Best Sellers Book Reviews

When Herman Cain speaks, people listen. When he debates, he wins.

If you care about the future of America, you have heard of the down-to-earth political newcomer running for president, the straight-talking man of the people with blunt assessments of what America needs. Originally overlooked by mainstream politicos and media, Herman Cain is truly a candidate from “outside the Beltway,” but no longer one who is being ignored.

BUT WHO IS HE?

While Herman Cain has been the host of a popular conservative Atlanta-area radio talk show called The Herman Cain Show, a different name originally captured American interest. As CEO, Herman Cain transformed Godfather’s Pizza from a company teetering on the verge of bankruptcy into a household word. Cain—as those with an interest in commonsense solutions to political problems will remember—is also famous for using the language and logic of everyday business to expose the fallacies inherent in Clinton assumptions about “Hillarycare” during a 1994 televised town hall meeting.

WHAT IS HIS STORY?

Herman Cain’s rise is the embodiment of the American dream. His parents, Luther and Lenora Cain, made a living the only way black people could in the ’40s and ’50s. Luther held down three jobs, including being a chauffeur; Lenora cleaned houses. They had two big dreams: to buy a house and to see their sons graduate from college. With dedication and hard work, they made both these dreams come true. In this thrilling memoir, Herman Cain describes his past and present . . . and the future he is determined to create, a future that will put our country back on track. His message resonates because he describes the American reality, and his down-to-earth personal tale of hope and hard work is both unforgettable and inspirational.

***

What is it in my DNA that years ago prompted me to forgo the ease of cruise control and take on the enormous challenge of doing my part toward making America a better place for my granddaughter and the generations to come?

Why do I, a son of the segregated South, refuse to think of myself as a “victim” of racism?

What is it that motivates me to insist on defining my identity in terms of “ABC”—as being American first, black second, and Conservative third?

Just who is Herman Cain? And how did I get this way?

Just a hint: it may have had something to do with lessons learned from my parents, Lenora and Luther Cain, Jr.

—From This Is Herman

Book Reviews

A character of extraordinary competence and integrity

Until recently the conventional wisdom has been that businesspeople do not make good elected officials, perhaps because the temperaments between the two professions are so different. However, the professional politicians have made such an awful mess of our state, local, and federal governments that we are now turning to the tough-minded discipline of business leaders to restore fiscal responsibility.

In 2010 we elected many businesspersons as governors, congresspersons, and senators. They seem to be succeeding in reforming state governments to operate within their budgets. Now Herman Cain is running for President as a businessperson pledging to restore our national economy.

Of course, it isn’t just the government that’s broken. Big business has also tarnished its reputation by becoming greedy and predatory. Big business has destroyed its workers jobs, poisoned the housing market with toxic mortgage derivatives, turned Wall Street into a den of thieves, and encouraged CEO’s to treat companies as their own personal piggy banks. Does Cain possess the extraordinary competence and integrity required to recover our economy that has been debilitated by both the failures of government AND business?

Cain begins to answer that question in the first paragraph:

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I didn’t grow up wanting to be president of the United States. I grew up po’, which is even worse than being poor. My American dream entailed working hard and making $20,000 a year, but I surpassed that goal and became a corporate CEO, a regional chairman of the Federal Reserve, a president of the Restaurant Association, an author, and an Atlanta talk show host before retiring at sixty-five on cruise control. And then I became a presidential aspirant. But a strange thing happened on my way to cruise control: The country got off-track.
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From that, I gather that Cain is running for the right reason — a sincere calling to elevate the condition of the country and serve its people.

Then Cain explains how he developed his character. Most of it, he says, came from observing his father. He explains how his dad left impoverished rural Georgia at age 18, hitchhiking to Ohio to find work in a factory. His dad then returned to Atlanta, working three jobs as a barber, chauffer, and janitor; his mother worked as a maid. Cain says:

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I relished those moments. While we were financially poor, we were emotionally rich, and our hard-working parents taught us lessons in dignity, ambition, and the value of formal education. Dad didn’t have the opportunity to earn a college degree, but I always tell people that he had a Ph.D. in common sense.

And both of our parents taught us not to think that the government owed us something. They didn’t teach us to be mad at this country. They would always say to us: “If you want something, just work hard enough, focus on it, and guess what? You can make it happen!” And Dad made things happen. One day in the summer before I started the eighth grade, he came home and said to us: “Get in the car; we’re going for a ride.” He drove us to a suburb west of Atlanta, pulled up in front of a six-room, all-brick house on Albert Street, and said, “This is our new home.” He had fulfilled his dream of being able to buy a “whole house.”
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Cain explains that his dad was so well thought of that he became the private chauffer of the legendary Coca Cola CEO Robert Woodruff. Woodruff gifted him Coca Cola stock. Herman watched his dad prosper through integrity, work, and investment. He describes a man whose life was well balanced between work, love of family, religious values, and desire for success — a man who started out as an impoverished, uneducated Black kid in rural Georgia at a time when society didn’t do Blacks any favors.

Cain has taken this lesson through the rest of his life. He earned his master’s in mathematics. He set his goal to become an executive in business by age 40 and succeeded when placed in many challenging positions of large companies. He succeeded as an entrepreneur. Now he has moved into the first tier of presidential contenders.

This book has answered the most important question I wanted to know about Herman Cain: “Does Cain have the character of extraordinary competence and integrity to lead us as President in recovering our debilitated economy?”

After reading the book, the answer is a resounding “Yes.”

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Several comments have been written in response to this review saying: “OK, we believe that Herman Cain has integrity and good character, but is that enough to make him an effective President? Jimmy Carter had those qualities and he did not succeed as President.”

