BOOK REVIEW: Deer Politics

(Originally Published 2009, Paperback Edition 224 pages)

The book is less about the hidden life of deer and more about her rationalization for feeding the ones that live on her large track of undeveloped land. There are interesting very sporadic pieces of trivia about the elegant mammal, but also a great deal of conjecture by the author. Ms. Thomas comes across as a somewhat eccentric, "tree-hugging" wildlife enthusiast who supports hunting but also believes human arrogance does a great deal of harm to nature. She takes umbrage with the other works pertaining to deer as nothing more than how-to books on killing the suckers. I agree. "The Hidden Life of Deer" has its heart in the right place, but there is simply not a lot of meat between the covers of this thing.

The book is more a journal about one year of her observing deer near their home in New Hampshire and interspersed with personal stories about her previous encounters with turkeys, black bears, bobcats, mice, rats etc. Some of the sections about how much corn she fed them, which groups ate first and so forth almost put me into a coma. It wouldn't have hurt if the book had had some witty wordplay, but it's likely not her forte. What kept me reading was the fact that the author lives about a hundred miles from my town in Maine. I could relate to the environment she described. Clearly, the ole gal loves nature and is continually surprised by new discoveries she observes. We should be grateful that there are people like Ms. Thomas that view the world with such wonder and try to make readers look as well as respect the natural beauty around us. Sadly, "The Hidden Life of Deer" falls short in her objective.  

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #362)

BOOK REVIEW: The Upside Of Youthful Impatience

(Originally Published 1968, Mass Market Paperback 424 pages)

Ms. Moody's memoir covers from her birth in 1940 and up to 1964. Published in 1968, the young lady does a very commendable job of describing her life living in Mississippi during Jim Crow. Her story is penned in a straight-forward manner with no flowery prose. The author's style fits very well with the harshness of being black in a state that is one of the major armpits of our country when it comes to human rights. There are moments of levity, but mostly it has a tone of anger, angst and youthful self-righteousness. Despite Ms. Moody being extremely smart, athletic, beautiful, driven and strong-willed, the idiotic handicap of being black made her achievements even more impressive. Without question, she was the exception and not the rule for black advancement. African-Americans under Jim Crow had very little access to a good education, jobs, civil rights and lived in constant fear of whites.

The memoir is broken up into four major sections: her childhood, high school, college, and participation in the Civil Rights movement. Reading about her childhood helps to understand who and why she evolved into a Civil Rights stalwart. Every day this head strong young lady put her life on the line by simply trying to be viewed as an equal. She was one of the three people who famously sat at a Woolworth's whites-only lunch counter and were assaulted by yahoos from the shallow end of the gene pool.

Much like today's movement for equal rights for gays, it always the impatient youth who force change in our society. Older people who have built a life for themselves fear they will lose what they've attained if they publicly support such movements. The young adults, just starting out in life, have little to risk in material matters, but their passion for justice puts them in harms way. Ms. Moody's actions came at great personal cost for not just her but also her family who pleaded for her to stop, friends and basically all blacks. She was a woman of immense courage who shows that one person can make a difference. It is a gripping read about a woman's indomitable spirit to help correct an immoral system.

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #361)

BOOK REVIEW: A Necessary Inhumanity

(Originally Published 2007, Hardcover Edition 292 pages)

Prior to her becoming a medical student at the age of twenty-eight, Ms. Montross was a poet as well as a university writing instructor and it shows. The author's eye for detail and ruminations about her and a few other students' reactions in dissecting a cadaver during their first year of medical school are insightful and poignant. I imagine there are some medical students who are not affected to the degree Ms. Montross was, but it's difficult to believe slicing-and-dicing an actual human being doesn't give the ole brain at least a few figurative kicks to the head.

The author also includes some background on the history of dissection. Apparently, an Italian named Vesalius was the dude who really got the whole ball rolling in medical dissection around 1594. She explains the difficulties Vesalius confronted by going against the decrees of the Pope as well as getting their hands on corpses to filet and examine. The profitable field of illegal grave-robbing and cutting into dead bodies at various stages of decomposition back in the good ole days makes today's anatomy dissection classes certainly seem like a veritable walk in the park. Ms. Montross also examines the different ways cultures view the practice of using dead bodies for medical research as well as the history of some of the silly superstitions and practices involved. There are also snippets of personal medical cases that highlight some of the difficult situations such as a man dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. The author's story about the declining health of her grandparents was especially tender and touching.

The book has a lot of heart and soul to it. Ms. Montross struggles with the unnatural act of cutting open and dismembering even a dead body. The memoir was well written, immensely informative about an area of medical education I hadn't ever really thought about, and darned right entertaining. Some descriptions caused me to squirm and made it painfully obvious I wouldn't be cut out (pun intended... Sorry) for this profession. You will learn a little about the anatomy but the memoir is more about the difficulties in entering into this most challenging of professions. It is beautifully written, highly entertaining, thought-provoking, and well worth reading.

