[ Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June/July | Nov | Dec | Review Home ]
Protecting the Gift, by Gavin de Becker
The author of the completely wonderful The Gift of Fear and the extremely relevant Fear Less produced, between those two books, this entry about protecting children and adolescents. de Becker draws on his own battered childhood to inform parents and others what really can happen to children and how likely the various risks are, and what can be done to reduce those risks. First and foremost: don't hide your head and pretend it isn't really going on.
Easily the creepiest story of the batch describes videotape of thirty some abusers doing horrid things to their children, then lying about it when nurses come in to stop them. An aunt and uncle of mine had a child later in life that was just Not Right, and they were repeatedly involved with child protective services because of all the bruises and that she wouldn't talk, and then when she was in day care, she'd refuse to talk if she knew an adult was around but then verbally tyrannize other kids when she thought she was alone with them. I was kinda suspicious at the time. Now I am utterly appalled. My poor cousin was Not Right because at least one of her immediate family was beating the bejesus out of her and lying about it to everyone else. I'm betting on mom, despite de Becker's hypothesis that women do less than men do (flying right in the face of his own personal experience, I might add).
Anyway. Get this book. Read this book. Even if you have no children of your own, keep an eye out for the signs and whenever you can bring yourself to do so, take action to protect kids from this madness. No one will like you for it, but it needs to be done.
The Single Best Investment, Lowell Miller
Sent to me by a broker who wants my business, but probably will never get it, because I just don't trust him further than I can throw him (and he isn't a small guy, either, I might add). This is all about finding stocks representing mature companies with high and rising current yield, that have good Moody's ratings, a reasonable story, a strong brand and good management. Pricing issues don't need to be addressed directly, because the high yield requirement will take care of it automatically. I'm not saying this is a bad idea. In fact, it's probably a reasonable way to beat inflation, which seems to be the man's main goal, without risking capital. The book, unfortunately, could have been a helluva lot shorter.
Living Dead in Dallas, by Charlaine Harris
The second entry in the Sookie Stackhouse series is far, far, far better than the first, which is somewhat unusual in my experience. Sookie, just like Anita Blake, is involved with a shapeshifter (a were-collie) and a vampire, or maybe two vampires, now that I think about it. Sookie's supernatural talent is telepathy and she is much less dangerous than Blake. The good news is, the violence improves drastically in this outing, and Sookie takes a more active role. Two largely unrelated mysteries in this novel: the murder of a black, gay coworker and the false accusation of a police officer for the crime and Sookie's disgust that no one cares about Lafayette, only about the fact that Andy may go down for something he didn't do; and the disappearance of a vampire in Dallas that Sookie is hired to help find. The crimes connect in that Sookie is called upon to pick through the brains of people at bars to solve the mysteries. They also connect in the extremely violent acts undertaken by people who believe they are acting morally, but in fact are quite insane (I totally dug the Maenad/Fellowship parallel). Paperback only; worth the price of admission -- kept me up till two. I'm looking forward to the third entry.
Speaker to Heaven, by Atanielle Annyn Noel
Great stuff. Like Noel's other books, clever, cross-genre mystery in a fantasy setting. Nice commentary on religion and speculation about the potential role of artifact in religion. As usual, the pacing takes a little getting used to, but well worth the effort. I'll be keeping it and rereading it.
Sing the Four Quarters, by Tanya Huff
The Fifth Quarter, by Tanya Huff
Joint review. Good magic system. The characters are somewhat trite. The relationships are better than average, but not by a lot (nice to see this much non-heterosexuality). Overwrought emotional tone, with inadequate humor to leaven it. I really wish I liked this stuff better. Huff's a good writer. I've got one more on the shelf to read, but they're all going out the door.
The Dragon in the Land of Snows, by Tsering Shakya
Reading about the shenanigans of the institutionalized revolution in China is never easy or pleasant. This is actually slightly less easy and slightly less pleasant than what I am accustomed to (largely books about the Cultural Revolution, often written by participants, or people who interviewed a lot of participants). Ignoring the technical problems with the book (poor copyediting; a desire to produce work that could be mined for information by future scholars; lack of standard transcription for names; and an attempt to present all relevant points of view, without the active particpation of most of them), Shakya is covering a lot of ground in a lot of detail, so it is somewhat numbing. At least one Amazon.com reviewer accuses Shakya of favoring Tibetan independence. It's not at all obvious to me that's what Shakya is going for. (I think Shakya's looking for genuine religious freedom in China including Tibet, but maybe he just wants it for Tibet.)
