Review: Our History Waterford, MI

Our History Waterford, MI by Joy Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The local historical society crafted this chapbook. I never would have guessed the "historical district" of Waterford is Andersonville from Dixie to Airport... Especially the Andersonville & Dixie intersection did get the lion's share of the earliest settler activity. The piece also highlights structures collected by the Society - including a log cabin and a caboose - and its plans and activities.

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Review: A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Funny, I got this because I misread the cover and thought this was a title by one of my favorite novelists John Fowles...

...That mistake was years ago and I just got round to reading this anyway.

This is a quick, easy read about an ephemeral, semi-autobiographical period at an exclusive boy's school on the east coast during the fervent times of growing WWII war fever.

The suddenly and inexplicable emergence of a darker nature, ultimately lethal sets this up as an existentialist quandary with, for me, distinct similarities to The Stranger.

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Review: Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence

Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence by Patrick Sharkey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author follows up his Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress toward Racial Equality supporting continued urban focus from policing and other government bodies with a consideration of the approximate 20 year Great Crime Decline in the U.S. starting in the mid-'90s, or so. Maybe even the increase in violent crime from in the three decades previous was an aberration as Steven Pinker, one of the researchers quoted here, avers in The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Maybe we are too close to that decline, even if it has appeared to be now in the past, to analyze it. The author says as much, certainly in raising the conflicting variables of more policing, police brutality, community patrols, "Broken Windows" policies, and even reduced lead in the environment. Taking a close look, even as far as Australia, the author does feel it is the engaged community that makes the difference. Policies that support and foster an engaged community and anything that reduces racism in unequal access to opportunity should help.

[I received an ARC of this book through Goodreads Giveaways.]

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Review: Did Monkeys Invent the Monkey Wrench?: Hardware Stores and Hardware Stories

Did Monkeys Invent the Monkey Wrench?: Hardware Stores and Hardware Stories by Vince Staten
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A cute, quaint memoir of the family hardware store with a paragraph each about hardware store items. Much like a Wikipedia entry, items generally get a history of who invented them (or may have done so). A few things merit a few pages, like light bulbs and paint. This may appeal only to others with a hardware store career background.

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Review: Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was really drawn in by this Gothic mystery that introduced Count Dracula to the world. I think it is well-paced and the presentation of an assembly of notes, recordings, and diaries, etc. is engaging. It prompted me to review the Bram Stoker's Dracula (1973 film)> British television movie adaptation with Jack Palance in the title role as well as the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola production starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins.

Back to the book, somebody should really tell the tale from Renfield's P.O.V. This sad lunatic has much going on for personal encounters with Dracula and well as psychic ones and goes through quite an arc with his most dramatic moments happening "off stage."

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Review: The Matter of the Heart: A History of the Heart in Eleven Operations

The Matter of the Heart: A History of the Heart in Eleven Operations by Thomas Morris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow. An amazing tour of heart surgery from antiquity to the age of robot surgery: aneurysms, Blue baby syndrome (cyanosis), artificial hearts valves, catheterization, pacemakers... Wow, people committing suicide due to the Chinese torture of their early, clicking pacemakers and artificial valves. Also, note to self, Charles Lindberg emerged from reclusion not with an artificial heart, but having a had a hand in developing the first perfusion pump, precursor of the heart lung machine.

Wow. Vladimir Demikhov, Soviet scientist and organ transplant pioneer, did the two-headed dog experiment. Shocking and seemingly pointless and unnecessary. Still, it was not the point of this book, but I think it changed my attitude about vivisection. I never looked into it and previously thought only of vivisection as cruel, unnecessary, and pain-inducing surgery on live animals resulting in crimes like Demikhov's two-headed dog. Actually, 'vivisection' (from Latin vivus, meaning "alive", and sectio, meaning "cutting") is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals. It does not mean anesthesia was not used, suffering was not minimized, life was invariably shortened, and - importantly here - that many human lives were not saved or improved. It does feel like reading this history that important heart surgery advances for children and those cardiologically impaired could not have gotten to where it is today without early experimentation on animals, mostly dogs. Some children got to meet the dogs upon which the experiments were done to benefit them.

[I received an ARC of this book through Goodreads Giveaways.]

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Review: Mathematics as a Tool: Tracing New Roles of Mathematics in the Sciences

Mathematics as a Tool: Tracing New Roles of Mathematics in the Sciences by Johannes Lenhard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

...Expounding on the philosophy of model building with several historical examples, this collection of papers highlights approaches to modeling and underpinning necessities. Among the necessities highlighted is an overview of theory of error analysis, a few diagrams of the necessary high-level modeling steps, and transforming the model into mathematical terms (“idealizations play a central role in this transformation”). Modeling is an obvious application of the mathematics tool. This common instance of mathematics employed in science falls into the more general umbrella summarized by contributor Jürgen Jost that mathematics “consists in providing a framework for conceptual thinking and formal reasoning. This is valid across all disciplines, and actually badly needed in many of them.” Jost’s concluding contribution nicely points to what the considerations contained herein support: “there exist profound analogies between models in physically very different domains. It is actually one of the main driving forces of mathematics to consider the corresponding structures and relations abstractly and independently of any particular instantiation and to work out general theories to new domains… For instance, similar statistical phenomena show up in quantum mechanics, in the analysis of biological high-throughput data, or in the description of social phenomena.” Mathematics, one tool for all science.

