tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310246952024-03-14T04:10:51.857-05:00POD Book Reviews & MoreStriving to be The Premiere POD Review Site by Offering Legitimate Book Reviews to Deserving Print On Demand, Self-Published, and Small and Large Press Authors and Their ReadersFloyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.comBlogger351125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-30622256025305840482015-02-04T19:37:00.002-06:002015-02-04T19:37:29.433-06:00The Commuter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXZZtQ0GSjIe_nrp4hoxPQoGoivirwCOEELsn0FiDhoCCNfPyamXrbqpgIXMAxiZBXB75MHrhXcjdnP9OYU1xqT6U1A4uZUrxdB4Yv9WkNooqiVI1uTEvJERP9q3Z4bY9gAMJnQ/s1600/The+Commuter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXZZtQ0GSjIe_nrp4hoxPQoGoivirwCOEELsn0FiDhoCCNfPyamXrbqpgIXMAxiZBXB75MHrhXcjdnP9OYU1xqT6U1A4uZUrxdB4Yv9WkNooqiVI1uTEvJERP9q3Z4bY9gAMJnQ/s1600/The+Commuter.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Commuter-Patrick-Oster/dp/0786755970/ref=la_B000APXZW0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423095017&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Commuter</span></b></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Patrick Oster</span><br />
(Argo-Navis / 0-7867-5597-0 / 978-0-7867-5597-4 / July 2014 / 252 pages / $21.95 paperback / $18.05 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Commuter-Patrick-Oster-ebook/dp/B00M6G1EFQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1423095017" target="_blank">$2.99 Kindle</a>)<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">The Commuter </span></i><span style="font-size: large;">is one of the better books I have reviewed at PODBRAM. Its author is considerably more experienced at writing than the average author reviewed on this site, and the talent shows. Patrick Oster has quite a resume as a journalistic writer. You can read Mr. Oster's detailed history at his website linked below.</span> <span style="font-size: large;">He has been a lifelong professional journalist and he is currently a managing editor at Bloomberg News. He traditionally published a nonfiction book entitled <i>The Mexicans </i>some years ago. <i> </i></span><span style="font-size: large;">This is his first modern POD novel. He has already released another later last year and his next fiction work is planned for 2015.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Barnaby Gilbert loses his job as a corporate efficiency expert, but his long standing at the company provides him a generous severance package. The quiet worker bee and widower has spent his hobby time as a bird watcher and model train engineer, so he comes up with a new way to enjoy his time away from the grindstone. He decides to begin tracking, photographing, and studying the familiar faces he has been riding the commuter trains with for many years. He even takes notes and keeps computer files on these other commuters. Some people would call it stalking. What he is actually doing is impersonating either Barney Fife on a stakeout or Inspector Clouseau chasing a mysterious Pink Panther. How you the reader pictures Mr. Gilbert in your mind is up to your own imagination, but these two familiar suggestions should send you in a memorable direction. The FBI, NSA, a ring of organized criminals, and a few other unexpected characters have trouble figuring out the mysterious Mr. Gilbert's origin and motives, too. Therein lies the story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Commuter </i>was definitely a fun book to read. Unlike a few other descriptions of the plot I have read, I did not find the story funny or the lead character a hapless dupe. Although Barnaby Gilbert is duped a few times in the storyline, I still felt as if there was a careful crafting of the character study underneath the surface. Although I did not chuckle even once as I read, I kept turning those pages with delightful expectations. In short, I was very impressed with the storyline and the quick pacing of the plot. If I have any complaint, it is with the brevity of the story. I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been twice as long with much more detail.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the authors and longtime readers of PODBRAM, I have to say that I could identify this book as a POD from a mile away, and for most of the same old reasons. I like the cover and the back cover blurb is appropriate, but as soon as I get to the copyright page and see the big size-twelve font, I know it is a POD book. I know it from the print date and location in the back, too, but that is inescapable. The big problem is the usual lack of meticulous proofreading with human eyes. The Spell Check and Grammar Check hit me in the face on just about every other page. The average Amazon buyer may not notice, and as usual, this paragraph will not included in the Amazon review. However, this author with all his experience and his team of aides should be able to carefully and properly proofread this short book. You see, those software programs do not notice when a real word is substituted for another real word, even when the substitute is incorrect or inappropriate. The proofing errors absolutely did not prevent me from thoroughly enjoying this book. However, POD books do not go out of print. These amateurish errors will be there for every reader to see. With a little formatting on the copyright page and a thorough reading of the final manuscript, this book could have been a true jewel. As is, I give it an easy four stars. Get with the program. Dump that <i>full-service </i>POD publisher and release your next books with CreateSpace. You know what they say: if you want something done right, do it yourself. As with iUniverse and the others, the retail price is too high to ever sell more than a few copies in print and this story deserves better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you enjoy quick fiction reads, this book is for you. It is sort of a comedy of errors and sort of an extended stakeout. It is definitely a quality character study without ever being verbose.</span><br />
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See Also: <a href="http://patrickoster.com/Patrick_Oster_Official_Website/Welcome.html" target="_blank">Patrick Oster's Website</a>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-49177037726905357832014-11-27T10:55:00.000-06:002014-11-28T14:29:35.625-06:00The Wolves of Midwinter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oIyVBn6KzsuFDikMxYJusJ45xFHT5Kjq361oiYFZdJm3FuDhOcdaIrabFydzQvp3OOlK-raXbqhLTLmlq1rf2L03uyFN5SAP51WMy_8opFPVC-853zVbv_0OSEiI9znZBIEopw/s1600/Midwinter+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oIyVBn6KzsuFDikMxYJusJ45xFHT5Kjq361oiYFZdJm3FuDhOcdaIrabFydzQvp3OOlK-raXbqhLTLmlq1rf2L03uyFN5SAP51WMy_8opFPVC-853zVbv_0OSEiI9znZBIEopw/s1600/Midwinter+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Wolves-Midwinter-Wolf-Chronicles/dp/0385349963/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1417102129&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Wolves of Midwinter</span></b></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Anne Rice</span><br />
(Knopf / 0-385-34996-3 / 978-0-385-34996-3 / October 2013 / 400 pages / $25.95 hardcover / $19.49 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Midwinter-Wolf-Gift-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00CGI3DZI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1417102129" target="_blank">$7.99 Kindle</a>)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Wolves of Midwinter </i>is Anne Rice's 34th book and the 27th I have read. She is easily my favorite fiction author. This book currently has 766 reviews at Amazon, so Ms. Rice obviously does not need my help to sell her books in huge quantities. This is far from my favorite of her books, so why am I taking the time to review it? The answer to that question will appear after the following brief summary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">After decades of writing about vampires and witches, Anne Rice finally decided to add their best pals to her repertoire, werewolves. Of course I like werewolves at least as much as vampires and witches, so I read <i>The Wolf Gift</i>, the first in this new series, last year. As a longtime fan of both the author and the genre, I rate <i>The Wolf Gift </i>at approximately #15 and <i>The Wolves of Midwinter </i>about #18 among the Anne Rice books that I have read. The head howler is somewhat of an interesting character, but he is certainly no Lestat! The lavish mansion setting hidden in the woods of Northern California is up to Ms. Rice's standard format and the surrounding characters are well developed. The weakness of <i>The Wolves of Midwinter </i>is a storyline that drags on too long in a low level of plot action in several chapters throughout the book. When Anne unleashes the surprises when you least expect them, the old black magic is there, but overall the plot is not as riveting as her best. The author surprised me by releasing another Vampire Chronicle next when I was expecting more from the werewolves. Maybe the pack will stir up more excitement in a future volume.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You may have noticed that I recently reviewed Linda Gould's <i><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2014/11/handmaidens-of-rock.html" target="_blank">Handmaidens of Rock</a> </i>and then wrote a <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2014/11/distant-cousin-two-worlds-daughter.html" target="_blank">second report</a> on Dr. Al past's <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2014/09/two-worlds-daughter.html" target="_blank"><i>Two Worlds Daughter</i></a>. Just before that you might have read one of my most scathing and poignant rants about the <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2014/09/interview-with-founder.html" target="_blank">current state of publishing</a>. The point is that I intend to tie these posts together in a way you might not expect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Only Anne and Knopf really know how many copies of <i>The Wolves of Midwinter </i>have been sold, but you can bet it's A LOT. Dr. Past's most recent volume in the Distant Cousin Series has sold moderately in Kindle, but I would guess that I own one of the few copies in print in existence. Linda Gould's latest of four novels has barely sold at all, even though I think it is her best work yet. For the record, <i>Handmaidens </i>has two reviews at Amazon and <i>Two Worlds Daughter </i>has thirteen. For comparison purposes, note that my first book, <i>Plastic Ozone Daydream </i>from 2000, has zero reviews! I have never tracked its sales religiously, but I estimate them to be in the neighborhood of 100-150 copies. Al Past has three books with iUniverse and three with CreateSpace. As with my own four/three split, you can identify the publisher by the price. The iU paperbacks are somewhat overpriced, but the CS books are not. All four of Linda Gould's books are with iUniverse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The error counts of my own books and those of Linda Gould and Al Past have all lessened with each successive release. All three of us began at the top of what was something of an embarrassing heap of books reviewed over the years here at PODBRAM. Those at the bottom of this sordid pile will chill you to the bone as experienced readers, just like facing a werewolf for the first time. Speaking of which, Anne Rice's 34th book contains more errors than I have ever seen in a top-selling, traditionally published hardback! There are errors of every kind: repeated common words, misused spellings of words that are real words that actually mean something else, misuse of tense, and various other types of boo-boos. What do these errors all have in common? They are the sort that appear in books because human eyes did not read and reread and proofread the text before publishing it. There was an obvious reliance on computer programs to find the errors. Was this by Ms. Rice, her editor, or Knopf in general? Who knows? The point is that the error count of <i>The Wolves of Midwinter </i>easily surpassed those of <i>Handmaidens of Rock</i> and <i>Two Worlds Daughter</i>. The corporate downsizing has come home to roost!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What I want to know is what are you going to do about it? When are you going to realize that there are fresh, high-quality authors out there who may not have entered the traditional publishing world back in 1976 when it was relatively easy? When are you going to wake up and realize that just because the latest Anne Rice book has 58 times the reviews as that of Al Past's latest or 95 times that of my <i>Tiddler Invasion </i>or 383 times that of Linda Gould's latest that the traditionally published book by the big-name author is the superior product? Yes, we can make a difference. We may lack the big names and the big distribution to every Barnes & Noble in the country, but we do not lack the writing talent or the drive and dedication to our craft. We can publish a quality product without the help of Knopf or one of their smug pals in their slowly dying industry!</span><br />
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See Also: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Gould/e/B001HPFDN6/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1417106575&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Linda Gould's Amazon Page</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Al-Past/e/B002BLZP56/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1417106655&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Dr. Al Past's Amazon Page</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Floyd-M.-Orr/e/B002BLFBSW/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1417106705&sr=1-2-ent" target="_blank">Floyd M. Orr's Amazon Page</a>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-87124602457172130412014-11-24T08:15:00.000-06:002014-11-28T14:29:41.636-06:00Distant Cousin: Two Worlds Daughter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQc7TK1ud2N3-2mIA_u9hhVJ3Y-6H9ny8YHFHr3oO5D1aCQPaA8JQI3KqtasL7JQtv9ESfpNYsI7oTKeTOBALMYFe17RIW4RzWm7kveNlA20dAPmv7jneIKUJ5IBKUtJwO-9LPCg/s1600/Two+Worlds+B&N+Cover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQc7TK1ud2N3-2mIA_u9hhVJ3Y-6H9ny8YHFHr3oO5D1aCQPaA8JQI3KqtasL7JQtv9ESfpNYsI7oTKeTOBALMYFe17RIW4RzWm7kveNlA20dAPmv7jneIKUJ5IBKUtJwO-9LPCg/s1600/Two+Worlds+B&N+Cover.JPG" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Two-Worlds-Daughter-Distant-Cousin/dp/1496131991/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416834395&sr=1-1&keywords=distant+cousin+two+worlds+daughter" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Distant Cousin:</b> </span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Two-Worlds-Daughter-Distant-Cousin/dp/1496131991/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416834395&sr=1-1&keywords=distant+cousin+two+worlds+daughter" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Two Worlds Daughter</span></b></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Al Past</span><br />
(CreateSpace / 1-496-13199-1 / 978-1-496-13199-7 / March 2014 / 316 pages / $13.66 paperback / $12.29 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Distant-Cousin-Worlds-Daughter-Book-ebook/dp/B00J8UNZ7S/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1416834395" target="_blank">$2.99 Kindle</a>)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is not going to be the traditional book review you might expect to find at PODBRAM. This book was <a href="http://www.podbram.blogspot.com/2014/09/two-worlds-daughter.html" target="_blank">reviewed here</a> a couple of months ago. Consider this one a booster shot to encourage further reading of the series! <i>Two Worlds Daughter</i> is the sixth book in the Distant Cousin Series by Dr. Al Past. I have reviewed the books in the series, including this one, at both PODBRAM and Amazon. Therefore this will be the last word that I shall publicly say about <i>Two Worlds Daughter</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I cannot say for certain where I rank this one in relation to the other five. Of course it cannot offer the introductory excitement of the first book, but it is clearly superior to the the second in the series, probably the weakest of the bunch. My second favorite has always been <i>Reincarnation</i>, the third book, and <i>Two Worlds Daughter </i>fails to knock that one out of second place. Of course your opinions are your own and all are subject to personal interpretation. I can state for certain that if you have enjoyed the previous <i>Distant Cousin </i>books, you will be pleased with this one, too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The focus in this story is clearly on Ana Darcy's daughter and not Ana herself. If there is a weakness in the reading experience, this is most certainly it. Again, your opinion may differ, but as far as I am concerned, most of the magic of the <i>Distant Cousin </i>storyline comes from the central Ana Darcy character. As with many long-running, successful television series, the storyline has to diversify or it dies the death of repetition. On the other hand, the first season of most sitcoms is comparable to the first book in a fiction series. The recapturing of the initial magic is by nature always fleeting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Past continues to educate himself on the mechanics of book publishing and the results are obvious. The editing and proofreading mistakes in this edition are practically nonexistent. The design and layout continues to improve as well. I do have a quibble about the cover: the image is too dark and fuzzy.It certainly lacks shelf appeal to the unseasoned reader of the series. This detail and the fact that Ana Darcy is not the leading character are my only complaints. Overall I cannot recommend all the <i>Distant Cousin </i>books enough, including this one. A new reader might skip books 2-5, but a reading of the original <i>Distant Cousin </i>first would definitely be a good idea. The reader needs a good dose of the origin of Ana Darcy and her story to fully comprehend this one. If you want to learn much more about the Distant Cousin Series, be sure to follow the links below. (The two links listed lead to many others.) For several years now, Dr. Past and his work have consistently remained two of the bright spotlights of The PODBRAM Experience!</span><br />
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<i>See Also:</i> <a href="http://anadarcy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ana Darcy's Blog </a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/04/interview-with-author.html" target="_blank">Interview with Dr. Al Past</a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/01/distant-cousin.html" target="_blank">Review of the original <i>Distant Cousin</i></a>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-10627578062831338242014-11-14T14:34:00.001-06:002014-11-28T14:29:47.260-06:00Handmaidens of Rock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5RJd4dA0cyE4xUk69b-RLfkZKiNQJ8R209PHZvddzH7XF29dVZcDT9bhsfvwhF67v6xozB3xEYstmI3QgUfxWopECFMVvLW-x6p4KvuN0w-nVTAweoq5fmT6kwIXiKF2Z85A6Q/s1600/Handmaidens+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5RJd4dA0cyE4xUk69b-RLfkZKiNQJ8R209PHZvddzH7XF29dVZcDT9bhsfvwhF67v6xozB3xEYstmI3QgUfxWopECFMVvLW-x6p4KvuN0w-nVTAweoq5fmT6kwIXiKF2Z85A6Q/s320/Handmaidens+Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handmaidens-Rock-Linda-Gould/dp/1491745436/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415900456&sr=1-1&keywords=handmaidens+of+rock" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Handmaidens of Rock</span></b></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Linda Gould</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">(iUniverse / 1-491-74543-6 / 978-1-491-74543-4 / October 2014 / 290 pages / $17.95 paperback / $15.61 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handmaidens-Rock-Linda-Gould-ebook/dp/B00O8TITBQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1415900456" target="_blank">$2.99 Kindle</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is little that I can say here that was not stated in
