The Crimson Warrior

The Crimson Warrior
by Cathy Dannhauser
(Wheatmark / 1-587-36962-1 / 978-1-587-36962-9 / January 2008 / 140 pages / $12.95)

Reviewed by Dianne K. Salerni for PODBRAM

In a post-apocalyptic world where plague has killed off all human beings, new civilizations of cats and dogs have risen on the Animal Isles, remnants of our own continents. On Cat Island, Clans of cats live in peaceful harmony with one another, until an army of grotesque Hounds swims out of the ocean, led by their evil and bloodthirsty Queen Schkria. Her goal: to wipe out the inhabitants of Cat Island and conquer the land for her own descendents, a race of mutant canines shaped by toxic wastes of the former human inhabitants of the earth. Clan Inishkairie falls quickly and violently to the surprise attack of the newly arrived Hounds. The red-faced cat Riptorn, also called the Crimson Warrior, escapes the slaughter with two friends and flees to warn the other Clans. Each will risk his life to reach the strongholds of the diverse Clans and lead them to a secret valley where they can unite against the foe—and where, unbeknownst to them, they may just find surprising allies.

The background behind this world of animal civilizations is given to the reader in a six-page prologue. It is unfortunate that this information is presented in exposition, when it could have been revealed gradually throughout the book, adding depth to the plot and a mystery to enhance the reader’s interest. I would have enjoyed development on the theme of a cat civilization, but this is not explored, and there is no explanation for how animals without opposable thumbs are able to build structures, make fires, and construct such items as backpacks and eyeglasses. Although the author has attempted to portray the playful nature of cats, this sometimes manifests at inappropriate times, making the characters seem far too silly under dire circumstances.

The Crimson Warrior may interest middle grade readers who enjoy the “Warriors” fantasy series by Erin Hunter, which is also about the adventures of cat clans. The reading level is just about right for ten-year olds, and editing errors consist chiefly of verb tense mistakes that will be overlooked by the juvenile reader. For most of the book, the level of violence is equivalent to the Warrior books and reflects the typical action expected in fights between animals. However, the first chapter contains a brutal and graphic scene involving kittens that may not sit well with young readers who, if they have chosen this book, probably love cats. Even considering that this is “sci-fi violence” (to borrow a term from the movie industry), a greater respect for the sensibilities of the target audience would have been prudent.

See Also: Cathy's Wheatmark Page

The Dunking Tank

The Dunking Tank:
an Epistemological Rumination
by Dr. Al Past

The phrase “dunking tank” comes from an email I sent to the worthy editor of this blog some months ago to characterize an author who seemed leery of having his book reviewed by an impartial reader. We all know what a dunking tank is: that staple of county fairs where a local celebrity will risk being dropped into cold water by a well-aimed softball, thrown by someone who has paid for a chance to do exactly that. I’ll come back to this analogy shortly.

Most self-published authors are well aware of the dozens (hundreds?) of websites that will review a book for a fee, and most are also aware that by far the great majority of the resulting reviews are favorable if not fawningly laudatory. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this should be: if a site consistently low-rates the books it reviews, fewer authors will submit theirs, and if the site is ultimately designed to make money, then being honest only reduces the take.

Let’s do some math: $50 to review a book is typical. Assume two submissions a day, surely a low estimate given the hundreds of thousands of titles self-published annually, and you have an annual take of over $18,000. Four submissions, or six, a day, and you have a nice living. You can even pass the books out to other people to review, for nothing more than the “fame” of having their names on the review. Or you can sell them on eBay! Even more income!

To be fair, the people behind these for-pay reviewing sites may have a clear conscience about what they do. Some offer reviews for nothing, if the author insists, though they may take their own sweet time about getting to them. The fee, they can claim, helps “expedite” things. The site owners can say with straight faces that they do not soft-pedal paid reviews, and it’s possible they may even believe that. But I stand by what I said: money makes the world go round. I have heard authors say they feel using the fee option will result in a faster and better review! To cite another example, physicians are honest, 99% of them, but studies show that they prescribe more tests for the equipment they own than for equipment owned by others. It’s just the way the world works.

PODBRAM is one of a small number of reviewing sites that take no money for doing reviews. (There are a few others, and PODBRAM has links to some.) We work much as reviewers for major magazines do: however we make our living, it is not affected in the least by the opinions we have of the books we review. This fact is apparent to anyone who studies the PODBRAM site. In that sense our reviews are completely impartial.

This impartiality has to make some authors uneasy. After all, they have an enormous investment in time, money, and emotion in their work, and exposing it to the world for all to see, naked, as it were, can be a traumatic experience. That’s the genesis of the dunking tank metaphor: the fear of being suddenly dropped into cold water and not being able to do a thing about it.

It’s worth noting, however, that the members of the PODBRAM reviewing team are all authors. We have all taken our turns in the dunking tank, and we know how it feels. While we are honest, we are also tactful. I have never seen any mean-spirited or snide comment in any review on this site.

Which is not to say that all our reviews are perfect, or will completely satisfy all potential readers. People are different; readers are different; tastes differ. A recent post on this site, by Dianne Salerni, discussed the debased currency of the all-too-common “five star” review, found at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. She makes an excellent point. Counting stars is a poor way to select one’s reading material.

For example, I am a huge fan of Patrick O’Brian’s twenty volume Aubrey/Maturin sea novels, which are world-class classics by any estimation. Yet if you look any one of them up at Amazon, you will see plenty of two- and three- (and some one-) star reviews. Maybe those readers do not like sea stories. Maybe they can’t get comfortable with such elegant, eighteenth century-style prose. Maybe they’re put off by the nautical terminology. Maybe they prefer space aliens or throbbing bosoms. Who knows? Everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion, but for my money those books are ten star reads. The bottom line is we all have different tastes, and a potential reader needs to actually read, and judge, the reviews, regardless of stars.

I have written a fair number of reviews for Amazon, and I have my own criteria for awarding stars. I base it on the system I used when I taught college English. If a student essay was competent, sensible, and readable, I gave it a B. That equates to four stars for a book at Amazon. If there were a major shortcoming with an essay, it would get a C (three stars). I reserved the A for those essays that had something extra: memorable ideas, articulate expression, novelty, entertainment value, or whatever. They stood above the rest and could hardly be improved, in my opinion. That is how I define my five star books. Still, I repeat: counting the average number of stars is a poor way to choose one’s reading.

We don’t use stars at PODBRAM. Nonetheless, the attentive reader will be able to tell not only the degree to which the reviewer enjoyed the book but also gain some insight into whether he or she might as well. In my own reviews, I try to allow for the possible tastes of others, whatever my opinion. I gave a rave review to one book but I mentioned features that others might find daunting. I gave a less-than-glowing review to another but pointed out that fans of the genre might enjoy it anyway. The entire PODBRAM team does the same, and it works. I myself am now reading and enjoying a novel well reviewed earlier right here. A good book is a better value than a good movie as far as I am concerned, but it is not free (unless you find it in a library). Knowing which reviews I can trust helps me even the odds.

