Duffbert's Random Musings

About Duffbert...

Duffbert's Random Musings is a weblog semi/sorta related to IBM/Lotus Notes & Domino software, but I don't let that be a limiting criteria. I'm Thomas Duff, and you can find out more about me here...

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08/30/2010

Book Review - HTML5: Up and Running by Mark Pilgrim

Category Book Review Mark Pilgrim HTML5: Up and Running

As part of my education on HTML5, I ended up with a review copy of Mark Pilgrim's book HTML5: Up and Running. Like many O'Reilly books I own, this will be one of the books I end up going back to repeatedly while I get "up and running." Pilgrim includes a balanced blend of context and code, which means I learn not only *what* to do, but *why* I'm doing it and how it ended up that way.

Contents:
How Did We Get Here?; Detecting HTML5 Features; What Does It All Mean?; Let's Call It a Draw(ing Surface); Video on the Web; You Are Here (And So Is Everyone Else); The Past, Present, and Future of Local Storage for Web Applications; Let's Take This Offline; A Form of Madness; "Distributed", "Extensibility," and Other Fancy Words; Appendix - The All-in-One Almost-Alphabetical Guide to Detecting Everything; Index

As mentioned above, I appreciated the look behind the curtain when it came to finding out why certain standards and features had gotten there. The "How Did We Get Here?" chapter does an excellent job in dispelling any notions that HTML standards were methodically and rationally established and adhered to by all participants. Once you know that, it's easier to understand why some features appear to be compromises and/or might be supported better by one browser over another. As he goes through each main feature set, he provides plenty of code to show how it's used, as well as a handy chart that references each main browser and what version it started to support the feature (assuming it *is* supported). Based on that, it's pretty easy to figure out if the feature you want to use will be supported by your intended target audience(s). He also includes interesting sidebars under the catch phrase "Ask Professor Markup" that seem to pose the questions you'd ask if you had the author right there in front of you. Wrap all this up in a writing style that doesn't take himself too seriously, and you end up with an entertaining read that conveys a lot of information in a short 200 pages.

One really cool tool he points out is the Modernizr JavaScript library for detecting whether an HTML5 feature is supported in a user's browser. Rather than try and write your own detection functions, you can just call the appropriate routine and see if it returns true. So if you want to know if the browser supports the Canvas in HTML5, you can just say "if (Modernizr.canvas) " and that's it. Clean and to the point. Learning about that was almost worth the price of admission. :)

At some point I'll likely end up with some 400 page book that covers every little parameter of HTML5 in detail. Until then, HTML5: Up and Running is going to get dog-eared and post-it-noted while I get myself going. Great job, Mr. Pilgrim!

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:52 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (2)

08/29/2010

Book Review - Follow The Money by Ross Cavins

Category Book Review Ross Cavins Follow The Money

I had the pleasure of receiving a review copy of Follow The Money by Ross Cavins recently. This ended up being one of those gems that I'd never find on my own, but am very glad I ended up reading. Cavins has a great sense of plot and dialog, and he did something that I'm not used to seeing in a book. Rather than have a single novel or a collection of unrelated short stories, he compiled a collection of short stories that all tie together with a common thread... money. Specifically, three million dollars that ends up moving from character to character in various ways, none of which were normal or expected.

What prompted me to accept this offer was that he mentioned that it had influences of Carl Hiaasen in it. If you know my reading tastes, you'll understand that I'll wait in line for anything by Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey, or any other crazed South Florida writer. While Follow The Money doesn't take place in Florida (but it does have the southern redneck vibe going on), it has the same character craziness, the same type of cons, and the same type of unexpected plot twists that I'm used to seeing by those authors. And once I finished each story and saw the money change hands, I was ready to start the next one to see how and where the money was going next.

Follow The Money was a pleasure to read. I hope that Cavins doesn't make this his only foray into writing, as I'd enjoy seeing more from him. They'd definitely be up there on my "to read" list.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 8:36 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/28/2010

Book Review - Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

Category Book Review Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory Newt Gingrich William R. Forstchen

Courtesy of the publishers, I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. This is the follow-on to their collaboration on their book To Try Men's Souls, and again Gingrich and Forstchen put flesh on the ordinarily dry depictions of what went on during the Revolutionary War after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The authors go beyond events and dive into the characters, emotions, and physical hardships that comprised the day-to-day existence of those fighting for their lives and the newly found freedom of America.

The novel (based on historical fact) starts out at the Battle of Paoli on September 10, 1777. The American troops were defeated by the British, but it went beyond that. Rather than just claim victory and take prisoners, the bloodlust of the British troops led to a massacre using rifles, pistols, and bayonets. For those who escaped and fled, humiliation and anger fed their desire to regroup and avenge that loss. But before that could happen, Washington's troops had to regroup and spend the winter at Valley Forge, waiting for the spring when battles could begin again in earnest.

The harsh conditions usually depicted at Valley Forge don't begin to cover the reality. They arrived to find no supplies, no material, and no support promised by Congress. Tens of thousands of troops, literally clinging to life, had to endure freezing temperatures with little shelter and virtually no food. Slowly, Washington was able to start getting food from scavenging runs, as well as supplies to build cabins, but not before thousands either deserted or died of various diseases. And even if they survived the winter, there was no guarantee that they'd have the skills to battle and defeat the British in their depleted state. Washington gambled on the skills of Baron von Steuben to turn the ragtag band of soldiers into a disciplined fighting force capable of standing up to the Lobsterbacks regardless of the type of battle.

von Steuben had three months to accomplish what takes Prussian soldiers three years to achieve, and it all came down to the Battle of Monmouth on July 28, 1778. It was there that the Revolutionary and British forces met on an open field, with temperatures reaching over 100 degrees. For the first time, the American forces were able to face and defeat the British using the tactics taught to them by von Steuben. While Washington was hoping for a decisive win that would end the war right there, it didn't happen. The British were able to withdraw and get a significant number of troops over to New York, which was their plan all along. But Monmouth was the turning point, when it became clear that the tide had turned, and no longer would the British be the superior force and have the support of the people of the land.

Valley Forge is one of those books that stays with you for a long time, and makes you ponder what sacrifices have been made to give us the freedom we enjoy today. I think you have to be a little careful to not take this as absolute truth as to the motivations and personalities of each major character. For instance, Washington is portrayed as a troubled leader who is all-consumed with the agonies and hardships his forces are enduring, losing sleep night after night over his ability to provide for them. While that may well be a significant part of his personality, I'm a bit cynical as to him being as perfect and selfless as he's painted here. Given Gingrich's political leanings, I can understand where patriotism might cause one to portray Washington in a very favorable light. But even taking that into account, Valley Forge still does an excellent job in adding the real blood, sweat, and tears to events that were pivotal to the formation of our country. This was a very good read, and well worth the time spent.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 11:18 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (3)

08/28/2010

Book Review - Awkward Family Photos by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack

Category Book Review Mike Bender Doug Chernack

'Fess up... you have those "family photos" that you hide from others, hoping nobody every finds them. At the time the images made sense or sounded like a good idea. But now? <shudder> Just hope your kids don't get hold of them and send them off trying to get you included in the book Awkward Family Photos by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack. If that happens, you might as well join the Witness Protection Program, because you'll start to think that wherever you go, someone will recognize you... and laugh (and we will!)

Bender and Chernack started a web site posting a few funny family photos. You know the ones... where all the members in the family are wearing the same outfit... you're posed in front of some "cool" backdrop... the person next to you just wet their pants. They thought that was about the extent of their fun, until a local radio station started playing up the site. It then got picked up by a few more, then a few more, and suddenly they were getting new submissions and emails from others who were *thrilled* they weren't the only ones with awkward family photos. The website took off, and led to this book.

They cover all the bases when it comes to topics: The Family Portrait, Mom and Dad, The Kids, Siblings, Grandma and Grandpa, The Relatives, Pets, Vacation, Birthdays, Graduation, Weddings, Holidays, and Strange - Not Awkward. If you're like me, you'll be smiling/laughing/cringing from the first page. Why did Dad think it was OK to pose in a Speedo? Why did you dress up your pot-bellied pig for a "family portrait"? And there's always the "this family looks like they're a little *too* close" pictures...

If you've followed the Awkward Family Photos website, you will have seen some of the pictures included here. Others you can only see in the book. But even if you run into the same pictures in the book, you'll probably get a bit more context or background as to what was going on with the picture at the time.

Awkward Family Photos is not some great or deep literary masterpiece. It's just a quick, fun ride looking at a slice of life that we've all experienced (and hope that no one else ever gets to see)...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 9:06 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

08/27/2010

Book Review - How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (And They Will) by Chuck Sambuchino

Category Book Review Chuck Sambuchino How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (And They Will)

Zombie attacks, zombie apocalypse, the undead... all material for a frightful novel, but the real threat is already here and present in our very neighborhoods and yards... the Garden Gnome. Be honest... you mean to tell me you've never looked at those creepy little bearded creatures and wondered what they're up to? We owe a debt of gratitude to Chuck Sambuchino for warning and preparing us for this crisis in his book How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (And They Will). With the combination of awareness and preparation, you can survive this nightmare that could be unleashed upon the unsuspecting any day now.

Seriously (or not, as the content may suggest), this is a tongue-in-cheek parody of zombie survival books, using garden gnomes as the menace facing us. It's a fun read, and Sambuchino does a good job with treating the subject with pseudo-serious concern without going overboard. The pictures that are scattered throughout are perfect, as they depict the "innocent" gnome hiding axes and knives, posing in positions that do seem to add a sinister intent to those chubby little cheeks. I learned that Miracle-Gro is one of the best weapons, as it creates chlorine which can be deadly to those only a foot off the ground. Bolting down the opening to your chimney would be a good idea too, as those suckers will look for *any* opening to exploit. All I can say is they better not attack here, as hockey sticks are considered one of the best defenses for hand-to-gnome combat, and we have a number of them...

This book isn't going to scare or frighten you like the thought of trying to escape from the undead. It's a quick read, and will put a smile on your face (and will probably make a dent in the profitability of the garden gnome market.) Just sit back, have fun, and accept the fact that you'll never trust one of those cute little statues again. :)

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 3:20 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/23/2010

Book Review - Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook by Michael Lopp

Category Book Review Michael Lopp Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook

I had the pleasure of reviewing the manuscript of Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook by Michael Lopp when it was still in the development stage. To put it simply, I was really impressed. I'm not a regular reader of Rands In Repose, so I hadn't seen most of the material before. It didn't take long before I saw the value in what he wrote, and started thinking of names of people who needed to read this when it was published.

Contents:
Section 1 - A Career Playbook: How To Win; A List of Three; The Itch; The Sanity Check; The Nerves; The Button; The Business
Section 2 - Deconstructing Management: The Culture Chart; Managing Managers; The Issue with the Doof; The Leaper; The Enemy; The Impossible; Knee Jerks; A Deep Breath; Gaming the System; Managing Werewolves; BAB; Your People; Wanted; The Toxic Paradox; The Pond
Section 3 - Your Daily Toolkit: The Nerd Handbook; The Taste of the Day; The Trickle List; The Crisis and the Creative; The Foamy Rules for Rabid Tools; Up to Nothing; How to Not Throw Up; Out Loud; Bits, Features, and Truth; The Reveal
Section 4 - Your Next Gig: The Screw-Me Scenario; No Surprises; A Deliberate Career; The Curse of the Silicon Valley; A Disclosure; Mind the Gap; The Exodus; Bad News About Your Bright Future; Hurry; The Rules of Back Alley Bridge
Index

The author sets out to help the technologist, one who wonders why the world of people doesn’t run with the same rules and precision as computers, navigate through the real world of how life works in an organization. Rather than approach the subject with a slick methodology meant to be understood by business people, he cuts to the core of the topics using language and stories that any geek would understand. And that’s the value here… the techie will say “YES! I struggle/deal with that exact same problem” as the author has been there, done that, and thinks the same way they do. It’s written in a no-nonsense, no-bs style which is just what most techies want.

It seems like too many books on managing and surviving in a corporate environment assume a certain type of personality that is closer to the average office worker than the hard-core technologist. Or books that *do* focus on organizational skills for technology workers seem to take a process approach or methodology, thinking that a set of rules to follow will work all the time. The author here assumes that the real world is messy, nothing fits into neat boxes, and the techno-geek is a different animal. As such, his advice is much more realistic than most other books that attempt to cover this topic in some way, shape, or form.

This is targeted squarely at the person for whom technology is a passion, not just a job that is 9 to 5. These people are comfortable with other geeks or on their own digging into a problem, but they don’t easily or readily grasp the intricacies and realities of social interaction or corporate politics and gamesmanship. They need someone to explain what’s going on, why things work that way, and how they can figure out the rules so they have some shot at surviving long enough to do what they love to do… build things.

I also appreciate that he tries to cover the entire scope of a person’s stay with a company or organization. From being hired to leaving for the next gig, from trying to relate to management to standing in front of a group making an important presentation, this book gives you three to six pages on various topics, easily digested when you need to get a reality check in a given situation.

I’ve seen too many people who were technically brilliant, but that you didn’t want to let out of a locked room because you knew they’d get eaten alive in the real world. Being Geek gives them a fighting chance to adapt if they care to do so.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 6:59 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/22/2010

Book Review - Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

Category Book Review Janet Evanovich Sizzling Sixteen

I think I'm getting to the end of the trail with my enjoyment of the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich. The latest installment, Sizzling Sixteen, hit me the same way that Finger Lickin' Fifteen did. It covers the same ground we've covered in the last fifteen installments, nothing really new happens, and the characters don't have the spark that used to make each new Plum novel a joy to read. Unless Evanovich takes Plum in a whole new direction (I understand she's moved to a new publisher), I'll probably end up putting this series on my "to read when I run out of other material" list.

The main storyline here is that Vinnie, the guy who runs the bail bond service that Stephanie works for, goes missing. Turns out he's over his head with a local loan shark for betting losses, *and* he's been cooking the books to try and get his way out of it. If Stephanie, Connie, and Lula can't find Vinnie or come up with a million dollars to pay off his loan, then Vinnie goes on a one-way trip to visit the fishes. If it weren't for the fact that it would also mean that the three of them would be out of a job, they might actually find that a preferable outcome. What follows are the typical plans and operations that go haywire in ways that only Stephanie can have happen. Add in the normal relationship tension between her, Morelli, and Ranger, and you pretty much have the entire story.

I know this is a huge moneymaker for her and the publisher, so I doubt that ending the series is in the works (although it'd probably be best). But this really needs an injection of something... new characters, new job, something... It's getting stale, and it's sad to see the Plum novels slide like this.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 9:10 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

08/22/2010

Book Review - Problem Identified: And You're Probably Not Part of the Solution by Scott Adams

Category Book Review Scott Adams Problem Identified: And You're Probably Not Part of the Solution

So, the library gets a relatively new Scott Adams Dilbert compilation, and I put myself on the hold list. Finally, Problem Identified: And You're Probably Not Part of the Solution comes in, and I pick it up. Instead of the most recent year or two of strips I expected, it's a compilation of strips over the last 15 years that seem to be related to Dilbert and the Point Haired Boss. Overall reaction? Meh...

Granted, when you get a compilation book like this, you expect to see stuff you've already seen (provided you're a follower of the strip). But the cynical side of me keeps thinking we got a compilation of the compilations, and why would I want to get another book that rehashes the rehash? Part of the fun of Dilbert strips is watching the short stories or themes play out over a two day to two week period. With Problem Identified, you lose much of that, as the space is limited and the time frame is pretty long in terms of material to pull.

I guess the best that could be said from my perspective is you do get to see the characters' images evolve over time. The original Pointy Haired Boss didn't have pointy hair, and Wally was almost unrecognizable. But other than that, Problem Identified was an hour or so of page turning with a few chuckles, but nothing that I'd tell friends to run right out and buy. If you can get it in a library, go for it. Otherwise, see if you can just find a nice couch in a Barnes and Noble and read it there.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 8:36 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/21/2010

Book Review - In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic by David Wessel

Category Book Review David Wessel In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic

Even though we're still in the middle of it, I've been wanting to read some material on the economic meltdown that started back in 2007. To that end, I took the opportunity to get a copy of In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic by David Wessel from a publicist. To be fair, this is the first book I've read on the topic, and I am by no means an expert on the economics and politics of the Federal Reserve. Yet, while reading In FED We Trust, I felt that I was getting a slanted view on things, one that was probably more pro-Bernanke than what an attempt at a purely objective analysis would be.

Content:
Introduction - Whatever It Takes; Let Ol' Lehman Go; Periodical Financial Debauches; Age of Delusion; There Are Jews in Boston, Too; Pas de Deux; The Four Musketeers - Bernanke's Brain Trust; RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Blue Sky; Running from Behind; Unusual and Exigent; Fannie, Freddie, and "Feddie"; Breaking the Glass; Socialism with American Characteristics; World of ZIRP; Did Bernanke Keep His Promise to Milton Friedman; It Could Have Been Worse; Notes; Glossary; Selected Bibliography; Acknowledgments; Index

The book is very much focused on Ben Bernanke and his handling of the Federal Reserve. The author goes into his background, his academic foundations, and his focus and analysis of The Great Depression. That academic style shaped much of Bernanke's work in government, making him more of a consensus-seeker than an authoritarian leader, as well as someone who chose his words carefully instead of being blunt and fully open. He also made most of his decisions with the main goal of avoiding The Great Depression 2.0.

What I appreciated most was the chronological story flow of how the first domino started to wobble, and the debate around letting the financial institution fail as opposed to rescuing it. As each new crisis hit, there were fewer and few options, as the "healthy" institutions had already been tapped out for bailing out the failing banks and financial firms. And even if they had been able to absorb them, the Fed had shown their willingness to step in to do "whatever it takes" to make sure things kept running. As such, there were a few games of "chicken" to see who would blink first when it came to stepping up.

My major takeaway from this book was simply that economics is not a science, and that nobody can predict the cause and effects of financial actions with any degree of certainty. I've heard it said that running the economy is like driving forward while only looking in the rear view mirror. After reading In FED We Trust, I am again reminded of that saying, and I am even more convinced of its validity.

I'm sure other books about the financial crisis will be written, and I'll definitely have to read them to get a better overall view of what happened, as I'm not sure that In FED We Trust is the best overall objective analysis and story of what happened.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 10:37 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/16/2010

Book Review - The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters by Andy Andrews

Category Book Review Andy Andrews The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters

Andy Andrews' book The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters is one of those small gift books that will take you about 10 minutes to read (if that), but that has an interesting message that will tweak your viewpoint on life. You've likely heard of the "butterfly effect", where it's said that the beating of a butterfly's wings can stir air modules that will stir other air modules, until you end up with a hurricane in China. While taking that scenario literally might be hard to accept, the underlying truth is valid... a small action taken at one point in time can ripple out and have enormous implications.

Andrews tells the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a college professor who was also a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War. At the battle of Gettysburg, he was told that he had to hold the end of a 80,000 troop line strung out across miles. His platoon repelled a number of Confederate attacks, but attrition took its toll and they were without ammo (as well as most of the soldiers they started with). As the Confederate soldiers reformed for what would be the final attack, Chamberlain found out that all his commanding officers had been killed, and if he failed to hold the line, the Union Army would likely have to surrender or face mass slaughter. Faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, he ordered his ragtag band of soldiers to fix bayonets and charge. The Confederates, shocked at seeing an offensive being launched at them, figured the Union side must have been reinforced, and started to retreat. In short order, they ended up surrendering to Chamberlain, and he carried out his orders to hold the line.

Andrews then plays the "what if" scenarios out... what if Chamberlain had given up? Experts predict that if the Battle of Gettysburg had been lost, the Confederates would have won the war. America would have looked like Europe with a number of smaller, fragmented countries. America would not have existed to help stop the tyrants of World War 2 from overrunning Asia and Europe. And so on, and so on. All from the decision of one man standing on a brick wall, giving the order to charge in the face of overwhelming odds.

While you can make the argument that Andrews is looking only at the positive side of things, I think the fact remains that many small decisions can and do reverberate over time and have far-reaching effects. And if we live with that understanding and purpose in mind as Andrews suggests, our lives can take on a new sense of meaning and purpose.

If you've read other Andrews books in the past, you might have already heard this story (specifically, his book The Noticer). And if you're looking for something of substance to explore this idea further, The Butterfly Effect isn't it (it's only 109 pages and literally should take you no more than 10 minutes to read). But in terms of material for you to contemplate and implement into your life, The Butterfly Effect does deliver.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 4:17 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/15/2010

Book Review - Creepiosity: A Hilarious Guide to the Unintentionally Creepy by David Bickel

Category Book Review David Bickel Creepiosity: A Hilarious Guide to the Unintentionally Creepy

Sometimes you run across a book that you can't help but pick up and laugh about. The visit to the library today turned up one such book for me... Creepiosity: A Hilarious Guide to the Unintentionally Creepy by David Bickel. While a very short read (took me all of about 30 minutes), it had me laughing out loud in more than one place, as well as reading passages to my wife (who didn't seem to "appreciate" the humor as much as I did).

Bickel has a tongue-in-cheek creepiology scale that goes from 1 to 10, with 10 being described as "perhaps a tattoo on Janet Reno's back of a ventriloquist dummy biting a pygmy whose right eye is actually a mole with some hair growing out of it." Yes, I guess that *would* be really creepy. The rest of the book consists of pictures and situations that he considers creepy, along with some rather witty descriptions and a creepiology value. Dick Cheney smiling registers a 7.71 on the scale, while hairless cats get a 9.47. Grown men in Boy Scout uniforms? 9.29. People who drive really old cars get a 6.71, and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood gets a 9.10. Come on... admit it... Mr. Rogers was "different"...

Much of the humor comes from Bickel's commentary. For instance, the Bazooka Joe comic character rates a 7.27, which seems rather high... until you realize this kid must have suffered a major injury to be forced to wear an eyepatch, and he hangs around with a kid who wears a turtleneck over his mouth. When Bickel puts it that way, I have to wonder if perhaps poor old Joe shouldn't have been a bit higher on the scale...

Creepiosity was a fun way to spend an hour today, and I'm not sure I'll look at some things quite the same way again. And that's probably a good thing. :)

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:21 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/15/2010

Book Review - World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Category Book Review Max Brooks World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

I'm not normally a zombie genre reader, so I'm not quite sure why this book caught my eye in the bookstore... World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Perhaps it was the "first person account" angle of the story, where the world has barely survived a worldwide war against zombies. Whatever the case, this was an entertaining read with enough room to let your mind imagine what what it might be like to fight an enemy that won't "die" like normal people.

The setting of the book is around 10 to 15 years after the outbreak of the first zombie attacks. The "author" was tasked with gathering information from people who survived the war, and that information was to be part of a UN report. But most of his material ended up being cut as it was "too personal." Rather than lose the stories of how people were personally affected, he decided to publish his interviews as a human record of events. Thus, he created the oral history of the war. He talks with a wide spectrum of individuals, from government officials who had to "manage" the public perception, to soldiers who were fighting a relentless and mindless enemy, to those who were just trying to cling to whatever fragments of society remained. With every new interview comes a new angle and perspective to the conflict.

Since this doesn't cover the blow-by-blow history of the actual war, you do need to let the interviews unfold and fill in the details of what started the outbreak, how it spread, and how people mobilized to fight the zombies. And if you stop and think about it at various points, the logistics of fighting zombies that just won't die unless their brains are destroyed presents unique challenges. If one zombie finds you, his moans attract others within hearing distance, which starts their moaning calls, and it cascades from there. In short order, you could have thousands of zombies advancing on you, with no thoughts other than to feed on you and turn you into one of them. Not a pretty thought...

You do have to make some leaps of imagination at points, however. For instance, during one of the interviews, the author goes on a deep-water dive in a submersible. When they get to the bottom, they find... what else? More zombies! So apparently these undead don't need air, can avoid the corrosive nature of salt water, and are not affected by the crushing pressures at the bottom of the ocean. But hey, it's not as if writing about zombies is an exacting science anyway, right? :)

I personally found World War Z one of those quirky but enjoyable reads. It may not fit everyone's taste, but if you're OK with the "undead", you'll probably like it. I still have to laugh at my wife's statement when she saw what I was reading, however... "You sure do have eclectic tastes in reading material..."

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Bookstore
Payment: Purchased

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 12:24 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (2)

08/14/2010

Book Review - Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter

Category Book Review Jeff Potter Cooking for Geeks: Real Science Great Hacks and Good Food

The typical geek doesn't just want something to work. They want to know *why* and *how* it works. If your geekness extends to the kitchen, this book is perfect... Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter. It's a wonderful mix of science and hands-on activities, and definitely opened my eyes as to why things work as they do in the kitchen.

Contents:
Hello, Kitchen!: Think Like a Hacker; Cooking for One; Cooking for Others
Initializing the Kitchen: Approaching the Kitchen; Kitchen Equipment; Kitchen Organization
Choosing Your Inputs - Flavors and Ingredients: Smell + Taste = Flavor; Tastes - Bitter, Salty, Sweet, Umami, Others; Adapt and Experiment Method; Regional/Traditional Method; Seasonal Method; Analytical Method
Time and Temperature - Cooking's Primary Variables: Cooked = Time * Temperature; Foodborne Illness and Staying Safe; Key Temperatures in Cooking
Air - Baking's Key Variable: Gluten; Biological Leaveners; Chemical Leaveners; Mechanical Leaveners
Playing with Chemicals: Traditional Cooking Chemicals; Modern Industrial Chemicals
Fun with Hardware: Sous Vide Cooking; Commercial Hardware and Techniques
Appendix; Afterword; Index

There's just so fun stuff here, it's hard to know where to start. Potter does an excellent job in explaining the science behind what happens when you mix the eggs, flour, and milk together and apply heat. While most books on cooking tell you *what* to do, this one goes into the *why* and *how*. For instance, why does heat change food, and how does that happen? What is involved in protein denaturation, the maillard reaction, and caramelization? And why does knowing all this make a difference to you when it comes to knowing when a particular item is "done cooking"? It's this type of information that takes you beyond saying "but I left it in for the 10 minutes they said... why wasn't it cooked?" After reading Cooking for Geeks, you can start to understand what's going on within the food, and make educated decisions about what happened, what is happening, and what will happen next.

Fortunately, Cooking for Geeks isn't just a chemistry manual though. It's full of actual recipes that look delicious, as well as interviews with other cooks who reveal some of their secrets and mindsets behind what they do in the kitchen. Again, it all serves to take you beyond the "follow steps 1, 2, and 3" method of cooking, into something that is creative and fun.

This is like reading a season's worth of Alton Brown's Good Eats shows. Plenty of fun and very informational... and you can eat or toss your mistakes. :)

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 10:04 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/12/2010

Book Review - No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 by Graham Bowley

Category Book Review Graham Bowley No Way Down: Life and Death on K2

As part of the Amazon Vine review program, I got an advance reader copy of the book No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 by Graham Bowley. Although it's not something I would ever do myself, I find these life-and-death mountain disaster stories fascinating. It's not possible to read No Way Down without drawing comparisons to Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, which is what I would consider the classic climbing tale of being trapped on a mountain. Unfortunately, I didn't have that same "must keep reading" compulsion here that I had with Krakauer's book...

