How The World's Most Popular Artificial Sweetener is Killing Us - My Story, Janet Starr Hull, New Horizon Press, 1999
This is the story of an average woman who wanted to lose weight after having three children. She did what most people would do: work out religiously, eat low-fat frozen food and drink diet cola. Instead, her health began to deteriorate: she suffered blinding migraine headaches, night sweats, her hair fell out in clumps, and her heart raced to 180 beats per minute.
In the hospital, she was diagnosed with Graves' Disease, and was told that her thyroid gland would have to be destroyed; also, she would have to take expensive thyroid medicine for the rest of her life. Hull had the presence of mind to put on the brakes, and, after a lot of research, found the cause of her near death: aspartame, also called Nutrasweet, an artificial sweetener in more than 5000 different foods.
Since the 1970s, the FDA has known about independent studies on aspartame in lab mice that document brain seizures, holes in the brain, dead and deformed fetuses, mammary gland tumors, etc. Researchers for the Nutrasweet Corporation say that it is safe for public consumption. That's all the FDA needed for its approval.
Since aspartame's approval, over 5000 complaints have been registered with the FDA, including vomiting, diarrhea, hives, fatigue, dizziness and headaches, along with four deaths. In over 100 years of saccharin use, for instance, there have been a grand total of six complaints.
Aspartame was approved by an FDA Commissioner who later resigned to take a position with the company that makes Nutrasweet. It was originally intended as an ulcer drug, whose sweet taste was discovered by accident. Did you know that ten percent of aspartame is methyl alcohol, which, when heated to 86 degrees, produces formaldehyde, an embalming fluid?
This is a more-than-must-read Wow of a book. It's especially recommended for those who think that convenience in food is more important than nutrition.
This is the story of an average woman who wanted to lose weight after having three children. She did what most people would do: work out religiously, eat low-fat frozen food and drink diet cola. Instead, her health began to deteriorate: she suffered blinding migraine headaches, night sweats, her hair fell out in clumps, and her heart raced to 180 beats per minute.
In the hospital, she was diagnosed with Graves' Disease, and was told that her thyroid gland would have to be destroyed; also, she would have to take expensive thyroid medicine for the rest of her life. Hull had the presence of mind to put on the brakes, and, after a lot of research, found the cause of her near death: aspartame, also called Nutrasweet, an artificial sweetener in more than 5000 different foods.
Since the 1970s, the FDA has known about independent studies on aspartame in lab mice that document brain seizures, holes in the brain, dead and deformed fetuses, mammary gland tumors, etc. Researchers for the Nutrasweet Corporation say that it is safe for public consumption. That's all the FDA needed for its approval.
Since aspartame's approval, over 5000 complaints have been registered with the FDA, including vomiting, diarrhea, hives, fatigue, dizziness and headaches, along with four deaths. In over 100 years of saccharin use, for instance, there have been a grand total of six complaints.
Aspartame was approved by an FDA Commissioner who later resigned to take a position with the company that makes Nutrasweet. It was originally intended as an ulcer drug, whose sweet taste was discovered by accident. Did you know that ten percent of aspartame is methyl alcohol, which, when heated to 86 degrees, produces formaldehyde, an embalming fluid?
This is a more-than-must-read Wow of a book. It's especially recommended for those who think that convenience in food is more important than nutrition.
How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and What You Can Do About It
How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and What You Can Do About it, Bill Quinn, Ten Speed Press, 1998
This book is pretty self-explanatory. The author, a small-town Texas newspaperman, has seen first-hand how Wal-Mart really works.
When they first enter a town (small towns are picked intentionally), they heavily advertise in the local newspaper, and everything seems wonderful. One by one, the local retailers close, because Wal-Mart has undercut their prices, again intentionally. Once the local Main Street has become a ghost town, Wal-Mart's prices start to drift upward and the newspaper ads dry up to almost nothing.
In an interview, a former store manager reported that he had a person on staff whose job was to call suppliers and demand discounts because shipments arrived damaged or incomplete, even if they actually arrived undamaged and complete.
Did you know that going into a Wal-Mart to jot down prices for comparison shopping purposes is against store policy?
Items are stacked nearly to the ceiling in the average Wal-Mart because they are too cheap to afford warehouse space, according to Quinn.
This might not be so bad if the Walton family were in the habit of giving money to charity. Looking through the major lists of corporate donors, the Walton family are not just low on the lists, they aren't on the lists at all.
This short, Wow of a book presents quite a chronicle of pure, penny-pinching greed on the part of Wal-Mart. It is very strongly recommended.
This book is pretty self-explanatory. The author, a small-town Texas newspaperman, has seen first-hand how Wal-Mart really works.
When they first enter a town (small towns are picked intentionally), they heavily advertise in the local newspaper, and everything seems wonderful. One by one, the local retailers close, because Wal-Mart has undercut their prices, again intentionally. Once the local Main Street has become a ghost town, Wal-Mart's prices start to drift upward and the newspaper ads dry up to almost nothing.
In an interview, a former store manager reported that he had a person on staff whose job was to call suppliers and demand discounts because shipments arrived damaged or incomplete, even if they actually arrived undamaged and complete.
Did you know that going into a Wal-Mart to jot down prices for comparison shopping purposes is against store policy?
Items are stacked nearly to the ceiling in the average Wal-Mart because they are too cheap to afford warehouse space, according to Quinn.
This might not be so bad if the Walton family were in the habit of giving money to charity. Looking through the major lists of corporate donors, the Walton family are not just low on the lists, they aren't on the lists at all.
This short, Wow of a book presents quite a chronicle of pure, penny-pinching greed on the part of Wal-Mart. It is very strongly recommended.
How to Accommodate Men
How to Accommodate Men, Marilyn Krysl, Coffee House Press, 1998
This group of contemporary short stories are united around the themes of war and division, whether between families, lovers, or inhabitants of the same country, and the ways that connections are re-established.
Several stories are set in the middle of the civil war in Sri Lanka, including one where an American journalist flirts with a Tamil lieutenant and comes to understand and love him. A medieval lesbian nun is given Christ's true vision, from Christ himself. A woman suspects a young girl of trying to seduce her husband. When the two women meet in a restaurant bathroom, the wife identifies with the lost feeling that comes from being beautiful. The title story is about a woman who, through small, anonymous compassionate gestures, makes herself indispensable to her husband and her boss, though neither of the men realize it.
This book is really good. The stories in it are sad and hopeful, thought-provoking and very easy to read. Here is a first-rate collection of stories.
This group of contemporary short stories are united around the themes of war and division, whether between families, lovers, or inhabitants of the same country, and the ways that connections are re-established.
Several stories are set in the middle of the civil war in Sri Lanka, including one where an American journalist flirts with a Tamil lieutenant and comes to understand and love him. A medieval lesbian nun is given Christ's true vision, from Christ himself. A woman suspects a young girl of trying to seduce her husband. When the two women meet in a restaurant bathroom, the wife identifies with the lost feeling that comes from being beautiful. The title story is about a woman who, through small, anonymous compassionate gestures, makes herself indispensable to her husband and her boss, though neither of the men realize it.
This book is really good. The stories in it are sad and hopeful, thought-provoking and very easy to read. Here is a first-rate collection of stories.
How to Impress Anybody About Anything
How To Impress Anybody About Anything, Leslie Hamilton and Brandon Toropov,
Carol Publishing Group, 1998
This is a book of instant knowledge, or at least enough knowledge to make the reader sound like an intellectual at parties or Jeopardy marathons. It gives short, easy to read, on-the-level summaries on subjects like quantum physics, the Cold War, exotic drinks, Homer's Odyssey, jazz, philosophy, zen Buddhism, fine wines, Einstein's Theory of Relativity and the Roman Empire, to name just a few.
For each subject, the authors provide some famous quotes or witty things to say, again to make the reader sound like an expert. Also included are things to say when you want to change the subject, and things to avoid saying or doing to keep from looking like an idiot.
One might think that subjects like gems, the Civil War, American history, Newtonian physics, palmistry and religion can not be adequately explained in just a few pages. They would be wrong; the authors do an excellent job.
