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BOOK REVIEWS
PLANETHOOD: THE KEY TO YOUR FUTURE--BENJAMIN B. FERENCZ & KEN KEYES, JR.
A friend gave me this book and recommended I read it. I'm glad I did, because I learned alot from this book. The book promises to show you how to reduce your tax burden, create worldwide prosperity, eliminate international war, rescue the environment, stop terrorists and hostaging, preserve liberty and freedom, give your children a future, and to reform the United Nations to enforce international law. No small promises these, and I started the book with a great sense of skepticism and the same prejudicies against world government that many people have. The books first shows how world government is the only option to prevent human annihilation. Environmental pollution, nuclear bombs, acts of terrorism know no national boundaries. According to the book, if just one country make a nuclear strike, without any any other country retaliating, the pollution from that nuclear strike would be enough to kill everyone on the planet. Clearly, there will be no winners in a nuclear war. The book then discusses the history of the United States and how its democratic form of government has made the US one of the best nations in the world. It says that such a form of government can be adopted by the world, providing peace and abundance for the entire planet, just as the Constitution of the US has provided peace and abundance for the US. It suggests that 3 majority votes should be used to pass any world legislation, just as 2 majority votes are needed in the US (house and senate). The 3 majority votes would include: a majority vote of all countries voting equally, a majority vote of all countries based on their population, and a majority vote of all countries based on their income contributions to the world government. It was fascinating to learn how much the individual states were against creating a United States. But they were able to overcome their fears and differences in order to do so. It wasn't easy and it didn't happen overnight. As the authors point out, how abundant and strong would any state have been if there were 50 different countries with their own laws, languages, currency, etc., instead of 1 United States? Just as the founding fathers took the seemingly enormous risk of joining together for a common good, the different counties of the earth must also do so. The book also lists many famous statemen who support world government, George Bush, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Albert Einstein, and many others. World government is an idea whose time has come. I recommend anyone concerned about the environment and the risks of nuclear war read this book. There are viable alternatives to global destruction. I rate this book a 10, because of its importance to the future of humanity.
The Stand is 1141 pages long, quite a lengthy book. But you won't regret the time invested to read this story. This story is definitely one of King's best stories, a story that focuses more on character development than monsters. A true 'can't put it down' book that makes you believe it really is real. The story starts with a lethal virus (created by the US goverment), "Captain Trips", that rapidly spreads throughout the entire world, killing most humans and other mammels. (Fortunately, cats are immune to this deadly virus! <:} ) The story portrays the grim reality of being a survivor on the now underpopulated earth, an earth that no longer has a police force or medical care. But greater forces are at work in this story. Some of the survivers dream of an old black lady, a prophet for God. Others dream of a 'dark man', a demon from hell. The 'good' survivers start the long trek across the US to congregate in Buffalo. The 'bad' survivers congregate in Las Vegas. One fault of the book, is that it's never really explained how the survivers are choosen to be drawn to good or evil. The 'good' survivers aren't any better people or deeper believers than the 'bad' survivers. Eventually, there is final showdown between Las Vegas and Buffalo, the showdown between good and evil. The ending was as good as the rest of the book. Like most Steven King books, it leaves you wanting a sequel. I give this book a definite 10.
Carl Sagan's last book is the first one of his many books that I've read. The quality is excellent. He explains the wonders of the cosmos in easy to understand terms. He makes science interesting and fascinating. The book touches on a wide variety of topics and is subtitled Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Milennium. He starts by pointing out that the phase "billions & billions" has been falsely attributed to him, he never once said it on the TV show as is widely reputed. He doesn't particularly care for the term viewing it as imprecise. A good portion of the book is spent on the environmental concerns of today. He spells out the clear facts on why the hole in the ozone layer and global warming are very real dangers to human-kind. He urges that humans take the necessary steps to preserve life on earth, but acknowledges that there are many reasons why humans are not working on these major concerns. He has a chapter on abortion, co-authored with his wife, in which he suggests that the sixth month of pregnancy should be the cut-off point for abortion, on the basis that it's during the sixth month that human brain waves first appear--and that it's human brain waves that make us uniquely human, as opposed to just alive. As he points out, there is no 'right to life' for non-human creatures or plants. At the end of the book, he talks about his struggle with the disease, myelodysplasia and his several bone marrow transplants. He ends saying that as much as he wishes for a 'life after death', he sees no evidence that there is any such life. He speaks about his great love for his wife and his children, especially the two young children. His wife writes an epilogue to the book speaking of her heartache at losing him, but that she is comforted by the many letters she has received from people writing to her about how Carl and his books had affected their lives for the better. This book is a fitting final book for a great man. I rate this book an 8.
