Review: Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Great fun and even enlightening audiobook from an insightful and honest comedian from before he seems to have been subsumed by the beast he formerly goaded.



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Review: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Wow: great content, great narrator.

I have been avoiding reading North Korea books, even though the subject fascinates me, because I figure, who can know enough about the "Hermit Kingdom" in order to fill a book? Well, Demick's extensive interviews with defectors is able to tell the story of lives inside North Korea from the separation of Korea on to before the ascendancy of Kim Jong-un, in the twilight of Kim Jong-il's reign. Especially engrossing is the the North Korean famine, which lasted from 1994 to 1998 and killed an estimated 800,000 to 3,500,000 people. Also, life and means of traffickers and defectors that cross north into China or Mongolia even is fascinating. Other dimensions explored are families split between the two Koreas as well as ethnic Koreans living in China and Japanese-Koreans.



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Review: Space Mathematics: Math Problems Based on Space Science

Space Mathematics: Math Problems Based on Space Science by Bernice Kastner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This NASA-created collection of pre-calculus mathematical problems is set up in a workbook format. Problems are presented with solutions immediately following and some blank pages for computations. The space science “story problems” come mostly from high school and first-year undergraduate algebra with contributions from geometry, probability, matrices, linear regression, trigonometry, and conic sections.

(Look for my entire review at MAA Reviews.)



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Review: The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark Northern Norway

The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark Northern Norway by Liv Helene Willumsen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This a beautiful, cloth-covered hardcover oversized presentation of witchcraft trials from the district of Finnmark in Northern Norway. The populace perceived severe witchcraft persecution during the 17th century, as had been popularly imaginged across Europe and in North America in the preceding centuries. In this area with no more than 3,000 inhabitants, 135 people were accused of witchcraft: 91 of them were executed. This book contains the court records of the original trials. Very little commentary bookends the original documents in Norwegian, side by side with the English translation. So, the mass of this book is depositions and court declamations of shape-shifting (often into the form of a duck), beer-inspired fighting with apparent malevolent influence, trials by ordeal (floating indicates guilt), and torture-borne confessions of weather control, broomstick riding and more. It is both chilling and sadly funny at the same time. It turns out that the Holy Grail witch scene was about documentary material.



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Review: The Collapse of the Third Republic

The Collapse of the Third Republic by William L. Shirer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Some amazing things in this history! I had no idea Shirer was a radio correspondent basically embedded with the Nazi army and thus present at many key events, such as outside Foch's rail car for the defeat signing and strolling into an abandoned Paris. (At that point cows gazed in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.) Peeling away the onion of sociological and political France pre-WWII the sudden defeat makes sense with the seeds planted there. Riddled with fascist support, even the far left was against fighting Hitler. "Die for Danzig?", they asked. Heck, it seems like the could have joined The Axis with a bit more of that. This basically briefly in the attacks on the (much hated) British as they tried to sink the French Fleet and prevent it from falling into German hands. The book concludes, before an Epilogue, with the signing away of the Republic to estable Petain's collaborationist, anti-Semite Vichy regime.



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Review: Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I did got a copy of the Kindle edition of Anna Karenina. I figured with the Stoppard movie in mind I could try a second read and maybe keep the characters straight, with their nicknames and all.



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Review: Rough Beasts: The Zanesville Zoo Massacre' One Year Later

Rough Beasts: The Zanesville Zoo Massacre' One Year Later by Charles Siebert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a very short and thus very easy read about the exotic pet hoarder that, apparently, committed suicide covered in chicken blood after releasing his bears, lions, tigers, and more - oh my! It's a messy seen, coming on the heels of divorce and firearm-related imprisonment. His apparent pre-suicide actions and the suicide itself makes me ask why this man could legally have guns, let alone predators. The predators themselves were largely de-clawed and de-fanged companion animals raised from cubs and most of the 49 killed probably could have been gathered and saved by the on-hand caretaker that knew them, but either the sheriffs on hand did what they felt they had to do given insufficient information and keeping public safety as the highest priority, or they took the opportunity to slay even in their cages mostly harmless animals that they had long sought to get rid of you. You decide.



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