For those people who want to sound like a Jeopardy champion in public, this is the book. For those who would just like the basics on an esoteric subject of interest, this is the book.
Carol Publishing Group, 1998
This is a book of instant knowledge, or at least enough knowledge to make the reader sound like an intellectual at parties or Jeopardy marathons. It gives short, easy to read, on-the-level summaries on subjects like quantum physics, the Cold War, exotic drinks, Homer's Odyssey, jazz, philosophy, zen Buddhism, fine wines, Einstein's Theory of Relativity and the Roman Empire, to name just a few.
For each subject, the authors provide some famous quotes or witty things to say, again to make the reader sound like an expert. Also included are things to say when you want to change the subject, and things to avoid saying or doing to keep from looking like an idiot.
One might think that subjects like gems, the Civil War, American history, Newtonian physics, palmistry and religion can not be adequately explained in just a few pages. They would be wrong; the authors do an excellent job.
For those people who want to sound like a Jeopardy champion in public, this is the book. For those who would just like the basics on an esoteric subject of interest, this is the book.
A.D.
A.D., Saab Lofton, III Publishing, 1995
In the year 2030 A.D., America is run mostly by the White Aryan Resistance, with several Midwest ststes given to the Nation of Islam to run as they see fit. Set in Chicago, it's a land where music, films and books are forbidden, where the Fruit of Islam, a sort of internal secret police, constantly patrols the streets looking for anyone not acting properly Black Muslim-ish.
After being fired from his job as a rewriter of history, Elijah Isiah, a husband and father who never cared for "the system", meets the underground, a group of people who save what they can of late 20th century culture, and who must stay mobile or face death at the hands of the authorities. Elijah also learns that his real name is Fred Hampton Rush, and that, as a boy, he was left behind at the airport as his family fled during a mad exodus of people out of what is now called the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in North America.
Fred's growing rebellion catches up with him, and he is arrested for sedition. Expecting a death sentence, he is put into suspended animation as a medical experiment and not found for 380 years.
America has become a Libertarian Socialist Democracy where blacks and whites live together in harmony. Fred finds, to his shock, that Elisha, his son, was the person who led the fight to overthrow the old system and replace it with the new system. Fred is shown around 25th century Chicago by Huey Newton Rush, a direct descendant, who works in the practically extinct profession of peace officer. But all is not well in Utopia. The hatreds and fears of the past have not totally departed.
This is quite a thought-provoking book. A person could quibble with things like the political and philosophical speeches sometimes going on for too long. This book is not exactly easy to find in the local chain bookstore; that's a shame, because it's more than worth the search.
In the year 2030 A.D., America is run mostly by the White Aryan Resistance, with several Midwest ststes given to the Nation of Islam to run as they see fit. Set in Chicago, it's a land where music, films and books are forbidden, where the Fruit of Islam, a sort of internal secret police, constantly patrols the streets looking for anyone not acting properly Black Muslim-ish.
After being fired from his job as a rewriter of history, Elijah Isiah, a husband and father who never cared for "the system", meets the underground, a group of people who save what they can of late 20th century culture, and who must stay mobile or face death at the hands of the authorities. Elijah also learns that his real name is Fred Hampton Rush, and that, as a boy, he was left behind at the airport as his family fled during a mad exodus of people out of what is now called the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in North America.
Fred's growing rebellion catches up with him, and he is arrested for sedition. Expecting a death sentence, he is put into suspended animation as a medical experiment and not found for 380 years.
America has become a Libertarian Socialist Democracy where blacks and whites live together in harmony. Fred finds, to his shock, that Elisha, his son, was the person who led the fight to overthrow the old system and replace it with the new system. Fred is shown around 25th century Chicago by Huey Newton Rush, a direct descendant, who works in the practically extinct profession of peace officer. But all is not well in Utopia. The hatreds and fears of the past have not totally departed.
This is quite a thought-provoking book. A person could quibble with things like the political and philosophical speeches sometimes going on for too long. This book is not exactly easy to find in the local chain bookstore; that's a shame, because it's more than worth the search.
253: The Print Remix
253: The Print Remix, Geoff Ryman, St. Martin's Griffin, 1998
A London subway train consists of seven cars, with 36 seats each. If all seats are filled, with nobody standing, then each train holds 253 people (including the driver). This novel profiles the occupants of one such train during an average journey between two stops (approximately a seven-minute trip). Each description is a mini short story, and looks at what the person is wearing, and what they're thinking or feeling during the trip, and each story consists of exactly 253 words. Along with some helpful advertisements interspersed throughout, that's the book.
This is quite unlike any story I have ever read. In a way, it's very user friendly, because there's no having to remember what happened 50 or 100 pages ago. The reader can pick and choose which parts to read. For those looking for something completely different in their reading, check this out.
A London subway train consists of seven cars, with 36 seats each. If all seats are filled, with nobody standing, then each train holds 253 people (including the driver). This novel profiles the occupants of one such train during an average journey between two stops (approximately a seven-minute trip). Each description is a mini short story, and looks at what the person is wearing, and what they're thinking or feeling during the trip, and each story consists of exactly 253 words. Along with some helpful advertisements interspersed throughout, that's the book.
This is quite unlike any story I have ever read. In a way, it's very user friendly, because there's no having to remember what happened 50 or 100 pages ago. The reader can pick and choose which parts to read. For those looking for something completely different in their reading, check this out.
Censored 1998: The News That Didn't Make the News
Censored 1998: The News That Didn't Make the News, Peter Phillips and Project
Censored, Seven Stories Press, 1998
This is a yearly chronicle of news stories that never made it to the mainstream media. For regular consumers of mainstream news, one might think that little happened in 1997 aside from Marv Albert, O.J. Simpson, Tiger Woods and Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford. They would be very wrong.
Among the subjects covered in this book: personal care and cosmetic products may be carcinogenic; exposing the global surveillance system; evidence is mounting of the dangers of fluoridation - with little benefit for your teeth; toxins and environmental pollution are contributing to human aggression in society; profits before people delays release of a new AIDS drug; and the number 1 censored story of 1997: the Clinton Administration is aggressively promoting US arms sales worldwide.
Censored is a good one-word reason why few, or none, of these stories were seen on the TV news or in the newspaper. Most American media are owned by a dozen (or fewer) corporations, much more interested in profit margins than in telling the public what it needs to know.
This book also contains hundreds of names and addresses of alternative organizations that deal with these issues on a daily basis.
Terms like important, vital, highly recommended and must read all apply to this book. Multiple copies of Censored 1998 belong in every newsroom in America.
Censored, Seven Stories Press, 1998
This is a yearly chronicle of news stories that never made it to the mainstream media. For regular consumers of mainstream news, one might think that little happened in 1997 aside from Marv Albert, O.J. Simpson, Tiger Woods and Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford. They would be very wrong.
Among the subjects covered in this book: personal care and cosmetic products may be carcinogenic; exposing the global surveillance system; evidence is mounting of the dangers of fluoridation - with little benefit for your teeth; toxins and environmental pollution are contributing to human aggression in society; profits before people delays release of a new AIDS drug; and the number 1 censored story of 1997: the Clinton Administration is aggressively promoting US arms sales worldwide.
Censored is a good one-word reason why few, or none, of these stories were seen on the TV news or in the newspaper. Most American media are owned by a dozen (or fewer) corporations, much more interested in profit margins than in telling the public what it needs to know.
This book also contains hundreds of names and addresses of alternative organizations that deal with these issues on a daily basis.
Terms like important, vital, highly recommended and must read all apply to this book. Multiple copies of Censored 1998 belong in every newsroom in America.
Give Them Stones
Give Them Stones, Mary Beckett, Perennial Library (Harper and Row), 1987
Here is the story of an average woman growing up in Ireland. Martha Murtagh is sent, as an adolescent, to live with a couple of aunts in the country, to escape the possible horrors of living in World War II era Belfast. She is grudgingly accepted by the aunts, having to do all the chores and sleep on a camp bed in the kitchen.