This is an absolutely fascinating, photo-filled book. It discusses the history of astrological science and all the discoveries made. It is written in easy to understand language, not technical jargon. Of course many of the ideas discussed in the book are next to impossible for any human mind to understand, the concept of time warps, the entire universe expanding from a tiny atom invisible to the human eye, an eternally expanding universe. All of these are weighty, seemingly improbably concepts, but this book explains the solid evidence behind the concepts. It talks about how many scientists had trouble accepting many of the conclusions now commonly accepted by astronomers, because these concepts are so far from everyday reality. But by considering the evidence behind these concepts, scientists did accept them, and most readers of the book will also be able to also accept them. The history of astromical science is fascinating. For instance, it was Christian scientists who first proposed the "Big Bang" theory. Atheist scientists fought against the idea, because they didn't want to accept that the universe was created. Interesting, considering that it is now fundamentalist Christians who fight against the theory of a "Big Bang". The book talks about many famous scientists and their discoveries to the field of astronomy. The book ends by mentioning the many unanswered questions still remaining and posits that humans may never know everything about the universe. The book points out that the more we learn about the universe, the more new questions that pop up concerning it. One only has to look up at a star-filled night to be awe-struck by the world we live in. One will be even more awe-struck after reading this book. I rate it an 8.
This was a very interesting book to read. I don't think most people have any idea how prevalent sexism still is. I know I didn't until I read this book. This excellently written book flipflops society, making women the dominant sex. The social timing of the book coincides with the 1960's of the US, although the actual timing is given as being in the 6th century. Sexism against women often goes unnoticed, but when one reads the exact same situation, with the sexism being directed toward a man, the sexism stands out so obviously. One cringes at how the ill treatment men receive in the novel, then one cringes even more to realizes this kind of treatment still goes on towards women. During some parts of the book, one thinks that surely women never had it that bad. But the truth is, women did have it that bad, and a heck of alot worse (during some periods of time) then protrayed in the book. The book follows the adventures of a young mafele (equivalent to male), Petronius, as he reaches puberty. Petronius at first dreams only of fatherhood protection (equivalent to marriage). As time goes on Petronius becomes involved in an equal rights movement for mafeles, a movement that follows along the lines of the modern day women's movement. Overall, the author did an excellent job of believably switching the roles of the sexes. Indeed she does so well, one realizes how easily it really could have been the other way around and can only speculate why history didn't lead to a female-dominanted society. The book points out the inability for their to be any true love and companionship between a man and a woman when they do not regard each other at their equals. The book goes on to suggest that homosexuality arose from people's inability to get their companionship needs met by someone of the opposite sex. A very few parts of the book were hard to correlate with any modern experience, but I attribute this to the author being Scandinavian, and my unfamiliarity with their culture. This is a real eye-opening book that should be read by everyone. Overall, I rate this book an 8.