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #360)

BOOK REVIEW: Sticking His Nose Where It Doesn't Belong

(Originally Published 2011, Paperback Edition 391 pages)



One of my many quirks is, once I start a fiction or nonfiction book, I always finish it even if I don't care for the thing. And, trust me, I've read some horrible, horrible works. Mr. Rankin's "The Impossible Dead" is on the other end of the scale. Whenever I had to stop reading it, I kept aching to return to his second Malcolm Fox book. If you are not familiar with the author's protagonist, Malcolm Fox is a cash-strapped, divorced, out-of-shape, alcoholic on the wagon, who has a dad with the early stages of dementia living in a health care facility and a sister that sure in the heck isn't going to be winning the "Sibling of the Year" award. He works in "The Complaints;" our American version of Internal Investigations of police officers. Needless to say, Fox and his two partners, the rookie Joe Naysmith and the sarcastic jaded Tony Kaye, are not the most popular people in any police station.

 

The three of them are sent to investigate a high-profile case out of their jurisdiction. Practically everybody is giving them a hard time and stonewalling. During this very difficult assignment, Fox stumbles upon a unsolved 1985 case involving the leader of a radical political group. The deeper Fox digs into the old case, based simply on the original findings not sitting well with him, the more complex and intriguing the story becomes.

 

Mr. Rankin moves the story along at a nice pace and all the major characters seem like very unique believable individuals. I especially enjoyed Tony Kaye's flippant wisecracks peppered throughout the novel. The author also adds many nice, little descriptive touches that make the scenes all too real. Mr. Rankin must be a keen observer of the world around him. I have not read the author's famous Inspector Rebus series, but a writer this good can sure bet on me reading them in the future.

 

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #359)

Tweets 2

 I opened a Twitter account this year and began tweeting random thoughts and observations. It's a good place to dump the gunk running through my head as well as a nice mental exercise. Hey, it keeps me off the streets.

My wife HATES to travel. Her plans to fly to one of the company's sites was cancelled & now she's laughing like a stoner on some primo shit.

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It's always a joy to unknowingly be the next person after my sons to take the jug out of the fridge, shake it and give myself an OJ shower.

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Adults who ate healthy, exercised, got plenty of rest, didn't smoke and are now dying too soon must be pissed Keith Richards is still alive.

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My creative, 14-year-old son made a pretty flower out of tissue.

I said, "That's beautiful, Zac."

He replied, "Now let's burn it."

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Yuck. Nobody should have to start their day by accidentally poking a hole through a sheet of toilet paper.

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None of the parenting books, we read through the years, ever prepared my wife and I in dealing with our teenager's request to buy a sloth.

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Why is it whenever I'm pressed for time I get trapped behind a driver who seems to be practicing for a funeral procession?

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I assume any man I see wearing a suit and bow tie is very intelligent and a virgin.

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Doing yard work eventually makes me yearn for the natural beauty of asphalt.

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My son & his friend are going to see 'Iron Man 3' while I stay home, cooking chicken and thinking up some excuse to ground him out of spite.

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Parenthood is not a job for the self-absorbed.

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A father, watching his son play while wearing a towel as a cape, wonders if the kid will grow up to be a Superman, a Batman, or a Liberace.

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 It's gonna be a hell of a looooong day when I already used up my second wind getting out of bed.

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Trust me. No parent is doing their kid any favors by either calling or legally naming them Honey Boo Boo especially if the child is a boy.

 

BOOK REVIEW: Dead End Deliberators

(Originally Published 2006, Paperback Edition 252 pages)

 

Mr. Brockmeier's novel reminded me of the late Ray Bradbury's work. The story occurs sometime in the not-too-distant future. A highly contagious, deadly virus called "The Blink" is rapidly spreading around the world. People are dying left and right. As if that's not enough of a downer, global warming is melting the polar ice caps and there's a Noah's Ark's worth of animals that are now extinct. The author mixes glimpses of various characters' lives and an element of the surreal. The story skips back and forth between the central character, Laura Byrd, and the dead inhabitants of the City which is a kind of way station before the dead move on to... whatever. It's never explained. The dead inhabitants, better known as the living-dead, only disappear and move on when the last person alive to know them dies. The reader is exposed to about a half dozen vignettes of various living-dead people. Though their daily lives are removed from disease and want, they still ruminate about their pasts. The chapters alternate between the living-dead and Laura Byrd. The lady is certainly stuck between a rock and a hard place. She's stranded alone in Antarctic and eventually sets out on an excruciating journey to find other people. It isn't a stroll through Disney World that's for sure.

 

The brief stories of each living-dead character as well as the living Laura Byrd are very well done. The author has an excellent ability to present each person as their own unique believable individual. The central theme to the book is about the people. I imagine many readers are going to be upset at how Mr. Brockmeier ended his work. The book is more an attempt at fleshing out different characters personalities and challenging the reader to see other people's viewpoints than it is an adventure with a satisfying conclusion. I guess it could be called an artsy-fartsy work. Mr. Brockmeier's short novel is very well written with a decidedly melancholy tone. It's thought-provoking but a little of a downer.