Bowley writes his account of the K2 disaster in 2008 that claimed 11 lives when a descent from the summit went bad. He interviewed most of the participants and survivors to piece together the timeline and actions from the final summit attempt from Camp 4 to the long descent, complete with avalanches, misplaced rope lines, bad judgement calls, and numerous other mishaps. As an attempt to piece together a factual account of the event, it's ok. It helps to keep in mind that with all the deaths, no account could be 100% complete or accurate. Also, the lack of oxygen at that altitude can and does wreak havoc on the brain, altering memories and the sense of time. But Bowley did his research, and this is likely as complete a picture as we'll ever have.

Where the book slips is in the sense of story. The prologue and first chapter have the climbers heading out from Camp 4 early in the morning to start the summit attempt. There's no sense of build-up, background on the climbers, or an attempt to set any sort of mood. I felt as if I was thrown into the event halfway through, and I hadn't established any connection to the people. In short, I didn't care about them. As I continued to read, that didn't change much. Yes, it was a dramatic and tragic event, but without the connection to the climbers, I didn't feel what I think was trying to be conveyed. Compare this to Into Thin Air, where I couldn't stop thinking about what happened for days.

If you're really into climbing and mountaineering, you'll probably like No Way Down more than I did. But given my previous reading experiences in the mountain disaster vein, No Way Down suffers in comparison.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:56 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

08/07/2010

Book Review - The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Category Book Review Gretchen Rubin The Happiness Project

So is it possible to actually create a project and plan to increase the overall happiness in your life? Gretchen Rubin set out to do just that in her book The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. It wasn't that she was horribly dissatisfied with life. It's just that she felt that there could be so much more if she really thought about it and started making changes. The project became a blog, and the blog turned into this book. While your project would not be the same as hers, she does present the basic project components, and makes some good points on how anyone can get back to the basics of what makes them happy.

Contents:
January - Boost Energy (Vitality); February - Remember Love (Marriage); March - Aim Higher (Work); April - Lighten Up (Parenthood); May - Be Serious About Play (Leisure); June - Make Time for Friends (Friendship); July - Buy Some Happiness (Money); August - Contemplate the Heavens (Eternity); September - Pursue a Passion (Books); October - Pay Attention (Mindfulness); November - Keep a Contented Heart (Attitude); December - Book Camp Perfect (Happiness); Afterword; Acknowledgments; Your Happiness Project; Suggestions for Further Reading

During the project, Rubin had to think hard about what she wanted, what really made her happy, and how she could take all her study and research and condense it down into nuggets of truth for her. For January, "boost energy" became the actionable items of go to sleep earlier, exercise better, toss/restore/organize, tackle a nagging task, and act more energetic. September's pursuit of a passion turned into writing a novel, making time, forgetting about results, and mastering a new technology. It all sounds simple in theory, but she often struggled behind *why* certain things worked and didn't work in her life. For me, I quickly faced the realization that I really don't *know* what I want in many cases. Too much "letting life happen" and pleasing others leaves me with a lack of understanding about what makes *me* tick. As such, I found this book rather convicting and uncomfortable in places.

Since I tend to be a bit more "to the point" in my reading preferences, I found a few places where I wanted to trim up the narrative a bit. It was also a bit hard to get excited about a project month for a topic that just didn't fall onto my radar screen (or at least not in the way it did for Ruben). Still, The Happiness Project is well worth the time spent reading. Because of what I learned, I have some major thinking to do and actions to take.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 3:48 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/07/2010

Book Review - The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

Category Book Review Deborah Blum The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

With all the books I receive for review (and given that I have a library a block away from my house), I rarely *buy* a book any more. But on a recent trip, I wandered into a bookstore and had a particular title jump out at me... The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum. I found this book fascinating on multiple counts, and I had a hard time putting it down.

Contents:
The Poison Game; Chloroform; Wood Alcohol; Cyanides; Arsenic; Mercury; Carbon Monoxide (Part 1); Methyl Alcohol; Radium; Ethyl Alcohol; Carbon Monoxide (Part 2); Thallium; The Surest Poison; Author's Note; Gratitudes; A Guide to the Handbook; Notes; Index

Handbook covers a 20 year period from 1915 to 1935, back when Prohibition was starting and forensic medicine was a relatively unknown concept. The coroner's office in New York was staffed with political cronies who were quite happy to write off most deaths in ways that were more expedient than accurate. This all changed when Charles Norris (chief medical examiner) and Alexander Gettler (toxicologist) took over in 1918. These two took their jobs seriously, and started to apply rigorous discipline and science to their jobs. Because of their efforts, the public was able to get a true picture as to causes of death due to shoddy medicine, cost-cutting companies, and out-right murder. In fact, the papers and research from Norris and Gettler are still considered definitive resources today.

Blum frames much of her book around Prohibition and how it was responsible for innumerable deaths. The illegality of alcohol led to increased prices for those who wanted a drink. And most everyone *still* wanted their drinks. The profits available from bootlegging were incredible, and everyone was willing to try their hand at making their own hootch. Drinking liquor made of cheap wood and methyl alcohol became little more than a game of Russian roulette as there was no way to tell just how toxic your next drink would be. Interspersed with the rise and fall of Prohibition, she also covers other toxins that Norris and Gettler traced down as killers. For instance, radium was used to create watch dials that would glow in the dark. The women who painted the dials thought little of licking the brushes to maintain their sharp tips. In fact, it was even required by the company. But after a couple of years, mysterious ailments afflicted nearly all the workers, and it was a battle to get the US Radium Corporation to admit fault and pay the workers a settlement. And even then, it was a mere pittance for all their suffering and eventual deaths.

I'm very glad that The Poisoner's Handbook was strategically placed on the shelf where I found it. On top of it being fascinating (in a morbid way), it opened my eyes to a different view of Prohibition, and how (once again) something can turn out far differently than what was originally planned.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Bookstore
Payment: Purchased

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 1:23 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/07/2010

Book Review - Big Trouble by Dave Barry

Category Book Review Dave Barry Big Trouble

As a fan of the South Florida novel genre (think Hiaasen and Dorsey), I couldn't pass on reading Dave Barry's Big Trouble. I can't resist the chance to escape into the world of inept criminals and off-the-wall personalities that seem to make up a significant portion of that population. :) I'm a bit surprised that I somehow let this one get by my radar for so long (originally published over ten years ago), but oh well.

Big Trouble reminds me of a Tim Dorsey novel without all the characters being on speed. In fact, most of the characters could, in a different setting, be semi-normal (funny, obnoxious, conceited, etc.) Most of the craziness revolves around the action. An innocent game of "Killer" (high school kids targeting others with squirt guns) intersects with an attempted hit by two real killers, an attempted "rescue" by a non-sober security guard, two homeless drifters who are attempting to become "kingpins", and a few arms dealers who have one device on hand that even they're scared of. The plot lines move from a loose weave to a tight knit fabric as the action races to a conclusion. Of course, being that all this takes place in Florida, it's pretty difficult to tell how it's all going to work out.

Overall, Big Trouble was a fun read. Imagine yourself poolside or on the beach, with a nice beverage of choice next to you, and you've got the idea. It's not a replacement for the insanity that is Tim Dorsey, but it's in the same ballpark.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 11:08 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/27/2010

Book Review - Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - 25th Anniversary Edition by Steven Levy

Category Book Review Steven Levy Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - 25th Anniversary Edition

To find out how you got to where you're at, you often have to look at where you came from. In the world of computers, that means going back to the late 1950's to observe the mindset and personalities that shaped the growth of the personal computer. Steven Levy has what could be considered the best analysis of those individuals in his book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - 25th Anniversary Edition. Yes, it's been 25 years since since this book was first published in 1985. But it's as relevant now as it was then. I read this book quite some time ago and enjoyed it immensely. My enjoyment with rereading it hasn't diminished.

Contents:
Part 1 - True Hackers - Cambridge - The Fifties and Sixties: The Tech Model Railroad Club; The Hacker Ethic; Spacewar; Greenblatt and Gosper; The Midnight Computer Wiring Society; Winners and Losers; Life
Part 2 - Hardware Hackers - Northern California - The Seventies: Revolt in 2100; Every Man a God; The Homebrew Computer Club; Tiny BASIC; Woz; Secrets
Part 3 - Game Hackers - The Sierras - The Eighties: The Wizard and the Princess; The Brotherhood; The Third Generation; Summer Camp; Frogger; Applefest; Wizard vs. Wizards
Part 4 - The Last of the True Hackers - Cambridge - 1983: The Last of the True Hackers; Afterword - Ten Years Later; Afterword - 2010
Notes; Acknowledgments; About the Author

When you walk into a Best Buy or any other retailer today, you simply pick up the computer you want, head home, plug it in, and away you go. But when you go back to the beginning, you start to understand just how amazing these things are. Levy steps into the inner sanctums of the large mainframe computers, devices that cost millions of dollars and allowed few the privilege of touching them. But there were some who immediately understood the power and the vision, and they weren't going to be denied the opportunity to play, learn, and push the limits. Hackers goes from those who spent time re-engineering model railroad layouts to those who took that same drive to the world of bits and bytes. Everything was a challenge, what with virtually no memory and nothing much in the way of input/output devices. But even though their efforts weren't always appreciated or welcome, these hackers continued to lead the way to discover what *was* possible. As the mainframes continued to shrink, more and more individuals focused on what could be done if you put the CPU and memory together with a keyboard and screen. The Homebrew Computer Club was the birthplace of people like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who went on to form Apple and create the history of the personal computer. Levy also digs into the birth of the fast-paced world of computer gaming, when companies like Atari, Apple, Sierra, and others wrote computer games to push the boundaries of the ever-more-powerful personal computers, while also making the programmers literal superstars and millionaires. For those who had the right skills and the drive to learn, there was seemingly nothing they couldn't accomplish.

What makes the book shine, over and above the historical narrative, is the commentary and analysis of the hacker code and mentality. At the start, there was little financial gain to be found by writing code and building new devices to hook onto the computer. As such, the creed was that everything was open and information was to be shared. But as time progressed and companies started to form around software and hardware, it became harder to maintain that pure approach, and information started to become proprietary. Things once open and free came with price tags. People like Richard Stallman, the last "true hacker", railed against this "perversion" (as he still does today), but few follow him at the level of fanaticism he demands. But understanding his mindset helps to understand the philosophy behind open source software, where software is still free as in beer and free as in speech.

If you haven't read Hackers, either in the original or new edition, I would recommend it. It's a fascinating read.

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:45 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/24/2010

Book Review - Storm by Dave Pearson

Category Book Review Dave Pearson Storm

Fair warning... I really like cyber-thrillers, especially with a liberal dose of hacking thrown in. To that end, I had no problems saying yes to reviewing Storm by Dave Pearson. For a first novel, Pearson did quite well. He throws together a virtual band of hackers who come together to hack the biggest prize of all, the Intelink high-security top-secret intranet run by the US government. But to do so, they need to slip into a heavily guarded compound on a isolated island during the middle of a war games training exercise and gain access to the computers there. Once inside, they can assemble and insert a state-of-the-art virus to gather the data they want and can sell to the highest bidder.

It might be a bit too much to expect that a team of stereotypical hackers could operate as a combat commando unit. But Pearson puts down a back story (and reveals more towards the end) that makes it all imaginable in terms of a cyber-thriller plot. There are also a number of plot twists and turns as the story unfolds, making it a page-turner... "just one more chapter, then I'll turn out the light..." And since he positions this as the first of a series, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Storm is that book that would work great as a beach or vacation read... just sit back and go for a wild ride.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 9:59 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/24/2010

Book Review - The Heart Mender: A Story of Second Chances by Andy Andrews

Category Book Review Andy Andrews The Heart Mender: A Story of Second Chances

Andy Andrews is a master at telling stories that weave principles into the narrative. His latest book, The Heart Mender: A Story of Second Chances, is no different. He takes a true story that he experienced, and shows how anger can destroy a life and how forgiveness can set that life free.

Andrews discovered a buried "treasure" while trying to remove a tree from his property. It was a can that contained a family picture, some buttons, a ring, and a medal that traced back to the German submarine corps from World War II. Given that this was found on the Gulf coast in Alabama, it did present a real mystery as to how it got there. He starts to talk with some of the older people in the community, those who would have been around during the war. What he learns is a surprise to him. The Germans were active in the Gulf with their U-Boats, sinking cargo ships to disrupt the American war effort. But much of this was hushed up by the government to prevent a loss of morale by those at home. This explains how a submariner might have been present in Alabama, but what was the story behind the picture? Andrews finally finds a couple that remember certain incidents at the time, and they tell him a tale of lost love and hate. But through forgiveness and understanding, hate is soon replaced by love and freedom from a self-imposed prison.

Even if you aren't interested in the principle angle of the book, the story is still fascinating. The first question that almost everyone asks him (and it would have been my primary question also) is "this is true?" He explains it as "yes, for the most part." Before you start to think it's fabricated, it's not. It's just that he's changed locations and names as the primary players are still alive. The experiences and general events *did* happen, and it's due to forgiveness that all things worked out as they did.

The Heart Mender is an excellent read, both for the example of how forgiveness can heal, and for the story of survival during war time in an unfamiliar country.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 8:11 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/19/2010

Book Review - Noah's Castle by John Rowe Townsend

Category Book Review John Rowe Townsend Noah's Castle

I was recently contacted by a publisher asking if I was interested in reading a title that they had available. The book was Noah's Castle by John Rowe Townsend. This offer came from the review I did of One Second After, and Noah's Castle walks in the same general genre. Even though this was initially released in 1975 and was targeted as a young adult offering, it aged well and speaks to all readers regardless of age. I found myself reading "just one more chapter", and this morning I'm suffering a bit for not going to bed earlier.

The story is set in England, and life is hard (and getting harder). There's an economic crisis, and inflation is starting to make it harder to afford basic goods. Barry Mortimer, a 16-year-old typical teenager, lives with his three other siblings, his mother, and a very controlling and autocratic father. Norman, the father, sees the deteriorating economy and buys a large fortress-like home without consulting anyone. He moves the family to their new abode (something that didn't go over well with any of them), and then starts becoming secretive about his activities in the basement. It turns out he's starting to buy and barter to obtain a massive store of food to weather the crisis. As hyperinflation kicks in, millions go hungry, but the Mortimer family is still doing fine. But Norman's dictatorial obsession over hoarding is driving his family away from him as they see others going without. To increase the tension, hoarding is now considered a crime, and Norman knows that a single phone call could destroy everything he's done to provide for his family. As people start to notice his family's lack of activity to gather food, Norman's world becomes more fragile (along with his mental stability).

The reason this is considered a young adult novel is that it's written in first-person from the point of view of Barry. He's been raised to be loyal to his father and to obey, but he has major problems reconciling his abundance with the poverty and need around him. He's walking a fine line between keeping things quiet and helping those who ask (without appearing to have an abundance himself). As the reader, I kept shifting my opinion of Norman between uncaring for others over providing for his family. I was also intrigued by the societal shifts and how easy it is for something like hyperinflation to feed on itself with no conceivable end in sight. Townsend doesn't go into great detail about the mechanics behind why England found themselves in this situation, but it's still a sobering look at how difficult life could be in that situation.

Noah's Castle is a very good read, made even more interesting given the 35 year gap between the original story and today.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:50 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/17/2010

Book Review - The Parkour and Freerunning Handbook by Dan Edwardes

Category Book Review Dan Edwardes The Parkour and Freerunning Handbook

No, I'm not planning on taking up a new activity that would likely land me in the hospital within a week (if not sooner). But I *do* find the videos of parkour fascinating. When I saw the book The Parkour and Freerunning Handbook by Dan Edwardes show up at my local library, I figured it was worth a quick read just to find out more about the sport. This is the perfect book for someone curious about parkour and how practitioners are able to leap and dive over obstacles with ease. And if you were actually interested in getting started, there's enough information here to learn the basics while getting a solid grounding in how to keep from killing yourself in the process.

I think what surprised me most is that its really more of a philosophy and life attitude, akin to something you might find within the martial arts. It combines play, lifestyle, discipline, and methodology. Those who are serious about parkour start to view it as the foundation of all movement, the ability to flow with the environment and use the body to overcome barriers that normally block our paths. I can easily see how it could become the basis of an entire fitness regimen, as it combines strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular activities into a single sport. That's probably why the videos you see of parkour always seem to have people who look incredibly fit and ripped.

The Parkour and Freerunning Handbook was a quick read for what I was looking to get out of it, and it will change the way I view parkour videos from here on out. The "wow" factor will remain, but it will also be joined by a solid appreciation of what it takes to get to that level.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 10:20 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/17/2010

Book Review - Celebritize Yourself: The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business by Marsha Friedman

Category Book Review Marsha Friedman Celebritize Yourself: The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business

I realize that some people will react negatively to the thought of becoming a "celebrity", as that often has a connotation of hype and falseness. But in Marsha Friedman's book Celebritize Yourself: The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business, she makes the argument that becoming a celebrity is simply the process of becoming the "name" in your field, the person that everyone thinks of and refers to when they talk about your area of interest. Reaching this level of visibility and reputation opens doors and gives you opportunities that you wouldn't otherwise get. Her method made a lot of sense to me, and gave me a lot of things to think about going forward.

Contents:
Acknowledgments; Who Is This Book For; Everyone Has a Celebrity Within Them!; Isn't it Time You Walked into the Limelight?; The Joy of Becoming the Celebrity in Your Field; Why Do You Want to Become a Celebrity?; First, Know Thyself; It All Starts With a Book; From Community Celebrity to National Celebrity; How to be a Great Radio or TV Guest and Quoted in the News!; The Celebritize Yourself Quiz; Fine Your Media Niche?; Now Let's Get Started!; The Big Payoff; About the Author; Bibliography

Becoming a celebrity is all about branding yourself as an expert. Friedman shows that many people are quite competent at what they do, and they may even be the go-to person when others have questions. But that often doesn't extend beyond the company they work for or the business they run. As a whole, no one else knows about them. Why settle for that, when you can spread your message and influence to a wider audience if you have a passion for something? Friedman guides you through the process of thinking through what really motivates you, what makes you get excited when you wake up each morning. She also helps you figure out *why* you want to go the next step and expand your audience and influence. Once you have those reasons in place, you can start to work on her three steps. Those steps are write, speak, and sell.

Key to her process is writing a book on your topic. Having a book with your name on it instantly sets you apart from the crowd. If you can't write well, then hire or work with someone who can put your knowledge and passion into words. Next, you need to speak publically. This can be in seminars, interviews, TV appearances, or any other media outlet that will get your name and face out there. I know this is a major fear of many people (public speaking), but it's a critical skill to possess. Take classes in public speaking, join Toastmasters, practice in front of small groups, whatever. The fear may not ever go away, but it can be channelled to motivate you to do better. Finally, you need to sell. This can be your product, your knowledge, your time... whatever it is that adds to your income. Becoming an expert is no good if it doesn't lead to monetary opportunities. But getting the reputation gives you a much better chance of closing the sale.

Becoming a celebrity in your field isn't easy. In fact, it's hard work. But I found that Celebritize Yourself made the case as to why the hard work is necessary and worth it. I could see myself in her pages, and it wasn't hard to see myself following her recommendations. In fact, given some of the opportunities I've been working on of late, I find myself already moving down her recommended path. There's a lot here for me to think about...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 6:02 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/16/2010

Book Review - The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande

Category Book Review Atul Gawande The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande is a book I'd heard about a number of months ago and meant to read long before now. But a long hold list at the library and then a messed-up checkout (that put me at the end of the long list again!) conspired against me until now. The main gist of the book is that the rigorous use of the lowly checklist can radically improve your chances of getting the correct outcome of a job or task, even if that task is highly complex. Gawande applied the checklist methodology to his job as a surgeon, not expecting it to have much of an impact on results. But to his surprise, using a checklist had a direct impact on the rate of errors on nearly a daily basis. And in one dramatic case, it even saved a patient's life.

Contents:
The Problem of Extreme Complexity; The Checklist; The End of the Master Builder; The Idea; The First Try; The Checklist Factory; The Test; The Hero in the Age of Checklists; The Save; Notes on Sources; Acknowledgments

Gawande's personal experience with learning to use checklists comes from an engagement with the World Health Organization. He was tasked to find a way to reduce the risk of surgeries on a worldwide basis, as indications were that the volume of surgeries were increasing along with negative outcomes. To complicate matters, these improvements had to be applicable across the complete spectrum of hospitals and facilities, from well-funded research hospitals to small understaffed clinics in third world countries with no supplies. And you thought *your* latest project was impossible? After hearing from a number of doctors, patients, and other people with a stake in the project, the group came up with the idea that a checklist might be the answer. Given the typical view that the doctor is God when it comes to health care, recommending something so mechanical and simplistic didn't meet with overwhelming enthusiasm. But as Gawande illustrates with various stories and documentation, the checklist actually did have a dramatic impact on outcomes, causing all the members of the surgical team to share information and root out assumptions and misinformation *before* it was too late. Gawande also covers the use of checklists in both the building trade and in the daily life of aircraft pilots. By eliminating the idea that one person can know and understand everything, the checklist becomes the single tool that allows everyone to take the proper steps that are proven to work or ensure that the proper safeguards are in place to handle any risks or emergencies.

While the book is heavy on narrative and proof that checklists work across a number of trades and industries, it seems rather light on the details of checklist creation and methodology. There are suggestions and recommendations along the way (no more than one page, somewhere between five and nine items, etc.), but they are scattered in the different stories and narratives. There are also no examples of checklists that have worked well for specific situations. Granted, a surgical checklist won't be applicable to me as a software developer, nor would a pre-flight checklist be of any use to a builder. But seeing actual checklist examples to back up recommendations scattered throughout the book would have helped, in my opinion. Basically, there's no single chapter you can go to that summarizes what a good checklist should be, how it should be used, and what to keep in mind when writing one. A chapter like that would have made this an excellent book for both learning and reference.

Even with my reservations about the lack of a consolidating chapter, The Checklist Manifesto is still an important book to read and understand. It's started me thinking beyond my current practice of doing things from memory (and often forgetting one or more steps or checkpoints), and I can see how using checklists as a regular part of one's job could lead to a definite improvement in how things turn out. There's a reason you want your pilot doing things "by the list" instead of "from memory"...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:51 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/11/2010

Book Review - Caught by Harlan Coben

Category Book Review Harlan Coben Caught

It's always a treat when a new Harlan Coben novel comes out. Caught is his latest, and like many of his other novels I felt like I was constantly guessing as to what was reality and was was perception with the characters. I was also struck by how easy it is for the media to destroy someone's life based on whatever agenda they care to push. There are certain accusations that when made, regardless of whether they are true or not, will forever mar a person's reputation and more.

The story centers around a youth worker who is caught in a child abuse media sting. He's lured by a phone call to a deserted house where he thinks he's going to have to help one of his charges, but instead he's met by a media attack team bent on accusing him of setting up a rendezvous with a minor. The reporter is known for these types of investigations, and even the mere hint of this type of accusation ruins the youth worker's life (and eventually leads to his murder). But after she finishes that episode, she's laid off and finds herself unemployed. The youth worker contacts her to try and explain what is really going on, and she gets sucked back into the story since she has nothing else to do. But as she digs deeper, she becomes more and more confused as to whether she was accurate in her original reporting. In fact, it may well be that she's uncovered a deeper conspiracy designed to destroy the lives of a number of former college roommate, one of which was the youth worker.

Caught is a solid Coben novel with a number of levels of twists and misdirections. This is the perfect type of book I'd want to have on vacation for a few hours of relaxed reading in the sun.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:19 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/10/2010

Book Review - Columbine by Dave Cullen

Category Book Review Dave Cullen Columbine

In many ways, the Columbine school shootings have the same milestone effect on society as do events like 9/11 or the Oklahoma City bombing. Columbine forever changed the way we look at school safety and the mental health of students. But unfortunately, much of what we "remember" about the event is inaccurate due to media hype and official stonewalling. Dave Cullen reveals the actual story behind the events with exhaustive research in his book Columbine. When I finished reading, I had to seriously re-examine many of the convenient reasons that have been given for what transpired. It's a complex story with few easy answers that go beyond knee-jerk reactions.

Culllen spent ten years of his life living this story, combing through over 250,000 documents and conducting countless interviews. I was immediately impressed that all the dialog and conversations that are recounted are either verbatim quotes from interviews or documented exchanges by the different parties. Too many of these types of books are littered with "creative license" when it comes to filling the gaps in the story. Not so here... There's no problem when it comes to determining what is fact and what is fiction when you wonder who said what. Furthermore, there was little evidence of the author having a particular platform to push or axe to grind in coming to conclusions. He takes on many of the "facts" such as Cassie Bernall's "martyrdom" or the existence of the "Trench Coat Mafia." While Bernall's story made for inspirational religious material, evidence shows her face-to-face dialogue with the shooter never occurred. Media loved the existence of the Trench Coat Mafia angle as it hinted at a wide-spread dark conspiracy. In truth, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold acted on their own, motivated primarily by rage towards all people, not some specific group as was generally thought. Cullen looks deep into the minds of Harris and Klebold during the years leading up to the shootings, and presents a very disturbing view of two kids who became obsessed with ending their lives on a very bloody stage.

After reading Columbine, I understand a bit better how hard it is to draw the line when it comes to being "safe." There were signs, such as Harris's online writings, that would have led one to think that authorities needed to intervene. In fact, police officials were aware of many of these signs, but never completely followed up on them. And when they were followed up on, Harris exhibited psychopathic behavior by convincing everyone that he was truly sorry or that things were not as they appeared. So while intervention did occur, it ultimately failed to prevent the tragedy. Could or should more have been done? Obviously, after the fact the answer is yes. But do we have the resources to follow up on *every* report and suspicion that is leveled against anyone? No. And somewhere in there is a very blurry line that can never be clearly defined.

Columbine is not an easy book to read. But it's an essential read for understanding the events that occurred on April 20th, 1999, as well as the people who were behind it. And with that knowledge, perhaps we'll be better equipped to understand and respond in time to intervene before someone else decides to follow the examples of Harris and Klebold. History since 1999 has shown us that we'll never be able to prevent them entirely, but we'll never know about the ones that *didn't* occur due to better understanding of what to look for.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:40 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (4)

07/10/2010

Book Review - Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Category Book Review Justin Halpern Sh*t My Dad Says

I think many blogger and Twitter users secretly dream of creating a viral site that turns into a book deal. Justin Halpern hit that jackpot when his Twitter content became insanely popular and led to his book Sh*t My Dad Says. If you've followed Halpern's Twitter account Sh*tMyDadSays (you need to replace the asterisk with a vowel), you pretty much know what to expect in terms of philosophy and advice from Halpern's dad. I'd quote some of the one-liners, but most of them are not such that they would pass any sort of text filter here. :) But even though the language is raw, you can't help but laugh at his dad's life-is-tough-and-don't-expect-sympathy attitude.

Normally these blog/Tweet-to-book offerings leave a bit to be desired, as you've read most of the material if you've followed the site for any length of time. Halpern avoids that issue by actually writing material specific to the book. He offers up a number of stories that involve him and his father over the course of his life, everything from being a six year old having to share a hotel room with his grandfather, to being a 28 year old guy having to move back home and live with his parents. Of course, without the last incident, we probably would know nothing of Halpern, as it's that event that launched his Twitter account and subsequent book deal. But after reading the book, you realize that even though his dad can be a caustic curmudgeon, he really does love his kid and would do anything for him. He just has a unique way of explaining it. :)

Sh*t My Dad Says won't appeal to everyone, probably due to language. But if that doesn't bother you, this will definitely lead to more than a few laughs, both due to comedic content and blunt reality...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 6:09 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (3)

07/05/2010

Book Review - The Handy Law Answer Book by David L. Hudson Jr.

