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August 05, 2008
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The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch. When I began The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
was alive, but sadly passed away at age 47, the Friday before I finished.
This is a wonderful, heart warming story of a tenured computer science
professor at Carnegie Mellon University, diagnosed with terminal
pancreatic cancer. As the consummate lecturer, Pausch embarks on a
journey, to impart with his family, friends and colleagues, the life
lessons he has learned along the way. His wife Jai, although not thrilled
with her husband spending his last months at a computer, supports his
decision to give to the world, ‘The Last Lecture.”
Pausch, with Detroit native, Jeffrey
Zaslow, has written a story not about dying, but about living, working
hard and the rewards of both. He writes not about what he will miss, but
what his family will miss without him. He’s witty, warm, and has realized
and chronicled his childhood dreams, and more. From becoming a professor,
to working with Walt Disney Imagineering, to designing virtual worlds, he
has also shaped some of this country’s brightest minds. But none of this
can stop the disease from taking him from his family and friends.
As Pausch sets out to put pen to
paper, he recounts life lessons he has learned, many through he wisdom of
his father. Although Pausch senior probably wouldn’t take credit for the
guidance, it is apparent throughout the entire book. Clichés were his
middle name, but oddly they worked in this family. Lessons were taught,
lessons were learned, and at the end of the day everyone was a better
person. And though his children are too young to understand all that is
happening around them, they will have a touching story to carry them
through the tough times ahead. Pausch has left notes and letters to be
read to the children when they are old enough to understand. He spent
great quality time with his niece and nephew when they were young, and at
19 and 21 respectively, he has asked them to be a part of his family’s
life. And wife Jai will accept all the help she can get from them, and
others.
As Randy Pausch dedicates his book to
the family and friends he leaves behind, I dedicate this book review to
two important people in my life – Pat, whose pancreas does not work and
Ken, whose life parallels Randy’s in many ways. As Randy Pausch says,
“Always tell the truth and stop to smell the crayons!”
Review by Jill Zeeb, DeWitt Library
Staff. [8/5/2008]
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler.
Although “Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict” by Laurie Viera
Rigler could easily be dismissed as a frivolous story about time
travel with Jane Austin thrown into the mix to pull in readers, this
novel is far better than that brief description. The details of
Jane Austen’s life let you know that the author is fully familiar
with the charming author’s history. So many details of her works
are placed in the novel.
Courtney Stone has suffered failure in
both her romantic relationship and her closest friendship. Whenever life
has gotten her down, she has always retreated to reading one of Jane
Austen’s works. After a disillusioning night spent with vodka and
re-reading “Pride and Prejudice”, she wakes up in an unfamiliar bedroom.
She emotionally goes through all the usual tests to determine whether or
not she is dreaming. Nothing seems to make her wake up. She learns that
her new family thinks that she is recovering from a fall from a horse.
She is inhabiting a body with a better figure and better hair. Her
immediate problem is the arrival of a doctor who wants to start blood
letting. Courtney has her twenty-first century mind that rebels at,
first, the thought of loosing blood, and secondly, having any instruments
used on her in such an unsanitary situation. She is sure she does not
want an infected wound in pre-antibiotic days. Courtney’s new persona is
Jane Mansfield, a thirty-year-old spinster. Courtney meets Jane’s friend,
Mary and discovers both she and her new self have an attraction to Mary’s
brother. She realizes that her new mother’s greatest fear is that she
will not be able to see her daughter well married. This society with its
confining rules is a shock to Courtney, no matter how well read she is. A
California girl who likes her vodka and cigarettes has a difficult time
blending into a time where she can go nowhere without a chaperone.
