Apr 06 : "Several People Are Typing" - Calvin Kasulke

A contemporary office comedy with some people working WFH (working from home) and others in the office itself. The book's promotion describes it as "where WFH meets WTF".

The main story line is how Gerald, who is working from home, slowly experiences his consciousness being disengaged from his physical self and uploaded into the company's Slack app, so he becomes slowly part of the app. Doug Smorin, the office manager, doesn't care because Gerald's productivity is actually going up. But Gerald's co-workers think this is some sort of bit or prank. Gerald enlists a co-worker, Pradeep, to help him figure out his current condition and how he can get back to normal. And, little does he know that the Slack bot is now trying to take over his original self.

All this is going on while the office, a New York PR firm whose main client, a high-end dog food manufacturer, is trying to do damage control as some of their client's product has been poisoned and is killing dogs across the nation. Other sub-plots in the book are relationships, both business and personal, among the people in the office.

The story is told entirely in text messages or Slack messages. There's no other narrative or description. Even so, the author manages to create a vibrant collection of realistic individual personalities and situations that keep the reader engaged. The success is I felt like I was rejoining people I had come to know each time I picked up the book. What will Kerolyn and Nikki be doing today?!

Definitely an enjoyable book worth reading. You can get it here : Free Library or here: at Biblio.

Mar 02 : "Keep You Close" - Karen Cleveland

Imagine yourself working for the FBI. You work at headquarters in DC; you've risen in rank to be chief of the Investigative Services Section, an FBI version of an internal affairs department. You keep tabs on the bad guys and bring them to justice. Many of your colleagues back at the academy have advanced, but none, so far, as you. You're well-respected by your colleagues, and, while doing all this, you're bringing up a teenage son on your own. You've definitely "built a beat", as the musician in my previous post would have said.

But one day you come across a loaded gun in your son's room. You don't know what to make of it. Soon there's a knock on the door with a visit from law enforcement looking into your son's activities..

Such is the issue faced by FBI agent Stephanie Maddox in Karen Cleveland's mystery novel, "Keep You Close". What starts out as a worry about her son, Zachary, mushrooms into a tangled web of polticial intrigue. (With some motifs you'll find jarringly timely vis-a-vis some perspectives in our recent political diaglogue.)

The book is written in first person; Steph is telling you the story. You're in her head as she goes jogging in the middle of the night, and as she has to confront one of her former academy classmates who has turned criminal. You're in her head as she tries to figure out what to do about Zachary's situation, and while she fends off meddlesome interference from her mother. She's running a home and running a career, too busy to see a real therapist, so she goes to the therapist in her head. What would that therapist say if she were real?

Lots of suspense and twists in this book.

I came across this book as I was browsing the new fiction section at Independence Library. The author's bio helped me make the decision to read the book. Karen Cleveland is a former CIA analyst and the New York Times bestselling author of three novels. She began her CIA career working on Russia, and later moved into CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, where she focused primarily on Pakistan and Syria. While at CIA she wrote briefs for the US President and other senior policymakers, worked closely with an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, and earned more than a dozen Exceptional Performance Awards." Stories written by professionals often turn out to be the best.

Here is the click to Karen Cleveland's website where you can learn more about her and her work ::: Karen Cleveland website. You can purchase a copy of the book through independent booksellers Biblio, or you can borrow a book through Free Library.

Pic below is from author's website.

Feb 23 : "Build​-​A​-​Beat (cMa 10July2021)" - 185668232 (Bushwick)

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Brooklyn noise artist 185668232 released an album titled "Universalism" over the summer. My download is different than what's streaming on line, and I was told that the album contents and order of tracks are fluid. Indeed the album was released on May 30, but here's a track that was labeled July 10 but became part of the album that was released prior!

While the writing in this album is often quite personal, it can be relevant to what we all can experience, probably one of the reasons for the album's title. In this track "Build-A-Beat" we're encouraged to trust in ourselves, not to put other people down, and to build our lives step by step.

