BOOK REVIEW: Dixie Bashin'

(Originally Published 2012, Paperback Edition 271 pages)

Geeeesh, just the book's title will make many people's blood boil. Heck, I'd imagine some readers will have purchased it BECAUSE it upset them. Being a Mainer and living in New England all my life, carrying around a book with its cover being the ole stars-'n-bars isn't exactly thought of as being neighborly around these parts. No matter. It was worth enduring the pedestrians' double takes.

The book is purely a fun, very sarcastic, hypothetical exercise in why us Northerners should embrace giving the South the ole heave ho. The author stresses that he isn't Dixie bashing but it sure felt like it. Granted, he loads his argument with many stats and observations that are very consistent with other books, such as 'Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity' by James C. Cobb and 'Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War' by Tony Horwitz; both books I strongly recommend. Naturally, the book has its fair share of wingnuts such as Pastor Ernie Bishop and Ken Ham's loony Creation Museum. He covers the major topics that do make my head hurt when I think about Southern "sensibilities": religion, environmental attitudes, poverty, education, politics, race, business practices, their mindless addiction to war and the weirdest phenomenon of all the near-religious adoration of college football.

What makes Mr. Thompson's work laugh-out-loud funny is his intelligent but sophomoric presentation. However, he likes writing long, overloaded sentences as if he's channeling a Dennis Miller rant. It took a little getting used to his style. Except for the chapter about college football, which made my eyes glaze over, it is a very entertaining, yet, fruitless argument. 

(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 #373)

BOOK REVIEW: The 4,000-Year Acquaintance

(Originally Published 2012, Paperback Edition 236 pages)

Mr. Wasik's and Ms. Murphy's book is of two minds. Parts of the work delve into the meats and potatoes of the deadly virus and other parts are light, silly ruminations about how rabies has MAYBE influenced cultures. Some of the authors' beliefs sound plausible but are pure conjecture such as the development of the myths about vampires, werewolves and zombies. These ruminations tried my patience. 

However, their explanations on how the virus affects humans and animals as well as the major culprits who cause the spread of rabies are very interesting. The first part of the book explains what "doctors or healers" believed was happening to a victim in the advanced stages of rabies. Until the great Louis Pasteur came along and set scientists and doctors down the correct path, it was all just people pulling wacky religious beliefs or cultural mumbo-jumbo out their backsides. They even correctly explain the nutty public reactions to AIDS in the early nineteen-eighties. Oodles of us humans don't help reenforce the credence that we're an intelligent species.

'Rabid' does much better when it focuses more on reality. For example, the accidental introduction of the virus onto the rabies-free island of Bali and how the government's incompetent handling of the situation made a bad situation worse was very informative. Also, the authors' scientific explanation of the current research and the difficulty of breaching the blood-brain barrier shows that rabies isn't likely to ever be eradicated. Ultimately, the book was informative, but it had a little too much fluff for my tastes.

(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 #372)

A Lord's Prayer

Please, please, oh pleeeeeease, Lord, don't let me become this senile.

Say What?

What did ya call me? Say it again. I dare ya.

BOOK REVIEW: Having A Devil Of A Time

(Originally Published 1991, Mass Market Paperback 600 pages)

If you are a guy who grew up in a small rural town during the 1960s and 70s then there will likely be a lot about Mr. Simmons's book that will transport you back in time. The protagonists are 5th-and-6th-grade boys living in the dinky corn farm town of Elm Haven, Illinois. It's a time where residents had party-phone lines, drunk drivers were a standard sight, Catholic masses were said in Latin and library's had microfiche machines. The town was pretty poor but still had a class system.

Mr. Simmons's stories are very well written and usually quite long winded. However, the extra details in 'Summer of Night' enhances the believability of his creation. The young boys act like young boys through most of work. Some of the other reviewers seem to be quite impatient with these embellishments. The story jumps back and forth between the young boys summer escapades that most guys can relate to their own rural lives and a slow building of suspense. Half way through the novel, an unsettling event occurs which blew to smithereens my assumptions of who would eventually live and who would die. It kept me interested and on the edge of my seat for the remainder of the story.

The ending does go off the rails in believing young kids would do and act the way they did, but hey, it is meant as a surreal horror story. There are plenty of scary, suspenseful moments in 'Summer of Night' and is a very enjoyable summer read. As the author Stephen King wrote, "(it's an) American nightmare with scares, suspense, and sweet, surprising nostalgia." It worked for me. I'm glad I read it. 

(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 #371)