9. Weapons Of Choice

Weapons Of Choice - John Birmingham

I thought the idea behind this novel was very interesting and could not wait to read it. I found out it was the first part in a trilogy and got even more excited about it. The other two are already on the shelf and waiting to be read.

This is a story about a multi-national military task force from the year 2021 that is headed on a peacekeeping mission to Indonesia where Islamic extremists have seized Jakarta. Due to some unrest in the region a research vessel working in the area is also being protected by the task force. That vessel is conducting experiments to create small stable worm-holes. The experiment goes awry and the task force is absorbed by a huge worm hole and transported in time.

They arrive in 1942. Pearl Harbor has already been attacked. Admiral Spruance is in charge of his fleet and headed to Midway for an infamous battle with Yamamoto.

That alone was interesting enough to get me to read the book. Imagine what having weapons systems even a decade more advanced that the ones we currently have and using them against an enemy from the 1940s. The advantage would be overwhelming. Rockets, jets, helicopters, radar, computers, communications equipment, stealth, automatic rifles, night-vision technologies, infra-red, hovercraft, laser-guided technology, body armor, etc etc etc. All of these things did not exist at all in the 1940s.

So, I read the book thinking that all these advantages would lead to an easier war for Americans and possibly a Japanese surrender without having to actually using nuclear weapons. I thought it would be a fun little jaunt for our superior forces onto islands that were in real history some bloody and costly battles with tremendous casualties on both sides.

What I got was different. The naval battle at Midway didn't happen after Spruance's fleet ran into the task force that suddenly appeared. The personnel on the task force were all rendered unconscious for a period of time after the "transition". The task force ships recognized this fact with the sensors and computers on the ships and entered an auto-pilot program. While under auto-pilot is when the 1942 folks located the 2021 folks...and they were multi-national...and there were ships flying the flag of Japan. So, needless to say, despite being like "What the heck is that thing?" the 1942 Americans freaked out and attacked the 2021 ships. The 2021 ships on auto-pilot defended themselves. Both sides take a bunch of damage and history is changed in that instance. No more battle at Midway.

What is so different about that? Nothing. It came after that. About 75% of this book had nothing to do with war at all. It had to do with fitting thousands of people from 2021 into a 1942 world and making it work. Imagine the differences. Racial equality was tremendously different. Women's rights...very different. These two social differences were huge parts of the story. Imagine a black lesbian female being the commander of an American aircraft carrier. No big deal today, but it sure would have been in 1942. Any one of those adjectives (black, lesbian or female) would have meant she would not only never command such a ship, but that she would never even serve on one in any capacity at all.

Those kinds of interactions between peoples of both times were very interesting. Then there was some pretty cool stuff that comes with knowing what would happen before it happens.

For instance, there was a meeting where Admiral Kolhammer (2021) was briefing President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other cabinet and military on the capabilities of his forces. Present at the meeting were folks like Admirals Halsey and Nimitz, General MacArthur, and many others. One of them was general Dwight D Eisenhower. Eisenhower was to become President one day. Since the 2021 folks had all this history in their computer libraries President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower both knew that this was to happen in the future. When Eisenhower disagreed with something Roosevelt said at the meeting Roosevelt said to him "You are not president yet!" That was hilarious to me. Those kinds of things were quite funny.

Another quite funny interaction was when Kolhammer was visiting with Albert Einstein. The conversations were pretty cool.

I was also glad to see that despite all this hardware popping into a world that preceeded the technologies by 80 years that the charachters all realized that they would not suddenly start cranking out tons of cruise missles from American factories. They knew that even with the knowledge they suddenly acquired it would take decades for the undustrial aspects of that technology to catch up to the knowledge they now had.

I figured this would be a fun book to read where the technology would be the star. It turned out that the characters stole the show. It was quite good and I am looking forward to reading the second and third books in the series.

Oh, I almost forgot. The biggest baddest aircraft carrier of them all, the flagship of the multi-national task force...it is the USS Hillary Clinton. It is explained that she was President, a champion of the Navy, and brutally assassinated. Before her death the world had learned not to mess with her because she unleashed the military force upon her enemies ruthlessly. That was an interesting little tidbit from the future that tramsmitted to the past. :-)

Something else I found to be very cool was that there was no Bataan Death March. The tens of thousands of American POWs that actually died horrible deaths in Japanese prison camps were rescued by the multi-national task force. That was the one and only mission performed by the task force against the Japanese forces. The 2021 folks knew it was going to happen and it was important that they prevented such suffering.

Next stop...Auschwitz? I can only hope

Fanny Hill

Fanny Hill - John Cleland

What a waste of time. This is a classic? This is such a great story that movies and sequels were based on it? I quit shortly after starting this book.