PODBRAM has always tried to find and promulgate worthy but little-known books. It’s a noble goal, and money should have nothing to do with it. Authors of quality books need not worry about the cold water below. The informed reader should appreciate its cleansing qualities.

See Also: Dr. Past's Website
Interview with Dr. Past
Volunteer for the Tank Here
Marsha Ward's Interview with Dr. Past

The Porta-PODdys

In consideration of all the discussion concerning five-star reviews, error counts, and anonymous reviewers, I feel compelled to step into the fray. Everyone knows that I do, indeed, count errors when I read a book for review. What you may not know is that I count them because I realized soon after I founded PODBRAM that the count was so astoundingly high for many POD books that I needed to track the errors in order to compose accurate, comparable reviews. The simple fact is that all POD authors must edit and proofread their own books, whereas traditionally published authors generally have the benefit of professional assistance. This makes the editing and proofing of POD books a special issue for legitimate reviewers. If we don't evaluate this issue, we are not being fair to the readers of those books lacking polish. You can defend your right to abuse poetic license and write your book in any manner you wish, but any conscientious reviewer is obligated to tell the truth as he sees it to your potential readership.

Counting errors is one thing, but analyzing the results is quite another. I try to do a lot of analyzing and soul-searching every time I write a review. That's some of the extensive personal service an author receives at PODBRAM. I try to take into account a variety of factors, even as I take notes on the errors. Yes, some errors are much worse than others. Some are the result of laziness, some are spawned by stupidity married to arrogance, and some are just missed by an author in a hurry. Some error types trip up the reader so repeatedly that the error count all but ruins the reading experience. Others are so benign that they can be easily ignored by a motivated reader. A lot of the errors are simply a difference of opinion between the author and the reviewer. Sometimes the difference of opinion stems from the author's poetic license speeding out of control. The reviewer must give the whole issue extensive thought after reading one book, while another presents a clear case for the reviewer. If there ever was a time to use the phrase case by case basis, this is it.

I shall not give any book I review for PODBRAM less than three stars at Amazon or B&N. No book will ever receive a distinct star rating for its PODBRAM review, either. As many have said in this discussion, why would I choose to read a two-star book in the first place? Let me add, why would I go to all the trouble to create and edit PODBRAM just to damage, instead of help, the marketing of books I so carefully select to review? That's what the selection process is supposed to accomplish before the book is even accepted for review at PODBRAM.

We do things the right way here at PODBRAM. You know my real name and that of all the reviewers on the team. You can look up the titles of any of our own books anytime you wish. You may have noticed that the rules for commenting on a post here are minimal. The only comments I have removed have been those of blatant spammers. You don't have to identify yourself or type in a series of funky letters and numbers to comment at PODBRAM, but I certainly hope that all of you will continue to identify yourselves when you comment. We are an upfront, non-business here at PODBRAM. We are not trying to hide anything from you. If you want to read about or buy any of our books, we shall love you for it, but we are not making a cent from this operation. We are doing it for the love of books, reading, and the appreciation for the massive amount of effort necessary for you to publish a quality product. You could say that we are acutely aware of your efforts.

Several years ago, a blogger known as PODdy Mouth was extremely lucky to be the first well-known POD reviewer to be recognized in the national media. Nevermind that she was a certified smart-mouth who treated most POD authors like something stuck on her shoe, PODdy became an overnight legend. Many POD reviewers treated her like a POD goddess. I was not one of those reviewers. Not only would she never reveal her identity to anyone, she refused to even add a link to this site from hers! I found her arrogance to be despicable, as well as childish. Unlike many other POD reviewers, I say good riddance to her snotty anonymity!

More recently another PODdy Mouth popped up to smart off at her readers. Although the second PODdy was more interested in the business side of the POD industry, her attitude toward the disclosure of her own identity was as guarded as that of the first PODdy. Were the two actually the same person? She claimed they were not, but I can certainly say the idea crossed my mind numerous times. I tried to get PODdy #2 to join me at PODBRAM for an interview, but she accepted only with the stipulation of the interview being conducted through the comment section of her own site. Hmmm. What did she have to hide? As many of you already know, the whole PODdy #2 affair blew up with a confrontation between her and a few of her less constrained commentators.

As you can see for yourself, they both ended up as Porta-PODdys, anonymous dust in the wind blowing across POD, the stench carried off somewhere else, where it could no longer offend our noses. Anonymous bloggers may in some ways be the bane of all of us. If you can't stand upright and state your name when you post something on a public forum, why should we allow you any credibility? If you question something I have been saying, go buy one of my books and make up your own mind. There are plenty of them for sale cheaply at Amazon, if you don't mind paying a $2.95 shipping charge. Go ahead. I dare you. I have copies of all of them that I can offer for free reviews, too, if anyone is interested. I am relatively sure that that goes for most or all of the PODBRAM team members, too. We are all in this together. If you want to truly gain respect as an author or book critic, you cannot hide behind anonymity. A Porta-PODdy is not a pleasant thing to stand behind, either.

The Five Star Review: What's It Good For?

The Five Star Review: What's It Good For?
by Dianne Salerni

Readers seem to be incredibly cynical these days, and a positive review for a book will not get you the respect that it once did. In a recent online discussion about what readers look for in a review, one of the participants claimed that she examines the profiles of reviewers on Amazon before deciding whether or not to trust their reviews. “If I see that a person only writes 5-star reviews of newly released books,” she said, “I assume he is getting the books for free and feels obligated to write a good review.” I admit; I was taken aback. What a suspicious frame of mind! And yet, as I read through the numerous responses on the discussion thread, it became apparent that many, many readers no longer trust 5-star reviews. When they find a reviewer who writes numerous positive reviews, they suspect an ulterior motive, and when they find a 5-star review written by a person with a blank profile, they know they’ve found a shill.

It is true that the review system—on Amazon in particular—can be compromised. There are countless instances of authors using sock puppets (fake profiles) to write glowing reviews of their own work, start discussions about their books, and comment angrily on negative reviews. In some cases, it is believed that authors have managed to get negative reviews deleted by enlisting a small army in a “click” campaign to report the review as abuse. The “helpful” votes for reviews are shamefully manipulated; readers tend to vote based not on helpfulness, but on whether they agree with the review, and sometimes the reviewers themselves will engage in warfare—voting down their rivals in an attempt to raise their own ranking!

