Review: The Ebony Tower

The Ebony Tower by John Fowles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories and a novella, each bearing a meta-literary element or theme; the writer's mythology of writing makes an appearance.

The Ebony Tower

Henry Breasley is an elderly painter whose secluded retirement is invaded by the narrater David, commissioned to write a biographical study. The writer at work sees that Breasley shares his home with two young English girls, both former art students, one of them reading The Magus. David is left in no doubt about his host's views on modern abstract art and both puzzled and scintillated by the old man's relationship with the girls, especially when he himself is attracted to Diana.

Eliduc

A translation of a Breton lai by Marie de France with explanatory footnotes. Fowles the writer explores an ancient genre from the inside. In finding lust away from home, it mirrors David's plight in the title piece.

Poor Koko

An elderly writer has borrowed a country cottage from friends in London. On the first night of his stay, the house is burgled, but the burglar exactly a needlessly cruel price that hurts the writer as a writer.

The Enigma

John Fielding, British Member of Parliament, disappears without trace. Was foul play involved, or did he fake his own disappearance? The police officer in charge finds the most intriguing theories from a woman that suggests an analogy of a universe where a writer is constructing the plot he is attempting to unravel. This puts the officer in Kafka-esque existential despair.

The Cloud

A picnic in the south of France for an English family is a psychological diorama for deeper, troubled undercurrents. Mythologies and the idea of imperfect symbols and thus communication is brought forward. The technique of jaded adults conjuring fairy tales for children recalls to me "A Perfect Day for Bananafish".

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Review: Society's Child: My Autobiography

Society's Child: My Autobiography by Janis Ian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I honestly have not heard enough of Ian's music to decide if I am a fan, or not. However, I had heard good things about this autobiography, so I dived in and am glad that I did. I am especially am glad that I chose this audiobook edition as a it is a true performance by Ian from snatches of guitar and singing to her own feelings surfacing in the narration be it from a poorly decided ménage à trois, dealing with a ruthless IRS, or the death of her mother. Starting a solo recording and performance career at 13, dealing with the pains of fame as a teen, and then needing to start over as a has-been by 20, Ian condensed multiple careers into her life. This includes being an early commentator about music downloads and a pioneer in internet auctions. Frank without being salacious, Ian shares her memories of her own relationships -- navigating her own bisexuality during her career -- and having her hard-earned wealth absconded.

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Review: Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I figured I would read this some time, just to see if it justifies to me its longevity and the attention paid in adaptations, none of which I have taken in. This audio version performed excellently by actress Rachel McAdams (Narrator) was just the opportunity. Since I rarely read fiction, it felt natural to compare this in my mind to Little Women , the novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes four decades before this in 1868 and 1869. Also Coming-of-Age Fiction, that Bildungsroman shows the puritanical tragedy of a precocious, expressive woman pushing down her goals and knowing her place, whereas Anne with an "E" of Price Edward Island's Avonlea wins over her adoptive parents and the reader with her pluck and vision in an entertaining, engaging way.

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Review: The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God

The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God by David J. Linden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating, accessible review of current work on brain biology related to sexual orientation (separated monozygotic twins supporting a genetic basis for such behavior), sexual attraction, the mystery of dreams (dreams, even narrative ones occur outside of r.e.m.), and the cross-cultural believes in divine being and calling capsaicin sensation "hot". The brain is truly an engrossing mystery and during this age, the curtain is opening wider on those mysteries.

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Review: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed the audio presentation here mainly narrated by Cary Elwes himself. Robin Wright, Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, and other members of the cast do their portions which really makes it feel like an onstage panel with surviving members of the cast. (Some members are voiced by other narrators which keeps the presentation diverse.)

I always felt here was a Monty Python feel to the movie, different from the book as I pointed out in my review of The Princess Bride. This makes sense since I learned that Production Design by Norman Garwood (Brazil, Time Bandits) tied key creative direction to the Python troupe. The casting that brought in Garwood and the actors reveals how this was constructed from such a desire to produce a witty, smart, satirical screenplay with the participation of author William Goldman. Other things of note include the gigantic generosity and appetites of Andre The Giant, the completely unnecessary insecurity of Wallace Shawn ("Inconceivable!"), the intense amount of swordplay practice put in by Elwes and Mandy Patinkin to stage the "greatest duel" as well as the two serious injuries that befell Elwes.