Category Book Review David L. Hudson Jr. The Handy Law Answer Book

The world of law can be confusing and mysterious, starting with the history of our legal system clear through to practical every-day questions like "what is a tort?" (and it's not a dessert!) David L. Hudson Jr. does an excellent job in demystifying the topic in his book The Handy Law Answer Book. Even if you don't have a specific question or topic of immediate concern, the material is just plain interesting and leads to more than a few "gee, I didn't know that" moments.

Contents:
Constitutional Law; The Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment; The Court System; Lawyers and Lawsuits; Criminal Procedures; Credit and Bankruptcy Law; Employment Law; Family Law; Personal Injury Law; Appendix A - Explanation of Case and Statute Citations; Appendix B - The Constitution of the United States of America; Appendix C - Online Resources; Glossary; Index

Each of the chapters follow a common style. The core material in the chapter is in the form of answers to a question. For instance, the Constitutional Law section starts out with "What is the primary source of law in the United States?" followed by "What exactly does the U.S. Constitution do?" The answers vary from a single paragraph to two or three pages, but in all cases the information is readily understandable by the average reader. Coupled with the questions, Hudson adds LegalSpeak sidebars that highlight specific court cases that helped to shape the law in that area. An example would be the Miranda v. Arizona (1966) case that was the cornerstone for the Supreme Court ruling preventing self-incrimination without warning of the right to an attorney during questioning (the Miranda warning). These two writing techniques, when put together, do a great job in both providing specific answers as well as context as to why things are as they are.

Personally, I enjoyed the first chapter more than any other (but that's not to say the other chapters aren't good!) Hudson covers the history of our legal system going back to the formation of the constitution, and discusses how the debate between federal and state rights was a contentious issue, and not one that was easily solved. I came away with a greater appreciation for how much work it took to come up with a viable system that was acceptable to everyone, as well as how it continues to evolve to this very day. While not perfect, it's still amazing that it's stood up so well after all this time.

Regardless of whether you have specific questions or just looking for general background, The Handy Law Answer Book is well worth the read.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 6:24 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/04/2010

Book Review - It's About Time by Harold C. Lloyd

Category Book Review Harold C. Lloyd It's About Time

In the business arena, it seems like there's never a balance between demands and time availability. You could often work 20 hours a day and still not keep up on all the work requirements that flow your way. Harold C. Lloyd works on correcting that imbalance with his book It's About Time: Find 5 Extra Hours Each Week. Given his background in the retail industry, he's dealt with most of these issues and has come up with a series of tips and techniques that will definitely have an impact at some level for you. In fact, you may find even more of a return than five hours if you're especially bad at certain things, like delegation.

Contents:
Finding Five More Hours; Slicing Your Pie of Life; The 20-Minute Disappearing Act; ZAP! the Distractions; Make the To-Do List!; Don't Wait to Delegate; Never Accept the Baton; Make Meetings Meaningful; Careful Recruiting Saves Time; Discipline Progressively; The Last Ten Minutes of the Day; Reclaim Your Five Hours

This book does an excellent job with practicality. It's written in such a way that you're constantly focused on how these tips would work and how they would apply to you. The chapters start and end with a vignette that puts the specific time-sink in a real-life scenario. A fictitious character is struggling to keep up with work but is failing due to one of the time factors, such as getting bombarded, or "piranha-ed", as soon as they walk into the office. After discussing the causes and solutions to the problem, the story is continued from the point of view of having implemented the technique. The chapter summary and "Timeless Advice" sections that wrap up the chapter help to solidify the learning and also makes for a nice reference point if you go back later for a refresher.

While this book is targeted more for business leaders, it's quite possible to use a number of the techniques at whatever level you're at. To Do lists are always valuable, as is reserving the first 20 and last 10 minutes of the day for planning and reflection. I personally have to work on not accepting the baton, which means taking back work when someone else decides they can't finish it or they don't have the solution. It's far too easy for me to fall into the "I'll just do it myself as it's faster" routine instead of working with the person to coach them on how they can do it themselves. If I got that technique down, I'd definitely reclaim a few hours in my work week for other projects.

So long as you remember that It's About Time is focused on business-related time management, it's a good resource for sorting out the time sinks that kill off your productivity in the workplace.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 10:30 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/03/2010

Book Review - Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha

Category Book Review Stefan Petrucha Blood Prophecy

I am not normally a reader of vampire or vampire-like novels. In fact, mention that a book *has* a vampire in it, and I'm pretty much off to find another title. So don't ask me how I ended up deciding to accept this book for reviewing... Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha. Must have been a moment of weakness. And to make it even more strange, I have to confess... I actually liked the book. What is the world coming to?

The story revolves around one Jeremiah Fall, a settler in the newly formed American colonies. Like many people of that time, his life is hard, and the village revolves around survival and religious activities. But his existence changes dramatically when his father is attacked and killed by a mysterious beast that has the villagers on edge. Things turn even more bizarre when his father comes back to life and attacks the family, looking to feed on their blood. Fall and his mother "die" in the attack, but his grandfather waits for him to return to life and risks his own life to teach Fall to resist the evil within him. Fall struggles to coexist with his internal cravings and starts a quest to find out who and what he is, and if there's a chance for him to be cured.

His quest takes him to the Middle East where he discovers the Rosetta Stone. But at the time he discovers it, a dark power it possesses speaks to his internal beast and seems to be drawing him to a place and time where a final confrontation between good and evil will play out. Unless Fall can overcome who he is and what he's become, the entire existence of the world as we know it will cease to be. But to do that, he not only has to give in to his longings to feed on humans, but he has to risk the only thing he's ever allowed himself to love in over 150 years.

Perhaps the reason I enjoyed Blood Prophecy more than I expected is that it doesn't fall into the "glittery vampire" genre that seems to be all the rage these days. Fall is a brutal killer who only barely keeps his needs and abilities hidden from others. The tie into the Rosetta Stone and what it originally was for put a nice unexpected twist on the story that added to my interest levels. It was only at the end when the final confrontation got into some unusual turns that I started to get a bit impatient with the whole good vs. evil philosophy story. I just wanted to see how it ended and whether Fall would finally get his answers (and some well-deserved human-ness).

Blood Prophecy is a good read for those who are into the supernatural genre and who like a strong historical angle in their story. Petrucha did a very good job here.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:10 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/01/2010

Book Review - One Second After by William R. Forstchen

Category Book Review William R. Forstchen One Second After

Imagine that one day, just like any other day, you're driving down the highway and your car dies for no reason... as do the thousands of other cars around you. Electricity? Out. Radio broadcast? Nothing there but static (provided the radio even works). Cell phones? No signal, same as the landlines. It doesn't *look* like a storm took out power, but how do you explain the utter failure of everything that you depend on in your life? It could be an EMP... an electromagnetic pulse generated by a nuclear detonation high in the atmosphere that creates an electrical surge that destroys electrical devices as it races along. This is the premise of William R. Forstchen's book One Second After. The book can easily be thrown into the apocalyptic genre, but not so deeply that it loses its touch to people like you and me. I found myself emotionally spent after reading this book, having experienced a few "wet eye" moments along the way due to some similarities between the lead character's situation and my own should that ever happen to me. I really couldn't put the book down.

After the pulse renders much of modern civilization in the United States inoperable, the small town of Black Mountain, North Carolina starts to come together to try and make sense of it all. John Matherson, a history professor with a military background, quickly figures out that an EMP is the most likely cause of the situation, and people start to look to him for leadership and moral guidance. And the testing starts early... People stranded on the freeway wander into the town looking for food and lodging. Stores begin to run out of food, and people start reverting to looting. Most importantly for Matherson, medical supplies dwindle, and he has a daughter who is a type 1 diabetic, dependent on insulin for her survival. He himself needs to tread a very thin line between playing by the rules or getting the extra insulin by force if necessary. His wife has already died of breast cancer, and he is not going to let another family member die if he can help it.

As the days unfold, the news only continues to get worse. Asheville is demanding that Black Mountain take 5000 refugees. They refuse the request as they don't have enough supplies for their own survival. Food continues to dwindle, and severe rationing is put in place. Martial law is imposed with death penalties for actions that endanger the survival of others. As more and more people die off due to existing medical conditions, disease starts to decimate the community given the lack of sanitary conditions. And the US government, the hope of survival for everyone in the town, is seemingly non-existent. The townspeople start to come up with "old-time" methods for doing things we take for granted, but it still doesn't solve the problems related to no food and no medical supplies, as Matherson soon finds out as his daughter's insulin supply continues to shrink with no chance to obtain any more.

One Second After is definitely not a story with a happy or "feel good" ending. Life has forever changed, sacrifice and duty are hard but necessary, and death is a daily companion, either for yourself or someone close to you. Reading Matherson's frustration and despair when it comes to his daughter's diabetes was especially hard, as I have a son with the same condition. I would end up in the same position as Matherson, with the same outcome in all likelihood. The scenes of battle against superior forces attacking the town were also emotional, knowing that kids who had weeks before been attending college were now spread out on the front line with rifles, ready to die to protect their fellow townspeople. It was hard not to get choked up over the heroic and selflessness displayed.

This is an excellent book on many different levels. It shows our vulnerability to a weapon such as an EMP attack. It exposes the true nature of human beings when societal controls are removed. It also shows how people can come together and sacrifice for the common good if they have a leader who is strong enough to make the hard decisions. This is definitely worth reading.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 6:50 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

06/30/2010

Book Review - Horns by Joe Hill

Category Book Review Joe Hill Horns

Most people have wished at some point in their lives for the ability to know what another person is thinking or feeling about them. Ig Perrish has just received that gift, and it's not working out so well. Couple that with the new set of horns that Perrish woke up with, and Perrish's life is headed downhill at terminal velocity. But at least his new abilities will help him figure out who really killed his girlfriend on a cold rainy night a year ago. That's the storyline in Joe Hill's latest horror novel titled Horns. I haven't read any of Hill's work before, and I must say this was very different and "out there." I found the constant time period shifts a bit disconcerting as the story would flash back to earlier times and work back up to the current crisis, but it didn't stop me from turning pages to see how the final showdown would play out.

Ig Perrish and Merrin Williams fell in love when they were quite young, and it looked as if they were destined to get married and live happily ever after. But right before Perrish is supposed to head off to England for some volunteer work, Williams decides it would be best if they saw other people to make sure they were right for each other. Perrish is devastated by the news, and gets plastered. He leaves her at the bar after an angry confrontation, and sometime during the night she is raped and murdered in the woods next to an abandoned building which is a popular teen hangout. Everyone is convinced that Perrish is the murderer, but nothing could be proved. Perrish maintains his innocence, and is completely lost without her.

As the anniversary of her death approaches, Perrish goes out to the spot where she was found and vents his drunken rage at the whole situation. In the morning, he wakes up to find he has a new body part... a pair of horns growing out of his head. When he tries to go to the doctor to get them examined and removed (because he certainly can't explain how they got there), he finds the horns come with a new ability. People looking at him forget the horns and start telling him their most darkest secrets and desires. And if he touches them, he can see their sordid lives played out in instant clarity. When he leaves, they can sort of remember talking with Perrish, but they have no idea as to the topic of conversation, and they don't remember the horns at all. This isn't so great for Perrish, as he finds out that most everyone in town hates him and thinks he murdered Williams. He also finds out far more about certain proclivities of the town's "upstanding" citizens. The only good he can see coming from this gift is the chance to get someone to confess to the killing, allowing him to even the score and exact his revenge. But even then, there's no guarantee that everyone will fall under the same spell and spill their guts. That's up to Perrish to figure out... who is telling the truth, and who is lying.

Horns is definitely a page-turner, as it's hard to tell exactly who is going to confess to what, and how long Perrish will be able to hold himself together before going completely off the deep end. Because the story is told in a series of flashbacks to bring you up-to-date with all the characters at the time of the killings, there's a fair amount of jumping around that makes the story a bit hard to follow at times. The ending was also a bit bizarre, or at least bizarre given the level of strangeness that's already established by this horror novel. Still, I'm likely to go back and read Joe Hill's first novel, and would be very much open to reading future works. If you're a fan of the horror/supernatural genre, Hill's a good pick.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:00 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

06/29/2010

Book Review - Inside Out: A Novel by Barry Eisler

Category Book Review Barry Eisler Inside Out: A Novel

Some of the best novels I read are ones that seem as if they could be ripped out of the daily headlines of your favorite newspaper or news magazine. Add in behavior and characters that ring true due to past uncovered abuses by the government, and you have the ingredients for a story that makes you wonder if the plot hasn't already been played out in real life. Barry Eisler does that with torture and detainees in his latest book Inside Out: A Novel. I had a really hard time putting the book down, as I wanted to get to the end of the story before some news broadcast ruined the ending for me. And if you honestly look at how power corrupts people, it's nearly impossible not to wonder how many times this same scenario happens on a regular basis. It's a scary read...

Eisler brings back Ben Treven, one of the best black ops soldiers the US has, along with his commander Colonel Scott Horton. The tension starts early as Horton tried to kill off Treven in the last novel in order to close a few "loose ends." While all has been forgiven, Treven is wise to doubt Horton's motives and what he wants of Treven on this next mission. A number of videotapes that recorded detainee torture sessions have gone missing, and more than a few government agencies are "highly motivated" to track them down and destroy them before the contents end up on the Internet. Horton has a bit more of an inside line as to who might be in possession of the tapes, and he convinces Treven to track down and flush out the quarry. But that presents a few problems. For one, the target is even more deadly than Treven, and Treven isn't sure who he can trust, as in who might be on "the home team", as each agency has a different goal for recovering the tapes, and collateral damage (as in Ben Treven) isn't a major issue for any of them. Men who are desperately trying to hold on to their power and prestige will do anything to make that happen...

While Inside Out is a great novel in itself, where it shines is in how it disturbingly (and accurately, in my opinion) portrays the inner workings of our government. Pure torture inflicted on terrorism detainees is called "enhanced interrogation techniques." People are held with no charges, hidden away in unknown locations, and likely disposed of with no accountability by the agencies who held them. And of course, we the people have no way of knowing whether these "techniques" are truly giving us information to avoid terror attacks, or whether it's become a sadistic form of retribution on suspected terrorists by people who have become drunk on their own power. And if the scenes of Treven discussing the tapes with Larison (the person who has them) or Treven discussing with Horton how the government runs doesn't stop you dead in your tracks and scare you to death, then you're not paying attention.

I felt like I waited forever for this next novel from Eisler, but it was well worth it. Even better, the ending hints at bringing both Ben Treven and John Rain together in the next novel. If *that* happens, then I really *will* have a hard time waiting for the next installment. I hope Eisler is already writing. :)

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:33 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (5)

06/19/2010

Book Review - Wonders Never Cease by Tim Downs

Category Book Review Tim Downs Wonders Never Cease

What do you do if you see angels and nobody is willing to believe you? You just keep telling your story and let the chips fall where they may. Such is the attitude of Leah Pelton, the little girl in Tim Downs' latest book Wonders Never Cease. Some people will say you're crazy, and others will figure that you have serious medical issues. But a few people might be open to the possibility that you actually experience a reality that others may not be open to believing.

Leah's mom, Natalie, is a single mother who is a nurse at a hospital in Los Angeles. Her live-in boyfriend, Kemp McAvoy, is also a nurse at the same hospital working the same night shift. He's a highly intelligent self-centered heel who is always looking for the big payoff, and feels that money spent on Leah's private school and a housekeeper should be better spent on cars and new places to live. Leah's stories about seeing angels makes life difficult for Natalie, as the school officials are worried that she's got mental issues that may turn her into the next school-shooter story. Life gets even more difficult when her housekeeper has to quit, and McAvoy becomes nearly non-existent as he has a new scheme to make millions. A famous actress nearly dies in a car accident, and McAvoy is her nurse in ICU during the night. She's being kept in a drug-induced coma, and he conspires with her agent to bring her out of it just a bit each night to pose as an angelic being with a personal "spiritual" message to her. She'll then be able to recall that message (and fully believe it) after she recovers and make millions with the associated books, interviews, and movie. But the plan starts to fall apart when McAvoy's past catches up with him, and the actress starts to recall messages that were not part of their script. And it may turn out to be that Leah was right, and there really *are* angels at play here...

Overall, Wonders was an entertaining read. It did an excellent job in poking at just how bizarre some of these celebrity stories and mystical messages are, and you have to wonder how many are honest and how many are just trying to cash in. The "good guy" characters are quite sympathetic and easy to relate to in the story. I was a bit surprised at how McAvoy has *no* redeeming characteristics. Even the loan shark in the story is more sympathetic than this guy. I found it difficult to see how someone like Natalie would have ever hooked up with him. I'm not sure I ever understood how that arrangement would have come to be in the first place.

Even though I prefer Downs' Bugman novels more, Wonders Never Cease was worth spending a few hours with. Not that I didn't already look at authors like Shirley Maclaine with a healthy dose of skepticism, but now I'll add a topping of "and how much are they making for this" on top of it.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Gift
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:54 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

06/13/2010

Book Review - Aurora Rising by Toni Seger

Category Book Review Toni Seger Aurora Rising

Toni Seger, author of The Telefax Box (first book of The Telefax Trilogy) sent me the second book in the series to read and review... Aurora Rising. While I wasn't quite as fascinated as I was by The Telefax Box, Aurora Rising does a good job of looking at issues like discrimination and control over societies by taking them out of their normal context and transferring them to a time and location in the distant future. Common to today's global realities, Central Command wants to take control of a planetary area and society that they consider "less advanced" than the culture of the rest of the galaxies. In reality, they are really only interested in the resources that they consider valuable and critical to their own survival. Central to this battle is Aurora, a half-machine/half-Samerac being that doesn't socially belong or fit into any culture, but has become a rallying point and lightning rod for the Samerac people as they attempt to stave off the takeover by Central Command.

In The Telefax Box, I was drawn to the technology depictions of different life forms all brought together in a planetary "United Nations" of sorts. Aurora Rising builds on that and goes more into subjects like diplomacy, societal norms and acceptance, and governmental hypocrisy. I probably would have been more in tune with everything going on had there been less time between my reading of The Telefax Box and this book. As such, my mind tended to wander a bit at times. In addition, Aurora Rising doesn't stand very well on its own. You really need to read The Telefax Box first, and there needs to be a third book in order to wrap things up. Given those "keep this in mind" caveats, Aurora Rising gives the reader a number of things to chew on while they wait for the final installment.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:04 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

06/13/2010

Book Review - 61 Hours by Lee Child

Category Book Review Lee Child 61 Hours

If a new Lee Child novel comes out with Jack Reacher, it's a given that most all of my free time becomes "unavailable" once I start to read. That was again the case with Child's latest, 61 Hours. I found this to be one of the most suspenseful Reacher novels, as something is counting down from 61 hours and you don't have a clue as to what it might be as the story unfolds. I just wish someone had told me up front that this is the novelistic equivalent of a TV show's season-ending cliff-hanger. I won't get to find out how it all turns out until this fall.

In 61 Hours, Reacher is on a bus headed to nowhere in particular. In the midst of a North Dakota blizzard, his bus ends up in an accident and Reacher pitches in to help try and keep the mostly elderly ridership of the bus from freezing to death before they get rescued. Once the rescue takes place and everyone is transported to a tiny town to await the arrival of the replacement bus, the local police display a major wariness over Reacher, his background, and why he was on the bus to begin with. Only after countless explanations and discussions does he gain their trust and figure out why everyone in the town is on edge. The town houses a large federal prison that houses a major drug dealer coming up for trial. The chief witness also lives in the town, and everyone is sure that her life is in danger as someone tries to keep her from testifying. To complicate matters, the local motorcycle gang that runs the drug trade from an abandoned military camp outside the city just ups and disappears overnight. Reacher is dipping into his past to try and find out the original reason for the base, but certain information seems to be deeply buried for some unknown reason. And when the cops decide to enlist his help with the escalating crisis, it's very possible that he might be the only person who can make sure the witness lives to see the trial.

61 Hours seems like more of a chess match or jigsaw puzzle than a raw action-adventure novel. Reacher is putting pieces together a few steps ahead of the locals, and he shows up at the right places at the right times to see what he needs to see. Two things stood out for me in this installment. For one, the "what happened to Jack" ending was completely unexpected while I was reading. But as the final seconds transpired and the aftermath was described, I couldn't help but wonder if Child had decided to kill off Reacher. The "To Be Continued" was a partial "wha?" and "whew" at the same time. The other very noticeable part of the novel was Child's depiction of the freezing weather and how it affected just about every scene. So very detailed and realistic... almost felt like putting on a jacket or turning the thermostat up a couple more notches. :)

61 Hours was another great episode in the Jack Reacher story, and now the only question is whether I can hold out to see what miracle he pulled off to survive the end of this book.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 3:03 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (5)

06/13/2010

Book Review - Big Jack by J. D. Robb

Category Book Review J. D. Robb Big Jack

When I see a J. D. Robb book that doesn't have an "In Death" title, I have to check and see if I've passed into an alternate reality. For better or worse, my reality is still the same one I've been dealing with for the last 50 years, and Big Jack is indeed a J. D. Robb title. Once I got into the book, I was pretty sure I had read it before, and I finally figured it out. Big Jack is the second half of a novel titled Remember When written by Nora Roberts/J. D. Robb back in 2003. Hot Rocks was the story of a diamond theft and was written by Nora Roberts. Then the second half of the book jumped forward 50 years as a case to be solved by Eve Dallas written under Robert's J. D. Robb pen name. Back in 2003, I read the entire novel as Remember When, which is why I didn't quite remember the second part of it as Big Jack.

So how did I feel about Big Jack as a stand-alone novel? It wasn't too bad. There are times when it seems like you're missing some significant parts of the story, and that's to be understood since... well, you ARE missing half the original story! Big Jack does stay true to the J. D. Robb style, albeit from seven years prior. Normally I won't knowingly read a novel over again unless it was *really* good or I don't have anything else to read. Well, I'm never out of reading material, and Big Jack was good (but not *that*) good. I think it was more the case of having gotten far enough into it before realizing the situation, and then I just figured it was worth finishing out.

If you haven't read Remember When, then Big Jack is a good installment in the Eve Dallas series. My problem is that the publisher isn't clear about the prior history of the story, and it feels a bit slimy to sell half a book that you already published around seven years ago...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 10:46 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

06/05/2010

Book Review - Supreme Justice: A Novel of Suspense by Phillip Margolin

Category Book Review Phillip Margolin Supreme Justice: A Novel of Suspense

Via the Amazon Vine review program, I was able to get an advanced reader copy of Phillip Margolin's latest novel, Supreme Justice: A Novel of Suspense. Overall, this is an enjoyable read, good for a few hours of suspense and escape. It didn't grab me quite as hard as many of his earlier works, and that might be due to the length of time since I read the last Margolin novel. He carries over a number of the characters, and I was hazy on the backstories. Even so, I enjoyed the read and the character issue wasn't that big of a deal.

There are a number of plots and subplots going on in Supreme Justice that all merge and get tied together at the end. There's a ghost ship docked in a small Oregon town that mysteriously disappears courtesy of the US government when local police try to investigate a mass killing on board. Apparently only a single person survived the killings, and now he's also been murdered. A Supreme Court Justice is lobbied hard to reject a plea to reopen the case where Sarah Woodruff was convicted of his murder, but her refusal to roll over leads to an attempt on her life. A surprise resignation on the bench leaves an opening that a former head of the CIA wants to have filled with a hand-picked (and likely in-his-pocket) choice. It seems as if everyone wants to keep Sarah Woodruff on death row for fear of what a new trial might bring to light...

My haziness on the main characters made the motivations somewhat hard to follow. As such, I had to just go with the story and let it unfold without trying to analyze why certain things might be happening. There were some decent twists at the end, and you had to re-examine a lot of what had come before based on what new information came to light. Supreme Justice was a nice way to spend a few hours without feeling like I had to keep reading to find out what happened next...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 9:50 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/30/2010

Book Review - Revenge Served Cold by Jackie Fullerton

Category Book Review Jackie Fullerton Regence Served Cold

I received an advanced reader copy of Jackie Fullerton's book Revenge Served Cold from the publicist promoting the book. I needed some escape reading, and I hoped that this would fit the bill. Overall, Revenge wasn't bad in terms of plot or action. I struggled with the characters who weren't primary to the story, however. Not sure if I missed an earlier installment or what, but there was little in the way of color to explain how they all came together and worked out the details of the crime.

The main character is Katherine Spence, and she's going through some significant emotional struggles that are slowly revealed to others over the course of the plot. One of her problems is that she self-medicates with alcohol. Her husband knows all this, and tries to help keep her stable. That stability evaporates one day when a former lover shows up at her door, thinking that he can convince her to leave her husband and rekindle their romance. This visit and the associated argument and trauma drives her back to the bottle where she drinks herself into a stupor. But that night, her husband meets an estranged friend at a bar, and is the victim of a hit and run when he leaves the bar to get in his car and head home. All the signs point to Katherine being the killer, based on the car being hers and a witness saying the driver was someone who looked remarkably like her. Since she was blacked out during the time, she can't offer an alibi, but she knows she'd never do anything to kill her husband. The cops see it differently, however. They're ready to indict her for the murder, and the only person trying to clear her name is Anne Marshall, a legal stenographer and amateur sleuth who is relentless in her investigation with the help of her father's ghost who shows up and helps her figure things out.

I'll be the first to admit that a plot device of a ghost partner who is your dead father may sound far-fetched. But it's actually funny and special as to how it works between the two of them. He keeps showing up unannounced and surprising her, usually when there are other people around who can't see him. My biggest issue involved Marshal and her friends who work together to solve the crime. They had no character to me and I couldn't really keep them straight. Since they figure into the storyline to a moderate degree, their lack of background or personality made the story harder to follow than it should have been. If there's a prior book to this that uses the same characters, it may explain why there's little backstory here. But as a stand-alone story, it's a bit of a distraction.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 3:22 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/30/2010

Book Review - The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass

Category Book Review Jefferson Bass The Bone Thief

For some reason, I've never read any of the Body Farm novels by the team of Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson (hence, the author pen name of Jefferson Bass). I'm not quite sure why, as I like the forensic anthropology genre made popular by Cornwell and Reichs. So to rectify that, I picked up the latest book in the series, The Bone Thief. I'm guessing I'll end up going back to read the earlier ones also, as The Bone Thief was enjoyable and well written.

The story revolves around Dr. Bill Brockton, the person who runs the Body Farm, a place where bodies are left to the elements in order to study the effects of nature on decomposition. He's asked by a local lawyer to look at a body that's being exhumed as part of a paternity suit. When the casket is opened, they find that someone had taken a few of the body parts before burial. Other disinterments show that the funeral home involved in these burials was also involved in the trafficking of body parts, and Brockton is reluctantly enlisted by the FBI to play a part in a sting operation to try and uncover who is buying and selling. This puts him in an extremely difficult position in terms of ethics, as he can't tell his lead assistant what is going on. She uncovers his involvement, mistaking it for actual trafficking, and submits her resignation. Unless the FBI closes the case quickly, Brockton stands to lose his reputation, his job, and possibly even his life. There is a lot of money involved in the trafficking business, and they don't really like to have their operations disrupted.