The author wrote this book about her 2 week experience observing the goings--on at a local maternity ward. The book is full of both happy and sad stories. The hospital, located in Portland, Oregon serves mostly indigent patients. Consequently, there are many problems. One nurse estimates that one in five babies is born addicted to drugs. Every person there has there own unique story. There is Cammie, a crack-addicted woman who doesn't remember giving birth in an ambulance enroute to the hospital. Her son, Timmy, born prematurely and suffering the agonies of drug withdrawal. Hillary, a 'fancy' woman who is confined to the hospital because of her high-risk pregnancy who orders all her food delivered from a gourmet restaurant. Lily, a 400 pound woman pregnant with her first child, whose excessive weight and gestational diabetes puts her at great risk. Harriet, a woman who has her husband drive her to the hospital almost everyday, because she falsely believes herself to be in labor. Debbie, a young woman who was paralyzed by a stroke, who is unable to control her intense sexual desires, hence the father of her child is unknown. The book talks about the lives of the nurses and residents also, and the different attitudes towards pregnancies among various cultures. It mentions how residents working 36 hour shifts have been know to fall asleep while performing C-sections. It talks about a doctor who is having trouble getting pregnant who feels guilty for filling in an at abortion clinic to make extra money. The author spent the two weeks in the hospital in 1988, before the book was published in 1992, she went back and found out 'what happened' to most of the people featured in the stories related in the book. It was a wonderful way to end the book, since many of the stories related left you 'hanging'. Anyone with any interest in the medical field or pregnancy should read this fascinating book. I rate it an 8.
I never paid any attention to Princess Diana until after her death, then all the media attention given to her piqued my curiosity. The author of this book has written several other books about the royal family. He appears to be a serious journalist, not just a muck-racker. This book is quite flattering of Princess Diana and lays the blame for her failed marriage with Prince Charles. Diana came from a troubled broken family and was quite shy and naive growing up. She had never had a serious boyfriend before Prince Charles, whom she first met when he was dating her sister. Consequently, she had no standard to compare his behavior with. Diana didn't know Charles very well before their marriage, all their dates being 'chaperoned'. After Diana agreed to marry Charles and moved into the castle, it was too weeks before he even called to see how she was adjusting. Diana knew about Charles love and affair with the then-married Camilla, but she thought he would break it off once he married her. They fought continuously before they were ever married, and the fighting only intensified after they were married. Charles married solely because of his responsibility to produce an heir, he chose Diana because she was a suitable candidate. Love never figured in the equation as afar as he was concerned. According to the book, Diana finally gave up on her marriage, after her 2nd child was born, and Charles was upset that the child was a boy instead of a girl and that the boy had red hair. He blamed what he considered the genetic failings of the child on Diana's genes. He attitude towards both his children was cavalier. On one occasion, his first son was in an accident and had to undergo emergency brain surgury that could have left him brain-damaged. Charles apparently didn't care, going to a theater and then leaving for a convention the next day, instead of staying by his son's side and giving his wife emotional support. The book was written in 1992, and hence ends before Diana's and Charles divorce, or Diana's death. The book was a fascinating biography of Princess Diana, and leaves one feeling sad at all the emotional pain Charles put her through during their marriage. Being a princess doesn't guarentee happiness. I rate this book a 7.
I had never heard of the author before reading this book. However, I'd read such good reviews of the book, I knew I wanted to delve into it. The book is a great. It's a satire of a year of college life, with a lot of truth in it. The book talks about politics between professors and administration, greed, power (the school is actually run by the dean's secretary, not the the dean. The book covers all kinds of topics, the relationship between students, secret animal experiments, failing marriage, affairs, a paranoid man with a mystery invention, quarreling roommates. The one fault I find with this book, is that because of the fast pace of the book, and the great number of topics covered, there isn't alot of character development. A chapter will end with a cliffhanger, and the book won't touch on it until several chapters later when the cliffhanger is glossed over or quickly summarized. The author could have easily written several hundred more pages to this book, but perhaps that would have destroyed the satire. This book isn't a great book, but it's very entertaining. I rate it a 7.