In recent debates I’ve heard Cain answer the question this way: “No, I DON’T know everything about every aspect of foreign policy and some other issues. But I DO know how to surround myself with the people who ARE experts on these issues. I know how to listen to their opinions and then come to a decision.”

This statement tells me that Herman Cain understands a very fundamental principle of leadership, which is that the leader has to leverage him/herself. Nobody can know everything. Only fools imagine that they do. Cain understands that as President he would need to surround himself with the most accomplished people in the country — people like Mitt Romney and John Huntsman in cabinet positions and other experts in appropriate places.

IMO the reason that President Carter did not do well is that he did not understand this principle of leadership. He tried too hard to be a one-man expert on every subject. He surrounded himself with mostly mediocre people who did not give sound advice. Herman Cain knows better. He knows how a leader leverages him/herself by building a team of individuals expert and accomplished in their fields.

Amazing personal story, and example of the American Dream

Many people don’t know the story of how Herman Cain grew up in the Jim Crow south, only later going on to become a very successful business man. It is very inspirational and this book captures the character, and achievement of Herman perfectly. The forward is just ok but when you get into the actual story Herman will have you laughing your head off while simultaneously making you feel inspired. This book is obviously going to be a favorite for those who know Herman or who listened to his radio show, but I would also urge people to read it who are simply interested in the inspirational story of a civil rights era businessman. His personal trial with racism, his service in the navy, and his multiple turnaround stories are quite enamoring. Great read and must if you want to be an informed voter in the Republican Primary.

Great Way to get to know Herman Cain – Must Read!

When I read about the time he and his brother tasted the “white water” from the other water fountain (that their mother told them NOT to drink from) I laughed and cried at the same time. This book told me so much about Herman that I never knew and I’ve been following him on Atlanta’s WSB radio station for years. We spend so much time in these @#$%&* debates trying to get to know people in 60 second sound bytes – I love it that this book allows us to know where he comes from and what his values are. I would love to meet him in person, but for the time being, this book has been the next best thing. A must read!

Referred to as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” by The New York Times, this study examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. While revealing that proper nutrition can have a dramatic effect on reducing and reversing these ailments as well as curbing obesity, this text calls into question the practices of many of the current dietary programs, such as the Atkins diet, that are widely popular in the West. The politics of nutrition and the impact of special interest groups in the creation and dissemination of public information are also discussed.

Book Reviews

Every doctor, teacher and parent needs to read this book!

T. Colin Campbell has made a career of challenging the conventional wisdom around nutrition, and this book is the culmination of his work. His integrity, brilliance, and unflinching courage shine through every page.

The main point of this book is that most nutritional studies that we hear about in the media are poorly constructed because of what the author terms “scientific reductionism.” That is, they attempt to pin down the effects of a single nutrient in isolation from all other aspects of diet and lifestyle.

While this is the “gold standard” for clinical trials in the pharmaceutical world, it just doesn’t work when it comes to nutrition. Given that the Western diet is extremely high fat and high protein compared to most of the rest of the world, studies that examine slight variations in this diet (i.e., adding a few grams of fiber or substituting skim milk for full fat milk) are like comparing the mortality rates of people who smoke five packs of cigarettes a day vs. people who smoke only 97 cigarettes a day.

Campbell’s research, which he describes in a very accessible and engaging fashion, has two tremendous advantages over the typical nutritional study. First, there is the China Study itself – a massive series of snapshots of the relationship between diet and disease in over 100 villages all over China. The rates of disease differ greatly from region to region, and Campbell and his research partners (including some of the most distinguished scholars and epidemiologists in the world) carefully correlated these differences with the varying diets of the communities.

It’s not lazy “survey research” either – the researchers don’t rely on their subjects’ memory to determine what they ate and drank. The researchers also observed shopping patterns and took blood samples to cross-validate all the data.

The second amazing part of Campbell’s research method is his refusal to accept any finding without taking it back to his lab and finding out how exactly it works. In other words, we discover in The China Study not only in what way, but precisely how, the foods we eat can either promote or compromise our health.

The book is part intellectual biography / hero’s journey (although Campbell is always wonderfully humble – there’s no trace of self-congratulation, just a deep gratitude for what he has experienced), part nutrition guide (the most honest and unflinching one you’ll ever read), and part expose. The final section leaves no sacred cow standing, and names names! From the food industry, to the government, to academia, Campbell calmly reports on a coverup of nutritional truth so widespread and insidious that all citizens should be enraged.

I have a PhD in health education and a Masters in Public Health – and I can honestly say that no book has shaken my worldview like this one. Anyone interested in health – their own, or that of their family, friends, or community – must read this book and share it. Campbell has started a revolution. Skip this work at your own peril.

Why, oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?

I love juicy steaks, delicious cheese, and big bowls of ice cream. I love to eat out at nice restaurants. And I really like eating without thinking about the operations and consequences of our dietary industrial complex. But I don’t get to enjoy these things any more because I read the China Study. Like Neo in the movie the Matrix, you have a choice, take the blue pill and believe what you want to believe, take the red pill and you will be exposed to the reality of the world we live in. The China Study is the red pill.

This is a fascinating book on the capitalism, politics, and human behavior that drives the food industry. It is also frighteningly insightful into the health consequences of an affluent societies’ diet. I am not a scientist so I don’t know if this is good science. But I did work ten years ago as a government attorney on the USDA dietary guidelines and was surprised by the political influence and acceptance of what the author would call scientific reductionism. I also worked for a man who lived and worked until he was 100 years old, and he had a dietary regime very similar to that recommended by the China Study: not vegan nor vegetarian, but largely based on plants and whole foods rather than animal based foods. So I found this book very persuasive – in fact, too persuasive. It scared me straight so I eat healthy now and that’s good for the long term…but I don’t enjoy it like I used to.

Fantastic!