my review of Linda Gould's earlier book, <i>The Rock Star's Homecoming</i>. You can
refer to that review for the flowery prose (see link below). In no uncertain terms, <i>Handmaidens of
Rock</i> is Linda's best work yet, easily deserving of five stars. The author has a
genuine knack for taking us back to a nostalgic, more starry-eyed era with her
novels. Surely Ms. Gould is writing at least somewhat based on her real
experiences! The prose is so clear, the plot twists so familiar from that
special time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The story is a familiar one that occurred all across the USA
back in the 1968-74 period in which the action is set. A few naive young men
start a band in high school and try to develop it into a famous professional
outfit. Linda Gould offers a new perspective as the story is told by three
girlfriends of the band members. Candy, Hope, and Theda follow their new love interests into college, where some of the band and its entourage are more interested in an education than are others. The relationships intertwine romantically and otherwise as the group finds itself in several unexpected locations ranging from the Apple Studios in London to a California music festival. The plot twists are grounded just enough to be
believable in that remarkable era. All the characters, both primary and
secondary, are carefully presented with just the right amount of detail. As a
lifelong music fan and a concert promoter during that period, I personally
lived through similar experiences. Linda Gould is a genuinely accomplished
writer who deserves recognition.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Do not be put off by the iUniverse imprint! As with this author's previous
books, <i>Handmaidens of Rock</i> is a thoroughly professional work in every way, from
its style to its editing to its proofreading. Typos and other boo-boos are practically nonexistent in this book. The cover is appropriate. The back cover blurb is informative. The special title fonts and layout are exceptional for an iU product. The type face is not too large and neither are the margins, as they are in so many products from this publisher. What you get is a <i>real book</i> offering genuine, professionally produced nostalgic entertainment! Few readers have yet discovered the writing of Linda Gould. The rest simply do not realize what they are missing. <i>Handmaidens of Rock </i>easily makes the top ten list of my favorite books that I have read and reviewed for PODBRAM.</span></div>
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<i>See Also:</i> <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2008/05/rock-stars-homecoming.html" target="_blank">The Rock Star's Homecoming</a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/07/interview-with-author.html" target="_blank">Interview with Linda Gould</a> </div>
Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-88475346036312830492014-09-28T12:07:00.000-05:002014-11-28T14:29:57.462-06:00Interview with the Founder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKn79JRsqOXmAz6fReI7jQSkn7n9s9Y0MMTdbQZIqh9SjE22RL5jBuAxC5SFsl7_C9GGXsYy_uppRLEAuZdvk1VGyB-1KHs3v03WJIPaSJ3nMtJv7vUszQr_X5n_cleZbRFVDjmQ/s1600/Upstanding+Wall+Crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKn79JRsqOXmAz6fReI7jQSkn7n9s9Y0MMTdbQZIqh9SjE22RL5jBuAxC5SFsl7_C9GGXsYy_uppRLEAuZdvk1VGyB-1KHs3v03WJIPaSJ3nMtJv7vUszQr_X5n_cleZbRFVDjmQ/s1600/Upstanding+Wall+Crop.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The PODBRAM website has evolved through several iterations since its inception a number of years ago. I have remained mostly mute on both my websites for nearly a year, so I think it is time for an update. Many new readers may stumble upon PODBRAM without realizing the true depth of its history, so here is a recap.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The first draft of my first book was composed in 1966-70. After receiving the unsurprising rejection letters from a few prospective publishers, I left the manuscript filed away for the next fifteen years. As real-life maturity arrives, most of us come to recognize in hindsight the immaturity we possessed back when we wrote our college scribblings. This was certainly true of my experience as I realized just how blatantly obtuse, nonsensical, and silly my earliest navel gazing had been. I began writing in 1984 what would be published decades later as my seventh book. I would totally rewrite my first manuscript as my third published work in 2002. My first published book consisted of a collection of stories I had published serially and locally from 1985 through 1994. The point of this convoluted path is that if we are to become serious authors, first of all we must act like it. If you go into the writing game thinking that your first manuscript will be the next bestseller, your delusions of grandeur are most likely preceding your reputation as a future author.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now on with the show. In this PODBRAM interview I shall be referred to as 77TA66. That is my Discus name. My real name of course is Floyd M. Orr. You can find me all over the Internet if you care to look. The only reason I have a different Discus name is because I thought I had to have one when I first began with Discus years ago. Otherwise I never post or comment anywhere online except under my own real name. If you think you have ever read a comment on a blog that was written by me under any name other than Floyd M. Orr or 77TA66, you are mistaken.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: When did you first try to reach a national audience?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: When I began composing a serialized set of stories about Corvettes and other sports cars in 1985, I knew that I had a captive audience for them, the local Corvette club, which at that time at least, was the largest such club in the world at more than 100 members. These stories were typed on a 1959 IBM typewriter, but I planned to eventually publish them in a book format.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: What was the next step in your goal of reaching a larger audience?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: I knew that computers and the Internet would eventually reach a technological development point at which I could move my plan forward. I had fully realized by this time that my subject matter had limited audience appeal and a couple of publishers already completely controlled the genre. They had rejected my submissions by this point and I was not surprised by that. After all I was attempting to launch my own new genre, what I now call Nonfiction in a Fictional Style.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: Then iUniverse was launched in 1997, right?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: Yes. After thorough research I decided that iU was head and shoulders above the rest. The release of <i>Plastic Ozone Daydream </i>was a project of massive proportion! First of all, I tried to scan the typewritten pages into my Windows 98 computer. That's when I discovered that OCR software was far from perfect! After wasting an enormous amount of time and effort, I wound up retyping the entire book into Word. There were countless hours expended upon the inclusion of about forty photos and numerous other technical issues, but the book was finally released. Then the real fun began!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: I understand that you had few delusions concerning potential book sales. You never expected to set any element of the book market on fire.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: I thought if I did much of nothing in promotional effort, that I would sell about 200 copies. Many people had already read some of the material in the serialized stories. They had a basic understanding of the content. Some of them were even personally named in the book! I had hoped to spend some time and money on advertising and maybe sell 1000 copies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: Things did not exactly turn out that way, did they?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: My wife and I were retired and we spent all our energy on the promotion of <i>Daydream </i>for a couple of years. We purchased and developed numerous mailing lists. We created flyers, posters, bookmarks, and T-shirts. We licked thousands of stamps and envelopes. We bought print advertising. I even went on a local radio show. Before it was over, we had released four books with iUniverse and spent something over $20,000.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: And you have now sold thousands of copies of your books, right?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: I quit keeping track years ago, but I can swear in court that to this day my first four books have not <i>collectively </i>sold more than 300 copies. The one of the four that my wife and I have always been certain should have the broadest audience appeal, <i>Timeline of America</i>, has yet to sell twenty copies!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: Wow! Let me catch my breath! I cannot believe you are still writing books. What happened next?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: Somewhere along the line back in 2000-2002, I began to really dig deeply into Internet research about this astounding phenomenon of Print On Demand books. What I discovered began to really open my eyes. It began with an iU author named Solomon Tulbure who called himself Lord Satan on the iU message board. He was a controversial figure who deliberately riled up a lot of people by spamming their in-boxes and message boards back before the government cracked down on such tacky behavior. In my opinion, he may have been tacky in his approach, but he knew what he was talking about! The fact was that iUniverse never gave a rat's ass if any iU author ever sold a single book and he was the first to fully understand this surprising new concept.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: Was he successful in selling his books?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: Many times more successful than 98% of the rest of us! His Amazon numbers may appear pathetic now, but we are now several years after his untimely death. It was ruled a suicide by the police, but he always claimed while alive that he would soon be murdered. That's another story.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: What was so significant about the Lord Satan story, as it applies to PODBRAM?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: Tulbure was not only the first to discover that iU cared only about publishing more and more authors who would sell a minimal quantity of books, but that Amazon was the only retailer that mattered for POD books, online or off. To this day, Amazon sells a <i>minimum </i>of 90% of all POD books sold! It matters little whether we are talking about POD, print, Kindle, or CreateSpace, it's practically all Amazon.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: Let's move forward about fifteen years to the present day. What has changed?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: In two words, CreateSpace and Kindle, both Amazon products, of course. CS has all but knocked competing POD print operations into the dustbin. The technology has advanced to the point that only a prospective author with more money than brains even considers paying iUniverse or one of their direct competitors, and this includes Amazon's own similar, full-service, overpriced imprint. Anyone with a modicum of computer experience can publish with CreateSpace. You may spend a lot of time with the learning curve, but in the end there is no comparable substitute for CS. My first book with iU had forty small B&W photos; my seventh (with CS, under my NIAFS imprint) had over 200 larger, sharper photographs. The only thing that has not changed is that they are still in B&W. Even CS still charges a ridiculous retail price requirement to publish a print book with color photos.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: I'm sure most of your fiction writers and readers want to hear about Kindle. That format has certainly conquered the world of e-books in an unprecedented manner.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: No doubt about that! If you want to reach a specific genre audience with a low-priced product, Kindle is king. For nonfiction, larger books, heavily researched works requiring higher financial returns for their creators, works with large numbers of photos, the Kindle phenomenon offers a conundrum beyond the scope of that faced by new fiction authors. The Kindle option does allow photos to be published in full color at a consumer price that will not choke an elephant, but even that concept fights an uphill battle against the common Kindle low-price strategy. I tested this premise with the design and release of my seventh and most recently published book. Only 7% of my total sales have been for the Kindle version, even though the price is a few dollars lower than the print version and nearly all of the included photos are in color!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: That <i>is </i>a shocker! Most POD authors struggle to sell even a small percentage of their output in print these days. The Kindle seems to have taken over. What about other e-book formats?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: My four iUniverse books and my one text-only CreateSpace publication have also been released with Smashwords, a company that makes them available in the Nook format for Barnes & Noble and in the miscellaneous other formats. My sales, and certainly my royalties, have been a steady trickle. Even I have been surprised at how pathetic the B&N sales have been, although B&N is clearly the ringleader of all my non-Kindle e-book sales. My CS books with photos are way too large in file size to be published with Smashwords.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: What do you see in the future of publishing?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: Not a pretty picture, that's for sure! With the caveat that I hope I am not offending the many Kindle fans out there, I have to say that there is a certain unmistakable <i>something for nothing </i>attitude that has become all too prevalent. The low price points of Kindle books on the retail consumer market drives that market, period. If you think the truth is otherwise, I am afraid you are sadly mistaken. If you are a new author trying to break into a genre fiction market, by all means publish in the Kindle format, but if you want to sell any serious numbers, your retail price point must be low, preferably below $5. You nonfiction guys can join me at CreateSpace. No other format or publisher is likely to ever surpass these two for the unknown and little-known author marketplace.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: Some experts think Barnes & Noble and other bookstore chains are already in their death throes? Do you agree with this?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: A couple of years ago, I was certain of it, but I recently read about a situation of which I was previously unaware. Did you know that once upon a time when Apple was struggling to survive that Microsoft invested a wad of cash in Apple to keep their competitor alive? They did this to avoid an attack of monopoly regulations from the federal government. Smart, huh? If it comes down to the wire, I would not be at all surprised if Amazon does the same thing with B&N. Otherwise, yes, I do expect we shall see the demise of the store chain and website, the latter of which has been quite pathetic since the store corporation took it over a number of years ago. The Kindle has undoubtedly stomped the Nook into the dirt.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: Will we soon see the extinction of print books?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: Only if the publishers change their outrageous pricing policies of books containing color photos, and only if nonfiction and research and reference books disappear from the culture. In other words, <i>no</i>. I think the dichotomy of Kindle for fiction and print for nonfiction will only grow larger. Unfortunately, the publishing of bullshit by celebrities will also continue to grow while the words of inspiring, intelligent authors will languish. As with everything else in our rotten culture, money screams and everything else falters.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>PODBRAM</i>: The current reality sucks, but could we leave this discussion on a somewhat higher note?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>77TA66</i>: My most recent book is my largest and most expensive, and it is also my best selling. The irony is that this is that same book that I started out to write and publish in 1984. Back then I changed my mind because I thought the subject matter held the least appeal for a wide audience. As I stated above, my book with potentially the largest and broadest market has been my weakest seller. After well over a decade in the publishing and marketing game, I have to admit that I have learned the lesson from Lord Satan. To become a success as a <i>nobody </i>author, you have to have a target market. You must be able to shoot an arrow into the bull's eye of that target, no matter how small it might be. You can tell potential readers how great your book is in the most perfectly scripted language you can muster and no one will care a whit. You cannot buy their attention with advertising, either. Unless your book's title is so generic and boring as to be nauseating in its lack of creativity, no one will search for it on Amazon. You have to spoon feed the potential audience. You have to hit the target. Think like Robin Hood or Annie Oakley and maybe you will get lucky and sell a few books. Welcome to a very exclusive club!</span><br />
<br />Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-33880227659210380172014-09-25T20:04:00.000-05:002014-11-28T21:50:58.799-06:00The Scarlet Kingfisher<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2QRZycJaioq1slWS2xILxokijk0UFCwdmAZzKCTJTsZmWCxViARHUiVrYcJ5qARvP0UVL50w3KdniM_fz9rHcdRI-LPo9oU3zH2dfvgSKalRB0BRofPeva-mnPpm5SjaKEeWDQ/s1600/Kingfish+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2QRZycJaioq1slWS2xILxokijk0UFCwdmAZzKCTJTsZmWCxViARHUiVrYcJ5qARvP0UVL50w3KdniM_fz9rHcdRI-LPo9oU3zH2dfvgSKalRB0BRofPeva-mnPpm5SjaKEeWDQ/s1600/Kingfish+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Scarlet-Kingfisher-Discovery-species/dp/1500716847/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1411326294&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Scarlet Kingfisher</a>:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Discovery of a New Species</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Robert Henry Benson</span><br />
(CreateSpace / 1-500-71684-7 / 978-1-500-71684-4 / August 2014 / 328 pages / Paperback $9.95 / Amazon $8.96 / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Kingfisher-Discovery-new-species-ebook/dp/B00N1WO2NK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1411326294" target="_blank">Kindle $4.99</a>)<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM</b></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b> </b></i></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN">When I was a
youngster I went through a period when I read some of my father's whodunnits.
