Review: The Secrets of the German War Office

The Secrets of the German War Office by Armgaard Karl Graves

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I really enjoyed reading this, but find the most exciting parts hard to believe. Most of the book is the autobiographical details of a gentleman spy plying his craft in exotic, urbane locales. All that is well and good enough, but a pre-WW I secret Black Forest meeting with German military leads, Austrians, and British leaders including Churchill and Haldane (British Secretary of State for War) agreeing to support or allow Russia pushed out of Europe at the cost of the Slavs and Antwerp going to Germany! Well, then again Haldane was pushed out of the government for German sympathies and apparently the author's report is substantatiated by the documented Haldane Mission. It seems the more I read, the more interesting and complex pre-WW I Europe was.

However, the exiting relation at the end of super Zeppelin "X 15" machines hidden in secret bases and filled with exotic, nonflammable gases which can reach perilous heights and go over a 1000 kilometers with heavy bomb loads all strains credulity and at least on the Web I haven't found any source for these superweapons beyond the author.

Still, the feeling that Armgaard wasn't Zelig and imagined more than he experienced is overwhelming. Characters like lady spy Olga Bruder feel like they could have been inspired by the [a:Maugham Somerset Maugham|5725487|Maugham Somerset Maugham|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] story "Miss King", a story collected in [b:Collected Short Stories: Volume 3 of 4|90311|Collected Short Stories Volume 3 of 4 (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)|W. Somerset Maugham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171189677s/90311.jpg|6532265] where Maugham disclaims in the preface, "The works of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for short stories is scrappy and pointless; the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic, and probable. That is what I have tried to do in this particular series."

Maybe Armgaard's intelligence work was similarly blah and he just meant to make it coherent and dramatic if not probable.



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Review: The Texture of Our Souls: Accounts From the Heart

The Texture of Our Souls: Accounts From the Heart by Idea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Produced by IDEA, The International Association for Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement in association with The United States-Japan Foundation and the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation this booklet focuses on quotes from Japanese and American sufferers of Hansen's Disease (lerprosy). Generally these affecting quotes along side moving B&W images are taken from leprosy memoirs.



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Review: WebFOCUS Client Repository and Security Authorization

WebFOCUS Client Repository and Security Authorization by Information Builders

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I read DN4501172.0312 edition of this work-in-progress manual. It is a good overview of the beta product still being produced with only occasional editing needs although key images are in unfortunately poor resolution.



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Review: Let's Pretend This Never Happened:

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: by Jenny Lawson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Read by the author, this audiobook reads like a comedy performance, rather like Carrie Fischer's audiobook "Wishful Drinking", but not as insightful. That is, the work is full of chuckles but not enlightenment. Her far flung jaunts into self-deprecation are often embarrasing, like a Chelsea Handler memoir. Then, suddenly she will deep dive into a painfully personal moment, like cancer or death of pet, but with no artful segue or edifying conclusion.

There's a substantial amount of extra material self-deprecating the audiobook production process, much of it sounding extemporaneous.



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Review: Let's Pretend This Never Happened:

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: by Jenny Lawson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Read by the author, this audiobook reads like a comedy performance, rather like Carrie Fischer's audiobook "Wishful Drinking", but not as insightful. That is, the work is full of chuckles but not enlightenment. Her far flung jaunts into self-deprecation are often embarrasing, like a Chelsea Handler memoir. Then, suddenly she will deep dive into a painfully personal moment, like cancer or death of pet, but with no artful segue or edifying conclusion.



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Review: THE ENEMY IS LISTENING

THE ENEMY IS LISTENING by Aileen Clayton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Aileen Clayton's autobiorgraphical account of waging "electronic war" on the axis for the British and WWII is a fascinating and detailed if unusual picture of the European Theater. Clayton can't help but go very far into wireless technical details and often her maps add nothing to the story, but the story stripped of these is fascinating. Not only did she listen in on German figher pilots and more from Great Britain to Malta to Cairo, but she pioneered the role of women in British uniformed services and mutual respect for them.



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Review: Sister of Silence

Sister of Silence by Daleen Berry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a story of woman who endured chronic date rape and when that led to pregnacy and prime time news attention, tried to build a house of love out of that mess. Sad, very sad, and a very real exposition of the psychology of vicitimization.

A horny teenager ingratiated himself into a needy family and a careless mother let serial rape being and continue under her own roof until nationally recognized pergnacy (a story was done on the author's high school's high rate of teen pregnacy) and Daleen ends up married to her rapist. After three kids and therapy she finally stands up to him. Certainly a cautionary tale on many levels.



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