This is the autobiographical story of one person’s journey through 1990s youth culture.

Everett is your average resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, more interested in drugs and the opposite sex than in school. A couple of teachers along the way attempt to “reach” him, thinking that he’s some sort of troubled teen, when a much better diagnosis might be “smart but bored with school.”

He has a variety of jobs during this time, including spending a couple of years working at a local bike shop. It’s the sort of place where items like air guns and super glue are used in all sorts of interesting ways. After high school, he intentionally gets out of town, and enrolls in a sort of alternative college in Arizona to learn search and rescue. He leaves after realizing that the school is the sort of place where the faculty would rather look at the goodness inside each of the students than actually teach search and rescue. During this time, Grundle Ink Publications is born, as Greg hand binds copies of his writings and gives them to friends.

Everett eventually ends up in the college town of Chino, California, where Grundle Ink becomes more of a “full-time” job. The fact that he knows absolutely nothing about the publishing business is irrelevant; nothing like learning the hard way. Over the years, Everett also makes several attempts to kick the drug habit.

Throughout this book are a number of relationships with the opposite sex. Some of the women Everett meets are decent, reasonable people, while others can best be described as one-dimensional idiots. He is unable to break off the relationships, so he intentionally acts like a jerk, until she gets frustrated and does the breaking off. The conversations recounted are not literary masterpieces; sometimes, they consist of little more than “dude” and “(insert swear word).”

Because of the large amount of drugs and swearing in this book, it is very much not for the faint of heart. To attempt to understand youth culture of the 1990s, this does an infinitely better job than the various stories of adolescent hijinks. The writing is honest, sobering, and, in places, very funny. I loved it.

Top of Page

Main Page

The site contains everything a person could want, from daily headlines to events to ticketing to social initiative to articles and columns to movie and book reviews. It also contains a section called Sulekha Select, where people from all over the world send in their thoughts on what it means to be Indian. This book collects some of those writings.

Why do intelligent, American-born Indians, with good jobs, flashy cars and MBAs still go back to India to marry someone chosen by their parents? A visiting professor at a school in Japan attends an evening musical concert. Needing to use the bathroom and understanding little Japanese, he is forced to use the nearest bathroom (Japanese bathrooms do not have the helpful male/female pictures on the door). He suddenly discovers that he is in the Ladies Room at intermission. A new immigrant to Florida is introduced to the “religion” that is University of Florida football. Another piece is about turning 40 and being thought of as a “Christmas baby.” Also included are statements from one writer’s personal experience or confessions from close friends: Always serve the men first, we can eat later. It is our past life’s sin that we were born women. A woman’s place is always behind her husband. You don’t have an opinion. Be quiet and keep your mouth shut. You must have asked for it.

This book would probably mean more to me if I was of Indian ancestry, but I still enjoyed it. It certainly gives the good and bad of being a modern Indian. For any Indian who hasn’t already done so: 1) visit www.sulekha.com immediately; 2) read this book. It feels very much worth reading.

Main Page

The Islamic religion was started by the prophet Muhammad approximately 1400 years ago in Arabia. It spread quickly, reaching from Spain to China. When an area was conquered, there were no forced conversions to Islam. The right of the residents to freedom of religion was guaranteed. Honest and efficient governments run by early Muslim rulers, who found that simply conquering an area wasn’t enough, brought about the rise of a civilization that lasted for centuries.

While Europe was going through the Dark Ages, the Islamic world was The center of learning and culture, especially during the years 750-950 AD, Islam’s Golden Age. The conflict between Islam and the West started approximately 1000 years ago with the Crusades, a number of attempts to take Jerusalem from the Muslims and return it to Christian rule. That conflict still goes on today.

Moving to the present, the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack violated several basic principles of Islam. They killed innocent civilians, the committed suicide, they killed more than 200 Muslims who were working in the World Trade Center, and one of the hijackers was reportedly consuming alcohol in Florida the night before, all of which are totally against the teachings of Islam.

Islam has many complaints with America. Support for Israel is one-sided; Jewish influence in the Senate is too strong; America is widely perceived as anti-Muslim; the West talks a lot about democracy and human rights, but supports some of the worst dictators in the world; American media is biased and driven by business needs. Part of the “blame” for present conditions in the Muslim world lies with Muslims themselves. They suffer from a widespread lack of education, the control by religious fundamentalists is great, Muslims lack role models, the majority of Muslims care only about their personal sphere, otherwise, they are silent and apathetic, their leaders have failed them consistently.

