Review of
Dugout Rivals,
by Fred Bowen ISBN 9781561455157
Four out of five stars
The author has
written an entire series of books in adolescent sports fiction that cover many
different sports. As the title implies, this one is about baseball. Jake Daley loves
playing baseball and after a few seasons where his playing chances were
limited, he anticipates being a regular and a star in the upcoming season. His
team is the Red Sox and the team is in the Woodside Baseball League. His
position is shortstop and he practices and plays hard.
The tryouts for
new players are taking place before the season starts and one new player
quickly catches Jake’s eye. His name is Adam and he is a complete player,
superior to Jake in all aspects of the game, running, hitting, fielding and
pitching. Adam is their best pitcher, but due to league rules that limit mound
time, Adam often plays shortstop while Jake is shifted to second base.
This leads to a
lot of resentment on the part of Jake and he must work through it, for Adam does
not flaunt his superior skills and is always friendly. While Jake’s parents are
together, Adam’s are divorced and apparently in a state of constant acrimony,
which helps Jake gain some empathy for Adam, helping him to cope with his
feelings. There is a big game at the end where Jake comes to understand that it
takes a team to win.
This is a good
story about the life and emotions of an adolescent, where sports are important
but where the other aspects of life are also highlighted. It is very modern, in
that the left fielder’s name is Hannah and one of the featured players has
divorced parents.
Review of
Romeo and Juliet: A Shakespeare Story,
by Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross, ISBN 9781841213361
Five out of five stars
While it lacks
the power and rhythm of the words composed by Shakespeare, this short adaptation
of what is likely his most famous play does effectively present the
fundamentals of the plot. It is a tragedy of the first magnitude, and based on the
two most powerful human emotions, hatred of another group and deep love of
another.
Written at the
level of the child in the middle years of elementary school, this is an
introduction to the classic tale that will be understood by those readers and
hopefully spark an interest in the original work. Given the complexity of the
play, this is a version that does the best that can be hoped for, tells the
story at a level that can be understood.
Review of
Silly Stories,
by Andy Charman et. al. ISBN 075255672x
Five out of five stars
This is a
wonderful collection of stories that do justice to the title. Since they
require some knowledge of the world and how it works in order for the reader to
understand where the silliness applies, they are primarily for children to read
rather than have them read to them. Yet, that would work as well, and the
stories are naturals to have the adult reader include intonation changes for
emphasis.
While a few of
the stories use some of the previously used themes, most of them are quite
different from the familiar style of fairy tales. If you are looking for a set of
fairy tales with a bit of imagination that bounces a bit sideways, then this is
a book that will satisfy that craving.
Review of
Touchdown Trouble,
by Fred Bowen ISBN 9781561454976
Four out of five stars
Great example of true sportsmanship
Sam Danza is a star player on the offensive side of
his youth football team called the Cowboys. They are a very good team and are
contending for the championship. The stars are confident without being arrogant
and they play as a team with no swelled heads or demanding of special
treatment. They regularly meet for pizza and soda and to watch and study the
film of their last game.
When watching
the film of their last key victory against their main rivals, the Giants, they
discover that the referees made an error and gave them a fifth down on their
game-winning drive. The issue then becomes, “What do we do about this?” There
is significant debate among the teammates whether they will report the error to
league officials or not.
This situation has
appeared at least twice in the historical records of NCAA football. In 1940,
Cornell had the most powerful football team in the nation, and they were
playing Dartmouth in their second-to-last game of the season. As a consequence of
an error by the officials, Cornell was given a fifth down on their drive that supposedly
won the game. When the error was discovered, the Cornell players voted nearly
unanimously to give Dartmouth the victory. This action of pure sportsmanship
cost Cornell the national title. The second case was a game between Colorado
and Missouri where Colorado was given a fifth down on their game-winning drive.
In that case, Colorado elected to keep their victory on the books.
This is a good sports
book made even better when the conundrum is presented to the Cowboys and the explanation
that the situation has in fact happened. Sports stories based on actual events
are some of the best.
Review of
Hardcourt Comeback,
by Fred Bowen ISBN 9781561455164
Four out of five stars
Brett Carter is a star on his youth basketball team,
called the Wildcats. However, when he misses a simple layup shot at a critical
time, his confidence on the court largely disappears. Furthermore, when he is
at his best friend’s birthday party that is held at a location where there is a
climbing wall, he freezes in panic on the wall and has to be rescued.
The main plot
thread is how Brett manages to come back from his loss of confidence to once
again be a star of his team. There is a big game at the end where Brett is involved
in a climactic moment. To his credit, Bowen does not follow the usual path to
the conclusion of the Wildcats’ season. The action keeps your interest and it
is easy to empathize with Brett as he struggles to overcome his unexpected and
complicated fears.