There are a couple of subplots running through the novel, both of which are continuations from the prior novel in the series. I really wish I had read that one first, as it would have helped quite a bit here. He's trying to reconcile his affair with a fellow doctor of Japanese descent, who turns out to be a killer motivated by revenge by the atomic bombs dropped during World War II. She escapes capture, and Brockton wonders what's become of her. This concern gets ratcheted up even higher when one of her hideouts is found, and it appears that she's now pregnant, very possibly carrying Brockton's baby. The other subplot involves a medical examiner who was subjected to an extremely high dose of radiation during the autopsy of the person killed by Brockton's lover. His hands were destroyed, and his only chance of regaining a normal life is a double hand replacement. But that's rarely done, and finding donors is next to impossible. Will Brockton use his place in the trafficking scheme to try and help his friend regain a normal life? What line will he cross to help a friend if the actions don't harm a living person?

I found the blend between story and ethics to be balanced and effective. Too often the author has a point he or she wants to make, and they bludgeon the reader with it. That's not the case in The Bone Thief. The only thing that kept me from completely diving into the story was the missing backstory on the characters as they interact here. If you're making your first foray into the Body Farm series, try not to do it here. You'd probably enjoy the story if you do end up here first, but I think it would be a much richer experience if the backstory is in place first.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 10:10 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/29/2010

Book Review - Weird Oregon: Your Travel Guide to Oregon's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Al Eufrasio and Jeff Davis

Category Book Review Jeff Davis Al Eufrasio Weird Oregon: Your Travel Guide to Oregon's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

I live in Portland Oregon, where the unofficial motto is "Keep Portland Weird." Given that, how could I NOT check this book out from the library... Weird Oregon: Your Travel Guide to Oregon's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Al Eufrasio and Jeff Davis. Weird Oregon is a great mix of local lore, history, fact, and fable, tied together with a style that combines tongue-in-cheek humor with good storytelling. It made me want to hop in the car and start visiting some of the places that make Oregon a unique place to live.

Contents:
Local Legends; Ancient Mysteries; Fabled People and Places; Unexplained Phenomena; Beaver State Beasts; Local Heroes and Villains; Peculiar Properties; Roadside Oddities; Haunted Places; Cemetery Safari; Off-Limits and All But Forgotten; Index; Acknowledgments; Photo Credits

Eufrasio and Davis made sure that wherever you go in Oregon, you could take a look in this book and find something in that area. If you're on the Oregon Coast, there's a plethora of sites to check out. Fort Stevens near Astoria is the only place in the continental US where a military base was under assault during World War II. Also during the same time period, several people died near Gearhart Mountain when they found a Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb that went off... the only people in the continental US killed due to enemy actions during World War II. And of course, you can go visit Youtube to see the infamous beached whale that was blown to bits in 1970 on the beaches of Florence. Southern Oregon has Crater Lake, complete with old Indian legends as to how the lake in the collapsed volcano came to be. Eastern Oregon has Fort Rock, the site of the world's oldest shoes. In 1938, a number of sandals and sandal fragments were found, and evidence points to the owners having been there more than 8000 years prior. Pretty much wherever you go in Oregon, you can find some weirdness there to amaze and amuse you.

A significant portion of the stories involve hauntings and paranormal occurrences. For those who are interested in these types of phenomenon, Weird Oregon will keep you busy for months if not years. The Oregon Caves Chateau has a ghost of a woman who slit her wrists on her honeymoon when she caught her husband in bed with a hotel maid. Strange things are seen in the Shanghai tunnels under the Portland waterfront that were used in the 1800's to sneak unsuspecting (and unconscious) men onto sailing ships as conscripted labor. The White Eagle Saloon in Portland is also well-known for having a few resident ghosts of former workers and "working women" who ended their earthly existence there. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there's no denying that strange things have happened in the places covered in the book.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Some of the stories were familiar, but plenty more were new to me, and made me want to go take a long road trip to see a few of the places for myself. The only small nit on the book had to do with some of the page typesetting. On pages where the text overlaid pictures, there were a few instances where black type was set on dark pictures, making the page nearly unreadable. But that didn't take away from the overall pleasure and enjoyment of reading about the weirdness of the state. Weird Oregon is a fun history and guide book that will add plenty of color to places that you may have just driven by in the past, not knowing exactly what you were missing out on.

Now off to book my underground tunnel tour that I keep saying I'll do one day...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 6:35 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/22/2010

Book Review - LEGO: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender

Category Book Review Jonathan Bender LEGO: A Love Story

Through the Amazon Vine program, I received a copy of LEGO: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender for review. I'm not a LEGO fan myself, but I have a few close friends who are master builders of the first degree. So what drives an adult to become totally obsessed with a "toy" that most kids give up sometime during their adolescent years? Bender explains his own love affair with LEGO, both as a child and as an adult rediscovering the joy and obsession.

His story starts at the age of 10 when he built a replica of the Sears Tower with his father as part of a fair at his elementary school. It was a basic block-on-block design, spray painted black at the end (not knowing that painting bricks is a major sin for adult builders). Like many kids, this was the high point of his LEGO adventures, and the colorful bricks were forgotten for years. But at the age of 30, he rediscovered his original bricks and remembered his dream of one day becoming a Master Model Builder. This simple act led him on an adventure to reconnect with his dream and get back into the LEGO lifestyle. We as the readers get to come along, experience his joys and defeats, and learn a whole lot about the world of LEGO in the process.

You have two major stories going on in the book. The personal part of the book goes into detail about how Bender moves from building his first freeform delivery truck as an adult to spending hundreds of dollars each month on pieces and kits for both him and his wife (fortunately, she ends up sharing his obsession). Bender's talent as a writer, as well as his ability to not take himself seriously, leads to witty and funny vignettes as he starts to compete in contests and learn proper behavior as an AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO).

The second story, and the one I personally found most interesting, was the history of LEGO. He reveals facts that you'd never expect, such as the fact that LEGO is the world's largest producers of tires (all those little LEGO rubber wheels). He's able to do things that many adult LEGO fans never experience, such as taking guided tours of the factory and playing in LEGOLand after hours. He also does an excellent job in explaining the strong tie between the success of the company and the satisfaction of the adult fan base. If it were just a toy, LEGO might well have died out years ago. But the adult community has pushed and stretched the company in ways LEGO never planned, and they've been both rewarded and punished over the years based on various decisions they've made. It's fascinating to see how symbiotic that relationship is.

When I look at all the cool stuff my friends build, I keep thinking that perhaps I should buy a LEGO kit and try it out. Books like LEGO: A Love Story don't help when it comes to fighting that impulse. It was a fun and insightful read, and helped push me even closer to the edge...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 11:30 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/22/2010

Book Review - Last Call by JD Seamus

Category Book Review JD Seamus Last Call

In my pile of recreational reads, I recently pulled out a book I got from a publicist... Last Call by JD Seamus. Set in New York, its a crime mystery involving a dying Irishman, his wife and child who need special care, a large amount of money that ends up missing when he dies, and his close friends who attempt to solve the mystery and get the money back. While it had its moments, I had a real problem with the plot and the pacing. I was quite ready for the book to take off in the direction of the summary, and the author apparently had different plans.

The jacket synopsis has most of the action centered around the recovery of Jimmie Collins' money after he dies. He's the owner of a bar that Nathan Melton ends up hanging out at, and they become very good friends, even more so after Jimmie fixes him up with a woman that he starts to date. Jimmie's background is not exactly happy, in that his wife is slowly dying of multiple sclerosis and his daughter is mentally disabled. He eventually gives in and sets them up in an assisted living facility in Florida while he continues to run his businesses (both the bar and "other" side jobs) in New York. But Jimmie starts his own mortal slide when he's diagnosed with cancer. He makes sure to set up his family such that they will be provided for when he dies, but that hits a major hurdle when two months after his death, the nursing facility calls Nathan and mentions that payments are no longer being made. Nathan and the rest of Jimmie's friends decide to do whatever is necessary to find whoever embezzled the money, get it back, and also to dish out a bit of justice in the process.

As mentioned above, I expected Jimmie to meet his Maker pretty early on so that the story would revolve around the recovery of his funds. But Jimmy doesn't die until almost 3/4 of the way through the book, which doesn't leave much time for the crime to be discovered and the real action to play out. In the meantime, the reader is left with stories of how Nathan meets Jimmie, how Jimmie made his money, his slow death, and interactions between all the bar regulars. Once the action does start, the situations are a mix of gruesome death and crazy slapstick, some of which doesn't seem to mix very well in terms of being plausible. Other than Jimmie and Nathan, the rest of the characters are not highly developed, and I didn't really connect with any of them. I did enjoy some of the dialog between them, though it is very stereotypical of New York/Italian/Irish/mafia characters. Still, I found myself chuckling at times.

Last Call had the makings of an interesting story, and I wish I had liked it more. But I spent too long waiting for the premise, and then it was over far too quickly for the amount of time spent getting there.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 9:47 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/16/2010

Book Review - Crashers by Dana Haynes

Category Book Review Dana Haynes Crashers

Via the Amazon Vine review program, I selected a copy of the book Crashers by Dana Haynes for review. This thriller has an element that I haven't encountered in my reading before... the investigation of an aircraft accident by the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB for short. And the fact that the author sets the story in Portland, Oregon (the city I live in) didn't hurt in my decision-making process, either. What I ended up with in Crashers was a fun thriller that kept me turning pages to see how the technical aspect of the crime was carried out (as well as the why was it done in the first place).

The story revolves around a plane crash that seems to have no root cause. The cockpit recorder shows that everything was working fine up to the point where the copilot notices a signal for a catastrophic system failure and instantly the plane starts to shake itself to pieces. A team from the NTSB arrives on the scene, led by Leonard Tomzak, a disgraced team member who failed to find a cause for the prior crash they investigated, leading to second-guessing by other members of the team. Part of the team wants to write the crash off to pilot error, but Tomzak isn't quite ready to buy that explanation, as the behavior of the pilots doesn't fit for him. Focus starts to turn to the new generation of flight recorder on the plane, and the technical lead from the company is more than happy to show off the capabilities of the device. However, it could be that the device does more than just record, and that the tech lead is part of a larger terrorist plot that could have international ramifications.

There was quite a bit to like about Crashers. The NTSB characters were fleshed out, and they were realistically flawed and believable. The terrorism thread was also interesting and I enjoyed watching the two storylines converge. A couple parts were pretty far-fetched (such as the freeway scene), but not enough that it took away from the overall entertainment value of the novel. Given that this is Haynes' first novel, he's done a nice job, and I hope he decides to evolve this into a series based around crash investigators.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:17 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/16/2010

Book Review - Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

Category Book Review Karl Marlantes Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

Based on a recommendation, I picked up Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes at the library. The Vietnam war is a subject of interest for me, especially having a father who did two tours as a Marine (in Graves Registration... he's seen things I can only imagine). I have mixed feelings from a review standpoint on Matterhorn. In terms of a story with the basic beginning/middle/end structure, it leaves something to be desired. You're dropped into the middle of the war, in a Marine division that's being asked to do things that seem to be humanly impossible. At the end, you're not presented with much resolution. In fact, it's quite a downer. But once I adjusted to the book being more focused on the humanity (and inhumanity) of the characters and the events, the book started to work much better.

While there are plenty of characters to support the narrative, the story is mainly seen through the eyes and emotions of Mellas, a lieutenant reservist who is dumped into a typical Vietnam situation... orders to hold and secure a particular hill which seems to wax and wane in terms of importance to the brass making the decisions. The troops in Bravo Division are pushed to the extreme to build fortifications on a hill named Matterhorn during the rainy season. Due to the nearly constant fog blanketing the area during the monsoon season, resupply is infrequent. That means that all too often the troops are working without food, water, rest, or any other items normally needed to fight an effective war. The situation becomes even worse when the division is ordered to abandon the hill right after they finish, in order to chase some phantom VC troops. With no resupply and impossible orders to be at certain checkpoints, the officers back at central command start to blame the leaders of the division and make even more impossible demands. All this leads to Bravo being ordered back to Matterhorn to retake the same hill they had abandoned, now covered with dug-in VC who are set to turn any attack into a killing field.

Marlantes does an excellent job in showing the hypocrisy of war and leadership that existed in Vietnam (and probably exist in every war). The generals look at troops as nothing more than "resources" that can be moved around at will. Troop "losses" are just numbers and ratios that don't have dead bodies and destroyed lives behind them. Operations aren't necessarily designed to win the war, but to advance the careers of the officers behind the lines. And all the frictions we see in daily life (racial, geographical, or religious) don't magically go away when you throw people together in a life-or-death situation.

While I didn't care for Matterhorn as a story, the meanings and lessons it explored will stay with me for a long time.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 1:28 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/10/2010

Book Review - UNBOUND and Other Tales by David Dunwoody

Category Book Review David Dunwoody UNBOUND and Other Tales

A friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in reading a book from one of *his* friends... UNBOUND and Other Tales by David Dunwoody. I held on to the book until I was ready for a dip into some dark horror, and UNBOUND fit that need pretty well. The book consists of one main story and eight smaller pieces. I liked the longer story much more than the smaller pieces, mainly due to the more complete story development. But even the smaller chapters were quite "colorful" in their darkness. All in all, an enjoyable diversion.

The title story, Unbound, revolves around the disappearance of an author, Matt Rudd, who is known for a series involving a character by the name of Sharpe. Josh Talbot is called upon by the head of the publishing company to finish up Rudd's last Sharpe novel in time for it to be released. When Talbot starts rummaging around Rudd's office to try and find any notes about the novel's current status, he stumbles upon three bloody envelopes that appear to have details about killings that could well have been committed by Rudd. If that's indeed the case, it means that Rudd has been acting out the killings of his Sharpe character before writing about them. But that theory comes to a quick end when Talbot receives a phone call from a mysterious individual telling him to finish the novel using those "ideas" he found in the office. And Talbot has no choice but to do so, because whoever belongs to the voice knows everything about him and has no qualms about killing anyone around Talbot to make sure his wishes are carried out. Talbot has to walk a fine line between appearing to comply with the killer while trying to stop the deaths before he becomes the final one.

The Unbound story was, I felt, quite well done. The premise was different, and Dunwoody did an excellent job in keeping me guessing as to what was going to happen next. The smaller short "stories" are dark and eclectic, and sometimes left me with a bit of a "huh?" feeling. There are ex-wives and killer bugs, grave riders and cat fighting, creepy silent clowns, and even a cameo reappearance by Emil Sharpe from the main story. Even thought I may not have quite followed or gotten into some of them, the writing was well done, however.

I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another book by David Dunwoody and descend into his world of darkness. It's definitely not your mass market novel material, and you're never quite sure what's going to happen on the next page...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 5:57 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/02/2010

Book Review - The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West by Christopher Corbett

Category Book Review Christopher Corbett The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West

One of the things I'm learning during my reading of historical titles is that we tend to forget much of our past. And actually, we *do* end up repeating many of our mistakes and ugly periods. I found some of those forgotten elements when reading The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West by Christopher Corbett. While the book would seem to be more about the story of Polly Bemis, a Chinese "working girl" who was won in a poker game, the real story is of how life in the West was lived during the days of the Gold Rush.

In the late 1840's, gold was discovered in the West, and many Americans headed to California in order to make their fortune as miners. At the same time, large numbers of Chinese came over via steamer to do the jobs that nobody else wanted to do (reminiscent of our current migrant and immigration woes). San Francisco was the hub of much of the activity, and it was largely a male-dominated town. The women were often Chinese, and most of them were there as prostitutes and slaves. Life was cheap, and if you were on the lower end of the working girl scale, you were likely to die young and alone from disease or abuse.

One of these girls, "Polly", was brought over and purchased by a rich Chinese merchant. But as legend has it, he gambled her away during a poker game to a miner who lived and worked in Idaho. The miner, Charlie Bemis, took his newly acquired property and headed off to the hills of Idaho, to a small mining down named Warrens. It was there that Polly spent her entire life, eventually becoming Bemis's bride. Her story only became known when she came out of the backwoods in 1923 and visited a city for the first time, seeing things she had never seen before, like cars, trains, and radios. This was a national story at the time, and people were fascinated to learn more about Polly Bemis and what she had experienced during the last 60 years.

The first part of Poker Bride, and perhaps the most consistent theme throughout the book, is focused on mining life during the last half century of the 1800's and the suffering of the Chinese during that period of American history. The internment of Japanese-American citizens during the last part of World War 2 is an often-told story, but the Chinese suffered much of the same type of national backlash after the main gold rush period. They were taking jobs that many thought should belong to Caucasians, and they did work for far less money than others. The racism and bigotry during that time was rampant, and its not surprising that most Chinese wanted to go back to their own country to be buried when they died. Polly's story in the last part of the book seems to be a bit of an add-on to what the majority of the content was focused on. And since there's a number of conflicting stories about exactly who Polly was and how she ended up in Idaho, the author ends up having to give a number of alternative perspectives and let the reader sort it out a bit for themselves. I wouldn't mind so much if the title hadn't pointed to Polly being the main topic of the book, while the content was more in line with a generalization of the subtitle.

Even with the minor "bait and switch" of the title, I still found The Poker Bride quite interesting. Stripping the veneer of romance and legend off the Gold Rush stories is worth reading in order to give you more realistic look at life during that time. Makes me very glad I wasn't born and raised back then...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 1:25 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/02/2010

Book Review - Tooth And Nail by Craig DiLouie

Category Book Review Craig Delouie Tooth And Nail

The zombie genre isn't normally one that I pick up and read on a regular basis. But I enjoyed Craig DiLouie's earlier medical pandemic novels, so when offered a chance to read Tooth And Nail, I accepted. I'm very glad I did, too. This is a different look at zombies, one that actually makes sense and is a potentially viable scenario. I found myself totally wrapped up in the story, and putting it down was harder than with most books I've read of late.

DiLouie centers his story around a squad of soldiers who have been rushed back from the Middle East to take up a new post in downtown New York. There's a virus making the rounds, and the military is required to safeguard key points of infrastructure in the city. The virus has a high mortality rate, and the number of sick people in the city are overwhelming hospitals and other medical facilities. Occasionally the troops see someone who has turned rabid and vicious from the disease, and this presents a quandary for the soldiers. It's one thing to shoot people in a country you're warring against. But shooting Americans on American soil? That's not what they signed up for, and a number of them can't reconcile the conflicts.

As more people start to show the signs of the final stage of the new disease, it becomes harder to defend buildings and even themselves. Regardless of how many people they kill, there are others who take their place. As the city devolves into mass chaos, it becomes obvious to the soldiers that the entire country is having the same problem, and that the government is likely not in control any longer. Their final mission is to get to a scientist who might have a vaccine for the virus. From there, they need to get her to a rendezvous location where she can be airlifted out before the city is sealed off and left to die. But given the number of zombies vs the remaining soldiers, they know that this might well be a suicide mission. The question is whether they should obey their commanders for a leadership that doesn't exist, or choose to survive by banding together and striking out on their own.

DiLouie takes the whole zombie genre out of the realm of the supernatural and places it into a medical pandemic scenario. Given the nature of bioengineering, it's easy to conceive of a virus that would be highly virulent and that would not have a readily available cure if it got out of control. DiLouie handles both the logistics of a societal breakdown as well as the personal choices that one would be forced to make in a situation like that. Tooth And Nail keeps up a fast pace as the situation continues to deteriorate, and I really didn't want to put the book down. "Just one more chapter..."

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 11:47 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/02/2010

Book Review - Be Good To Yourself - edited by Ross Books, by Orison Sewett Marden

Category Book Review Orison Sewett Marden Be Good To Yourself - edited by Ross Books

So have you ever wondered how far back the "success movement" in terms of personal development goes? One of the first significant books in that genre is Be Good To Yourself by Orison Sewett Marden. Given that the book is 100 years old this year, you might wonder how well it holds up over time. Surprisingly, pretty well. Ross Books has taken the title and updated some of the language and illustrations to be more relevant for today's audience, but this edition still retains the basic message and style. What's nice is that you can read and absorb the advice without becoming caught up in the personality of the individual delivering it, as odds are you've never heard of Marden.

Contents:
Be Good To Yourself; False Economizing; Conservation of Energy; Living Within Your Means; Take A Vacation; The Importance of Play; Lies; Importance of Atmosphere; The Joy of Giving; Power and the Self; The Guarantee of Success; The Power of Positive Thinking and Tenacity; Authority; The Importance of Education; The Habit of Ambition; Mother; Religion; Index

Within these chapters, you'll see many similarities to messages and concepts that are common today when it comes to personal development. For instance, the chapter on education ends with the quote "Do not throw away the opportunity for learning as so many others have thoughtlessly done. Education is power." The accessibility to education via books and electronic sources is so great today, yet so many people decide that spending hours in front of the TV is time better spent. How wrong... Or in the chapter on living within your means, we find "All people owe it to themselves to live a real life, whether they be rich or poor; to be, and not merely to seem. We owe it to ourselves to be genuine." Today, we find that we have far too many "wants" that are disguised as "needs", and we go broke trying to meet them all and appear to be something we're really not. These gems, along with many others in the pages of this book, can help to focus you back on what's really important in life.

It's nice to be reminded of core concepts that can help us to live more successful and satisfying lives. If you're into the habit of seeking out good personal development books, Be Good To Yourself is another option that should rank up there with titles by other well-known writers of that genre.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 9:58 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/02/2010

Book Review - A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church by Gregg Olsen

Category Book Review Gregg Olsen A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church

I am always confused and dismayed when people who hold positions of authority in a church or religious organization abuse that power for their own gain. I'm even more dismayed when people who follow them end up following the person instead of their faith, letting charisma and personality overrule what they *know* to be right and wrong. Gregg Olsen portrays one of those situations in his real-life crime drama A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church. Twisted Faith shows what happens when no one confronts evil or is willing to think for themselves and take action.

The book centers around a death that occurred in Bremerton Washington in 1997, the day after Christmas. Dawn Hacheney, the wife of youth pastor Nick Hacheney, dies in a house fire that took her life in the early morning hours as she slept. At least that's what it appears to be, and for quite some time, that's the story that all the officials signed off on. But the reality of her death is far different. Olsen documents how Christ Community Church, a Pentecostal church on Bainbridge Island, went from a small community gathering in the mid-90s to a church embroiled in power struggles, sex scandals, and ultimately the murder of one of their own. Olsen pieces together the story from interviews, news stories, and other sources, and shows how the abuse of power can destroy both the person who has it and those who follow.

There were so many emotions going through my head during this book. I was dismayed that a group of leaders could abuse biblical teachings so blatantly and repeatedly. I was also amazed that so many people can look the other way when everything they see tells them that something is very wrong and needs to be addressed. Letting a person become the focus of your faith instead of God is a sure recipe for disaster. A Twisted Faith is primarily a crime novel (and a good one), but it can also be a wake-up call to check your focus when it comes to your faith, and to make sure you're basing your beliefs on the correct foundation.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 8:54 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/11/2010

Book Review - Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Category Book Review Jason Fried David Heinemeier Hansson Rework

After the buzz I've seen generated by this book, I needed to read it to find out what it was all about... Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. They are the guys who started the web company 37signals, a company that has found a sizable niche with software products that are simple and basic. There are enough features to get the job done, and no more. In Rework, they share their philosophy on how a company should be started and run, based on how they've run their own company. While I won't say that I agree with everything in here, they do cut through a lot of the red tape and bureaucracy you see in far too many companies today. You could say this is a book of common sense for those who have forgotten just what that means in an organizational environment.

Rework is divided up into a number of sections: Takedowns, Go, Progress, Productivity, Competitors, Evolution, Promotion, Hiring, Damage Control, and Culture. Each section then has a number of one to three page topics within that section that talk to different aspects. For instance, under Evolution, you'll find topics such as Say No By Default, Let Your Customers Outgrow You, and Don't Confuse Enthusiasm With Priority. The writing is short, blunt, and to the point, and that's where the value comes in. You don't have to fish around to figure out what the writers are trying to say. If they say ignore the real world, they'll tell you why. Too many people think your idea might be interesting, but won't work "in the real world." Fried and Hansson think the real world is far too pessimistic, and their company is based on things that shouldn't work in the real world... a dozen employees spread out in eight cities on two continents, no salespeople or advertising, and telling the world exactly what makes your company tick. Yet, their company makes millions every year. Go figure. Instead, try out your idea anyway.

I found a number of new insights that adjusted my thinking during the reading of the book. I'd never thought about "selling my by-products." Instead of just selling an application, perhaps you can also sell the story behind the application or articles on how the application was built. Another lesson was to make tiny decisions. If you try and make a huge decision, you can get locked into indecision or end up fearful of the potential ramifications. Instead, focus on the first step and decision that needs to be made. Make it and move forward. If it works, keep going. If it doesn't, then you can stop with little cost or investment.

So do I agree with everything here? No. This all works great for a small company with this type of mindset ingrained in its culture. I can see it also working relatively well with small teams within a larger company. But if you're a multi-billion dollar company with Wall Street demands, can you truly work from a basis of letting your customer outgrow you? No. On the other hand, should you have a product that meets 80% of the needs of people, and then let them outgrow that to another product that you make, building customer loyalty along the way? Perhaps. However, there are parts of this book that apply to companies of *any* size. ASAP is poison... Meetings are toxic... Cultures happen... Those are all true, and all too often overlooked or ignored.

This book should only take you a couple hours to read, but the messages can significantly change the way you view your work and your organization. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with some (or many) of the points, Rework is a recommended read.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 7:05 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

04/11/2010

Book Review - The Big Book of Gross Stuff by Bart King

Category Book Review Bart King The Big Book of Gross Stuff

If you have younger kids, especially boys, you know that "gross" things rule their world. The grosser, the better. Since you're probably not going to be able to get them to give up their predilection for grossness, you might as well have them learn a thing or two in the process. Bart King's book would be perfect to turn "gross" into a learning activity... The Big Book of Gross Stuff. King dives into the subject in his typical tongue-in-cheek fashion, and it's the right style to keep your kids turning the pages (much to your dismay if you have to be the one reading it to them!)

Contents:
A Note On The Writing Of This Book; What Makes It Gross?; Gross Quiz!; The Miracle Of Birth; The Stream Of Life; Animals!; Breaking The Wind; Monsters!; Everyone Poops; It's A Gross Job, But I Don't Want To Do It!; Toilets!; Putting Your Best Food Forward; Sewers!; Gross Anatomy; It's A Gross World, After All!; The Skin You're In; Food, Drink, And Other Harmless Hazards; Kicking The Bucket; Epilogue; Bibliography

It's easy to see that King had a lot of fun here. It's not often that you can deliberately be this gross and use so many bad puns, yet still be completely on-topic. But while he's doing this, he's also mixing in quite a bit of learning. Yes, everyone poops. But do you know what happens from the time the food enters your mouth looking (and smelling) one way and exits your rear looking (and again smelling) completely different? Do you know why you start to salivate heavily if you're about to "ride the Regurgitron"? And much to my surprise, urine is far from a waste product in many cultures. And yes, I'm glad I'm not part of those cultures...

If you have a weak stomach or are easily grossed out, don't read this book. Really! But if you want to give your kid something that they'll likely read from cover to cover (probably much to your dismay), give them a copy of The Big Book of Gross Stuff.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 1:21 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

04/10/2010

Book Review - Little Blue Whales by Kenneth R. Lewis

Category Book Review Kenneth R. Lewis Little Blue Whales

I was recently contacted by Kenneth R. Lewis asking if I would like to read and review his debut crime novel Little Blue Whales. Given the genre and the setting (the Oregon coast, about 90 miles from where I live), I decided it might be a good read in my recreational pile. For a debut novel, it's not bad. There's plenty of action and personal intrigue going on with the plot and the characters, and I found myself spending a bit more time reading when I should have been doing other things (like sleeping!)