If you can make it through, you'll learn a ton. No one smells like roses by the end of it (not even the Dalai Lama), independent of Shakya's intentions. I can't help but sympathize with Chinese Communists who looked at a country full of subsistence farmers and nomadic herders who supported 10% of the population in monasteries and felt (the CCP) an overwhelming desire to rip these people kicking and screaming into modernity. However, what the CCP actually did was effectively destroy their economy, overwhelm them with immigrant imperialists, ban their favorite activities and change the rules every few years, always to the Tibetans detriment (except maybe from 1980-1987). That might be modernity, but I'd rather not admit it if it is. What might have happened if they'd been left alone, if the experience of the foreignness of Tibet in the Long March had caused Mao and Co. to decide to abandon Tibet to the Indians? Or the Pakistani, the Nepalese . . . Hard to say. One suspects there'd be a lot more Muslims wandering about.
Pity they couldn't just build a road and a railroad, establish a few schools and adopt a wait-and-see attitude. As near as I can tell, they still haven't established a reasonable educational system. This is what happens when you institutionalize revolution. Oh, and Ngabo deserves the Teflon title, if ever a leader did. If ever there was a family to learn survival from, that's the one.
Summer in Eclipse Bayby Jayne Ann Krentz
Third in the Eclipse Bay trilogy (I think Krentz's first, but not to be her last), I was either more in the mood for it, or this is the best book of the three. The feud may be over, but there are still loose ends to be tied up. That's the dull part. The good bits are the kids. They're relatively well written, there's more than one of them, and while they are probably too cute for realism, they aren't horribly contrived.
Take Me, I'm Yours, by Elizabeth Beverly
Another antics of the rich and famous aka screwball comedy romance from Beverly. Really, the one about the sociologist was far and away the best. This one's kinda mediocre, altho the yacht going from place to place provides an interesting metaphor.
Treason by the Book, by Jonathan D. Spence
This was a revelation in two distinct and related ways. First, like Darnton's book (Forbidden Bestsellers of Prerevolutionary France), Spence is describing a time in the mid-18th century when autocratic rulers are confronted with the power of the printed or written word reproducing rampant rumor, and have a variety of possible responses, including responding in print themselves. The parallels go further, in that the books in question both attack the fathers of the rulers who must deal with the fallout. Of course the rumors attack the morals (with respect to alcohol and sex in particular) and legitimacy of the dynasty.
Second, like Mao two hundred years later, Yongzheng discovers to his chagrin that making everyone hear The Truth often confuses the matter, particularly since refutations of rumors generally speaking require repeating the rumor in order to provide context. As Mao's followers chose after his death, Qianlong puts an end to the proferred detailed explanation of what happened.
Pillow Talk, by Hailey North
Another lesson not to read a romance writer's work in reverse chronological order. This one has moments aptly described as racist, and as a result, all her southern settings with the rich white folks look really, really suspect now.
Shakespeare's Landlord, by Charlaine Harris
Harris' southern settings, by contrast, not so much. But she doesn't tend to deal with the rich. Quite the contrary. And we knew she was suspicious in part because her vamp hero dude actually fought on the side of the South in the war itself. Oh well. Harris continues to depict slightly annoying, but nevertheless appealing Southern women who are distinctly Not Belles. In this case, Lily has survived a brutal kidnapping-enslavement-gang-rape and ensuing social and familial disaster, run from her past to a present as a housekeeper in a small town, collecting and silently keeping to herself a series of secrets. One of those secrets (a body) proceeds to pry her past out into the open, and to open her up to several new relationships. Including one with her sensei, which is why I bought hte book in the first place. If there are more Lily Bard mysteries, I will continue to buy them in paperback. If only to read about Lily kicking butt.
Diplomatic Immunity, by Lois McMaster Bujold
The latest, and relatively short, entry in the Vorkosigan saga has Miles and Ekaterin distracted on their way home from their honeymoon. Spoiler: they do make it back in time for the decanting of the twins. Bujold has dragged in a lot of business from previous novels, all the way back to Falling Free. It's convoluted, but not particularly suspenseful. I'm not sure why Miles was so slow on the uptake. Presumably, getting some has distracted him.
The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold
Another of Bujold's attempts at work outside the Vorkosigan universe. Oh my god, Cazilar (aptly named Crazy, or at least Lupe) gets whupped from page one to four hundred thirty one. Yes, the book is longer than that, but I figure he doesn't take damage from anything after discovering Iselle has hired a new secretary. So what if he keeps getting rescued by the Lady of Spring, and is eventually rewarded with a bride more than a decade his junior and a cushy court job. No one, but no one earns this kind of crap. Altho theologically, I admire who Bujold stuck with the blame. Any time you can make the patriarch out to be responsible for Everything Bad, well, you come off looking pretty good in comparison, even if the whole thing was your idea in the first place.
I just can't approve. I read it. I finished it. Go Caz and all that. But Bujold, pull that stunt again outside the Vorkosigan series, and I'll never read anything disconnected from that universe again. That was almost as painful as the gastrointestinal distress that sat me down to read for a day and a half in the first place.
[ Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June/July | Nov | Dec | Review Home ]
Copyright Rebecca Allen, 2002.
Created May 3, 2002 Updated December 9, 2002