A fact of
sports history is used to emphasize the point that one mistake or missed shot will
only make or break a career if the player making the error lets it happen. In
the last seconds of the 1993 NCAA championship game, All-American Chris Webber
tried to call a timeout when his team had none left. The resultant technical
foul all but sealed his team’s defeat. Yet, Webber went on to star for many
years in the NBA because he refused to let that mistake define him. This is a good
example to use in the education of young players.
Review of
Tom Clancy: Power and Empire,
by Marc Cameron ISBN 9780735215894
Five out of five stars
There are two
largely distinct threads in this novel featuring Jack Ryan Senior as President
of the United States and Jack Ryan Junior as a major player in the shadowy
special ops realm. The first is based on a major power play unfolding within
the leadership of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the second is based on
a shadowy network of human traffickers that prey on early teen girls from Central
America.
A faction of
the PRC leadership engages in a series of terrorist style actions that are
seemingly easily traced to the current PRC leader; a man named Zhao. They are
designed to push the PRC and the United States under the leadership of Jack
Ryan to the brink of war. The faction demonstrates that they are completely
ruthless in the achievement of their goals.
The network of
human traffickers are even more ruthless, they use agents to acquire girls in
their early teens by making the usual promises of a better life via high-paying
work. Sometimes, their parents simply sell the girl. The work they do in the
United States results in a lot of money changing hands, but as a beaten and
terrified sex worker, they get nothing. One of the traffickers is a man that
conducts an online auction of the girls and if they do not bring enough money,
they are the “star” of a film where they are brutally and slowly killed.
The action and
dialog is complicated and fast, and the two threads do have some intersection,
although most of the players are isolated on their track. Of the two threads,
the one about human trafficking is the most engaging, largely because it is
based on the most truth. The high promises used to lure girls out of their
misery of poverty is a real thing, as is the reality of where so many end up.
Even those that survive long enough to get out of their situation are generally
broken and no better off than if they had never left their childhood location.
This is a book
worthy of the Tom Clancy genre; it keeps your attention and I never really put
it down. It fell out of my hands when I fell asleep while reading it.
Review of
Dorm Daze,
DVD version
Two out of five stars
This movie is the
simple and the lame piled on the stupid. The environment is a co-ed college dorm
and when it opens an older brother hires a prostitute for his nerd younger
brother that is already studying for the next term immediately after final
exams. Her name is Dominique and has the same name as a foreign-exchange
student that speaks little English. They are of course mistaken for each other.
There are also two incredibly annoying bimbo female roommates, a purse full of
money that is identical in appearance to an heirloom purse owned by one of the
women, a tattooed and pierced man, a criminal after the money in the purse and
assorted other players. There is foolish misunderstanding piled on foolish
misunderstanding with a great deal of amateurish slapstick humor.
The dialogue is
poor even for a frat boy movie and most of the performances are exaggerated. After all the female characters have been
introduced, the viewer knows that there will be at least one pair of female
breasts exposed at some point. The only unknown is which pair(s). This is a movie
where you and your buddies down a few before it starts and then make a drinking
game out of the foolishness.
Review of
Bumperhead,
by Gilbert Hernandez, ISBN 9781770461659
Four out of five stars
All of us that
are decades out of the teen years know or are themselves a person that seemed
to languish in school and then continued that pattern long after high school
ended. The teen years are filled with high passions of many forms intermixed
with lows that seem devastating. Yet, the majority not only manage to survive
the teen years, but also move on to successes of various forms, which often includes
producing and raising children.
The title
character is a boy named Bobby that has been given the nickname “Bumperhead.” He
is not one of the “cool kids” that always are present and dominate the high school
experience for all. He is of Mexican extraction and his detached mother dies
when he is a preteen, after that he lives with his father. Even though his
father has lived in the United States for years, there are adult “cool kids”
that look down on him for being Hispanic. Their relationship is not a close
one, Bobby has a great deal of hostility towards his father and the rest of the
world He engages in rebellious actions of drug and alcohol use, doing as little
as possible otherwise.
This story in graphic novel form follows Bobby through
a life of janitorial work, drinking, rather bizarre girlfriends and basically
just getting by. It is not an uplifting story by any means, in fact it is a
downer. Midway through the story, I felt an uncharacteristic urge to take one
of the upper pills that Bobby’s friend is addicted to. Life is hard for most
people and Bobby is no exception. You find yourself rooting for him at first,
but then resign yourself to the reality that he really is not going to make a
great deal of himself.
Review of
I Said No!,
by Zack and Kimberly King ISBN 9781878076496
Five out of five stars
This is a book
that should be read by all children and their quality caregivers. Together and
not separately so the caregiver can engage the child in a conversation about
any physical contact that strays into the area of sexual. One of the most
positive aspects of the book is that people at all levels are covered, from the
stranger to the friend to close relatives such as an aunt, uncle, brother,
sister to grandparent. When I was in elementary school, the emphasis was on “the
boogeyman” and “Mr. Stranger Danger.” Females were never mentioned as a threat.
