In the year 1931, the golf course at Krewe Island, outside Savannah, Georgia, is in danger of closing because of the Depression. The local city fathers come up with the idea of a holding a one-day 36-hole golf match for the then huge purse of $20,000. They invite Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, two of the Masters of the game. At the last minute, a local war hero named Rannulph Junnah is added to the match; his particpation is reluctant, at best. He brings along his caddy, and mentor, a black man named Bagger Vance, who spends the match teaching Junnah the meaning of life.
He tells Junnah the secret of the Authentic Swing. As Junnah is lining up a shot, all the possible shots flow out from him along lines of force. The golfer isn't looking for the perfect shot to hit, the perfect shot is looking for the golfer to be hit.
For Junnah, the first 9 holes are a disaster, with Vance constantly in his ear about all sorts of weird things. Around the 10th hole, it starts to click, and Junnah lets Jones and Hagen know that they are in for a major fight.
I didn't think it was possible for a couple of rounds of golf to read like a Battle that should be taking place on Mt. Olympus, but Pressfield really pulls it off. This is much more than just a sports novel, and is strongly recommended.
Making a Killing: HMOs and the Threat to Your Health, Jamie Court and Francis Smith, Common Courage Press, 1999
Prayers of an Accidental Nature, Debra Di Blasi, Coffee House Press, 1999
Vegetables Rock! A Complete Guide for Teenage Vegetarians, Stephanie Pierson, Bantam, 1999
Legacy and Destiny, J. Michael Reidenbach and Dana Drenkowski, Corinthian Books, 1999
A Cab Called Reliable, Patti Kim, St. Martin's Griffin, 1997
Mosaic Man, Ronald Sukenick, Fiction Collective 2, 1999
Eden in Limbo: A Three Act Play in Spirit, Jan Peregrine, toExcel, 1999
Mind Control, World Control: The Encyclopedia of Mind Control, Jim Keith, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997
High-Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian, Clifford Stoll, Doubleday, 1999
The Runts of the Litter, Austen Breaffa, Pale Blue Books, 1999
Ocean Court, Arlaine Rockey, Xlibris Corporation, 1999
In the Shadow of the Gargoyle, Nancy Kilpatrick and Thomas S. Roche (ed.), Ace Books, 1999
Mastering the Digital Marketplace, Douglas F. Aldrich, John Wiley & Sons, 1999
HMOs are a much-discussed part of life in present-day America. This book shows how they, the only health care option for millions of people, are more interested in profit than in giving good medical care.
Included are plenty of examples of people with major medical problems who were forced to go to a non-HMO doctor for treatment and pay the entire expense themselves. They're the lucky ones; the unlucky ones died because an HMO bureaucrat decided the treatment wasn't "medically necessary" or would cost too much.
Doctors are paid a fixed budget for every patient under their care, an amount as little as $6.00 per patient per month. Any treatment the doctor orders comes out of that money, giving the doctor plenty of incentive to order the minimum amount of health care. If an HMO gets sued for negligence, even if it is obviously guilty, because of a loophole in federal law, it is almost never financially liable. This book also includes a patient self-defense kit that explains what to do in the world of HMO bureaucracy.
Whether or not you have ever had to deal with an HMO, this book tells things like they really are, and is very highly recommended.
This group of contemporary stories looks at people from different walks of life driven by a need or yearning; for sex, healing or even death. There is also a lot of dealing with cross-cultural differences.
A married couple become friends with a student from Bolivia with a real talent for telling lies. Young South American men drop their American girlfriends as soon as the romantic heat has cooled. In another story, an American woman juggles two boyfriends from Argentina. Using the charade of an interview with her husband, a woman deals with the dissolution of her marriage. In death, an eighth-grade geography teacher gets back at her obnoxious young tormentor; as a final tribute, her students stand around her grave reciting state capitals. The title story is about a blueblood young man and his unconventional (also South American) girlfriend, who meet his snooty, arrogant relatives, with plans to marry and live in a small village in the mountains.
Di Blasi does a very good job looking at the dark side of intimacy. This is not a perfect group of stories, but its look at lost love and obsession with sex make it well worth reading.
Vegetarianism is an increasingly popular diet option, for adults as well as teens. Written by the mother of a 13-year-old vegetarian, this book tells what parents, and teenagers, need to know beforehand.
Going veggie can lower your weight, save money, save the rainforests, and change the world. Don't cut, or eliminate, meat or chicken from your diet just for the sake of doing so; make sure you are getting the appropriate vitamins and minerals elsewhere. If done correctly, you will not become anorexic or anemic without meat, and will be healthier than the average person. If you can't go all the way, there are several different categories of vegetarian.
This book also explores dealing with the school cafeteria lunch line, what to say to meat eaters who think that you have lost your mind, foods that contain hidden animal products, and junk food. Included is a list of pro-veggie websites, mail order sources, and restaurants, plus over 70 pages of recipes for everything from soup to pasta to dessert.