One series he particularly loved was by Dick Francis, a one-time British jockey
turned mystery writer. Frances must have written forty books set within the
world of horse racing and I probably read ten before I went on to something
else. Each one featured a different angle on horse racing, from the points of
view of a jockey, trainer, bookie, owner, or the like. With each one I felt I
had been given an inside glance by an expert into an interesting field I'd
never have known about otherwise. To this day I've never seen a horse race
live, nor bet on one, but I'm still happy to know a little about an area of our
society that, until then, I knew nothing about. A mystery is a mystery, but if
you can learn something while being entertained, how could that not be good?</span></span><br />
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN">In <i>The Scarlet
Kingfisher</i>, a young professor looking to achieve promotion and tenure
learns of a possible new species of bird in South Texas, something that is not
impossible but extremely rare and noteworthy. Such a discovery would
practically guarantee instant fame and a successful academic career.
Complications ensue, of course: a dead body, bizarre behavior by the department
head, a mysterious Asian billionnaire, being arrested and jailed by a small
town sheriff, and more. There will be no spoilers here. It's a mystery.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN">All this is by
way of saying that <i>The Scarlet Kingfisher</i> is an entertaining thriller
per se, but perhaps even more interesting as a look at the life of a wildlife
scientist, professor, and bird lover. We not only see the severe South Texas
ranchland and wildlife through the mind of an expert far more observant than we
are, we also get to watch him practice his craft using skills and techniques
that are unknown and undreamed of by the general public. The story may change
the way you think about "bird watchers."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN">The book reads
cleanly. There are no major editing issues. </span></span></div>
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">See Also: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7194571.Robert_Henry_Benson" target="_blank">Robert Henry Benson's Goodreads page</a></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053810/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_15" target="_blank"><i>The Big Year</i></a>, an excellent movie about birdwatching </span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-27362295479830832142014-09-06T07:17:00.001-05:002014-11-28T14:30:12.343-06:00Two Worlds Daughter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Two-Worlds-Daughter-Distant-Cousin/dp/1496131991/ref=la_B002BLZP56_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410002212&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Two Worlds Daughter</span></b></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Al-Past/e/B002BLZP56/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" target="_blank">Dr. Al Past</a></span><br />
(CreateSpace / 1-496-13199-1 / 978-1-496-13199-7 / March 2014 / 316 pages / $13.66 paperback / $12.29 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Distant-Cousin-Worlds-Daughter-Book-ebook/dp/B00J8UNZ7S/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-2&qid=1410002212" target="_blank">$2.99 Kindle</a>)<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> As a reader and reviewer of all six of Al Past's Distant Cousin books, I
rate this one as the second best of the sequels. Of course you can
never duplicate that first introduction to the exquisite Ana Darcy in
the first book! Like my other two favorites, DC1 and DC3, Two Worlds
Daughter is one of the longer books in the series, and I like them that
way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This DC6 stars Ana's seventeen-year-old daughter Clio and
her ex-Navy SEAL bodyguard, Fergus. Clio discovered earlier in life, and
in an earlier book, that she had special healing powers she could
impart to patients through a special lightness of touch, an exquisite
massage. She had proven prior to finishing high school that she
distinctly had possession of a delicate healing power. In a search for
more knowledge of this unusual talent, she joins a small entourage of
doctors and nurses who are devoting two weeks of their time in a small
town in New Mexico. Forever the protective mom, Ana insists that Clio
travel only with a protector of both her person and her secret identity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The
story unfolds pleasantly, slowly and smoothly through the first half of
the book. There may not be much excitement happening, but the reader is
easily sucked down the rabbit hole of the storyline. The deep
experience and professionalism imparted by the author guides the reader
to a second half with considerably more action and surprises. The
special relationships among the characters, Ana and her friends and
extended family, Clio and her patients, and Clio and her recalcitrant
traveling companion, will warm your heart much like that first meeting
with Ana Darcy did. The book is never long enough as far as all the
<i>Distant Cousin Series</i> go. The ending arrives all too quickly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Two Worlds Daughter</i> is the sixth book in a very entertaining fiction series suitable for all ages. Dr. Al Past has created a wonderful storyline with broad appeal. I highly recommend that any intellectually curious reader begin with the first book in the series. You will not be able to put it down. I also recommend a perusal of the Ana Darcy Blog (link below) to see the complete three-dimensional story that Al has created. Note that the story has been contracted to a movie agent, a fate it most certainly deserves. As All-American entertaining fiction, the <i>Distant Cousin Series </i>is hot stuff! </span><br />
<br />
See Also: <a href="http://anadarcy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Al's Ana Darcy Blog</a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/01/distant-cousin.html" target="_blank">The Original </a><i><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/01/distant-cousin.html" target="_blank">Distant Cousin</a> </i> Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-60214278917046919482014-05-19T18:01:00.004-05:002014-11-29T10:17:40.664-06:00Ghost Ship of the Desert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24bQ8jgGUFnzSKUPLfhYGEKM4PoH7npCQFiwMcVk66R4JiEG2LWGhfdwgYFifIPB2vyk4AWqgnv2sCa_aAzPm-JshXHUqg_mBacLTk9RxLdsB-RiiKR4aeR8-tLJ-3zKQhojXNg/s1600/Ghost+Ship+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24bQ8jgGUFnzSKUPLfhYGEKM4PoH7npCQFiwMcVk66R4JiEG2LWGhfdwgYFifIPB2vyk4AWqgnv2sCa_aAzPm-JshXHUqg_mBacLTk9RxLdsB-RiiKR4aeR8-tLJ-3zKQhojXNg/s1600/Ghost+Ship+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Ship-Desert-Michael-Cole/dp/1939870119/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1400539244&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><b>Ghost Ship of the Desert</b></a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Michael Cole</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">(Foremost Press / 1-939-87011-9 / 978-1-939-87011-7 / April
2014 / 200 pages / $13.97 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Ship-Desert-Michael-Cole-ebook/dp/B00JYJVSAO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1400539244" target="_blank">$4.99 Kindle</a>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM</i></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">There are two reasons I looked forward to Michael Cole’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Ship of the Desert: </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1) I love sea stories set in the time wooden
ships, and (2), I was raised in El Paso, in the great Chihuahan Desert. To
combine both concepts in one story was an intriguing idea. My initial
enthusiasm was dimmed somewhat, however, by the cover, which shows an
improbable fully rigged ship (though without sails on the yards, true) lying
half buried in sand. Its rigging is completely intact, with all lines and ropes
tight—even the ratlines! These lines would need daily attention, even hourly
attention, to maintain their tautness on a modern vessel, but on a ghost ship
in the desert? That’s not going to be the case.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Still, I should know better than anyone that a book should
not be judged by its cover, since I have penned a number of novels with
astronomical photos on the covers though the stories are actually only about
ten per cent science fiction, being set solidly on our good Earth. Several hard
core sci-fi fans have objected in strong terms. They have a point, even if the
stories are good ones.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Fortunately, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost
Ship of the Desert</i> turned out to be a decent story too, despite the further
contradiction that the ship of the title turned out, on page three, to be a
Spanish galleon. The ship on the cover is a vessel several centuries newer than
the tubby, hardy vessels of the days of the Spanish Empire.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">In the story, we find an investigative reporter for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Los Angeles Times</i> is sent to report on a
political squabble over the fate of the Salton Sea, a highly saline, highly
toxic dumping ground for various California entities. In so doing, he stumbles
into a murder mystery involving, among other things, the ghost ship of the
title, a semi-deranged ex-SEAL Native American, rare and valuable black pearls,
a gorgeous red-headed scientist with a violent boyfriend, and murder. The result
is a mystery that fits squarely in its niche: a detective story replete with
danger, romance, and a shadowy perpetrator or perpetrators. (As a bonus, we
learn that back in sixteenth century and even later, the Salton Sea, now
landlocked, was occasionally open to the sea, so that the occasional ship might
indeed have sailed upon it. It’s not difficult to find lost ships and possible
lost treasure mentioned online.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">All in the story is not smooth sailing, however. The text
reads well enough provided you are not the sort who trips up at comma splices
and similar copy editing oversights (as I am). There are some plot holes, not
unknown in complex mystery stories. Most are minor, but I have to mention one
which this former desert rat had to shake his head at: the notion that a three
or four hour sandstorm could completely cover a Spanish galleon (or completely
uncover it), and that after centuries under the sand and with some missing
planks in the deck, the area below decks will remain open enough for a person
to walk around and hunt for treasure chests. My family found the spring
sandstorms sent drifts of sand into even a tightly sealed-up house. Left to
accumulate for 400 years, I’m certain all our furniture would have been buried.