The war ends, but Martha is forced to stay in the country, because her family has yet to send for her. This leads to the thought that maybe she has been abandoned. A few years later, Martha marries a man named Dermot and moves into a small row house in Belfast. Four sons follow quickly. Dermot works occasionally, so money is always a problem, but Martha learns how to bake bread, and makes some money selling it to the neighborhood women.
Always in the background is the fear and uncertainty associated with the growing Catholic/Protestant divide that has characterized life in 20th century northern Ireland.
This is a short novel, but it's mighty. Beckett does an excellent job throughout, from the descriptions of family life in Belfast to the lyrical style to the the tale of the strength of one person amidst an ocean of despair. Here is a graceful and well-done story.
Here is the story of an average woman growing up in Ireland. Martha Murtagh is sent, as an adolescent, to live with a couple of aunts in the country, to escape the possible horrors of living in World War II era Belfast. She is grudgingly accepted by the aunts, having to do all the chores and sleep on a camp bed in the kitchen.
The war ends, but Martha is forced to stay in the country, because her family has yet to send for her. This leads to the thought that maybe she has been abandoned. A few years later, Martha marries a man named Dermot and moves into a small row house in Belfast. Four sons follow quickly. Dermot works occasionally, so money is always a problem, but Martha learns how to bake bread, and makes some money selling it to the neighborhood women.
Always in the background is the fear and uncertainty associated with the growing Catholic/Protestant divide that has characterized life in 20th century northern Ireland.
This is a short novel, but it's mighty. Beckett does an excellent job throughout, from the descriptions of family life in Belfast to the lyrical style to the the tale of the strength of one person amidst an ocean of despair. Here is a graceful and well-done story.
Love Ruins Everything
Love Ruins Everything, Karen X. Tulchinsky, Press Gang Publishers, 1998
Nomi Rabinovitch is a Jewish lesbian from Toronto currently living and working in San Francisco. One day, Sapphire, her lover for the previous three years, breaks up with her, and Nomi is crushed. She crashes for a while on a friend's couch, and has a few dates which don't turn into anything. Sapphire suddenly wants to get back together, then, just as suddenly, doesn't want to get back together. While Nomi ponders her future, her mother, still living in Toronto, tells Nomi that she is remarrying and that Nomi's attendance at the wedding is expected. She meets cousin Henry, also gay and suffering from AIDS, victim of a gay-bashing attack.
Henry and Roger, his lover, have met a man named Albert from New York who has spent years researching the theory that AIDS was created by the US government and given to gays through bogus hepatitis vaccinations. Albert thinks They are trying to silence him, leading to the thought Henry's attack may not have been simply random violence.
Meanwhile, Nomi runs into, and falls for, an old friend named Julie Sakamoto. When Nomi was younger, she had a major crush on Julie, and finds, to her delight, that the feeling is very mutual.
Don't skip this because of the subject matter. Enjoy it because it's emotional, real, funny and a wonderful piece of writing about life in the 90s.
Nomi Rabinovitch is a Jewish lesbian from Toronto currently living and working in San Francisco. One day, Sapphire, her lover for the previous three years, breaks up with her, and Nomi is crushed. She crashes for a while on a friend's couch, and has a few dates which don't turn into anything. Sapphire suddenly wants to get back together, then, just as suddenly, doesn't want to get back together. While Nomi ponders her future, her mother, still living in Toronto, tells Nomi that she is remarrying and that Nomi's attendance at the wedding is expected. She meets cousin Henry, also gay and suffering from AIDS, victim of a gay-bashing attack.
Henry and Roger, his lover, have met a man named Albert from New York who has spent years researching the theory that AIDS was created by the US government and given to gays through bogus hepatitis vaccinations. Albert thinks They are trying to silence him, leading to the thought Henry's attack may not have been simply random violence.
Meanwhile, Nomi runs into, and falls for, an old friend named Julie Sakamoto. When Nomi was younger, she had a major crush on Julie, and finds, to her delight, that the feeling is very mutual.
Don't skip this because of the subject matter. Enjoy it because it's emotional, real, funny and a wonderful piece of writing about life in the 90s.
The Games of Night
The Games of Night, Stig Dagerman, Quartet Books, 1947
Stig Dagerman was considered the most talented young writer in late 1940s Swedish literature. His career was brief, but mighty, producing four novels, several plays, a book of travel reportage, and this collection of short stories. His career ended by suicide in 1954, after suffering a long-term case of something like writer's block.
These stories generally take place in rural Sweden. One story is about a taciturn forester having an affair with the schoolmaster's wife. Another story is about children at a bathing resort being pushed to do dangerous things, like diving off cliffs, to catch coins thrown by tourists. A boy and his mother surprise his grandfather by recording a poem written by the boy onto a gramaphone record; the grandfather is not impressed. God visits Isaac Newton. A man with a reputation (deserved) for being a drunkard comes home for his father's funeral, and resents the family's expectations that he'll embarass everyone by being drunk at the funeral.
Like his career, Dagerman's writing is short and to the point. These tales have a darker sort of feel to them, like Strindberg or Kafka (to which they have been compared). If you can find this book, definitely check it out.
Stig Dagerman was considered the most talented young writer in late 1940s Swedish literature. His career was brief, but mighty, producing four novels, several plays, a book of travel reportage, and this collection of short stories. His career ended by suicide in 1954, after suffering a long-term case of something like writer's block.
These stories generally take place in rural Sweden. One story is about a taciturn forester having an affair with the schoolmaster's wife. Another story is about children at a bathing resort being pushed to do dangerous things, like diving off cliffs, to catch coins thrown by tourists. A boy and his mother surprise his grandfather by recording a poem written by the boy onto a gramaphone record; the grandfather is not impressed. God visits Isaac Newton. A man with a reputation (deserved) for being a drunkard comes home for his father's funeral, and resents the family's expectations that he'll embarass everyone by being drunk at the funeral.
Like his career, Dagerman's writing is short and to the point. These tales have a darker sort of feel to them, like Strindberg or Kafka (to which they have been compared). If you can find this book, definitely check it out.
The Aztec Love God
The Aztec Love God, Tony Diaz, Fiction Collective 2, 1998
This is the first-person story of Tiofilo Duarte, a high school student who has mastered the art of assumed identities and getting fake IDs. He is also something of a local comedy club veteran (despite the fact that he is underage) as The Aztec Love God.
One day, he meets an older white comedian named Jester who wants Tio to join his act. The only problem is that Tio would have to perform Latino stereotypes. He gets involved with Jester's girlfriend, a stripper named Farah. At her place of employment, Tio runs into his high school principal, engaging her services. The relationship between the two men could be considered one of mutual loathing.
Did I mention that Tio's father spent what would have been Tio's college tuition money to buy and live in the actual house used in the show Leave It To Beaver?
Tio also has a girlfriend named Rosie who pushes him very hard toward marriage, even before he graduates from high school (if he graduates), to the point of putting a ring on lay-away and telling both sets of parents they are getting married very soon.
This is an excellent, even wonderful, book by a name to remember. I was very impressed.
This is the first-person story of Tiofilo Duarte, a high school student who has mastered the art of assumed identities and getting fake IDs. He is also something of a local comedy club veteran (despite the fact that he is underage) as The Aztec Love God.
One day, he meets an older white comedian named Jester who wants Tio to join his act. The only problem is that Tio would have to perform Latino stereotypes. He gets involved with Jester's girlfriend, a stripper named Farah. At her place of employment, Tio runs into his high school principal, engaging her services. The relationship between the two men could be considered one of mutual loathing.
Did I mention that Tio's father spent what would have been Tio's college tuition money to buy and live in the actual house used in the show Leave It To Beaver?
Tio also has a girlfriend named Rosie who pushes him very hard toward marriage, even before he graduates from high school (if he graduates), to the point of putting a ring on lay-away and telling both sets of parents they are getting married very soon.
This is an excellent, even wonderful, book by a name to remember. I was very impressed.
The Common Good
The Common Good, Noam Chomsky, Odonian Press, 1998
Here is a new group of interviews with "arguably the most important intellectual alive" (New York Times) conducted by David Barsamian. The subjects run the gamut, from the aerospace industry to the Zapatistas.