Certainly 4 stars for any committed fan of the movie as it is like a warm and witty audio commentary to the film.

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Review: Every Man in This Village is a Liar: An Education in War

Every Man in This Village is a Liar: An Education in War by Megan K. Stack
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While this book is subtitled "An Education in War", a more accurate subtitle might be "An Education in The Islamic World". For, other than some in-the-shit reporting from the 2006 Lebanon War, this is largely a non-military journalist's memoir. The reportage of dealing with translators, handlers, and citizens covers also Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, an ex-pat community in Saudi Arabia, and even Yemen where Stack had an almost Zelig-like ability to be on the group during key moments of conflicts. From this travelogue of interactions with people largely overwhelmed with uncaring governments, tense conflicts with locals on the group segues to the sad tale of murdered journalist Atwar Bahjat. One is left with the feeling that the author could easily have gone down the same path as Bahjat.

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Review: The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just as classic as the movie, "in my book." Really, the essential differences are fairly innocuous: the book's Zoo of Death becomes merely the Pit of Despair in the movie and the adult's retelling of a remembered tale sort turns the point of view inside out. The "ending" is different with the weight of the differences giving a darker shade of irony to the book and leaving the movie a but sunnier and more fairy tale-like. As read by Rob Reiner, the tone of this story really feels more like Wood Allen's humor in Side Effects, etc.

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Review: L.A. Secret Police: Inside the LAPD Elite Spy Network

L.A. Secret Police: Inside the LAPD Elite Spy Network by Mike Rothmiller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read about the OCID in The Last Mafioso: The Treacherous World of Jimmy Frantianno and it prompted me to read this book to learn more. It is really a bit after the Frantianno years, however. In this book, former OCID detective Mike Rothmiller discusses how, during the 1970s and '80s, argely by design, OCID activities rarely came to public attention. LAPD officials long insisted that the unit remain spying on celebrities and politicians building up index card files without executing attention-getting arrests. The story is not really told in a coherent fashion, just a collage of corruption and . Bookending this unit history is how running into CIA-backed Contra funding flights nearly got Rothmiller killed, which is about the most interesting part of this book.



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Review: Probability and Statistics: A Course for Physicists and Engineers

Probability and Statistics: A Course for Physicists and Engineers by Arak Mathai
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"While this appears to be a textbook, teachers may be a more accurate target audience for this introduction to probability relevant to the applied sciences. Including basics of sampling distributions, estimation, and hypothesis testing, the topics here arose in a course for teachers in Kerala, India. “These topics were suggested by the college teachers themselves so that they … could be better prepared to teach the material in their classes”, states the preface. This then companion text for future practitioners or their instructors begins from set theory basics and extends to model-building and experiment design. The two or more semesters of material here range from the undergraduate to early graduate level.
This English text has some notation, verbiage, and grammar idiosyncrasies that separate it from similar texts. For instance, the relative complement of A with respect to a set B is notated AC, rather than the clearer binary operation B ∖ A. (AC is the complement of A relevant to what set?) ..."

[Look for my entire review at MAA Reviews]

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Review: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know how many times I have read this book, but this is at least the third time. Still, this epic tale of survival over exposure, privation, and hopelessness holds my attention. Under Shackleton's leadership, leaving behind HMS Endurance to sink, crushed in the Antarctic depths painful progress across the ice floes leads to the voyage of the James Caird; a small-boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia. Then, the markedly impossible overland journey across the steep ridge to surprise the whaling station employees from a direction no human had ever emerged... I already know I will enjoy it again, some day.