[Look for my entire review at MAA Reviews]

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Review: The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A beautiful facsimile book of Edith Holden 1906 record/diary/amateur naturalist's log of poetry, observations, and colorful watercolors of the flora and fauna of her British countryside through the changing seasons. There is one chapter for each month, including background on the month's name and final section listing the scientific and common names of area wildflowers and birds.

Holden's carefully handwritten entries include her favorite relevant poems (Robert Burns, Edmund Spenser, etc.) and her observations of the wildlife she saw in her native Warwickshire from the year's first cuckoo to a hedgehog dead along the trail, etc.

This is a fascinating and personal time capsule.

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Review: In the Kennedy Style: Magical Evenings in the Kennedy White House

In the Kennedy Style: Magical Evenings in the Kennedy White House by Letitia Baldrige
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very nice behind-the-scenes look at entertaining in the Kennedy White House written by Jackie's social director Letitia Baldrige and René Verdon, chef for the White House during the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Baldrige talks about the context and arrangements, such as the first event, an event at George Washington's Mt. Vernon, entertaining the Nobel laureates including a controversial Linus Pauling. Verdon delivers the details on each course of several events; not only recipes but also explicit directions and advice. This is all immersed in numerous full-color photographs in a large-sized hardcover.

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Review: Diana: Her True Story

Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a quick and easy read ... and sad. Like so many "Lady Di" biogs, it exposes a gilded cage life bereft of warmth and love from Prince Charles gravitating toward Camilla and turning under the strain to self-harm, bulimia, and soothsayers. This book ends after the couple's separation, but before their divorce. Also, there are tens of full-color pictures of Diana starting with childhood.

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Review: Organized Crime Handbook: A Walkthrough of Various Families

Organized Crime Handbook: A Walkthrough of Various Families by Daniel McEnnis
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Really an article-length monograph, this starts out with intriguing details about a Russian-Chinese derived "White Tiger" criminal organization with esoteric practices like "interpretations" and punishing "stones" or sexual slavery, etc. These seems poorly sources and poorly worded. Then, the piece veers into using the Men in Black movie as source material and the author's own parents embroiled in this syndicate with the author fetching $300M on the slave market. Wacky conspiracy ravings.

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Review: The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse

The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse by Hermann Hesse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is really an abridgment of the main collection translated by Jack Zipes. This is a two cassette audio edition of narration with incidental guitar by Donovan. In order, the tales presented are "A Man By The Name Of Ziegler" (1908), "A Dream About The Gods" (1914), "Faldum" (1916), "The Poet" (1913) and "Flute Dream" (1914). This is the first time I ever dived into this material and I must say I much prefer the novels from Hesse, such as Steppenwolf, and Siddhartha. These just don't work for me, they seem somehow pained in their efforts to be poignant, poetic, and moralistic. The rather deep plots of an alchemist's seed, regretted wishes, and the urge to craft a perfect poem (shades of Goldmund here), are all for rather mature minds and not as plain as the category "fairy tale" suggests. These are more like long parables.

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Review: As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

James Franco has made at least a couple of Faulkner-based films, now. Both are deemed fair to poor, but maybe this is because the typical Franco fan is not a Faulkner reader? I decided to revisit this title - one I would recommend as a first Faulkner read for its brevity and accessibility - and watch the As I Lay Dying 2013 film directed and co-written by and starring James Franco and be my own judge.

Verdict?

The book is better than I remember - as seems to be my judgement each time I revisit Faulkner - and the film is better than rated.

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Review: For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War

For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War by Melvyn P. Leffler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A thorough examination of the Cold War from the WW II roots through to the dissolution of the USSR and German reunification under Gorbachev. This is largely told through the series of American presidents on one side and Soviet leaders on the author through summitry and other communications and interaction. There are some maps and lots of references and bibliography making this a scholarly work. The one thing that I realized through this is that U.S.-China relations from the 50s on through the Cold War were much about pulling China toward the U.S. and thus away from the Soviet sphere.

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Review: Modern Ballet

Modern Ballet by Random House
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This excellent overview by John Percival begins with the birth of institutional American ballet in NYC in the '40s. It is an easy read because easily have the content is dramatic B&W photos from key productions. I didn't know about the involvement of John Cage opera and also covered is Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan, and more. It is interesting how the American approach to the graph spawned both avante-garde and populist commercial forms. A bit is said about the development of ballet in Britain and some other Western European countries.