 

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #358)



BOOK REVIEW: Energizing A Bland Topic

(Originally published 2011, Paperback Edition 725 pages)

 

As a followup to his excellent, 1992 Pulitzer-Prize-winning book "The Prize," Mr. Yergin's "The Quest" explores the rapid change since the 1990s up to today. There was much about world energy markets I did not know. The central theme that weaves its way throughout his 725-page tome is there are four key dynamics which effect the many directions energy is being pursued: technology, price, scale and the environmental impact. The author's intent was to set up the six large chapters as independent sections if the reader is only interested in one area. I, however, read it from beginning to end and found it very informative.

 

Mr. Yergin covers every major energy area from oil, electricity, wind, natural gas, nuclear, solar and biofuels. He shows that cutting-edge technologies have helped to discover new, rich oil sources as well as helped use energy more efficiently. "The Quest" also attempts to describe the many complexities involved in finding and developing alternative energy sources. The implications of fast-growing economies such as China, India and Brazil certainly means the world of energy issues will continue to evolve. Naturally, electricity and vehicles are given especially thorough attention in the book. Reading about the many foreign and domestic political disruptions, global warming, and the short-sighted nature of R&D funding gave me a headache.

 

Overall, "The Quest" take pains to give a fair assessment of present conditions in highly controversial areas such as global warming, cap & trade policies, fraccing, and nuclear power, but ultimately comes across as an optimistic view of our future. The author also writes in a style that doesn't require you have a doctorate degree in academic gobbledegook wording and inserts many interesting human stories. A minority of Amazon reviewers believe the book is an over-simplistic, wrongheaded piece of trash. I couldn't disagree more with their assessments. Mr. Yergin's highly-interesting book helped me better understand the complexities of the ever-changing, fast new world we live in when it comes to energy. It is such an important, complex topic which affects us all that you will be doing yourself a huge favor by reading this large, very interesting work.

 

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #357)

I Tweet Therefore I Am

I opened a Twitter account this year and began tweeting random thoughts and observations. It's a good place to dump the gunk running through my head as well as a nice mental exercise. Hey, it keeps me off the streets.

As a teenager, I assumed based upon their limited options on the island that Ginger and Mary Ann were screwing the Professor silly.

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When the hell did plastic surgery and Botox customers come to view the Holy Grail of Beauty is Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?

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A dance floor full of couples grinding looks like a charades competition for the mentally challenged.

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Simply standing near tabloid magazines at the grocery check-out line lowers your IQ.

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Based upon the taste and texture, black licorice is made from the sludge at the bottom of petroleum barrels.

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My inner voice is that of a three-year-old when my alarm clock goes off.

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Four out of five waiters/waitresses will ask me if I want bacon on my veggie burger.

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M&Ms should come out with a Baby Boomer variety that is fortified with ibuprofen.

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Most men are going to be seriously upset if when they die, the dudes discover Heaven is just one humongous curtain store.

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Equality in a heterosexual marriage ends at the allocation of closet space.

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An 18-wheeler drifted into my lane and I scored a perfect 10.0 on the anus-puckered scale. My ass almost sucked up the driver seat's vinyl.

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When I woke up, my dog was laying next to me, staring into my eyes & sporting an erection. He's taking "man's best friend" a little too far.

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There comes a point where old dudes who color their hair to appear younger, instead, just look like Yoda wearing a shitty toupee.

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I'm watching "The Poseidon Adventure." I remember seeing it as a kid and thinking Ernest Borgnine was fat. Now I think he looks thin.

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Many drivers don't seem to understand how windshields work. Not only can you see out but we can see in while you're picking your nose.

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When the woman stepped into the elevator, I suddenly began having hallucinations. Ladies, unless it smells of bacon, go easy on the perfume.

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My wife & 2 sons are sleeping in the car. I'm driving, tired & fighting the urge to wake them by slamming on the brakes while screaming.

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Arguing that the gun debate choices are either all the guns you want or no guns shows your reasoning powers stagnated at the age of five.

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The only time I dance anymore is when I'm holding in a major piss.

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I accidentally hit one of our lampshades and I'm now in the middle of a dust blizzard.

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As a surprise, I bought my son two Reese's cups and they were delicious. Don't tell him.

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I'm eating a bland salad while watching my two teenage sons happily scarf down strips of bacon. This must be what triggers child abuse.

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If you were one of the people on St. Patrick's Day standing in line to enter a bar at 6AM to start celebrating, alcohol isn't your friend.

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It would be cool if instead of white smoke spewing out when the cardinals choose a new pope, the smokestack shoots out Skittles.

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After 3 weeks working in NY, my wife has returned home. When she entered the house, it took 3.523 seconds for her to be covered in dog hair.

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Walking our dogs in 0-degree weather; under-dressed; & suddenly having an intense need to poop aren't conducive to maintaining good posture.

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Apparently, our two, teenage sons' autoimmune systems will recognize any ingested vegetable as a hostile foreign substance.

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I've been praying like mad to God he won't hold it against me that I'm an atheist.