And probably the refrigerator too.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Finally, I found the characters rather flat. The relentless investigative reporter and the traffic-stopping red haired scientist who inevitably falls for him fulfilled their functions in the story but were not quite unique enough to lodge in my long-term memory.<br /><br />The bottom line is that Ghost Ship of the Desert is a worthwhile read but also a good example of the difficulty of putting out a polished, professional product independently or with a small staff. That requires meticulous attention to detail—to hundreds of details—a daunting task indeed, and that’s the good news. The rest of the story involves marketing, and we won’t even go into that here, except to mention that this blog offers quality advice and a good selection of the most helpful links in the column to the left. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">See Also: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Cole/e/B001K8PDU8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" target="_blank">Other Books by Michael Cole</a> </span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-88652306984427637592014-04-15T10:28:00.004-05:002014-11-28T14:31:06.946-06:00The Dog Did It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qbdxpmQMh9VP7JSwUoGveIfilQ245bmww3CVmCksb2tac-voI-3evqJPR5X92XUBfitckeAGRV2-0I_ybGRvKBaaZGQz5zcyxd2Fpucp9RNi5byWzfh_rK-ezYdWUQI3DqFk-g/s1600/The+Dog+Did+It+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qbdxpmQMh9VP7JSwUoGveIfilQ245bmww3CVmCksb2tac-voI-3evqJPR5X92XUBfitckeAGRV2-0I_ybGRvKBaaZGQz5zcyxd2Fpucp9RNi5byWzfh_rK-ezYdWUQI3DqFk-g/s1600/The+Dog+Did+It+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Did----Whodunit/dp/1478260785/ref=sr_1_3_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397574970&sr=1-3&keywords=Jim+Toombs" target="_blank">The Dog Did It</a>:</b> <i>A Whodunit</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Jim Toombs</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">(CreateSpace / 1-478-26078-5 / 978-1-478-26078-3 / August 2012 / 274 pages / $10.99 paperback / $9.89 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Whodunit-Gabe-Tigger-Mystery-ebook/dp/B008I5TXJS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-3&qid=1397574970" target="_blank">$2.99 Kindle</a>)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I began <i>The Dog
Did It -- A Whodunit (Gabe and Tigger Mystery)</i> wondering if it was another
in the vein of <i>Dog On It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery</i>, by Spencer Quinn, a
mystery told from the point of view of the detective's dog, and rather
imaginatively so. I found reading that book something of a high-wire project,
with the suspension of disbelief teetering throughout. <i>The Dog Did It</i> is
more traditionally narrated, however, and reads well. The protagonist, Gabe
Chance is not exactly a licensed detective, and the story isn't a mystery since
we meet the bad guys early on and know what they're up to. If one needs a genre
for it, adventure would do, or maybe suspense. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Brought back to
Texas when his mother's will is probated, Mr. Chance finds that to inherit her
money he must live in her house, drive her car, and care for her dog. He does
so very reluctantly, and while reconnecting with people he knew in childhood,
finds himself ensnared in a murder which eventually leads to further dangers
for himself and others...and the dog. The story, flavored by its setting in the
famously lovely Texas hill country, costars a Jack Russell terrier, which
should appeal to dog lovers and especially to lovers of that breed. The lively
critter is based, it seems, on the author's own dog of yore, who apparently
inspired the book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I found the story
satisfyingly entertaining, though I could have done with more details regarding
the character and history of the main character. For that matter I suspect
those not familiar with the Texas hill country could also use a bit more
description of that, too. Oddly enough, the most memorable characters were the
bad guys, one of whom was a vicious professor and another a frighteningly
dangerous (if entertaining in a shivery sort of way) sociopath.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Those who enjoy this book will be happy to know
there is a second featuring the same dog and master. Both are attractively
priced for Kindle.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">See Also: <a href="http://jimtoombs.com/" target="_blank">Jim Toombs website</a> </span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-62814231278926038402014-01-10T23:44:00.002-06:002014-11-28T14:31:18.364-06:00The Poison Ring<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hSL7j5-CXYaNC5aoXBpb5wpjq9kceQqB2SsXN6jRGsBYWNjwT-CIWUfXyA_5yD-zPJK5fuaeEigLMuR57-1JYCal0rp_YyLzajaeCFmlkkg6jKyqqENoUHrU0fviTYtLIkxsDA/s1600/Poison+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hSL7j5-CXYaNC5aoXBpb5wpjq9kceQqB2SsXN6jRGsBYWNjwT-CIWUfXyA_5yD-zPJK5fuaeEigLMuR57-1JYCal0rp_YyLzajaeCFmlkkg6jKyqqENoUHrU0fviTYtLIkxsDA/s1600/Poison+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Poison-Ring-Freddie-Remza/dp/1478705418/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389418705&sr=1-3&keywords=freddie+remza" target="_blank"><b>The Poison Ring</b></a> by Freddie
Remza</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">(Outskirts Press /
1-478-70541-8 / 978-1-478-70541-3 / May 2013 / 286 pages / $14.95 paperback /
Amazon $13.46 / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Poison-Ring-Freddie-Remza-ebook/dp/B00D45RZ1K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389418746&sr=1-1&keywords=freddie+remza" target="_blank">Kindle $6.99</a>)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Let me begin by saying that, as with all my reviews, I have
given a considerable amount of thought to my approach before proceeding. There
will be technical criticisms in this review that will not appear in the Amazon
review because PODBRAM is a place for authors to learn and Amazon is a place to
sell books. Rest assured that I am not going to shred <i>The Poison Ring</i>
here because it is a very competent effort deserving of the four stars I shall
give it at Amazon. However, this book demonstrates several key lessons that I
think are pertinent to the PODBRAM audience of fellow authors.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Poison Ring</i> is obviously a book for Young Adult
readers, not for typical adults of all ages, but this fact is not noted on the
book's Amazon page. If the prospective buyer checks out the <i>Look Inside</i>,
the large print is a hint. I call the storyline <i>Nancy Drew Goes to Nepal</i>.
The reading level is simple with lots of short declarative sentences composed
in a typical third-person, past-tense style. There is an adequate level of
show-don't-tell in the extensive dialog among the characters and the pace of
the story is kept brisk to the end. The author is a retired teacher and there
are discussion questions at the end. There is another bonus of ten B&W
photos from Nepal in the back matter; however, the effect could have been
improved by either moving the photos to their respective positions within the
text or enlarging them to full-page size, or both. Ms. Remza is attempting to
teach her <i>student readers</i> about Nepal and its culture, and she does an
adequate job of this with the book. One detail the author missed is that the
application of the past perfect tense would have been correct in several
instances in the text. The story is told in a straightforward manner and the
reader's interest will be held to the end.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">This is Freddie Remza's fourth book with Outskirts Press,
which brings up several points relevant to the PODBRAM readership. Although my
own first four books were published with iUniverse, that is an approximate
maximum number for an author to pay many hundreds of dollars to sell a small
number of books. It's probably time for Freddie Remza to "graduate"
up to CreateSpace. Whether or not the author paid for extra services at
Outskirts, <i>The Poison Ring</i> is certainly one of the best proofread POD
books I have encountered. Other than a minimum number of typos and the
aforementioned tense issue, Freddie's fourth effort is a slick, professional
product. If the author can reproduce this quality of work on her own at CS, she
could be on her way to making more in royalties than she pays in fees. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The highest compliment I can pay to Ms. Remza is to state
that in the genre of YA fiction, this book approaches the quality of that of
ex-iUniverse author <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dianne-Salerni/e/B0031TS11M/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1389418991&sr=1-2-ent" target="_blank">Dianne Salerni</a>. She's not quite there yet. I think even YA
readers could deal with a little more complexity in the plot and sentence structure.
Her heart is in the touching zone and the technical quality of the product is
commendable.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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See Also: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Freddie-Remza/e/B002BLJK6Q/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1389418892&sr=1-2-ent" target="_blank">Freddie Remza's Amazon Page</a> </div>
Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-9393812308779399242013-12-15T09:56:00.002-06:002014-11-28T14:32:15.358-06:00Reunification<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiPb7Z3IFF0Wvthf0KmYYbDiP-VQmVNlqcn3voSAhElVsa2Mpx8KlyUODle5WgXzTBFwVuQ7A9xgvM8-Ny9SgW3cu0GC7Lo60l2of5len6VoCnRZ2uc3L5ucUXGYfdAxcy_hdlJg/s1600/Amazon+Germany+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiPb7Z3IFF0Wvthf0KmYYbDiP-VQmVNlqcn3voSAhElVsa2Mpx8KlyUODle5WgXzTBFwVuQ7A9xgvM8-Ny9SgW3cu0GC7Lo60l2of5len6VoCnRZ2uc3L5ucUXGYfdAxcy_hdlJg/s320/Amazon+Germany+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span lang="EN"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reunification-Monterey-Mary-Returns-Berlin/dp/1490490264/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387122641&sr=1-1&keywords=reunification+T.H.E.+Hill" target="_blank">Reunification</a>:
</span></b><i><span lang="EN">A Monterey Mary
Returns to Berlin</span></i><b><span lang="EN"> </span></b><span lang="EN"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span lang="EN">by<b> </b>T.H.E. Hill</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">(CreateSpace /
1-490-49026-4 / 978-1-490-49026-7 / July 2013 / 226 pages / $12.95 / $11.66
Amazon)</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Reviewed by Celia Hayes for PODBRAM</i></b></span> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Alas, poor Cold
War, I knew it well. It was a war of infinite jest and most excellent fancy,
fought more often in the shadows of the mind than to death, yet the lives of
millions hung in the balance. It is a war without monuments, but not without
casualties…”</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Long-retired from
the CIA, Mike Troyan returns to Berlin, where he once served as a military
linguist – a Monterey Mary – at the Army Field Station in the 1970s. Now
comfortably ensconced in academia, he intends to write a book about the Stasi,
the East German secret police, and do a great deal of research in the Stasi
archives, where the files they kept on almost anyone of interest have been
pieced back together. But on his return he is almost immediately walloped by
the realization that there was an informant among his comrades at the Army
Field Station, an informant code-named MUSIK. He is also walloped in the face
with a plate of currywurst by the mother of the head of the Stasi archives… a
woman of his age who just happens to be his one-time Berlin girlfriend. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And with that,
Mike begins unpacking and reviewing his suitcase of memories of divided Berlin,
memories which are poignantly at odds with the present-day rebuilt, revived,
and reunified Berlin. Everything he once knew so very well is either gone or
changed almost beyond recognition; the Wall itself is gone, Checkpoint Charlie
is a tourist attraction with the golden arches of a McDonalds’ in the
background and manned by a pair of badly uniformed actors who pose for pictures
with tourists, and one of the main recreational centers for American personnel
in Berlin is now something called the “Dahlem Urban Village.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>“The sidewalk was full of people speaking
German as they went about their business. All of them were unaware that they
were walking down a street full of English-speaking ghosts who shimmered before
me on their way to a PX that didn’t exist any more.”</i> And when Mike’s daughter,
Samantha comes to Berlin, about halfway through the book, the plot just
thickens.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN;">He remembers that
particularly vivid past, as he tours present-day Berlin, by himself or with
Samantha<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– and accounts of the antics
of his fellows at Army Field Station are interspersed now and again with how
ominous the Stasi was to ordinary Berliners.” “The Stasi could make things not
happen,” says one of the former East Berliners that he meets in his
peregrinations about the city that he once knew so very well. <i>“Your kids would
not get into college. That apartment for which you were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>three years on a waiting list was no longer
available. The new car that you had paid for in full at the start of a six-year waiting list for delivery was suddenly delayed or postponed… and there was nothing you could do.
There was no legal recourse because nothing could be done. There was nothing
you could prove. There were no documents.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For my money, that kind of impersonally deliberate bureaucratic malice
is at least as chilling as the threat of overt violence, interrogation, and
imprisonment with the threat of a capital sentence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And now, to
people the age of Mike’s daughter, what was once a very real menace is
completely toothless, a rather shabby joke when not a focus for a weird kind of
nostalgia. Only people the age of Mike and some of his old friends remember
that it was all in grim earnest, as concrete as The Wall itself. One day, out
of the clear blue sky, it all came down, dissolving into little chips of brick
and concrete, valueless coins and clumsy relics like East German-made
telephones (pre-bugged) and Trabant automobiles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Reunification</span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> is quite readable, and nicely-plotted:
part puzzle, part travelogue, part memoir and part history, with some quite
nice turns of phrase, some of which I have quoted here. Mike on setting to work
at the archives: <i>“I’d worked in the salt mines of bureaucracy long enough to
know the coin of the realm, and how to mint it.” </i>For me, the passages which
resounded were the melancholy episodes of re-visiting old haunts; just about
every base which I served at in the 1970s and 1980s is either closed entirely,
re-purposed by the host government or changed beyond all recognition. You
cannot go home again, for strangers have taken it over. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Any criticism I have is directed at the basic formatting of the text
itself; the margins are narrow, there is unnecessary spacing between lines and
paragraphs, and the use of random fonts to indicate a shift from the present to
the past, or to indicate a written document, is a little jarring. There are
also inexplicable switches between the English and German conventions for quote
marks around dialog. This does not reflect on the quality of writing or ability
to tell an engaging story, but it does detract from aesthetic appreciation of the
printed version’s pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">See Also: <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2009/02/voices-under-berlin.html" target="_blank"><i>Voices Under Berlin</i></a>, a 2009 PODBRAM Award Winner </span></span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-568552147911492842013-12-01T12:28:00.002-06:002014-11-28T14:32:29.448-06:00The Bright Lady and the Astral Wind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid7QHpRs5D6FNY29DWXgvZE7lemK92nYO6xnrezoXk0JWGHNNO90dM30Z5W-shiOsE_ab8MwANR9blYJTSjaE-PtYrkzAX5t61zOfVaGwmgDQtupocmuwibrcnJVtqzXXQ2hxHoQ/s1600/Amazon+Canada+Crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid7QHpRs5D6FNY29DWXgvZE7lemK92nYO6xnrezoXk0JWGHNNO90dM30Z5W-shiOsE_ab8MwANR9blYJTSjaE-PtYrkzAX5t61zOfVaGwmgDQtupocmuwibrcnJVtqzXXQ2hxHoQ/s320/Amazon+Canada+Crop.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Lady-Astral-Wind-PARANORMALORVM/dp/1463565046/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385922349&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Bright+Lady+and+the+Astral+Wind" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Bright Lady and the Astral Wind </span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by James Dunning</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
EXPLICATIO
PARANORMALORVM - An Explication of the Paranormal</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">(Dolmen Tree Press / 1-463-56504-6 / 978-1-463-56504-6 / July 2011 / 270 pages / $14.95 / $14.20
Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Lady-Astral-Wind-ebook/dp/B0075LLJWU/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1385922349" target="_blank">$2.99 Kindle</a>)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Let me begin by saying that this book is one of the most
professionally produced POD books I have seen. The proofreading errors were few
and far between. I received with this book a full-color, two-sided brochure, a
postcard, and a personally written letter. The author is a highly educated man
from the Atlanta area who is well traveled in the U.S. and Europe, and this is
his first book. <i>The Bright Lady</i> is a sort of autobiographical story of
one element of the author's life. The action takes place over a seven-year
period, beginning when he first sees the aura of a young woman who works for
the same corporation, but in the building next door.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Is it live or is it Memorex? The most difficult part of
writing an analysis of this book revolves around the space-cadet plotline
conjured by a writer who is something of an expert in psychology,
parapsychology, and linguistics. He is also a devoted fan and researcher of the
legendary Tolkien Trilogy. He has a doctorate in pharmaceutical research and
has held some sort of high-level position at a high-tech suburban firm,
although not necessarily in the obvious field. The author is quite obtuse in
whatever mentions or descriptions of his career are contained within the
storyline. Most of the plot content takes place either at this business or on
one of the author's several excursions to Europe, where he wallows in the
languages of the area. <i>The Bright Lady</i> is described in a first-person
account of Dr. Dunning's prophetic meeting with a mysterious young woman at the
unnamed large corporation where they both work. He tells the story as if he
himself is uncertain if he had experienced a series of deeply imaginative fever
dreams, or if a truly paranormal experience has truly cloaked his mind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">I can understand what the author is trying to convey. The
only question I have is how many other readers will enjoy it? As a fellow
Psychology major, I read Freud's <i>Delusion and Dream</i> and I was indeed
fascinated by somewhat similar, intense dream sequences. To this day, I dream
profusely, all in 3D color with a full range of thoughts and emotions. However,
my interest in foreign languages or fantasy book series is basically zero.