A phrase that popped out at me as I read the lyrics was "whatever you cannot stop thinking about becomes adorable run-on sentences" in the track "NoiseWar 11237 (cMa-18April2021)". Both "Build-A-Beat" and "NoiseWar" as well as some other others have run-on sentences and a true stream of consciousness style.

That made me think immediately of the novel "Deaf to the City" by Quebecois writer Marie-Claire Blais. Marie-Claire Blais was known for her stream of consciousness writing, where many of her sentences ran for pages. This was a style that she developed and used more frequently as her career advanced. I read "Deaf to the City" early on. The entire book was only a few sentences. Definitely a challenge to read. The story is about a disparate and diverse bunch of people who come to stay and live at the rundown auberge "Hôtel des Voyageurs" in Montreal.

There are definitely similarities between the writing of Blais and 185. Both Blais and 185 deal with some heavy psychological issues in their writing as well as sometimes branching off into the political, and both demonstrate a quest for justice in their writing. A stream of concsciousness style probably eases the ability to explore the psyche without the structural constraints of grammar.

But they do branch out stylistically, Blais, while showing some optimism, presents a more grim sense of present day reality, while 185, acknowledging a grim present, shows a nearly relentness optimism and positivity about the possibilities and pontentials of humankind.

Which brings us back to "Build-A-Beat", the "beat" being a metaphor for life or a construct of life. The main character in the track talks to a friend about building life step-by-step. This is "Build​-​A​-​Beat (cMa 10July2021)", the 35th track (as of today) on 185668232's album "Universalism". Lyrics are below as you listen:

and then is my voice you prefer it makes you comfortable it
makes you comfortable and I try not to text you because you
like to hear my audio power pop hyper realist this is what you I
came to see me build a beat irL wait for you on your seat every
day every way you make a little progress and if somethings in
there saying in first person you can be anything you put you
mind to see and if you make to sake and break you down
everyone will give you their crown I am not reading off of
anything this is pretty much the first take the hollow hallowed
seething you can tell the power is seeding plants will grow and
you know who is in control and it's your ego ID expression when
you trust yourself and there's someone behind you but it's only
yourself and you made it up and now you're taking it down
trying to find some experimental repression for someone to
misunderstand but this is the last sequence I made to fake a
play there's something above me.

185668232 doesn't have any shows coming up in the next few weeks, but here is the click to their web page, where you can learn where they're going in the future ::: 185668232 web page - audio.

Marie-Claire Blais's book, "Deaf to the City" made a splash. Here is information about the book on Goodreads ::: "Deaf to the City" by Marie-Claire Blais. Unfortunately, Marie-Claire Blais died just a few months ago. If she and 185668232 had ever met, would they have seen any area for a collaboration?

Nov 28 : "The Swimmer" - Joakim Zander

LOSING A MORAL COMPASS TO FOREVER WARS

Sometimes it can be effective to visualize a scenario through a piece of fiction. While my previous posts, "Jesus Loves Fighter Jets" and "Disaster Capitalism" talked in broad brushstrokes about the justifications that are used to fight and maintain our "forever wars", Swedish writer Joakim Zander puts some of these themes into stories where the reader is emotionally invested in who the characters are and what they're doing.

"The Swimmer" is the first book of his Klara Walldeen trilogy. Each book has some motif that deals with Afghanistan or wars in the Middle East. In each book one or two of the main characters somehow gets drawn into drama, espionage, or even jihad going on at the time (either willingly or unwillingly). And the characters in question always somehow seem to cross paths with Klara, the unifying personality, who has held various positions in the books including an affiliation with some non-profits and the European Union government.

Zander's story itself says that he "has lived in Syria and Israel and graduated from high school in the United States. He earned a PhD in law from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and has worked as a lawyer for the European Union"

I'm mentioning Zander's work as a followup to my previous posts because there are some similar themes. In Zander's second book, "The Believer", private security companies are themselves causing civil disturbances and civil unrest in the attempt to make the police forces look weak, so citizens will think the police are ineffective and then will be more receptive to calls for privatization of the police. The war profiteers we hear about in "Disaster Capitalism" are definitely present in "The Swimmer". How often is any unrest that we see today initially caused by disaster profiteers as a means towards their own financial ends?

