Universal Book Reviews

Book Review: The Stupidist Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
By: Christopher Moore
ISBN-10: 0060842350
Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson
Rating: An excellent and hilarious book!

If you think the horror genre is limited to Halloween, think again! In The Stupidest Angel, Christopher Moore introduces horror to Christmas, and a hilarious story is born of the tryst. Raziel, an angel, granted he’s a rather stupid angel, comes to the town of Pine Cove, California to answer the wish of one child. None of the dysfunctional residents of the town, except the craziest resident, recognizes him as an angel. They think he’s a pervert or a robot on a mission of destruction. What I love about Pine Cove’s residents, crazy and hilarious as they all are, they seem so real with all of their little quirks making them come alive.

Beyond brilliant characters though and absolute hilarity, what I love the most is the active role that the weather takes in the story. An El Niño year is not just mentioned to give setting. It’s not just a pun both in that there’s an El Niño, and the angel is here to grant the wish of a boy child. No, the weather is almost like another character in the book helping to escalate the plot towards conclusion. However, the characters in the book, just like people in real life all seem to suffer from weather amnesia and completely ignore the forecasts of a major storm. “Winter denial – Theo did it, most Californians did it – they assumed that because the weather was nice most of the time, it would be nice all of the time…” Of course, denying the weather makes it no less real, and Theo and the rest of the characters, even the dead, do so at their own peril.

The Stupidest Angel is simply hilarity mixed up in the soup of an El Niño.

Book Review: “A Pearl In the Storm, How I Lost My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean,” By Tori Murden-McClure

Reviewed by: Renee Weinberger

Rating: Excellent, a must read

A Pearl in the Storm details one woman’s journey across the Atlantic in a row boat. This is not a book about the weather or the nitty gritty about rowing across the Atlantic. Rather, this is a book about how Tori Murden-McClure sets out seeking enlightenment but finds something more important. She comes to terms with her own helplessness in a world that isn’t controllable. It is also a view into a solitary, hermetic existence and the rewards and ramifications of such a state of being. Her first failure to land on the other side of the ocean brings forth an intense realization of her paradoxical success even though her goal was not achieved.

The author is a very complex individual, not only is she a highly trained athlete, but she is also has a degree in divinity and is an attorney. This cross-disciplinary career allows her to paint such a rich tale. She delves into deep and dark territories such as her relationships with disadvantaged people, but also death, faith, and desperation.

I found the book very eye opening, not so much about how one goes about achieving notable mile-stones, but rather about how one deals with one’s flaws and personal demons. Even though the book can be very dark and disturbing, particularly in discussions about the horrific abuse her mentally retarded brother faces, the book has a good pace, and is offset by good-natured humor and entertaining historical anecdotes. The book is structured in a generalized chronology, though it is infused with a great deal of reminiscences and flash backs.

This is probably one of the greatest modern adventure books out there.  If you’re looking for a pure adventure tale romaticising nature and man’s struggle to survive it, this isn’t it.  This is a deep personal experience about so much more than travel or adventure, but about faith, love, death, and purpose.

Book Review: “The Moosery” by Garnet Quinn
Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson
Rating: An Excellent Read

I enjoyed reading the second installment of Garnet Quinn’s Merry Maines series, “The Moosery.” Beth and the cats have a variety of adventures throughout the book including finding a litter of kittens that were thrown away, having prized showcats stolen, finding a Viking ruin and associated mummy, and rehabilitating an injured moose. The adventures are all part of a multi-stranded mystery that Quinn deftly weaves together to make a gripping story.

Through all of the adventures, one theme shines above all else: teamwork is incredibly valuable. There is an amazing power that arises when we can work together in times of adversity. Overall what struck me the most is how adversity brings together even those who differ greatly. By teaming up with somebody different than yourself and setting aside past conflicts or things that would otherwise separate you, great things can be accomplished and problems solved.

Book Review: “Extreme Natural Disasters” by Christine Gibson
Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson
Rating: An excellent overview!

Today is the four-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and residents of the Gulf Coast region are still struggling to rebuild. As devastating as Hurricane Katrina was, it is not the worst-case scenario, in terms of natural disasters, as Christine Gibson demonstrates in “Extreme Natural Disasters.” She writes, “We do not live on a placid planet: The wind blows, the water rises, and the ground moves.” These events on earth are not natural disasters until they happen where people are concentrated, and people often build in dangerous places and alter the land such that it provides little protection from natural events. As is the case with Katrina, “Hurricanes are not new to the Gulf Coast, but they become costlier every year as more and more buildings go up along the shore and natural barriers are destroyed. In the past, extensive coastal wetlands acted like sponges, helping to keep floodwaters in check… When Katrina hit land, there was nothing to hold it back.”