There certainly may be many readers who will ascertain many details from these
elements and be deeply moved by the author's applications of these concepts. My
favorite parts are the author's deep discussions with his old friend concerning
his travails and unexpected delights with The Bright Lady. The final
interpretation will have to rest with each individual reader.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The author drew or painted the cover images and there is a
bibliography of resources describing the author's detailed influences. Dr.
Dunning mentions that he dislikes the distraction of footnotes, and with that I
could not agree more. The story flows nicely, whether you take it as gospel
nonfiction, the memoir of an eccentric, or a delicately told tale of silent
desire and delusion.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
See Also: <a href="http://dolmentree.com/" target="_blank">The Author's Website</a> </div>
Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-35034241500427073112013-11-12T13:09:00.000-06:002014-11-28T10:20:30.388-06:00Submissions Are Open!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYG4yvfhxR3pGwlvlB_DAbMaOz8OdVc6KdexpSCsrWbFdhBac7uJvZQaPtUEyw5z1LlaxQOEl9Hx7rQnjjGakM7a9rb_HLEJ4JgqzGx8PCjoydsTsIrdrHBsOddAf_ddZ7_hh2A/s1600/Ring+Tailed+Lemurs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYG4yvfhxR3pGwlvlB_DAbMaOz8OdVc6KdexpSCsrWbFdhBac7uJvZQaPtUEyw5z1LlaxQOEl9Hx7rQnjjGakM7a9rb_HLEJ4JgqzGx8PCjoydsTsIrdrHBsOddAf_ddZ7_hh2A/s320/Ring+Tailed+Lemurs.jpg" height="232" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Heads up! For a brief period at least, submissions for book reviews are now open at PODBRAM. Why are they open now, after all this time? Because I am bored and I need something new to read. All the previous PODBRAM rules and details apply. If you want to know more, refer to the articles listed in the left column under "Submitting a Book for Review". There are no PODBRAM team members involved in this opening for submissions. I assume they are all still busy with their own projects. It's just little old me, just like in the early days.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a refresher on how to get your book selected for review. (1) Only print books are accepted. (2) All publishers are accepted. (3) No children's books, youth books, fantasy, science fiction, or get rich quick titles will be accepted. (4) Genre romance or Christian will not likely be accepted. (5) Mystery, biography, thriller, horror, and various nonfiction genres will definitely be considered. (6) If you are an unknown, self-published author with few or no reviews at Amazon, your work will be more likely to be accepted for a review simply because you need it. (7) I count errors, and although I accept a higher percentage of these from self-published writers, I am never oblivious to them, no matter how strong the book's content.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If your book is accepted for review, here is what you can expect. (1) The review will be posted at PODBRAM and Amazon within a decent timeframe. (2) These two reviews may or may not be identical, depending upon my opinion of the book and other details. I generally tend to mention the errors and technical flaws more in the PODBRAM review since this site is mainly for self-published authors to learn from each other. (3) I shall read every word of the book, as well as take note of the details of its presentation. (4) My reviews are always direct, honest, and well thought out prior to publication. You are getting the opinion of a writer who has published seven substantial, detailed, nonfiction books since POD was in its infancy, so I know exactly what it takes to properly write and self-publish a book. (5) I view paid book reviewers with disdain. The only cost at PODBRAM is the mailing of a printed copy. Some authors send books directly from Amazon as an easy alternative. (6) Accepted submissions are read and reviewed in the order in which they arrive in my mailbox.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Requests should be sent to ice9 at nctv dot com. A detailed description of the book in the e-mail is unnecessary. A simple link to your book at Amazon is sufficient. Your message will be answered promptly. If accepted, the address to send the book will be included in the reply. Thank you for your support of PODBRAM.</span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-67975981198748451772013-06-20T12:03:00.003-05:002014-11-28T10:21:01.339-06:00Without Apology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfohQD6hxV0opDy45drbhGg_JJe2PyVW8Rq3eHlAFjT8joukeatMVj5_fsJXN-sOoycTgEPdl4VjLNVQcg0FbKyJNiFt8PlJBQIxab6tnptuEkD5kVv_PSGflQ1hnFOSQkO7hMXw/s1600/Without+Apology.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfohQD6hxV0opDy45drbhGg_JJe2PyVW8Rq3eHlAFjT8joukeatMVj5_fsJXN-sOoycTgEPdl4VjLNVQcg0FbKyJNiFt8PlJBQIxab6tnptuEkD5kVv_PSGflQ1hnFOSQkO7hMXw/s320/Without+Apology.JPG" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Without-Apology-Jacqueline-S-Homan/dp/0981567959/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371744269&sr=1-1&keywords=Without+Apology+Homan" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Without Apology</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Jacqueline S. Homan</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">(Elf Books / 0-981-56795-9 / 978-0-981-56795-2 / March 2013 / 356 pages / $19.95 paperback / Amazon $18.84 / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Without-Apology-ebook/dp/B00CPI5SX4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1371744269&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Kindle $5.99</a>)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This will be a difficult review for me to write, since I am a fan and supporter of Jacqueline Homan's work. I have read and reviewed Ms. Homan's previous four books and this one does not veer far from the course of the others. However, I have a very difficult time swallowing the author's premise that all men are bad and all women are good. Of course I cheer on her rants when she goes after the severe disparity in economic justice that has become the relentless status quo in modern America, but the author's premise for this book is overly simplified, to say the least. Ms. Homan states repeatedly throughout this book that men are the problem, as they have been for 6000 years, and women have consistently lacked autonomy and bodily integrity for this reason alone. It would have been much more prudent to include such a statement a couple of times in the book, rather than repeatedly, over and over in much the same language.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jacqueline's life story and accomplishments deserve the whole hour of an <i>Oprah </i>episode. The mostly female audience would love it! There is great honor in the extreme level of self-improvement that Jacqueline has accomplished. Whenever she goes into <i>research mode </i>in her writing, this book, and all the previous ones, too, show off a level of creativity that is quite commendable. <i>Without Apology </i>is full of such detailed research, and that part of the story is very well told, but, please, enough with the repetitive rants. We get it, you have been abused by men most of your life, but that does not mean that all women have or that all men are the world's villains.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There are a few technical details that scream self-publishing and they should be excised from Ms. Homan's future work. Most of these involve simple proofreading and a little extra time to prepare the book for publication. The back cover blurb is only one short paragraph, leaving mostly white space, and one key word is misspelled. The inside margin is a little tight. The paragraphs are both indented and line spaced. The front matter could be more complete, adding a professional look.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This book is as exciting to read as Jacqueline's previous work. You never know whether she will be in rant mode or research mode from one paragraph to the next, and the surprises are fun to a certain extent. She goes from street language to academia and back with her usual aplomb. I think it is time for Jacqueline to take the next step in the maturation process as an author. The real causes of our nation's severe income inequality issues are somewhat complex. Our history has gone from The Great Depression to the New Deal to the explosive Sixties to the oppressive decades since. The Southern Strategy has been a much more accurate villain for Ms. Homan's rants than have <i>all </i>men. I suggest she consider this fact. Women are the leading church goers; in most cases, they drag their male family members along. In other words, the Southern Strategy is the real cause of Jacqueline's and everybody's misery, and women have been involved in that madness as much as men. This author's writing style and subject matter are commendable, but I honestly thought she might have gotten past all the relentless ranting with her first book. Do not misunderstand. I think <i>Without Apology </i>is quite a good read and a relevant story for our modern culture. I also feel it is time for Jacqueline to look past her ancient rage and mature a little as an author. The core premise of <i>Without Apology </i>is just too simplistic. Unless you are already a raving feminist of the female persuasion, this book will not offer much appeal. I want to see the accomplished author Jacqueline Homan on <i>Oprah</i>!</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
See also: <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/jacqueline-homan?store=book&keyword=jacqueline+homan" target="_blank">Jacqueline Homan's books at B&N</a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2008/07/claism-for-dimwits.html" target="_blank">Cla$$ism for Dimwits </a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2010/08/divine-right.html" target="_blank">Divine Right: The Truth is a Lie</a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2008/09/eyes-of-monster.html" target="_blank">Eyes of a Monster</a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2009/11/nothing-you-can-possess.html" target="_blank">Nothing You Can Possess</a></div>
Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-61960454298544138442012-11-27T11:58:00.002-06:002014-11-28T14:32:55.559-06:00Course Corrections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiapz756Q7UNgUZtuefa98t_8mbQ7A0oO8IaIXclf0da-NcAhjBXsu0-fH85RkHZmsBZv0foQnJcb4Xbpu1XYRB1TL-miJ_Ahe3pFp2ujRGZlvJha5Qns2-aGNLDYCfd0rSk62oOw/s1600/B&N+Cover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiapz756Q7UNgUZtuefa98t_8mbQ7A0oO8IaIXclf0da-NcAhjBXsu0-fH85RkHZmsBZv0foQnJcb4Xbpu1XYRB1TL-miJ_Ahe3pFp2ujRGZlvJha5Qns2-aGNLDYCfd0rSk62oOw/s320/B&N+Cover.JPG" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Course-Corrections-Mans-Unlikely-Journey/dp/1462016367/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1354038045&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=larry+j+nevels"><b>Course Corrections:</b></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>One Man's Unlikely Journey</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">by Larry J. Nevels</span><br />
(iUniverse / 1-462-01636-7 / 978-1462016365 / July 2011 / 316 pages / $18.95 paperback / $28.95 hardcover / $7.69 Kindle / $8.49 Nook)<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM</b></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Course Corrections</i> is the late-in-life memoir of Larry J. Nevels, 1945-2011. Commander Nevels died last year, a retired, carrier-qualified Naval aviator, among other achievements, after a most humble and unlikely beginning. On one level the book he put together is a classic American rags to riches story ("riches" being defined in terms of personal reward rather than mere pelf). That is, it is a testament to gumption, persistence, several doses of luck, and the out-of-the-blue generosity of people who must have sensed his innate drive and decency. On another level, it is simply a terrific read. CDR Nevels had a great memory and a practiced story-teller's eye for detail and timing. <br /><br />He was born into a broken, dysfunctional family who scorned those who went to college as effete snobs. His "home life" was hardly that, since he lived in a number of foster homes and occasionally struck out on his own when he was barely a teenager. Buoyed inexplicably by great faith, endurance, and optimism, he survived into high school, where he was given timely nurture (and a home) by a legendary teacher and life lessons from a tough, caring football coach. Their support led him to a football scholarship at a good college, and that, with several more strokes of luck, led him to Navy flight school and a long, successful career as a Naval aviator. <br /><br />Whether one reads for inspiration or entertainment, <i>Course Corrections</i> is a fine book. I shook my head many times, laughed out loud a few times, and admittedly got misty eyed more than once. Few people know more great stories than old Navy veterans, and few Navy veterans know more great stories than old Naval aviators. I'll relate an example from the second category if I may. It's a sea story of the PG-13 variety, and concerns one of the crewmen on his plane rather than CDR Nevels himself.<br /><br />Naval aviators must endure long deployments away from home, many of which are extended unexpectedly and bring considerable strain to family life. One of CDR Nevels' crewmen once telephoned his wife that he was finally returning home. Come meet the plane, he told her, "with a mattress strapped to your back." Her response: "Don't you worry about me. Just make sure you're the first one off the plane!"<br /><br />For my part, as a long-time indie author, I have to say that the copy editing of the book leaves something to be desired. The book was rushed into print: only four months after it was published, CDR Nevels succumbed to a protracted battle with cancer. Still, potential readers should know that these problems are small and do not in any way detract from the impact of the prose. The book is great entertainment, documents the life of a remarkable person, and stands as an inspiration to those who read it.<br /><br />I would never have discovered this book if my wife had not been a high school classmate of CDR Nevels. He visited our town, the town where he graduated from high school, in later years, and I came to know him as a calm, well-adjusted person, with nothing unusual about him except perhaps his life in the Navy. (I had been a non-career surface officer in the Navy myself, so we shared a certain bond.) My wife and I once stayed at the bed and breakfast he and his wife maintained in Fredericksburg, Texas, where we admired his renovation of a period pioneer Texas home and enjoyed his hospitality. Neither she nor I had any inkling of his extraordinary path to the present until we learned of his book.<br /><br /><i>Course Corrections</i> is a sterling example of the value of independent publishing. I can't imagine any of the literary-industrial complex big four (or is it big three?) taking a risk with a book like this. That's their misfortune. This is a fine, fine book and it is worthy of a much wider readership. CDR Nevels said, of his career in aviation, that the number of his takeoffs equaled the number of his landings, and that is one of the best things you can say about a career as a pilot. My wife and I can only wish this extraordinary man a happy landing on his final journey.</span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-10733979649397550262012-04-03T16:05:00.010-05:002014-11-28T10:22:09.905-06:00Boys Will Be Boys<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHhmDCqKSfCwhDqzubbLEBjBy_VLLJ23HOKWBg3oyJHKQ_yMmyJ7_Dd_H-XOrZCN5isPFRWbZZD3m7HsTRmmBiO0x3Cr0FozGDss2vvodaWQ8_nRc1u2o8z0nxkLyP0lg-b1jFg/s1600/Boys+B%2526N+Cover.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHhmDCqKSfCwhDqzubbLEBjBy_VLLJ23HOKWBg3oyJHKQ_yMmyJ7_Dd_H-XOrZCN5isPFRWbZZD3m7HsTRmmBiO0x3Cr0FozGDss2vvodaWQ8_nRc1u2o8z0nxkLyP0lg-b1jFg/s320/Boys+B%2526N+Cover.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727283676397036658" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 214px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Will-Be-Morality-Coverup/dp/147009102X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333487249&sr=8-1">Boys Will Be Boys</a>:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Media, Morality, and the Coverup of the Todd Palin Shailey Tripp Sex Scandal</span><br />by Shailey M. Tripp (with Vickie Bottoms)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">(CreateSpace / 1-470-09102-X / 978-1-470-09102-6 / February 2012 / 280 pages / $21.50 / Amazon & <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/boys-will-be-boys-shailey-m-tripp/1039566922?ean=9781470091026&itm=2&usri=shailey+tripp">B&N</a> $19.35)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Boys Will Be Boys </span><span style="font-size: large;">is the true story about a young woman who met Todd Palin, probably not inadvertently, in late 2006, just as his wife was being elected Governor of Alaska. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shailey Tripp was working as a substitute teacher at a school in Wasilla when she one day had the honor of being the<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>enforcer of ladylike behavior in the school cafeteria. One of Todd Palin's daughters, Shailey does not specify which daughter, was continually breaking in the cafeteria line and acting most unladylike. Due to the ages at the time, this had to have been either Bristol or Willow Palin. My bet would be preteen Willow. Shailey Tripp did her duty and sent the child home with a note for her parents and Todd did his parental duty and showed up at the school to discuss the issue. Thus began a relationship that would travel through occasional sexual dalliances until it culminated (allegedly) in an interstate prostitution ring. Somebody famous would become the pimp and a certain substitute teacher, who also worked at a massage parlor, would become the prostitute. In case you are wondering how the teacher could also work at a massage parlor, the story is that this particular massage parlor was not one of <span style="font-style: italic;">those </span>massage parlors until Todd Palin sweet-talked his way into the massage therapist's ear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's all the plotline you are going to get from me. Some of you may have read pieces of the story in <span style="font-style: italic;">The National Enquirer</span> a couple of years ago. If you want to read the <span style="font-style: italic;">whole </span>story, right from the massage therapist's hands, then this is the book for you. Here is one more little tidbit for you: Shailey Tripp also gave a massage (without a happy ending) to an unpregnant Governor Palin in March 2008. There lies the rub. (I couldn't resist!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here are my usual book review criticisms, of which I have become legendary at PODBRAM. There is as yet no Kindle or other e-book version of this book. Unlike all the other reviews I have written here at PODBRAM, this one derives from a PDF of the book. I did that on purpose because, if you have followed my writings on my <a href="http://www.niafs.blogspot.com/">main author blog</a>, you know that I have been intimately involved with this subject matter for nearly four years. I knew beforehand that many police reports and other documents had been scanned into the book and that the ability to increase the font size would be beneficial to my old eyes. (Cue <span style="font-style: italic;">Sgt. Pepper</span>: "When I'm 64".) When you read the print version, you might have to squint a bit to read the details of many official documents included in the Appendix that substantiate many of Ms. Tripp's seemingly outlandish claims. You may be a little annoyed by the full-size, rather than half-size, paragraph indents throughout the book, as well as much of the content that seems to be a little too often repeated. One segment spanning several pages appears to be <span style="font-style: italic;">literally </span>repeated. In her favor, the number of common proofreading mistakes in a self-published book have been kept within reason. I do think it a bit strange that the subtitle is not included on the cover, though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Boys Will Be Boys </span><span style="font-size: large;">is a <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>important contribution to American political culture. Anyone who wishes to know the whole truth of our recent national politics should read it. Of course they should read my own <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paradigm-Shift-Matrix-Progressive-Strikes/dp/1456409328/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333490307&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Paradigm Shift</span></a>, too, but that's another story... or is it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">See Also: A very different perspective at <a href="http://www.niafs.blogspot.com/2012/04/diary-of-madman.html">NIAFS</a>.</span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-784647179513467072012-02-20T14:23:00.005-06:002014-11-28T14:33:16.620-06:00This Mobius Strip of Ifs<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxM02mw-po_axuHbOgq5GpEH_p463n6-c51G0oXK5xfhma-095iOAUC7d616ZEMJXyp6uqGXyUWnN8EHi5H4ZplzYeJAu4QU8Dl2TznjlyC5hUukVorDT_SibfdgRjIq3zZAqEA/s1600/Mobius+Strip+Cover.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxM02mw-po_axuHbOgq5GpEH_p463n6-c51G0oXK5xfhma-095iOAUC7d616ZEMJXyp6uqGXyUWnN8EHi5H4ZplzYeJAu4QU8Dl2TznjlyC5hUukVorDT_SibfdgRjIq3zZAqEA/s320/Mobius+Strip+Cover.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711316321955925586" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 213px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-M%C3%B6bius-Strip-Mathias-Freese/dp/1604947233/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329769790&sr=1-3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">This Möbius Strip of Ifs</span></a><br />by Mathias B. Freese </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">(Wheatmark / 1604947233 / 978-1604947236 / February 2012 / 186 pages / $10.95 / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Mobius-Strip-Ifs-ebook/dp/B007948A34/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1329769790&sr=1-3">Kindle $9.99</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Reviewed by Malcolm R. Campbell for PODBRAM</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mathematician and physicist Clifford A. Pickover has called the Möbius strip “a metaphor for change, strangeness, looping and rejuvenation.” Like the surface of a Möbius strip, the thirty-six essays folded into <i>This Möbius Strip of Ifs</i> ultimately have no front or back or beginning or end because Mathias B. Freese views his life, his work and his world as a continuous and open-ended process of awareness without the conventional limitations of meaning or dogma.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In “Untidy Lives, I Say to Myself,” Freese writes “That awareness of the moment or the one after that is about all this old man wants at this point in his life. I am working—by not working—on being ‘spot on’—love that phrase. A pastrami sandwich and a good pickle and Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda is an epiphany for me if I am aware of it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like the other eighteen essays in <b><i>Part I, Knowledge is Death</i></b> growing out of Freese’s experiences as a writer, teacher and psychotherapist, “Untidy Lives” explores the raw awareness and infinite potentialities open to individuals who risk true autonomy. The “risk,” as Jane Holt Freese suggests in her introduction, is that “to know who we are requires that we ‘die’ to many ideas we have about ourselves. Paradoxically, this ‘death’ quickens awareness, makes us more alive and sensitive.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In “Teachers Have No Chance to Give Their Best” and “The Unheard Scream,” Freese—who taught for twenty-two years before becoming a therapist—decries the fact that school systems don’t provide environments conducive to learning. We have regimentation and conformity with energy being “siphoned off into empty rituals” in a system that conditions students and teachers to accept rote truths rather than to explore oneself without boundaries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In “Jefferson,” Freese describes the profound and lasting impact of reading the words inscribed in the rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial during a college-years Washington, D. C. visit: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“I felt I was Moses before the burning bush, on hallowed ground,” writes Freese, “as those words were inscribed in flame into my mind—alas, not my heart. I etched them info myself. I have never forgotten them.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Readers of these essays may infer that Jefferson’s words opposing a Constitutionally recognized state religion became for Freese, if not a mantra, a Möbius-strip axiom that threaded its way in loops within loops through every aspect of his life and work. Jefferson’s influence is certainly apparent when, in “Introductory Remarks on Retirement from a Therapist” and “Therapist as Artist: A Short Talk to the Stony Brook Psychological Society.” In Freese’s view (and no doubt in Jefferson’s) therapists help clients find self-truths rather than conditioning them to adapt to society’s truths because “society is essentially corrupt and corrupting.” The therapist, then, sees life as an artist sees life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In addition to Jefferson, the truths of Jiddu Krishnamurti, Nikos Kazantzakis and Albert Camus weave the essays in <i>This Möbius Strip</i> together into a unified whole. Freese is the Freese he is not only because of his parents’ lack of parenting and the personal suffering following the loss of a daughter and a wife, but because of his formless evaluation and appreciation of the work of these men. Their spirits remain close at hand in the Freese’s essays about education, therapy, writing and book reviewing and the Holocaust in <b><i>Part I, Knowledge is Death </i></b>as well as in the film essays in <b>Part II, Metaphorical</b> <b>Noodles</b> and the family recollections in <b>Part III, The Seawall</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freese’s <b><i>Metaphorical Noodles</i></b> celebrate the work of passionate actors and filmmakers who fought for artistic freedom in a movie business that pushed conformity with the same fervor as school systems and preachers: Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, and Clint Eastwood. Freese’s <b><i>The Seawall</i></b> celebrates family, from his daughter Caryn, who committed suicide in 1998, after a long battle with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) to his wife Rochelle, who died in an automobile accident in 1999, to his “wayfarer” Grandma Fanny and World War II veteran Uncle Seymour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the final essay, “Reflections on Rummaging,” Freese summarizes everything else in this astute and profoundly engaging collection of essays while sitting in his garage with several boxes containing the collected records and mementos of a lifetime when he thinks that the riches and adventures of the world can’t give him what he needs most: “To enter into a moment of awareness—I’m not greedy—in which I can feel and experience congruity with myself.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Somewhat cautionary, occasionally prescriptive, and always uncompromising and unapologetic, <i>This Möbius Strip of Ifs</i> offers readers the observations of one man’s lifetime of bucking the system and seeking a harmonious environment for the ever-awakening psyche within.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: times new roman;">Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of four novels, including the contemporary fantasy “Sarabande.”</i></span><br /><br />See Also: <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-tetralogy.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">The i Tetralogy</span></a></span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-44049530049738305312012-01-25T09:47:00.002-06:002014-11-28T10:23:16.211-06:00Distant Cousin: Recirculation<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbTfRTUiLeQ0QfdHU8H4sQfdsGyrGonxTljwqy5l1bHOY94aDeUQg9rU54PYc6O97zfUOiAE2ak1FyjD_KdNJJnKOsFj612EY6deO7BsZu-wKFE5Dh-g00Vfus7Lq4pFhyphenhyphen0z1Aw/s1600/Recirc+Amazon+Cover+Crop.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbTfRTUiLeQ0QfdHU8H4sQfdsGyrGonxTljwqy5l1bHOY94aDeUQg9rU54PYc6O97zfUOiAE2ak1FyjD_KdNJJnKOsFj612EY6deO7BsZu-wKFE5Dh-g00Vfus7Lq4pFhyphenhyphen0z1Aw/s320/Recirc+Amazon+Cover+Crop.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701597505834305506" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 233px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Distant-Cousin-Recirculation-Al-Past/dp/1460946243/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327506859&sr=1-1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Distant Cousin: Recirculation</span></a><br />by Al Past</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">(CreateSpace / 1-460-94624-3 / 978-1-460-94624-4 / February 2011 / 324 pages / $13.95 / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Distant-Cousin-Recirculation-ebook/dp/B004R1Q4TO/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1327506859&sr=1-1">Kindle $4.99</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let me begin by saying that this is one of the most accurately proofread books I have reviewed for PODBRAM. I found exactly one extraneous word and the use of ellipses in dialog is a little overdone, but the buck stops right there. However, there are a few glitches in the formatting of the print version that I read. I cannot speak for the Kindle version, of course, and I am aware that the majority of the readers of Dr. Past's legendary <span style="font-style: italic;">Distant Cousin </span>books read them on a Kindle, so maybe these formatting issues are somewhat irrelevant. The problems boil down to two issues. First, the front matter is all but nonexistent, and this makes the printed book appear amateurish at first glance as soon as the first page is turned. Al could spend a little time on this and the book would have a much more professional look. In contrast, the back-matter is outstanding! The final page, describing Ana Darcy's personal website, should be added to the first four books in the series. (Of course I realize this is out of the question for the print versions, but this page could easily be added to the Kindle ones.) The second formatting issue is more complicated (and more annoying). <span style="font-style: italic;">Recirculation </span>should have been only about 200 pages, possibly lowering the price even further. The font is too large, the text is not justified, and each page begins with a new paragraph. I understand technically how this happened, but I am sure most readers would be quite confused by it. The result is that many pages containing a few large paragraphs show large expanses of white space at the bottom. Pages with many short paragraphs of dialog are less affected. Readers of a future <span style="font-style: italic;">DC6 </span>would probably appreciate it if Al would work on some of this technical mumbo-jumbo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I can see it coming already. Ana's half-alien, genius son will be exposed by nosy media personnel. Somebody in the editing room will see that boring footage that the gossip show left on the cutting room floor and all hell will break loose! The best thing about <span style="font-style: italic;">Recirculation </span>is the storyline and the Spielbergian character development, as is the case with the four previous <span style="font-style: italic;">Distant Cousin </span>books. This part of the friendly space alien saga features the teenaged twins, Julio and Clio. We learn much more detail about Julio's engineering acumen and Clio discovers healing powers she did not realize she had. There is a section of the book that takes me back to the Don Juan books of the wonderful Sixties when Clio goes to Mexico to meet with a traditional healer. Ana's flying pod takes the crew on yet another adventure, leaving the reader salivating for <span style="font-style: italic;">DC6</span>. What more could the readers ask?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is a lot I could say about the plot, but of course I won't. If you have gotten this far in the series, you already know what to expect. The best thing about the <span style="font-style: italic;">Distant Cousin </span>books is that the reader can so easily visualize the movie in his or her head with very little provocation. The storyline is new, yet familiar. The essence of Spielberg's <span style="font-style: italic;">Close Encounters </span>or <span style="font-style: italic;">E.T. </span>remains pervasive throughout. The characters and dialog tell the story. The whole thing is <span style="font-style: italic;">show, don't tell </span>in a manner that any reader can appreciate. The storyline flows, the characters develop comfortably, and you feel as if you are so glad that you know these people! I was particularly pleased with the pacing of this fifth in the series, the way it begins slowly and gradually accelerates to the end. Personally this is my third favorite, behind <span style="font-style: italic;">Reincarnation </span>( <span style="font-style: italic;">DC3</span>) and <span style="font-style: italic;">Distant Cousin</span>, and clearly ahead of <span style="font-style: italic;">DC2 </span>(more action and less character development) and <span style="font-style: italic;">DC4 </span>(emphasis on new ancillary characters rather than Ana Darcy).