According to Chomsky, America is a business-run, huckster society whose primary value is deceit. A major purpose of military procurement and production is to subsidize private corporations. In other parts of the world, politicians don't have to fight over who is tougher on crime, they just figure out what to do about it. German industry has been treating America like a Third World country, with our low wages, poor benefits and states competing against each other to bribe foreign firms to relocate. The US has publicly agreed with the position that the annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel was illegal, but privately has given Israel permission to do what it wants.
For most people, the words "new Noam Chomsky" are enough to get them to buy this book. For everyone else, this book is short, easy to read, fascinating, and highly recommended.
Here is a new group of interviews with "arguably the most important intellectual alive" (New York Times) conducted by David Barsamian. The subjects run the gamut, from the aerospace industry to the Zapatistas.
According to Chomsky, America is a business-run, huckster society whose primary value is deceit. A major purpose of military procurement and production is to subsidize private corporations. In other parts of the world, politicians don't have to fight over who is tougher on crime, they just figure out what to do about it. German industry has been treating America like a Third World country, with our low wages, poor benefits and states competing against each other to bribe foreign firms to relocate. The US has publicly agreed with the position that the annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel was illegal, but privately has given Israel permission to do what it wants.
For most people, the words "new Noam Chomsky" are enough to get them to buy this book. For everyone else, this book is short, easy to read, fascinating, and highly recommended.
Sister to the Rain
Sister to the Rain, Melisa Michaels, ROC Books, 1998
Rosie Lavine and her partner, Shannon, are a pair of human private investigators. They are hired by an elf named Finandiel to discover the source of an unknown something troubling a mixed-race artist's colony in the California hills. It seems like a simple case: find out who, or what, is scaring the children, stealing bits and pieces from the other residents, and playing elven music before dawn.
Rosie, who has had dealings with elves in the past, moves into the colony, and starts nosing around. She finds a lot of possibilities, but nothing solid. The stakes are raised when one of the human residents is killed under strange cirumstances. Gary, the teenage son of one of the artists, is a thoroughly dislikable person who rides a loud dirt bike through the forest. Elves have more sensitive hearing than humans, so the constant noise could have driven one of the elves to murder.
The stakes are raised even higher when Shannon, in the colony to assist Rosie, is attacked in the forest late at night, and nearly joins Gary. Rosie also gets the idea that the disturbances may have something to do with internal elf politics back home.
This story is good, and quite readable, but, ultimately, I found it to be nothing special. I can give a rating of only pretty good.
Rosie Lavine and her partner, Shannon, are a pair of human private investigators. They are hired by an elf named Finandiel to discover the source of an unknown something troubling a mixed-race artist's colony in the California hills. It seems like a simple case: find out who, or what, is scaring the children, stealing bits and pieces from the other residents, and playing elven music before dawn.
Rosie, who has had dealings with elves in the past, moves into the colony, and starts nosing around. She finds a lot of possibilities, but nothing solid. The stakes are raised when one of the human residents is killed under strange cirumstances. Gary, the teenage son of one of the artists, is a thoroughly dislikable person who rides a loud dirt bike through the forest. Elves have more sensitive hearing than humans, so the constant noise could have driven one of the elves to murder.
The stakes are raised even higher when Shannon, in the colony to assist Rosie, is attacked in the forest late at night, and nearly joins Gary. Rosie also gets the idea that the disturbances may have something to do with internal elf politics back home.
This story is good, and quite readable, but, ultimately, I found it to be nothing special. I can give a rating of only pretty good.
Breast Cancer: Poisons, Profits and Prevention
Breast Cancer: Poisons, Profits and Prevention, Liane Clorfene-Casten, Common Courage Press, 1996
Breast cancer has recently been "discovered" as a major health risk, for which something must be done. This book provides a lot of facts to counteract the mountains of general nonsense on this issue.
The author asserts, with lots of scientific backup, that up to 70% of breast cancers are caused by PCBs and other toxic chemicals that are in our air, water and soil. The major cancer charities focus their attention much more on treatment than prevention. Treatment is important, but it involves painful treatments, which sometimes do more harm than good. They require expensive, high profit drugs usually created by the same coropration that produce the chemicals that caused the cancer.
Government agencies, like the FDA, seem to have forgotten that their function is to regulate industry, not coddle it. Bureaucrats are looking for a cushy job after they leave government, so the last thing they are going to do is make life difficult for the providers of such jobs, even if the law requires it. If you're a major corporation, the FDA will go out of its way to make life easy, but if you're a little guy selling a drug or process that is unpatentable, prepare to be treated, by the same FDA, like you're handing out heroin pills to children.
The author also gives a very detailed answer to the question What Can I Do? The first answer is continued political pressure to shut down the polluters and to get government agencies to actually regulate the major corporations. The second answer is an improved diet; this book includes a special section on foods and vitamins that can help in the fight against cancer, and those that should be avoided.
This is an amazing book. It is full of facts, not hype, and is clearly written without going overboard. This is a more-than-must-read, not just for cancer patients, but for everyone.
Breast cancer has recently been "discovered" as a major health risk, for which something must be done. This book provides a lot of facts to counteract the mountains of general nonsense on this issue.
The author asserts, with lots of scientific backup, that up to 70% of breast cancers are caused by PCBs and other toxic chemicals that are in our air, water and soil. The major cancer charities focus their attention much more on treatment than prevention. Treatment is important, but it involves painful treatments, which sometimes do more harm than good. They require expensive, high profit drugs usually created by the same coropration that produce the chemicals that caused the cancer.
Government agencies, like the FDA, seem to have forgotten that their function is to regulate industry, not coddle it. Bureaucrats are looking for a cushy job after they leave government, so the last thing they are going to do is make life difficult for the providers of such jobs, even if the law requires it. If you're a major corporation, the FDA will go out of its way to make life easy, but if you're a little guy selling a drug or process that is unpatentable, prepare to be treated, by the same FDA, like you're handing out heroin pills to children.
The author also gives a very detailed answer to the question What Can I Do? The first answer is continued political pressure to shut down the polluters and to get government agencies to actually regulate the major corporations. The second answer is an improved diet; this book includes a special section on foods and vitamins that can help in the fight against cancer, and those that should be avoided.
This is an amazing book. It is full of facts, not hype, and is clearly written without going overboard. This is a more-than-must-read, not just for cancer patients, but for everyone.
Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir
Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir, Michael and Denise Donnelly, Praeger, 1998
Here is the story of an average kid from suburban Connecticut who joins the Air Force right out of high school, wanting to be a fighter pilot. He goes through pilot training, rises through the ranks, and eventually becomes an F-16 pilot, a real Top Gun. Married and with a daughter, everything seems to be going his way. One day, his unit is sent to the Gulf to assist in Operation Desert Storm against Saddam Hussein.
While the American public saw a sanitized, video game version of the war, the authors show the war from the inside: flying in occasionally horrible conditions, the bombs that didn't work properly, the colleagues who didn't return at the end of the day.
Some years later, when Michael is the teacher for new fighter pilots, he contracts this strange weakness in his whole body that forces him out of the air, and eventually into a wheelchair. He learns later that he is one of thousands and thousands of Gulf War veterans who are sick at rates much higher than average. The military doctors tell Donnelly that his chronic, and worsening, weakness is due to stress and get really testy at the mere mention of the words Gulf War Syndrome. (One wonders how illnesses as diverse as lupus, asthma, cancer and ALS, Donnelly's eventual diagnosis, could all be due to stress, as the Pentagon claims, despite the fact that this was, relatively speaking, an unstressful war.) The Pentagon claims that the thousands of chemical weapons alarms that sounded during the war were all false
alarms.
Forced to retire from the military, Donnelly and his family traveled the world of alternative medicine, looking for any ray of hope. Some of the doctors seemed honest and sincere, and willing to try. Others could generously be described as quacks. Unfortunately, nothing helped.
Today, Donnelly is confined to a wheelchair. He and his family, now including a son, are among the thousands of Gulf War veteran families still looking for answers from a Pentagon in no hurry to give them.