Actions are
coded with red and green flags for inappropriate vs. appropriate touching. The
only point that should be more fully explained is the natural curiosity that
boys and girls have for each other’s bodies. For example, when I was four, the
neighbor girl and I played what we called “pull down pants.” We were both curious
and fascinated with the physical differences and wondered why we were different.
This was not sexual and should not be considered criminal or somehow damaging.
It could only be that if the adults overreact to what the children were doing.
Review of
Hansel and Gretel,
retold by Rika Lesser ISBN 0590316729
Four out of five stars
People that
have read the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm understand that great care must
be taken when some of them are read to young children. Hansel and Gretel is one
such tale, for it deals with deliberate parental abandonment and the enticement
with sweets where the goal is to be thrown in an oven and used as food.
In this
rendition, the children overhear their parents making plans to take Hansel and
Gretel deep into the woods and leave them there. The mother is the one most in
favor of the plan, with the father only reluctantly acquiescing. The
illustrations are a bit understated in their coloration, they appear a bit
washed out, yet solidly support the text.
Although I read hundreds of books to my
daughter when she was young, this was not one of them. While the story is an
old one and it does have a happy ending, it takes the death of two women to
make it happen. One point of interest is that in this story it is the father
that is the good parent while the mother is the bad one.
Review of
Deep Zone,
by Tim Green ISBN 9780062012456
Four out of five stars
Although this
book also features the football genius Troy White, he has another co-star in
this story. He is Ty Lewis, a wide receiver with incredible speed. Both boys
are stars on a 7-on-7 team that is trying to reach the finals in a tournament
that will be played in the Super Bowl in Miami. Troy’s skills at predicting
what play a team will run has helped the Atlanta Falcons reach the Super Bowl.
However, now
that Troy’s role in aiding the Falcons in reaching the Super Bowl has been
revealed, he is now a valued commodity, for both other NFL teams and people who
want to win their bets on the big game. Tough criminal elements are determined
to do what they can to keep Troy away from his position with the Falcons during
the Super Bowl and they will not stop at kidnapping in order to achieve their
aims.
The action is
interesting and entertaining, but the dark forces weaken the story. Rather than
being one about two very talented boys working towards playing for the
championship, it takes the turn of being a dark one where the boys are in
danger from unscrupulous elements. Sports fiction is better when it contains a
movement towards a “big game at the end” and not when it is about people that
will do anything to win their bets on that big game.
Review of
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: My Best
Friend’s Squirrel, by Ryan North, ISBN 9781302910761
Four out of five stars
This graphic
novel is clearly written for a female audience, while there are creatures with
superpowers, there is almost nothing of the “Bam” and “Kablam” type of action.
This is best illustrated on the page where the Silver Surfer like character is
going to punch the confessed scam artists and she is talked out of it in a
lengthy “violence will beget violence” argument.
Comic book
veterans will be surprised at the reference to the mighty planet-eater Galactus
being dissuaded by a conversation with a squirrel. “How Galactus seemed to
defer to the squirrel and her pet human, returned them home unharmed, and at
the end even gave them a present?” This is certainly not the mighty and
ravenous Galactus of previous appearances.
This was the
first time I have read anything in the squirrel girl series, and I found it unusual
and difficult to process at first. Yet, it has a quirky, unusual set of
characters and new views of old characters that will grow on you as you read
through the stories.
Review of
Julius Caesar: A Shakespeare Story,
by Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross ISBN 9781626866966
Five out of five stars
While this is
not the full rendition of the classic Shakespearean play, it does present what
is the fundamentals of the events depicted in that work. It also provides a bit
of the history of what became the Roman Empire. The men that killed Julius
Caesar believed that they were saving their republican form of government, yet
their act led to the establishment of the rule of an Emperor that lasted for
centuries.
The level of
the language used is fitting for the middle school reader, the book could serve
as a solid, effective primer on the play, although it is arguably not a complete
substitute. With some proper direction, the typical middle school student is
capable of understanding the full play. Following the principle of “education by
all means available,” this book is a worthy addition to the tactics used to
introduce the classics of literature to the next generation.
Review of
Brutality: A Fina Ludlow Novel,
by Ingrid Thoft ISBN 9780399171185
Four out of five stars
Fina Ludlow is
a private investigator that among other things works with and for her father. The
relationship between Fina and her parents is not a loving one by any means, her
father treats her as a lowly employee whose only reason for existence is to bring
business, revenue and profits to his law firm. Fina has siblings and their
relationships to the parents are similar to hers.
Liz Barone is a
former soccer player at New England University, and she is in the process of
suing the university for what she is claiming is cognitive decline due to
repeated head injuries she suffered while playing for the university. She is
attacked in her kitchen and suffers serious injuries, which ultimately prove
fatal. Not happy with the actions of the police, Liz’s mother hires Fina to dig
into the circumstances of Liz’s death and hopefully uncover the culprit(s).