<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>My final grades are: formatting C-, editing and proofreading A+, storyline A.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Hey, Joe, come over here a minute. Have you seen this? I know most people would think that kid is just shining on his captive audience for a goof, but I've heard of that fancy thing he's talking about. It's been discussed in certain scientific papers. Some experts think it will be a real breakthrough. I'm going to make a few calls...."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">See also: <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/01/distant-cousin.html">Distant Cousin</a><br /><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/01/distant-cousin-repatriation.html">Distant Cousin: Repatriation</a><br /><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/07/distant-cousin-reincarnation_31.html">Distant Cousin: Reincarnation</a><br /><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2010/02/distant-cousin-regeneration.html">Distant Cousin: Regeneration</a><br /><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2007/04/interview-with-author.html">Interview with Dr. Al Past</a></span></span></span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-86693678736271699002011-07-22T13:25:00.005-05:002014-11-28T14:33:35.441-06:00El Secreto Submergido<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4RCeIH8wQmV10OCnChFtYSE2ecR45rUWQOvXmi5T_bIXUeMqo6iwS-gGrhp81bRaySFTuPYersQ6VCSRAhyPSFSDmOZXraFuEWeV5s8LHfmYNKoONz9d4rIOUeSGIAB7R457dg/s1600/El+Secreto+Crop+400.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4RCeIH8wQmV10OCnChFtYSE2ecR45rUWQOvXmi5T_bIXUeMqo6iwS-gGrhp81bRaySFTuPYersQ6VCSRAhyPSFSDmOZXraFuEWeV5s8LHfmYNKoONz9d4rIOUeSGIAB7R457dg/s320/El+Secreto+Crop+400.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632244778550901138" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 235px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/El-secreto-sumergido-Spanish-ebook/dp/B004VS7LMC"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;">El Secreto Sumergido</span></a><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">by Cristian Perfumo</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: small;">(Amazon Digital Services / Kindle Edition B004VS7LMC / (no date of publication) / 341 KB / $2.99)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Although my last class in literature in Spanish was 40 years ago, I undertook to read this <span style="font-style: italic;">El Secreto Sumergido</span> because the subject matter interested me, and I thought it would be a good review for me. It was worth it. I like a good adventure story and I like a mystery, and I particularly like stories connected with the sea. <span style="font-style: italic;">El Secreto Sumergido</span> was both, with the dividend that it offered a glimpse into a part of the world that I was barely aware of: Patagonian Argentina. As a bonus, the unpleasantness of the "Falklands War," as the English speaking world knows it, that is, the dispute between England and Argentina over the possession of Las Islas Malvinas, in the south Atlantic east of Argentina, also figures in, mainly in the epilog.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Basically, a high school student in the (real) town of Deseado learns of a (real) British shipwreck 200 years earlier on the rocks of the mouth of the river where his town is located. As a new but enthusiastic SCUBA diver, he decides to investigate, and perhaps locate the wreck. When the retired seaman who provides him with early documentation of the wreck is mysteriously murdered, that sets off a train of events that the young man and his friends pursue to their violent end. It is a rollicking tale.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Keeping in mind that my skills in Spanish are a bit rusty, I will say that I found the book well and cleanly written. As a former non-SCUBA diving officer in the American surface navy, I'll add that the details of diving in the cold tidal waters of the mouth of a river, and of the hazards of undersea salvage, struck me as accurate.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">The English-dominant reader who is intrigued by the book and who has some skill in Spanish and a decent desk dictionary should enjoy <span style="font-style: italic;">El Secreto Sumergido</span> as much as I did.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: small;">Dr. Al Past is the author of the five Distant Cousin novels, a popular adventure/romance/sci-fi series, the photographic collaborator for Barry Yelton's On Wings of Gentle Power, the author of a book of treble clef duets from Charles Colin, a reviewer for PODBRAM, and a member of the Independent Authors Guild. He lives on a ranch in south Texas. </span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-61516351193637555682011-07-15T18:43:00.006-05:002014-11-28T10:24:20.623-06:00Uncle Denny<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRrnsIEpMZ3iNmW-gjMQomAI4FgLXwLUnOf8xtNU-NBJFM6fQmyHEtCA6g3nfe14hQoByCXFrNVzoSEu4euT5qZ2HkLmVzf1UYXx5R2A4sB5yZVqQ4SAx4XaRdiFOuNUFqTyKCA/s1600/Uncle+Denny.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRrnsIEpMZ3iNmW-gjMQomAI4FgLXwLUnOf8xtNU-NBJFM6fQmyHEtCA6g3nfe14hQoByCXFrNVzoSEu4euT5qZ2HkLmVzf1UYXx5R2A4sB5yZVqQ4SAx4XaRdiFOuNUFqTyKCA/s320/Uncle+Denny.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629729150985364658" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 213px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Denny-Don-Meyer/dp/0984077391/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310773837&sr=1-1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Uncle Denny</span></a><br />by Don Meyer</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">(Two Peas Publishing / 0-984-07739-1 / 978-0-984-07739-7 / June 2011 / 318 pages / $14.95 paperback / $11.66 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Denny-ebook/dp/B00589WEHK/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1310773837&sr=1-1">$7.99 Kindle</a> / $14.36 B&N / $7.99 Nook)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Uncle Denny</span><span style="font-size: large;"> is Don Meyer's completion of the Sheriff Tom Monason Trilogy, a series of crime thrillers set in an unnamed ski town high in the mountains of California. The sheriff is an experienced cop from the big city, now nearing semi-retirement age and running a tiny, informal police department in what should be a sleepy town, but rarely is, sort of like Paradise MA or Cabot Cove ME. As you may have already guessed, most of the charm of Don's trilogy comes from his quiet town of amiable characters. The main distinction from those similar settings of novels and television is that blizzards and heavy snow often play key parts in the crimes solved by Sheriff Monason, and the plot of Uncle Denny is no exception.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Key storyline elements from <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2009/07/winter-ghost.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Winter Ghost</span></a> and <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2010/06/mckenzie-affair.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">McKenzie Affair</span></a> have been woven into this third book, but the story pretty much stands alone for any reader who has not read the earlier books. You can read my reviews of these earlier two by clicking the links, and I highly encourage you to do so, since I am not repeating much of that material here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I personally enjoyed <span style="font-style: italic;">McKenzie Affair</span> the most of the three, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Uncle Denny</span> the least. This is the direct result of so much of this newest storyline surrounding two groups of feuding mobsters in Chicago. Mr. Meyer explains this concept in closing remarks at the end of the book. The author describes how he spent most of his life in Chicago and that he wanted at least one part of the trilogy to evolve from this experience. That is fine if you like mobsters, but these sorts of characters have little appeal to my tastes. Maybe yours are different. I have memorized all the <span style="font-style: italic;">Andy Griffith</span> reruns, but I have never watched <span style="font-style: italic;">The Sopranos</span>. Enough said?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The title derives from a mispronunciation of a lead character's name, that of a Russian mobster. An FBI agent phones Sheriff Monason to explain that several criminals from Chicago are headed to Monason’s town. Because of a severe blizzard in the area, FBI personnel cannot reach the scene quickly enough, so the sheriff and his few deputies need to head off the mobsters at the pass, as they used to say in old westerns. The reader is introduced to the malicious <span style="font-style: italic;">modus operandi</span> of Uncle Denny early in the story, and then the plot begins to unroll.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don Meyer writes in a very direct, concise manner, telling his story mostly through incisive dialogue with little extraneous descriptive detail. Uncle Denny is a somewhat satisfying read, but proper editing and punctuation are sorely lacking. There are way too many repeated phrases. A few examples are that cell phones are always <span style="font-style: italic;">pinched</span> closed and Sheriff Monason’s desk chair <span style="font-style: italic;">always squeaks</span>; however, I was most annoyed that Uncle Denny always drives a <span style="font-style: italic;">big black SUV</span>. It is never a sport utility vehicle, a Cadillac, an Escalade, a truck, a snow-covered vehicle, or even a black SUV or a big SUV. An editor should mention these to you. Do you get my snowdrift, Don? I really like your settings, plotlines, and most of all, your folksy characters, and I think most readers will, too.</span><br />
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See Also: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Winter-Ghost-Don-Meyer/dp/1601458207/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1310769974&sr=1-5"><span style="font-style: italic;">Winter Ghost </span>at Amazon</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/McKenzie-Affair-Don-Meyer/dp/0984077359/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1310769974&sr=1-3"><span style="font-style: italic;">McKenzie Affair </span>at Amazon</a><br />
<a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2008/03/protected-will-never-know.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Protected Will Never Know</span></a><br />
<a href="http://dpmeyer.com/index.html">Don Meyer's website</a>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-65025378484992503352011-02-12T13:25:00.003-06:002014-11-28T14:33:59.065-06:00Living With Evolution or Dying Without It<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkhvvsMXq93ss9ILDN2FJD6lUwQmNLE2GSDduxVLjBD_pcJfuZ-j68rj2jR79SPEAzfl4cx5KkwfRN4iyemu3rtGgz6mckBQiZI26i0C2yAXrXxRH7of0fBkECnmQ7T8fVi_ioIw/s1600/Evolution+B%2526N.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkhvvsMXq93ss9ILDN2FJD6lUwQmNLE2GSDduxVLjBD_pcJfuZ-j68rj2jR79SPEAzfl4cx5KkwfRN4iyemu3rtGgz6mckBQiZI26i0C2yAXrXxRH7of0fBkECnmQ7T8fVi_ioIw/s320/Evolution+B%2526N.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572886871720512338" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 238px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Living-Evolution-Dying-without-Understanding/dp/098265460X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297539053&sr=1-1">Living With Evolution or Dying Without It</a>:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">A Guide to Understanding Humanity’s Past, Present, and Future</span><br />by K. D. Koratsky</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: small;">(Sunscape Books / 0-982-65460-X / 978-0-982-65460-6 / June 2010 / 618 pages / $49.95 hardcover / $37.30 Amazon / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Living-Evolution-Dying-without-ebook/dp/B0042FZWIY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1297539053&sr=1-1">$14.99 Kindle</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Reviewed by Lloyd Lofthouse for PODBRAM</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Koratsky's book is a heavily researched, scholarly work that gathers what science has discovered since Darwin's discoveries and fills in the gaps explaining why evolution has something to teach us if humanity is to survive. The other choice is humanity going the way of the dinosaurs into extinction.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">I started reading in early 2010 and took months to finish the 580 pages. The Flesch-Kincaid Readability level would probably show this book to be at a university graduate level leaving at last 90% of the population lost as to the importance of its message. For months, it bothered me that so many in the United States do not have the literacy skills to understand an important work such as this. (The average reader in the U.S. reads at fifth grade level and millions are illiterate). This is certainly not a good foundation to learn how precarious life is if you do not understand how brutal the earth's environment and evolution has been for billions of years. As I finished reading Living With Evolution or Dying Without It, I realized that it would only take a few key people in positions of power to understand the warnings offered by Koratsky and bring about the needed changes in one or more countries so humanity would survive somewhere on the planet when the next great challenge to life arises.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">On Page One, Koratsky starts 13.7 billion years ago with the big bang then in a few pages, ten billion years later, he introduces the reader to how certain bacteria discovered a new way to access the energy required to sustain an existence. By the time we reach humanity's first religion on Page 157, we have discovered what caused so many species to die out and gained a better understanding of what survival of the fittest means. To survive means adapting to environmental challenges no matter if they are delivered by the impact of a monster asteroid to the earth's surface, global warming (no matter what the reason) or by competition with other cultures or animals competing for the earth's resources. In fact, competition is vital to the survival of a species for it is only through competition that a species will adapt to survive.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">The book is divided into two parts. The first 349 pages deals with where we have been and what we have learned, and the two hundred and eleven pages in Part Two deals with current ideas and policies from an evolutionary perspective.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">I suspect that most devout Christians and Muslims would dismiss the warnings in this book out-of-hand since these people have invested their beliefs and the survival of humanity in books written millennia ago when humanity knew little to nothing about the laws of evolution and how important competition is to survival. Koratsky is optimistic that the United States will eventually turn away from the political agenda of "Cultural Relativism" that has guided America since the 1960s toward total failure as a culture. The popular term for "Cultural Relativism" in the US would be "Political Correctness", which has spawned movements such as race-based quotas and entitlement programs that reward failure and punish success. Even America's self-esteem movement is an example of "Cultural Relativism", which encourages children to have fun and praises poor performance until it is impossible to recognize real success. The current debate started by Amy Chua's essay in The Wall Street Journal is another example of "Cultural Relativism" at work.After reading Living with Evolution or Dying Without It, it is clear that Amy Chua's Tiger Mother Methods of parenting are correct while the soft approach practiced by the average U.S. parent is wrong and will lead to more failure than success.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Koratsky shows us that the key to survival for America is to severely curtail and eventually end most U.S. entitlement programs. While "Cultural Relativism" is ending, competition that rewards merit at all levels of the culture (private and government) must be reinstituted. He points out near the end of the book that this has been happening in China and is the reason for that country's amazing growth and success the last thirty years. In the 1980s, merit was reinstituted at the bottom and most who prosper in China today earned the right to be rewarded for success by being more competitive and adapting. Even China's state-owned industries were required to become profitable or perish.