The Donnellys do a wonderful job with this book. Read the official memoirs and histories of the Gulf War, then read Falcon's Cry, the Real history of the Gulf War.
Here is the story of an average kid from suburban Connecticut who joins the Air Force right out of high school, wanting to be a fighter pilot. He goes through pilot training, rises through the ranks, and eventually becomes an F-16 pilot, a real Top Gun. Married and with a daughter, everything seems to be going his way. One day, his unit is sent to the Gulf to assist in Operation Desert Storm against Saddam Hussein.
While the American public saw a sanitized, video game version of the war, the authors show the war from the inside: flying in occasionally horrible conditions, the bombs that didn't work properly, the colleagues who didn't return at the end of the day.
Some years later, when Michael is the teacher for new fighter pilots, he contracts this strange weakness in his whole body that forces him out of the air, and eventually into a wheelchair. He learns later that he is one of thousands and thousands of Gulf War veterans who are sick at rates much higher than average. The military doctors tell Donnelly that his chronic, and worsening, weakness is due to stress and get really testy at the mere mention of the words Gulf War Syndrome. (One wonders how illnesses as diverse as lupus, asthma, cancer and ALS, Donnelly's eventual diagnosis, could all be due to stress, as the Pentagon claims, despite the fact that this was, relatively speaking, an unstressful war.) The Pentagon claims that the thousands of chemical weapons alarms that sounded during the war were all false
alarms.
Forced to retire from the military, Donnelly and his family traveled the world of alternative medicine, looking for any ray of hope. Some of the doctors seemed honest and sincere, and willing to try. Others could generously be described as quacks. Unfortunately, nothing helped.
Today, Donnelly is confined to a wheelchair. He and his family, now including a son, are among the thousands of Gulf War veteran families still looking for answers from a Pentagon in no hurry to give them.
The Donnellys do a wonderful job with this book. Read the official memoirs and histories of the Gulf War, then read Falcon's Cry, the Real history of the Gulf War.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
War of the Gods
War of the Gods, Poul Anderson, Tor Books, 1997
This is not just a fantasy novel, it's a semi-autobiographical novel about a Danish king named Hadding who actually lived in the 12th century, and about whom very little is known.
In this book, Hadding's father, also a king, is killed by a rival, so the infant Hadding is sent away to be raised by a family of giants. He learns how to survive in the forest, and keeps up on what's happening in what was his father's kingdom. As a teenager, he leaves to begin his quest for revenge and the return of his father's kingdom. He makes quite a name for himself and eventually regains the throne. Mostly, there is peace and friendship under King Hadding, through conquest or marriage. In a neighboring kingdom, the sons of the king that Hadding killed in battle, who killed Hadding's father, will go to nearly any lengths to get him, once and for all.
This novel gives the impression of having actually been written in the 12th century, recently discovered and translated, and mis-packaged as Fiction instead of History. This is how swashbuckling fantasy is supposed to be done. I loved it.
This is not just a fantasy novel, it's a semi-autobiographical novel about a Danish king named Hadding who actually lived in the 12th century, and about whom very little is known.
In this book, Hadding's father, also a king, is killed by a rival, so the infant Hadding is sent away to be raised by a family of giants. He learns how to survive in the forest, and keeps up on what's happening in what was his father's kingdom. As a teenager, he leaves to begin his quest for revenge and the return of his father's kingdom. He makes quite a name for himself and eventually regains the throne. Mostly, there is peace and friendship under King Hadding, through conquest or marriage. In a neighboring kingdom, the sons of the king that Hadding killed in battle, who killed Hadding's father, will go to nearly any lengths to get him, once and for all.
This novel gives the impression of having actually been written in the 12th century, recently discovered and translated, and mis-packaged as Fiction instead of History. This is how swashbuckling fantasy is supposed to be done. I loved it.
Food for Beginners
Food for Beginners, Susan George, Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc, 1982
Ever wonder why over 800 million people, mostly in the Third World, live under the constant threat of famine, while in America crops are left to rot because the storage bins are full? This book gives the answers.
During the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800's, two million people died of starvation, but Ireland actually had twice as much food as was needed to feed its population. Irish peasants were told by the landlord that Paying Rent Comes First (even before feeding their children). The landlords sent the crops overseas and invested almost nothing in the land. The practice still goes on today all over the world (it's called "cash crops").
International aid programs simply push population control (and dump unsafe contraceptives) on the Third World, instead of changing the conditions that require them to have many children.
The US Senate has been told that the US health budget could be cut by about $70 billion if people simply improved their diets.
It's been said that for people who want to become politically active, but don't know where to start, food is the perfect place to start, because it touches everyone. Reading this book is an excellent place to begin that activism.
Ever wonder why over 800 million people, mostly in the Third World, live under the constant threat of famine, while in America crops are left to rot because the storage bins are full? This book gives the answers.
During the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800's, two million people died of starvation, but Ireland actually had twice as much food as was needed to feed its population. Irish peasants were told by the landlord that Paying Rent Comes First (even before feeding their children). The landlords sent the crops overseas and invested almost nothing in the land. The practice still goes on today all over the world (it's called "cash crops").
International aid programs simply push population control (and dump unsafe contraceptives) on the Third World, instead of changing the conditions that require them to have many children.
The US Senate has been told that the US health budget could be cut by about $70 billion if people simply improved their diets.
It's been said that for people who want to become politically active, but don't know where to start, food is the perfect place to start, because it touches everyone. Reading this book is an excellent place to begin that activism.
Mir
Mir, Alexander Besher, Simon and Schuster, 1998
This novel takes place in the middle of the next century. Earth has become a world where millions of people live in virtual reality full time.It's also a place where the Cold War has returned, in cyberspace, pitting different operating systems against each other. It comes complete with concentration camps and drugs that can, continually and permanently, recreate the despair of the gulag inside a person's head.
Someone on the Net has created a deadly virus called Mir, which has moved into human reality. It's carried by sentient tattoos, which can move around a person's body and carry out tasks on the Net, the latest thing among the cyber-hip. Just before its host is gunned down in the south of France, the tattoo leaps onto a woman named Nelly, who, unknowingly, takes it to San Francisco.
She is followed by a bunch of adversaries, including Chinese, Japanese and the Russian Mafia, all of whom want Mir very much.
This turns into a futuristic thriller combined with science fiction and Besher handles each half really well. It's cyberpunk enough for anyone, and there's a good story with real characters, too. It is well worth reading.
This novel takes place in the middle of the next century. Earth has become a world where millions of people live in virtual reality full time.It's also a place where the Cold War has returned, in cyberspace, pitting different operating systems against each other. It comes complete with concentration camps and drugs that can, continually and permanently, recreate the despair of the gulag inside a person's head.
Someone on the Net has created a deadly virus called Mir, which has moved into human reality. It's carried by sentient tattoos, which can move around a person's body and carry out tasks on the Net, the latest thing among the cyber-hip. Just before its host is gunned down in the south of France, the tattoo leaps onto a woman named Nelly, who, unknowingly, takes it to San Francisco.
She is followed by a bunch of adversaries, including Chinese, Japanese and the Russian Mafia, all of whom want Mir very much.
This turns into a futuristic thriller combined with science fiction and Besher handles each half really well. It's cyberpunk enough for anyone, and there's a good story with real characters, too. It is well worth reading.
One World, Ready or Not
One World, Ready or Not, William Greider, Simon and Schuster, 1997
Greider takes on a daunting task in this book: explaining the global economy. He talks about the huge global oversupply of production capacity, forcing companies on a never-ending search for more markets for their goods. He explores the downward pressure on wages, causing companies to move from country to country looking for the lowest wages to pay their workers. On the subject of airplanes, for example, China, the world's largest single market, is requiring a piece of the technology to make airplanes as a condition of any airplane purchase; the same sort of thing is happening in other industries. When a corporation moves into a new country, government suppression of labor unions, violently, if necessary, is usually part of the bargain.
The author also explores a whole host of other issues: currency speculation, the bond market, government deficits, globalization from the worker's point of view among them.
Greider does a great job explaining concepts that may be unfamiliar to most Americans. This is not an easy book to read, but in these days of global economic turmoil, this book is required reading.