Melody is the first book in the newest series of books by V.C. Andrews. Ms. Andrews passed away several years ago, but her family wisely decided to capitulate on her name, by hiring a ghost writer to continue writing books under her name. It's my opinion that many of the ghost-written books are better than the ones written by V.C. Andrews. All these books are an entertaining read, but are not what one would call excellent literature. Melody has the same themes found in most of the previous books, a young girl abandoned/orphened by her parents, brother/sister incest, cruel/overbearing extended family members, and unknown mystery. Anyone who's read previous V.C. Andrews books, will not find the mystery to hard to figure out. Melody is placed on the East Coast. Melody is the 16 year old protaganist, left to live with extended family members she's never met after her dad dies and her mom runs off to California. The male members, an uncle and cousin of Melody's new family mappear to hate her, for reasons unknown to Melody. Melody's new aunt wants Melody to replace her daughter of the same age who died in a mysterious accident. Melody's youngest cousin (who is deaf and ignored by her mother who is still grieving over her dead daughter Laura) immediately takes to Melody. The book continues with Melody trying to find out why everyone hates her parents and looks down on her, what really happened to her dead cousin Laura, and wishing her mother would return and take her back to the town she grew up in. The book neatly closes with most of the loose ends tied up, but just enough mystery to make one want to run right out and by the next book in the series. V.C. Andrews series generally contain 5 books in a series, and I predict this one will be no different. If you like V.C. Andrews books, then you will definitely want to read this one. If you weren't too thrilled by the earlier books, you won't be thrilled with this one. I rate this book a 6.
The year 2000 problem, is there anyone who isn't familiar with it? The response to it reins from believing it to be a non-problem to believing it heralds the end of the world. I think the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes. In spite of the majority of this book in which the author posits the doomsday scenario, in the end, he also admits that he thinks the middle position is the most likely scenario. The book covers the history of the Y2k, as well as detailing what the havoc it could potentially cause. According to the author, even if all the money in the world could be spent solely on solving the Y2K problem, the problem couldn't be solved because of the lack of time. The author quotes experts who say a full year should be budgeted for testing the changes made, which means that any company who hasn't made their changes by December 31, 1998 could be in deep trouble. He talks about all the industries that would be affected if all the computers went down, and this includes practically every industry. He shows how computers are interconnected all over the country in industries such as banking and electricity, and even if the majority were able to fix their own data, the corrupt data from one non-complient computer could still shut them down. The book then goes on to give practical advice on storing food and water, building your own outhouse, and other such activities, in order to keep yourself and family safe and alive after the year 2000. The author posits that the chaos that will accompany the year 2000 will lead to a world-wide depression. Myself, I'm not convinced that life as we known it will end on December 31, 1999. But I do think there are going to be alot of problems associated with the date change, and people won't be prepared for these changes. Overall, I rate this book a 6.
This book is one of the newer additions in "The Cat Who..." series. This delightful series follows the adventures of Qwilleran, an eccentric millionaire and his two siamese cats, Koko and Yum-Yum. Qwilleran, and ex-reporter is always getting himself involved in a mystery. Fortunately for him, one of his cats, Koko is psychic and always willing to help Qwilleran solve the mystery. I would venture to say the Qwilleran would never be able to solve a mystery on his own! In this particular book, a resort development has just opened to the public on nearby Breakfast Island. Some of Qwilleran's millions, which he keeps in an altruistic trust fund have been used to develop the island. Even so, Qwilleran, and many other people, especially the natives and the rich summer vacationers who had the island first, are not happy with the resort development. Within weeks of the resorts development, a series of 'accidents', some fatal have occured on the island. Coincidence or a diabolical plan to run the resort out of business? Qwilleran and his two cats visit Breakfast Island to find out the truth. The three of them stay at a small bed & breakfast run by friends called the Domino Inn. Each cottage of the inn comes equipped with a box of dominos. Qwilleran teaches Koko to play dominos. Qwilleran soon figures out that by assigning letters to the total number of pips on the dominos (A=1, B=2, C=3), etc. that Koko can spell words that will end the mystery. Unfortunately, Qwill is rather dense and doesn't figure out the meaning of the words until almost the last page of the book. Indeed, one fault of the book was that the mystery was very hastily concluded in a few pages at the end of the book, after the resort had been destroyed by a hurricane, making the discovery of who was trying to run the resort out of business a moot point. The conclusion of the book seemed almost like an afterthought. I like these series of books, because of the vivid descriptions of Qwilleran's cats. However, the books are written by an older author, and the characters are older people in their 60's. It's hard for me to identify with the characters because of this, and I'm sure the book would be much more appreciated by older people who can more easily identify with the characters. I rate this book a 6.