And the incongruous religious zealotry that supports murder and mayhem in "Jesus Loves Fighter Jets" is mirrored on the other side by that of the Afghan fighters in "The Swimmer" who try to keep a rigid oppressive society based on their distorted religious views.

The books have very believable and engaging, multi-dimensional characters, many likable, others not. In "The Swimmer" itself, one of the main characters, Mahmoud Shammosh, is in the process of writing and developing a book based on his dissertation, "The Privatization Of War". Will he himself become a target?

I highly recommend "The Swimmer" as well as the trilogy's two that follow ("The Believer" and "The Friend"), so I don't want to give too much away, but I would just say that corporate entities running amock with no credible supervision from the government are frequent players in Zander's books. But, much to the relief of the reader, Klara Walldeen in the end is successful in helping to extricate several characters from their bad situations. But, while we say whew for the characters we have come to love, we all know that the overall threats in real life still remain.

Nov 02 : "Disaster Capitalism" - Antony Loewenstein

LOSING A MORAL COMPASS TO FOREVER WARS

"Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe" is the subtitle of Antony Loewenstein's book "Disaster Capitalism", which I read about the same time I saw the Trash Boy show a few weeks ago. Continuing on the subject of war and fighter jets. In my previous post the artists brought us to look at the intersection of religion as the justification of wars. And in the book "Disaster Capitalism" privatization with little or no oversight turns out to be a major villain.

The book starts right off talking about war profiteers and especially how it related to our presence in Afghanistan, which seems not to have been much different from the point when the book was written in 2015 up through the point where we exited only a few months ago.

And while we did leave Afgahnistan, the USofA is still involved in a number of other wars, so our killing people in other countries is far from over. From the New York Times a few weeks ago: Mr. Biden came to office vowing an end to the “forever wars” — and has firmly defended his decision to pull American troops from Afghanistan in the face of withering criticism from lawmakers of both parties. But administration officials have been clear that combat missions in other countries will continue, namely those that do not involve large deployments of American troops or draw intense news media scrutiny. Here's a link to the full article: Biden Declared the War Over. But Wars Go On

The book talks about the outsourcing of the "war" to private contractors. The writer goes to Afghanistan and Pakistan and interviews officials of the contractor companies, the contractor foot-soldiers on the ground, as well as Afghans on the ground who were simultaneously the victims and beneficiaries of our presence. We had a very complex relationship with the Afghan people. While some who were interviewed liked some of the benefits of our presence in terms of support jobs and opportunities that the contractors brought, they were dead set against the methods employed by the contractors, including the way the contractors could kill people or make them "disappear" with complete impunity, never being held accountable.

The book goes on to talk about Haiti and other countries that are recipients of large amounts of aid that winds up being administered by corporate contractors. After talking about Afghanistan, Haiti, and other foreign locales, the book discusses what's going on in the major industrialized countries, such as the USofA, Great Britain, and Australia, with much attention being paid to the privatization of prisons.

In the post 9/11 world, we're in the middle of outsourcing gone wild, where private companies repeat the mantra that they can get the job done better than the government. The government then outsources to them, gives them lots of money, and follows up too little about what's going on with the money. Out of sight, out of mind. And maybe the plans were not thought out well enough to begin with. Maybe the outsourcing was more for the benefit of the companies involved than for the people on the ground that they were allegedly there to help. The book has a long list of documentation, references, and links.

In all these cases, whether it's the unaccountable war contractors killing people with complete impunity, or the prison contractors, who, for the sake of profit, deny medical care or food to those incarcerated, a recurring theme seems to be that there's no responsible oversight of these operations, some of which are questionable to begin with. Human life is placed as being less important than corporate profits. Losing a moral compass.

=======================================================

NOV 28 2021 UPDATE Next look at how a work of fiction touches on religious zealotry and war profiteers in my next post are involved in the war machine.

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Sep 23 : "Canary" - Duane Swierczynski (Philly)

Philly Book!

I'm eager to find those long commutes ... ... partly because I'm a member of a book club! Just finished reading "Canary", by Philly author Duane Swierczynski.