Greider takes on a daunting task in this book: explaining the global economy. He talks about the huge global oversupply of production capacity, forcing companies on a never-ending search for more markets for their goods. He explores the downward pressure on wages, causing companies to move from country to country looking for the lowest wages to pay their workers. On the subject of airplanes, for example, China, the world's largest single market, is requiring a piece of the technology to make airplanes as a condition of any airplane purchase; the same sort of thing is happening in other industries. When a corporation moves into a new country, government suppression of labor unions, violently, if necessary, is usually part of the bargain.
The author also explores a whole host of other issues: currency speculation, the bond market, government deficits, globalization from the worker's point of view among them.
Greider does a great job explaining concepts that may be unfamiliar to most Americans. This is not an easy book to read, but in these days of global economic turmoil, this book is required reading.
The Award
The Award, Lydie Salvayre, Four Walls Eight Windows Press, 1997
This novel looks at a necessary evil of the corporate world, the awards ceremony. Honoring certain employees for meritorious service is the sort of stage-managed event that could take place anywhere in the world, but this ceremony takes place at a French car plant. It's the sort of place whose owners seem to have been inspired by the book "1984"; switching from dormitories for bachelors to individual rooms of 18 square feet floor space with furniture bolted to the floor; fatigue is purely imaginary; using electrical stimulation to get rid of useless and superfluous gestures, etc.
The speeches given by each honoree are like mini short stories, and they show that life at the plant is not as wonderful as the owners think. They talk of broken marriages, sexual harassment and domestic abuse. The widow of one honoree tells how the particles from his 20 years as a grinder, plus the lubricant used, turned his skin black. The whole time, there is some undescribed, but spreading, agitation going on throughout the whole plant.
This is an excellent satire of big business. Everyone can identify with this book in one way or another. Well worth reading for managers and employees.
This novel looks at a necessary evil of the corporate world, the awards ceremony. Honoring certain employees for meritorious service is the sort of stage-managed event that could take place anywhere in the world, but this ceremony takes place at a French car plant. It's the sort of place whose owners seem to have been inspired by the book "1984"; switching from dormitories for bachelors to individual rooms of 18 square feet floor space with furniture bolted to the floor; fatigue is purely imaginary; using electrical stimulation to get rid of useless and superfluous gestures, etc.
The speeches given by each honoree are like mini short stories, and they show that life at the plant is not as wonderful as the owners think. They talk of broken marriages, sexual harassment and domestic abuse. The widow of one honoree tells how the particles from his 20 years as a grinder, plus the lubricant used, turned his skin black. The whole time, there is some undescribed, but spreading, agitation going on throughout the whole plant.
This is an excellent satire of big business. Everyone can identify with this book in one way or another. Well worth reading for managers and employees.
Clay's Ark
Clay's Ark, Octavia Butler, St. Martin's Press, 1984
Set in 21st century California after a general societal collapse, this is the story of physician Blake Maslin and his two teenage daughters, Keira and Rane. They are peacefully kidnapped (if that's possible) by an emaciated group of strangers. Taken to an isolated mountain retreat, they meet Asa Elias Doyle, the last survivor of a failed mission to Proxima Centauri. He came back with a very contagious alien disease that compels the sufferer to spread it to others. While the person looks sick, they have superhuman strength and a very heightened sense of smell. It also causes extreme mutations in unborn children.
The first thought on the minds of Blake and his daughters is escape and getting to a hospital. According to Asa, that is not possible, because there is no cure and the compulsion to spread the disease will take over. Also, unless they are very lucky, they can count on being caught by one of the roving bands of bloodthirsty marauders.
Butler is a very underrated, and very, very good writer. This is a short novel with only a few characters, but it packs a big punch. The author does a terrific job with this one.
Set in 21st century California after a general societal collapse, this is the story of physician Blake Maslin and his two teenage daughters, Keira and Rane. They are peacefully kidnapped (if that's possible) by an emaciated group of strangers. Taken to an isolated mountain retreat, they meet Asa Elias Doyle, the last survivor of a failed mission to Proxima Centauri. He came back with a very contagious alien disease that compels the sufferer to spread it to others. While the person looks sick, they have superhuman strength and a very heightened sense of smell. It also causes extreme mutations in unborn children.
The first thought on the minds of Blake and his daughters is escape and getting to a hospital. According to Asa, that is not possible, because there is no cure and the compulsion to spread the disease will take over. Also, unless they are very lucky, they can count on being caught by one of the roving bands of bloodthirsty marauders.
Butler is a very underrated, and very, very good writer. This is a short novel with only a few characters, but it packs a big punch. The author does a terrific job with this one.
Dark Alliance
Dark Alliance, Gary Webb, Seven Stories Press, 1998
Here is the expanded book version of the San Jose Mercury News series that said the US government was involved in selling cocaine by the ton in 1980s Los Angeles and sending the profits to the Nicaraguan Contras. The story sent the mainstream media into paroxysms of consternation, not that the story might actually be true, but that anyone would suggest that an agency of the federal government would actually do such a dastardly thing.
Webb does a fine job taking the reader through the whole process, from the Contras to Central American drug running to an "overnight" drug epidemic that was predicted as early as the 1970s. The Contras started as part of President Somoza's hated and feared National Guard (not exactly President Reagan's "moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers"). Various agencies of the US government, including the FBI, DEA and Justice Department did little or nothing to interfere with the drug network, despite plenty of evidence of its existence.
Included is the story of how, when the story first went on the paper's web site, everything was wonderful, with the site recording up to 1 million hits every day. But, when the government and mainstream media began to turn up the heat, the Mercury News backtracked and eventually repudiated the whole story.
After reading this book, one might wonder how the CIA could justify an assertion of No Evidence of Drug Running by its employees. From 1982 to 1995, there was a gentleman's aggreement where the CIA was not required to tell the Justice Department about drug running by its employees.
This book is extremely highly recommended.
Here is the expanded book version of the San Jose Mercury News series that said the US government was involved in selling cocaine by the ton in 1980s Los Angeles and sending the profits to the Nicaraguan Contras. The story sent the mainstream media into paroxysms of consternation, not that the story might actually be true, but that anyone would suggest that an agency of the federal government would actually do such a dastardly thing.
Webb does a fine job taking the reader through the whole process, from the Contras to Central American drug running to an "overnight" drug epidemic that was predicted as early as the 1970s. The Contras started as part of President Somoza's hated and feared National Guard (not exactly President Reagan's "moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers"). Various agencies of the US government, including the FBI, DEA and Justice Department did little or nothing to interfere with the drug network, despite plenty of evidence of its existence.
Included is the story of how, when the story first went on the paper's web site, everything was wonderful, with the site recording up to 1 million hits every day. But, when the government and mainstream media began to turn up the heat, the Mercury News backtracked and eventually repudiated the whole story.
After reading this book, one might wonder how the CIA could justify an assertion of No Evidence of Drug Running by its employees. From 1982 to 1995, there was a gentleman's aggreement where the CIA was not required to tell the Justice Department about drug running by its employees.
This book is extremely highly recommended.
Dog People
Dog People, Cris Mazza, Coffee House Press, 1997
This is anovel about two married couples who have lost the ability to communicate with each other, except through their dogs.
Scott, a rather wimpy caterer, sees that his crumbling marriage to Suzanne is near the point of collapse. He falls for Fanny, who trained as an industrial designer but never really went anywhere with it, one of his part-time waitresses. She is married to Morgan, a whiny dancer in his mid-30s who is obsessed with Renee, a lesbian member of the same dance company as Morgan, a person who is determined to get what she wants, no matter what. What started as training their dogs together in the park turns into an affair between Fanny and Scott. Also, the dogs in this story are not Lassie. They're the type that attack and bite.
This certainly is an uncompromising look at people who each fit the definition of idiot. One also learns a lot about the breeding and training of dogs. Mazza says a lot about the similarities between members of the animal and human kingdoms. Very much worth reading.
This is anovel about two married couples who have lost the ability to communicate with each other, except through their dogs.