The author talks about “jihad,” which is mostly a personal struggle against one’s inner self. It is not a tool of oppression or forced conversion against non-Muslims. On both sides, people have hijacked the term and turned it into something that it is not.

This book is a basic look at the Muslim view of the West, and it succeeds very well. It doesn’t try to be a complete reference source, and it is clearly written and very easy to read. It is also eye-opening and highly recommended.

Main Page

The coming of the white man, and the near-elimination of the Indians, was not a surprise to Native Americans. Many tribes have some version of the following legend: Light-skinned people will come from the east in great canoes powered by huge white wings. They will talk of a new religion of love and kindness, but not all will live by it. Instead they will enslave and exploit the Red Nations. The Indians will offer mixed resistance and seem to lose their spirit. Their lives will be filled with poverty and misery. The Earth will be filled with deadly metals and liquids, the air will be filled with smoke and ash and birds and fish will die. At some point, Light will come from the east, and natives will begin to regain their pride and wisdom. Many others, white, yellow and black, will also realize that Earth gives us the food, water and other essentials for life. They will come together using only peaceful means, and teach everyone to respect Mother Earth. They will not have an easy time, but they will prevail.

Remember Harmonic Convergence back in 1987? It was more than just a New Age hippie festival. According to many Native American calendars, that date signaled the start of a worldwide transition phase lasting for 25 years. The question is: transition to what? Perhaps to the point where the Legend of the Rainbow Warrior comes true.

The description of Earth being very sick and polluted, with plants and animals dying in great numbers certainly sounds like present-day Earth. Keep an eye on December 2012, when this 25-year cycle is supposed to end.

This book cannot be dismissed as just New Age nonsense, though an openness to Native American spirituality would be a big help when reading it. I found it to be very plausible, easy to understand and well worth reading.

Jake almost succeeds in his quest to kill the Mayor. He sets up a bomb inside a hotel ballroom where the Mayor is to appear. A lot of people die, but not the Mayor. Later, he sets up several bombs inside a school gymnasium just before another appearance by the Mayor, but is stopped by the police.

Jake isn’t the only one hearing voices. Oakland police detective Lea Moore is a rising star in the Department. She starts hearing voices, mostly that of Jimmy, her late partner and ex-lover. She still feels responsible for his needless death a couple of years earlier. Through solid police work, she and Arlis, her partner, get to Haley just before he is to set off the bombs in the school gymnasium. In police custody, Parker fingers Cameron Parker, just before the entity is exorcised out of him by Father Rojas, a local priest suffering a crisis of faith and who has also been hearing voices. Lea and Arlis have words with Parker, just before Parker kills Arlis and Lea kills Parker. With the entity, named Matzorgein, defeated and with the immediate danger to the city gone, the story ends, right? Several years later, in another city, Matzorgein lets Lea know that it is about to have the last laugh.

Is it possible that evil people like Hitler are the latest vehicles for ancient forces that conspire to commit great evil? Is your neighbor simply not a nice person, or is the reason much more sinister?

This is much better than the average police story. It touches on a lot of things, and it’s just plausible and spooky enough to keep the reader thinking after the book is finished. It’s very much worth reading.

The average teacher teaches seven things: confusion (everything is taught out of context), class position (if a child starts in the lower class, they can forget about ever moving up to a higher class), indifference (having to move from class to class when the bell rings, nothing is worth finishing, so why care about anything?), emotional dependency (using prizes, stars and disgraces, children surrender their will to the chain of command), intellectual dependency (wait for other people, better trained than ourselves, to give our lives meaning), provisional self-esteem (the lesson of grades and report cards is that children should rely on the evaluation of certified officials, not themselves or their parents. People need to be told what they are worth.), and that one can’t hide (homework is a type of surveillance to keep kids from doing any unauthorized learning, from a parent or someone in the neighborhood).

American education doesn’t need “fixing,” it needs a complete overhaul. The emphasis should be on self-knowledge. A child should be placed in an unguided setting (alone) and given a problem to solve. Children from an early age need to be trusted with independent study away from school. Community service will give children a dose of real-world responsibility, along with teaching them to act unselfishly. Warehousing children for several years, and asking nothing in return, is not the way to do it.

Wow. This easily reaches the level of Must Read. It’s recommended for parents of school-age children (perhaps this is why your child is struggling in school), for young people who haven’t been totally squashed by “the system,” and for people in the education field (the book criticizes the education system, not the people in it). It is very highly recommended.