So, what’s a poor POD author to do? Clearly, we want to acquire reviews of our books, and since most of the mainstream book reviewers have barred the doors against us, online sellers such as Amazon are an important market for us. However, readers have become jaded, and although many of the authors engaged in unscrupulous shenanigans are traditionally published, POD authors unfairly take a lot of the blame. Apparently nothing is more suspicious to a reader than a self-published book with an average rating of 5.0!

Discerning readers expect to see a balance of reviews on a book; they want to know the best and the worst it has to offer. Some readers report heading straight for the 3-star reviews, which generally identify strengths and weaknesses—something the potential buyer wants to know. Others look for the 1- and 2-stars, to check out the “worst case scenario” and decide if it’s something they can live with. In many cases, a well-written “average” review will sell more books than a 5-star review which foams at the mouth with unadulterated praise that hardly anyone believes.

Now, I am NOT suggesting that POD authors should put socks on their hands and start anonymously bashing their own work! However, as a group, I believe we need to get over our own insecurities and welcome reviews that present a less-than-glowing assessment of our work. I’m as guilty as anyone of moaning and whining about a lackluster review. A teenage reviewer at Flamingnet said my book was “long and drawn-out”, with people engaged in “tedious scamming”, and she had trouble finishing it. Yeah, my feelings were hurt, but a review like that one provides a counterpoint that shrewd readers use to make their buying choices. At the time, I was relieved she didn’t post it on Amazon, but now, I wish that she had. It would provide a needed balance for the positive reviews already there. As authors, we need to trust that readers know what they like to read and are capable of picking through both positive and negative reviews to find the books that will entertain them.

See Also: Dianne Salerni's Website
Dianne Salerni's Blog

Adventures in Publishing

Adventures in Publishing
by Celia Hayes

I came into writing and publishing through having been a contributor to a military-oriented blog, “Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Brief” which I was invited to join in mid-summer 2002. The creator of this particular blog had gotten tired of producing content all by his lonesome, so he put out a call for other contributors from those who read and commented frequently. All that he required was that we be active-duty or military veterans; other than that, we could write about whatever we pleased, however often we cared to. I began by setting myself the task of writing three original essays of about 800 words, three times a week, on whatever I felt like writing about – political commentary, essays about historical events, oddities about the military, and now and again some nostalgia pieces about my eccentric but amusing family. Those particular essays became very, very popular, and my parents were charmed to discover they had unknown friends and fans all over the place. Eventually, enough readers commented or emailed me, asking when I was going to put it all into a book. I never considered taking a memoir about my childhood to a regular publisher, or even getting an agent. This was just something I was doing for the website fans, and it was one of them who recommended Booklocker as an affordable and ethical publisher.

Of course, they are affordable because their schedule of services includes only the set-up fees for the text, a template or custom cover, and distribution through Ingram; just the basics. They do not offer editing or marketing services, and there is no enhanced placement as some of the other subsidized publishers offer. They do the set-up and cover design, give you a page on their website, and a place in the Ingram catalogue if you choose that option, and there you are. You do most of the rest of the work. This was fine with me, I couldn’t afford any enhanced features such as those offered by other publishers, anyway. Angela and Richard do offer all sorts of suggestions to their authors for publicizing and marketing their own books. I didn’t follow up on most of them for my first book, Our Grandpa Was an Alien. I marketed it through the website, originally, swapped reviews here and there. It was my training-wheels book. I think I made back about two thirds of what I put into it.

The next year, I wrote a long series of essays about a certain wagon-train party that I had always been rather interested in. I thought wistfully that it would make a terrifically good movie, and one of the readers suggested that if I do a movie treatment, she would show it around to some of her friends in the business. Nothing ever came of it – but it did have a nice assortment of characters already sketched and a rough plot outline with most of the dramatic incidents included. One of the people she showed it to was terribly impressed. He suggested I do it as a book instead. He’s a writer and editor, done freelance magazine work for years. He coached me into doing a proper outline, had many helpful and inspiring suggestions for what would become To Truckee’s Trail. He thought, and I hoped, that it would be terrifically appealing to mainstream publishing. I had been let go by the large corporate entity that employed me full-time in July 2006. I was about two chapters into the first draft of Truckee and didn’t mind, much – it meant that I could stay at home and write on it full-time, in between various temp assignments. Having a plot outline and a good idea of the characters, I could write at full tilt. I finished the first draft in three months flat, and edited and revised in another month. For a while I even had an agent interested in reading the whole thing, after being intrigued by some sample chapters. Alas, he passed on representing it and so did the two or three other agents who read it. All of them said wonderfully complimentary things about the story, and my writing… but all said that it just wasn’t ‘marketable’ – whatever the heck that meant. This left me terribly puzzled, since everyone else who had read all or part of the original draft had two reactions: “Wow!” and “Why have I never heard about these people before!?” Since a fair proportion of them were not related to me, and were, in fact, fairly disinterested consumers of popular fiction, I began to suspect that there was something rotten in the mainstream publishing world. Nonetheless, I gave it a year to get published, or at least, find an agent the old-fashioned way, which is what “Grumpy Old Bookman” a book-blog originally recommended by the reader-fan who had referred me to Booklocker suggested. At the end of a year, I had the usual collection of rejection slips, so I went back to Booklocker – this time, as a return author, I got a break on the text set-up fees.

I really wanted something special for the cover. I had a thought to market it through various frontier museum bookstores. Truckee was all painstakingly researched; I think I tracked down about every shred of information available anywhere about the Stephens-Townsend Party, so I thought it would stand up to the scrutiny of experts – and what better way to acquaint people with one of the great unknown stories of the frontier than by making a ripping-good adventure novel out of it! The cover had to look really, really top-drawer. Being only semi-employed at that time, I certainly couldn’t afford a fee for the rights to a piece of 19th Century artwork, or to commission something original. A photo of some kind would have to do. Just by coincidence, I was reading the paperback copy of Memoirs of a Geisha. This had a really striking but elegant cover design: a vintage photo with appropriate typeface. So I thought – ah-ha! A photo done in sepia tones with an ornate 19th Century font for the titles. Todd Engel, the Booklocker cover designer did a fantastic job. A reader and fan lent me the use of her photo, which she had actually taken of the Truckee River on a train journey a couple of years ago.

