Review of "Clown at Second Base," by C. Paul Jackson

 Review of

Clown at Second Base, by C. Paul Jackson

Four out of five stars

Very good, but dated book of adolescent sports fiction

Bucky Bushard is a second baseman with a lot of both talent and attitude. Although he loves to play baseball and is an excellent player, his propensity to clown and make fun of others rubs people the wrong way. He is somewhat tolerated most of the time, but when his stunts show people up, especially the umpires, or cost his team runs or even games, there is no tolerance.

 This story is very much within the genre of adolescent sports fiction of the fifties. There are no females in the story, and the conversation is somewhat artificial. His team is the Detroit Tigers, and it is fighting for a position in the World Series at a time when the payoff was relatively big money. Every time when Bucky seems to have righted himself, he impulsively carries out a clowning stunt that is detrimental to the team. He even physically fights with his shortstop, the man on the team that he must be most in tune with.

 The book has the Tigers clawing their way out of the second division to a point where they have a chance to win the league pennant. Hence, there is a big game at the end. While Bucky is a sparkplug, he does not carry the team in the sense that he alone is making the key hits that win the games.

 Overall, this is a story that moves along at a good clip, presents problems and dilemmas to be solved and demonstrates how teamwork and not individual play wins games and championships.

Review of "Bone : One Volume Edition," by Jeff Smith

 Review of

Bone : One Volume Edition, by Jeff Smith ISBN 188896314x

Five out of five stars

The complete series based on unusual characters

 There is a little bit of many genres in this graphic novel. There is the reluctant hero, wise and powerful elder leader, some swords and sorcery, a bit of the Three Musketeers, great evil manifest as controllers of locusts and rat creatures and some dragons thrown in.

 Fone Bone is one of the three Bone cousins, the other two are Smiley and Phoney Bone. Smiley is a bit of a simpleton while Phoney is a greedy shyster that is always looking for a quick and profitable score. He will not hesitate to scam any and all creatures they encounter. When the three of them are kicked out of Boneville, they travel across a desert and end up in The Valley. It is a medieval level society and one of the most prominent citizens is Grandma Ben. A beautiful maiden named Thorn is also present, Fone is quickly stricken by her beauty and charm.

 There are great dangers in The Valley, creatures of all types with some of the most dangerous buried deep in the past. There is also some hidden royal figures that must be returned if the creatures of the valley are to be saved from the evil.

 The best thing about this story is the dialog. It is crisp, humorous and occasionally a bit obnoxious. (Think quiche.) The artwork is simply black on white, yet that is not a weakness. This is a great story where none of the features dominates any of the others. Most of the evil creatures have the potential for good in them and the evil is defeated in the end.

Review of "Pearl Harbor," by Ernest Arroyo

 Review of

Pearl Harbor, by Ernest Arroyo, ISBN 097607740x

Five out of five stars

Photos of the day of infamy

 Given the behavior of the Japanese when they attacked the Russian Asian fleet anchored at Port Arthur in 1904, it was logical that the Japanese would engage in a surprise attack on opposing fleets in the Second World War. While there was a wide belief in American military circles that history would be repeated, the belief was that it would not be at Pearl Harbor. The American military and political leadership vastly underestimated the technical capabilities of the Japanese, thinking that they simply could not carry out the powerful attack that they managed to execute. This belief was so deep in American thinking that there were many who believed that some of the planes that attacked Pearl Harbor were in fact piloted by Germans.

 The destruction of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is captured in these images from both Japanese and American sources. While the American pictures of the destruction of the ships are powerful, the most striking images are those of the ships in the harbor taken by the Japanese. All those ships simply lined up at anchor, stationary targets for the skilled pilots of the Japanese Navy.

 Luck had a great deal of action in the Japanese action at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. How such a massive fleet was able to escape detection on such a long journey and how the American forces were caught figuratively sleeping that fateful morning has been the subject of many books and studies. In war, sometimes things just break your way, and this book is a visual explanation of just how well they went for the Japanese forces that day.

