#176:  Review.  For those readers who didn’t read my review of Carolyn J. Rose’s Through a Yellow Wood, you should.  It’s the sequel to her Hemlock Lake.  I’ve added her book to the “Steve’s Bookshelf” page on my website.  In my review, I nitpicked the title.  Let me officially apologize to Carolyn here.  Poetry is not my forte.  She informed me that the title is similar to a line from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”  Frost’s poem considers choices in life and is therefore appropriate for this excellent mystery.

#177:  No attacks from the mommy-porn troops?  I was expecting some for my mini-review of the Fifty Shades trilogy last Wednesday.  Yes, I know, reading tastes are completely subjective, but I’m incapable of understanding the popularity of these three books.  Similar books used to come in plain, brown paper wrappers—hard to do with eBooks, I guess.

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The recent vote on censure against Syria torpedoed by China and Russia only emphasizes how ineffective the U.N. has become.  The last U.S. president to ask the U.N. to get behind him when going to war was Papa Bush (the Gulf War).  For Iraq, Baby Bush even changed a long standing U.S. tradition and launched a preemptive strike without allies’ or U.N. permission.  For Libya, Obama turned to NATO, not the U.N.

What’s happening in Syria is similar to but not the same as what happened in Libya before NATA intervened.  Gadhafi’s record as a brutal dictator had few equals.  Certainly Syria’s present ruler is not yet in his league, although father and son together come close.  Of course, this will all change if Assad makes good on his promise to use WMDs, mostly stockpiled biological and chemical weapons (his fledgling nuclear efforts were taken out by Israel—with help from the CIA?).  So far his threat is only directed towards “foreign invaders.”

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(Carolyn J. Rose, Through a Yellow Wood, ASIN B008HU0RMG)

This mystery is the sequel to the author’s Hemlock Lake.  I also reviewed the latter for Bookpleasures.  You might also want to read that review (you’ll also find it in the category “Book Reviews”).  Sequels are often compared to the first book in a series—this one is longer, just as well written and entertaining, and a bit more profound.  I recommend it.  Moreover, if you didn’t read Hemlock Lake, read them both.  They are great stories from an indie writer who has mastered her craft.

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#15:  Henry Crumpton, The Art of Intelligence.  5+.  It’s not often that I give anything above a 3 in one of my mini-reviews, but here it is!  I saw Crumpton’s interview on CBS’s Sixty Minutes last May 13 and liked his story.  I gave into temptation and bought his new book.  Maybe I shouldn’t say any more than “Wow!”  Like a good spy, Hank often seems apolitical, feeling motivated in one meeting with Dubya where the ex-president thumps him on the back and says, “Go get’em” but nobly trying to work with all the policy makers who come his way.

My interpretation of the Dubya encounter after 9/11 is different than Crumpton’s, by the way.  Dubya and his neo-con friends, Cheney and Rumsfeld, had no idea about what happened or what to do to avenge 9/11.  Readers will remember that the CIA took the blame for the fiasco with the WMDs in Iran.  They also received much of the blame for the lack of intelligence nexus that led to 9/11 (I place most of that on the FBI).

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#171:  Inexpensive summer reading?  For Kindle users, check out my entire catalog on Amazon.  For Nook and other non-Kindle users, remember that Full Medical is on sale in Smashwords’ Summer/Winter promotion at 50% off.  You will need a coupon and your code is SSW50.  Better yet, buy the entire “Clones and Mutants Series” (Full Medical + Evil Agenda) for hours of entertainment and excitement—another type of roller coaster, perhaps.  For young adults and adults young at heart, try The Secret Lab—also a bargain at $0.99, either on Amazon or Smashwords.  For hardcore lovers of trade paperbacks, you will find those on Amazon too.  Happy summer!

#172:  Good plot, good acting, and good music.  Moonrise Kingdom is a quiet but intense little movie even when the action picks up.  Two young kids learn how to love, but this is not like a young adult novel.  Well, maybe, because the adults are the flawed personalities here.  Bill Murray and Bruce Willis shine as they take their acting to another level.  I have two regrets:  I would have liked to see a book where the character studies in the movie were made more profound as one can only do on the printed page; I would have also liked it to be a bit less predictable.