"Canary" is a fast-paced crime novel with an interesting ensemble of characters but telling its story focussing on two people: "Sarie Holland", a 19-year-old college student, who, while driving a new boyfriend to allegedly pick up a laptop he left at a friends house, is apprehended by "Ben Wildey", a police officer who is trying to make a name for himself on the Philly police force, and who has been watching that very house because it is really the house of a drug kingpin.

While I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crime novels, I would give it a special recommendation to anyone who lives in Philly. BECAUSE THIS STORY TAKES PLACE IN PHILLY! It takes place in Philly at many familiar places and areas we Philadelphians see each day. It's got Khyber, the El, Roosevelt Blvd., movie theaters under I-95, Melrose Diner,, as well as the crooked Dr. near Drexel. ... ... ... and many more. And it's got detailed real descriptions all the way down to the color of the formica tables in the diners! Yikes!

Here's the blurb from the book's cover. It's dangerous enough when an ordinary college girl turns confidential informant. Even more dangerous when she's smarter than the killer, kingpins, and cops who control her.

Honors student Sarie Holland is busted by the local police while doing a favor for her boyfriend. Unwilling to betray him but desperate to avoid destroying her future, Sarie has no choice but to become a "CI"--a confidential informant.

Philly narcotics cop Ben Wildey is hungry for a career-making bust. The detective thinks he's found the key in Sarie: her boyfriend scores from a mid-level dealer with alleged ties to the major drug gangs.

Sarie turns out to be the perfect CI: a quick study with a shockingly keen understanding of the criminal mind. But Wildey, desperate for results, pushes too hard and inadvertently sends the nineteen-year-old into a death trap, leaving Sarie hunted by crooked cops and killers alike with nothing to save her--except what she's learned during her harrowing weeks as an informant.

Which is bad news for the police and the underworld. Because when it comes to payback, CI #1373 turns out to be a very quick study

This story has an interesting ensemble of characters who tell the story from different perspectives, but a main focus is the relationship between Sarie and Ben.

If you would like to get a copy of "Canary", here is the click to the FLP site where you can find available copies or "place a hold". Get "Canary" at FLP (CLICK HERE).

May 10 : "And West Is West" - Ron Childress

Definitely the best fiction I've read in a year! I recommend this to everybody.

While browsing for books I generally try to go against the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover", for if the art department at the publishing house is doing its job properly, then the cover of a book should be a good representation of the consciousness of the writing inside.

A couple months ago I was browsing at my favorite, the Independence Library, and I came across a brilliant cover that begged me to pick it up. The book is titled, "And West Is West", and this is blurb I found on the inside of the jacket cover: "When Jessica, a young Air Force drone pilot in Nevada, is tasked with launching a missile attack against a suspected terrorist halfway across the world, she realizes that though women and children are in the crosshairs of her screen, she has no choice but to follow orders. Ethan, a young Wall Street quant, is involved in a more bloodless connection to war when he develops an algorithm that enables his company's clients to profit by exploiting the international financial instability caused by exactly this kind of antiterrorist strike. These two are only minor players, but their actions have global implications that tear lives apart-including their own." Through various circumstances, both characters wind up losing their jobs and being forced to take the blame for decisions that they did not make (Was one of them "set up"?). A lot of the book concentrates on what they do next. These characters "learn the hard way about the devastating power of new technology to isolate us from the consequences of our actions."

I do recommend "And West Is West" to everybody. It is a good suspense novel, and it also has a wide range of diverse and interesting characters who are dealing (or not) with vital and intertwining issues, personal, political, and societal. While the theme of the book is disturbing, I did enjoy spending time with the characters. Here is the click if you'd like to check the book yourself ::: "And West Is West" at FLP

Aug 04 : "The Unwinding" - George Packer

A few months ago our church book group read "The Unwinding" by George Packer. The full title is "The Unwinding - An Inner History of the New America". It chronicles societal changes that have taken place in the U.S. of A. over the past few decades, part of which includes the weakening of the middle class.