Scott, a rather wimpy caterer, sees that his crumbling marriage to Suzanne is near the point of collapse. He falls for Fanny, who trained as an industrial designer but never really went anywhere with it, one of his part-time waitresses. She is married to Morgan, a whiny dancer in his mid-30s who is obsessed with Renee, a lesbian member of the same dance company as Morgan, a person who is determined to get what she wants, no matter what. What started as training their dogs together in the park turns into an affair between Fanny and Scott. Also, the dogs in this story are not Lassie. They're the type that attack and bite.
This certainly is an uncompromising look at people who each fit the definition of idiot. One also learns a lot about the breeding and training of dogs. Mazza says a lot about the similarities between members of the animal and human kingdoms. Very much worth reading.
The Last American
The Last American, J.A. Mitchell, Frederick A. Stokes and Brother, 1889
About a thousand years from now, an archaeological expedition travels by ship from Persia (now Iran) to a strange, almost mythical land called Mehrika. All of its inhabitants died suddenly in the last half of the twentieth century through some undefined, but severe, climate change.
Any contributions Mehrikans might have made to art, science or literature have been lost. The expedition arrives in New York City in the early summer, because much is made of the stifling heat and humidity. It is known that in Mehrika the people's chief passion was to buy and sell. The upper class was very fond of displaying its wealth. Huge fortunes dominated all things, even law and government. Vast sheets of paper were printed every day full of crimes, the more revolting the better. In dealings with other lands, Mehrikans wrote laws to benefit themselves. (Sound vaguely familiar?)
The expedition continues on to Washington, where a live Mehrikan is found. Unfortunately, things ultimately come to a sad end.
Mitchell makes some very good points about late 20th century America. If you can find this book, it's short, very easy to read, and quite thought provoking. (The publication date above is not a misprint; it really was published in 1889.)
About a thousand years from now, an archaeological expedition travels by ship from Persia (now Iran) to a strange, almost mythical land called Mehrika. All of its inhabitants died suddenly in the last half of the twentieth century through some undefined, but severe, climate change.
Any contributions Mehrikans might have made to art, science or literature have been lost. The expedition arrives in New York City in the early summer, because much is made of the stifling heat and humidity. It is known that in Mehrika the people's chief passion was to buy and sell. The upper class was very fond of displaying its wealth. Huge fortunes dominated all things, even law and government. Vast sheets of paper were printed every day full of crimes, the more revolting the better. In dealings with other lands, Mehrikans wrote laws to benefit themselves. (Sound vaguely familiar?)
The expedition continues on to Washington, where a live Mehrikan is found. Unfortunately, things ultimately come to a sad end.
Mitchell makes some very good points about late 20th century America. If you can find this book, it's short, very easy to read, and quite thought provoking. (The publication date above is not a misprint; it really was published in 1889.)
Evolution's Shore
Evolution's Shore, Ian McDonald, Bantam Spectra, 1995
This novel takes place in near-future East Africa, near Mount Kilimanjaro. A meteor strike has unleashed an infestation of alien vegetation that resists all human attempts to stop it. It is always growing, and anything it encounters that is not organic, like plastic or metal, is transformed almost instantly. Some people choose to live inside the infestation, called the Chaga, creating all sorts of weird societies, while others leave the Chaga genetically transformed.
For Gaby McAslan, a young TV reporter from Ireland, and her SkyNet news team, the question is: Is this an alien invasion, or does this signal the next stage in human evolution? Along the way, she has to negotiate a torturous UN bureaucracy that wants everything their own way. Never far away, physically, or in Gaby's thoughts, is the ever-expanding Chaga.
I really loved this book. It's very much grounded in reality, and McDonald does a great job of putting the reader in the middle of the story. Brilliant is not too strong a word for this book.
This novel takes place in near-future East Africa, near Mount Kilimanjaro. A meteor strike has unleashed an infestation of alien vegetation that resists all human attempts to stop it. It is always growing, and anything it encounters that is not organic, like plastic or metal, is transformed almost instantly. Some people choose to live inside the infestation, called the Chaga, creating all sorts of weird societies, while others leave the Chaga genetically transformed.
For Gaby McAslan, a young TV reporter from Ireland, and her SkyNet news team, the question is: Is this an alien invasion, or does this signal the next stage in human evolution? Along the way, she has to negotiate a torturous UN bureaucracy that wants everything their own way. Never far away, physically, or in Gaby's thoughts, is the ever-expanding Chaga.
I really loved this book. It's very much grounded in reality, and McDonald does a great job of putting the reader in the middle of the story. Brilliant is not too strong a word for this book.
The White Hart
The White Hart, Nancy Springer, Pocket Books, 1979
Ellid, daughter of Pryce Dacaerin, the most powerful lord in the land, is being held prisoner by Marc of Myrdon, who wants Dacaerin's title. One night, Ellid is freed by Bevan, a moon goddess reared by the Immortals. He takes her to a place of power called Eburacon to recover from her ordeal. She witnesses his ability to talk to animals and create light with his hands. Ellid also discovers his magical link with a White Hart, a majestic male deer. By the time she recovers enough to return home, they are in love.
But, things are not that easy. This is a time of torment upon the land, for an ancient evil has risen, an evil that can reanimate formerly dead people and send them against former comrades. The only hope seems to be Bevan and his strange abilities.
This novel does, really well, what a fantasy novel is supposed to do. The story might be a little simple, but it's a solid, well-done, you-won't-go-wrong sort of story.
Ellid, daughter of Pryce Dacaerin, the most powerful lord in the land, is being held prisoner by Marc of Myrdon, who wants Dacaerin's title. One night, Ellid is freed by Bevan, a moon goddess reared by the Immortals. He takes her to a place of power called Eburacon to recover from her ordeal. She witnesses his ability to talk to animals and create light with his hands. Ellid also discovers his magical link with a White Hart, a majestic male deer. By the time she recovers enough to return home, they are in love.
But, things are not that easy. This is a time of torment upon the land, for an ancient evil has risen, an evil that can reanimate formerly dead people and send them against former comrades. The only hope seems to be Bevan and his strange abilities.
This novel does, really well, what a fantasy novel is supposed to do. The story might be a little simple, but it's a solid, well-done, you-won't-go-wrong sort of story.
A Spark to the Past
A Spark to the Past, Cynthia Wall, Dimi Press, 1998
This is a young adult novel about Kim and Marc, two present-day Oregon teenagers who are also amateur radio operators. During a meeting of the local radio club, a demonstration of an antique radio goes wrong, and the two, plus Bobby, a precocious five-year-old in the wrong place at the wrong time, find their spirits transported back in time to 1845 and are part of a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. Their survival packs go back with them, including handie-talkies which they use to scout the way ahead. As if using their 20th century knowledge without frightening the rest of the party isn't hard enough, one night Marc sets up his portable transceiver and, through an atmospheric quirk, hears a weak distress signal from a Navy pilot shot down in the Pacific during World War II, almost 100 years later. Did I mention that through all this the wagon train party is fighting a losing battle against death from exhaustion and/or starvation?
This one is pretty good. Aside from being a fine introduction to Amateur Radio, the story also gives the message that school subjects like science and mathematics are not just for geeks and may someday come in very, very handy.
This is a young adult novel about Kim and Marc, two present-day Oregon teenagers who are also amateur radio operators. During a meeting of the local radio club, a demonstration of an antique radio goes wrong, and the two, plus Bobby, a precocious five-year-old in the wrong place at the wrong time, find their spirits transported back in time to 1845 and are part of a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. Their survival packs go back with them, including handie-talkies which they use to scout the way ahead. As if using their 20th century knowledge without frightening the rest of the party isn't hard enough, one night Marc sets up his portable transceiver and, through an atmospheric quirk, hears a weak distress signal from a Navy pilot shot down in the Pacific during World War II, almost 100 years later. Did I mention that through all this the wagon train party is fighting a losing battle against death from exhaustion and/or starvation?
This one is pretty good. Aside from being a fine introduction to Amateur Radio, the story also gives the message that school subjects like science and mathematics are not just for geeks and may someday come in very, very handy.