This is a fantastic book that’s loaded with so much eye opening information, it’s the kind of book that I’ll read again. I feel if you don’t convert to a whole food plant based diet after reading this book, I don’t think anything in the world will convince you….the evidence is just overwhelming.

As for my story, I was on statins for high cholesterol for over 6 years….and a moderate to high dose at that. Over the years, my cholesterol kept rising gradually and my total cholesterol was just over 300 and a triglyceride level in the mid 200′s without statins. The moderate/high dose statin brought my cholesterol down to the range of high 190′s to low 200′s. Over the years, I tried to get off the medication and I was told to try to eat a low fat diet, don’t eat shrimp, lobster, etc. I went off the statins, tried this diet for several months and none of this helped….actually my cholesterol went higher….I was told it’s hereditary, there’s nothing you can do, and I should take the statin and that I would be on them indefinitely. Well, after reading the book “The China Study”, there’s a few paragraphs tucked in this great book mentioning that the major factor causing high cholesterol is eating any animal protein. The only meat I ate at the time was fish and chicken and small portions of it….and maybe beef a few times a year, if that. I have to say I was skeptical and figured what do I have to lose, so I went on a whole food plant based diet (vegan diet)as Dr. Campbell in the book suggests. I started that last November (same time I stopped taking the statins), and I had my cholesterol checked this past summer and was stunned at the result….my total cholesterol went from over 300 without statins, high 190′s/low 200′s on moderate/high does statin, to 175 without statins on Vegan diet, with good LDL and HDL. I’m guessing next time it’s checked it will be even lower. Also, my triglycerides went from the mid 200′s to 64! All as a result of just giving up animal products….amazing. Now I wonder….why wasn’t I ever given this option by the doctor’s I’ve seen over the years? Even if a person doesn’t want to give up animal products completely as I have, why isn’t this advice offered as at least an option to a patient…..and let the patient decide? What a concept!

Of course, I feel my cholesterol and triglycerides levels are just the tip of the iceberg on how my health has improved on a plant based diet….the only regret?….I wish I started the vegan diet earlier….I never have had so much energy and just downright have never felt so good….seriously…this is not an overstatement.

As to all the doubters out there with harsh reviews, I say to each is own but ignore the evidence at your own risk. I’ve seen many of my friends and family sick by what I feel this book has proven by many studies to be nothing more than a bad diet for the most part and most of them are looking for a magic pill to save them….and the old standby argument that it’s all genetic doesn’t appear to hold much water either….again, proven by studies in the book.

My friend, family, and co-workers know how I eat now and wonder why I want to live forever….that’s not the issue….quality of life over quantity of life…isn’t this what we should all be after?

BradyGames’ Batman: Arkham City Limited Edition Strategy Guide includes the following:

Join the Dark Knight as he soars into Arkham City, the new home for all of Gotham City’s thugs. The sequel to Arkham Asylum brings together an all-star cast of heroes and villains.
-Different Pearlescent Collectible Covers!
-Numbered lithographs featuring exclusive artwork.
-Centerfold featuring Harley Quinn and Catwoman!
-The walkthrough chapter covers how to subdue the villains attempting to stop Batman. It reveals the ultimate path through each level and the best tactics to employ.
-Learn which gadgets work best and how to deploy them for maximum effect.
-Area maps detail all the available item locations.

Book Reviews

how do you pick up your teeth with broken fingers

batman is tough and will punch in the spleen, kick your shins and spit on your aunt rose. he dont play. so please dont taunt or anger him, or you will have hurt feelings and testicles. but i digress, this book was a good book, very thick, lots of pages. many words and pictures, it was an average size book and easy to flip thru. as books go i will recommend it for people who like books. my one complaint is i dont read so well and like to color in my books, but this book was already full of color. crayons did not leave the box, im very sad. next time less color on all the cool pictures, some of us like to kick it old school and bust out the crayolas. thank you have kick ass day.

Jess Needs Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

I have not purchased this invaluable ‘manuscript’ yet but will momentarily— just the video clip explains how invaluable his work is & Jess— this needs published on bill-boards across the nation, all front page newspapers, and given its due on every tv show from Jon Stewart to CNN. I believe that there would be global interest in this brilliant & timely work you have done. Indiana Jones, move over.

All of our legislators need to be taking LIVE votes on real people opinions — asking for agreement or demands for change on these priorites. We have been marginalized by the “political 1%” assuming our ignorance protects them as they cater to lobbyists, advisors and economists who enjoy the patrichal kool-aid… As I heard a colleague say decades ago, “America is a good idea” but the fleecing has reached hideous proportions and what the real populace thinks is of no interest to those who believe they know better. Of course the transparency is deeply hidden in unmined spreadsheets — how else would we be tolerating the dearth of dollars invested in Education & the development of our own communities? I can only pray for inspiration among all of us as to how to utilize this young man’s brilliant creation!!

This guy is a genius!
Finally, government spending can be put into perspective! We ought to buy a bunch of these and have then put up in every school’s Social Studies class! Unless of course it would teach them to borrow 40 cents of every dollar they spend!).

While I’m sure this will be a major moneymaker for him, look at the research it took to do this. I’m filling the shopping cart!

A CPA talks about Death & Taxes

I have had this poster hanging in my CPA firm waiting room for the last 2 years and always receives great reviews usually followed with a “where did you get that!” (now I can say on Amazon). It is a wonderful and brilliant summation of a bunch of really complex data and a perfect addition to any offices of folks that deal with taxes and/or finance, your clients will find it fascinating and informative. Buy it NOW and support this great project!

Papa” was a rolling stone

At the end of Ernest Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast , he writes of his first wife, Hadley Richardson, “I wish I had died before I loved anyone but her.” After their divorce, Hemingway marries three more times, each one prompt to follow, like serial wives. This is the story of the woman that loved him before he was famous.