Fina’s tactics
are simple, interview, re-interview and politely harass all people where their name
has popped up in her inquiries. There is little text devoted to deep thought on
the part of Fina, she openly admits to having an “annoy with questions” style
of investigation. Even if she has to interrupt the course of their lives and inject
conflict. It reached the point where I found her tactics annoying, developing
empathy for all the people she harassed.
There is no
gunplay or significant physical conflict in this story, so if you enjoy that
style of detective novel, you will be disappointed. Fina ultimately solves the
case, so if you are a fan of the female detective that restricts herself to
being a pain in the sit-down to almost all players, this is a book for you.
Review of
Tom Swift and His Sky Racer,
by Victor Appleton
Four out of five stars
Written in
1911, this book is a member of the series of books about the original Tom
Swift. That series was the start of a set of series starring a teen inventor
called Tom Swift. The second series featured Tom Swift junior, with more modern
adventures. To present day readers accustomed to more sophisticated technologies,
the inventions in the original series seem rather quaint.
Yet, like all
of the Tom Swift books, they planted a seed in in the minds of many adolescent
boys, some of which were hopelessly bitten by the science and technology bug
and went on to build later technologies. For this reason, these books had a
magnifying effect on society.
This book
features a plane that is designed to go at the incredible speed of over 100
miles-per-hour. Given that modern autos are capable of exceeding that speed, it
is necessary to adopt a mindset of time and technology past. If you can do
this, then you can enjoy this book. It is also possible to see a bit of the
later Hardy Boys genre in this book, specifically when Tom gets knocked unconscious,
a regular feature of the Hardy adventures. I very much enjoyed the look back to
the time when incredible speeds were nothing like what they are now.
Review of
Spider-Man Versus Doc Ock,
by Acton Figueroa ISBN 0060573643
Five out of five stars
When it comes
to education, I have long been of the opinion that it should be by “any means
possible,” including comic books. Consequently, I am a big fan of the comic
books that present the classics of literature. With all the movies featuring
comic book characters coming out, it is natural that books tied to those movies
would be attractive to beginning readers. This book features Spider-Man and his
most popular adversary, Doc Ock.
The book is
composed of large images with a few brief sentences associated with the caption.
The reading level is that of early elementary school children and contains a
simple story that is tied to the movie featuring the same two characters. I highly
recommend this book for the beginning reader that needs a bit of entertaining
motivation in order to read.
Review of
Thor, DVD version
Four out of five stars
While the
special effects representing the abode of the Norse gods known as Asgard and
the Bifrost bridge are extremely impressive, the storyline is less so. At the
start of the story, Thor is depicted as an impulsive, emotional god that must
be reigned in by the reigning god, the wise Odin. Thor’s behavior is so out of
line that Odin banishes him to New Mexico with no godlike powers and without the
ability to control his mighty hammer known as Mjolnir,. Although
he is still tough as nails and capable of physically defeating nearly all human
males, he can still be whipped up on.
When a small
team of astronomical researchers encounter the deposed Thor when he is hit by
their van, a relationship between them is begun. Thor’s mighty hammer also
lands near where Thor did, and it defies all attempts by humans to move it.
There is a great cameo by Stan Lee in that sequence of actions. A massive team
of U. S. government agents (S. H. I. E. L. D.) swarms in and begins the study
of the hammer, yet despite the highest of technologies at their disposal, they
learn very little about it.
Meanwhile, Thor’s
brother Loki learns that while Thor is Odin’s true offspring, he was in fact
adopted by Odin. This leads to a great deal of resentment and Loki engaging in
a great deal of underhanded machinations in trying to ascend to the Asgardian
throne. Since Thor rekindled the hostilities between the Asgardians and the Frost
Giants and they are plotting to recover the source of their power from Asgard, Thor’s
absence gives the Frost Giants an advantage. Since he is the spawn of the Frost
Giants and the Asgardian throne is at stake, Loki does not hesitate to align himself
with the leader of the Frost Giants.
The weakness of
the movie is that the events on Earth sometimes come across as forced and
uncertain. The S. H. I. E. L. D. agents are arrogant, ignoring the laws
regarding search and seizure and some of the action scenes are played with
needless destruction by the killer robot known as Destroyer. It is a fun movie,
but the dialog does not have the charming Shakespearean quality of the comic
book character.
Review of
The King’s Speech,
DVD
Five out of five stars
While I enjoy
movies involving superheroes and science fiction such as Star Wars and Star
Trek, there is a place in my heart for the intelligent movie with no violence.
Especially those that require some knowledge of the history of the topic in
order to fully understand them. This is such a movie and I could not have enjoyed
the backdrop of history more than I did.