I also put Truckee into the Ingram catalogue, so that I would have the option of being carried by the various brick and mortar bookstores. The discount offered is not as deep as the 40% that bookstores usually demand, but they are returnable, and those bookstores with a local angle for stocking Truckee are able to do so. The big challenge was in getting reviews, and in locating publications, websites and blogs who would commit to a review. I only discovered all the ins and outs of getting them after Truckee was finished and available for sale! (oopsie) Many of the high-end outlets for reviews would prefer doing a pre-release review, and some of the others, like my local newspaper, will not touch POD books with a ten-foot pole. Even some individual reviewers at Blogger News Network will not consider POD books! The big surprise to me this time around was how long it did take for the review to appear. So lesson learned; allow four or six months in between the time the review is requested and the time that it will be posted… and to delay the release date long enough to accomplish this. As regards reviews, it was a bit of a surprise to learn from one of the other IAG members that getting just one review for every four copies sent out was a very good rate of return. In one way, I can understand: most of the big newspapers and magazines receive thousands of unsolicited book submissions; of course, they only have the time and space to review a small portion of them. What was a little disheartening to me was the number of review sites and blogging contacts (some of them personal and of long standing!) who specifically offered to do a review of Truckee, and I sent a copy to them… and then never heard another word. I was not the least surprised to learn from an IAG discussion last week that some reviewers are ripping off writers by harvesting a pile of books and turning around and selling them second hand.

On the third time out, with the Adelsverein Trilogy, I delayed the release date for six months, to allow enough time to get advance reviews from those places like Booklist, and the Historical Novel Society, which prefer pre-release materials. I am also marketing the trilogy through Strider Nolan, Mike Katz’s small publishing house – even though Booklocker did the book design, and will handle the printing and distributing. I had asked Mike and some other IAG members for blurbs and pre-release reviews, and Mike liked it so much that he offered me ISBNs thorough Strider Nolan, and permission to use his mighty publicity-making machine… er, his letterhead and logo… on the grounds that mainstream publications might be a little more receptive to the Adelsverein Trilogy. The review copies only went out two weeks ago. So far I have had some good responses, but I hate to say they have been successful until I actually see the review in print and posted.

Indy book publishing has changed incredibly, just over the short space of years that I have been at it, and I think the Amazon imbroglio is indicative of how many books in the aggregate are being published as independent and subsidy production. It all came down to money. Amazon wanted a chunk of the profits. As the major on-line retailer they were in a position to realize just how many books that they distribute are printed on demand and drop-shipped to the end customer! Not terribly many copies, considered by individual title, but considered all together, it must be a huge portion of the publishing pie. There has been nothing much in the way of developments since Booklocker.com filed suit, so perhaps wiser heads inside Amazon reconsidered. I don’t think we have heard the last of it, though. There are too many good writers, who are fed up with the old way of publishing. The costs of publishing independently and inexpensively are too readily available. The mainstream old-line publishers can go on ignoring them for a much longer time than an online retailer can.

See Also: Celia Hayes' Website

New POD Reviewer in the UK

A new reviewer of POD books has just launched a website on August 9th. The Self-Publishing Review plans to read and review submitted books in the near future. The proprietor of the site says that she (he?) plans to begin accepting submissions in most genres. To many of you out there in Amateur Authorland, probably the most shocking statement made on the site so far is that she will stop the reading of any submitted book once the error count reaches fifteen. To that I say, wonderful, great, more power to you, and I hope you receive a ton of submissions with less than fifteen errors. I seem to be laughing too hard to write this post! Where are the proofreaders? You say they are out to lunch? My guess is that if this rule is enforced, Ms. SPR will be starting a lot of books, but she may not be writing a lot of reviews.

Note that this new site is located somewhere across the pond and she does not accept PDF's. The genres accepted and other details will be posted at PODBRAM in the POD Review Ring Chart as soon as the new site owner sends them to me. I look forward to reading her reviews. She does, after all, claim to be an editor by profession. I, for one, hope she does not break her own rule. I fear that I shall be the only one.

The Hummingbird's Daughter

The Hummingbird's Daughter
by Luis Alberto Urrea
(Little, Brown and Company / 978-0-316-74546-8 / 0-316-74546-4 / May 2005 / 512 pages / $24.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM
 
The following review is of one of Dr. Past's favorite books. The cover you see here is on the original hardback published in 2005, currently available at Amazon for $16.47. The Amazon link above is to the 2006 paperback version with a different cover and a slightly higher page count for $10.19.

Among the many outstanding qualities of Luis Urrea's magnificent novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter, is that the story is substantially true. It is based on the historical record of his great aunt Teresa Urrea. The dialog and the personalities have been reconstructed, but anyone who cares to research the matter as I have will learn that the incredible life of the Hummingbird's daughter, Teresita Urrea, is accurately depicted.

Born out of wedlock to an illiterate Indian mother, she has no idea that her father is Don Tomás Urrea, rich landowner and freethinker in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. At about age six she is taken under the tutelage of an elderly Indian healer named Huila, whose name means “hummingbird” in the Indian language. From her, Teresita learns the uses of healing plants and prayers and discovers an even greater gift: she actually has the power to heal by her touch.

This causes problems. The ranch becomes crowded with thousands of pilgrims bearing the most pitiful ailments and afflictions, and the Mexican government, watchful to suppress any threats to its power, is suspicious of her growing fame. The shattering climax of the story calls that old cliché to mind: you can't make this stuff up. It wasn't! Unbelievable as it is, it happened.

The Hummingbird's Daughter is the story of a girl coming to terms with her destiny, with the power of faith and miracles, and with a father's and daughter's discovery of what love is and the sacrifices it sometimes requires.

The book is densely populated with cowboys, outlaws, wild Indians, men who drink too much, cantina beauties, mercy and cruelty, bravery and cowardice, and nature at its rawest. There are a fair number of Spanish words, untranslated, but these will not detract from the enjoyment for those who do not care to look them up. To add a historical note, the story is a wonderful snapshot of revolutionary Mexico along the American border.

Finally, the prose style is marvelously poetic: easy to read, but magically evoking the character of Mexico in all its color and contradictions. The description of the various ways Mexicans prepare coffee as the sun dawns gradually across the country could be excerpted as a fine poem all by itself. I have read the book three times, and in its own way it has influenced my writing as much as Huckleberry Finn, with which it shares many qualities. I even bought a second copy to lend, so as not to risk my own, precious, annotated copy. I grew up in El Paso. Teresita lived there briefly, yet I had never heard of her. This is a shame: her story and this book deserve to be better known.

See Also: Dr. Past's B&N Review
A Brief Biography of the Author
The Author in His Own Words
The Author's Daily Blog

Stray Not Beyond

Stray Not Beyond
by Michael B. Pinkey
(Writers Club Press / 0-595-26001-2 / 978-0-595-26001-0 / December 2002 / 228 pages / $14.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM

Irving Carlisle, age and occupation unstated, has spent years refining his pipe smoking habit. Perhaps his biggest challenge has been to find a truly satisfying pipe tobacco. One day he receives a piece of junk mail. Addressed to “Occupant,” it offers for sale a tobacco with the odd name of “Suttlespyce (Number 17),” which he orders on a whim. When it arrives weeks later he finds it transformative: it is the life-changing blend he has dreamed of, a true miracle. He becomes a regular customer for two years, until suddenly all his orders and further communications with the address are ignored, leaving him utterly desperate.