Paula McLain researched their biographies, letters, and Hemingway’s novels, culling the material to imagine a story of their charmed and battered marriage in Paris, from 1921-1926. The tortured life and tragically foreshadowed suicide of Ernest Hemingway is public knowledge, as was his legendary womanizing. McLain’s novel dodges the palaver, blending the facts that are known together with credible inference, creating a plausible, informed depiction of Hemingway and Hadley’s marriage–the quotidian, the famed, the halcyon, the harsh.

The author writes from Hadley’s point of view, inviting the reader inside their most tender and demolishing moments. A few choice sections belong to Hemingway’s perspective, urgent and telling. The narrative deftly folds in their histories–the years before they met–artfully revealing early and private woes, which ripple and sometimes hiss beneath the ardor. We get the back stories without muddled exposition; by the time it arrives at the failure of their union, readers have acquired a fluency of Hadley’s nature and Hemingway’s core.

Hadley sustained several painful childhood experiences that eerily parallel Hemingway’s, and was a recluse and “spinster” at twenty-eight, when she met and was courted by the twenty-one-year-old Hemingway. He was a struggling, ambitious writer, home after the shock and agonies of the Great War, where he endured trauma and its aftereffects, described today as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). He couldn’t sleep without a light. His mother was an insufferable controller, and he didn’t want to marry a woman like that.

The pliable and less progressive Hadley was a sound match for the needy, talented, and egocentric Ernest. He required a woman who would unshakably support his career. Hadley was a generous lover and devoted supporter who sacrificed her personal ambitions for Ernest. She was also playful and warm and smart, but not savvy and edgy like the emerging modern women of the 1920′s.

In prose that reflects the style of the era, McLain illustrates a glittering world of élan expatriates and literati. Hadley and Ernest (and their baby, Bumby) lived in the (then) modest Latin Quarter, and soon became a vibrant part of the Left Bank artists, such as Gertrude Stein, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Ford Maddox Ford, Jean Rhys, and many others. Open marriage, and mistresses living in the same house with wives, were not unheard of in this set.

Blithe talk, bottomless glasses of whiskey, and bottle after bottle of wine was the norm in their active social lives. In the mornings, the hair of the dog was the cure for the night on the town. Jaunts to Pamplona to see the bullfights were illustrated by McClain in all their gory splendor.

During this time, Hemingway wrote copiously and tirelessly, jealous of some of his peers who were already established. The germination and completion of The Sun Also Rises is covered, as well as his ruthless parody of Sherwood Anderson’s work, The TORRENTS OF SPRING. Hadley loved him utterly, propped him up buoyantly, and assured him of his inevitable success. Eventually, Ernest acquired more expansive needs, and Hadley needed less, but got more than she bargained for. McClain limns their marriage as more than just a cautionary tale.

“To keep you from thinking, there was liquor, an ocean’s worth at least, all the usual vices and plenty of rope to hang yourself with. But some of us, a very few in the end, bet on marriage against the odds.”

This isn’t standard “chick-lit” fare, nor is it cloying. I recommend this to anyone interested in the psyche of Hemingway, his first marriage, and his genesis as one of the greatest American authors of our time–from a wife’s perspective.

WHAT IF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT ENDED TOMORROW?

The America we are accustomed to is no more. Practically overnight the stock market has plummeted, hyperinflation has crippled commerce, and the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure have fallen. The power grids are down. Brutal rioting and looting grip every major city. The volatile era known as “the Crunch” has begun, and this new period in our history will leave no one untouched. In this unfamiliar environment, only a handful of individuals are equipped to survive.

Andrew Laine, a resourceful young U.S. Army officer stationed overseas in Afghanistan, wants nothing more than to return home to Bloomfield, New Mexico. With the world in turmoil and all air and sea traffic to America suspended, Laine must rely on his own ingenuity and the help of good Samaritans to reach his family. Andrew will do whatever it takes to make it home to his fiancée, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Major Ian Doyle is a U.S. Air Force pilot sta-tioned in Arizona with his wife, Blanca. Their young daughter, Linda, is trapped in the North- eastern riots. Three teenage orphans, Shadrach, Reuben, and Matthew Phelps, have no choice but to set out on their own when their orphanage closes at the beginning of the Crunch. Then there is Ignacio Garcia, the ruthless leader of the criminal gang called La Fuerza, who will stop at nothing to amass an army capable of razing the countryside. And over everything looms the threat of a provisional government, determined to take over America and destroy the freedoms upon which it was built. The world of Survivors is a terrifyingly familiar one. Rawles has written a novel so close to the truth, readers will forget it’s fiction. If everything you thought you knew suddenly fell apart, would you survive?

Book Reviews

I’m a Survivor

If Patriots was a great survival manual in novel format, Survivors is a great novel with a survivalist theme. If you read his first successful novel, you’ll be glad to hear that author John Wesley Rawles has made dramatic improvement from the standpoint of fiction writing. The latest (not really a sequel, but based on the same setting of a post collapse world), has a much more fluid story and much more interesting characters. I couldn’t tell you one thing about the characters from Patriots, but there are some memorable ones in Survivors.

The lead character, Anders, is a soldier in Afghanistan, who gets stuck after the US cuts off fuel supplies during the collapse. He has to make it back to his wife and brother back in America and uses his technical and survival skills to do so.

Other story lines intersect as Rawles showcases how people in different parts of the country try to cope with the shocking collapse of the economic system. While all of the protagonists in Patriots were survivalists, some of the characters in Survivors aren’t, making for a compelling plot. Not only do they have to deal with a shattered economy, but the entire country has turned into a Mad-Max-esque free for all with roving gangs becoming dominant.