For anyone even thinking about going veggie, teen or adult, this is an excellent place to start. It is very easy to read, and is packed with useful information.
Elizabeth Armstrong is a former Governor of New Hampshire, now married to Peter Armstrong, fast-rising senator from Texas with his eye on the White House.
He is killed in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances, a crash which almost kills Elizabeth; she later becomes a sort of roving ambassador for the US Government. When political journalist Jack Bradshaw looks into the crash, he finds some Very Interesting Things, like the possibility that Peter was deliberately killed because he was getting too close in his investigation of the flow of drugs into America.
Around this time, Elizabeth agrees to run for President n the Democratic ticket. If They silenced Peter, will Elizabeth be next? Death threats against Elizabeth and Jack, by this time husband and wife, plus an assassination attempt against Elizabeth on the Mall in Washington, answer the question pretty clearly.
This one is really good. It's a fine campaign story with just enough political conspiracy included to keep it interesting. The fact that it's about a woman with a real chance to become President makes it that much more worth reading.
Ahn Joo Cho is a young girl whose family recently emigrated from Korea to suburban Washington DC, and the narrator of this look at growing up as a hyphenated American.
Her parents fight constantly, mostly complaints from her mother about being dragged to America, and about her father's tendency to stay out late and drink too much. In the beginning of the book, coming home from elementary school, she sees her mother and little brother getting into a cab with Reliable written on the side. Only later does she realize that they aren't coming back. She thinks that she can join them if only she can go to this place called Reliable, until she is set straight by her teacher.
She takes over the cooking for her and her demanding father. Later, he buys a lunch wagon and sets up shop on the Mall in Washington DC, with Ahn along to help. In school, she is quite the story writer, mostly Korean legends or stories about life in Korea.
This is an excellent growing-up story, that is also a really good first novel. Kim does a fine job from beginning to end.
This book looks at the Jewish novel through the lens of cyberpunk and contemporary Pop culture. It's part history, memoir, daydream and acid trip.
Part of this book takes place in World War II era New York City, where Ron dreams of bombing missions over Nazi-occupied Europe with baseball commissioner Kennesaw Landis. As a tourist in Jerusalem, he walks through a huge water pipe, still in use, built over 2000 years ago. Included is a take-off on the movie The Maltese Falcon. Also here are tales of getting drunk in 1950s Paris, and hanging out with Solidarity protesters in Poland.
Using the structure of the Old Testament, Sukenick also explores the Golem story, the patterns of history, the differences among Jews, and the return of the Golden Calf, worshipped by the people of ancient Israel.
If one section of this book doesn't hold your interest, sit tight; Sukenick will suddenly take the story in a very different direction.
I really enjoyed this book. It keeps the reader engaged, it's very easy to read, and, for those who like modern, avant-garde fiction, it's especially good.
This is a spiritual novel about God's holy spirit in us temporarily taking human form and interacting with a very diverse group of people. He helps a Native American, a gay couple, a Hindi couple and a questioning Christian to find the answers on their own with a little guidance from Him.
God wants people to think for themselves, to be inspired by the spirit within them, and not to expect Him to tell them what to do. When praying, saying what a person wants to say is better than saying it the "right" way. It's up to people to do what they can with their lives created by His holy spirit. All religious books are full of stories to symbolize the truth of how people have related to God, themselves and others. Homosexuality isn't a condition or behavior that needs "adjusting" before that person is worthy of eternal life.
Those who consider religion/spirituality an important part of their lives would be well advised to read this book. It's short, but it says a lot, and is quite thought-provoking.
Mind control is not a much-discussed topic in contemporary society. There are those who think, and have evidence to prove, that actual mind control has been practiced on unsuspecting civilians for years. This is a complete look at the "current state" of mind control, made easier by modern technology.
Assassins like Sirhan Sirhan and Mark David Chapman may have been "programmed" to commit their murders. According to a 1968 FBI memorandum, a famous musician was employed "to channel youth dissent and rebellion into more benign and non-threatening directions"; that musician was Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead. The object of American education is "socialization" (conditioning to accept one's role in life), not the teaching of specific skills. Many people claim to be victims of mind control by means of implanted brain devices, electromagnetic radiation or other methods. Some UFO abduction stories are actually cover stories to hide the implanting of humans with mind control technology.
Included in this book are Charles Manson, Rev. Jim (Jonestown) Jones, Scientology, Patty Hearst, Project MKULTRA, and, of course, the central linchpin of all modern conspiracy theories, the JFK assassination.
This book is certainly not for everyone. "Different" doesn't even begin to describe it, but I enjoyed it, and consider it well worth reading.