Main Page

The second part of the novel concerns Mark Anders, the author of the first part. It was published as a romance (even though there is no romance in it) and the book quickly became a national obsession. People are so enthralled with the story that they read while walking down the street, and walk right into traffic. Others read while driving, with obvious consequences. Anders is not able to go out in public at all, because his residence is constantly surrounded by people who treat him practically as a god.

The third part concerns a couple of early 20s, mall food court employee types. After a particularly heinous day, dealing with Mark Anders Day at the mall (which includes Anders fans dressed as clowns), they relax with some particularly good marijuana. They start dancing, and suddenly find themselves several million years in the future. Their arrival had been foretold by Scripture, and the two find themselves as part of the only church that’s left, the Church of the Byrds. Among its sacred relics are the bones of Stephen Stills and letters written by David Crosby. Things move right along, until the Church of Lionel Richie sets up shop nearby. A life-or-death battle ensures as the Byrdites feel that they are heathens who must be converted or eliminated.

I’m not sure if this is intended as satire or not, but it is certainly the strangest novel I have ever read. Think William S. Burroughs or Philip Dick (one of the author’s inspirations) after the ingestion of large amounts of narcotics when reading this book. Not just an open mind, but a very open mind is needed, so it is not for everyone. For those who want a mind-blowing story, you won’t do much better than this. It’s really worth reading.

Top of Page

Rigel has good reason for her near-obsession with Brother Will. As a child, she and her brother, Andy, were the only survivors of Jonestown in Guyana, when over 800 people killed themselves at the behest of Rev. Jim Jones. Shari knows something about religious cults, from the inside.

She discovers that Brother Will has his own mass suicide plan, with the intention of making it look like the FBI again got trigger happy. Meantime, on the inside, Maya Webster secretly gets her daughter, Crystal, out of The Remnant and away from Brother Will. It’s bad enough that Crystal is about to have Brother Will’s baby. The proverbial last straw is that Brother Will plans to make Crystal his fifth wife. Crystal is 12 years old.

Maya agrees to lead Shari back inside, to save as many children as possible, before the FBI fulfills its part of Brother Will’s “prophecy.” Shari’s single-minded pursuit of Brother Will leads to the deaths of 17 children, trained to throw themselves on live grenades when the end comes. Shari is officially cleared of blame in their deaths, but considers herself responsible.

For anyone who has a family member involved in a religious cult, or anyone who has recently left a cult, this is an obvious must read. It feels like the author knows more than the average person about cults. For everyone else, this is an interesting and well done page turner that is very plausible, and is very much recommended.

Top of Page

The unspoken purpose was to resurrect the Jeffersonian ideal of free marketplace of ideas, to be a place to engage the citizen in the highest of civic ideals. If there was a worst possible time to talk like that, it was during this time, when World War II turned into the Cold War. Much more popular ideas were foregone conclusions and mistrusting your neighbor.

There was a never-ending lack of money at the station. In the beginning, subscriptions were sold, along with specially-designed tuners to receive KPFA’s signal on the then-empty FM band. For a time, the station was actually off the air for several months because of money problems. When writing grant requests to various groups, Hill would tailor the Pacifica Foundation’s (the governing body) purpose to whatever the group wanted.

Over the years, there were the inevitable personality conflicts and power struggles at the station. Hill threatened to quit, or did quit, a number of times, until the time in the 1950s when he really did quit, by killing himself (his rapidly declining health was a contributing factor). Pacifica’s purpose slowly changed as time went along, from being a haven for pacifism and high civic ideals to that of political dissent. In the early 1960s, Pacifica found itself fighting for its life, accused by the Justice Department of being a haven for communists. Pacifica had certainly hosted communists in the past, but that didn’t equal “haven.”

I really enjoyed this book. As with any history, there will be a difference of opinion on what should have been less emphasized and more emphasized. As far as the author goes, he does a fine job. In a time when radio is homogenized and corporate controlled, it’s good to know that there is one spot on the dial where the listener actually has to use their brain-Pacifica. This history of its founding is highly recommended.

Top of Page

The Mayor, broke and running from creditors, secretly returns to town. He is not the most popular person in town. A few years previously, he helped bring a secret fireworks factory to Bonneville. Everyone in town worked there. Customers came from miles around. The money was rolling in like an Indian casino, until the authorities started asking questions. The factory closed, the newfound riches disappeared, and the Mayor was run out of town. So the Mayor has returned to open a speakeasy, under an unused barn about half a mile from the nearest road.