Keeps you guessing and reading

I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy of Survivors and truly enjoyed reading it. If you liked Patriots you will love Survivors! While Patriots was about 50% technical manual and 50% novel, Survivors is much more a story but still has enough “technical” in it to keep a true Rawles fan happy. Survivors is a wide-ranging book that takes place with different groups in many locations who are much less prepared than the groups in Patriots. That makes it very interesting, coupled with the fact that Rawles dosen’t mind killing off a character you like once in a while to keep you guessing. I especially like the “Kentucky Seed Lady”, Sheila Randall, who shows that you just don’t lay down and take it when things go bad but get to work instead. Also, who wouldn’t like Andy Laine and his story of sacrifice and scrappiness to get home from Afganiston when things go bad. The world and timeline that Rawles has created will continue to support many new books in the future. Survivors (unlike Patriots) leaves you with some unfinished business which, I assume, will be tied up when Deo volente comes out.

I also have to mention that even though I have read Survivors I ordered a new copy so I can get the great cover art on my bookshelf (the advance copy has a plain cover). The art fits the theme of Rawles world and the story itself perfectly. Great story, great read, educational, interesting and timely – just what you want in a book. Nice work James Wesley Rawles!

Fantastic Story- Ripped Straight From the Headlines

Survivors is a not so hypothetical look at what will happen in the U.S. and abroad in an economic collapse. I’ve read the author’s previous books- Patriots and How to Survive the End of the World as We Know it. Where Patriots was a technical manual folded into a novel, his latest book is definitely bestseller material. Where Patriots begins after the collapse, Survivors paints the picture behind the crisis and lays the groundwork for a frightening cautionary tale.

Survivors has engaging, compelling characters and a scary but real plot. The author takes the time to briefly explain the causes of the economic collapse- enough to make it real, but not enough to bore the reader. He handles it artfully, weaving together stories from different characters to paint the broader picture. He also does a great job telling how various characters waited just a little too long to start preparing for the collapse- even some who saw it coming.

The scariest part of this book is that it’s all grounded in reality. In fact, the economic numbers mentioned in the book are actually much worse now (probably due to the publishing lead time). The unsustainable debt, irresponsible government spending, and bad decisions by our leaders all lead to an economic catastrophe. (For those who think this is all fiction, read “When Money Dies” about the Weimar Republic- the parallels are scary). Rawles does a masterful job of setting the stage and building suspense along the way, and Survivors will keep you turning the pages late into the night.

If you read any book this year, read Survivors. Then buy a printed copy of his book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know it” and use it as an outline for stocking your emergency kit. (No, I don’t know the author- just do yourself and read it). Buy a printed copy so you can write in it and make notes, and so you still have it if you lose power. Don’t wait- start preparing now- the debt bomb is real and it’s not going away.

Book Reviews

A very intriguing series of peculiar events

To be honest, when I first started reading “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” I expected a haunting thriller, full of horror and danger. That is not what this book is. Instead, this book is fantasy/adventure combined with a very unique style of photography, which made the book better than I ever thought it would be.

Story – Jacob Portman desires an adventurous life, much like the life his grandfather describes to him in various stories. However, when Jacob realizes that he can never have an adventurous life, he just tries to be normal and fit in. He’s not popular or extremely smart, and there doesn’t seem to be anything unusual about him at all; but when his grandfather dies and leaves Jacob a cryptic message, Jacob is sent on a hunt to find his grandfather’s past and ends up traveling all the way to Wales. Once there, Jacob discovers much more than he ever could have imagined about his grandfather and is thrown into the midst of a very peculiar situation.

Writing Style – If I had to compare Ransom Riggs to any other author, I would have to compare him to Lemony Snicket. In fact, this entire book reminded me very much of Mr. Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books. Don’t get me wrong, Riggs did not steal Lemony Snicket’s writing style at all, but Riggs just simply reminded me of him, which is a positive since I pretty much love anything that Snicket touches.
Something else that I feel Riggs did superbly was explain the detail of everything in the story. Even without the occasional photographs of people and things in the story, I was able to visualize the locations and details because of the fantastic descriptions.
Now, as for the photographs, they added a whole new dimension to the story. They didn’t turn the novel into a picture book or something else that we normally associate with children; rather, they added a new level of immersion to the story, with the reader being almost able to see exactly what Jacob is seeing as he looks at the many photographs scattered throughout.
The book is truly addicting, but it isn’t perfect; there are a few kinks that I feel needed to be worked out. The major kink being the fact that the attitude of some of the characters just doesn’t seem to match the story! The abundance of cursing and crude humor just doesn’t make sense with some of the characters or the plot of the story. Also, there were a few things that weren’t developed as much as possible and could have been explained more and built upon.

Warnings – Language, Mild Violence, Mild Peril

Overall – In all fairness, my last complaint was very nitpicky and small, and I don’t want to give anyone the impression that this is not a good book. For a first novel, it is fantastic! There are a few things to improve on, but I think Mr. Riggs is off to an amazing start! I immensely look forward to his second novel, which I assume is in the works based on the cliffhanger at this end of the story. I would say that, most likely, teens will enjoy the book more than adults, but it really does have a very interesting plot that many will love.

Eccentric and poignant

When I first heard of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs with its intriguing title, cover, and premise, I was immediately smitten. I love odd books and this one seemed unique in every way. I’m very glad to report that Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was so enthralling that it overcame jet lag from a 10-hour plane ride – I just had to read to the end!

Jacob has always been in awe of his colorful Grandpa Portman, who told him stories about his fabled childhood in a faraway island where he lived in order to hide from monsters. Jacob first believed in his grandfather’s extraordinary tales of his friends, strange orphans with magical abilities, especially since his grandfather had photographs as proof of their existence. However, as he grew older, Jacob began to doubt that the stories, the orphans, or the photographs, were real…until his grandfather’s cryptic last words and a letter from a mysterious Miss Peregrine spur Jacob to search for his grandfather’s childhood home, which turns out to be in a small island off the coast of Wales. What he finds there is completely unexpected.