While Katrina was no doubt a killer, with as many as 1800 dying, Gibson describes other deadly hurricanes, including Floyd, which killed 18,000 people, ten times as many as Katrina. Even deadlier was the cyclone that struck what is now Bangladesh in 1970 killing 500,000 people. This cyclone is a perfect example of what Gibson describes as the “cruelest twist” of natural disasters in that, “they tend to punish those least capable of putting up a fight,” the poor.

Gibson’s study of natural disasters is not limited to hurricanes. She also devotes chapters to tornadoes; ice storms, snowstorms, and avalanches; floods and their consequences; drought and heatwaves; earthquakes; volcanoes; and tsunamis, examining the science behind all of them. For a myriad of reasons, including fertile soil for farming and simple denial, people tend to live in places prone to natural disasters. For as long as we build in floodplains, on volcanoes, or on fault lines, humans will be in danger from Earth’s movements and weather. While one cannot control the Earth, Gibson suggests that natural disasters can be mitigated by prediction, preparation, and, in some cases, prevention. If you are curious about natural disasters and their impacts upon humanity, “Extreme Natural Disasters” provides a perfect overview.

Book Review: Detox for Women: An All New Approach for a Sleek Body and Radiant Health in 4 Weeks
by Natalia Rose
Reviewed by: Anna

Rating: So-so

I was really hoping this book would provide some sound guidance on a healthy and safe way to detox a body that’s too used to cheeseburgers and other processed foods.  Instead, I found myself constantly questioning the logic behind some of the suggestions in the book.  It would have been helpful if there were some backing to the counter-intuitive claims made.  For example, the author suggests skipping breakfast entirely and having the heaviest meal of the day in the evening.  I found this advice to be not supported by anything other than anecdotes.  She also suggests that raw food is the easiest to digest, which also seems illogical.

Additionally, the author’s relentless advertisement for a particular brans of a sugar substite made me question her motives.  Her tone also left much to be desired.  In her attempt to be inspirational, the author instead comes across as condescending and patronizing.  Her condemnation of meat was also not well-recieved by me since I am an omnivore.  She mentiones the word “meat” like it was some dirty word never to be mentioned in good company and tries to make the reader feel guilty for enjoying all the Earth has to offer.

Overall, I didn’t get much out of reading that book, but the juice recipes sound decent enough to try.  Though, they won’t be used as a meal replacement.

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson
Rating: An Excellent Book

“Positively Crochet” by Mary Jane Hall is a special treat. At times, it seems to me that the world is flush with knitting patterns for making garments but rather lacking when it comes to crochet patterns for making garments. Hall completely reverses this trend with Positively Crochet; her book is full of attractive clothing pieces.

Normally when I review a knit or crochet book, I tend to make one pattern from the book as part of my review. For Positively Crochet, I couldn’t help myself; I made two items before I even had the chance to write a review! I made the Simple Shrug and the Circular Shrug. Both projects that I made employed a new technique for me, crocheting into the back loop, which creates a somewhat ribbed appearance. I enjoyed making both, but what’s more I really felt inspired by the words of wisdom she sprinkled throughout the book.

My favorite inspirational tip was, “Believe in yourself and others will start believing in you. No matter what you are trying to accomplish in your life, don’t let others who are more experienced intimidate you. If you need experience, just hang in there, taking one day at a time. Don’t give up!”

I feel compelled to note, however, that Hall has published some errata on her web site. Make sure that you check those before starting a project.

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: Must Read

Losing a major US city ought to be a wake up call to Americans that something has gone wrong.  Following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Chris Mooney explores the connection between global warming and increased hurricane strength in Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming.  In the wake of Katrina, politicians and the news media seized on the question of whether Global Warming caused the record-breaking hurricane season of 2005.  However, are politicians, who need to please their constituency to get reelected, and the news media that needs to sell stories, really the best sources for determining the connection?

Mooney’s book has value in that he skips the party-line rhetoric and sensationalist media and interviews the meteorologists, the people best qualified to understand hurricanes and their influencing factors.  Notably, he talks with William Gray, Chris Landsea, and Kerry Emanuel, meteorologists all on differing sides of the debate.

Mooney drives home the point that whether or not global warming is manmade or a naturally occurring phenomenon and whether or not it has any impact on tropical weather systems, the fact is that we do live in a storm world. Tropical storms and hurricanes are going to occur.  They are going to strike our cities.  With so many people living in harm’s way, the question should really be, what are we going to do about it?  “So whatever we do about global warming, we should be preparing ourselves for hurricanes (including possibly stronger ones) no matter what.”