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Review: Our House in the Last World

Our House in the Last World by Oscar Hijuelos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Covering basically the 1930s thru the '70s, this multi-generational Cuban-American family epic goes from the aristocratic Sorrea family in eastern Cuba to Mercedes, the second of three daughters, who sees the ghost of her father frequently and dreams. She marries Alejo Santinio who wants a more exciting life away from rural Cuba and decides to emigrate with Mercedes to the United States. tye have the boys Hector and older brother Horacio. This becomes Hector's tale who seems to have inherited his mother's phantasmagoric sensitivities. The changes in Cuba up to Castro and the United States over those decades is the backdrop. What I liked most about this novel is the flavor of the dream-like recollections, relying on wistful passages and little dialogue. This is a delicate balance for the author, as the story threatens to drift away, unmoored by the delicate prose and description. However, it proves a firm enough foundation to support a reincarnation recollection back to Columbus.

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Review: A Christmas Memory

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is an unabridged selection from the story of the fruitcake-making Christmas shared by a seven-year-old boy and a sixty-ish uncomplicated woman who, very sadly, drifts off the way our elder friends and family do. This edition includes activities and exercises based on the text aimed at building reading comprehension in children. It is really a sad tale in total, about a friendless duo in a stark and small world... I wonder how children receive it.

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Review: Madame Sadayakko

Madame Sadayakko by Lesley Downer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this on a lark and was truly fascinated and entertained throughout. From the close of the 19th Century to after WW II, Sadayakko's life covered an impressive range of not only time, but space and art, as well. For space she went around the world and returned to Paris having built up an impressive career as an actress in front of, mostly, audiences, that knew little of what to expect and could not speak her language. Her equally impressive husband went from agitprop "river beggar" actor to chaperone his impressive geisha wife to the stage and stardom. In art she proved non-pareil for her time and impressed enough the equally pioneering Loie Fuller to receive that impressive artist's important support to launch a Paris-based European fame.

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Review: Berlin Embassy

Berlin Embassy by William Russell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author manned the visa desk in the Berlin embassy while Hitler rose and European countries fell. His insider look into life under the Nazis was a nice follow-up read to The Home Front: Life in America During World War II as both focus on normal life under these extraordinary conditions. Russell details contemporary jokes, trying to shop for thread and other basics, and reproduces newspaper articles from the virulent, anti-British press. There are also several applicant cases that add to this unique WWII memoir.

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Review: Last Mafioso

Last Mafioso by Ovid Demaris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Since reading Green Felt Jungle, Demaris's expose on Mafia operations in Las Vegas co-written with Ed Reid, I was intrigued to read is inside look on an acting boss found to be an FBI informant destined for the Witness Protection Program. I applaud Demaris for including the detailed "dramatis personae" to make sense of the myriad character spread over 500 pages. However, the story is not really engrossing until we, literally, "cut to the chase" in the final act as a Mafia contract pushes "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno out of the Mob, into hiding, and ultimately into the witness stand as a gov't-protected testifier. For some reason, Demaris chooses to fill a lot of the book with lengthy conversations that ring false; supposedly Demaris and his colleagues automatically lapse into narrating their own documentary about Mafia history and hits. I would like to know more about how he came to be an FBI source for so long. This important sub-plot is relegated to a passing reference.

The book is a revealing tale of life in the Mafia with an indepth look at the Los Angeles crime family, The Chicago Outfit, and The Cleveland crime family, and several notable mobsters. There are also notable non-mobsters featured with unsavory connections, including Frank Sinatra (willing to work with made men to make his mom proud to save a son in Knights of Malta), and murky mayor Joseph Alioto.

Johnny Roselli's life is also detailed and the book describes conversations the two had about John Roselli's involvement in the CIA's plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, known as "Family Jewels" when declassified in 2007. The book also mentions Roselli's alleged involvement in the John F. Kennedy assassination, but dismisses the notion that the Mafia had anything to do with the JFK murder while suggesting both Hoffa (for the scrutiny of RFK) and Castro (for uncovering the CIA's plot to assassinate him) had motive and intent to slay JFK.

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Review: Gomorrah: A Personal Journey Into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System

Gomorrah: A Personal Journey Into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System by Roberto Saviano
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Camorra (here spelled "Gomorrah") is an Italian Mafia-type crime syndicate which arose in the region of Campania and its capital Naples. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating back to the 17th century. Unlike the pyramidal structure of the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra's organizational structure is more horizontal than vertical. Consequently, individual Camorra "clans" act fairly independently of each other. This book explores much of that clan structure, which contribute to making this crime syndicate unique.