Kevin Kearnes, the police chief of a small coastal town in Oregon, has plenty of battles to fight in his new job. The city council, along with a few members of the police force, are part of a "good ol' boy" network who run the town for their own personal gain. While trying to take care of those issues, he has to deal with other "interesting" problems like the demolition of a dead whale that washed up on the beach. But all those problems pale in comparison to what looks to be a far more serious matter... a killer who is targeting young boys and leaving them on the beach to be found. While it's not a given that the crimes were committed in his town of Cutter Point, Kearnes starts taking the case personally when a clue is discovered near where one boy disappeared. A small blue whale toy is found, and that brings back a series of repressed memories from Kearnes' own childhood. He knows who the killer is, and he has to eliminate the killer in order to deal with his own past.

The story starts with Kearnes receiving psychological help in dealing with the aftermath of the crime described above. He starts to recount the whole story to his therapist, which is where 95% of the book happens. It then moves back to the present, where the psychologist has to decide whether he's still fit for duty, or whether his emotional state is such that he shouldn't be wearing a badge any more. There's also a love interest in the story that drives Kearnes' decision about how much he wants to reveal and how much more he wants to be involved in the affairs of Cutter Point. Stylistically, I enjoyed the story. In terms of characters, I would have liked to know a bit more background on some of them. Kearnes' partner seems to have anger management issues, and that could have been explained more. The killer had a warped view of religion that drove his actions, but the why and wherefore as to how he got that way eluded me. If that had been explained to me a bit better, I might have understood why he turned out the way he did. Without that, he was just strange and bizarre.

Overall, Little Blue Whales was a good read, and Lewis shows promise as a writer. He's already working on a sequel titled The Sparrow's Blade, and I probably will find that one when it comes out and give it a read also.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 10:44 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/08/2010

Book Review - Your Money: The Missing Manual by J. D. Roth

Category Book Review J. D. Roth Your Money: The Missing Manual

I first got interested in J. D. Roth's personal finance writings through his Get Rich Slowly blog. There, he talks about what he's discovered when it comes to getting (and staying!) out of debt, saving money, and other various topics related to your hard-earned dollars. When I heard he was writing Your Money: The Missing Manual, I was excited to get a copy to read and review. I wasn't disappointed, either. This is the perfect book to give someone who is trying to dig out from a mountain of debt, or more ideally, to someone who hasn't yet fallen into that trap. Either way, the value of the information here is priceless if read and followed.

Contents:
Part 1 - Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: It's More Important to Be Happy Than to Be Rich; The Road to Wealth Is Paved with Goals; "Budget" Is not a Four-Letter Word; Defeating Debt
Part 2 - Laying the Foundation: The Magic of Thinking Small; How to Make More Money; Banking for Fun and Profit; Using Credit Wisely; Sweating the Big Stuff; House and Home; Death and Taxes
Part 3 - Building a Rich Life: An Intro to Personal Investing; Retirement - The Final Frontier; Friends and Family
Index

To understand where Roth comes from, it helps to know a bit of his story. He found himself $35,000 in debt a decade after college, with no real knowledge of how to manage the money that was going out faster than it was coming in. Add the purchase of a 100 year old house on an already-stretched budget, and he was desperate for change. He started devouring all the books and magazines he could find on money matters, breaking down the jargon and information into understandable chunks. He began to share this information on his Get Rich Slowly website, in hopes that he could help others in the same situation. Fast forward about five years, and he now has a high-traffic website that has become a go-to place for those looking for realistic help in dealing with their financial issues. So instead of Roth being a slick "professional" out to get you to buy something, he's just an ordinary person like you and me who has "been there, done that" and decided to share his struggles with others.

His book is a great consolidation of financial wisdom in one easy-to-read volume. There are no risky schemes or shaky advice to be found here. It's all solid information, designed to help you get a handle on things. For instance, he covers the "debt snowball" technique that is often recommended for paying off loans and credit cards as quickly as possible. But instead of saying it *always* has to be done a certain way, he offers up a few variations that may work better for different people (pay off high interest first, pay off smallest debt first, etc.) I appreciate that he's not dogmatic on "one way or else." Another example is budgeting. He realizes that most people have problems with budgets, so he recommends a number of ways to go about it (high detail, record everything, only use a few broad categories, etc.) He even acknowledges that if you're really doing well financially and have no cash flow issues, you may not even *need* to have a budget. But again, the acknowledgement that different styles work for different people is refreshing.

A few years back I attended a Financial Peace University program taught by Dave Ramsey, and I was able to get my financial house in order. I see many similar elements of FPU here in Your Money: The Missing Manual, and that's probably not a coincidence. Getting and staying out of debt requires fundamental changes in the way we think about money and credit, and is something that far too few people are able or willing to do these days. J. D. Roth's book is a much-needed dose of reality in the world of personal finance, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone looking to "clean house" when it comes to their financial affairs.

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 6:29 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/03/2010

Book Review - Shoot to Thrill by P. J. Tracy

Category Book Review P. J. Tracy Shoot to Thrill

It had been awhile since I thought about the Monkeewrench series of novels (which I've enjoyed), but they were brought back to mind when the Amazon Vine review program offered up the latest installment titled Shoot to Thrill by P. J. Tracy. It took a bit of time to reacquaint myself with the characters, and new readers would probably be a bit confused if this was their starting point of the series. I also thought the ending was rather strange, but not enough to ruin the book for me. This was a pleasant bedtime read over a few nights, with just enough tech/geek elements stirred in to make it a bit difficult to put down.

The FBI has a new cyber-twist on the age-old crime of murder. Videos of actual killings are showing up on the Internet, and whoever is responsible has the technical chops to make the postings impossible to trace back to an IP address or a general source. The feds decide to bring in a group of hackers and techno-geeks to see if they can succeed where the feds have so far failed. What this actually means, however, is that the feds will be turning a blind eye to server access hacks and other acts that would be criminal under normal conditions. They also convince the Monkeewrench crew to become involved, given their past expertise in breaking cases that no one else could crack. The feds, local police, and Monkeewrench all figure out a tenuous working style that enables them to get along during the investigation, and soon there are a few suspects that have strong evidence of being involved in some way, shape, or form. Monkeewrench finds a private discussion board where specific elements of each murder were posted before the actual killing. But even then, there's still the feeling that perhaps some other missing key ties all of the acts together. And until that key is found, there's no idea as to whether the killings will stop.

At the start of the book, the authors (a mother/daughter team writing under the pseudonym of P. J. Tracy) explain that this novel was written over several years, and the internet changed significantly during that time. Social networking sites became all the rage. But their main theme remained valid... what happens when the "innocence" of social networking and internet sites are lost, and they become the primary drivers for those who may have a much darker personality? I think the story was true to that theme, and I have no doubt that it's far worse than we know (or than what's currently been uncovered by organizations designed to protect us). It also pointed out that law enforcement are at a distinct disadvantage with laws that govern privacy. On the other hand, I think it's no great leap to see where abuses by law enforcement in those areas would lead to...

In terms of characters, this would be hard for someone to follow if they had not known the background of the two main detectives and the Monkeewrench crew. In fact, you'd probably say the characters were rather shallow as there was not a significant amount of backstory on any of them. I'd even go so far as to recommend that someone NOT start with Shoot to Thrill if they hadn't read the other books in the series. Plot-wise, the book seemed to lag a bit during the middle section, strangely about the time they started to find the suspects. You'd get a suspect for one or more of the killings, but it was obvious that the person(s) couldn't have been totally responsible for everything. So there was this "start and stop" feeling as arrests were made, yet the investigations would seemingly need to start anew because more angles were uncovered.

Even with the things I found "off" about the story or pacing, it was still an enjoyable read, especially with the internet angle on the killings. So long as someone has read other Monkeewrench novels prior to this one, I think they'd also find this installment worth reading.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 9:42 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/03/2010

Book Review - Fantasy in Death by J. D. Robb

Category Book Review J. D. Robb Fantasy in Death

So my favorite "romance writer" is at it again... Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb in Fantasy in Death. I make no bones about loving the In Death series, as it's *not* romance, but a sci-fi'ish crime series with characters that almost feel like family after so many installments. And while the last couple of books seemed to be lacking a bit of the magic I've come to expect, Fantasy is back on the normal track.

This time, Lt. Eve Dallas catches a case that seems to have no explanation. The head of a gaming company, Bart Minnock, is found in his holo-room, his head forcibly separated from his body. It's obvious that he was playing the company's latest game under development, but all the electronic evidence points to him being in the room by himself. And holo-technology is not such that physical wounds can be inflicted. His three other friends who run the company are distraught over his death, but Dallas figures that one (or more) of them *have* to somehow be responsible for the death. She just doesn't have a clue as to how they could have pulled it off given the evidence. She's forced into relying heavily on her EDD team and Roarke to dig past all the blocks and tech, but even they don't see how Minnock could have been killed without another physical person being present. However, when another holo-room death occurs under the same circumstances, Dallas has to take some major risks to flush out the killer, whoever they may be.

Roberts also takes Dallas into a subplot involving friendship and what that means in terms of being there for someone. Given that Dallas isn't comfortable with almost any forms of personal intimacy due to her childhood trauma, these issues loom large in her life. With the way the story unfolds, you see that Dallas is making progress in that area, though. In addition, these insights help her to focus on why four friends might not be as "friendly" as they appear. Overall, Roberts takes Fantasy in Death back to the type of plot and storytelling that makes it my favorite series. The crime is the focus, the technology adds plenty of color to satisfy my geekiness, and it's just a great overall read.

And as always, I can hardly wait until the next installment...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 8:27 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (4)

03/31/2010

Book Review - Kiss 'Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed, Forgotten, and Departed Teams by Dennis Purdy

Category Book Review Dennis Purdy Kiss 'Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed Forgotten and Departed Teams

Every major sporting league (and every minor league, for that matter) has a number of franchises that have a color past. And that's *all* they have, because they don't exist any longer in their original form. Dennis Purdy sets out to recall these stories in his book Kiss 'Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed, Forgotten, and Departed Teams. Even my current locale (Portland Oregon) has a mention with its brief foray into "major league" football with the Boston/New Orleans/Portland Breakers of the United States Football League. With each chapter ranging from three to seven pages, this is a fun and convenient book to pick up for a few minutes when you want a break. And you'll definitely be amazed with what passed for "professional" over the years...

Without taking the time to break down the numbers by sports, it seems like many of the chapters cover baseball teams from the late 1800's to almost current times. For instance, the Baltimore Orioles of the National League existed by that name and ownership from 1892 to 1899. The team was known for some "interesting" tactics, like keeping the grass in the outfield long so that extra balls could be hidden for the outfielders to find if they lost the actual ball in play. The Boston Braves were a longer-lived franchise, existing from 1876 through 1952, when they became the first NL team in the 20th century to relocate to a new city (Milwaukee). Interspersed throughout the team stories, you find out that there was little regulation of the sport back then. Gambling and game-fixing was common, as were deals designed to raid players from other teams. Teams could play as many or as few games as they wanted, and there was no predetermined way to tell actually who ended up as the league champion. Looking back, you could say that almost everything done back then would have had an asterisk in today's record books.

But if you're not into baseball, Purdy has the other sports covered. Football, women's softball/baseball, world team tennis... even roller derby! Basically, if the team had a colorful history and it no longer exists in its original form, there's a possibility that it might make an appearance here. I personally remember being a Los Angeles Rams football fan growing up in the mid- to late 60's. It seemed as if they would always do well during regular season, but somehow fail come playoff time. After reading Kiss 'Em Goodbye, I now understand why... :) This is one of those books that's simply fun to read, will bring back a few memories (depending on how old you are), and will leave you with a greater appreciation of what it took to get to where we are today.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:45 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/31/2010

Book Review - Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success by Jessica Pryce-Jones

Category Book Review Jessica Pryce-Jones Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success

On occasion, I'll be offered a book for reading/reviewing that seems to come at a very opportune time. This ended up being one of those books... Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success by Jessica Pryce-Jones. There's no argument that the typical workplace has changed dramatically in the last few years, and I know my reactions have changed along with it. I've been having problems trying to wrap my thoughts around the "why" and "what now" aspects, and this book has given me some new perspectives and insights on things.

Contents:
Prologue; Why Happiness at Work? Why Now?; The Research Journey; Contribution from the Inside-Out; Contribution from the Outside-In; Conviction; Culture; Commitment; Confidence; Pride, Trust, and Recognition; Achieving Your Potential; Happiness at Work: A Conclusion; What Next; References Dramatis Personae; Index

Pryce-Jones bases her work on 5 Cs that form the basis for your level of happiness at work:

- Contribution - your effort and achievement (inside-out) as well as respect and appreciation (outside-in)
- Conviction - your motivation and feeling that you make a difference
- Culture - your work environment and how well you fit into that culture in terms of behavior and interactions
- Commitment - feeling that what you're doing is worthwhile, as well as having a positive feeling towards the work and organization
- Confidence - belief that you can handle the jobs, tasks, and interactions expected of you

Wrapped around these 5Cs are the concepts of Pride, Trust, and Recognition. Pride is having the feelings of value based on what you do and where you're headed. Trust is having faith in the organization, that they will deliver on what is promised and that they can be believed. And finally, Recognition is the acknowledgement from others based on what you do and how you do it. When all of these are considered as a whole and are present for you, you end up with a high level of happiness in your workplace which translates into a much higher level of productivity and satisfaction.

Depending on where you're at and what you're experiencing, you'll likely find that different parts of the book resonate at different levels. For me, the chapter on Confidence hit me hard, due to a number of technology changes we're going through. When you go from being "the expert" to not having all the answers any more, it *definitely* causes your confidence (and by extension your happiness) to take a hit. Fortunately, Pryce-Jones doesn't just leave me stranded in the no-confidence zone. There are solid and concrete ways to address that problem, and I need to take a serious look at changes there. I also reacted strongly to the Trust aspect of the Happiness equation, mostly due to the ever-increasing precarious balance between workload, resources, and budget. It's dangerously easy to become cynical over words and actions, and again that doesn't do much for one's happiness and satisfaction at work.

Another aspect of the book that makes it valuable is the sidebar entries from real people in real situations. A majority of the pages have sidebar margin stories that relate to the happiness aspect being discussed, and those stories move this book from "just another framework" to something that actually matches up with how things work in the real world. Without these stories, I probably would have found myself considering many of the concepts in an academic and theoretical fashion, not applying them to my own reality. With the stories to flesh out the ideas, that wasn't a problem.

Happiness at Work is a very good book for understanding aspects of work that traditionally aren't considered "important." And if you're struggling with a job (either new or long-term) that doesn't seem to have that "spark", you may find out why (as well as how to change yourself and get re-centered),

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 11:49 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/28/2010

Book Review - Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes by Rodolfo Costa

Category Book Review Rodolfo Costa Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes

In this short (120 pages), Rodolfo Costa has compiled a list of advice, sayings, and adages that he's learned over the years and that has improved his life... Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes. The style of the book isn't such that you get an in-depth examination of any particular element, nor is this a method to follow to get from A to Z. They're short numbered "bullet points" (409 in all) that will hit you at different levels depending on where you're at during your particular journey in life.

The advice and wisdom is generally grouped into areas such as attitude, goals, patience/moving forward, and confidence. Some of the one-liners are very similar to ones you have heard before, like "Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today." Others don't appear to be so close to Franklin-esque words, like "Do not be embarrassed to say, 'I don't know.' It is amazing how much you can learn just by admitting that." Both types of advice are worth understanding, contemplating, and making part of your mindset, but sometimes familiarity with certain words can cause you to just brush right over the writing without thinking.

I generally hate being told how I should read a book, but this is one of those titles that really does dictate a certain reading style. You can sit down and read the whole thing in less than an hour. Odds are that you'll get little impact that way, though. Taking a page or two a day would be much more effective so you can let the words work their way into your mind and make changes in the way you think and act.

If you get the chance to read Advice My Parents Gave Me, it's worth doing so. Finding two or three gems that talk to you can make all the difference in the world.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 9:18 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/27/2010

Book Review - U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

Category Book Review Sue Grafton U is for Undertow

I've been a long-time Sue Grafton fan, and have kept pace with all the letters of the alphabet as they've come out. I find it remarkable that a single author has been able to keep a series going for so long without rehashing the same material over and over. Having said that, it seems that the last few installments in the Kinsey Millhone series have been a bit hit-or-miss lot for me. I was happy to see a new book in the series, U Is For Undertow, as it's been a very long time since the last one. As I started reading, I was starting to wonder if it was time for me to retire from this series, as U was a bit slow to start with. But as the story continued with the flashbacks that worked their way up to the time frame of the main plot, it picked up speed and turned out pretty well.

In Undertow, Millhone is pulled into a case that she doesn't care much about. A young girl was kidnapped in Santa Teresa 20 years prior, and she was never found. From out of the blue, a guy named Michael Sutton appears in Millhone's office with the thought that he may have seen the body buried as a young child playing in a forested area. He wants Millhone's help in finding the exact location after all these years, but she's convinced it's a long shot. Turns out they *are* able to find the location and grave, but it is really just a dog that was buried. However, during her investigation she turns up enough information to have her wondering what games Sutton might be playing, and whether he might really know more than he thinks he does.

In a subplot that plays heavy in the book, Millhone also finds out that her grandmother isn't quite the person she expected. Millhone's parents were killed when she was very young, and she was raised by her aunt in a very formal, matter-of-fact environment. She was under the impression that her grandmother had never cared for her or even tried to reach out when she was young, but a series of letters are given to her which prove otherwise. Yet, even though Grand did try and get custody after the accident, the reasons why might still not be all that comforting.

At first, I really struggled to get into Undertow. Sutton wasn't all that interesting, the angle didn't seem to have much direction to go after the dog was found, and the flashbacks seemed to take awhile to relate to the plot. But once the threads started to touch, the pages turned a bit more quickly as I waited to see how the endgame would play out.

I'm not sure that Grafton's next novel (what will V be?) will be on my "must read immediately" list, but I will look forward to seeing how she starts to shape what would appear to be the ending of the series with only five letters left.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas Admin Duff At 4:28 PM Location Portland, OR | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/21/2010

Book Review - The Backchannel: How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever by Cliff Atkinson

Category Book Review Cliff Atkinson The Backchannel: How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever

I've been in conferences where people have twittered about the content, session, speaker, etc. But rarely have I seen a speaker take advantage of that backchannel conversation in order to shape and improve the quality of the presentation. Cliff Atkinson has written a book that every speaker (especially in the technical arena) should have high on their reading list... The Backchannel: How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever. It's critical to understanding exactly what Twitter brings into the presentation mix, whether you want it to be there or not.

Contents:
Why Are You Calling Me a #@*% on Twitter?; How to Join a Twitter Backchannel; The Rewards of the Backchannel; The Risks of the Backchannel; Preparing for the Backchannel; Making Your Ideas Twitter-Friendly; Joining the Backchannel in Conversation; Handling Instant Feedback from the Backchannel; Holding Together the Backchannel Experience; Appendix A - The Four Tweets Worksheet; Appendix B - The Twn Tweets Worksheet; Index

The first part of the book starts out fairly basic, especially if you're already aware of how Twitter can enhance a conference. Complete with some strong real-life examples, Atkinson shows how Twitter can be both a distraction and a benefit to a speaker, depending on whether they are prepared to deal with statements and opinions that may not be entirely complementary. Once you accept the fact that Twitter *will* be active during your presentation, Atkinson demonstrates how you can actively engage that backchannel and make your ideas more twitter-friendly. For instance, your key points should be such that they fit in the 140-character limit of Twitter. In fact, you can even use the "Four Tweets" concept to develop the outline of your presentation, making the entire session geared for twittering and sharing. You can really dive in deeply if you'd like and use his concept for a Twitter break to allow people to offer feedback which then gets incorporated into the next element of the presentation. Nothing like having real-time feedback as you talk...

This book surprised me to a degree. I expected it to be a basic "here's Twitter, and did you know people tweet about you when you talk?" volume. I was wrong. I hadn't considered managing the backchannel to the degree that Atkinson explains, but I now see how it's possible and how it's beneficial to do so. These concepts, as well as the likelihood of a strong audience backchannel, seems like it would be more prevalent for tech presentations and conferences. But as Twitter continues to become more mainstream, I think that speakers *have* to be aware of how Twitter is going to function during your talk, whether you like the idea or not.

Yes, it does seem like speakers have a ton of stuff to consider and incorporate in order to have a successful presentation. For better or worse, you now have one more... Twitter. The Backchannel should be on your reading list for both awareness of what happens during your presentation and for how to manage that conversation for the benefit of all involved.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 11:22 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/20/2010

Book Review - Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez

Category Book Review Daniel Suarez Freedom (TM)

I read Daniel Suarez's book Daemon about a year ago when it first came out without much fanfare. I wasn't expecting much, but it was a great cyberthriller that I struggled to put down (and I was supposed to be at a conference!). The follow-up to Daemon is Freedom (TM), which picks up where Daemon leaves off. I didn't like it quite as much as Daemon, but it was still a very good read. My main recommendation is to try and read them back-to-back, as most of the backstory on the characters is covered in Daemon, and you'll lose a great deal of nuance without it.

Freedom has the Daemon firmly in charge of the world's computer systems, and actively destroys anyone or anything that tries to kill it off. It's also co-opted a growing number of real-life people that it controls as part of the "darknet" and uses to accomplish goals that need real-world involvement. Both the government and mega-corporations are trying to find ways to take over Daemon to use for their own purposes, and the darknet operatives are actively killing off individuals who are leading those efforts. Peter Sebeck, one of the main characters, is chosen by the Daemon to fulfill a quest which is being actively followed by both friends and foes alike. He's a reluctant "hero" to many, and doesn't know what or where this quest will lead, except that it apparently has to do with preventing the growing new reality from being snuffed out by those who want to maintain the status quo and continue to rule and dominate the world. As he draws ever closer to the final conflict, he will have to make some decisions that will affect every remaining person on the planet.

Suarez does an excellent job in painting a world taken over by a network that has become part of everything computerized. His depiction of the darknet and the augmented reality seen by using special glasses was especially well done, as it in many ways mirrors parts of what the internet has become. I probably would have liked this even better had there not been a year between reading the first and second novels (as well as about 200 other books read in between those two). I think I lost a bit of the character color that would have helped me get into the story much more quickly.

Regardless of that time gap, Freedom (along with Daemon) are high up on any recommended cyber novel reading list I might put together. I truly hope to see and enjoy more novels by Suarez in the future.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 7:00 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

03/17/2010

Book Review - The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

Category Book Review Ted Dekker The Bride Collector

As part of the Amazon Vine review program, I recently selected the book The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker as one of my review items. I've not had the opportunity to read any of Dekker's works before, and the psychological thriller sounded like a decent way to spend a few evenings. Overall, the book was enjoyable. I'd have liked it to be a bit tighter in places where the action seemed to drag, but there were definitely enough characters to keep my interest.

Brad Raines is an FBI special agent who tends to end up with very complex and gruesome murder cases. In this instance, he's responsible for someone who is abducting women, gluing their naked bodies to the wall, placing a wedding veil on their heads, and letting them bleed out through two holes drilled in their heels. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill murderer... The killer's pace is accelerating, and he's not leaving anything behind in the way of forensic evidence that can be used to track him down. It's only once he starts leaving notes behind for Raines that there's any sort of trail to follow. And the trail is quite warped. He is presenting these women to God, and is working up to his perfect offering. In desperation, Raines turns to a patient who is living in an institution for the mentally ill. She is supposedly able to touch a body and see the event that killed the person. Raines isn't all that open to the possibility, but he has little else to go on. And when events start getting extremely personal and close to home, Raines is forced to confront his own demons along with those of others in order to stop the killer and save the ones he loves.

The way the story is structured, you know who the murderer is right off. The story bounces back and forth between the killer and Raines, so the payoff isn't the "who dun it" resolution at the end. Instead, it's more along the lines of seeing whether Raines will be able to stop him before he can claim his final victim. Dekker also touches on issues such as the mentally ill, spirituality, abuse, and a few other themes that will allow the reader to ponder such topics if they so choose. In the middle of the story, things slow down a bit, and it seems as if we're just killing time before the end game comes into play. I also felt as if some of the characters, especially Nikki Holden, were less developed than I would have expected. It may be that this isn't the first novel with the Raines character, in which case I could understand it. But I still felt as if I was missing something in terms of the depth of some of the people...

I'd have no problems heading over to the library and starting to catch up on some prior Dekker novels. The Bride Collector was worth reading, and if his other novels are as good as this one, I'd enjoy them.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:09 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/13/2010

Book Review - Windows 7: Up and Running: A Quick, Hands-On Introduction by Wei-Meng Lee

Category Book Review Wei-Meng Lee Windows 7: Up and Running: A Quick Hands-On Introduction

I have all the computers in my house now running on Windows 7 (having for the most part skipped Vista), but there's still a bit of the "so how do I do this..." going on. I've found that the book Windows 7: Up and Running: A Quick, Hands-On Introduction by Wei-Meng Lee is an excellent guide to get you to that point of relative competency on Windows 7, while also showing you some of the cool new stuff you can do with it. I probably would have done much better had I read this earlier in my Windows 7 experience.

Contents:
Installing Windows 7; Getting Around Windows 7; File Sharing; Security; Essential Applications; Internet Explorer 8; Using Windows XP Mode; Windows 7 Tips and Tricks; Index

Lee starts out from the very beginning, and that's getting Windows 7 installed. After that's done, he works you through the environment, both in terms of navigation and on how certain core features operate, like the Task Bar, the Action Center, and more. Once you can get around, he digs deeper into some of the significant Windows 7 features such as Bit Locker, HomeGroup file sharing, and running apps in XP mode. While this wouldn't replace a 700 page in-depth reference to everything that is Windows 7, it hits its intended target perfectly at around 185 pages. This is the book you'd give the basic computer user to figure out most of what they'd need to know, and they'd probably be able to figure it out and get around on their own. Lee's done a good job with both describing the features and backing them up with screen prints to illustrate and clarify.

And to prove that it doesn't take much to amuse me... I knew a fair amount of the material in the book, but there were still things in there that I just had to try out. For instance, I didn't know about Aero Shake. Grab the title bar of an open window, click and hold and shake the window, and all the other open windows minimize down to the task bar. Slick! Aero Snap, dragging the app over to the left or right of the screen and having it snap to half the available screen, was also a cool feature I didn't know about. And in the category of useless (for me) but fun was the Math Input Panel. You free-form your math equation in a screen with your mouse, and the application creates the font version of it. It may take a few tries to get a good translation, but it can work on the translation as you go, so you can correct it at the point of the error. It was also fun just to mess with its little mind, scribble on the screen, and see what it tried to come up with. :)

Bottom line, Windows 7: Up and Running is the perfect mix of basic and intermediate information that takes aim at a particular target audience and hits it dead-on. As we migrate to Windows 7 at work, I have a feeling that my copy of this book might end up passing through a few different sets of hands.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:47 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/09/2010

Book Review - Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk

Category Book Review Gary Vaynerchuk Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk is one of those books I see coming up repeatedly on blogs I follow and with people I follow on Twitter. So, in order to find out why this book is so popular, I got a copy from our local library and gave it a quick read. And at only 142 pages, it *is* a quick read. But what Vaynerchuk has to say can, if taken to heart and practiced, make a significant difference in your life, career, and passion.