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Review: The Madams of San Francisco

The Madams of San Francisco by Curt Gentry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting and detailed overview of six decades of Bay Area bawdy houses from the humble beginnings of a handful or working girls in a sea of thousands of 49ers up to a high point of a thriving sex industry in the last half of the Nineteenth Century until a fitful and slow dying off in the early Twentieth Century under the weight of women's suffrage and the moralistic Temperance Movement. Compiled largely from period memoirs, newspaper accounts, and court testimony this work recalls such spirited "procuress" pioneers as Ah Toy, Belle Cora (Arabella Ryan), and more.

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Review: The Fall & Rise of the Ejected

The Fall & Rise of the Ejected by Jim Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story of punk & oi! band The Ejected written by lead singer Jim Brooks is not in this 4th Edition "totally up to date story of the band" being brought up to 2017 with the story of 2017 record Game Of Survival! (Randale Records, 2017). That is the meat of this telling; initial formation and recent reunion shows and albums over the last few years. Act I has details on the first couple of albums and a fair amount of detail on recording with UK Subs guitarist Nicky Garratt. With amplifying a bit more detail, improving punctuation and fleshing out the pre-LP years and adding a middle act - like the asides about the reggae years - before The Rise, this could be a decent small book about this important London punk & oi! band.

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Review: The Informant

The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was intrigued to learn more ever since seeing the Matt Damon movie, and this book really delivers on the intriguing and outlandish details. Trying to bring down the immense lysine price-fixing conspiracy, the FBI gets mired in the bipolar-induced paranoia and schemes of ADM's Divisional President Mark Whitacre,who was embezzling $9 million even while cooperating with the FBI setting up his colleagues wearing a wire, etc. Whitacre as a complex figure that frequently likes and shows evidence of delusion. Apparently, Whitacre was scammed by a group in Nigeria in an advance fee fraud and these losses may have been the initial reason behind his embezzlement activity which grew to affect colleagues and family.

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Review: Violated: Exposing Rape at Baylor University amid College Football's Sexual Assault Crisis

Violated: Exposing Rape at Baylor University amid College Football's Sexual Assault Crisis by Paula Lavigne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What ever happened to Ken Starr after the puritanical Starr Report and all that? Well, Starr on February 15, 2010, he became Baylor University's president. While Starr was "leading the charge" to keep the university in the Big 12 Conference for athletics, Starr was additionally named chancellor of Baylor in November 2013, becoming the first person to hold the positions of president and chancellor at Baylor at the same time. In September 2015, Baylor's Board of Regents initiated an external review of the university's response to reports of sexual violence to be conducted by the Pepper Hamilton law firm. Baylor had been accused of failing to respond to reports of rape and sexual assault filed by at least six female students from 2009 to 2016. Two former football players, Tevin Elliot and Sam Ukwuachu, were convicted of rape. This detailed investigation recounts the events leading up to Elliot's 20-year sentence after his conviction and, in 2014 Starr's removal as university president. So many women were victimized and traumatized in a culture that so elevated the status of University athletes that the Title IX investigations read like a RICO take down of an organized crime outfit.

That was on Starr's watch at a private Baptist university in Waco, Texas... Only in America.

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Review: Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83

Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83 by Tesco Vee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From my interview with Tesco Vee about this impressive and important anthology:

"...this book transcends Tescoe Vee, The Meatmen and everything that I have ever done it's because it covers such a broad spectrum and somebody else wrote about it. It says that this book does so I can lighten the such a grand idea or this book. Probably does the best job of any of these punk retrospectives of really showing you how the punk evolved. You know so we started in '79 appearing the tail end of the UK thing that then you can see how the domestic hard—American hardcore movement happened. How it came together and how all these bands and disparate seems all connected the dots and started and I started corresponding with Dischord people and started Touch and Go Records ..."

Audio of the full interview is at .

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Review: Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations

Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations by Michael Walzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read a lot of history. I figure, conservatively, I have read hundreds of nonfiction histories. From my own assessment, I doubt in cost of human life (potential), wealth-"blood and treasure"-that no more human expenditure has been made than that of warring of one group upon another. To what end? Written in reaction to the Vietnam war, this considered and though-provoking work is an overview of war and war situations decided from Thucydides to Vietnam and considering the morality of each. Considering this era of Global War on Terrorism how long not only terrorism but the consideration of warring on non-state actors has been with us. None is settled, really, so I guess as it is said in Ecclesiastes 1:9 -

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

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Review: Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur by Albert Keim
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This antique biography is a real work of hagiography: Pasteur is superman and all the adjectives are postive and end in -est... But it is still an enjoyable read of an accomplished life from chemist to microbiologist.

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Review: The Hobbit

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This abridged audiobook version was my first Audible Audio selection: a freebie for new customers. It was a nice way to revisit one of my fiction favorites and opened the floodgates: I now have over a thousand Audible titles that I own and have enjoyed.

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Review: I, Claudius

I, Claudius by Robert Graves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Graves knowledge and love of classic Roman history exudes in this mock autobiography of the limping would-be historian Claudius. The telling reaches back to the poisonings and scheming of Livia, Augustus' third wife and the realization of these manipulations int he fall of Germanicus, the rise of Tiberius and the eventual pathological reign of Caligula before Claudius ascends to the throne in the final paragraphs.

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