The Wikipedia Camorra article lists the following crimes typical of this organization:

* Racketeering
* drug trafficking
* waste management
* murder
* bid rigging
* extortion
* assault
* smuggling
* illegal gambling
* terrorism
* loan sharking
* prostitution
* money laundering
* robbery

I think all of these are touched on here, with special attention to infiltration of cement (construction) and garbage industries. It sounds like whole square miles of southern Italy as well as China are being polluted and turned carcinogenic by these practices. While this is appalling enough, I feel something not listed there deserves its own entry: Italy's Mob-controlled counterfeit fashion industry. From this book:

The workforce in clan operations is highly skilled, with decades of experience under Italy's and Europe's most important designers. The same hands that once worked under the table for the big labels now work for the clans…Which means that the clothes made by the clans aren't typical counterfeit goods…but rather a sort of true fake. All that's missing is the final step: the brand
name, the official authorization from the motherhouse.

This is also done in cahoots with Chinese partners and while intriguingly leading off the book, it does not get sufficient treatment later on and is probably worth its own book.

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Review: Padre Pio: Man of Hope

Padre Pio: Man of Hope by Renzo Allegri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I first was going to pass on this book without reading it, figuring it literally the type of hagiography that rarely holds something illumination, but then while reading Gomorrah I was intrigued by how many Italian gangsters revere the saint to the point of having his icons, etc. So, I picked this up since it was at hand. I found this a fascinating story of a man at war with papal, Capuchin and other Catholic establishment powers while worshipped and adored by the area populace and beyond. This went to the point of "Exclaustration": official authorization for Pio to live for a limited time outside his abbey while he fought the diabolical disease at this home. Actually, his visions and struggles with demons -- some may say hallucinations -- seems to have made inkpot-throwing Luther pale by comparison. Obviously the writer sides on the miraculous: He feels it obvious Pio could strive for a decade to secretly establish a hospital while considering ludicrous the several detractors that feel his stigmata came from hidden application of iodine or nitric acid or some other available caustic. Regardless, and I am sure I personally could never know the truth of these phenomena, yet still as a story of the growth and embattled success of a Catholic saint, this is a fascinating story crossing over both World Wars and with cameos from Gianbattista-Giuffre (an unscrupulous "God's Banker"), Pope John Paul II, and a sketchy entrepeneur named Emanuele Brunatto.

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Review: King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. by Wil Haygood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Was Clayton an opportunistic spectator, or progressive instigator to social change? It seems to me from this detailed, encompassing biography a blend of the two from the flashy Harlem politician who coined the phrase "Black Power" at his 1966, May Howard Univ. speech. Chameleon-like, he stumped for Eisenhower and allied with LBJ; anything to advance his profile and advance integration for African-Americans. Clayton's career with the two major parties covered a transformative, post-Reconstruction era when the GOP traded Teddy Roosevelt-era progressivism to buck change and the Democrats fractions into the recalcitrant Southern Dixiecrats and a radicalizable norther arm of the party. Along the way, Clayton chased skirts and photo ops in Europe, Africa, Puerto Rico (where he hoped statehood would advance him from the House of Representatives to the Senate), and Bimini where he hunkered down battling ethics violations instead of representing his constituents. I do admire his pluck in taking on both The Mob and corrupt police in battling numbers rackets and other corruption in his district.

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Review: No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators

No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators by Steve Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The "World's Premier Forensic Investigators" are, by this book, searching in Russia for the remains of Romanovs.

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Review: Our Man in Havana

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel set in Cuba makes fun of intelligence services, especially the British MI6, in their willingness to believe reports from their local informants. While actually, this book predates the Cuban Missile Crisis, but vacuum cleaner parts drawings masquerading as atomic missile installations appear anticipatory. Even the product lines like "Atomic Pile" show what was in the air at the time. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1959 starring Alec Guinness and I would like to see it as there's so much comedic material here that I think would translate well to the screen. I would give this four stars except for the killing by the protagonist of Captain Segura, a military strongman in love with his daughter Milly and intending to marry her. Real lethal violence is fine in fiction and entertainment for me, but it has no real place in this farce and contributes to making the final act feel rushed and lacking in the imagination of the earlier material.