Content:
Passion Is Everything; Success Is In Your DNA; Build Your Personal Brand; A Whole New World; Create Great Content; Choose Your Platform; Keep It Real... Very Real; Create Community - Digging Your Internet Trench; The Best Marketing Strategy Ever; Make the World Listen; Start Monetizing; Roll With It; Legacy Is Greater Than Currency; Conclusion - The Time Is Now, The Message Is Forever

Vaynerchuk makes his case that due to the rise of social networking tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and vidcasts/podcasts, anyone can take their passion and share it with others. You can establish and build a personal "brand" that is uniquely yours. Let's say that you are a cashier at a clothing store, but your real passion lies in photography. When you start talking to others about that topic, your eyes light up and you could go on for hours. If you are willing to take that passion and work very hard to share what you know with others, you can "crush it" in that area and draw an ever-increasing audience who are interested in the same thing. And once you get an audience and traffic, dollars in the way of advertising and sponsors can shortly follow. It's not a matter of just sticking a blog entry out every four or five days, though. Vaynerchuk uses his own examples with his Wine Library TV site to show how passion, branding, and honesty translate into a community that looks to him for truthful and entertaining information about the world of wine. While he does sell wine, the videos and writings are not all designed to sell his own merchandise or a particular brand. Instead, he's looking to share his passion for the subject, knowing that people who come to him *will* likely come back again when they *do* want to buy something.

From the technology side, Vaynerchuk does a good job in showing the power of the social media tools that are out there for you to use. It costs nothing to set up a blog, a Facebook account, or a Twitter account. The cost of entry to start this is nearly non-existent. To create podcasts or vidcasts is almost as cheap, as the tools you need to get started can run you less than $200. Once that's all in place, the only thing left is you. He's the first to admit that the type of passion he's talking about is something that keeps you up until the wee hours of the morning, but it's something that you are ready to jump back into as soon as you wake up. If you're willing to work that hard for something you love, you can turn your passion into your livelihood.

Is this all realistic? Yes, in my opinion it's all very possible. Will *everyone* who attempts this be able to quit their day job and become wealthy doing what they love? No, but Vaynerchuk would argue that true happiness and passion isn't measured by a six figure paycheck. Yeah, it'd be nice, and it does work that way for some. But if you're doing something you love to do, you *can* make a big difference in your life and the lives of others.

Crush It! is a bold statement, and Gary Vaynerchuk is a passionate, outspoken proponent for what you can do to turn your passion into your career. You may not agree with him fully, or you may begin to see the seeds of your own rise from a job to an avocation, a life centered around something you're passionate about. Either way, you'll have plenty to think about after reading his book.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 7:06 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/09/2010

Book Review - The Imposter - How a Juvenile Criminal Succeeded in Business and Life by Kip Kreiling

Category Book Review Kip Kreiling The Imposter - How a Juvenile Criminal Succeeded in Business and Life

I was recently contacted by Kip Kreiling, the author of The Imposter - How a Juvenile Criminal Succeeded in Business and Life, asking if I would be interested in reading and reviewing his book. The subject matter sounded interesting... basically how he overcame a *very* rough life of crime and substance abuse as a kid growing up, turning his life around with some transformational principles he learned along the way. I must say I was quite impressed with his book. It's well written with a message of hope and possibilities, even for those who seem to have thrown it all away.

Kreiling's childhood was not an easy one. With a stepfather who was physically abusive, Kreiling spent much of his time on his own and away from any close personal contact with parental or adult guidance. This led to early (and repeated) episodes of crime, failures in school, and addictions to just about every drug you could find on the streets. Even during low points when he wanted to turn things around, it didn't take long before he found himself back in the same patterns, unable to break out of the cycles that he found himself locked into. This all changed around the age of 16 when he had a massive overdose of a new drug he had never used before. After eight hours of unrelenting physical and emotional torment, he cried out to God (as he knew him then) to plead for his life. When he finally came down off the drugs, he started his transformation and began working through the changes that would take him from where he was then to what he is today... a successful businessman, happily married with kids, who helps others overcome the major obstacles in their own lives.

His transformation principles are simple, but can carry you past the road blocks that are there in front of you. #1 - You can completely change. #2 - Turn your transformation goal into an imperative - turn it into a compelling desire. #3 - By changing what you believe, you change who you are. #4 - By changing your actions, you can change who you are - Mind to Muscle to Metamorphosis. #5 - By transforming your environment, you can transform who you are - The Fire Precedes the Bloom. #6 - Do not make major changes in your life on your own, get resources to help you, such as time, people, experts, and sometimes money. #7 - Focus on creating positives and eliminating negatives. #8 - Optimism is essential to moving forward. In and of themselves, these principles don't sound groundbreaking, but when you see them in action against the author's life, seeing how they changed him from someone who should have died before the age of 20 to what he is today, you realize that there is hope and possibility beyond where you are currently.

The Imposter is a great motivational read regardless of where you are. It helps you to realize that where you are at this point in your life is not where you have to be tomorrow.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 5:36 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/04/2010

Book Review - The Conch Killers by Chip Giles

Category Book Review Chip Giles The Conch Killers

As I get further behind in my reading, I find myself saying "no" to more book offers than I used to. It takes a bit more to break through my "I'd like to, but..." now. But I'm a sucker for a good Florida crime genre novel, especially if it has a touch of Dorsey or Hiaasen in it. When Chip Giles mentioned those two names in his email to offer me The Conch Killers, I had to relent and say yes to a copy. And it was worth the read... Tad Hunter and Ramon Garcia are two humorous additions to the wacky characters that make up the Florida literary landscape, and Giles could turn out to be a writer that I enjoy reading on a regular basis.

In Conch Killers, Hunter and Garcia are two ex-military drifters who live for sailing. They've gotten out of "the life", which means they are no longer doing jobs for shadowy characters that skirt the boundaries of the law. But they are drawn back when they are offered a large payout for a "simple" job... deliver a package in exchange for a kidnap victim, and bring the victim back to her family. But of course, nothing is simple in the Florida Keys, and the job turns into a full-fledged mission with terrorists, guns, and dead bodies. Along the way, there are luxury sailboats, obnoxious owners, people who aren't who they seem to be, and enough craziness to keep everyone confused and amused...

Giles has done a good job for a first novel. Hunter and Garcia are a good character mix, with Hunter playing the semi-rational partner to Garcia's off-the-wall (and sometimes deadly) antics. Given the type of characters they are, the dialog works well. It's not how you'd talk or carry on every day yourself, but it fits the personalities. The only major knock I have on the book is a situation that many self-published authors fall into... the lack of a solid editor to clean up the book. It wasn't so much the story that needed help as the grammar and word usage. I expect most books to have an incorrect word or two, such as their vs. there or bear vs. bare. But The Conch Killers has far too many. When I encountered the first one, I just let it go. The second one about ten pages later gave me pause. But when it got to be one every five pages or so, it really started to bug me. Most of these could have been caught with a single reading by a relatively careful reader. It's too bad, as it otherwise mars what would be a really good first novel.

Giles is in the process of writing his next novel, and I would look forward to reading it. The Conch Killers was a nice diversion to the Florida Keys, and I hope Giles continues to flesh out Hunter and Garcia, and add to their list of adventures.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 7:14 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/22/2010

Book Review: The Pack: Winter Kill (Volume 1) by Mike Oliveri

Category Book Review Mike Oliveri The Pack: Winter Kill (Volume 1)

This one surprised me... The Pack: Winter Kill (Volume 1) by Mike Oliveri. While at a conference last month, a friend of mine (who is also a friend of the author) gave me a copy of Winter Kill to read. While I tend to like the occasional supernatural thriller, I must confess that the werewolf genre isn't one I'm automatically drawn towards. But the book isn't that big, and my friend told me it was pretty good. He wasn't kidding... I started Winter Kill one evening as I went to bed and finished it on my bus ride home from work the next day.

The story isn't overly complicated or drawn out. The action starts within the first couple of chapters and continues at a constant pace throughout. Oliveri also doesn't waste many words on being overly melodramatic or over-describing a scene. All the characters have a role to play, and what appears on the page is necessary to keep the story moving. And the ending, while hinted at somewhat throughout the story, has a twist that I wasn't completely ready for. Had I not read the last line of the back cover before starting, I don't think I would have seen it coming at all.

There's obviously plenty of room to fill in the backstory of how the characters got to be the way they were, and I'm willing to give Oliveri room to leave some things unclear here, knowing that there are other installments to come. In fact, in this case it makes me a little more excited for the next episode to appear, as I really do want to see where he lets this series go. In any case, I think I've found a new author that I'll look forward to reading.

And no, I bear him no malice over the fact that he named one of the bad guys "Duff", and that Duff meets with a gruesome end. I'll just assume my friend put him up to it. :)

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:22 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/21/2010

Book Review: The Skinny on Willpower, How to Develop Self Discipline by Jim Randel

Category Book Review Jim Randel The Skinny on Willpower How to Develop Self Discipline

I was recently contacted by the publisher of a new book series called "The Skinny On." The concept is that people are busy, so the authors take a topic and distill down the essential information into a book that allows you to get the core information quickly. Illustrated by stick figures, it made for an interesting concept in my mind. The first book I decided to look at was The Skinny on Willpower, How to Develop Self Discipline by Jim Randel. After seeing the concept in action in this title, I must say I rather like it. Randel does an excellent job in getting the core points on how willpower works across to the reader in a quick and amusing fashion. Even if you've read a dozen books on motivation and goal setting, The Skinny on Willpower will still help to remind you of the key elements.

At 144 pages, Willpower will not take you long to read. The story revolves around Billy and Beth, two stick figures ("skinny", get it?) who have a couple goals they want to reach. Billy wants to lose 10 pounds, while Beth wants to open a fashion boutique but needs to write a business plan to get a loan. The married couple interact with each other as they fail and falter in making progress. The author makes a few stick figure appearances to help them get back on track and teach them the skills they need to keep on moving forward towards their goals. Among the way, Randel gives the reader plenty of core information as to how willpower works in real life, as well as a 15 point plan at the end for improving your discipline and willpower in a realistic, honest fashion.

You might think that this is a gimmicky, "follow these steps" plan promised by many self-help authors, but that's not the case. Randel doesn't go off into esoteric mumbo-jumbo and promise magic results. He acknowledges that self-discipline is hard, you will fail along the way, and you have to get back up and keep trying to be successful. And if you're not one who's much for reading a 300 page book on the subject, The Skinny on Willpower will quickly and easily give you the framework you need to start moving in the right direction. I even found it personally motivating to be reminded of the key points, and to refocus on what's important.

I have one other Skinny book to read and review, as well as an open offer to read and review any other titles in the series. I have a feeling that I might be taking them up on that offer...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 7:38 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/20/2010

Book Review - Secret Portland, Oregon 2010: The Unique Guidebook to Portland's Hidden Sites, Sounds, and Tastes

Category Book Review Ann Carroll Burgess Tom Burgess Secret Portland Oregon 2010: The Unique Guidebook to Portland's Hidden Sites Sounds & Tastes

Even if you've lived in a city for over 40 years, there's a strong likelihood that you haven't seen or experienced all it has to offer. I really felt that way while I was reading Secret Portland, Oregon 2010: The Unique Guidebook to Portland's Hidden Sites, Sounds, & Tastes by Tom Burgess and Ann Carroll Burgess. Secret Portland is made up of 205 "secret" topics, or places and ideas you may not have known about in the City of Roses. While you probably won't be interested in all of them (secret dog friendly places don't apply to me), there's plenty of other things that make you want to start scheduling some outings.

Some of the most useful secret items are the restaurants for different food types. Secret Middle Eastern listed a couple of options that sound like they'd be rather tasty. Secret Italian sounded pretty good also. Secret Japanese goes beyond the restaurants and points you to other items of interest like Uwajimaya's, a supermarket for all things Asian, and Wakai Dokokai, a Portland school to teach you the "way of tea." Unless you had kids interested in skateboarding, you may not know about one of the Secret Skate Parks located under the Burnside bridge (very hidden and grunge). And who could resist Secret Museums, where two of the offerings include a vacuum cleaner museum and the Velveteria, an honest-to-goodness museum of nothing but velvet paintings (yes, "Keep Portland Weird" is our motto for a reason!)

A copy of Secret Portland will give you months of entertainment as you seek out areas in the city you didn't know existed. I also kept thinking that using Secret Portland as a guidebook for pictures of the city might also be an interesting project. Either way, Secret Portland is a nice book to help you uncover the real Portland.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 10:08 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/20/2010

Book Review - Volkswagen Transporter The First 60 Years by Richard Copping and Brian Screaton

Category Book Review Richard Copping Brian Screaton Volkswagen Transporter The First 60 Years

This is another one of those "new books at the library" selections that just happened to strike my fancy when I saw it... Volkswagen Transporter The First 60 Years by Richard Copping and Brian Screaton. It's a coffee-table-sized book that covers the full history of the Volkswagen Van, from the first models to roll off the assembly line until today. Copping and Screaton do a very good job of combining both text and images, so by the end you have the complete story of the van, both down to the minute body specs and with pictures to show each change along the way.

For a VW fanatic, this would be a must-have book. The authors go into detail about how the idea of the Transporter came about, the struggles to get it out the door, and the personalities that shaped the vehicle over the years. For those of us who just fondly remember the "happy face" design, the images can take you down memory lane if you ever had the opportunity to ride in a VW Bus or go camping in one.

I personally didn't realize just how influential and groundbreaking the Transporter design was at the time it was introduced. It was a vehicle designed for a specific purpose... carrying cargo. No luxuries, no frills, just basic function with unique cargo-carrying design at the time. Over the years, VW added additional models to expand the line and target audiences. I didn't know there were specific models designed to be ambulances, hydraulic lift platforms, tipper trucks, and mobile work stations. And of course, the addition of passenger seats turned the Transporter into what was probably the original mini-van.

When you look at the models of today, they're sadly lacking in that distinctive look that made VW so easy to spot and recognize. But with this book, you can relive the glory days of the Volkswagen Transporter, Almost makes me want to put on a tie-dye shirt and play some Grateful Dead music... :)

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 9:32 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/20/2010

Book Review - Le Crime by Peter Steiner

Category Book Review Peter Steiner Le Crime

A friend recommended Le Assassin by Peter Steiner, and in the process of putting that on hold I found that Le Crime was the first in the series. So to keep things straight, I decided to start at the beginning. Now, since my friend has not steered me wrong in recommendations so far, I *will* be reading Le Assassin. But if I were to judge it by Le Crime, I'd probably pass. Le Crime was a slow espionage novel, with most of the action taking place in the mind and not in the real world. I felt as if I had missed a major chunk of the story somewhere, and the whole book left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Louis Morgon is a former State Department official who has moved to France to escape his past. He was forced out of his position by rumors and accusations about his ability and decisions he made during critical world events, and now he just wants to put it all behind him. Unfortunately, the past comes back in a gruesome way when he finds a dead body on his doorstep, a man with his throat slit. The local French police captain is pressured to ignore the crime, but he and Morgon continue to dig a bit deeper into what may have led to this body showing up. Was it random or a warning to Morgon? Is it something from Morgon's past, or perhaps is it tied to current world events? Morgon has his ideas as to what it means and who is behind it, and starts to pick at mental and physical threads in hopes that those responsible will tip their hands and reveal themselves.

For me, the book was just far too slow with not enough action that I normally expect in an espionage story. A significant part of the book deals with flashbacks and ties to his children, how he neglected them growing up, and how his primary suspect ruined his life and career while appearing to be solidly supportive. And given that both the main characters are well past the age of 60, it's not as if there are thrilling action scenes and life-or-death physical struggles. Mostly the action takes place in the mind, and in this case, it wasn't enough to keep me overly involved. I'll give Le Assassin a chance following this, but there may be a few books between now and then, as I'm not feeling highly compelled to dive back into Morgon's world.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 8:55 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/15/2010

Book Review - The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great by Rick Smith

Category Book Review Rick Smith The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great

I had heard about the book The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great by Rick Smith in a few of the productivity blogs and tweets that I follow on a regular basis. These types of books tend to capture my interest, so I was pleased when I was offered a review copy of the book. In short, this is a book that spoke to me deeply for my current situation. You *don't* have to be a daredevil and risk everything to find yourself in a place where your passion and strengths come together in an incredible calling or career.

Contents:
"Great Work, You're Fired!"; The Now Trap - Stuck in the Status Quo; Breaking Away - The Three Rules; Primary Colors - Tapping the Energy Within; What Is My Primary Color?; Big Selfless, and Simple - How Ideas Become Contagious; The Spark Sequence - Stacking the Deck; Aristotle on a Lily Pad - A Perspective on Life-Work Design; Acknowledgments; Index

Rick Smith was like many of us... average. Not outstandingly excellent in what he did, but not at the bottom of the barrel, either. His job as a headhunter was OK, but it didn't light any fires within him. It wasn't until he wrote a book, The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, that he started to regain some passion. Unfortunately, that passion was not something that fit in his employer's plans, and he found himself unemployed. He used that event and severance to launch an idea he had for a executive level networking group. And it took off far beyond what he could have ever imagined. But he was still just an average Joe. What was it that caused him to succeed in something that most people wouldn't even attempt?

Looking at his experience and the experiences of others who traveled that same path, he found three consistent steps that played out in many of those cases. First, you find your primary color, the spot where your passions overlay your strengths. Next, bring that primary color to bear on an idea that is big, selfless, and simple. These are ideas and plans that attract, inspire, and involve others. Then finally, you let the spark sequence happen. You mitigate your risks and let the idea move towards its inevitability into reality. It's this path that makes it possible to accomplish incredible things even though you're just "average", without the resources of a Bill Gates or a Richard Branson.

As I read The Leap, I kept looking back at some of the things I'd like to do and realized that there's really nothing keeping me from moving in that direction. This is a perfect book for someone who has big dreams but thinks that it'd be impossible to get anywhere on them because they just don't have the resources to pull it off. Leap is an excellent read, packed with practical advice and plenty of motivation to step out and make the jump to something that really matters to you.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 4:46 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (2)

02/08/2010

Book Review - The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises by James Scott Bell

Category Book Review James Scott Bell The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies Tactics and Exercises

Because I do a few (HA!) book reviews, I generally don't end up buying too many books as I'm often overwhelmed with reading material. But this book is one that I couldn't NOT purchase, as I start to think about moving into some fiction writing... The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises by James Scott Bell. Modeled after the Sun Tzu book The Art of War, Bell offers up a wealth of tips and techniques to improve the quality of your writing, as well as increasing the chances of actually seeing your work make it to print. In short, I love this book.

Contents:
Part 1 - Reconnaissance; Part 2 - Tactics; Part 3 - Strategy; A Final Word from Sun Tzu and me; Index

Art has 77 tips (you might even call them "chapters") that cover the gamut of fiction writing. Part 1, Reconnaissance, goes into the mental makeup of the fiction writer/novelist. These mental frameworks are essential if you expect to be able to endure long-term. Topics such as "A foundation in discipline is always the first step towards victory" and "The career novelist will develop a writing improvement program, beginning with a notebook" may sound lofty, but Bell packs a ton of practical, down-to-earth advice into each two to five page topic. Part 2, Tactics, moves into the structure of the story. Just because you have a good idea doesn't mean the story will write itself. Here you get topics such as "Test your premise to prove it worthy" and "The key to reader bonding is to fall in love with the Lead" help you to step away from the action and look at how and why a good story "works."

Continuing on to Part 3, Strategy looks at the fiction writing process from the business side. People are not just sitting around waiting for your Great American Novel to show up on their doorstep. You have to know how to sell your story to an agent... how to make them want to read it so they can turn around and sell your story to a publisher. "You are a business, and your books are the product" and "Approach agents intelligently by knowing what they do and don't want" may sound like you're selling out your creative side to the emotionless cogs of business, but it's the reality of how publishing works. And if you don't (or can't) sell your work effectively to others, then you probably won't go very far (and definitely won't reach the levels of accomplishment that you dream of).

For me, this book clarified a number of ideas and exposed me to other areas that I didn't know existed. While still far from diving into my first fiction work, I came away from The Art of War for Writers with a much better idea of what I need to do, and more importantly, who and what I need to be to make this all happen. I'd consider this a high-priority read for anyone venturing into writing as a business. It might well be the difference between seeing your work on the shelf versus only seeing it as a document on your computer...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Bookstore
Payment: Purchased

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 7:07 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/06/2010

Book Review - Christianish: What If We're Not Really Following Jesus at All? by Mark Steele

Category Book Review Mark Steele Christianish: What If We're Not Really Following Jesus at All?

Now this is a book that is all too timely in today's culture... Christianish: What If We're Not Really Following Jesus at All? by Mark Steele. Based on the behavior of far too many who call themselves "Christian", we've allowed the term to be turned into something negative, something it was never intended to be and stand for. The aspect of a relationship with Christ has been replaced with a set of rules and regulations (applied with little love or care) that isn't appealing to anyone. And it's all due to too many people trying to live a "Christianish" life...

Contents:
i am Christianish; scandalous - revealing the rough stuff; wholiness - it is also written; phariseesaw - perhaps I am my nemesis; shut up already - righteousness is not the change agent; God said no - standing in my own way; losers for Jesus - the painful give; vanilla me - going without; upside is a downside - becoming unhuman; the grace discount - ministry is surgery - the Jesus show - love is a muscle; in Jesus' name, amends - willing to transform; i am Christian

In each chapter, Steele relates a story from his own life and then weaves it into the topic at hand. The stories are quite funny, but painfully real to many who read it. One of my favorite chapters is Shut Up Already. He talks about an event in his life when he went to a Christian school. There was a contest called the Academic Bowl, where Christian schools met up to compete on biblical knowledge and other such stuff. Steele was *very* knowledgable about all the questions being asked, but there was just one problem... he was in the audience, not on the team. He constantly berated his schoolmates for not knowing the answers to such "simple" stuff, and otherwise made a nuisance of himself showing off his knowledge. A few days later, he was picked to do the same type of competition in a school assembly. But little did he know that the contest had been rigged, with impossible questions designed to knock him down a few pegs on the ego scale. And that it did...

His message in that chapter is that knowing all the facts, or being "righteous", didn't change anything. In fact, it was a relationship with Jesus that led to being righteous. Beating people over the head with facts and "holier than thou" messages did the exact opposite of what was intended... it drove people away. And how often do we see that in churches and in the news these days? Christianish people are demanding righteousness before you're allowed to join their "exclusive" club... when in reality, we're all broken and getting to righteousness is the end goal, not the entry price for admission.

Hopefully, those who read Christianish will come away with an understanding that it's not all about following some rules to be perfect... it's all about a relationship.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 9:37 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/06/2010

Book Review - What's Next . . . For You?: The Gussin Guide to Big Changes, Big Decisions, and Big Fun by Robert and Patricia Gussin

Category Book Review Robert Gussin Patricia Gussin What's Next . . . For You?: The Gussin Guide to Big Changes Big Decisions and Big Fun

I'm not *quite* to the stage of retirement, but it's definitely getting to the point where I can make it out on the horizon. And my thoughts have started to wander to the "and what will I do next?" series of questions. Robert and Patricia Gussin have a book titled What's Next . . . For You?: The Gussin Guide to Big Changes, Big Decisions, and Big Fun that walks you through what they went through to answer that question... life decisions that weren't expected, but that they had the courage to embrace and run with. I can only hope that I'm willing to be open to those same types of opportunities that will no doubt come up for me also.

Patricia is a physician and Robert was a chief scientific officer for a global firm in their professional lives. But like most couples that both have high-powered careers, the stress and time demands started wearing them down. Their adventures in following new paths began when they decided, mainly on a whim, to purchase some beach property in an area that they both enjoyed visiting. What was to be a "future investment" and eventual beachside cottage turned out to be a six bedroom home built shortly after they bought the property. So much for savings and no mortgage. But this habit of following and doing what they loved continued on. They ended up purchasing a small vineyard in New Zealand, as well as becoming authors and running a small independent book publishing company. In nearly all cases, they didn't know much of anything about what they were going to do, but they knew enough to ask for help and surround themselves with quality people. So now, at a time when most "retirees" would be slowing down and downsizing, they're living a life they love with never-ending adventures and opportunities.

What's Next . . . For You? is not a "do this, do this, do this" type of methodology cookbook. In fact, you could almost label it a memoir of sorts. But what's important is their underlying message that opportunities and adventure are out there, and "retirement" does not have to mean playing bingo or bridge with your friends all day (assuming that's all you can afford to do). This book rekindled my desire to keep working on those things outside my chosen profession that make me happy as well as bringing in side income. There's a real chance that those activities could be parleyed into something more, something that would make my retirement far more exciting and fulfilling than my "regular job" ever was.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 8:12 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/06/2010

Book Review - Think Twice - Lisa Scottoline

Category Book Review Lisa Scottoline Think Twice

I normally don't end up reading Lisa Scottoline's books when they first come out. No real reason... just don't tend to pick up on them early. But when Amazon Vine had her latest, Think Twice, up for review, I figured I'd get an early jump on this one. Think Twice is an interesting concept using twins to show how low someone might be able to go to regain their identity. I probably lost a bit of the impact given that the characters have a history from other books that I didn't read, but it was still an enjoyable book nonetheless.

The plot revolves around Bennie Rosato and her twin sister Alice Connolly. Bennie is the successful lawyer who has the money through careful living. Alice is her twin sister with an evil streak that runs very deep. Bennie successfully defended Alice from a murder charge awhile back, but they still are not close by any stretch. Alice lures Bennie to her "home" for a dinner gathering, basically to just "catch up." Alice has different plans, however. She drugs Bennie's drink and proceeds to box her up and bury her, pretty much thinking she'll die a cruel and slow death. Meanwhile, Alice steals Bennie's identity and impersonates her just long enough to get an off-shore account set up to transfer three million dollars. As a con artist, she's *almost* fully convinced everyone that she really is Bennie, but there are a few lingering doubters still left. And what she didn't plan on was Bennie somehow surviving her burial and returning to hunt her down with a score to settle...

Overall, Think Twice was an enjoyable read. Yes, there's a bit of "suspension of reality" that needs to occur, but it's a novel... just go with it. It also made you think about what it might be like to have no way to prove you are who you say you are, especially when someone else has taken over your identity and convinced everyone that you're someone else. A few of the secondary characters seemed to be missing some development, but I can chalk that up to this being a series of novels using the same people, and me not having read the previous ones. When Think Twice makes it out to your bookstore, it'd be worth the read.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:31 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/30/2010

Book Review: Blue Ice and Other Stories from the Rink by Frank Ewert

Category Book Review Frank Ewert Blue Ice and Other Stories from the Rink

When I was contacted by Frank Ewert, the author of Blue Ice and Other Stories from the Rink, asking if I wanted to review his book, I was really trying hard to say no. I have so many books backed up in my "to be read/reviewed" list, and I'm trying to cut that down some. But trying to say no to a hockey book is really hard for me... and it was only a small book... really. :) Seriously, Blue Ice is an enjoyable compilation of short story hockey fiction that captures the feel of what hockey means to a kid growing up in Canada. Bottom line, it's life and death.