What happened? The parents of a naive fifteen year old girl from the English countryside die and leave her with no family or caregivers. A woman from London takes her to the big city and leaves her to fend for herself. A predatory woman lures her into working for her as a "servant". She is then molested by a 25 year old woman....and that is where I am done.

Let's see...we have child molestation...human trafficking...abuse of an orphaned girl...and so much more. All of this within the first chapter.

I am assuming this gets worse and do not wish to waste my time reading this book.

Also, I will never take the recommendations of my coworker again. This is the third book he has mentioned and the third one that I hated. Three strikes- you are out. I read some stupid books, but dude, come on. The things you recommend are just junk.

8. The War Of The Worlds

The War Of  The Worlds - H. G. Wells

Outstanding!

This was so much more than just a sci-fi novel about martians attacking the earth. The movie and the old radio show were more about the actual attack and the response of people to that attack. The book went further than those surface visuals. It was much more than I expected.

If you, like I, have failed to pick this book up during your lifetime...get on it. I loved it.

7. Goat: A Memoir

Goat: A Memoir - Brad Land

Savage and brutal. Humanity can be down right dehumanizing. A real life story that is disturbing and sad, yet sparks a desire to be nicer to other humans for no other reason than not causing the problems uncovered within the ramblings of this young author.

Brad Land tells the story of how he was attacked and beaten by two other teens at the age of nineteen. The repercussions of that incident carry throughout his life and the lives of those surrounding him.

The assailants are never named or even described much more than rudimentally. Throughout the book they are called "the breath" and "the smile". This line from the book describes how Brad Land feels ALL the time:
"They're gone but they aren't gone. I can see them everywhere. The smile and the breath are out walking. Always just at my back."
That would be horrible, and yet I am sure there are many people who feel that way for numerous reasons.

A year or two after the attack and the conviction of one of the attackers to a 75 year prison sentence (the other fled and was not found), Brad finds himself pledging a fraternity at Clemson University. There he encounters a hazing experience which is similar in many ways to his physical beating. The emotional abuse and heartlessness of those that he is to call "brother" causes him to quit the fraternity and college.

The story is haunting and disturbing. The writing on the other hand I found to be juvenile and annoying. Do we really need to relay the inane conversations of drunken youths word for word?

"She is hot" Jim said.
"Yeah" John said.
"Fuck yeah, man" Jim said.
"Fuckin' hell yeah, dude!" John said as he drolled beer down the front of his shirt.
(This was not an actual quote from the book, but that is exactly what so much of it was like.)

Along the same lines...how many times was a derivitive of the F-word used in this book? It had to be over a thousand. At least four or five times per page on average. I am not kidding. It was ridiculous.

The book has a great subject. The book deals with that subject well. The book also lacks some skill in the writing department. Maybe that is due to it being a first book? Maybe it is because Brad Land was using the book as a release...a type of therapy...I don't know. I liked it, but I also hated it. The rating is a tough call on this one.

6. Son Of Hamas

Son Of Hamas - Mosab Hassan Yousef

The Green Prince! This is an awesome book that reveals a lot about the Palestinian side of the Arab-Israeli equation. This guy and his story are amazing.

"The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a charismatic founding member of Hamas, Mosab Yousef makes his newfound faith public and risks everything to expose the secrets of the extremist Islamic organization and reveals the amazing double life he lived trying to prevent the killing of innocents by working with Hamas’ enemies."

"Mosab Hassan Yousef was born in Ramallah, in the West Bank in 1978. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is a founding leader of Hamas, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization and responsible for countless suicide bombings and other deadly attacks against Israel. Yousef was an integral part of the movement, for which he was imprisoned several times by the Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence service. He withstood torture in prison only to discover Hamas was torturing its own people in a relentless search for collaborators. He began to question who his enemies really were— Israel? Hamas? America? After a chance encounter with a British tourist, Yousef started a six-year quest that jeopardized Hamas, endangered his family and threatened his life. He has since embraced the Christian faith and sought political asylum in America."


Love it. You should read it.

5. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut

The book is also known as "Pearls Before Swine" and the title page lists both titles. This was definately not my favorite Vonnegut novel. It was good, but not as good as others I have read.

Eliot Rosewater is the main character in this novel. he is the President of the Rosewater Foundation and a millionaire. This position and it's wealth can be transferred to another family member only if Eliot is proven insane. A corrupt and greedy lawyer plans to do just that and make a fortune during the transfer of power and wealth.

We get to know Eliot, his father the Senator, his estranged Parisien wife, the simple people of Rosewater county that he is taking care of, Fred Rosewater and the Rhode Island cousins, and a few other characters.

The story is told as a series of short stories about numerous incidents. Sometimes this feels disconnected, but it does make sense as you read on.