When British
King George V died, at first the succession went smoothly, he was succeeded by
his eldest son, who became King Edward VIII. However, Edward became infatuated
with the divorced Mrs. Wallis Simpson and wanted to marry her. With the British
government and those of the Dominions vehemently opposed to such an event,
Edward chose abdication over the throne. This meant that his younger brother
Albert, known as Bertie, ascended to the throne as George VI. A nearly lifelong
stutterer, George VI found it nearly impossible to deliver a coherent speech.
Fortunately, Bertie
had sought the assistance of speech therapist Lionel Logue and this is the story
of their relationship and the time when Britain faced the existential crisis of
war with Nazi Germany and her allies. It is a great story, for it gives insight
into the history of the time. Edward VIII had many sympathies for Germany, in
fact, the Nazis tried to use him as a pawn in their battle to defeat England.
Meanwhile, George VI proved to be a powerful rallying symbol for the British
nation as well as the Dominions.
One aspect that
I really enjoyed was the depiction of Depression era England, where the people (even
members of the Royal family) wore very thick winter clothing indoors due to the
poor heating. To modern people, the crisis over Wallis Simpson seems overblown,
but it is very well explained in this movie. The performances are all first rate
and the relationships of all British subjects to their king is well done.
Review of
Gallop! A Scanimation Picture Book,
by Rufus Butler Seder ISBN 9780761147633
Five out of five stars
This is an
amazing book, when you open the pages, there is a brief animation of an animal
in movement. The image on the front cover is a horse and like all the other
images of a chicken, dog, cat and eagle among other things, the movement is
very realistic. The text is very simple, at a level that can be understood by a
very young child. This book is truly a pack of fun for young children and I
highly recommend it.
Review of
Beverly Hills Cop III,
DVD version
Two out of five stars
This movie demonstrates
how hard it is to do a threepeat in a successful movie series. Eddie Murphy reprises
his role as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, only this time he and all
those around him fall flat. Even the jokes are lame and never even rise to the
level of a chuckle.
The premise is
that a ruthless gang of criminals steal a load of the official paper the government
uses to make fifty dollar bills. The gang members kill all of the mechanics in
a chop shop where the paper is located right before Axel and his fellow
officers arrive. Expecting to deal with some mechanics, they are startled to encounter
men with machine guns willing to use them. During the gun battle, Axel’s
superior is shot and killed.
The trail leads
Axel back to Beverly Hills and a theme park for children called Wonder World. Judge
Reinhold is back as Billy Rosewood, only now he is a high level supervisor with
an alphabet soup of jurisdictions. The guns seem to have incredible capacity to
hold ammunition and no one, even the ones with machine guns, seem to be able to
hit a target. Although their bullets are superb at blasting things to pieces.
The acting by
all the players seems forced and amateurish, there are attempts to compensate using
humor and an incredible stunt on a Ferris wheel. To me, the high point of the
movie was a cameo appearance by George Lucas, the creator of “Star Wars.” This
was a boring movie.
Review of
Classic Starts: Arabian Nights
ISBN 9781402745737
Five out of five stars
Even though
nearly all American children have been exposed to some of the stories in the
collection of Arabic folk tales called “A Thousand and One Nights” or simply “Arabian
Nights,” the vast majority are unaware of the origin. The movies and cartoons about
Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba and the Forty thieves are all stories
from this great work. This book contains some of the stories from that
collection and is written at the level of the young adult.
This is a great
introduction to one of the most underappreciated works of fiction ever created.
In my opinion, “A Thousand and One Nights” is one of the few works of fiction
that can top “Alice in Wonderland” in terms of the sheer creativity and
imagination contained in the pages. I have read the full editions of both and
strongly recommend that all forms, from cartoon, to comic book to complete
edition be read or viewed. Even the simplest of exposures will improve the
mental state of the person doing the reading.
Review of
Buchanan Takes Over,
by Jonas Ward
Four out of five stars
This book is a sequel to an earlier one that featured
the Apache chief Juju and young Billy Button and his bride Nora. They live in
the frontier town of Encinal and it has grown and tamed quite a bit since Tom
Buchanan was there last. The story opens with Buchanan traveling to Encinal to
see Billy, Nora and their infant son when he is attacked by Jo-san, the son of
Juju. It is a very amateurish one, Buchanan easily defeats him and sends him
back to his father.
When Buchanan
reaches Encinal he finds Billy is now a frequent player at the gambling tables
of a hotel/saloon owned by a woman named Heloise. She is not what she appears
to be, she has a collection of henchmen prepared to assist her in robbing the
bank. One of the them is a towering man named McMillan and when Coco Bean
arrives in town, there is immediate pressure to have a prizefight. The merchants
in town understand how it will draw people into town and that they will spend a
lot of money. Since the fight will be taking place outside of the town and the
local law will be there to keep order, it will be a prime time to engage in
criminal activity.