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Review: Roseanne: My Life as a Woman

Roseanne: My Life as a Woman by Roseanne Barr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tackling life without cable, I came across on the local HD channels on ABC and have been enjoying episodes of her TV show Roseanne. I find it much better in depth and engaging with often delightfully absurdist endings as when much of the cast of Gilligan's Island appeared on an episode. This led me to read this memoir, which really predates the TV show. In fact, it is really a loosely knit series of vignettes and recollections with a special chapter about one of my favorite cities, New Orleans. It carts from childhood as a Utahn Jew in a sea of Mormons and finding an awkward path to the stand-up stage. This autobiography ends with Barr in her 30s and a mother in her first marriage to Pentland. Beside the interesting bits about a serious car encounter with a hood ornament embedded in her hear leading to brief institutionalization, Much stands out that feels like source material for the TV show: the drudgery of a housewife and a pent-up desire to write well-received books.

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Review: Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quite entertaining and engaging memoir of a would-be around-the-world trek that ends up in the setting of the Maoist-Royalist Nepalese civil war tracking down and reclaiming orphans sold into servitude. This is the story of the founding of Next Generation Nepal budding from love and connection found in volunteering at an orphanage named for The Little Prince.



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Review: The definitive biography of P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742)?

The definitive biography of P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742)? by Peter Schickele
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have long enjoyed and found hilarious the Peter Schickele hoax/farce of P.D.Q. Bach. I first was introduced through the now defunct Detroit classical music FM station WQRS. After collecting records, I now have enjoyed this detailed and encompassing book-length treatment of the joke. I think it hits my funnybone the same way Monty Python does and I see in reading these old chestnuts that some of this stuff has crept into my own repertoire and become part of my own sense of humor...

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Review: American Impressionism

American Impressionism by Amy Fine Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A "fine" collection of a score or more of American impressionists, arranged alphabetically after an introductory essay on painting genre. Nicely arranged with large images in the coffee table book, the descriptions tell us why this work is significant and aids understanding the elements of composition that make that one unique in the gallery of images. This is an educational, enlightening, engaging, and entertaining read to leaf through casually at any point. Cassat, Whistler, and Chase get specially detailed presentation.

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Review: How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Despite being a fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson, I very much more enjoyed this memoir of the Pluto reclassification compared to The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. Tyson seemed to stumble into affairs after a presumptuous New York Times article about an exhibit and brought in outsider things I don't recall, like the American discovery of Pluto making the public cling to it. Brown, however, is well-known in the scientific community for his surveys for distant objects orbiting the Sun. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Particularly notable are Eris, the only TNO discovered that is more massive than Pluto, and is one of a number of dwarf planets in the Solar System; 90377 Sedna, a planetoid thought to be the first observed body belonging to the inner Öpik-Oort cloud; and 90482 Orcus. Eris (previously known as Xena) and its moon Dysnomia all figure in here highly. This is because Brown reflects back on a career mining the Kuiper belt for planetoids before Pluto was controversial and we had the classification "dwarf planet". Brown recounts juggling all the controversy while his daughter was born and growing and he discovered apparently underhanded dealings against his claim on another TNO, Haumea.

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Review: Jesus Land: A Memoir

Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been at least twice drawn into the documentary Kidnapped for Christ , where filmmaker Kate Logan captured the scene at Escuela Caribe in 2006. So, that prodded me to read this memoir covering the same venue for "culture shock" and other traumatic therapies perpetrated by New Horizon Ministries even though it is based in the 1980s. Scheeres title refers to a severe Christian landscape that stretches from her dysfunctional home to the Caribbean locale. Through her life she much abuse and lack of accepting love from her environment and this compelling recollection focuses on how she survived and how she was supported by the special bond with her brother, David.

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