He takes leave from his job, and he and his cat Tweedler drive to Otterwood, North Carolina to get to the bottom of the mystery. He meets a succession of increasingly odd characters and bizarre situations that eventually become almost psychedelic in their strange randomness. I found myself thinking of Alice in Wonderland, except the present characters and situations are not nearly as endearing or totemic. Alice in Wonderland, after all, is a universally familiar worldwide treasure by an eccentric mathematician, written for children and adults who retain a measure of child-like wonder. The fictional territory of Stray Not Beyond's never-never-land part of North Carolina is more disorienting and threatening than charming.

As I plowed through the hallucinatory episodes that constitute the bulk of Stray Not Beyond I kept telling myself it might all be worth it if there were a point ahead, either a plot-related or other thematic justification. I have nothing against novels which do not fit existing genres (I am the author of several), but I do ask that a novel have unity, and that the parts of it be there for a reason. Thus I was rooting for the story to come together at the end, and hopefully disclose the raison d'etre of the strange conceits that predominated throughout. The book's cover offered no clue: is it an odd melange of North Carolina forests, or perhaps a close-up of pipe tobacco? I have no idea. If I were browsing a book store it would not cause me to pick it up and read the back cover.

I can say several good things about the book. There is a conclusion, at least to the mystery of the disappearing tobacco, though I cannot say that that conclusion made the odyssean, fantastic ramblings of the main character any clearer. The prose was cleanly written, even though in my opinion the story was not tightly conceived. There was minimal profanity, sex, and gore. I don't reject those things out of hand, but in this case on top of all the bizarreness they would have been too much.

I'll have to be content in the knowledge that Carlisle did find his pipe tobacco. I was also pleased to see that my favorite character, Tweedler, survived despite being sadly neglected in the middle of the story. Whether that says more about my character or Irving Carlisle's lack of it, I do not care to contemplate.

Stray Not Beyond is a work of considerable imagination, and as such might appeal to readers who enjoy sheer fantasy. For my part, I prefer my fantasy (or whatever style) assembled with a little more discipline.
 
See Also: Dr. Past's B&N Review
Devon Kappa's Review at None May Say

The Confederate War Bonnet

The Confederate War Bonnet: A Novel of the Civil War in Indian Territory
by Jack Shakely
(iUniverse / 0-595-46140-9 / 978-0-595-46140-0 / February 2008 / 272 pages / $17.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM

The Prologue of Jack Shakely’s The Confederate War Bonnet poses an intriguing question about an elaborate Pawnee war bonnet donated by the Ford Foundation to the University of Oklahoma. Why, in its intricate beadwork, should there be the repeated motif of the Confederate flag? Was it a hoax, or a joke, or a political statement?

Why indeed? That war bonnet, now in the Smithsonian Institution, was not a hoax. It is real, and mentioning it at the outset of the book brilliantly and concisely illuminated to me how I, despite being a reasonably educated person and not unfamiliar with the Civil War, knew nothing at all about the war’s effects on American Indians.

The author, a fourth-generation Oklahoman of Creek descent, is a former journalist whose family owned newspapers in four small Oklahoman towns. His novel is an expertly fictionalized account of the plight, and the fate, of a number of Indian tribes during the unpleasantness between the states. The average person might expect that the Indians would not come to the defense of the Union, which after all had forced most of them off their ancestral lands and relegated them to strange lands, breaking treaty after treaty and dealing with them shabbily at best. And that would be true, for many Indians. But others did indeed cleave to the Union, and this difference often divided individual tribes. Unfortunately, many of those tribes were at odds with other tribes in the first place. The Civil War only served to subdivide them even further.

It was a very complex situation, and beyond the scope of this review to explain. Suffice it to say that the general reader will gain an appreciation of the complexity, sadness, and eventual glimmers of hope that emerged from this national disaster. The student of history will find a good deal more.

All readers will enjoy the highly readable narrative the author has laid over the historical record-the book is worth reading simply as a tale of the American west. Long term, however, it adds to our understanding of who we are as Americans, and what we have done and failed to do as a nation. To that end, readers will appreciate the author’s note at the end: all but a couple of the characters in the story are real. The battles and so forth are described as accurately as can be known.

That war bonnet figures into the story, beginning, middle, and end. I hope I visit the Smithsonian some day and see it, or stumble across a photograph. It will inevitably recall a flood of impressions made by The Confederate War Bonnet. How many books can you say that about?
 
See Also: Dr. Past's B&N Review
Dr. Past's Authors Den Review
Jack's Authors Den PageJack Shakely's Blog
Celia Hayes' BNN Review
Dianne Salerni's Review (scroll down the page)

God Outside the Box

God Outside the Box:
A Story of Breaking Free
by Patricia Panahi
(AuthorHouse / 1-434-36775-4 / 978-1-434-36775-4 / April 2008 / 292 pages / $15.95)

Reviewed by Dianne Salerni for PODBRAM

For many people, a diagnosis of cancer at the age of 28 would be a devastating blow. For Patricia Panahi, who was as shocked and frightened as anyone would be by such news, it turned out to be a crisis point which set her on a path of spiritual development which she continues to follow today.

God Outside the Box: A Story of Breaking Free is Panahi’s narrative describing her spiritual journey towards understanding herself and breaking through negative and self-deprecating beliefs that limited her potential for growth. Born of a Catholic mother and a Moslem father, Panahi spent her younger years "trying on" various religions, including not only Catholicism and Islam, but also Hinduism and Shamanism and a host of others. Each exploration left her feeling confused and unsatisfied. She eventually concluded that most religions confined God in a box and presented him to believers as a "package deal." Not liking any of the packages, Panahi avoided religion altogether, until a close brush with cancer in 1979 caused her to reconsider her purpose and role in life.

What begins as a tentative search for spirituality leads the author into a lifelong quest for "the path to God within." Panahi starts out as a skeptic, who rolls her eyes over such things as "rebirthing sessions" and "Spiritual Mind Treatments," but gradually becomes aware that these inner explorations provide her with relief from spiritual pain. Her quest for a better understanding of her Higher Self leads her to open a metaphysical book store, develop her own quiescent leadership talents, bring an end to a marriage that had ceased to function, relocate herself to a faraway state, find her soulmate, and eventually to write this book.

There were many parts of God Outside the Box that were personally significant and meaningful to me. There were also times when I thought Panahi’s spiritual adventures sounded a little too "out there" for my tastes, but I think the author would sympathize with my perspective, because she, too, began as a skeptic and only by degrees came to change her beliefs. Patricia Panahi clearly states that everyone’s spiritual evolution is different and each person must find her own path to God. The beginning of the book was a little disjointed, with several slips of verb tense and some of Panahi’s important life experiences presented in a non-chronological order, but these small problems disappeared by the end of the second chapter and did not diminish my overall appreciation for her message. God Outside the Box is a book that I will remember for a long time and may turn to the next time I need a little spiritual guidance.