This is the 3rd book in the Logan series. This book is better written than the previous 2, in my opinion. So much so, I wonder if the author is actually the same. While the books claim to be authored by V.C. Andrews, this woman actually died many years ago, and the publisher admits that many books written under her name were actually penned by another author. In this book, thankfully, Melody is not quite as stupid as she has been made to appear in the previous books, plus she also whines alot less. The book starts with Melody enroute to California via New York in order to find the woman whom she believes to be her mother (previously thought to be dead.) Melody shows her incrediby stupidity by unwittingly becoming a drug courier. Fortunately, after this incidence, Melody, who later becomes validictorian of her classroom, shows some more smarts. After a week in Los Angeles, during which time she is disappointed time and again by her mother, she returns to her Grandmother's (actually GrandAunt's) house and returns to high school. The book isn't near as suspenseful as many of the previous V.C. Andrews books, which isn't necessarily a drawback. I enjoyed this book the best of the series. The book wraps up neatly and quickly. After learning one more stunning secret at the end of the book, I'm surprised how quickly the book wrapped that secret up, rather than leaving the readers hanging until the next book. It appears there will only be one more book in this series. I'm disappointed that this series won't have the usual 5 books that are usually found in V.C. Andrews series. I feel there are alot of unexplored potential plotlines. Overall, I rate this book a 6.
This book is the 2nd in an on-going series. The book follows the adventures of Melody as she trys to discover the identity of her father. The story starts with her taking a summer job for a reclusive man that she believes to be the biological father. As the story progresses, she learns the man isn't her father, and she then develops an intense crush on him. Her love for him wanes when she finally realizes that he isn't interested in, not to mention that while he isn't her father, he is a blood relative. In between all of this, Melody also carries on a love relationship with her 2nd cousin. In this book, Melody seems to be crying and whining every other page. I found that very annoying. I understand the author was trying to write realistically, teenage girls are subject to hormone surges and do indeed spend alot of time crying and whining. I, myself, was a teenager like that. Even so, I couldn't help feeling like Melody needed someone to smack her and tell her to grow up. I also got tired of how mean so many people were in the book to Melody. Granted, there are alot of mean people out out there, so perhaps the book was realistic here also. Even so, I found that theme to be very depressing. The book does in on a slightly more positive note. Melody comes to a truce with her controlling grandmother, and even convinces her grandmother to load her \\$2000 to embark on an adventure, the story of which will be covered in book 3 of this series. I rate this book a 5. I planned to rate it lower, but the surprise ending caused me to raise the rating.
The author admits in the preface to the book that his book isn't really a 'complete' book of Bible answers. That is all too clear when one reads the book. One must give the author credit for attempting to write such a difficult book. When one reads this book, it becomes obvious that the author is absolutely blinded to common sense. In one place he discusses how Christians worship only one God, not 3 Gods. Later on though, he emphasizes how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are 3 completely separate persons and Christians should worship and pray to all 3 separately. He admits that his positioning here does seem contradictory, but says that once a person gets to heaven, then they will understand this mystery. Sounds like a cop-out, not a complete answer to me. The author discusses several contradictory verses, but explains that they aren't contradictory, because the verses that he doesn't agree with, must be reinterpreted in view of the verses that he does agree with. He is apparently blinded to the fact that one could just as easily say that the verses he agrees with, are actually the ones that need to be reinterpreted in view of the verses he disagrees with. In a few answers, he is honest enough to admit that while he feels one particular way, the Bible isn't clear enough on the matter to prove that he couldn't be wrong on that matter. Such admissions are few and far between. He claims that the questions he chose to answer are the ones he is most commonly asked on his radio talk show. Even so, I don't find it too surprising that many puzzling questions (such as why Abraham had to have his faith tested, if God already knew the depths of his faith since presumably God knows everything) were not brought up in the book. One can only assume that the author of the 'complete' book of Bible answers, couldn't even attempt an answer at such difficult questions. I rate this book a 5.
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