Review: Winter's Tales

Winter's Tales by Karen Blixen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Karen von Blixen-Finecke, here using the pen name Isak Dinesen, has the pen names and is best known for [b:Out of Africa|781787|Out of Africa|Isak Dinesen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1178296503s/781787.jpg|1189079]. Here she produced a collection of short stories with a faint hint of ghost stories about them. Mildly fantastic and otherworldly, they make for cozy winter time reading. Inevitably, the tales are of life-changing moments observer or experienced. These crucial moments can overtly magical ("The Sailor-Boy's Tale") or merely inexplicable like the strange meetings in "The Young Man with the Carnation". The life-long and life-affecting love of a wife figure into "The Pearls" and "Peter and Rosa". A mother taking the punishment her child cannot endure is the striking "Sorrow-Acre".

Largely set in the late 19th Century, the foreboding winds of European war cast a pall over many of the nearly dozen stories.



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Review: Winter's Tales

Winter's Tales by Karen Blixen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Karen von Blixen-Finecke, here using the pen name Isak Dinesen, has the pen names and is best known for [b:Out of Africa|781787|Out of Africa|Isak Dinesen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1178296503s/781787.jpg|1189079]. Here she produced a collection of short stories with a faint hint of ghost stories about them. Mildly fantastic and otherworldly, they make for cozy winter time reading. Inevitably, the tales are of life-changing moments observer or experienced. These crucial moments can overtly magical ("The Sailor-Boy's Tale") or merely inexplicable like the strange meetings in "The Young Man with the Carnation". The life-long and life-affecting love of a wife figure into "The Pearls" and "Peter and Rosa". A mother taking the punishment her child cannot endure is the striking "Sorrow-Acre".



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Review: The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art

The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art by Linda Dalrymple Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This revised edition of a work first published in 1983 details the impact and spread of non-Euclidean geometry and the idea of a fourth dimension into, mainly, early Twentieth Century art and thought. Henderson covers the gamut from philosophy topainting, literature to the plastic arts, and beyond. Along with a new index, there is an extensive hundred-page “Reintroduction” serving as the author’s reappraisal, history, and synopsis of this impressive work. Looking back on the three decades since publishing, Henderson considers the further impact of these concepts on art and culture in the late Twentieth Century. The work is well illustrated and it would have been nice had at least some of the numerous black and white plates been upgraded to color ones. This work is strongly persuasive that interpreting the fourth dimension theories and related topics was fundamental to the development of modern art...

[See my full review at MAA Reviews]



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Review: The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story

The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story by Matt Bondurant

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I was drawn to this book by the movie, which I liked very much. Inevitably, I compare the two. The book flashes back and forth between and early and mid-30s. I am glad they didn't do that in the movie and confused why this Boudrant scion chose to do it in his admittedly imagined history. The author romanticized for him this family history over the impossible to find [b:The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial Of 1935|1731466|The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial Of 1935|T. Keister Greer|/assets/nocover/60x80.png|1728947] and other obscure histories. Some of the drama I am surprised did not make it to the film: like the bone-crunching long-rolling contest. The humanizing, figural whittling of Forrest Bondurant seems like another missed opprtunity. I liked discovering from the book the investigatory [a:Sherwood Anderson|45645|Sherwood Anderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1206470009p2/45645.jpg] raised to the level of a main character. I found many of his short story collections are available at the moment for free for the Kindle, so I look forward to reading those, now.



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Review: The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower

The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower by Robert Baer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is book is a bit dated in that it tackles the question of U.S. withdraw from Iraq, but it is very valuable for the years of experience Baer gained on Iran from his years in the middle east. The title of this work is loaded and layers of meaning are not fully clear until the audacious (enlightened? visionary?) epilogue. Baer builds up a tale of a misunderstood Iran with astute geo-political machinations bearing success at positioning it as a regional hegemon and leader of a Shia-dominant, oil-rich Muslim (not Arab) world. It is easy to take this as subtle coloring of a wily adversary, but in the conclusion Baer boldly advises getting the jump on Russia and China and the U.S. directly allying with and cooperating transparently with Iran



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Review: Leadership in the New Normal: A Short Course

Leadership in the New Normal: A Short Course by Russel L Honore

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



There is a lot of wisdom in Honore's little leadership work, but the retired general has not much more than scant if intriguing anecdotes about his four decades of military leadership and before that coming of age in rural Louisiana. someone should of looked out for him on the fact front: Galileo was deemed heretical for believing the world moved, not that it was flat, and idealizing portraits meant to mythologize are not a sound basis for analysis of Washington's field generalship. This man's life and wisdom has at least one good book in it, but this ain't it.

Here's my paraphrasing of the author's excellent leadership ideals:

1) execute the routine expertly
2) face what seems impossible bravely
3) be able to act in the face of criticism

The lack of fact-checking really hurts my enjoyment of this book and respect of the author. I like the insight of the world traveler: a world of cell phones gives the have-nots a window into the haves. But, on facts, can I trust? Honore claims there were no snipers in the post-Katrina Crescent City, that it was all mis-interpreted noise. But, if he gets Galileo wrong?



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Review: The Ultimate Lark: In Search of Epicurean Adventure

The Ultimate Lark: In Search of Epicurean Adventure by Jim Lark

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a fascinating journey with Jim & Mary Lark: globetrotting and haute cuisine. Vignettes of hunting trips in Ireland, United Kingdom, Texas, South America, etc. are interspersed with recipies and advice on how to be a world-class restranteur. Herein Jim reveals his secrets to the success of his Michigan restaurant The Lark, which I have enjoyed many times. This includes only good seating, a can't-go-wrong wine list, excellent service as well as food, theme dinners and a newsletter.



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