See Also: Dianne's B&N Review
Dianne's High Spirits Review
The Well Woman Cookbook
Patricia Panahi Book Signing

When Pigs Fly

When Pigs Fly by Bob Sanchez
(iUniverse / 0-595-40770-6 / 978-0-595-40770-5 / November 2006 / 307 pages / $18.95)

If you’re looking for a light, quick, entertaining, summer read, When Pigs Fly is an excellent choice. Retired technical writer Bob Sanchez has released his first novel and it’s a slam-bang hoot with the offbeat energy of Raising Arizona raging through its pages. In fact, most of the action takes place in Arizona, and that’s not a bad coincidence at all.

The storyline is both twisted and convoluted, so try to stay with me here. Since I never give away any more of a book’s plotline than I as a consumer would want to read in a review, the following description is merely the beginning. An eighty-year-old couple in Lowell, MA, buys a lottery ticket with the jackpot numbers printed right on it. A stinky, three-hundred-pound, sleazebucket thief steals the ticket, but he does not put it in his pocket. The thief has already been sentenced to a time of less than one year for a previous conviction, and the ticket is good for a year. Instead of cashing it in immediately, he hides the ticket inside an urn in the couple’s house, planning to retrieve it after serving his time. Little does he know that the urn contains the ashes of a dead city policeman. The son of the couple is a retired Lowell cop now living in Arizona. After losing his longtime wife, Mack Durgin had chosen to retire where he and his wife had always planned. He had not planned to receive a FedEx package from his parents containing the urn of ashes, the hot ticket, and some costume jewelry his addled elderly mom had included as a bonus. Mack has a drunken quickie with a lady of less than stellar reputation, and her boyfriend with a tattoo of a brain on his skull doesn’t care for the dalliance. Two brothers in crime once familiar to Officer Durgin back in Lowell join forces with the brain/skull guy and Mr. Piggie to track down the high-flying lottery ticket. In the meantime, Mack has come to his erotic senses and begun courting a nicer young lady, one whose charms have also entranced an Elvis impersonator who doesn’t know when to zip up. Last, but far from the least interesting, is Poindexter, a pet javelina pig that has just won a big ribbon as his owner’s science project. Trust me: you’ll be rootin’ for Poindexter all the way to the end!

A lot of action, humor, poignant dialogue, and, of course, wild and crazy characters have been crammed between the covers of When Pigs Fly. Bob Sanchez has said that he enjoys making people laugh, a concept that becomes obvious from the style of his first novel. There are some of the standard POD boo-boos such as misplaced common words and punctuation errors present in the book, but the number of incidences is considerably less than average. You can tell that Mr. Sanchez cares enough to present a professional product to his readers. Due to line spacing within the dialogue and the presence of many short chapters, When Pigs Fly is a somewhat quicker read than its page count might imply. Especially as the author’s first foray into the humor genre, When Pigs Fly is a highly commendable first effort. You’ll fly through this quirky little story just like Poindexter!

See Also: The B&N Review
The Blogger News Network Review
The Authors Den Review
Bob Sanchez' Website
Review of Bob Sanchez' Getting Lucky

Cyberdrome

Cyberdrome
by Joseph & David Rhea (CreateSpace / 1-434-80995-1 / 978-1-434-80995-7 / January 2008 / 292 pages / $14.95)

Reviewed by Dianne Salerni for PODBRAM

The Cyberdrome Corporation has found a unique way to develop ground-breaking technology: create a supercomputer containing hundreds of simulated human worlds, allow them to divert naturally from the true course of Earth’s history, and watch for the development of revolutionary technologies that don’t exist in the real world. The millions of inhabitants of these worlds have no idea that they are only programs, living simulated lives and observed by scientists from Earth Zero. Of course, the scientists from Earth Zero don’t realize that they are only programs, living in a simulated world and supervised by employees of Cyberdrome who are biologically interfaced with the digital universe.

When a rogue virus gets past the firewalls, wreaking havoc on the program and trapping forty humans interfaced with Cyberdrome, corporation leaders bring in Alek Grey, an expert at preventing break-ins to secure systems. Alek is not only the son of Matthew Grey, the top scientist of Cyberdrome currently trapped in the program, but he is the creator of the Cyberphage, the program which inserted the attack virus after it was stolen from Alek himself.

Cyberdrome is a fast-paced techno science fiction adventure, but do not be put off by the term “techno.” Written by two brothers with a background in designing computer games, Cyberdrome is nevertheless accessible to readers without experience in computer programming or simulations – like me. I prefer my science fiction to be based on unique settings, complex plots, and fascinating characters, and here Cyberdrome does not fail. Certainly, there is a degree of technical language, especially in the first couple of chapters, but I considered this to be “world building” and the Rhea brothers introduced the universe of Cyberdrome by immersion, rather than by tedious explanations. It was not more than I could handle, and I loved the storyline.

When Alek ultimately interfaces with Cyberdrome, he encounters programs that think they are human, humans who might just be programs, and a program that could possibly be turning into a super-human intelligence. Layer after layer of plot twists and double-crosses add to the delicious tumult, and the authors even tip their hats at the reader by acknowledging this. When the heroine warns the hero that the character they have just encountered is “not real,” the character replies, “I’m quite real. At least in the context of our current understanding of what defines reality in this world we have created.” Now that’s a mouthful!

Action packed, with memorable characters and imaginative settings, Cyberdrome is a satisfying science fiction adventure. And, if you do happen to have a background in computer programming or gaming, you’ll probably appreciate it on a whole other level!

See Also: Dianne's Authors Den Review
Dianne's High Spirits Review
The Cyberdrome Website
Joseph Rhea's Website

Second Anniversary

Today is the Second Anniversary of PODBRAM. Of course, we passed the first anniversary as iUBR, so the two-year period covers the history of this same website in all its guises. Surely I have said in some previous post somewhere that when I stop learning new things in the process of working on any project, I soon get bored with it. New experience is the secret of happiness, as far as I am concerned, so you can expect PODBRAM to continually grow and evolve as a book review site.

Here is a very brief history of my own writing experience. You might understand why my books span such a broad base of subject matter, as well as why PODBRAM has always been a work in progress that never really stops evolving. I began putting together my first book in about 1967. I actually do not remember the exact year. It began with handwriting in a spiral notebook, just as many of your earliest works probably did. I began this as a freshman in college majoring in General Liberal Arts. By the time I had graduated with a BA in Psychology, the book was complete and my personal theory of personality development was completely baked. I knew it was not much of a commercial effort, and I also knew that one day I would rewrite the whole thing into a much more professional release. That project became the first thing I did after I retired in 2001.