Naturally, there is a love interest,
but Courtney strangely has memories of that person. She feels very
disoriented when she realizes that she can remember incidents from the
lives of the new people who surround her. The book is a novel of manners
with similarities to a Jane Austen novel with an outspoken, opinionated
woman who is forced to look for a husband who will give meaning to her
life. The ways a modern-day woman reacts to that limiting opportunity
provide comedy, satire, and suspense. [7/29/2008]
The Amateur Spy by Dan Fesperman. The time which Dan Fesperman has
spent as a war correspondent gives validity to his novel about an ex-UN
aid worker who is forced to act as a spy. Freeman Lockhart, of “The
Amateur Spy” has just retired at age 55 after years of administering UN
aid in many of the world’s trouble spots. He and his younger wife, Mila,
plan to live the simple life on a Greek island. Their dream is to grow
and hunt much of their own food and earn a little money with simple
crafts. On their first night in their new home, they are victims of a
break-in. Mr. White, Gray, and Black take Freeman to a close-by luxury
home and ask him to spy on an old friend. These mysterious figures know
the details of a shameful event from his aid past in Tanzania. At all
costs, Freeman does not want these details revealed to Mila. Therefore,
he agrees to spend a few months attempting to determine what his old
friend Omar al-Baroody is really doing. Omar and Lockhart had been
partners in the distant past patrolling in Palestine together. Now Omar
is trying to put together an aid organization which will build a hospital
in Jordan.
Additional, initially
separate characters are Abbas and Aliyah Rahim, a middle class
Palestinian-American couple. This couple is attempting to deal with the
loss of their daughter in a traffic accident in London. She had been on a
trip and her return home was delayed, most likely because in the post 911
world, her identity came under heavier scrutiny simply based on her
foreign sounding name. During the delaying period, she was hurrying to
the airport and was hit and killed by a bus. Grieving people often feel
the need to blame an outside source, and her father focused on what he
perceived as overly suspicious and accusatory regulators.
Freeman is
troubled by his role as an amateur spy. He is not sure who he is working
for or what their goals are. He is reminded of the history he had with
Omar when a minor argument erupts between acquaintances: “Omar nodded to
me almost imperceptibly, as if to acknowledge we were still doing our bit
for peace and harmony. It brought on a flush of nostalgia, which of
course produced an immediate backwash of guilt.” Freeman struggles with
these emotions throughout the novel. Is he working for a greater good, or
is he just trying to make sure his own tawdry past stays hidden?
[7/22/2008]
Fall of Knight
I don’t usually read very much science fiction or fantasy. The
creation of other worlds in which the reader must comprehend who are
each others sworn enemies and learn histories of individuals with
complicated names just often feels like too much effort. That much
mental concentration must be done so that the reader can connect
with what is usually only a minimal plot. “Fall of Knight” by Peter
David is a fantasy novel that does not place that burden on the
reader. Most of us are familiar with the names and roles of the
characters of the Arthurian legends. For this tale, Peter David has
given Arthur a completely modern persona. Arthur Pendragon, a
natural leader, became mayor of New York, then President of the
United States. Then an assassin shoots his wife, Gwen, and she is
in a non-responsive coma. Secretly, Gwen was restored to full
health with water from the Holy Grail. Because Arthur and Merlin
realize the general populace would have difficulty believing in such
a miraculous cure, Arthur and Gwen go into hiding. Even legendary
heroes have some of the same fantasies as ordinary mortals, so
Arthur and Gwen take off on a cruise in secluded tropical seas.
They had naively forgotten about the modern magic of satellites.
The fully recovered Gwen is spotted on the deck of their sailboat.
When the White House security realizes they must deal with the
reappearance of the ex-president and his recovered wife, all federal
agencies go into overdrive. The public’s questions are persistent.
When the miraculous powers of the Holy Grail are accidentally
revealed to the press, almost everyone wants to drink from the cup.
This starts the battle between good and evil. Grail Ale becomes
commercialized as a cure all. The FDA cannot ban it because the
brew can only be analyzed as tap water that has been poured through
the mystical cup. The water is diluted so it will only provide the
drinker with enhanced health. The unanswered question is what will
the long-term effects be? The story becomes a cautionary tale about
the pollution of the world’s waters.