Roy Sullivan is in the Guinness Book of World Records, having been struck by lightning seven times in his life. Being struck once makes a person a celebrity, but being struck seven times leads to rumors that God is punishing him for something.

The local Laundromat has a slot machine. While she is playing it over and over, Sarah Ann Muskie thinks about karma. For every Vanna White who rockets to stardom, a ravishing beauty is hit by a bus. She remembers the day her father died, in front of her on the playground, in a freak accident. She buys a Powerball ticket and watches, incredulous, as the winning numbers equal the numbers on her ticket--minus one. She returns to the Laundromat and introduces the slot machine to her pistol, one bullet at a time.

Randy works for a local gardening company. Just out of high school, he makes pretty good money spreading mulch and running a lawn mower. He is told to go back to a customer’s house to replace some suddenly-dead azaleas. The only problem is that the customer, Mrs. Anders, is a very attractive woman and lets Randy know, in no uncertain terms, that she is interested in romance.

I really enjoyed these stories. They are the sort of tales that could take place in any town in America, with just a touch of “different.” The author’s writing has been compared to Roald Dahl and Ray Bradbury. May I humbly add the name of Garrison Keillor to that list. These stories are very much worth the reader’s time.

Top of Page

Her biggest recommendation is to take control of your own health and well-being. No matter how wonderful your doctor or pharmacist is, they won’t do it for you. Educate yourself about, for instance, supplements and alternative medicine. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Is drug B really necessary, or is it simply counteracting side effects from drug A? Drink lots of water, and, if applicable, change you status from smoker to ex-smoker.

A big reason for America’s health problems is the American diet. It’s full of all sorts of artificial, pre-processed, fat and chemical-filled stuff that bears little resemblance to real food. Reduce the amount of such things that you put in your mouth. Eliminating it entirely would be even better.

Part of the secret is attitude, which starts with the word “retirement.” If you’re physically and mentally able to keep working, don’t retire just because you have reached “retirement age.” If you’re retiring to do something you have always wanted to do, go for it. On the other hand, if you’re retiring to move into some retirement community and wait for the Grim Reaper, you need more help than this book can provide.

Morris also recommends living in an environment that includes young people; they can be a pain in the neck, but their energy can be contagious. Avoid people and organizations that say “the end is near.” Develop a positive sense of humor and outlook on life. Stand apart from the masses. Don’t abandon long-term plans just because you think you have X years left.

To those who aren’t ready to leave the workforce, or leave this Earth, just because their body has reached a certain chronological age, this book is for you. It’s very easy to read, it’s from an average person intended for average people, and anyone can learn a lot from it. This is very highly recommended.

Top of Page

A man goes away to school and eventually becomes a history professor, losing touch with his younger brother. One day, he opens the newspaper and sees a picture of little brother, fronting a popular rock music band. Overnight, the older brother’s life is turned upside down, as he goes from being an average college professor to brother of a famous rock star. A westerner living in Japan, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, watches as his innocence slowly disappears.

A woman and her fiance are eating in an expensive restaurant. Suddenly, she notices an older gentleman a few tables away and screams. The fiance takes her home immediately, and after a good night’s sleep, it’s as if the incident in the restaurant never happened. A couple of times, the woman says “I won’t hurt you,” for seemingly no reason at all. The object of her emotional reaction, an actor, appeared in a film a few years previously. It’s about a man who befriends a little girl, takes her shopping for a doll, then drugs her, undresses her and photographs her, but otherwise doesn’t harm her.

A police officer in present-day Bangkok, Thailand, after reuniting a lost boy with his frantic parents, tells of how his own son, a schizophrenic, committed suicide. Perhaps those who hear voices in their heads are the sane ones, and the rest of us, who can’t hear them, are insane.

These stories are really good. Hoffman has done a fine job throughout. They are easy to read, with real people as characters and are highly recommended.

Top of Page

Adam, the organizer of the Auckland festival, is dismissed from his job after making too many enemies in the city government. He becomes the trio’s manager when they are invited to do their thing inside a shopping mall in Adelaide, Australia. As Sax and Zoe become close, things get difficult as politics rears its head and the various relationships are tested: Sax and Zoe, Sax and Sarah and Zoe and Sarah. Throughout much of this emotional journey, Sarah is accompanied by Firefly, her angel.

This one is excellent. Interspersed with some unique, almost Zen vignettes, this is quite a story of love and emotions and relationships. In lyrical, almost poetic, writing, the author does a fine job with this tale of life itself. It is well worth the reader’s time.

Top of Page