I realize that this book is satire and criticizes the faults in modern day American society, but I did not find it all that humorous or eye-opening. Maybe forty years ago it was more meaningful than it is today.

One thing that really did stand out was when Eliot's father, the obviously capitalistic politician and upper crust rich guy, confronted Eliot for the way he chose to live. At one point the Senator accused Eliot of being a communist. I did not find that correct at all. Dad saw Eliot's giving money to the poor as a communist trait. He saw it as "sharing the wealth". That is not communist. Communist is about taking from the rich and giving to the poor...redistributing through state control. Eliot was giving away his own money to things he found important. I call that charity. So, the Senator was wrong. I understand that Vonnegut was using this as an example of satirizing the rich as snobbish and cruel with no feelings for the poor, but it was not believable in that instance. Maybe when it was written it made more sense. That was much closer to the McCarthy commie hunts. That could be why it was used.

I will read more Vonnegut, but I will not read this one again. He has better novels.

I, Pencil

I, Pencil - Leonard E. Read

This book was too short for me to count and keep a clear conscience. It was 16 pages total. That being said, it was a very powerful story and deserves to be blogged.

The story is written from a first person perspective, but the person is a pencil. Yes, a pencil is the narrator. That in itself was pretty cool.

The pencil tells it's story as a genealogy. Who are the pencil's ancestors and how did pencil get to be pencil? Wood, graphite, enamel, brass, rubber, etc. All ancestors of pencil.

The story has a message and that is that a central planned economy can never achieve the things a free economy is capable of doing. It uses the pencil, something simplistic from a manufacturing standpoint, and tells the story of how a pencil is made. How thousands of people all over the world are involved in the production of something as simple as a pencil. How no one, not one person in those thousands, is capable of making a pencil on thier own nor are they capable of even knowing everything that is required to make a pencil.

Is making a pencil simple compared to something like an airplane or a car or a computer? Sure it is. That is precisely why Mr. Read chose to write the story as a pencil and not something very complicated. The process is supremely complicated even for a simple product.

Lawrence Reed says "It explains is plain language why central planning is an exercise in arrogance and futility."

F. A. Hayek wrote "This is not a dispute about whether planning is to be done or not. It is a dispute as to whether planning is to be done centrally, by one authority for the whole economic system, or is to be divided among many individuals." Mr. Read answers the question with this story.

Adam Smith's "invisible hand" theory is alive and well in "I, Pencil"

Take fifteen or twenty minutes and read the story. You can find it on line.

4. Don't Eat This Book

Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America - Morgan Spurlock

This book is written by the guy who did the movie Supersize Me. He also read the book for the audio version. That is what I utilized. The audio book alos contained numerous elaborations, updates and additions by the author.

Needless to say, Mr. Spurlock is anti McDonalds. Actually, I think it is not so much a hatred of McDonalds as it is a dislike for corporate greed at the expense of the wellbeing of it's own customers.

I have no idea what Mr. Spurlock says his political leanings are or how he votes, but I am going to make an assumption after reading this book that he is liberal in many ways. He definately has a disgust for the big food industry and it's Washington DC lobby. Spurlock keeps talking about how the government needs to make more regulations for protecting the people from these entities, but then also says that the FDA and the USDA are useless lackies afraid of the very industry they are monitoring and regulating. He wants more rules, but acknowledges that the rule makers don't give a hoot. It is an interesting poition to be in. To want more of the problem in government without a solution to fixing it is weird.

I do agree with much of what he says concerning the fast food industry, the horrible processed and packaged foods in the grocery stores, the lobbyists in DC, the greed and disregard for health shown by businesses, the stupidity of having junk food in schools...and most of all...the marketing and advertising manipulations executed in many instances to sell more crap.

Spurlock did point out one thing that made me think differently. He was discussing the litigation brought against many companies. Much of that litigation is considered "frivolous" by many people. I would include myself in much of it. One example is the lady who sued McDonald's when she spilled coffee on her lap. She won millions. Is that right? I don't think so, but I did see a different view for supporting such lawsuits. The example he used was the tobacco industry and how for decades there were a million little fights in courts all over the country. Each one opened a door a little further and allowed people to look in on the industry. It took a long time before the tobacco industry admitted their product was bad for people, that they were lying about all kinds of things and that it took all those little lawsuits, as fivolous as they seemed, to make changes in the way the product was regulated, marketed and perceived by the public. That exact same thing could happen with the fast food industry. It could take decades to reveal the truth in a way that actually makes a change in the industry like it did to tobacco. That is not a bad thing.

What else did this book do for me? It reminded me of the things that I felt when reading "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser or "Slaughterhouse" by Gail Eisnitz. Both fellow muckrakers. One in fast food. One in the meat-packing industry. I ws disgusted and did not want to eat that crap.