“The trees parted like a curtain and suddenly there it was, cloaked in fog, looming atop a weed-choked hill. The house. I understood at once why the boys had refused to come.

“My grandfather had described it a hundred times, but in his stories, the house was always a bright, happy place—big and rambling, yes but full of light and laughter. What stood before me now was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself, staring down from its perch with vacant hunger. Trees burst forth from broken windows and skins of scabrous vine gnawed at the walls like antibodies attacking a virus–as if nature itself had waged war against it—but the house seemed unkillable, resolutely upright despite the wrongness of its angles and the jagged teeth of sky visible through sections of collapsed roof.

…

“I gathered up what scrawny courage I had and waded through waist-high weeds to the porch, all broken tile and rotting wood, to peek through a cracked window. All I could make out through the smeared glass were the outlines of furniture, so I knocked on the door and stood back to wait in eerie silence, tracing the shape of Miss Peregrine’s letter in my pocket. I’d taken it along in case I needed to prove who I was, but as a minute ticked by, then two, it seemed less and less likely that I would need it.”

What happened to the inhabitants of this devastated ruin and how was Grandfather Portman involved? Jacob’s investigation turns from creepy to heart-palpitatingly scary, then poignant. Where the story went truly surprised me, not only delivering on its promise of eccentric and dark but inventing a rich and magical other world of “peculiar” children and monsters that’s convincingly woven with real history.

The writing is so descriptive and evocative that I now question if the vintage photographs interspersed throughout the narratives are even necessary to the enjoyment of the story. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was apparently inspired by these weird photographs the author found, each with something so off-kilter about them that they can inspire multiple fantastic stories on their own. While I loved the photographs, they were a bonus rather than essential.

Book Reviews

Best of Ondaatje’s work

I run hot and cold on Michael Ondaatie’s writing. However, his new book, THE CAT”S TABLE, resonated in a part of my mind long ignored. In some of his other works, DIVISIDERO and THE ENGLISH PATIENT, to mention a couple, he uses many unlikely characters in the telling of his story that seem to run together with no special destination or closure. To me the books are disjointed and not very interesting or realistic. In Cat’s Table, he uses the same formula but with more satisfying results. In fact, having been something of a scoundrel in my early years, the boys in this novel reawakened my early existence with their endless curiosity, mindless pranks, and earthy delight in just being boys.

I’m getting ahead of myself. As Ondaatje said, during an interview, the storyline is “A boy (Michael) gets on a boat…and gets off a boat.” Fortunately, for us, the author understates the events that subsequently happen. Interest is added when we get to meet a couple of other boys and the three of them ramble unfettered around a large ship, finding opportunities to spy, to assist in burglary, smoke unknown substances, speculate on human behavior, and develop hot-blooded hormones over attractive girls. I too, at that stage of development, had similar adventures, although my spying was done through grass and brush along a small creek. I peeked through tree branches and gaps in large rocks rather than through the pipes, cables and railings found on a big ship. But I saw a lot of stuff, as these young fellows did.

The boys are joined in their journey from Sri Lanka to England by a tailor, a botanist, a burned-out pianist, a retired ship junker, and a mysterious spinster, all of whom join the boys at their dining table far away from the elite near the Captain’s table, hence the name the Cat’s Table, a term Ondaatje learned from a German publisher. We also meet a chained murderer, a deaf girl, a high society woman who largely neglects her role as Michael’s caretaker and Michael’s comely cousin, the igniter of young libidos. All these interesting characters fall into place under Ondaatje’s skillful manipulations. The reasons for and details of the ship’s journey will remain undisclosed here, as will the flash-backs.

Michael Ondaatje is a controversial writer that readers either adore or loathe. I don’t think, however, there’s any doubt that he is an author who conveys atmosphere and conversation in a clear and descriptive manner. Mood and place are masterfully conveyed. His writing is spare and lucid, with no cerebral words that need to be found in a dictionary. The only word I recall that stumped me was ayurvedic. It wasn’t even in my Webster’s Collegiate. I later found it pertains to the ancient Hindu science of health and medicine.

Ondaatje is a poet which probably explains why he is so adept at manipulating the intricacies of space and time. He explains that a poet doesn’t say everything in his poems. He says one-third of what should be said is left for the reader to figure out. That’s what he tries to do in his novels. That could be the reason he is so controversial among serious readers…some don’t want to read between the lines to figure out his storyline. In my opinion, that’s not the case in Cat’s Table. This book is lighter than some of his others and, although flash-forwards to the future are here, the storyline moves with fluidity and a plainness that made my heart thump and my mind reach for memories. That’s what a good book should do, ignite the reader’s mind.

It takes a lifetime to come of age

At the age of eleven, Michael boards an ocean liner bound for England. With his friends Cassius and Ramadhin, he explores the ship and befriends eccentric passengers: Mr. Fonseka, a literature teacher from Colombo who displays the “serenity and certainty” Michael has observed “only among those who have the armor of books close by”; Mr. Daniels, who has transformed a section of the hold into an exotic garden; the musician and blues fan Max Mazappa; an Australian girl who greets the dawn by roller skating fiercely around the deck; Miss Lasqueti, a woman with a surprising, hidden background who is traveling with dozens of pigeons; a hearing impaired Singhalese girl named Asuntha, and others. “Simply by being in their midst,” the boys are learning about adults, including those assigned to sit with them at the low-status Cat’s Table, situated at the opposite end of the dining room from the Captain’s Table. Michael’s other lessons include his first fleeting experience with love and desire, as well as a taste of European racism, both subtle and (particularly in the case of the ship’s captain) overt.