Review of "Dog Farts: Pooter’s Revenge," by J. B. O’Neil,

 Review of

Dog Farts: Pooter’s Revenge, by J. B. O’Neil, ISBN 9781484983843

Five out of five stars

Plot involves one of kids favorite yuks

 This is a book that children will love, it features one of their favorite topics to laugh about, farts. Pooter is the dog of the family and when one of the humans lets one go, he often gets blamed. In this case, Pooter is suddenly afflicted with a case of really, really bad gas. Both in terms of the noise as well as the smell.

 Reaching the point where it is intolerable, the parents make an emergency trip to the vet. Even the vet throws their hands up, both in surrender as well as to cover their nose. With on end in sight to the end in action, they finally learn that the youngest child was feeding the dog her vegetables that she did not want to eat. This solved one problem, only to lead to another. Now the girl is the odorous one.

 Based on one thing that will always make children laugh, this book will keep the young reader laughing throughout. It is also useful as a reading challenge.

Review of "A Christmas Memory," by Truman Capote

 Review of

A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote

Five out of five stars

A fond memory of childhood

 Noted author Truman Capote lived with a family of distant and elderly cousins in rural Alabama until he was 10 years old. The household he lived in was very poor, his best friend was his elderly cousin Miss Sook Faulk. She was almost everything to him in terms of a familial relationship, anchoring his life.

 They did much together, in particular when the Christmas season arrived and it was time for them to make and distribute fruitcakes. The process starts by gathering pecans that have fallen from a nearby tree. The two of them do many things together and on the occasions when other family members are mentioned, there does not seem to be a great deal of affection of the others for Truman and Sook.

 This is a story told quite fondly, another demonstration that almost any childhood can be a good one as long as the child has an adult to look after and care for them. Such a life can be rich, even when you have to earn money a penny at a time for killing 25 flies.

Review of "Images of Healing," edited by Ann Novotny & Carter Smith

 Review of

Images of Healing, edited by Ann Novotny & Carter Smith ISBN 0025908200

Five out of five stars

Visual tutorial on the history of medical practice

 The advancement in the effectiveness of medicine has mirrored and benefited by the advance of scientific understanding. This book is a illustrated history of how medicine was practiced in the last three centuries. For each decade, there is a timeline of significant events, such as the establishment of the various medical organizations.

 There are images of some of the most prominent people in the advancement of medicine as well as what were routine events of the times. For example, there are formal portraits of people such as Joseph Lister and Walter Reed. Each image has a brief description of the relevance of what appears in the image.

 Some of the routine events are patients being treated, patients being loaded in an ambulance and the dispensation of medications at a pharmacy. Following the timeline, the reader learns how the practice of medicine has been changed by the introduction of new techniques. The practices of cleanliness and anesthesia being used while surgery is performed are practices that were introduced relatively recently. Some advertisements for patent medicines are also included to perform some dark comic relief.

 While of necessity lacking in depth, this is a book that will educate and entertain people interested in how the practice of medicine has changed over the past three centuries.

Review of The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse," by Rich Cohen

 Review of

The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse, by Rich Cohen, ISBN 9780374120924

Five out of five stars

Curse, or bad management?

 While there may be no supernatural justification to claiming a curse, there is one certain way one can exist. That is when the people considered cursed believe in the curse. In sports, it is when one or more members of the team think they are going to lose no matter what happens. In baseball, the time you make errors is when you believe that someone is going to make one.

 Until they finally won the World Series in 2016, ending a string of over 100 years with no such victory, the Cubs were generally awful. This had lasted so long that many people attributed the continuous failure to the “fact” that the team was cursed. As Cohen points out, much of that was in the heads and bodies of the players, he says several times that the primary reason for their decades of success is that the Yankees had better players (physical bodies) and that they believed that they would win (better heads.)

 Cohen also pointed out that the Cubs loss in the famous Bartman game was due more to the infield error and how the Cubs as a team suffered a mental collapse, and was not due to any supernatural force. He also points out that the primary reason for the lengthy failure is due to horrible management practices throughout the organization. One of the amazing facets of this absurd situation is that when the Cubs signed future star and Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, one of the club officials said they signed him, “So that they would have another black to room with the one black player they had on their roster.”

 This is a great book about a team that suffered from a great deal of bad luck over decades, most of which was self-generated.