Buchanan is of
course the standard character, so much of the action is fairy predictable.
There is gunplay and unfortunate killing, even though he believes in peace,
Buchanan never hesitates to kill another when it appears to be necessary. The
best auxiliary character is the tall woman dressed in very tight dresses named
Bea Johnson. She is a woman that fights alongside Buchanan, covering him when
the fight is with his fists. It is clear that she is someone with a shot at
keeping Buchanan in one place for an extended period of time. This is a good,
not great story.
Review of
Black Swan
DVD version
Five out of five stars
On the cover,
this is called a “psychosexual thriller.” It is far more psycho than sexual, I
found it difficult to watch in time units greater than 20 minutes. Natalie
Portman stars as Nina, a ballerina that is extremely talented, but even more
unstable. She tries out for the lead role in “Swan Lake” to be performed by the
New York Ballet company. Vincent Cassel plays the intense, hard-driving
artistic director, pushing Nina hard. He even engages in what is clearly sexual
harassment in his attempts to get Nina to rise to the level of a star. It is
clear that sex is not his goal, his mind is on the ballet. Nina lands the role,
yet she has not a moment of peace from that point on.
It is clear
early in the film that Nina suffers from a serious case of mental illness, she
lives with her mother and her mother is not the most stable of individuals.
There are many times in the movie where there is action where the viewer is
uncertain whether it is real or a wild vision in Nina’s mind. All are resolved,
but they are very intense and really creepy. At one point, it seems likely that
Nina is going to murder her mother. It has been some time since I watched a
movie that gave me cold chills, there were many in this one. It is a movie that
will make nightmares and it is about ballet, which is somewhat of an odd
thought.
Review of
The Game of Baseball,
by Gil Hodges
Four out of five stars
In the 1968
season, the record of the New York Mets was 73-89 and they finished ninth in the
ten-team National League, twenty-four games behind the pennant winning St. Louis
Cardinals. Gil Hodges was in his first year as the manager and it was the best
record in the history of the club. Most of this book was written at the end of
that season.
The next year
their regular season record was 100-62 and they won their division, swept the
division series with the Atlanta Braves and then defeated the Baltimore Orioles
four games to one in the World Series. A fifteen-page addendum was added after
their victory in the World Series.
While there is
some autobiography and recollection of events in Hodges’ baseball career, most
of the text is used to describe his philosophy regarding playing baseball. It
is sound advice and it must be kept in mind that when it was written Hodges had
just completed his first season as manager of a ninth-place team. Given what
happened the next year, what may have sounded questionable at the time then came
across as the words of a baseball genius. Few teams have improved 27 games from
one season to another.
Hodges was the
main architect of one of the most amazing teams in baseball history and his
thoughts expressed in this book should still be taken seriously.
Review of
Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our
Nation, by Cokie Roberts ISBN 9780060780050
Five out of five stars
As the title
indicates, this is a book about ten of the women that played major roles in the
early years of the English settlement of the east coast of North America up through
the presidency of John Quincy Adams. Three of the women were able to make a
difference due to their being related to American presidents, specifically
Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Another woman that is
featured is the Native American woman Sacagawea. She joined the Lewis and Clark
expedition and despite giving birth on the journey, did a great deal to ensure
its’ success.
The rest are
generally not mentioned in the history books. For example, there is Lucy Terry
Prince, a black woman poet and former slave. Judith Sargent Murray wrote a
series of essays about the equality of the sexes under the pen name “The
Gleaner.” Not even her husband knew that she was writing the material. When
they were to be put into a book, she sought and was given assistance from
President George Washington and Vice President John Adams. Isabella Graham was
instrumental in forming organizations for the care of widows with children and
orphans. She herself became a widow with seven children.
While some of
the women in this book achieved their success due to the men in their lives,
most of them were able to make a difference on their own drive and initiative. Generally,
against great odds and social resistance. This is a good book for young people,
as they will learn about women of substance that generally are not mentioned in
the history books.
Review of
Ball-Shy Pitcher,
by Richard Summers
Four out of five stars
While the title
and cover indicate that this is a book about youth baseball, it is in fact a
baseball story embedded in one about race relations. Kenneth Patterson is a lover
and collector of snakes and lizards and his family recently moved to a town on
the edge of the American Desert. It is a city with whites, blacks and
Hispanics, not always intermingled. Kenneth is white and his family has moved
frequently for his father’s job and they recently moved to their current
residence. Harold is black and arrived at roughly the same time.
The town is
largely self-segregated based on income, which generally places the whites on
one side and the blacks and Hispanics on the other. Kenneth’s family live on
the poorer side with the blacks and Hispanics.