Two other passengers Michael knows only by sight. Sir Hector de Silva, a wealthy but ill passenger in Emperor Class accommodations, has bad luck with dogs, perhaps because a spell was cast upon him. At the opposite end of the social spectrum is a prisoner, rumored to be a murderer, whose midnight strolls on the deck — closely guarded and in chains — the concealed boys observe with fascination.

Michael Ondaatje keeps all these characters in motion like a master juggler. They are a fascinating bunch, and Ondaatje weaves them in and out of the narrative while maintaining a perfectly balanced pace: not so quick that the story whizzes by without time to appreciate its nuances; not so deliberate as to lose its energetic force.

At its midway point, the novel skips ahead from the 1953 voyage to events that occur twenty years later in Michael’s life, events that trigger memories of the friends with whom he bonded on that formative journey. Although the writing in that section is exceptionally strong and quite moving, it has an out-of-joint feel, particularly when the flash forward ends and the voyage resumes. Subsequent interruptions to tell the reader of future events are shorter and more seamlessly integrated into the narrative. Eventually those passages become essential to the story; they complete it. Ondaatje writes: “Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in a new light, a different place.” The perspective that Michael gains with time, after reconnecting with individuals he met on the voyage, permits him (and thus the reader) to reinterpret events that occurred on the ocean — particularly a moment of drama that becomes the story’s nucleus, and that Michael can only understand fully many years later. For that reason, although The Cat’s Table could be viewed as a coming of age novel, I think Ondaatje is suggesting that we spend our lifetimes coming of age — that is, acquiring the wisdom and perspective of adulthood.

There is a restrained, graceful elegance to Ondaatje’s prose that every now and then made me stop, blink, and reread a beautifully composed sentence or paragraph. He writes with affection of dogs and artists, of the needy and of those who give selflessly of themselves. This is a marvelously humane novel that works on a number of levels, but most of all, it is a joy to read.

The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is taken by college graduates looking to gain entrance to graduate school in business, the arts, sciences, and humanities. With an increasing number of graduate and business school applicants and an increasing number of GRE test-takers—now a complete test overhaul by the test-maker—a high GRE score is critical to set yourself apart from the competition.

New GRE 2011-2012 Premier with CD-ROM is a comprehensive package that includes a book, CD-ROM, and online companion with in-depth strategies, test information, and practice questions to help students score higher on the new GRE Revised General Test. New GRE 2011-2012 Premier with CD-ROM is fully updated and revised with 75 percent all-new content covering the revised and expanded Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing Assessment Test sections, including 50 percent new practice questions and brand new strategies for each of the new question types.

Book Reviews

So far, so good… satisfied with Kaplan and getting ready to take the revised GRE

I am currently using this book so I must warn you that I do not have the complete, thorough review I will surely be giving this.

I bought this book to study for the revised GRE that begins in August 2011. So far I’ve read almost all of the Verbal and the Quantitative Reasoning sections, done some of the practice sets on the CD-ROM, taken a full-length test online and used other resources available online. When I first got the book, I did the paper-based practice test included in the book, so I was able to identify my strengths (verbal section) and weaknesses (math/quantitative section and analytical section) of the GRE test.

Right now, I’m very satisfied with the purchase. I’ve found the “Kaplan strategies” helpful and as I complete more practice sets, I get less wrong answers. This book also gives you lots of study tips for before taking the test and advice on actually taking the test.

In addition to the textbook, you get an online registration number which allows you to access 5 additional full-length practice tests (in addition to the full-length paper-based practice test) and the CD-ROM companion. The CD companion has 10 practice sets for each of the quantitative and verbal reasoning sections as well as 5 analytical essay prompts. After you finish a practice set (either on the book or the CD), you get an explanation for all the answers to clarify doubts. The explanations Kaplan gives are detailed, well-written, unlike the ones I’ve seen in the examples provided in the ETS website which don’t always clarify the answers for me. With your Kaplan online companion account, in addition to the 5 practice tests, I’ve been able to get a couple more full-length practice tests for free, as well as access to free events and a GRE Live Online session.

When using the CD-ROM, you get a representation of the actual test you’re going to take (the book also has screenshots of them). When completing the practice sets, you can review the ones you’ve taken or retake them as many times you want. You do have to adjust the view in order to read the exercises but so far that hasn’t been too much of a hassle even with my small screen (I have a netbook).

One aspect that I’d like to point out is that it does NOT provide you with an in-depth review of the math concepts. There IS a math reference section at the end of the book with the 100 most important math concepts that you need to know for the Quantitative Reasoning section of the GRE. However, it only gives you an explanation and example per each math concept. So if you’re rusty in math and need more than one example like me, then you should get another resource. This is something I was expecting since this is a book mostly on how to TAKE the test, not a vocabulary review nor a math course.

To compensate for this, I bought CliffsNotes Math Review for Standardized Tests (Cliffs Test Prep Math Review Standardized), which has great reviews and so far it’s been a fantastic refresher. It’s stuff that you *should* know and not that difficult at all but the last time you took math/algebra/geometry was in high school or in your first year of college (which for me was almost 4 years ago) so this is an excellent way to review all those concepts. The great thing about this book is that, even though it’s aimed at “Standardized Tests” in general, it covers most of the topics that you will get in the Quantitative Reasoning section of the GRE. Just crosscheck with the Math Review PDF provided in the ETS/GRE website so that you study what you need.

The mobile version of the book, as mentioned inside the book, will not be available until September, or so it said on the online website. I do have a Kaplan Vocab app which I downloaded (FREE) that has a 501 words list which I’ve been using occasionally.

As I go through the book, I’ll provide more insight into how studying with this Kaplan book is helping me, how I did on the test and other resources or books I’ve been using to complement my studying. I’m taking the test on August 20th, 2011 so by then I hope to have a far more complete review of this book and be much more helpful than I have been so far.