The initial self-description at the top of the book jacket's inner flap says "American Democracy is beset by a sense of crisis. Seismic shifts during a single generation have created a country of winners and losers, allowing unprecedented freedom while rending the social contract, driving the political system to the verge of breakdown and setting citizens adrift to find new paths forward. In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassin's Gate: America In Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives."

The author divides the book into three sections, each representing a time period over the past decades. He tells the story of America by tracing the lives of over a dozen individual Americans in various walks of life, including, among many, a factory worker, a ceo, an entrepreneur, and a couple politicians and entertainers.

We get to know each of the "characters", their families, and their communities as we read about how their lives change decade to decade. We learn about both successes and failures and that many of what might be considered failures were actually outside of our characters' own doing and control.

The book brings an unnerving feeling with its depiction of a gradual onslaught against people's financial well-being and our country's participatory democracy.

Our characters respond to this onslaught in various ways. A couple people succumb, many try to cope or reinvent themselves, but there are a couple stories interspersed in this that I think are truly heroic.

One such story showed the heroism of a woman trying to stand up to a bank foreclosing on a property while at the same time showed the evil behind some of the forces in America today. When the woman tried to fight the bank by going to the courthouse where the foreclosure proceedings were being held, she couldn't find and no one could tell her where the proceedings were taking place. Why? BECAUSE THEY NEVER EXPECTED ANY DEFENDANTS TO SHOW UP! When she, by trial and error, found the right courtroom, her entry into the room and her very presence flustered the officials, because no defendant EVER came to fight them and defend herself. She was shocked, as was I when reading this, that the bank's reps rapidly took care of and disposed of dozens of foreclosure cases in a day, taking people's homes minute by minute. And not all the plaintiffs were even in the courtroom to begin with! Some were there only electronically!

While you may think a story about economic life might be dull, you'll find the way the author has told the story through the lives of these multiple characters to be quite engaging. While I recommend this book, I will be the first to admit that it is a downer. However, the stories are timely and relevant; they explain a lot about what has been going on in our country. Through the tales of these very diverse and interesting characters and the wide fabric that the author weaves, you can get a greater understanding of the way our economic and political life is working ... and isn't working. These are the stories of living the dreams and the broken dreams.

To get a copy of "The Unwinding", click here ::: "The Unwinding" (CLICK HERE)

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"The Unwinding" (c) Published: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013

May 08 : "Republic of Outsiders" - Alissa Quart

I just finished reading "Republic of Outsiders", by Alissa Quart. This is a very positive and uplifting book. The subtitle of this book is "The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels". The book talks about how people moving on the fringes of society have done things their own way, creating new norms that have then been assimilated by society as a whole.

The book has seven chapters and is divided into three parts, the first of which is titled "Outsider Mentality". Part of this section (Chapter 1: "Beyond Sanity") is where the author interviews people with mental health issues who talk about some of the problems they face, such as "over-diagnosing" and "over-medication", and how, through their uniting with each other, have successfully brought some of these issues to the attention of the medical community to bring about actual change.

Part two is "After the Gatekeepers" where she talks about how individuals have brought about change in entire industries. In Chapter 5 "Beyond Top 40", she interviews musicians who tell about how they more and more often are defining their own personae and marketing themselves directly to their fans with less help from middle men who formerly would have exercised too much control and grabbed a huge chunk of their profits, and maybe stifled creativity along the way.

And lastly is Part three which is "The Center Cannot Hold", she talks about the huge impact that some innovators have had on the total market. In Chapter 6, "Beyond Meat", one of the stories she tells is that of David Lee, a man who was a chef at a prominent restaurant in Seattle. One day while riding his bike in a commercial area, he passed a slaughterhouse, and in the parking lot saw a chicken lying on the pavement. It was half-alive; it was bleeding and gasping for breath. ... He was moved by the chicken's suffering. The event haunted him for weeks. He later arranged for a professional chef's tour of the facility and saw for himself what went on there and what he was collaterally involved with.

The author writes on page 136: The slaughterhouse was Lee's final epiphany. He decided then and there to leave the job where he cooked meat. He then, with the help of family and friends, founded the company, "Field Roast", where he is trying to make "faux meat" the center of the plate for American consumers. ... She goes on to talk about how many branches and levels of the animal rights movement are encompassing more people and bringing about change.