Kenneth wears
very thick glasses and has never played baseball although he can run fast and
has an accurate cannon for a throwing arm due to years of throwing rocks at
targets. He is very timid and has an extreme tendency to duck and cover when a
ball is thrown near him. Harold convinces Kenneth to try out for the Little
League program and he manages to make the team and rapidly improves through the
season to become a star player for a very successful team.
However, the most
interesting aspect of the book are the features regarding relations between the
blacks, whites and Hispanics. Specifically, the comments by the adults of the
three races. All of them are reluctant to have their children playing on mixed
race teams, even though the boys want to win and consider it irrelevant. When
players are heckled on the field for their race, it is the adults in the stands
that do it rather than the players.
This is a good
story about overcoming your physical limitations, but it is even better as a
story about overcoming racial bias in order to learn to work with people that
look and sound different from you. However, it is dated with the use of words
now considered offensive if they were to appear in this review.
Review of
Sea Change,
by Robert B. Parker ISBN 0399152679
Five out of five stars
This Jesse
Stone novel starts out with what initially appears to be an accident, but then
turns out to have been a murder. When the body washes up on shore after having
been in the ocean for several days, it takes Jesse and his crew some time to
identify the body. It is Race Week in Paradise, where ships of all types come
from many places to race, party and consume mind-altering substances. Therefore,
there is reason to believe that the woman fell off one of the boats, but no one
comes forward with a report of a missing person.
Jesse’s ex-wife
Jenn is also in town doing a newscast and she is staying with Jesse, rekindling
their relationship. Although things go well, there is an undercurrent of doubt
and uncertainty, they both wonder what will happen in the long and short-term
future. At this time, Jesse has not consumed alcohol for some time.
Using sound
investigative procedures and going a bit outside the law, Jesse and his team
are able to expose some very seedy characters that make up a sex ring. Sexual
assault is really not an issue, all the of-age women involved were willing and
eager participants in the sexual fun and games.
Rita Fiore
makes a few cameo appearances and does what Rita does, makes sexual advances to
Jesse and gives him sound advice even when he declines. There is a brief
mention of Spenser and Hawk, but not by name. Jesse also communicates with
Kelly Cruz, a female officer in the area of Florida where the deceased woman is
from. Their conversations are loaded with sexual hints, but it goes nowhere.
Although there is the distinct hint that if Jenn was not in Jesse’s life, there
would have been some action.
The dialog is
crisp, often brief, yet clever and effective, which is one of Parker’s
trademarks. This is a joy to read even though the fundamental crime is as seedy
as they can get. The main criminal is as remorseless a person as any character
written by Parker or any other writer.
Review of
The Runaway Robot,
by Lester Del Rey
Four out of five stars
This book was
published in 1965, so it is necessary to forgive most of the descriptions of
the surface conditions and the presence of life on the other planets of the
solar system. In this book, there is even life on Mercury and Pluto. Paul is a
sixteen-year-old boy that lives on the moon Ganymede. The story is narrated by Rex,
his personal robot. On Ganymede as is the case on the other planets, much of the
tedious and dangerous manual labor is performed by robots. Rex has been a companion
to Paul since he was three.
When Paul’s father
is recalled to Earth, Rex cannot go with them, so he is sold to a farmer on
Ganymede. Paul objects, but it has no affect on the situation. Robots are
designed to be subservient and follow human orders, while they are not explicitly
stated, the rules generally follow Asimov’s three laws of robotics.
Before his
transport takes off, Paul jumps ship and Rex and Paul go into hiding. Whenever
a robot significantly deviates from what the human expectations of their
programming is, it is declared a “mad robot” and can be vaporized on sight. Furthermore,
even though Paul is willingly with Rex, there is the belief that any human that
sides with a robot in those circumstances has been hypnotized, so their
statements are not taken seriously.
Paul and Rex
then must find a way to safely travel from Ganymede to Earth and most of the
story is about their machinations. There is a happy ending, even though there
are many close calls and Rex is transformed into what would have been
considered a mad robot to one that is considered extraordinary. Although the
science is dated, the fundamentals of the interaction between a human and a
robot are likely prescient.
Review of
A Boy At War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor,
by Harry Mazer ISBN 0689841612
Five out of five stars
Adam is the son
of a lifer in the American Navy and as a consequence he has attended many
schools. His father’s most recent deployment was to Pearl Harbor and it is
early in the month of December 1941. His father is often at sea, but his
household is always run as if it was a ship and the father is the commander.
There are many comments about always acting so that the navy would be proud of
you. At this time the father is stationed on the battleship Arizona.
Since he is in
a new school, Adam is in the process of making new friends, in this case it is
a bit difficult as most of the boys his age are not white. They also use slang
expressions where Adam has no idea what they mean. The other boys also often
engage in insult contests, an alien environment for the son of a man that runs
a tight ship.
When Adam starts making friends with a Japanese boy,
his father objects, even though they employ a Japanese governess. His father
basically says that it is all right to hire them as help, but you do not
fraternize with them.