The author,
Peter David comes equipped with an extremely imaginative mind. He has had
wide experiences in the entertainment media. He has worked on television
and film scripts, also he has written over forty novels, including several
Star Trek Books. For twelve years he has been the writer for the
Incredible Hulk comic books. [7/15/08]
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex is two novels for one read. She
tells the story of two female historical characters, with their stories
linked by the Elgin Marbles from the Greek Parthenon. Mary Nesbit Bruce
became the Countess of Elgin when she married. Her husband, Lord Elgin,
an impoverished Scottish nobleman, had been appointed British ambassador
to Constantinople. The Napoleonic Wars made travel dangerous as Mary
journeyed with her husband to their first appointment. She is newly
married and already pregnant, but must endure primitive traveling
conditions, both on a sailing ship and by donkey. She feels pressure to
remain a lady, but be flexible enough to endure any necessary hardships.
Mary hopes to be a true partner to her husband, both on the diplomatic
front, and as he attempts to bring Greek art home to the British Isles.
Napoleon had plundered European capitals of their art treasures for
France, now Elgin wants to do the same for England. He had originally
intended to only make casts and drawings of sculpture, but he becomes
mesmerized by the remarkable marble statues on the Parthenon. Money from
Mary’s family and Mary’s charm are what makes Elgin’s mission possible.
Although his original plan was to deconstruct the Parthenon and bring the
marbles to become decoration for his Scottish home, they ultimately wound
up in a London museum.
Essex alternates their
struggles with the story of Aspasia, who became the mistress of Perikles,
the ruler of Athens during Greece’s Golden Age. Aspasia was supposedly
the model for the sculpture of Athena on the Parthenon’s frieze. As a
female who was basically sold as a slave girl to Perikles, she used her
wit and determination to become a background voice while Perikles oversaw
the construction of some of the world’s most glorious structures.
The removal
of the Elgin Marbles has always been controversial, even two hundred years
ago. Since the area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire when Elgin
removed them, the ruling bureaucrats were not as protective of Greek
heritage items as preservationists are today. Some arguments maintain
that cultural items should never be removed from their place of origin;
some maintain that an item in danger of destruction should be preserved
wherever they will be safest. This work of fiction does convince the
reader that much of this ancient artwork was in danger of crumbling to
dust or becoming subject to vandalism, so Lord Elgin did the art world a
great service. [7/8/08]
Grange House Before air conditioning, Victorian families would
travel extensively to spend the summer months in a cooler place. The
focus of the novel “Grange House” is a well run resort home in Maine which
hosts the prosperous Thomas family of Boston. Maisie and her parents have
been coming to Grange House for years, so she is familiar with the staff
that runs the hotel. Miss Nell Grange is a shadowy constant presence,
although she is not involved with day to day operations. Instead she
lives in the attic and occasionally interacts with the guests. Her role
is uncertain, and she is generally considered to be a poor relation that
has simply been provided with a place to stay.
Maisie is at the point
when a young Victorian miss will make the biggest choice of her life. Of
course her parents will have a great influence on the choice of the man
she marries. But Maisie is questioning the direction her life is taking.
She wonders if there is more to life than aspiring to being a good wife
and mother. Maisie dreams of being an author like Nell Grange. These two
compare stories and Maisie becomes confused about whether Nell’s stories
are fact based or totally imaginary. Nell gives Maisie what she claims is
her diary, but is it? Is Nell trying to tell Maisie important facts about
their families or is she trying to stimulate Maisie’s imagination?
On the day Maisie and
her family arrived for the summer of 1896, two lovers are found, drowned
with their arms intertwined. What is their story? As Maisie attempts to
learn what passions inspired them to try to sail away, she also must
confront the two men in her life. One is a staid, serious young man who
works for her father. The other is a committed traveler who sees the
romantic in every situation. Complicating the plot are ghostly children’s
handprints that show up on walls. Is this a ghost story or a romance?
The writing style makes the reader feel they are reading a Victorian novel
instead of a modern novel. Both the actions of the characters and the
dialog have the flavor of another time. The author, Sarah Blake, received
her doctorate in Victorian literature. This novel is a successful attempt
at recreating a story which might have been read by a daring Victorian
miss. [7/3/08]
When Science
Goes Wrong, Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery, by Simon
LeVay, is an entertaining look at scientific debacles from the last
century. His book probes whether risks taken during scientific
experiments outweigh the rewards. The topics are wide ranging, and
written at a level even a science novice can understand.