In Chapter 7, "Beyond Mass Markets", she talks about another new trend, one that we're familiar with here in Philadelphia, and that's the movement towards more urban farms. One of the stories the author tells is about Annie Novak and her massive "Eagle Street Rooftop Farm" in Brooklyn.

In "Republic of Outsiders", you spend time with some interesting people who are proactive about implementing some very creative ideas. The book is a worthwhile read, and its stories of many daring accomplishments by individual people is a hopeful and positive antidote to the all-too-frequent stories we hear about overbearing corporate power and greed.

If you think you may be interested in reading this book, I would recommend, to be consistent with the spirit of the book, that you consider purchasing from an Indie Bookseller. :)

=============================
"Republic of Outsiders"
(c) 2013 by Alissa Quart.
New York, The New Press.
=============================

6/15---Of course I would just have to add that I feel privileged to know and work with people who are all doing their parts in being part of the Republic of Outsiders. What was so refreshing about the book was the documentation of the efforts.

Sep 24 : "The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas" - Davy Rothbart

I'd like to mention another book that was featured in the new "Critic's Choice" section at the Independence Library (CLICK HERE) The book is "The Lone Surver of Montana, Kansas", by Davy Rothbart.

It's a collection of short stories (including one story that shares the book title's name) that contain some very intense characters who live through lots of unexpected plot twists. These characters and plots are what make this one of the most interesting fiction selections I've read in the past year. While some of the characters have lots of flaws and others only a few, they're all presented with a "heart". The writer loves these characters as people. Here's a blurb about it on Goodreads (CLICK HERE)

One of the more interesting stories is "Maggie Fever", which is about a teen who is separated from his caretaker older brother when the brother is called to active military duty abroad. He's sent to live with his grandfather and the grandfather's cat. The grandfather is down and out and he and the boy make their living by going to the local airport and "returning" luggage carts back to the terminal to get back the deposits. When the grandfather's cat suddenly needs a medical treatment that the money from the cart deposits can't possibly cover, the grandfather decides that they should now actually steal luggage. ... ... When they try stealing luggage, the grandfather sells off what he finds in the large suitcases, but, as a gift, lets his grandson keep one particular backpack and its contents. ... Inside the boy finds a diary written by "Maggie". Also enclosed is a cd with her favorite songs as well as a practice tape where she is playing music herself. He listens to her music and reads her diary every night and almost immediately falls in love with her. ... ... But eventually he feels he does have to return everything to Maggie. >>>>>>> Get the book to find out what happens!

While the library does have copies for you to borrow, if you want to purchase your own copy from an indie bookstore, try :: Indie Book Stores (CLICK HERE)

Aug 31 : "Red Wine" - Amina Zaydan

... from the war zone ...

I picked up this book from the new "Critic's Choice" section of the Independence Library (CLICK HERE). That new section is yet another reason why this branch is my favorite.

And I'm writing this prematurely, not having finished reading the book. But there's talk of more war in this week's news as our country and as the world are debating whether to move militarily against Syria. So I figured that now is the time to mention this story, as it gives a very personal account of what it's like to live in a society ravaged by war and state brutality.

The story is "Red Wine" by Egyptian author, Amina Zaydan. While the story is considered "fiction", its intensity leads me to feel it has to be largely autobiographical. The format of the story is a first person account by its main character, Suzie Mohamad Galal, as she tells the story of her life.

Right now I'm still in the first part of the book where she's recounting the events of her childhood, growing up in Egypt. The effects of war seem all the more tragic and devastating as we experience the tumult and upheaval through the eyes of a child.

The book is at once beautiful as well as jolting. Ms. Zaydan weaves a fascinating imagery, which, along with the forcefulness of the content, make me pause every few paragraphs. At the rate I'm going, I don't know if I'll ever reach the end.

"War" can be seen from several different standpoints in Ms. Zaydan's writing, not only as the war of military combat and state brutality, but also as the conflicts between genders and generations.