Although I am quite unmechanically inclined, I have been a car nut since I began identifying the year of a Cadillac by its tailfins in about 1954. I have been reading books about cars and the car culture for decades. At the beginning of 1980, the next new experience I desired was to locate and purchase a 1970 Corvette Stingray and begin writing stories and articles about classic Corvettes and the car culture in general for the local Corvette club newsletter. That newsletter became the most famous of its kind for Corvette clubs, but I had planned my own new experience of the future even before I had completed all my compositions. I knew that I would eventually turn all of The Corvette Chronicles into a book entitled Plastic Ozone Daydream. About eighteen years after setting this plan in motion, I got married (for the first time), sold the car, left the club, and began editing the book. Daydream was released on the last day of December, 2000.

I am almost as fascinated by boats as I am by cars, and at the end of The Nineties, I saw a most unpleasant pattern developing that made me want to capture something special before it was forced out of the marketplace forever. No matter how much American manufacturing had already left the USA, recreational powerboats were still a strongly American industry, but I could see its demise coming from a mile away. Outboard Marine Corporation had been struggling as a company for decades. All the wonderful little mini-jets of the early Nineties were either being discontinued or moved disgustingly up-market in size and price. Many boat brands from decades back were either being consolidated or filing for bankruptcy. The boat industry was clearly one of the last strongholds of American manufacturing to die a slow, painful death. It did not take much effort for me to complete my research and organize it into a book for all the boat lovers of the past and future.

A genre I read a lot, in addition to car books, is that of economic and political nonfiction, so I began planning one of those for my fourth performance. I had planned to write a book named 2010 and release it last year. I had been following the housing bubble long before it popped. Did I mention that most of my career life had been spent in the financial services industry? 2010 was going to be an historical summation of how and why Americans have gotten ourselves into this current economic tsunami. I completed the first chapter and a complete outline of the rest back in about 2005, but before I went much further with the project, my wife convinced me that its approach and tone were too negative. The next step was to switch gears a little and present a tightly edited package of all the good, positive, fun things about America. The view down the steep hill from the exclusively expensive neighborhood on the book's cover is an inside joke. We were at the peak of the housing bubble just before it popped, and I was fully aware of that fact.

My books all have common threads running though them. I write about entertaining megatrends on the surface, but I am also deeply conscious of the undertow these same trends harbor. My goal is to entertain and inform. Accomplishing only one of these goals is not enough. I want to do both.

PODBRAM has lately become my most favored project. I have greatly diminished the time I spend on other projects such as my original e-tabitha website. That's why it seems to have been static for the past year or so. I just don't have the time to do both. For the time being at least, PODBRAM will retain its iUBR URL, so newcomers finding the site through links scattered all over the web will still find PODBRAM. If you put PODBRAM in Google, you will always find us, one way or the other, and that's what really matters. Authors Den will be phased out of the review system at the end of 2008. This is not a negative reflection on AD in any way. It's just that I personally as an author and PODBRAM as a review site have outgrown the advantages AD offers to new authors. I have always said that AD is one of the best ways to move you and your books upward in the Google search rankings, and I still think that is true. The situation now. though, is that you can put my name, POD Book Reviews, or PODBRAM in Google anytime and you will find us all instantly.

The goal is and always has been to expand the horizons of both authors and readers. The PODBRAM of the future will continue to offer new and surprising features and changes. My entire life and all my goals are about quality instead of quantity, and PODBRAM is no exception. I have never been a prolific writer, and I never intend to become one. I am as slow, methodical, and meticulous as a turtle, but as I continually remind my wife, the turtle always wins the race. I want PODBRAM to become known as a review site that is as exclusive as the neighborhood pictured on the cover of Timeline. and like any legitimate review site, reviews will always be free. They may not be exactly what the authors had in mind, but they will be real.

The Shadow Warriors

The Shadow Warriors
by Judith Copek
(Imprint Books / 1-591-09960-9 / 978-1-591-09960-4 / November 2003 / 476 pages / $19.99)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM
 
If you are reading this, then you are a computer user, and if you are using a computer, you are probably aware that doing so can expose you and your machine to many dangers: viruses, Trojan horses, worms, bugs, bots, spyware, malware... the list seems endless. Countering them (and creating them) is the province of highly specialized, intelligent, and often, quirky people.

The Shadow Warriors is a book set in this world, spanning several genres: mystery, thriller, techno, and techno-thriller. There's also a generous dose of romance. The narrator and main character is an attractive woman with a history, many male admirers, a lover of good food, fancy restaurants and hotels, and a classy dresser. She's also intelligent, computer-savvy, and inquisitive, traits which put her in the middle of a complex and dangerous situation.

Apparently not inspired by, but certainly reminiscent of, the famous, feared, fizzled Millennium Bug of 2000, the story centers around the efforts of a group of computer hackers (not necessarily a term of opprobrium, it turns out), including the protagonist, Emma Davis. Their task is to retrieve some software that has gotten away from its creators and been turned into—possibly—a fearsome, world-stopping doomsday suite of computer programs. While this goes on, Emma must sort out her personal life with three men, one being her husband. The threat of digital disaster is a timely and entertaining notion, and there is no need to detail the course of the action here. It's enough to say there are murders, chases, narrow escapes, creepy suspects, intimate trysts (PG-13), and building tension enough for anyone looking for an absorbing experience.

While there is some amount of techno-speak it is minimal and will not disturb the reader who does not care to wallow in it. It should also be said that the heroine closely observes the clothing of other characters and describes meals and hotels in considerable detail. It may be that female readers will particularly enjoy this aspect, but in fact this male reader did too—the author's descriptive powers are considerable. Many of the settings are described wonderfully well—those who have traveled widely, or would like to, will especially enjoy this aspect of the book. The author also has a fine ear for dialog.

On the other hand, the cover was not nearly as appealing as it could have been. The text was cleanly written and edited, and the small number of typos and grammar glitches that slipped through did not significantly detract from the experience. The story line was quite complex, what with the heroine's personal life intertwined with a large group of other significant characters, some with similar names. I'm glad I didn't try to read the story at the beach or in an airport lounge: it required concentration to follow. A list of characters at the back of the book would have helped. (There are some promising recipes there, but alas I didn't try them.) It was a long tale, moreover, and while it grew increasingly absorbing as it proceeded, looking back I wonder if whittling it down a bit, concentrating it, might have made it even more compelling.

The Shadow Warriors was a timely and fun book. The general reader would enjoy it, and I for one look forward to more by this talented, promising author.