Since reading this book I have skipped McDonalds, Subway, Burger King, Sonic, Taco Bell, Firehouse, Moes, and a million other places where I love to eat. I have done my shopping around the outer edges of the supermarket and avoided all the frozen and boxed junk. I have read labels and put many items back on the shelves.

Even when buying stuff for the kids, like apple juice, I read the labels. I was amazed that the store had about 25 different kinds of apple juice. I wanted on that was just apples, or close to it. I found one that was made from pressed apples and only had ascorbic acid (keeps it from turning brown) and lactic something-or-other added. The others were all made from concentrate WITH ADDED INGREDIENTS. I thought that would mean water. Add h2o to apple concentrate. Nope, it was mixed with 10-12 other things that were hard to pronounce every time. Many were not even just apple. They had concentrates from pears and whatever else added also. What the hell is that? All I wanted was some stinking apple juice!

So, I will try and eat better and maybe not be a fat chunk of American laziness who has diabetes and an addiction to nastiness. We will see. At least I will make an attempt. I skipped the McDonalds double cheeseburgers and bag of cheetoes the other night. I ate romaine salad with balsamic vinagrette and sushi instead. I could do that.  :-)

I just learned that Morgan Spurlock graduated from NYU in 1993. I wonder if Mike ever met him.

3. Pocket Guide To Business And Everyday Math

Merriam Webster's Pocket Guide To Business And Everyday Math - Brian Burrell

Yes, it is math. No, it is not thrilling or exciting. I picked it up because my son had a question about a geometry formula and i didn't feel like looking at some fat high school text book. This is a little pocket sized book and it is full of math that IS used even after taking the final exam in math class.

There are sections for 1. Numbers and Computation, 2. Algebra and Geometry, 3. Everyday Math, 4. Probability and Statistics, 5. Business and Personal Finance.

I read every stinking word on over 330+ pages. I always do read every word, but come on, this is a book about math. Who reads every word in a math book?

Some of the things I found cool about this book...
It has all the algebra, geometry and trigonometry formulas you will ever need in a single tiny book.
It has information about how the FDA calculates the Recommended Daily Allowances for vitamins, calcium, calories, etc.
What are all those liquor measures? Dram, nip, finger, shot, double, triple, pony, jigger, fifth, split, flagon, yard, magnum, demijohn, keg, firkin, barrel...they are all here.
What is a kilowatt-hour? It is on your electric bill. What are they charging you for every month? How is wattage measured? Amperage? Resistance? Electric Horsepower?
How do you read a gas or electric meter and how are they calculating your bill from those readings?
How do you measure "legal square footage" as used in tax assesments?
How do figure out how many squares of shingles to buy in order to reshingle your roof?
Why are lumber dimensions so weird and how do you calculate your needs in construction? How about measuring cords of wood, yards of concrete, sizes of nails?
There are tons of automotive math formulas and explanations...average velocity, instantaneous velocity, acceleration and braking calculations, engine displacement, horsepower or revolutions per minute, compression ratio, gas mileage, tire sizes, etc etc etc.
How about calculating wind chill factors, heat and humidity indexes, dew points and frost indexes.
Mapping and geography were pretty cool sections also.
What are the probablilites of drawing certain poker hands? How do you calculate on the fly, or count cards?
How do you calculate odds? What are the differences between true odds and house odds?
What strategies can be used at a craps table? A roulette table? Betting on horses?
There is a whole section on baseball statistics. I loved that!
There is over a hundred pages of financial calculations. Everything from interest rates to insurance or mortgages. There is a ton of definitions and explanations for the terms used when talking about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, government securities, tax-deferred investments, etc.

This little book covered a lot of information, compacted it down to the basics that you will need to know outside of a classroom and then organized it in a useful manner.

I think I will keep this little fella around for quick reference.

2. Afraid

Afraid - Jack Kilborn

The United States government has created terrorist teams using criminals and psychos with surgically implanted micro-chips that control their thoughts and motivations. These teams are called Red-Ops.

During the Vietnam war a video of one of these teams assaulting a village in South Vietnam as a test operation was discovered. A man tried to blackmail the government with the tape. Now, decades later the Red-Ops folks have found the town where this man lives and wage an assault upon his world.

The attacks are gruesome and intended as terrorist type tactics. The Red-Ops teams are supposed to instill fear in the people they are attacking, which is an entire town in Wisconsin.

Well, the bad guys lose and the good guys win, though they predictably loose a few along the way and take a few serious hits themselves. But, in the end they walk into the sunset...or more like limp and help each other along.

There is nothing new or exciting in this writing. It is not bad, but it just more of the same old stuff pumped out to make a few bucks. It is not bad, but is hardly worth blogging extensively about.