The Japanese
attack Pearl Harbor and Adam and the two boys with him narrowly avoid being
killed, one of the boys is seriously wounded and Adam is grazed by a bullet.
During the battle, a soldier organizes Adam and some other boys/men into a unit
that is issued rifles and shoots back. Once the planes are gone, he assists in
doing what they can to help the injured.
This is a story
of having to grow up very quickly when circumstance get very nasty very
quickly. It also points out the bias against the Japanese before the attack and
how quickly it got much worse, even though there was no evidence that the
Japanese on the Hawaiian islands ever did anything to aid the attack. That is a
historical fact that should receive more emphasis in the education of young
people. This is even more significant given the growing anti-immigrant
sentiment in the United States.
Review of
The Secret Little Leaguer,
by Don Creighton
Four out of five stars
Charley Baker
is eleven years old and is an oddball in his family. His parents are both professionals
and his siblings are extremely scholarly. Charley struggles in school and he
loves to run, throw things and climb trees. Conversations among the family deal
with intellectual issues and a regular comment is that sports are not for people
like them.
When Charley’s
friend Butch tries to talk him into trying out for the little league teams, he
resists at first, for he has never even put on a glove or held a bat.
Eventually, Charley decides to attend the tryouts and his speed afoot, the
power of his throwing arm and his willingness to be coached convinces a manager
to put him on a team. However, Charlie hides that fact from all the members of
his family, although there are occasional questions as to what he is doing.
Now that he
must attend practices and games, indifferent student Charley becomes a focused
doer of homework. He also begins reading adolescent sports fiction, a change
from his unwillingness to open books that he does not have to. The season
progresses and Charley improves dramatically, moving from a bench fixture into
someone that has a positive impact on the team’s success.
It all works
out in the end; Charlie discovers that his secret was not that secret. The
moral of this story is that the love for a sport can be the incentive for a
child to work hard in all aspects of life. It is a good one, for it is easy for
people in sports to lose track of things like being successful in school. Some
parents also believe that sports are a distraction from academics.
Review of
Travel Team: The Prospect,
by Jason Glaser ISBN 9780761383253
Four out of five stars
This entry in
the “Travel Team” series features Nick Cosimo, the catcher of the Las Vegas
Roadrunners traveling baseball team. Nick is the de facto leader of the team,
on occasion he even flashes signs that override the wishes of the coach. Nick
is a true modern baseball man, he is a carbon unit container of baseball
analytics. Nick is also an openly gay teen boy, yet that is largely an
incidental fact in this story.
Like nearly all
players in the highly competitive traveling team circuit, Nick’s goal is to get
drafted by a major league team and eventually play in the big leagues. When a
scout is spotted in the stands, Nick begins thinking more about impressing the
scout rather than improving his team’s chances of winning. This alienates
everyone from the players to the coaches and Nick must learn a hard lesson
before righting his attitude.
The moral of
this story is clear, and it is interesting that the knowledge that Nick is gay is
incidental and generally irrelevant. If that had been left out the rendition
would not have been altered in any way. Therefore, it is almost exclusively a
book about sports and the challenges of playing in a highly competitive
environment.
Review of
Robert B. Parker’s Debt to Pay,
by Reed Farrel Coleman ISBN 9780399171437
Five out of five stars
This is one of
the best novels in the Jesse Stone series, Coleman truly captures the style and
rhythm of Parker in this book. It features the return of the contract killer
Mr. Peepers and he is on a mission of revenge for being wounded by Suitcase (Suit)
Simpson. The fact that he shot and nearly killed Suit is of no consequence to him.
The killer has been given that name because he looks like the actor Wally Cox
whose first major role was the television character Mr. Peepers. He hates that
name and will kill anyone who uses it.
The killer also
seeks revenge against everyone that aided in the process that got him shot,
including the mobster Gino Fish. He begins the process by attacking Fish and
his receptionist, this gets Vinnie Morris involved. When Jesse talks with
Morris, he learns that Morris is afraid of Mr. Peepers, for he is known for
killing via slow and brutal torture.
Jenn is
scheduled to be married to a very wealthy man in Texas and they invite Jesse
and his girlfriend Diane to the wedding. Diane is a former FBI field agent and
tough as nails. When Jesse concludes that Mr. Peepers is targeting Jenn, he informs
the groom and starts interacting with the groom’s security apparatus. They are
some very tough and efficient individuals, confident that they can handle even
Mr. Peepers.
The action is powerful,
and misdirection abounds, Mr. Peepers is one of the most formidable villains to
ever appear in print. He is so good at what he does that he would make a
credible and challenging bond villain. The best way to describe the ending is a
quote from the Star Trek movie, “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” When the old Spock is
asked if they were able to defeat Khan Singh he replies, “Yes, but at great
cost.”