There seems to be a relentless drumbeat in America at present that technology is the answer to all of our problems, especially in education. After all, the Internet is this vast storehouse of information, and if schools were wired for Internet access, or if all students had their own laptops, then, the sky's the limit, right?
Stoll, who has been around computers and the Internet for many years, says Very Wrong.
A committed, dedicated teacher is still more important than the most up-to-date learning software. In a classroom full of computers, at least one of them will crash or otherwise have a major problem, wasting valuable class time while the problem is fixed. Which is more important to the learning process, actually doing science or art, for instance, or seeing a computer simulation? One of the major claims of software makers is that a specific program makes learning fun. Learning is supposed to take time and effort, and is not supposed to be fun. On the subject of donating old computers to schools, unless they are refurbished with new software, an obsolete computer is still obsolete.
This is a much needed counterpoint to the slogan Technology as Educational Savior, especially recommended for school officials and teachers.
Ernest and Jon, an aspiring poet and aspiring actor (emphasis on "aspiring"), are your average broke youth who are summarily thrown out of their flat in present-day Dublin. Instead of putting their deposit toward another flat, they spend it all in a weekend of drunkenness and grandiose plans to remedy their dire situation. They plan to travel to Galway, on the other side of Ireland, go to their landlord's house, and rob him. The fact that they don't know just where in Galway he lives, and have no way to get there, are mere inconveniences.
Along the way, they run into a group of gypsies, whose leader they accidentally kill. In the "wrong" section of Dublin, they are grabbed by a group of anti-drug vigilantes who get too bogged down in parliamentary procedure. In the countryside, they have a conversation with a donkey, with the help of some psychedelic mushrooms. They run into a farmer who, through some scientific experiments on his own, has to deal with a herd of giant cows. They eventually reach the landlord's house in Galway, and find that things aren't always what they seem.
This is a black comedy story that rates pretty high on the "weird meter". Ernest and Jon's adventures get a little repetitive at times, but, for those who want something different in their reading, this is definitely worth a look.
A homeless man is found dead in present-day Miami. It's no big thing, until the business card of Jonathan Britton, a rising young attorney at Miami Legal Assistance, is found in his possession. Jonathan asks around in Miami's homeless community about the man, a Cuban named Spider who came to Miami in the Mariel Boatlift of the early 80s. Jonathan is found dead a few days later.
Avery Guerin, another MLA attorney, and Jonathan's sometime lover, asks questions on her own. The story moves to Key West as Avery and Stuart, her law school intern with whom she has a rather torrid relationship, look for a homeless Nicaraguan who spoke to Jonathan soon before his death. The Nicaraguan is actually a writer researching a book on formerly successful people who fell through the cracks during the Reagan/Bush years.
Suspicion falls on Alex, another MLA attorney and Jonathan's mentor who is a former member of the Florida legislature. Without giving things away, the story then moves to the courtroom.
This is an excellent legal mystery. It's got murder, intrigue, sex, and Rockey, an attorney who practices in Miami, does a very good job at keeping the reader guessing until the end.
Here is a group of mostly newer dark fantasy and horror stories about those creatures perpetually perched on the sides or tops of stone buildings, also known as gargoyles.
Among the contributors to this volume are Neil Gaiman, Brian Lumley, Jane Yolen and Harlan Ellison. The gargoyles from all the churches in Dublin come alive once a month, on the full moon, and gather for a night of conversation. There they learn that a local church was vandalized, so one of the gargoyles, with help from a human, goes off to find the thieves. Having spent four hundred years perched on the same spot of a Scottish university building, a gargoyle named Gryx detaches himself from the building, and enrolls in the university. A story set on Mars concerns a rock that has the face of a monkey. Also included here are more modern stories about the various ways to be turned into a gargoyle, and tales of women, who, in various ways, fall in love with gargoyles.
Overall, this book is very good. Gargoyles are not exactly a staple of the fantasy/horror area, and the individual stories range from pretty good to excellent.
With the coming of the Internet, business practices have changed drastically. This book shows the reader, the corporate CEO more than the individual entrepreneur, how to survive, and even thrive, in the new electronic landscape.
Time is a very important commodity these days. Anything a corporation can do to save the time of their customers is a good thing. On the company web site, there should be a way to receive customer feedback. Even if it is negative, the company should act on that feedback immediately. (If a corporation that sells to the public doesn't have a web site, why not?)
One of the major factors fueling the new economy is the rise of the empowered consumer. There is now so much information available that companies can no longer get away with being less-than-truthful with the public.
Aldrich advocates the forming of a Digital Value Network (DVN), an always-changing group of businesses who use technology for the benefit of some end customer. Simply decreeing that your business now thinks, and works, at Internet speeds, is easier said than done; business inertia is a powerful thing. This book shows how to get from The Way It's Always Been Done to DVN.
The business rules have changed. This is a specialized book that does a very good job at illuminating the new digital marketplace.