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">The earth's environment does not care about equality or the relativists' belief that everyone has a right to happiness even if society must rob from the rich and give to the poor. This book covers the evolution of the universe, the planet, all life on the planet including the reasons why most life that lived on the earth for hundreds of millions of years before humanity is now gone; the beginnings of the human species; religion in all of its costumes; the growth of civilizations and the competitions that led to the destruction and collapse of so many such as the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty two millennia ago. The environment and evolution says that all life on the planet is not equal and no one is born with a guaranteed right to success, happiness and fun. To survive means earning the right through competition and adaption. If you don't believe Koratsky's warning, go talk to the dinosaurs and ask them why they are gone.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: times new roman;">See also: <a href="http://www.livingwithevolution.com/" style="font-family: times new roman;">K. D. Koratsky's Website</a></span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-40216850528691841862011-01-08T10:21:00.002-06:002011-01-08T10:25:04.051-06:00Submissions Are Closed<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBlWdn-V9ppaiX0kLitWE98gedDwRDaLEargJhlDzioWAzYR70WIZFl2rfjsJuESKd7bE68P1lbFiLqKnV5Yqi9_M_EtHOE-1emBrIxUVqbBG-YNa3HgBXD1gHwocW1FVJ2JOtLg/s1600/Slaw.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 211px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBlWdn-V9ppaiX0kLitWE98gedDwRDaLEargJhlDzioWAzYR70WIZFl2rfjsJuESKd7bE68P1lbFiLqKnV5Yqi9_M_EtHOE-1emBrIxUVqbBG-YNa3HgBXD1gHwocW1FVJ2JOtLg/s320/Slaw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559851886846209730" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Review submissions are closed at PODBRAM until further notice. Thank you for your support.<br /></span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-22018523220028982772010-10-17T10:04:00.004-05:002014-11-28T14:34:18.662-06:00Dance Your Way to Psychic Sex<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8nUrYFsZuQjVlvT2WTNADv2Tb8Elw3IRSkPgPn_44rdRgPXtbudwAvEml77-RVaGLnrC-MuBlBri_nCkTWdIcTfzifH_g2isaAI1QolBhPCPrefZ5wgPdXxpmXBw5l6OaMItk6A/s1600/Dance+Sex+Cover.jpg.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8nUrYFsZuQjVlvT2WTNADv2Tb8Elw3IRSkPgPn_44rdRgPXtbudwAvEml77-RVaGLnrC-MuBlBri_nCkTWdIcTfzifH_g2isaAI1QolBhPCPrefZ5wgPdXxpmXBw5l6OaMItk6A/s320/Dance+Sex+Cover.jpg.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529031759572383346" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 238px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0956656609/491"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dance Your Way to Psychic Sex</span></a><br />by Alice Turing & Francis Blake, Illustrator</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman;">(Chutzpah Publishing / 0-956-65660-9 / 978-0-956-65660-5 / September 2010 / 420 pages / Amazon UK 20 Pounds Sterling)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Reviewed by Dianne Salerni for PODBRAM</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;">We easily believe what we ardently desire to be true.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">This is the tagline for Alice Turing’s novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dance Your Way to Psychic Sex</span>, which tells the story of a book (called <span style="font-style: italic;">That Book</span>) and a New Age movement called Psychic Dancing that takes Great Britain by storm. Leo, a mentalist by profession, knows it’s a scam. It has to be a scam, and he’s both envious and contemptuous of whoever thought it up first. Henrietta also thinks it’s a scam, because Henrietta knows all about brainwashing – and she really doesn’t want to experience <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> again. Yet, both Leo and Henrietta find themselves sucked into the Psychic Dancing uproar because Belle and Denzel believe it whole-heartedly. And Henrietta loves Belle. But Belle loves Leo. And Leo doesn’t want to believe he’s fallen in love with quirky Denzel, but Denzel won’t have sex with him until Leo admits he’s gay.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">I was expecting a humorous romp from this book, and perhaps an exploration of belief, desire, and illusion, explored through a bizarre psychic hoax that might turn out to be real. From the description on the cover, I thought the romantic quadrangle would involve the farcical nonsense of <span style="font-style: italic;">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</span>. While it started out this way, I wasn’t sure what to make of it halfway through. The tangled love story is more raw and painful than humorous, and my growing dislike for Leo and Belle throughout the book made it hard for me to root for them ending up with fragile Henrietta and sweet but weird Denzel. There were lengthy internal monologues and scenes that didn’t move the plot forward. I know the current fashion in dialogue tags is to use only <span style="font-style: italic;">says</span> (if anything) – but for me, it drained the life and rhythm from the dialogue scenes. This is, of course, only a personal preference.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">The writing is technically without fault, and the book has a quality look and feel. The cover design may not be the final version, since I have an ARC, but it’s colorful and interesting. The editing is clean, and wide margins make the pages easy to read. There are some great lines in here – including some particular (but crude) advice from Denzel that I’ll probably never forget. The overall premise is intriguing, but the execution did not win me over.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;">Editor's Note: The cover shown here is the final cover. The reviewer had a pre-release copy. This book is currently available only from Amazon UK or directly from the author. See her website for details.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: times new roman;">See also: <a href="http://danceyourway.co.uk/">Alice Turing's Unusual Website</a></span><br />
<a href="http://brianclegg.blogspot.com/2010/08/will-you-dance-your-way-to-psychic-sex.html"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Another Review of the Book</span></a>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-15237624305681529912010-09-09T14:15:00.003-05:002014-11-28T14:34:40.602-06:00Talion<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPF6pOOCRqUPwXzn6A4-eqhvRkEUwlbkmT5X18ccBfpvffrN_Sw2z9pkvdj3PfoCcyi4zAVeFEeE1_l8zSPcwfcbC3V-ww6p0YTyTAUZOvPno2GEEUfpUuNVdx93GU3h8cPe12cg/s1600/Talion+Cover.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPF6pOOCRqUPwXzn6A4-eqhvRkEUwlbkmT5X18ccBfpvffrN_Sw2z9pkvdj3PfoCcyi4zAVeFEeE1_l8zSPcwfcbC3V-ww6p0YTyTAUZOvPno2GEEUfpUuNVdx93GU3h8cPe12cg/s320/Talion+Cover.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514994808609937794" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 220px;" /></a><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Talion-Mary-Maddox/dp/0984428100/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284057508&sr=1-1">Talion</a> </span>by Mary Maddox</span><br />
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(Cantraip Press / 0-984-42810-0 / 978-0-984-42810-6 / March 2010 / 296 pages / $12.99 / Amazon $9.35 / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Talion-ebook/dp/B0038M32FW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1284057508&sr=1-1">Kindle $1.99</a>)</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Reviewed by Dianne Salerni for PODBRAM</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">When Lisa Duncan’s parents decide to separate their daughter from her pot-smoking friends, they send her to spend the summer at Hidden Creek Lodge in Utah, which is owned by her aunt and uncle. They have no idea that there is much greater danger to their daughter than normal teenage hijinks: Lisa has attracted the attention of a serial killer who has chosen her as his next victim and who is more than happy to follow her to a remote Utah vacation spot. In her first days at Hidden Creek, Lisa meets Lu Jakes, the abused and timid daughter of an employee at the lodge. Although Lu is below Lisa’s perceived social status (Lisa calls her Trailer Girl), the isolation of the lodge throws the two girls together, and the stalking killer decides that two victims could be better than one. Lu Jakes is particularly interesting to him because she is already dazed and downtrodden. Little does he know that Lu sees things others do not – shining ethereal creatures called Delatar, Black Claw, and Talion, who may just provide her an edge that he won’t expect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">Mary Maddox’s tightly woven thriller is a smooth read, with clear vivid narration and fully formed characters. Writing in third person narration, from multiple perspectives, Maddox has used the clever strategy of placing narration from Lu’s perspective in present tense, while everyone else’s perspective is past tense. This serves to make the text surrounding Lu just a little disjointed from the other scenes – as if she doesn’t quite share the same timeline as everyone else. The strange creatures that she sees, including the Talion for which the book is named, provide an interesting twist to the story – although Talion is not as significant in the climax as I expected. Were Talion and his fellow creatures guardian angels, demons, or the hallucinations of a mentally disturbed girl? I expected some room for interpretation here, but considering his title role, I did expect to see a lot more of Talion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">Despite the two teenage protagonists, this is not a book for YA readers. The violence is on par with adult thrillers along the lines of Thomas Harris or James Ellroy. I’m not crazy about the cover image; I’m still not certain what it is meant to portray. The supernatural element of the story might have been more thoroughly explored, but overall this is an excellent suspense thriller, smoothly written, and well edited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 12pt;">See also: <a href="http://site.marymaddox.com/">The Author's Website</a><br /><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8600770-talion">Dianne's GoodReads Review</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.thescreamonline.com/fiction/fiction7-1/talion.html" style="font-family: times new roman;">Read an Excerpt from <span style="font-style: italic;">Talion</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/2732/1/Meet-Mary-Maddox-Author-of-Talion/Page1.html"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Interview with Mary Maddox</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.luckydaiva.com/blog/?p=145"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Another Interview with Mary Maddox</span></a>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31024695.post-20301786879110573782010-08-28T22:16:00.003-05:002014-11-28T10:26:13.804-06:00Divine Right<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpqEn3Guw2BcV6WuTFB83WtJAyRbzjc3HTMVGaWaAR4Urt5wcRMnD7-Rizv3nZd7n4SHi8C1VyvX6lpDLK0nqEiD4W5jH9DSJeS_JuyEyf5Flp9Y7cgu1qHfxfrjsJVbhq9VM7Q/s1600/Truth+Cover.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpqEn3Guw2BcV6WuTFB83WtJAyRbzjc3HTMVGaWaAR4Urt5wcRMnD7-Rizv3nZd7n4SHi8C1VyvX6lpDLK0nqEiD4W5jH9DSJeS_JuyEyf5Flp9Y7cgu1qHfxfrjsJVbhq9VM7Q/s320/Truth+Cover.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510665687252415522" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 214px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Right-Truth-Jacqueline-Homan/dp/0981567940/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283052106&sr=1-1">Divine Right</a>:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">The Truth is a Lie</span><br />by Jacqueline S. Homan</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman;">(Elf Books / 0-981-56794-0 / 978-0-981-56794-5 / September 2009 / November 2009 / 456 pages / 422 pages / Hardcover $27.95 / Amazon & B&N $25.15 / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Right-Truth-Lie-ebook/dp/B0030BFWMW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1283052106&sr=1-1">Kindle $5.99</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Jacqueline S. Homan is one of those special authors that I discovered because of PODBRAM. If I had not begun PODBRAM just over four years ago, Jacqueline never would have found me, and therefore I would never have heard of her or her books. Out of the many new authors who have submitted multiple books to us for review over the past four years, Jacqueline is the most improved. Her writing and book production have gone from somewhat crude, repetitive, and only adequately proofread to outstandingly researched and detailed and proofed at a professional level. Her chosen nonfiction subject matter has reflected Ms. Homan as a compassionate muckraker in four separate areas of American culture, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Right</span> is arguably the most important of these to America’s future as a nation of honorable leadership.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Right</span> is a detailed exposure of the deep history of religion in America. If the book has a fault, it is that the author expends a considerable amount of print space on too much detail from the B.C. period and the early days of A.D. time. For example, I could not care less about the birth and death dates of early rulers. The second, much lesser, negative issue with the book is that there are no front matter pages including the technical publication elements and such. I got the ISBN from a sticker on the back and the November publication date from the printer’s notation on the last page. The reason I mention this is that both Amazon and B&N list the book as being published in September 2009 with 34 more pages than are in my copy. I wonder if the front matter has been accidentally deleted from my copy? Regardless, I have no complaints about the 422-page edition I received. I want to mention one final little negative: if you are of the modern, rabid Christian Evangelical bent, I cannot be held responsible if this book gives you a heart attack!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Although <span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Right</span> is not a comedy in any sense, Ms. Homan made me laugh out loud numerous times with her phrasing. Her carefully composed, brief statements of scathing poignancy describing certain taboo religious issues are what pushed this book over the top for me. She is obviously a feminist of the deepest sort, and she knows how to pointedly describe the misogynistic destruction of freedom in America! What is the book about? This is it, the bottom line, and Jacqueline tells the story from the bottom up. Christianity has been a male dominated subculture from its earliest beginnings to the modern takeover of America by Tim LaHaye’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy">Council for National Policy</a>. Ms. Homan minces no words when she tells us what she thinks of these ideas!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">But seriously, folks, <span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Right: The Truth is a Lie</span> is a hell of a book (pardon the apropos expression). I did not find it as singularly engrossing or riveting as her <a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2008/09/eyes-of-monster.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Eyes of a Monster</span></a>, but the overall significance and comprehensive, professional presentation of <span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Right</span> make it Jacqueline Homan’s best book. Considering that <span style="font-style: italic;">Monster</span> is about the first gay hate crime prosecution in America, but <span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Right</span> is a subject that has been affecting the lives of millions for centuries, I think you get my point. If you are a feminist, have a deep mistrust of what has become of Christianity in modern America, or just want to read a well researched tome on the subject chocked full of irreverence, rather than holier than thou arrogance, then you will love Jacqueline Homan’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Right</span>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: small;">See also: <a href="http://jacquelinehoman.blogspot.com/?zx=5184f834c75865c9">Jacqueline S. Homan's Blog</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2009/11/nothing-you-can-possess.html"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;">Nothing You can Possess</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://podbram.blogspot.com/2008/07/claism-for-dimwits.html"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;">Classism for Dimwits</span></a></span>Floyd M. Orrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07328513361518450633noreply@blogger.com3