Found many mistakes in the questions/answers on the CDROM

I got this book on Amazon because it had been cheap, only about 16 bucks. I had a Kaplan book from my roommate from 2010 that seemed good enough but I wanted an updated version that discussed the revised test. I found that the book portion was almost identical to the 2010 version except they added the revised test’s new types of questions. I recognized some of the questions as having been repeated from the 2010 book. Also within the book there was not that many practice questions for each session. Once I started taking the practice sections from the CDROM I began getting frustrated, finding mistakes and inconsistencies between the question and Kaplan’s detailed solution. For example, one of the quantitative comparison question was column A: y^x column B:y^(x)+1. When it came time to reviewing my solution Kaplan had column B as y^(x+1) which changes which answer is correct. Another question in the verbal section had answer choices A,B,C D,E,F, but when Kaplan wrote the solution they discussed answers A,B,C and E,F,G, they shifted the second blanks choices by and would incorrectly mark the correct answers as wrong because of it. I do not enjoy having to take extra time to double check that their solutions made sense. I do NOT recommend choosing a Kaplan book to study for the GRE. I’d recommend Nova’s GRE Prep Course book instead if they are still publishing it. My other roommate had a 2006 version I used to practice for the math section, and I found it had a LOT of practice problems with good solutions.

I don’t think that Kaplan has really figured this test out

There is a noticeable difference in quality between the questions that Kaplan gives and the questions available at the ETS website and in the ETS’s official guide. It seems that the people who write these questions for Kaplan have not had enough time to really acclimate themselves with the Revised GRE. Many of their questions are just not of very good quality (rely too heavily on esoteric vocabulary, have specious reasoning for why one answer is correct and another one incorrect, do not make clear what they are asking, etc.). In addition, I noticed some flagrant errors in the quantitative section of the practice test available online. This book provides a lot of material, but I’m not sure if any of it is useful.

Ever wondered who makes a very funny person laugh? Wonder no more. Brought together in this Library of America collection are America’s fifty funniest writers-according to acclaimed writer and comedian Andy Borowitz. Reaching back to Mark Twain and forward to contemporary masters such as David Sedaris, Roy Blount Jr., Ian Frazier, Bernie Mac, Wanda Sykes, and George Saunders, The 50 Funniest American Writers* is an exclusive Who’s Who of the very best American comic writing. Here are Thurber and Perelman, Lenny Bruce and Bruce Jay Friedman, Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry and Veronica Geng, plus hilarious lesser known pieces from The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic, National Lampoon, Salon, and The Onion. Who does “one of the funniest people in America” (CBS Sunday Morning) read when he needs a laugh? Here’s Andy Borowitz to tell you.

Book Reviews

Sublimely funny

I’m a fan of humor anthologies and have a collection that includes books by E.B. White, Gene Shalit, and many more. This is the best because it was assembled by one of the funniest guys around, Andy Borowitz, the first winner of the National Press Club’s award for comedy and the guy behind the Borowitz Report, the most hilarious tweet feed there is. I grabbed my copy as soon as it arrived yesterday and read for an hour, enjoying old favorites and finding new favorites. Borowitz begins with Twain but instead of the usual jumping frog or whitewashed fence he makes an unexpected but absolutely perfect and timely choice with Twain’s declaration of his candidacy for President. I was delighted to see George Ade, Charles Portis, Frank Sullivan, and Peter DeVries included — for different reasons, all four have been neglected and all four merit thoughtful reconsideration. Their selections are also superbly chosen. I was even more delighted to find that Orchid Thief author Susan Orlean could be so funny, to see many of my current favorites like Sloane Crosley and David Rakoff and Wanda Sykes, and to be introduced to authors who are new to me like Jenny Allen and Henry Beard and Larry Wilmore. Dave Barry’s discussion of men, women, and relationships and Bernie Mac’s description of African-American funerals are priceless. The piece by Donald Barthelme on the questionnaire about writers and drinking and the Molly Ivins about Texas politics, “the finest form of free entertainment ever invented” are among my favorites because they show how the simple recitation of actual facts can be funnier than anything you could exaggerate or make up. This book is a treasure trove of laughter and an ideal gift for anyone who needs to be cheered up or refreshed, which these means just about everyone you know.

A Perfect Collection

Andy Borowitz – humorist and creator of the always-entertaining Borowitz Report, has done the supposedly undoable, and done it flawlessly.

This anthology has both obvious and surprising selections – all of them, however, are sure to make even the most rigid stoics wet the pages from tears of uncontrollable laughter. On that note – other reviews are misleading when they say this book is only laugh-out-loud funny, this is not true. It is cry-out-loud funny.

The reason why some reviews are three stars and lower is because those reviewers found it necessary to rate down an entire anthology (of only 50 writers!) simply because it does not contain one of their favorite writers. Disregard these reviews, such an anthology cannot contain every writer every Amazon reviewer considers humorous. Remember the title, folks: “The 50 Funniest American Writers*, *According to Andy Borowitz.”

In sum, excellent writers and pieces, hilarious book overall – also it is a pleasantly quick read, and a quicker and perhaps more enjoyable re-read.

Do not second-guess this purchase, do yourself and Mr. Borowitz a favor and buy this wonderful book.

Laugh Out Loud

A wonderful and entertaining look at humerous writers’ works. Also, it showed me the evolution of humor through the ages. Yes, as one of the reviewers here put it, as time goes on humor becomes more vulger. But, as I see it, that is part of the over-all history. Some of the writers’ pieces are incredibly timely (Twain for President). As a lover of humor, I was very pleased that most of the writings were those that I had never seen. I admit that I did Google a few of the authors, which in some instances provided even more laughs. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to LOL.