Three Squirt Dog
Three Squirt Dog, Rick Ridgway, St. Martin's Press, 1994
Set in 1980's suburban Cleveland, here is the story of Bud Carew, a twenty-something college graduate with an English degree and no idea what to do with it, and his younger brother Omar. Their father died the previous year, and Mom ran off to join an Oregon commune, so the two live with their uncle Dewey, owner of a local record store. This is a chronicle of one summer in Bud's life: drinking with his buddies and puking; spending a whole five weeks without Jane, his girlfriend, who is on a forced family vacation; pulling occasional shifts at the record store; working two nights as a night stocker at a local supermarket; Omar is sent, unwillingly, on an extended vacation to visit Mom in Oregon; all to a soundtrack of Alex Chilton, the Ramones and Motorhead. Perhaps the "highlight' of the book is the annual Fourth of July neighborhood farting contest.
I hated to see this novel end. Ridgway has a real gift for raunchy language without going overboard. This is better than, and different from, the usual bored-suburbanites-in-the-80s novels in that Bud willingly listens to classical music and reads authors like Flannery O'Connor and Henry Miller. This one gets two thumbs-up.
Set in 1980's suburban Cleveland, here is the story of Bud Carew, a twenty-something college graduate with an English degree and no idea what to do with it, and his younger brother Omar. Their father died the previous year, and Mom ran off to join an Oregon commune, so the two live with their uncle Dewey, owner of a local record store. This is a chronicle of one summer in Bud's life: drinking with his buddies and puking; spending a whole five weeks without Jane, his girlfriend, who is on a forced family vacation; pulling occasional shifts at the record store; working two nights as a night stocker at a local supermarket; Omar is sent, unwillingly, on an extended vacation to visit Mom in Oregon; all to a soundtrack of Alex Chilton, the Ramones and Motorhead. Perhaps the "highlight' of the book is the annual Fourth of July neighborhood farting contest.
I hated to see this novel end. Ridgway has a real gift for raunchy language without going overboard. This is better than, and different from, the usual bored-suburbanites-in-the-80s novels in that Bud willingly listens to classical music and reads authors like Flannery O'Connor and Henry Miller. This one gets two thumbs-up.
The City on the Edge of Forever
The City on the Edge of Forever, Harlan Ellison, White Wolf Publishing, 1995
To read the biographies and remembrances from various people involved in the original Star Trek series, one would discover that Harlan Ellison wrote only the first draft of "The City on the Edge of Forever", that it was basically unshootable and had to be "fixed" by several people. It was ultimately "saved" only through the writing talent of Gene Roddenberry. A person would also read that, in the episode, Scotty was portrayed as an interstellar drug dealer.
Not So, to put it mildly, says Ellison.
Read this book, and one will find out that the original "unshootable" version of the script won the Writers Guild of America award for Most Outstanding Teleplay. The version that eventually aired; according to Ellison, the messed-up, watered down, butchered version, is generally considered the best episode of Star Trek-the original, and one of the best pieces of TV ever shown.
Accepting the Hugo award from the World Science Fiction Convention for the aired version of the script, Ellison made it clear that he accepted the award on behalf of his original version, and not what was aired.
Roddenberry mentioned, not just once or twice, but many times, over the last 30 years that Scotty was portrayed as a drug dealer despite repeated declarations from Ellison that Scotty was not in the script.
Ellison does his usual great job in the expanded essay, where he names names and gives honest opinions of the people behind, and in front of, the camera. He also includes his original teleplay, which would have been an incredible piece of television if it had been shot as written.
This will probably upset many Star Trek true believers. For everyone else, this is a great book on 60's television, it's a great book on screenwriting; all around, it's a great book.
To read the biographies and remembrances from various people involved in the original Star Trek series, one would discover that Harlan Ellison wrote only the first draft of "The City on the Edge of Forever", that it was basically unshootable and had to be "fixed" by several people. It was ultimately "saved" only through the writing talent of Gene Roddenberry. A person would also read that, in the episode, Scotty was portrayed as an interstellar drug dealer.
Not So, to put it mildly, says Ellison.
Read this book, and one will find out that the original "unshootable" version of the script won the Writers Guild of America award for Most Outstanding Teleplay. The version that eventually aired; according to Ellison, the messed-up, watered down, butchered version, is generally considered the best episode of Star Trek-the original, and one of the best pieces of TV ever shown.
Accepting the Hugo award from the World Science Fiction Convention for the aired version of the script, Ellison made it clear that he accepted the award on behalf of his original version, and not what was aired.
Roddenberry mentioned, not just once or twice, but many times, over the last 30 years that Scotty was portrayed as a drug dealer despite repeated declarations from Ellison that Scotty was not in the script.
Ellison does his usual great job in the expanded essay, where he names names and gives honest opinions of the people behind, and in front of, the camera. He also includes his original teleplay, which would have been an incredible piece of television if it had been shot as written.
This will probably upset many Star Trek true believers. For everyone else, this is a great book on 60's television, it's a great book on screenwriting; all around, it's a great book.
Slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse, Gail A. Eisnitz, Prometheus Books, 1997
Here is a more than scathing look at America's slaughterhouses in the 1990's. Eisnitz, an investigator with the Humane Farming Association, chronicles, with quotes from slaughterhouse workers, how animals are supposed to be humanely killed with electric shocks or with a gun that fires a retractable metal bolt into the brain. If the power isn't turned up high enough, which happens frequently, more than one jolt may be needed. An animal which is still alive after the first jolt will not meekly accept more jolts. This leads to scenes of workers using any means at their disposal, including beating to death with metal pipes or wrapping a chain around the nearest available part of the animal and dragging it along, while still alive, so as to keep the assembly line going.
The blame for this situation starts with a Department of Agriculture which is too friendly with meat producers to enforce the Humane Slaughter Act, intended to regulate the industry. Each individual slaughterhouse has a USDA veterinarian, with authority to stop the line at any time or remove any carcass that looks less than healthy. Without backup from Washington in case the company that owns the slaughterhouse complains, rarely, if ever, does that happen. The USDA inspectors, also with line-stopping authority, are basically trapped at their stations and unable to inspect the start of the whole process. At the average chicken processing plant, for instance, the carcasses go past the inspector at the rate of 35 per Minute. Without enforcement from Washington, the first law of slaughterhouses seems to be Thou Shalt Keep The Line Going (No Matter What).
Rare are the books that I can call an eye-opener; rarer still are those that leave me speechless. This book left me speechless. It is not for those with weak stomachs; it also shows that the famous USDA Seal of Approval is little better than worthless. The reader of this book will never again look at a hamburger or slice of ham in the same way.
Here is a more than scathing look at America's slaughterhouses in the 1990's. Eisnitz, an investigator with the Humane Farming Association, chronicles, with quotes from slaughterhouse workers, how animals are supposed to be humanely killed with electric shocks or with a gun that fires a retractable metal bolt into the brain. If the power isn't turned up high enough, which happens frequently, more than one jolt may be needed. An animal which is still alive after the first jolt will not meekly accept more jolts. This leads to scenes of workers using any means at their disposal, including beating to death with metal pipes or wrapping a chain around the nearest available part of the animal and dragging it along, while still alive, so as to keep the assembly line going.
The blame for this situation starts with a Department of Agriculture which is too friendly with meat producers to enforce the Humane Slaughter Act, intended to regulate the industry. Each individual slaughterhouse has a USDA veterinarian, with authority to stop the line at any time or remove any carcass that looks less than healthy. Without backup from Washington in case the company that owns the slaughterhouse complains, rarely, if ever, does that happen. The USDA inspectors, also with line-stopping authority, are basically trapped at their stations and unable to inspect the start of the whole process. At the average chicken processing plant, for instance, the carcasses go past the inspector at the rate of 35 per Minute. Without enforcement from Washington, the first law of slaughterhouses seems to be Thou Shalt Keep The Line Going (No Matter What).
Rare are the books that I can call an eye-opener; rarer still are those that leave me speechless. This book left me speechless. It is not for those with weak stomachs; it also shows that the famous USDA Seal of Approval is little better than worthless. The reader of this book will never again look at a hamburger or slice of ham in the same way.
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