There's an enormous amount to experience, think about, and feel in Ms. Zaydan's writing, and most poignantly the effects of war on a family living right in a perpetual war zone.

The English edition of "Red Wine" was published in 2010 by The American University in Cairo Press. Here are their comments on "Red Wine" (CLICK HERE).

Mar 28 : "The Last Trade" - James Conway

New Work / Freshly Written & Recently Pubished (2012)

I had a very good time reading this book. The book was loaded with interesting characters and fast-paced action, two dynamics that sometimes don't occur at the same time.

While some of the books I've talked about here have been of a more serious nature, "The Last Trade" by James Conway was pure entertainment.

Near the beginning of the book a stock broker receives a mysterious call having originated with a wealthy foreign investor who directs him to do multiple stock transactions involving billions of dollars, but NOT to mention anything about the transactions to anyone including coworkers, supervisors, friends, or colleagues, and not to look up any background information on the company whose stock was being traded.. And, as you can probably imagine, the broker just HAD to make a brief mention to a friend. ... ... ... Within a matter of a couple hours, the broker is found murdered in his apartment.

The book simultaneously follows a intriguing characters in a number of countries. A couple characters were reprehensible, but there are a number of people you'll like and root for. ((The main detective is a woman)).

The book is fast-paced, with many chapters being no more than five or six pages, and then they switch countries to a different set of people.

In spite of the rapid chapter changes, James Conway builds up interesting personalities as well as good descriptions of the physical environs.

I enjoyed every page, couldn't put it down, and highly recommend it.

To reserve your copy, here is the click ::: Free Library of Philadelphia (CLICK HERE).

Mar 19 : "Noche Roja" - Simon Oliver and Jason LaTour

Saturday morning I went to the Chestnut Hill Library because they had an available copy of the next book the book club is reading. By the way, this branch is quite beautiful, with a nice solarium with easy chairs in the back of the building.

While I was there I checked the "New Fiction" shelves to find some good new titles. And, by initially "judging a book by its cover" (or, to be more precise, by the graphics on its spine), I picked up the book "Noche Roja" by Simon Oliver. The blurb on the cover said, "Gripping and stylish. Oliver's killer noir yarn is matched only by the striking cartooning LaTour uses to tell it. What a great read!" … Huh? …. Cartoons? … I opened up the book and saw that the entire book was a story in cartoon form. Jason LaTour is the artist.

This was a first for me. I had never seen a cartoon story in book form, not to mention one that was a "full-length" 181 pages long. I opened it up, read a few pages, and saw that, visually, it lived up to its description of being a "noir" thriller. But in addition to being a murder mystery, it appeared that the story had a social conscience as well. The blurb on the back said, "With the gritty, stylized artwork of Jason LaTour, "Noche Roja" is an enthralling noir tale of how the insatiable craving for cheap consumer goods leads to the ultimate cheapening of life itself." … I liked this whole package and decided to read it..

I finished reading the book yesterday evening. The story is about Jack Cohen, an ex-cop turned private investigator who is pulled into looking into the disappearances and murders of young women who all happened to be working for one company south of the border. …. I had suspicions. I didn't think a cartoon format could deliver real suspense, nor did I think it could present realistic multi-dimensional characters with good qualities and bad, nor did I ever imagine that the climactic ending of a cartoon story would ever move me, but I was wrong on all counts. This is a true noir thriller with characters living on the edge. (And the story has a heart).

This is a must read. GET IT. The Free Library has several copies available at branches all around town. Free Library (CLICK HERE)

The book was published just about a year ago. Here is an interview with the author that took place about that time. Interview with Simon Oliver (CLICK HERE)

4/5/14 (afterthought) --- I've since learned that graphic novels constitute a whole genre, but this was my first venture into that area. :)

Mar 18 : "Meditations" - Marcus Aurelius

Earlier this winter, "The Today Show" did an interview with former President Bill Clinton on the topic of notable books from 2011.

Pres. Clinton spoke about a few of his favorite books from the past year and why he would recommend them to viewers. But one comment he made stuck in my mind, and that was that there was one book that he read each year, "Meditations", by Marcus Aurelius.