LeVay’s book begins with the story of
an accomplished track and field star who was unlucky to acquire
Parkinson’s Disease in 1979. His effort to get the best care took him to
China in a last ditch effort to try an early stem cell transplant. The
chapter chronicles the ups and downs of the treatment, and the patient’s
ultimate demise.
Volcanic research is a field that
requires scientists to get up close and personal with their subjects.
Unfortunately, a group of scientists studying a volcano in Columbia in the
early ‘90s had the worst of luck. Despite indications the volcano was
about to erupt, several scientists descended into the caldera, and were
vaporized.
In 1928, the St. Francis Dam north of
Los Angeles was completely destroyed just days after it was officially
opened, due to an engineering mistake made by a respected “chief engineer”
with little formal education. The blunder caused the death of hundreds
downstream and destruction in the millions of dollars.
Three men died in January, 1961 at the
Idaho National Laboratory, conducting routine tasks to bring a nuclear
reactor back online after a hiatus during the Christmas holidays. The
cause of the explosion was determined after the radiation dissipated but
the accident’s cause remains a mystery.
During the height of the cold war in
the late 1970’s, the U.S.S.R. was conducting clandestine research in the
field of biological weapons, or maybe not. Over the years, many respected
scientists have researched the deaths of more than 40 in Sverdlovsk as a
result of anthrax poisoning, but several theories still abound regarding
the outbreak’s cause.
Other scientific mysteries are
discussed in detail in the book, from the botched weather forecast of an
English hurricane, recent research into the party drug Ecstasy, a
CSI-style story about forensics nailing the wrong man, a Mars surveyor
lost completely due to a software problem attributed to the wrong units
which inadvertently changed the spacecraft’s trajectory, and more.
LeVay’s book is an eye-opener, and makes you think about the ultimate
impacts of scientific research. [6/24/08]
Dark Tide
Andrew Gross has been a co-writer with James Patterson on several very
successful best sellers. His solo novel “The Dark Tide” begins on the day
when Charles Friedman supposedly dies in an explosion at Grand Central
Station. Charles owns and manages his own hedge fund. He had been a
trader on Wall Street, working for a powerful firm, but he left to start
his own business. He was able to take several customers with him and they
were enough to enable Charles to earn a quality living for his family.
Together, they all lived the good life. Charles and his wife, Karen, have
two perfect children, Alex and Samantha. There is a classic Ford Mustang
in the garage, color Emberglow. The vanity plate reads Charlie’s Baby.
The only point of grief in their life was when their Westie dog had been
run over the previous week.
On what seems to be the start of a
typical workday, Charlie takes the commuter train in from Greenwich,
Connecticut to New York City. Karen is at yoga practice, when suddenly TV
bulletins about a fire caused by a bombing at Grand Central Station rivet
everyone. Many families in town have a family member who regularly takes
the train into the city, so people worry that they might know a victim.
It is several days before Karen can believe that Charlie is dead. The
devastation at the bombing scene is so great that bodies are
unidentifiable.
On the same day that Charlie dies, a
young man is killed by a hit and run driver in Greenwich. Ty Hauck, a
police detective, becomes both professionally and emotionally involved in
that case. Ty had accidentally left his car in gear and the vehicle ran
over his red-haired daughter. This victim had the same bright red hair,
so that pulled a visceral response from Ty. He was determined justice
would be found for this young man’s death.
Months after Charlie’s death, Karen is
visited by two men who threaten her and accuse her of hiding millions
which Charlie had supposedly stolen from the hedge fund. On the
anniversary of the bombing, Karen reluctantly is watching a TV special
about the event. The program is very difficult for her to watch, but just
as she turns away, she sees a brief glimpse of Charlie leaving the station
after the bombing. What happened to Charlie and what happened to the
money? Eventually Karen and Ty partner in this cliffhanger search.
[6/17/08]
The Book of Joe
by Jonathan Tropper is the
fictional account of the trauma undergone by an author when he writes a
novel about his hometown, including thinly disguised local characters.
