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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