I had never heard anybody in any capacity say that they read any book every year. I was intrigued. I thought this was something worth checking out.

Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome from the year 161 to 180. He wrote these "meditations" as thoughts for his own self guidance and self-improvement. They were never intended to be read by the larger public.

"Meditations" is divided into twelve "books", and the format is similar to the Bible in that the sentences or verses are numbered.

What struck me in reading the book was the similarity of human nature then and now. I found some of his observations had resonance in today's world. But there are also substantial portions of the writings that are very esoteric, only relevant if you're a world leader planning battles.

The thrust of some of his ideas advocate being one with nature and not trying to fight the way nature is. From Book VII, verse 9 :::

All things are mutually intertwined, and the bond is holy, and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing. For things have been coordinated, and they combine to form one universal order. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one God who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, one common reason in all intelligent animals, and one truth; if indeed there is also one perfection for all animals that are of the same stock and participate in the same reason.

He talks frequently about our creating problems for ourselves by allowing our minds to obsess on issues over which we may or may not have control, thereby not leaving enough room in our thought processes to maximize our capabilities in other areas.

He also talks about self-destructive thought patterns in the way we react to and with others.

It's an intriguing book; I'd recommend you take a look at it. The library has several copies; I'm returning mine in a day or two.

Here's some more information about the book and the author ::: "Meditations" / more information (CLICK HERE)

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Update Sep 02, 2019

James Mattis was interviewed yesterday on "CBS Sunday Morning". I was in awe when he said that his library once held over 7,000 volumes ... and he's read most of them.

And one of the books he values most and always kept by his side in battle was "Meditations". He's marked up his own copy with plenty of notes and observations.

Jan 18 : "Create Dangerously" - Edwidge Danticat

Our book group just got finished reading "Create Dangerously" by Edwidge Danticat. To "create dangerously" refers to the dangerous political climate that has existed in Haiti for the duration of several regimes or administrations. Free speech was definitely not allowed, and even reading was severely restricted. People would take their life into their hands for saying what was on their mind.

Over the years I had heard stories about how brutal the Duvalier regimes had been, but had never heard first hand stories of this in detail. Ms. Dandicat tells about the repression by these and other regimes. She also recounts some good personal memories.

Of the brutality the thing that stood out in my mind was the seeming randomness of it, which made it even more scary. A story that stood out in my mind was when the Duvalier henchmen went into a concert and randomly started to shoot people. … Another story involved the gouging out of flesh on a woman's face while in custody. …. Speak out against this and one would be in for worse. Try to help one of the victims of the brutality and even that would qualify someone to be arrested, tortured, or shot.

The writer talks about some very nice memories of spending time with her Aunt and other family members in the mountains. She talks about the country's natural beauty. And she talks about the good and reaffirming relationships she has established with Haitians here in the states.

The book is a good history summary of the nation of Haiti, I learned several things I hadn't known. It talks about the remarkable courage and faith of the people who had to endure this oppression. And it talks about how people had to circumvent the authorities to have their voices heard.

This book was part of the "One Book / One Philadelphia" program. It was the first time I had read one of the "one" books.

On one level I'd recommend the book, especially since it is part of the "one book" program. And it is written by one who comes across as a very brave, strong, insightful, and nice person. But no matter how many of her pleasant anecdotes she includes, the intensity and aftermath of the country's long history of repression and impoverishment combined with the natural disasters of recent years and not the strongest current Haitian leadership create an overall feeling of hopelessness that I have a hard time believing they will be able to overcome. In the face of so much adversity she tries so hard to find the positive aspects of life. But after reading about the centuries of tribulations, I find a question mark at best for the story's future ending.

Sep 23 : "Bicycle Diaries"

Right now I'm reading "BICYCLE DIARIES" by David Byrne (of "Talking Heads" fame). an upbeat book about how cities are becoming more livable and correcting mistakes of the past :::: I found this book while browsing at my favorite bookstore, which right now is featuring "NEW BOOKS ON MUSIC CULTURE". I love this place.

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7/4/20 ::: OOPS. Sorry. Very sad to say that Penn Book Center recently closed. :(

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