About the music:  My first taste of classical music was Orff’s Carmina Burana.  As with literature, I developed an appetite for the unusual early on.  I can’t remember when I first discovered Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, but it wasn’t long after Orff’s masterpiece.  In keeping with my rebellious nature, I didn’t hear Britten’s better known Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra until much later in high school.  Moonrise Kingdom uses both Britten pieces in a clever fashion.  The singing of the Victorian naval hymn “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” from Noye’s Fludde occurs as the hurricane floods the tiny New England island where the story takes place.  Perfect!  Maestro Britten must be smiling.

#173:  LOL, OMG.  Are people reading more?  If I remember correctly (computer woes have numbed my brain—see #174), Fifty Shades will be the first eBook to hit 1,000,000 in sales on Amazon.  (I believe someone else has sold more than 1,000,000 books, but he or she had several books.)  Are people taking better care of themselves?  The eBook about the OMG diet has taken off and earned its British author a juicy publishing deal.

In fact, both the answers to the questions above are “No!”  People who read perhaps are reading more—inexpensive eBooks and eReaders have made reading easier—but people who download Fifty Shades or buy it in trade paperback format are not reading.  They’re giving into their S&M curiosity, a pornographic voyeurism in non-visual format.  In addition, the OMG diet is a fad and definitely not recommended to improve your health.

Of course, the morning ice bath in the OMB diet might help you cool down after a sizzling night of turning the pages of Fifty Shades.  Or, maybe the latter should be on the list of non-fiction bestsellers as a how-to book?  In that case, the morning ice bath might definitely be required.

#174:  For writers and readers with blogs:  Are you using WordPress?  I recently upgraded to 3.4.1 and the editors “More” button stopped working.  Returning to the previous version seems counter-productive because the upgrades are more in the line of security patches.  However, the WP forums are mute about this problem.  If you have any info about this, drop me an e-mail, please.  Otherwise, readers of my posts will continue to see the full page.  I like the “More” button on other blogs because it allows me to read a bit before deciding to read the whole post.  I assume my blog readers feel the same way.  If so, I apologize—but maybe you’ll find some rewards in those unusually pithy endings?

#175:  Boycott of the new Tom Cruise movie?  Will you join me in this?  After umpteen novels about the iconic Jack Reacher, I’ve developed a mind’s-eye image of Lee Childs’ protagonist, even with Lee’s sparse prose.  I’m surprised Mr. Childs went along with it (maybe he had no choice?), but Tom Cruise is about as far from my image of Jack Reacher as any male could be.  What’s he going to do?  Wear foot-high elevator shoes and shoulder pads and mess up that pretty face?  I doubt it.  This is one movie that I definitely won’t see!  If you feel the same way, join my boycott.

By the way, I call the boycott “Steve Moore’s Anti-Cruise Missile.”  I never thought Tom could act.  Minority Report, a favorite Phillip K. Dick story of mine, was ruined by his acting.  Jamie Foxx stole the show in another movie.  I went to War of the Worlds and he and the screaming kid ruined that for me too.  I didn’t go to any of the Mission Impossible movies, but just their trailers confirmed his lack of acting ability.  Hollywood casting people have exhibited their stupidity by featuring him in too many thrillers.  But casting him as Jack Reacher?  C’mon people!

In libris libertas….     

Trekkies know that there were two starship Enterprises, the first named after the aircraft carrier and the second after the first.  I claim there are three.  In a few days, the true first starship Enterprise will end its life as a museum on the decks of the old aircraft carrier Intrepid berthed in New York City’s harbor.

The demise of NASA’s shuttle program ranks as one of the most asinine decisions the government has ever made in its mismanagement of science funding.  Another, of course, was the cancellation of the SSC (short for “Superconducting Super Collider”).  The first killed America’s capability to put an astronaut in space, thus all but ending an all too brief era of space exploration.  The second ended U.S. dominance in experimental particle physics.  The Higgs particle, if it exists, won’t be discovered by American scientists, at least not by those working in this country.

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