If you've had anything to do with hockey over the years, many of these stories feel authentic. There's the endless loyalty to your favorite team, knowing that they just *have* to win the Cup as the Cup belongs in Canada. There's the role of the "protector" on the ice, making sure that the team hotshot isn't harassed and abused by the opponents. There's even the harebrained scheme to "liberate" the Cup from its American place of residence, when really all the guys want is to be able to see it up close. For someone who doesn't follow the game, these stories will not have much resonance. But for those of us who do, these could be taken from our own lives.

The book is short, all of 82 pages, so it won't take you very long to read it from cover to cover. But you'll have more than a few smiles on your face during that time, and a number of you will feel like you're walking down memory lane.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:32 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/30/2010

Book Review - The Devil's Punchbowl by Greg Iles

Category Book Review Greg Iles The Devil's Punchbowl

Like I needed yet another book to read on the way home from a conference... But there I was at the airport, and the book rack kept calling out to me. I ended up succumbing to the siren call and pick up The Devil's Punchbowl from Greg Iles. At 710 pages, this is one LONG paperback novel. But the storyline was pretty good, and it's kept me interested for a week of bedtime recreational reading. I think it could have been done in fewer pages, but that wasn't a horrible drawback in this case.

The main plot takes place in a small Mississippi town that derives much of its income from riverboat gambling. Penn Cage, the mayor of Natchez, took on the job to try and improve education and make the town more like the place he remembered while growing up there. But a long-time friend and struggling drug addict comes to him with a story of major corruption and vice run by the owners of the casino boat Magnolia Queen. Cage isn't quite sure whether his friend is strung out or really knows something, but decides to meet with him anyway. Shortly thereafter, Cage's friend is killed in a particularly gruesome manner, and Cage is now completely swallowed up in trying to figure out what had his friend so worried. The problem is that with as much money as the casino makes, it's quite easy to buy off any and everyone who might be able to uncover the truth. And if you can't buy someone off, killing them is just as easy and effective. Cage finds that out when his family is threatened as part of a warning. Never one to say no, this just causes Cage to rally his own troops around him, and the battle begins with many lives at stake based on the outcome. And telling the good guys from the bad guys is nearly impossible.

For such a long novel, Iles did a good job on pacing. There were only a couple spots where I thought the story started to drag, but fortunately it picked up again shortly thereafter. I see that this is the third book featuring the Cage character, so that would explain why I felt I was missing out on some nuances and background as the story unfolded. It wasn't a significant detriment to have not read the two prior books, but I could tell that some of the interactions were likely better explained by knowing the prior history of the characters. I'm tempted to head out to the library website and put the first two on hold just to catch up on the backstory, as well as to enjoy what should be a couple of good novels.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Bookstore
Payment: Purchased

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 3:54 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (3)

01/30/2010

Book Review - The Cat Whisperer: The Secret of How to Talk to Your Cat by Claire Bessant

Category Book Review Claire Bessant The Cat Whisperer: The Secret of How to Talk to Your Cat

This is one of those books that sounded a lot better in concept than it actually turned out to be... The Cat Whisperer: The Secret of How to Talk to Your Cat by Claire Bessant. It's not that there wasn't anything of value here. It's just that expectations were set a bit too high when I checked it out from the library...

Contents:
A Different World; Cat Talk; Living With Your Cat; Exploring The Relationship; Cat Characters; Intelligence and Training; A to Z of Problems and Solutions

If you already have a cat that you're getting along with, there's little in here that will rock your world. The author covers the history of cats, the basics of how they communicate, the indications you can observe on how they might be feeling, and general tips and tricks on living with your feline companion. As with all situations where you're on the outside looking in, it's completely impossible to tell exactly how accurate some of the "your cat is thinking this" advice is. But overall, her observations seem to be reasonable.

I think where I had the most problem was with the title and the expectation it set. Any title with "whisperer" in it denotes some special ability to communicate with an animal that generally defies a deep bond. Add "The Secret Of How To Talk To Your Cat" as a subtitle, and I start expecting the ability to carry on conversations. I really didn't find that here. Outside of picking up on feline body language, I didn't think there was anything "secret" to be had here.

Since it's a short book, it's an OK read if you haven't spent any time thinking about how your cat may think. But don't think you're going to become the next Cesar Millan and launch your own Cat Whisperer series on TV. It's not going to happen with this book.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 1:32 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

01/06/2010

Book Review - e Squared: A Novel by Matt Beaumont

Category Book Review Matt Beaumont e Squared: A Novel

From the Amazon Vine selections came this recreational reading choice... e Squared: A Novel by Matt Beaumont. The premise sounded interesting from my techie background... a story told as a series of emails, SMS text messages, and blogs. Set in a "hip" ad agency, I could imagine that there would be a few characters involved. And Beaumont didn't disappoint. I haven't read his first E novel, but if it's anything like this one, I probably should. e Squared is zany, very off-beat, and cruelly hilarious.

The story is structured around the different personalities that work at Meerkat360, an ad agency in England. Each of the characters has some interesting quirks that make them quite memorable. Liam O'Keefe is a loser who is deeply in debt, including owing major sums to two different loan sharks. He's forever nicking items from the office and selling them on eBay to make extra money. David Crutton is the director of the agency and has an anger management problem. He's also quite distant from his wife, who is in her 40's and just found out she's pregnant. He prefers to only communicate with her via email and let his secretary take care of all the things he should be doing. Caroline Zitter is has the title of "The Seer", but she's always off attending some strange management or personal improvement conference. So her parts in the book are always out-of-office messages stating where she's at and when she'll be back in the office... at which time she has another out-of-office message for the next conference she's at. And that's only a small sampling of the office. During the year that is covered, O'Keefe tries to lure back a lost love, dodge loan sharks, commit suicide, and make up for all the rotten stuff in his life. Crutton gets thrown out of his house, gets his daughter and son tattooed, nearly kills daughter when tattoo gets infected, and has to fly to Finland to find his son (who ran off to see a death metal band concert and got injured, losing his memory). And again, that's only a small part of all the strange and bizarre things that go on at Meerkat360...

You have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy this. It is *not* a realistic look at an ad agency. It is *not* a true-to-life portrayal of people. It's simply over-the-top fun and lunacy. And while you know these people aren't real, you do see exaggerated glimpses of many people that you've probably worked with or known over the years. That's probably what makes it so funny. e Squared is good comedy with a unique style of storytelling. I enjoyed it.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:59 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/01/2010

Book Review - Black by Christopher Whitcomb

Category Book Review Christopher Whitcomb Black

A friend recommended this novel to me... Black by Christopher Whitcomb. Since he knows I like espionage novels, he had a pretty good idea I'd like this one. And for the most part, he was right. Whitcomb brings his background as a member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team into play to write a novel that has a number of threads that all attempt to come together at the end. I say "attempt" as I wasn't overly enthused about the way it wrapped up, but up to that point it was good...

The story revolves around Jeremy Waller, a rookie member of the Hostage Rescue Team. He has an instinct to do things that most agents wouldn't think of in tight situations, and as such he's relatively unpredictable to both his enemies and his fellow agents. He gets sucked into a black ops trip into the Middle East to assassinate a high-ranking Al-Queda leader. But things go bad as a large number of innocents get gunned down as collaterial damage. He's having a very hard time dealing with that, and his questions are being covered up at every level above him. At the same time, Senator Elizabeth Beechum, a staunch defender of the intelligence community, is going head to head with a billionaire, Jordan Mitchell, who has developed a cell phone encryption technique that has rendered government evesdropping obsolete. And what's worse, he's going to sell it to the Saudis. The Senator is set up on a murder charge and is systematically stripped of her Senate posts bit by bit. Mitchell is set to make billions more with his cell phones, which may have a secondary feature built in that no one knows about. And on top of it all, a newly minted executive at his company, Sirad Malneaux, is not all she appears to be. Mitchell knows that her background is false, but wants to follow her to see where it leads. She has no objection to using her charms to get what she wants, and what she wants are the plans for what Mitchell is up to. All these threads start interweaving to a final confrontation where no one seems to be who they appeared to be after all...

Leading up to the end, I liked the story. Waller's striving to make the cut to become a member of the HRT... Malneaux's mysterious background... Mitchell's view that making money should trump government intelligence needs. Watching Waller work through various training missions and actual hostage situations was engrossing, as you didn't know quite how things were going to turn out in either case. As the book progressed, I started to wonder exactly how all these threads were going to come together in the end, as they remained distinct for the longest time. And unfortunately, I wasn't rewarded with the best payoff in my opinion. The ending felt contrived and hollow, and seemed to be nothing more than a setup for a follow-on novel (which is probably his next book White).

I'll probably end up reading the next novel in the series in hopes that Whitcomb builds out the characters in their new roles and does a better job in wrapping up a story. And I'm not sorry I read this one, either. It's just that I would have liked a better ending than I got...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 5:05 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/01/2010

Book Review - Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter

Category Book Review Sam Carpenter Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less

What do you do if you're working 100 hour weeks running your own business year after year, and you're on the brink of bankruptcy, both financially and emotionally? Sam Carpenter was in exactly that situation with his call-answering service in Bend, Oregon. While laying in bed one night looking at the imminent death of his company, he was able to step outside himself and view the business from a different perspective. That event led him to build a business that is now a thriving entity, one that doesn't require much time at all to run in an efficient and accurate manner. Carpenter shares those thoughts in his book Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less. Once you have it explained, it all starts to fall into place as to how he was able to turn things around. And the material here can make the same type of difference both in your personal and professional life.

Contents:
Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction - The Simplest Solution
Part One - The Mindset: Control Is a Good Thing; A System of Systems; The Attack of the Moles; Gun-to-the-Head Enlightenment; Execution and Transformation; systems Revealed, Systems Managed; Getting It
Part Two - Critical Documentation: Swallowing the Horse Pill; We Are Project Engineers; Your Strategic Objective and General Operating Principles; Your Working Procedures
Part Three - Further Considerations: Good Enough; Errors of Omission; Quiet Courage; Point-of-Sale Thinking; Extraordinary Systems Operated by Great People; Consistency and Cold Coffee; Communications - Grease for the Wheels; Prime Time; The Traffic Circles of Pakistan; System Improvement as a Way of Life
Appendixes: Ockham's Razor and the TSR; Centratel's Strategic Objective; Centratel's 30 Principles; Centratel's Procedure for Procedures; Centratel's System for Communictions
References; Index

Carpenter was running a phone answering service as CEO while also trying to be a single dad. Due to constant turnover of staff, customer complaints, and a negative balance sheet, he was in constant danger of having to shut down since he couldn't meet payroll. This played out repeatedly until he was on the brink of losing it all. His moment of enlightenment came one night while laying in bed. He started to see his business as a system of systems, systems that would work together without effort if each one was designed to be efficient. Instead of being in constant firefighting mode, he could step back and address individual system issues. As the most troublesome systems were overhauled and documented, he could focus on others. The continual improvement of each of the interlocking processes had a huge impact on the business, allowing him to decrease complaints, reduce turnover, raise rates, and pay his staff better than average wages for the industry. Now he has an abundance of time to spend on more important business and personal pursuits, and the business nearly runs itself.

His system is highly dependent on making sure that every process in the business is documented, and that there is a consistent process for doing everything. Everyone in the company has the ability to instantly call a meeting to propose a change to a procedure if it will make the process better. And with a strategic objective and operating principles in place, everyone is working towards the same goal and the same philosophy as everyone else. In many ways, this sounds similar to process improvement programs that were popular ten years ago. But Carpenter presents it with far less methodology and complex structure as "experts" did back then. And Carpenter's approach also makes sense for application in your personal life. If you see your life as a series of systems, you can simplify and improve things there by optimizing the different parts.

The only thing I didn't care much for in the book is that a lot of time is spent in the beginning going over what led to Carpenter's revelation and why it was important. And in fact, he admits to repeating some of the material in different ways to cause it to become firmly cemented in your mind. I personally could have done with a bit less of that, but it doesn't negate the value of the book or his approach.

If you're running a business that seems to be living on the edge of failure, or if you're working for a company that isn't making much progress, Work The System could be the thing that frees you up to take things to the next level.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 2:42 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/01/2010

Book Review - Clutter Clearing Choices: Clear Clutter, Organize Your Home and Reclaim Your Life by Barbara Tako

Category Book Review Barbara Tako Clutter Clearing Choices: Clear Clutter Organize Your Home and Reclaim Your Life

I was contacted by Barbara Tako asking if I would be interested in reading and reviewing her book Clutter Clearing Choices: Clear Clutter, Organize Your Home & Reclaim Your Life. Being someone who is continually plagued by the clutter bug (both my own and my kids'), I was of course interested. I'll admit I was expecting some type of methodology on how to eliminate clutter, but that's not what this is. Instead, it is a realistic view on how clutter affects your life and how "fixing" it is not as easy or as quick as experts might lead you to believe. She also has a definition of clutter than went beyond what I normally think, and that single idea was worth the reading by itself for me.

Tako's book reads more like a journal of one person's effort over the course of a year to declutter her life. She divides up the material into four "seasons": Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. As you might expect, certain seasons have different clutter challenges. Winter has New Year's resolutions which often involve cleaning up areas of your life. There's also cleaning up the air in your house (less stagnant), learning to live with less, and (if you have kids) cleaning up the massive numbers of toys that aren't played with on a regular basis. Spring gets into the traditional "spring cleaning", how to more easily maintain a clean home, and even decluttering your diet to eat more healthy. Summer moves to the outside realm, with yard clutter, kitchen organization, and family vacations. There's also the focus on decluttering your schedule (especially with kids) so you can focus on stuff that is important, rather than just being "busy." Finally, fall moves into organization for the upcoming holidays, as well as cleaning up paperwork and other areas that need to be in shape before the winter season keeps you locked up in the house.

Because Tako writes in a very personal manner, you don't get the impression that she's an expert who has it all together. In fact, it's just the opposite... she admits where she struggles, and what areas seem to defy organization for her after repeated attempts. And because it's not a methodology she's pushing, it's not as if you have to wonder if this works in real life. Not all of her chapters seem to touch on clutter as you normally think of it. For instance, cooking simple meals and deciding what you're going to have for dinner by 8 am that day doesn't seem like a "clutter" issue. But doing this can reduce stress and guilt over food prep and choices, and less stress can lead to less clutter...

One aspect of clutter that she *does* touch on which impacted me was life clutter. Decluttering your life might mean getting an exercise and diet program in place to remove the "clutter" of extra weight and lethargy. It might mean ending certain relationships that are sucking up too much time and energy for what you get back from them. Or it could mean addressing a certain mindset that places roadblocks in your way, stopping you from moving forward. Viewing those things as "clutter" is something I've not done before, and it gives me a different perspective and slant on getting solutions and fixes in place to clean them out.

If you're expecting a "steps 1, 2, and 3" approach in Clutter Clearing Choices, you might be disappointed. But if you want to see someone who is trying to fix the problem herself and is open to sharing the struggles, this book works very well.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 1:12 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/01/2010

Book Review - Small Change: Little Things Make A Big Difference by Susan Terkel and Larry Terkel

Category Book Review Susan Terkel Larry Terkel Small Change: Little Things Make A Big Difference

It's somehow appropriate that I make this review on New Years Day, the day when everyone talks about making changes in their lives... Small Change: Little Things Make A Big Difference by Susan & Larry Terkel. The Terkels make the contention that implementing huge changes all at once are bound to fail due to the overwhelming resistance we'll face. Instead, making a series of small changes are much easier and will add up over time. Trying to walk 150 miles is overwhelming. Walking one bus stop further each day will add up to those same 150 miles over a year. While not appropriate for *every* situation you'll face, the Terkels make a very good point...

Contents:
Introduction: A Better Way to a Better You
Chapter 1: How to Apply Small Change to Your Life
Chapter 2: Small Changes for Better Health
Chapter 3: Small Changes for Better Relationships
Chapter 4: Small Changes for a Healthier, More Creative Mind
Chapter 5: Small Change at Work
Chapter 6: Small Change for More Happiness
Conclusion: A Little Pep Talk

Applying small changes to your life follows five rules according to the book: 1) Look Closely at What You Do Every Day; 2) Make Only One Change at a Time; 3) Make Small Change a Constant in Your Life; 4) Trust the Power of Small Change, and Remember, It Will Add Up; and 5) Enjoy Making Small Changes. All this makes a lot of sense, and it's close to being a "duh!" concept except for the fact that most of us never follow it. We try to make lots of sweeping changes at once, and few stick. If instead you make one small change at a time, you can focus completely on that change, incorporate it into your life, and let the rewards start accumulating. For instance, on the exercise side you might commit to taking the stairs once a day. It's tempting to say you'll NEVER take the elevator again, but that will fail. If you can commit to taking the stairs the first time in the morning, then you will have climbed an untold number of stairs by the end of the year and burned far more calories than you would have otherwise. It's the same concept with fidgeting... tap your toes, pace, or do some other little movement during regular events. It's been shown that small stuff like that can burn 300 to 500 more calories a day. Think of what THAT would do for you over a year.

I personally was impacted by the section on making small changes in your conversation. I need to focus on that, by looking at certain habits like being the Prosecutor, the Fact Checker, or the I Top You conversationalist. They have 14 different traits listed in this section, and most everyone is guilty of at least one or more. My goal will not to be to change all of them at once, as that goes against the rule of changing just one thing at a time. But once I have one addressed to a significant degree, I can move on to the next. And perhaps in six to twelve months, I will have one area of my life better managed. :)

Small Change definitely goes against the conventional method of making sweeping changes all at once (and failing). But there's a much better chance you'll take something away from this book that will make a difference in your life if you're patient enough to trust that the small change *will* add up over time...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 11:13 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/01/2010

Book Review - Depraved Indifference by Joseph Teller

Category Book Review Joseph Teller Depraved Indifference

From the Amazon Vine review program came an entertaining read... Depraved Indifference by Joseph Teller. This legal thriller uses Teller's Jaywalker character, but that meant little to me as I've not read any of Teller's prior books. That'll change after reading this one. Teller writes a tight and witty novel that's fun to read and has a number of unexpected twists at the end. And I didn't even get too bogged down in the personal crusade he soapboxes on here.

Harrison J. Walker, aka Jaywalker, is working off his disciplinary suspension from practicing law due to a "minor indiscretion" on his last case. A "chance" encounter brings him into *close* contact with one Amanda Drake, the wife of Clark Drake who is charged with nine counts of murder. He was driving drunk when he allegedly ran a van off the road, leading to the burning deaths of all the occupants, eight of which were children. Jaywalker knows the case will nearly be impossible to win, as the kids were Jewish and the case is being tried in a heavily Jewish community in New York. But his checkbook changes his mind when Amanda offers a $5000 retainer on the spot. No matter that he legally can't represent anyone quite yet. That's just a technicality until he can get reinstated and officially take the case over...

Clark is acknowledging that he had been drinking, but that he was far from drunk. The erratic driving was due to a hornet being trapped in the car, and he was trying to swat it with a rolled-up newspaper. It makes sense when you know that he is severely allergic to bee stings, but can Jaywalker convince a jury of that? The deeper he digs, the more Jaywalker is convinced that he's being played by Amanda, that there's a side of the whole story that isn't being told to anyone, much less him. As the case actually starts in front of the jury, new revelations are coming fast and furious, and Jaywalker has to figure out on the spot how best to play the new information. One mistake can mean the difference between his client's freedom or life behind bars.

It was quite easy to get into this novel. The Jaywalker character is irreverent and street-wise, and Teller's writing reflects that well. The story kept me hanging as to what piece of information wasn't being told. And even when I got to the end with the plot twist I expected, the action wasn't over. Also, while I normally get very impatient with novel writers that have some agenda to push, it didn't bother me here. He's pointing out that thousands of people drive drunk every day, and it's considered a "normal" crime. But if someone dies as a result of the same person driving drunk, it suddenly becomes an action characterized by "depraved indifference" to life. According to Teller, it's either *always* depraved indifference or it never is. You can't add a characteristic of motive based solely on outcome. While I may not agree emotionally with him, he does have a point...

Depraved Indifference was a great read and excellent entertainment. I'll definitely be going back to catch up on the earlier exploits of Jaywalker.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 9:55 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/01/2010

Book Review - U.S. Army Hand-to-Hand Combat - Department of the Army

Category Book Review Department of the Army U.S. Army Hand-to-Hand Combat

So if you're interested in hand-to-hand combat, you'd think the US Army might be a decent authority on the subject. Our library recently got a copy of U.S. Army Hand-to-Hand Combat in for lending, and I thought I'd give it a look. The first thing you should know in terms of setting expectations is that this is from the Army field manual 21-150, dated June 14, 1954... yeah, 1954. Granted, in 55 years the human body still has the same weak spots and strike points to do major damage in a fight. But in terms of readability and photographic illustration, things *have* advanced. What I found here is that this book is a strange mix of information and (unintended) humor...

The manual covers a variety of subjects, such as vulnerable points, knife attacks, silencing sentries, fall position and throws, holds and escapes, disarming methods, and prisoner handling. While I don't expect to have to silence any sentries or handle any prisoners in the foreseeable future, learning how to find and exploit vulnerable points could be a lifesaver if you find yourself in a position of having to defend yourself against an attacker. And for vulnerable points, it's really more brute force than technique. If there's an opening for you to go for the groin or nose, do it. Many of the other chapters would involve extensive practice before you could pull off the maneuvers. And since the goal is to react first without thinking, that sort of negates the short-term advantage of reading this material.

I would recommend that you take the advice and information in this book very carefully, however. The goal in many of the points here is to kill the attacker. Not disable, not subdue, but flat-out kill. If you were to be attacked on the street, you might find yourself in an awkward position legally if you over-react and kill your attacker if it's found that deadly force was not appropriate. On the other hand, in our current society I think you almost *have* to assume that any conflict might well end up escalating to a point of using deadly force. There are some seriously disturbed people out there...

Humor-wise, you have to love the stilted pictures and poses of the people showing the moves. Think cheesy 1950's style pictures, and you're pretty close. Two (or more) men in military garb, posing for attack, all with blank expressions on their faces. Combat is such a sterile sport... :)

Also a word of warning for those reading this review on Amazon... The product description of this book is flat-out wrong. I don't know what book they're describing, but this one has *nothing* to do with XM320 grenade launchers and future combat systems...

There's value to be had here in terms of self-defense techniques. But unless you're into retro-defense arts, there are probably far more useful and effective books out there for you.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 9:04 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/28/2009

Book Review - The Promise Doctrine (A guidebook and system for consistently delivering on your promises!) by Craig P. Womack and Jason W. Womack

Category Book Review Craig P. Womack Jason W. Womack The Promise Doctrine (A guidebook and system for consistently delivering on your promises!)

With all the things we have coming into us each day, it's easy to say "I promise to do x" and then just sort of forget about it. But doing that repeatedly causes your reputation and authenticity to take a serious hit. Craig P. Womack and Jason W. Womack cover this situation in their new book The Promise Doctrine (A guidebook and system for consistently delivering on your promises!). Given my recent track record on delivering on promises, this was a timely (and excellent) read and review for me.

Contents:
Chapter 1 - What's On Your Promise "Plate"?
Chapter 2 - Why This, Why Now?
Chapter 3 - So, Let's Get Started
Chapter 4 - Promise Making
Chapter 5 - The Promise Journey
Chapter 6 - The Promise Doctrine
- Element One - PROMISE
- Element Two - PERFORM
- Element Three - HURDLES
- Element Four - RENEGOTIATE
- Element Five - TRUST
- Element Six - CELEBRATE
The Promise Guide

First off, the Womacks set up the reason why making *and keeping* promises is important. Promises are similar to goals, in that once you make a promise, you need to be able to take the necessary steps to follow through and complete the action. When you make promises without the intention (or the plans) to keep them, people start to doubt your reliability and truthfulness. And once you've lost that, it's very hard to regain. It's best to treat those promises as "to do's" that are not open for failure. If a promise isn't unfolding like you anticipated, then you renegotiate to reset expectations. But you do *not* just "not do it".

There were a couple of elements here that I had never associated with promise making and keeping. One is to view a promise as a goal. A goal is really just a promise to yourself (or someone else) that you will accomplish something. When I think of promise keeping as goal setting, it puts me on somewhat more familiar ground on how to make sure I bring the promise to fulfillment. The other element I had not thought of was treating promises as "to do" items a la the "Getting Things Done" methodology. Mind sweeps to get all your promises down on paper empty your mind so that you're not leaking mental energy trying to remember everything. Once they're down on paper, it's much easier to track each one and figure out what needs to be done next to keep things on track.

The Promise Doctrine isn't some complex system or "way out of left field" new-age philosophy. It's just solid information on how to stay real to yourself and others by delivering on things that you promise to do and perform. Simply recognizing promises in the way that Craig and Jason outline helps you see the problem for what it is, and puts you on a solid path for getting things back where they should be. An excellent read...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 7:47 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/20/2009

Book Review - The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo

Category Book Review Carmine Gallo The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience

Steve Jobs is, by most accounts, one of the best public speakers of our time. His keynote addresses at conferences and in front of his own company are smooth, informative, and very well done. But what is it that makes a Jobs talk stand out from all the rest? Carmine Gallo sets out to dissect what makes Steve Jobs "insanely great" in the book The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. Gallo does an excellent job in getting beyond the myth and legend, and analyzes what goes into Jobs' presentations that we can use to become much better ourselves.

Contents:
Act 1 - Create The Story: Scene 1 - Plan in Analog; Scene 2 - Answer the One Question That Matters Most; Scene 3 - Developer a Messianic Sense of Purpose; Scene 4 - Create Twitter-Like Headlines; Scene 5 - Draw a Road Map; Scene 6 - Introduce the Antagonist; Scene 7 - Reveal the Conquering Hero; Intermission 1 - Obey the Ten-Minute Rule
Act 2 - Deliver The Experience: Scene 8 - Channel Their Inner Zen; Scene 9 - Dress Up Your Numbers; Scene 10 - Use "Amazingly Zippy" Words; Scene 11 - Share the Stage; Scene 12 - Stage Your Presentation with Props; Scene 13 - Reveal a "Holy Shit" Moment; Intermission 2 - Schillier Learns from the Best
Act 3 - Refine and Rehearse: Scene 14 - Master Stage Presence; Scene 15 - Make it Look Effortless; Scene 16 - Wear the Appropriate Costume; Scene 17 - Toss the Script; Scene 18 - Have Fun
Encore: One More Thing; Notes; Index

Those who look very adept at a skill, who make it look really easy, have likely spent an inordinate amount of hours making it look that way. Steve Jobs is a prime example. His talks are all shaped to inspire the listener and to get them to remember one or two simple things. In Gallo's book, you the reader get an inside look as to how that works and how you too can use the same type of structure to improve your talks. For instance, Jobs doesn't sit down in Keynote and start creating slides. Time is spent developing a story and planning out the talk using those "old" tools of paper and pencil. This avoids the tendency to get locked into your slides before you even know what you're going to say. From there, you have to figure out the *one* point you want the listener to remember, and then become incredibly focused on making that point impossible to forget. To get people to remember and talk about that point, you need to have those short, catchy phrases that could fit on Twitter... 140 characters of information and image that doesn't fade over time. And to complete the story and make it flow, you need to have the "bad guy" (the situation that's currently less than ideal), and the "good guy" (what you're proposing to make the world a better place).