Joe Goffman left his hometown seventeen years ago and has not been back
since. After college and several years spent in New York City, he wrote a
very successful novel about his hometown and his tragic high school senior
year. It even became a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kirsten Dunst.
Two close friends and a girlfriend were a part of that senior year in both
reality and Joe’s fiction. Joe’s great failure in high school was that he
was not on the basketball team. The Bush Falls Cougars frequently win
state championships, so the team is the focus for the entire town. Joe’s
father and older brother had both been team members. Virtually every town
leader had played basketball. If you weren’t a player, you don’t count in
Bush Falls.
Strangely, Wayne, an
outstanding basketball player, spends time with Joe. Wayne is the kind of
kid who sees no boundaries. He makes friends wherever he wishes. Joe’s
other friend is Sammy, a new transfer student. Sammy tries to be an
outsider. His dress, hairstyle, and musical taste indicate he wants to be
in New York instead of suburban Connecticut. The three boys manage to
stay close friends, doing the slightly irresponsible things teenagers do
in 1986. Some of these scenes are hysterically funny and some are
unbelievably tragic.
When Joe’s
father has a stroke, Joe feels a familial duty to return to his hometown.
Joe now has to face the outrage of the Bush Falls residents. Although the
book had been an outstanding bestseller, it is not popular locally. On
Joe’s first night at a local diner, the wife of the high school basketball
coach throws a milkshake at Joe. Joe’s reunion with his brother, Brad,
and the old friend, Wayne, isn’t much happier. Even the local book club
welcomes him back by throwing copies of his novel at the house.
Additional characters that add dimension are Owen Hobbs, Joe’s agent, and
Joe’s nephew, Jared. Jared is leading a new generation’s rebellious teen
life, and (gasp) he is not playing basketball. Joe has a new definition
of ancient when he begins to grasp the chasm between his and his nephew’s
interests and moral codes. Lyrics from Bruce Springsteen songs are used
to highlight characters’ philosophies. [6/11/08]
Executive Privilege. Philip
Margolin has authored an exceptional read in Executive Privilege,
a 2008 release by Harper-Collins. This fast-paced mystery chronicles the
steps a President and his entourage might be willing to take to retain the
position as “Leader of the Free World.”
This tale begins with two people holed
up in a safe house waiting to be heard in an investigation of murder
charges being pursued by a special investigator against the President of
the United States, and then flashing back to the series of events leading
to this moment.
On both coasts of the United States,
serial killers have a single unexplained murder amidst their gory kills.
The investigation of one jeopardizes the career of a young lawyer doing
pro bono work for his firm. Doing research on a potential death row
appeal, he learns that the condemned killer, while accepting his death
sentence for his acknowledged homicides, refuses to be condemned for a
murder he couldn’t have committed. His alibi was never shared at trial,
but this innocent is saddled with the gruesome information proving the
impossibility. The second anomaly brings a PI too much information
regarding a presidential tryst with a teen-ager working for the
opposition’s campaign who winds up dead. As the actual serial killer is
identified, the copycat has missed a key unreleased piece of information
establishing this murder as the product of a different source. The
resulting attempts on her life, send her into hiding while attempting to
find a long-term solution allowing her to live.
The twists and turns take the reader
from the scenic Williamette River to a dumpster in downtown D.C. pursuing
the truth about an out-of-control, above the law triangle, which looks
much different to its adoring public than it does when all is exposed. An
incumbent President on the campaign trail, his devoted, newly pregnant
wife and the long-time friend who has cleaned up his messes before, share
a secret that binds them together in protecting the presidency and
endangers anyone outside of the circle who knows it.
How far does loyalty go? What price
would one pay for their ultimate prize? When money and power combine is
anyone safe from its clutches? Margolin’s grasp of legal, political and
investigative nuances melds with believable characters to create a
riveting read challenging the reader to answer those questions.
This page-turner has you certain you
know how it happened until the final turn unlocks key details that only
the murderer would know leaving one gasping at the identity of the
improbable culprit. [6/3/2008]
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