While Mooney does discuss the faulty levee system that ostensibly caused the massive flooding in New Orleans, I wish he had delved a little deeper into engineering solutions our coastal cities can use to protect and safely evacuate their populations.  That said, Storm World is particularly thought-provoking, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about the science behind hurricanes and the relation to global warming.

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: An excellent and fun book to read!

I enjoyed reading about the adventures of feline friends, Hawkeye and Bhu Fan, in “The Merry Maines, a Shaggy Cat Story” by Garnet Quinn.  Aside from being cats, a Maine Coon and a Korat have very little in common, especially these two cats.  They come from different worlds, country and city, and are of different lineages, homegrown cats and Eastern royalty.  The two meet by chance, and become friends, their friendship transcending their differences as they work together to thwart the threats to the cattery and to their human, Beth.  However, as they get to know each other and as Bhu Fan, affectionately called Boo by Hawkeye, gets to know the family of shaggy cats, she realizes that they really are quite similar after all.

What struck me most as I read was how well Quinn knows cats!  Everything about the cats, what do and say and how they interact with humans and with each other, is completely believable.  Given the right circumstances and motivation, cats can do some pretty amazing things.  My own cats prove this point to me daily!

Book Review: Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health

Reviewed by: Lynn Peterson

Rating: Must Read

“Doubt is Their Product” by David Michaels explores how industry sows seeds of doubt in the eyes of the public that their product might not be as dangerous as scientific studies imply.  In the 1950’s, the Tobacco Industry, “…understood that the public is in no position to distinguish good science from bad.  Create doubt, uncertainty, and confusion.  Throw mud at the ‘antismoking’ research under the assumption that some of it is bound to stick.  And buy time, lots of time, in the bargain.”  Industry can create doubt so easily because simply put, there is no such thing as absolute certainty in science.  Not even the Law of Gravity is absolutely certain.  Industries, including Big Tobacco, understand this and whenever there is a study that shows a link between their product and a risk to public health, they exploit uncertainty to convince the public and policymakers that their product just might not be that dangerous.

Through a myriad of examples, Michaels shows that creating doubt goes way beyond cigarettes.  Manufacturers of chemical dyes, asbestos, pharmaceutical drugs, and even microwave popcorn have followed the example of the Tobacco Industry.   To these industries and companies, it is better to deny than it is to admit wrongdoing and change their practices.  The examples and the fact that we still rely on the “body in the morgue” method, where industrial workers must first die from working with these chemicals, to even question the safety of a chemical are unconscionable.   Sometimes the effects of a chemical on health is so obvious, such as 100% of chemical dye workers developing bladder tumors, but doubt is a powerful foe to the truth that some substances are simply dangerous.

Fortunately, Michales does more than just paint a dire picture of how money and power trump common sense and health; he posits a series of solutions towards the end of the book.  One such example is rather than waiting for workers to become ill or drop dead, chemical manufacturers ought to be required to determine whether a substance is safe or not.  Of course, there can be no absolute certainty, but people must be protected, “on the basis of the best evidence currently available.”

“Doubt is their Product” is a real eye-opener and ought to be read by everybody who cares about health and safety.

Book Review: The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest’s Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews

Reviewed by: Jake Turk

Rating: An Excellent Book

Great books about the extermination camps are legion, but less attention is given to the “front line” of the Holocaust: the Einsatzgruppen (“task forces”), the advance legions of mass-murderers who killed 1.5 million Jews in occupied Eastern Europe. Rather than the gas chambers and crematoria of the death camps, the vast majority of the Einsatzgruppen’s victims were merely shot in plain sight not far from their own homes. All too often, their Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish neighbors offered varying degrees of complicity to the executioners.

Father Patrick Desbois has written a worthy new addition to the scant library of literature on the Einsatzgruppen. Lifelong curiosity over a painful chapter in his own family history led this French Catholic priest across Europe to the unlikely destination of post-Soviet Ukraine. There, Father Desbois and a hand-picked team of investigators moved from village to village, soliciting testimonials from elderly Ukrainians who witnessed (and were often recruited to participate in) the crimes of the Einsatzgruppen as children sixty years earlier.

Academically and emotionally, “Holocaust by Bullets” can’t compare with the soul-wrenching experience that is Richard Rhodes’s “Masters of Death,” which I read last summer. But Father Desbois writes with a passion and admitted lack of academic objectivity that probably makes his account more accessible to more people. He also takes a stubbornly optimistic or at least hopeful view that is lacking in Rhodes’s book.  Readers solely interested in the atrocities themselves may grow impatient with Father Desbois’s autobiographical account of his evolution from youthful secularist to adult Catholic, but the book is easily worth the abundance of awards it has earned since its publication last year.