See Also: Dr. Past's B&N Review
Judy Copek's Website

Palace Council

Palace Council by Stephen L. Carter

(Knopf / 978-0-307-26658-3 / July 2008 / 528 pages / $26.95 retail / $17.16 Amazon)

Special Note: This review of Stephen L. Carter's Palace Council represents the first of several big changes coming soon to PODBRAM. This book is to be officially released tomorrow, but I began reading a pre-release copy late last month, and my reviews have been available at B&N and Blogger News Network since 7/2/08. Of course this is not a POD book, but we are now & More, and this is some of the More. From now on, the POD books selected for review at PODBRAM will bump covers with a few traditional bestsellers. More details will follow in a later post. On with the show!

Although I had heard of Stephen L. Carter long ago, this is the first book of his that I have read. As a Baby Boomer born six years prior to Mr. Carter, I have been living through and following the same historic, modern American events that the author has so explicitly integrated into his complex tale of intrigue. Palace Council displays a clever conceit similar to the one so prevalent throughout the movie, Forrest Gump, in which lead fictional characters intertwine seamlessly with famous figures and events in history. To compound the power of the story, the book is written with the same fascinating depth of family saga that made certain books from an earlier decade such bestsellers. Palace Council, in one way or another, aptly reminded me of Rich Man, Poor Man, Kane & Abel, and All the President’s Men. With its plot encircling the interrelationships among Joe Kennedy, his legendary sons, LBJ, MLK, and the grand poohbah himself, J. Edgar Hoover, this book is certainly a second cousin to a lesser-known miniseries that I have always loved entitled Hoover vs. The Kennedys. The punch line is that Palace Council is as good as any of these famous, wonderfully detailed books and movies.

Stephen L. Carter’s third novel tracks an ambitious young writer and social commentator as he interacts with his friends, family, fans, and many famous names in American politics. The reader might envision Denzel Washington as a very intelligent Forrest Gump who happens to know all the right people during the tumultuous years between 1952 and 1975. The main element of the book that fascinates me is the way the author has so adeptly combined what is almost a non-fictional, historical storyline with an extensive fictional saga of the exploits of key members of several wealthy, influential families. Stephen Carter is clearly a high-level intellectual who is fascinated by The Sixties and all the changes that did or did not have a lasting effect upon the American social and political landscape. Palace Council is every bit as much fun to read as some of the better Harold Robbins novels, and with its covers crammed with real movers and shakers of our lifetimes, the poignancy drips off the pages.

Whether or not you believe in conspiracy theories of one theme or another, I feel that most deeply thinking Americans have at least considered this fact. There have been many cases throughout the country’s esteemed and infamous history in which, if a conspiracy was not afoot, then our great nation has been ruled either by insufferably long strings of consequence or notions of deep stupidity. I have long harbored at least a few thoughts toward the former simply because the alternative is far less fathomable. Palace Council is one of those poignant, yet on the surface fictional, books destined to pose as many questions about our history as it does answers.

Some reviews of Stephen L. Carter’s previous novel, New England White, mentioned the complexity of the plot and characters of that book as a negative issue. Although I sincerely think the readers who will enjoy Palace Council the most are ones who are old enough to remember many of the events, the complexity of the plot or characters never even once left me scratching my head in confusion. Certainly this is not a book composed for morons, or even for those who think the antics of Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan are news, but is it too obtuse for the citizenry? Never. Palace Council is one whopper of a sophisticated, highly topical, thought-provoking novel. The plotting and editing are impeccable. The storyline is fascinating. Splitting the difference between political nonfiction published by numerous television talking heads and some of the best fictional, epic sagas, Palace Council impressed the hell out of this author and longtime avid reader. This book will reside on my bookshelf with some of my favorite fiction and nonfiction. However you want to categorize Palace Council, let’s just say that Mr. Carter has written one hell of a fascinating saga of thrilling intrigue.

See Also: The B&N Review

The Blogger News Net Review

Stephen L. Carter's Wikipedia Page

Cla$$ism for Dimwits

Cla$$ism for Dimwits
by Jacqueline S. Homan
(Elf Books / 0-981-56791-6 / 978-0-981-56791-4 / February 2008 / 488 pages / $21.95 / Amazon $17.78)

Jacqueline S. Homan is acutely disturbed by poverty in America, her own as well as everybody else’s. What differentiates her book from most of those that delve deeply into the same subject matter is that she is talking about lower class white poverty. Although Ms. Homan recognizes the obvious issue of race as it pertains to poverty in America, that particular element is clearly not the subject of her obsession. That subject, as implied by the title as it is written, Cla$$ism for Dimwits, is just plain money, cash, moohlah, the stuff with which you pay the bills. Those bills are the most basic you can imagine, from rent to gasoline to electricity to the phone bill. Cla$$ism for Dimwits is about the everyday struggles of the poor in America, how they fell into a financial hole and why they are unable to dig themselves out.

The author states her case beginning with her own personal life history as an orphaned two-year-old raised by her grandmother. She was thrown into the street when her grandmother died eleven years later, but she eventually moved in with her older half-sister. The two sisters retained a minimalist subsistence by utilizing multiple low-wage jobs for a number of years. She moved up the income ladder a bit by entering the construction industry at age 22, but an auto accident less than two years later prematurely destroyed her burgeoning career in the trade. Many years later she would graduate from college with a BA at age 34, in spite of the detrimental effects of mild dyslexia and severe poverty.

Cla$$ism for Dimwits is a difficult book to rate for readers because its supremely significant message is marred by technical foibles and amateurish presentation. Although you could make a case that I am being overly critical, I would say that many potential readers will promptly feel the slap from being called dimwits before they even open the cover. They might also be put off by the 3D WordArt graphic on the cover that is barely readable. Oversized margins and 1.5 line spacing turn what should have been a 200-page book into 480 pages. The author has told me that others advised her to publish the book this way because the text would be easier to read, but as soon as the average reader opens the book, he will see that the author was misled. The book is also full of the usual proofreading errors indigenous to self-published books these days. Far too many of the points made by the author are repeated throughout the text, most using the same or similar phrasing or terminology. Last, but not least, there are numerous missed opportunities in which supporting references to key points of data are not included, either within the text, as footnotes, or in the bibliography.

Ms. Homan is to be congratulated for both her personal climb out of the educational and poverty hole enough to compose and publish this book, and for her guts to face down her accusers in such a blatant manner. Most of what she says in Cla$$ism for Dimwits is most certainly true, whether she is describing labor riots of several decades ago, the rise to power of a Howdy Doody-like President on the backs of unfortunate Americans, or the final destruction of our middle class safety net by the current administration. My opinion in the final analysis is to give Jacqueline Homan an A for effort, but a C in execution. That leaves Cla$$ism for Dimwits with a four-star average. I loudly applaud her choice of subject matter, the personal approach to it, and the energy and resources she fired into the project; however, certain elements lacking professionalism drag the book down to a somewhat lower level.

See Also: The B&N Review
Jacqueline Homan's Blog
The Blogger News Network review
Review of Jacqueline Homan's Eyes of a Monster
Divine Right: The Truth is a Lie