All the parts of Act 1 are simply planning for what is going to go into the talk. I find that most people (including myself) don't spend nearly as much time on that part as they should. Acts 2 and 3 are the parts where most books and speakers focus on... looking good and smooth on stage. But again, if you don't have a good message structured well, then it doesn't matter how well you perform... it's all fluff. But assuming you have a solid story, acts 2 and 3 are filled with excellent information. For instance, dressing up your numbers is a simple thing but often overlooked. Telling someone an iPod has 8gb of memory is meaningless. But telling them that they can carry 15000 songs in their shirt pocket gives a mental image that won't be forgotten. You can tell people how something's going to look, but if you have a prop that visually and tactilely reinforces the message, you're making a much bigger impact.

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is a book that steps behind the curtain and shows how much work goes into making things seem simple and elegant. While no one may mistake you for Steve Jobs while you're on stage, you *can* use the same techniques to improve your message and presentation to get a whole lot closer. Definitely a recommended read for all speakers.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 9:04 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (2)

12/20/2009

Book Review - Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett

Category Book Review Robert Jackson Bennett Mr. Shivers

On the last round of Amazon Vine review items I could choose from, I picked up a number of recreational reads with the holidays coming up. One of the book was Mr. Shivers, a debut novel by Robert Jackson Bennett. The general premise sounded promising. During the Depression, a man leaves his wife to go search for the killer of his young daughter. He has to track down the man by following hints and rumors, riding trains and staying in hobo camps as he gets closer and closer to the killer. But the closer he gets, the more bizarre things seem to become. And it's there that the story went from pretty good to "huh?"

Connelly is the rail rider who is searching for the man with the scarred face, the one they call Mr. Shivers. Along the way, he finds others who are on the same quest, and he throws his lot in with them to have more numbers by which to deal out his revenge. They pin down Mr. Shivers in a ghost town where people have left to avoid an advancing dust storm. But before he walks off into the storm, Shivers takes another victim with him from the group. The search starts again after the storm, but now there seem to be more people fighting back, people who are somehow controlled by Shivers. But for some reason, Connelly and Shivers are linked and their lives are destined to meet in a final confrontation.

While Bennett was telling the story of Connelly hunting down Shivers, things stayed on track pretty well. But the dust storm episode seemed to be a turning point in style, and then a lot of time was spent in strange mystical ramblings and mental exploration. The story (for me, at least) started to get extremely muddled, and the ending didn't do much to resolve much of what went on before. I was definitely going to finish it at that point, but had it started out in that same fashion, I'm not sure I would have made it to page 50.

Mr. Shivers would have done well to stay on the action track and not devolve into the metaphysical realm. After getting into the book on the action premise, the switch felt like a major letdown.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 8:09 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/14/2009

Book Review - The Writer's Essential Tackle Box: Getting a Hook on the Publishing Industry by Lynn Price

Category Book Review Lynn Price The Writer's Essential Tackle Box: Getting a Hook on the Publishing Industry

I'm starting to move into the book writing realm, and I'm doing as much reading as I can to find out exactly how the business of publishing works. I found Lynn Price's blog, Behler Blog, during my research, and found she also had a book titled The Writer's Essential Tackle Box: Getting a Hook on the Publishing Industry. Loving her snarky style there meant that I was looking forward to a whole book's worth. And she didn't disappoint. Price has a great format that combines knowledge from a variety of sources, and shares her own wisdom in her unique style.

Contents:
Section 1 - Interviews - Casting the flyrod: Agents; The Book Review; Marketing and Sales; Book Shepherd; Bookstore events; Cover design; Distributor; Independent Editor; Warehouse Distribution; Internet Resources; Publicists; Websites; Conclusion
Section 2 - "Forget the bait, pass me the Maalox" - The Submission Process: Before You Bait Your Hook; Myth busting; The Log Line; The Pitch; Author Bio - creating something from nothing; Word count; The Snooze-less Query letter; The s-s-sy-sy-synopsis; Submissions Advice; Apres le query/submission; Rejection; "So why did you reject me?"; The Promotion Plan
Section 3 - "Chumming the Waters": Publishers Are Not Created Equally; The Players; Print-on-Demand - POD; Questions every writer should ask a publisher before querying; Vanity/Subsidy Publication - pay to play
Section 4 - "The Writer's Survival Style Guide": When a manuscript feels sick; Punctuation Beerfest; Submission Autopsy - Part 1 - Show vs. Tell; Submission Autopsy - Part 2 - Backstory, Fluff and Good Intentions; Submission Autopsy - Part 3 - Dialog tags; Submission Autopsy - Part 4 - POV; Physical Descriptions in Blocks of Text - Watch Out For Those Bosoms; Survival Style Guide; Watchful Writing - Mind Your Characters; Do Miracles Happen?
Conclusion; Index

Unlike books that tend to focus on fiction, non-fiction, or specific genres, Price offers up information that spans all writing types. Section 1 consists of interviews with a number of professionals in the publishing business. These interviews give the reader an understanding of everything that happens once you have a book or manuscript that is ready to be sprung on an unsuspecting public. From getting an agent to getting your book on shelves to letting people know your book exists, you'll get a solid understanding and perspective of what you can realistically expect. And the key word here is "realistic". Price and her interviewees don't sugarcoat the information or blow smoke. This is all hard work, and the more you know, the better.

Sections 2 through 4 moves the subject material back onto the side where Price controls the action... the publishing firm. Here she deals with what an editor will look for in terms of story, pitch, and writing. She answers the most important questions, such as what makes a successful query letter, how best to approach an editor, and the etiquette of following up on your submission. This manuscript might be the most important thing in your life, but it's just one of hundreds of submissions that the editor sees on an annual basis. Don't expect them to have the same love for your work as you do... unless you can successfully get them excited about it with your query. Section 3 is also very important, as she deals with the topic of "self-publishing" your work. As a traditional publisher, she has some definite views on that topic. You may disagree or feel like the old publishing model is dead, but her basic information is solid, and you'll be able to approach that path with eyes wide open if you choose to travel it.

I personally loved Section 4... Price is at her snarky best here. She pulls no punches on exposing bad writing and sloppy habits, but she also offers ways to clean it up. I hate to admit that I recognized myself more than once in there, so I have plenty of work to do. I also know of at least two editors who would send chocolate to Ms. Price if she could cure me of the "wasies"...

The Writer's Essential Tackle Box: Getting a Hook on the Publishing Industry is an excellent reference tool for anyone who has fantasies of one day being a published author. Yes, you might get lucky and have everything just fall into your lap without working at it, but it's far more likely you'll have to travel the ground that Price has mapped out for you. And her map will make your voyage much more productive.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 8:11 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/13/2009

Book Review - Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun

Category Book Review Scott Berkun Confessions of a Public Speaker

There are plenty of "proper" books that try and teach you how to stand up in public and give a talk in front of numerous people. And usually, these books are filled with numerous stories of successful talks and perfect scenarios. But let's be real... Life isn't like that, and *especially* when your talk tends to cover technical topics. Scott Berkun draws on his own *very* real experiences as a speaker in Confessions of a Public Speaker to help you through the trials and travails of being on stage. It's a great read, and I recommend it for any speaker (or speaker wannabe).

Contents:
I can't see you naked; The attack of the butterflies; $30000 an hour; How to work a tough room; Do not eat the microphone; Photos you don't expect to see; The science of not boring people; Lessons from my 15 minutes of fame; The things people say; The clutch is your friend; Confessions; Backstage notes; The little things pros do; How to make a point; What to do if your talk sucks; What to do when things go wrong; You can't do worse than this; Research and recommendations; How to help this book - a request; Acknowledgments; Photo credits; Index; About the author

You know you're going to get a "different" book with a disclaimer up front that compares his view of speaking to sausage. "Some people like seeing how sausage is made, but many do not." So true... Scott has had talks where thousands have hung on his every word, and others where five people showed up in a room that would house the same thousand. As such, he's qualified to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly of public speaking. He's realistic about what you can expect from pursuing the goal of becoming a public speaker. The odds are stacked against you making $10000 a talk like big name CEOs, actors, and politicians. But if you practice and take your preparation seriously, you *can* have some fun doing it. Berkun's tips and techniques are just what you need to step up another level.

There were a number of topics that I thought were critically important. "Eating the microphone" is one of the worst things to suffer through as a member of the audience. It's when the speaker has not prepared, is fumbling through their notes, and shows a complete and total lack of respect for the audience's time and attention. If it's important enough for them to be there, it's even more important for you to be prepared with your material and to make the audience the #1 priority. Another point is made in the chapter on not boring people. It's far too easy to "shrink" when you get up on stage, thinking that you don't want to be egotistical or a know-it-all. But you *do* need to project power and authority. In other words, you have to be larger than you normally are, to play a role that may not be natural but is necessary to be successful. Both of these points (and a number of others) have me thinking about my next speaking opportunity and what I might do differently to make it more successful.

Confessions of a Public Speaker is one of those books I'd like to see handed out to every speaker at conferences I attend. Not only would it make the speakers better than they often are, but it would improve the experience for the attendees who pay significant amounts of money to show up. The time spent reading Confessions is time VERY well spent for everyone involved. Oh, and by the way... you *have* to read the book to the VERY end... yes, even the colophon and the following page. It's like sticking around past the movie credits for the short surprise clip... :)

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 5:30 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/13/2009

Book Review - Gutshot Straight by Lou Berney

Category Book Review Lue Berney Gutshot Straight

With the latest newsletters from Amazon Vine, I decided I needed some diversionary reading entertainment. One of the books I chose was Gutshot Straight by Lou Berney. I was sucked into it by a description that mentioned a similarity to Hiaasen and Dorsey. Now while I don't think it was quite like those two writers from a stylistic standpoint, it *was* entertaining. I'd definitely pick up a Lou Berney novel in the future based on this one.

Charles "Shake" Bouchon has just made it out of jail after serving some time for Grand Theft Auto. He really wants to avoid getting back into that lifestyle, but within a couple hours of getting out, he's confronted with his old life again. A former "employer" wants him to do a simple job... drive a car to a particular location, deliver the contents in the trunk, do NOT look in the trunk, and bring back a briefcase. But curiosity gets the best of him, and he looks... only to discover he's delivering a rather attractive woman, Gina, to someone who will probably not let her stay that way very long. He attempts to make a deal with the recipient to let Gina go and just forget the whole thing. But of course THAT doesn't go over very well. He decides to make a run for it anyway, only to be double-crossed by Gina who he believes to be a housewife, but who is instead a stripper and street rat herself. Thus starts a crazy chase across continents. Shake and Gina have a briefcase with "interesting" contents worth millions to the right person, and two different crimelords who are after them for some stolen money, the contents of the briefcase, AND Gina (who still has a price on her head). And to complicate things even more, Shake isn't too sure he can trust her in the clutch (or any other time).

Gutshot Straight was a lot of fun. Shake is a very likable small-time criminal who has problems being the "bad person" he needs to be to survive. Gina is hard to nail down with her ever-shifting stories and alliances. Together there's a tension that made me keep reading to find out what strange twist would happen next. In terms of a fun read that let me get away from reality for a bit, this worked very well.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 12:26 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/13/2009

Book Review - The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace

Category Book Review H. Keith Melton Robert Wallace The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception

So what does magic and spycraft have in common? Actually, more than I thought. The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace take the reader back to the 1950's when the CIA was doing everything possible to counter the Soviet threat to the "American way of life." A program codenamed "Mkultra" included some non-conventional ways to match the Soviets when it came to mind control and covert activities. One of those side projects included the study of how magic techniques could help agents disguise their moves and communications. The CIA called John Mulholland, a very well-known magician of the day, and had him teach agents his ability to create distractions and misdirections. The result of this project was a manual thought to be destroyed in the 1970's. But a couple of preserved copies were later found, and we now have a look into a unique period in espionage history.

The book starts off with the two authors giving some historical background and context to the project and to Mulholland. While the CIA had a vast array of devices and drugs for use in the field, they weren't exact easy to administer and use in a covert fashion. Mulholland then started changing the mindset of agents around things like stage management, misdirection, sleight of hand, disguises, escaping, concealments, and other topics. After the introduction material, the book consists of the actual text of the Mulholland manual, complete with clarified illustrations that were present in the original report.

I found the subject interesting, in that I normally don't connect magic with the type of works a covert agent would employ. But they really are similar in many senses. Misdirection when you're trying to plant a bug or drug someone... Hiding tools on one's person to help with escape... Working with partners to establish a cover that will distract the watcher. It is certainly a worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in how to be more "sneaky" if that's something they need to be able to do on a regular basis. It's not the best read in terms of flow (remember, this *was* a classified CIA report initially), but the content stands out.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 11:01 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/07/2009

Book Review - Gator-A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey

Category Book Review Tim Dorsey Gator-A-Go-Go

So Tim Dorsey is back with another Serge A. Storms novel, Gator-A-Go-Go, and we have a breakneck trip around Florida learning about all the Florida history they never teach you in school. In this installment, Serge is working on his own documentary on the phenomenon that is Spring Break in Florida. And as with every other Dorsey novel, it's nearly impossible to try and explain the plot to someone as there is so much going on. But that's half the fun of a Dorsey novel... things happen that you just can't explain. :)

Serge and Coleman end up on the Florida coast during Spring Break, and of course there are plenty of babes and beer for all. In fact, Coleman is basically a god given his all-out expertise in partying without a net. While out filming, Serge ends up stumbling onto something that doesn't quite sit well with him. A group of young kids he's befriended seem to be the target of a group of paid assassins. While Serge isn't quite sure *why* they want to kill one of the kids, he also knows he won't let it happen on his watch. Thus starts a wild string of events where plots and stories intersect, diverge, and find each other again. And all the while, Serge is planning his own brand of justice and revenge on those who are after him. And if you know how Serge kills people, that's half the fun of the story...

Gator seemed to be somewhat different than previous Serge novels, in that there's an undertone of seriousness in the way Serge goes about his actions as things heat up. Normally he's all over the map emotionally and mentally, but that trait was tightened down when lives were on the line. I suppose some could find that a little disappointing, but I found it more interesting than anything else. It seemed to turn Serge into a more real person than he was in earlier novels. Coleman had a bit of that going on also. Yes, he's still completely stoned or drunk all of the time, but now he has a following of spring breakers who are learning how to party with the best. Coleman is actually passing along knowledge instead of simply bumbling along from one high to another. Granted, you wouldn't want your kids to *have* that particular knowledge he's giving them, but it's still a change from the character in the past.

Overall, Gator was exactly what I wanted when I got the book... wild, crazy, and no way to prepare yourself for what will happen next. Dorsey's hard to beat when it comes to this type of writing.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 5:18 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/29/2009

Book Review - Kindred in Death by J. D. Robb

Category Book Review J. D. Robb Kindred in Death

As usual, J. D. Robb's (aka Nora Roberts) latest In Death novel went to the top of my "to be read" piles when it arrived at the library... Kindred in Death. Not sure if it was due to a lot of busy-ness going on in my life or what, but this one didn't seem to jump out and grab me like the others have on a consistent basis. Nothing overtly wrong with it... it just seemed to be missing that "something" that makes each Eve Dallas crime mystery such a treat for me.

Dallas is actually taking a full three day holiday as Kindred starts. In fact, she's quite happy, feeling decadent, and may even allow herself to be talked into going away to a small island for a day or two. Easy enough when your husband Roarke has all the money in the world. But crime doesn't take a vacation, and Dallas is tagged by name to take the lead on a particularly gruesome case. A police captain returns home from vacation to find his teenage daughter brutally murdered in their house. He wants the best person in the force to find the killer, and that means Dallas. Dallas has to bury her own history of abuse as a child to handle the raw emotions and cold cruelty of the killer. But as soon as Dallas and her team get close, they realize that the killer has lead them astray with yet another false identity. Unless they can figure out why the targets were chosen (and who will be next), they'll be powerless to stop the killing in time to save one or more lives.

So why didn't Kindred pop for me? The closest I can come to figuring that out is the underlying plot that is driving the killer. It strings out quite a ways, and when it does become clear I didn't find myself buying into it very deeply. The secondary plot involves Dallas getting roped into being the maid of honor for a close friend who is getting married, and of course she's completely out of her element when it comes to expressing anything approaching hospitality and emotional friendship. :) It's typical Dallas, and it does tie back into previous storylines, but again I just wasn't as deeply involved as I normally find myself.

I still like the In Death series, and by no means am I thinking this is the beginning of the downward slide. I'll just chalk this one up to being slightly off as well as coming at a time where I wasn't as fully interested as normal.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 5:52 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/29/2009

Book Review - The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Category Book Review Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler's Wife

Ok... I actually took a little humorous flak for reading a "chick lit" book... The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. True, I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own, but it came recommended by someone who has a good track record in recommending books for me to read. And again they were right... I didn't see the novel as something that would only appeal to women. Yes, there is a strong romance undercurrent to the story, but the constant time traveling and event shifting made it highly interesting. There was also the question of what you would tell people if you knew what their lives would turn out to be.

Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire have a unique relationship. Henry is a time traveler, someone who is thrown around in time and space without rhyme or reason. While married to Clare, he travels back to meet her when she's six and he's 36. But it's a strange meeting, as he appears from nowhere, and he always does so without any clothes (they don't time travel with him). They have a special spot in the meadow behind the house where she stores clothes for him to wear, and he becomes a regular part of her life as he can tell her when he'll appear next. He has to balance telling her how her life plays out (and the fact that they're actually married already) against letting her live the life out on her own. There are also times when the Henry that shows up is one that hasn't yet met her in his later life. That makes some of the meetings rather awkward, but they work it out as he knows it's possible given what he's been through already. The story works up to the climax of how his own life will turn out, and how it will affect Clare and their daughter.

I must have really liked this book, as I was taking time to read and savor it (as opposed to rushing through it in three days). The story shifts back and forth between Clare's and Henry's point of view (and voice), as well as between various points in time. Since Henry has no control over when he might shift out of the here-and-now, every important event is a stress point to see whether he'll make it through without disappearing. And since his reappearances can be anywhere (as well as sans clothes), the time travel isn't exactly safe. In fact, it can be deadly. And how do you explain to those you work with why you keep showing up naked and roaming the halls when you're supposed to be giving a lecture somewhere else? In terms of a story involving uncontrolled time travel, Niffenegger does a pretty good job coming up with a realistic view of how it would play out.

The Time Traveler's Wife worked on many different levels for me... I'm even more impressed given it's the author's first novel. This is one of the few books I'd probably want to read again in the future, and for me that's saying something...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 2:34 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (4)

11/15/2009

Book Review - Don't Just Roll The Dice - A usefully short guide to software pricing by Neil Davidson

Category Book Review Neil Davidson Don't Just Roll The Dice - A usefully short guide to software pricing

If you've created software for sale, you have dealt with the all-important question... what do I charge for it? Neil Davidson does an excellent job in helping you figure out the answer in his book Don't Just Roll The Dice - A usefully short guide to software pricing. He doesn't tell you *what* to charge. Instead, he give you a short lesson on how to come up with the best pricing strategy given your situation. And best of all, he does it in a concise 73 pages. I was impressed!

Contents: Some - but not too much - Economics; Pricing Psychology - What is your product worth?; Pricing Pitfalls; Advanced Pricing; What your price says about you (and how to change it); Product Pricing Checklist

It's tempting to think that the cheaper you price your software, the more you'll make. But Davidson puts that misconception to rest right at the start. Depending on your target audience, cheap pricing may either leave money on the table or cause people to perceive your software as low-value. Davidson helps you understand your market and develop a pricing strategy that can maximize the profit you receive from your hard work. He also outlines a number of mistakes that are common and lead to people turning to alternatives without considering your product. For instance, some companies try to throw a variety of different feature combinations at a purchaser, all with different price points. But unless it's easy to assign value to the different features, too many combinations can cause the purchaser to either buy the cheapest or most expensive combination just to save the mental anguish. That means that potential purchasers may again bolt for other alternatives, or you could end up leaving money on the table.

This is an inexpensive book and a quick read, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's of limited value. Don't Just Roll The Dice may well pay for itself with the first copy of software that you sell. And it will *definitely* give you a much better chance at avoiding pricing errors that could be hard to overcome in the market.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 11:11 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/15/2009

Book Review - House of Reckoning by John Saul

Category Book Review John Saul House of Reckoning

Generally speaking, I like John Saul's work. Supernatural thrillers tend to work for me, and I can easily get wrapped up in one. But his latest, House of Reckoning, left me wanting. The plot had potential, and I kept turning pages, but I never felt like I got the answers as to *why* all of this was taking place. By the end, I felt as if I had been cheated a bit or I got a version of the book that left out a few important chapters.

Sarah Crane is the main character, a teenager trying to grow up in a small town without a mother. Her father is also struggling with the death of his wife, and unfortunately commits a crime during a drinking binge that lands him in jail. Sarah ends up in foster care, under the roof of a dysfunctional family who only wants her for the monthly check (and her servitude). Her life is pretty miserable, with the only bright spot being her art class and a teacher there she really likes. But the whole town has branded the teacher a witch, and Sarah is forbidden by her foster family from having anything to do with her. Of course, that's pretty much a guarantee of disobedience when it comes to a teenager. Complicating her life a bit more is her new friend, Nick Dunnigan, who also has his own demons to deal with. He was committed to a mental institution for a time due to voices in his head, and his classmates torment him incessantly. When Sarah and Nick get together, the voices and her unique art ability take on a supernatural quality that points back to an old house where Bettina Phillips, Sarah's art teacher, lives. Tensions escalate in the town to the point where Nick and Sarah are accused of killing the local cop's son, and the only safe place they can go to Bettina's place. But the ghosts that haunt her house could either protect or harm them, and they have no way to tell what's going on and how it will all turn out.

So... the storyline wasn't bad. I felt for Sarah and how she was unable to turn to anyone for some help in her situation. Nick was pretty good also, as he struggled with the voices he couldn't control, even through medication. But many of the other characters were pretty shallow and stereotypical. Sarah's foster mother is the deeply religious woman who hates what Sarah represents. The foster father is a sloth who backs up the wife, expects Sarah to wait on him hand and foot, and is only in it for the monthly check. The classmates are all cliquish and bullying. Fine, I could overlook that if the story was good. But that's where I *really* had issues. Bettina's house, Shutters, has a history as a prison and mental hospital. The ghosts are related to that period of time. But as the ghosts claim each victim, it's never explained *why* these victims were chosen and why the prior occupants were targeting them. Granted, they may have been deserving of their punishment, but the linkage between the evil they did in this world and the punishment they received after passing through to the other side was a mystery to me. I wondered if I had glossed over some chapter that linked the current town residents to ancestors who worked, ran, or resided in the old institution. If it was there, I missed it.

Normally I complain that a popular author tends to pad their page count so that the book looks "epic". In the case of House of Reckoning, Saul's 300 pages could have used about 50 to 100 more pages to fill in some of the blanks and characters. For mind candy, it's not a bad read. But if you end up thinking about the story too hard (especially at the end), you'll likely wonder if you should have spent the time reading something else.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 8:55 AM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (2)

11/14/2009

Book Review - The Defector by Daniel Silva

Category Book Review Daniel Silva The Defector

Even with all the reading I do, I still feel like I need a whole 'nother 24 hours a day to read all the stuff I'd *like* to catch up on. A friend and reader of my blog recommended I read Daniel Silva's The Defector, so I picked it up at the library. I have read one other Silva novel with the Gabriel Allon character (2006 - The Messenger), and I remembered the basic makeup of Allon. The Defector would have been a bit more enjoyable had I at least read the previous episode (Moscow Rules), but it wasn't a show stopper. Defector was a good espionage thriller that had solid characters and an interesting plot.

Allon is pulled away from his honeymoon and an art restoration project to track down Grigori Bulganov, a Russian defector who has disappeared in England. Allon would have told the Mossad no on this assignment for a number of reasons, but he kept coming back to a promise he made to Bulganov many years ago, a promise to not let him die in an unmarked grave should anything happen to him. Rescuing Bulganov sends him back into Russia to go head-to-head with a powerful Russian crime lord, a confrontation escalated when Allon's wife is drawn into the drama. Allon is willing to sacrifice everything to save the one he loves, and he really doesn't care who ends up dying in the process. The tension continues to escalate to a final showdown in a snowy Russian forest, next to an unmarked mass grave...

Not having read all the other novels with the Allon character has its pros and cons. On one hand, I'm not up on some of the character nuances that may deepen the plot. There wasn't anything overtly obvious that I felt I missed, but I'm sure there was a layer of color that would have made the story even better. On the other hand, not reading all the other books means I'm not burned out on the plots or characters. It's not unusual for that to happen over time, feeling like you've read the general plot before and wonder what, if anything, is going to happen that you haven't already seen.

Overall, I thought The Defector was good, solid, and entertaining. And like I said at the end of The Messenger, I really *should* go back and catch up on his earlier stuff. Now to find the extra hours I need...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 6:58 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/14/2009

Book Review - The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Category Book Review Dan Brown The Lost Symbol

Ok, it would have been hard to just flat-out ignore Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol after The Da Vinci Code was so popular. I wasn't one of the ones who had to read it immediately, so I put myself on the hold list at the library to get it whenever I got to the top. After finishing the book, my overall reaction is... meh. It's mildly entertaining, and I was interested to see how it would end. But it seemed to repeat the same scene formula over and over. In addition, it could have been at least a third shorter without losing any impact. The best thing I can I say is that I won't have to see the movie the first weekend it opens... :)

Brown has another novel here that's similar to Da Vinci Code, only using the Masonic legends as the secret sauce. Robert Langdon is called by his friend Peter Solomon to deliver a speech to a group in Washington DC. But when he gets there, he finds the meeting room empty. A phone call sheds light on the situation... he's been tricked into coming to DC in order to help solve a mystery involving hidden clues in Washington that will reveal the ultimate "Hidden Word" in Masonic lore that will open up the Ancient Mysteries. The mystery caller has Solomon held hostage so that Langdon will deliver. As clues are uncovered, more and more people get pulled into the action, with the possibility that certain secrets could be revealed that would constitute a national crisis.

So why isn't this a "must-read"? Obviously with an author of Dan Brown's stature, you have high expectations. After Da Vinci Code, he had a high standard to meet. But it seems as if the hidden secret society genre has been played to extremes lately, and another novel along the same lines doesn't leave much room for new directions. Brown has Langdon in a predictable pattern throughout Lost Symbol. He's presented with a puzzle, he doesn't know the answer, pressure mounts, and then a revelation occurs. Have something bad happen, and then repeat the series of actions... over and over. Furthermore, it seems like about a third of the book in the middle covers the same ground repeatedly without advancing the story or the revelations much. As such, the 510 pages could have been done in about 300 with much better results. It also doesn't help that you're never quite sure where the line between truth and fiction lies in his interpretation and recitation of facts and figures. Are there mystery basements and subbasements under the Capitol? Did a number of major historical figures belong to Masonic societies? Were structures like the Washington monument built with Masonic symbols in the design, or is it all just numeric manipulation after the fact?

I don't regret the time spent reading The Lost Symbol. I expected mind candy and entertainment, and that's what I got. I simply think it could have been much better than it actually was.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Posted by Thomas 'Duffbert' Duff At 3:37 PM Location Portland, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (4)

11/09/2009

Book Review - Entrepreneur Journeys v.3: Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market by Sramana Mitra

Category Book Review Sramana Mitra Entrepreneur Journeys v.3: Positioning: How To Test Validate And Bring Your Idea To Market

I've enjoyed volumes 1 and 2 of Sramana Mitra's Entrepreneur Journeys series. Learning what works and doesn't work from people who have been in the trenches is an excellent way to avoid making the same mistakes yourself. She's now back with a third volume in the series titled

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