Hit List, by Laurell K. Hamilton

I've read other of Ms. Hamilton's series about a vampire killer with a variety of para-normal abilities and a strange lifestyle.   I confess this with some trepidation:  hardly literature.    This most recent of Ms. Hamilton's novels in the "Anita Blake" series does little to improve my reputation, nor hers.

So the plot:  bad guy super special creatures are killing folks.  But really just to get the hero's attention so that the big bad vampire lady can kidnap her and take over her body.   Which she (spoiler alert!) ...

... fails to do at the end.   Although it is a bit unclear, since the ending is so choppy and abrupt that it almost makes the material prior to it well thought out and clear.   Oh, which it isn't.

Bottom line:  pretty poor entry in what was at best a marginal series.

The Venom of Vipers, by K. C. May

This novel looks at the concept of an incurable disease affecting humanity.  A set of genetic scientists developed a modified homo sapiens that is immune, but can't multiply without assistance.   It poses questions about human rights being extended to quasi-humans.

That was the good news.   Now the bad:  the novel desperately needs an extra couple of opening pages to explain what was going on instead of throwing the reader into the middle of the story.   But more importantly, something -- and I'm not quite sure what -- needs to be done to make the characters slightly less annoying.   While the plot line held my interest to the end, I didn't care about the characters at all.

Still, it has received glowing reviews on Amazon; I might just be an outlier.

The Shop, by J. Carson Black

To cut to the chase, just say no.

This novel teetered on the edge of interesting.  Unfortunately, confused plot lines.  A lead character has a fear of water; it is presented in a way that makes me wonder if there was a prequel.  But, I don't care enough to even check for this.   Some characters are interesting and well developed.  The hero (fear of water woman) doesn't seem all that competent.   Overall, in need of serious editing.

Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv

Mr. Louv's thesis is that depriving children of experiencing nature - whether it be fishing, hunting, building forts in the snow or tree houses, or just laying in a field looking at clouds - is a really bad thing.  It leads to attention deficit disorder, obesity, and a disconnectedness with the environment which will have lasting negative consequences.

The outlook is depressing.   Consider this:  "In the era of test-centric education reform and growing fear of liability, many [school] districts considered recess a waste of potential academic time or too risky.  'Lifers at Leavenworth get more time in the exercise yard.'" [p99]

What's the cause of this problem?   Mr. Louv points to insane litigiousness accompanied by ridiculous legislation in some areas and perhaps more worrisome, that we as a society are willing to tolerate the anti-common-sense nuttiness of some of this.  He points to regions in the US where rules prohibit kids from building tree houses, or playing in the grass.    

Some Girl Scout camps, it seems, don't allow real interaction with nature. "Liability is an increasing concern. 'When I was a kid, you fell down, you got up, so what; you learned to deal with consequences. I broke this arm twice,' says Narayan.  'Today, if a parent sends a kid to you without a scratch, they better come back that way." [p154]

Then there's the over-scheduling issue:  from school to after school study sessions, tennis lessons, soccer practice, perhaps a violin lesson, there's not much time to allow as free form playing in the wild.

Rabid environmentalists are painted as sacrificing human interest to save their favorite salamander, but that's not new news.  (Kids flying kites might get in the way of a bird.)   Just depressing.

We don't spend much energy in society or schools pushing kids toward nature.  We do spend energy on the opposite. "Public education is enamored of, even mesmerized by, what might be called silicon faith: a myopic focus on high technology as salvation. ... The problem with computers isn't computers -- they're just tools; the problem is that overdependance on them displaces other sources of education, from the arts to nature." [p137]

The big issue is probably the "bogeyman syndrome."    Can you let your child just go out and play, without knowing where she is?   What if she gets hurt?    

There are two dimensions to this.  The first is the scare tactic.  "Fear of traffic, of crime, of stranger-danger, and of nature itself." [p123]   As in many things hyped by the media and exploited by those with agendas, statistics, facts and logic tend to be ignored in the world of stranger-danger.   It seems as though about 200 kids are at risk of abduction each year in the US.

The cost of over- vigilance is with the sacrifice of age appropriate, fun and important activity for millions.   "One stranger abduction is too many, but in New York state [sic], only three children were abducted by strangers in 2006." [p127, from a NY State Criminal Justice Services report]   Of abductions in general, "by a wide margin, most of the abductors weren't strangers, but family members or someone the family knew."

Clearly any hurt child is one hurt child too many.   But bad things do and will happen, so it only compounds the pain to save kids from scary things by saving them from life itself.

Consider:  "Teaching kids intelligent caution around strangers is certainly important; how to say 'no' to potential child abusers is essential. But we need to create a balanced view of danger. The damage that has been caused when you have families teaching their kids never to talk to another adult in a society where you desperately need more communication -- what does that do to the kid?"  [p126]

An analogy is dealing with terrorism.   The saying is, if you give in to terrorism then the terrorists win.  Instead you should continue to {fill in the blanks -- fly, go to New York City, shop, sit in a coffee shop even in Haifa, etc.}.

Consider:  "The child psychologist Erik Erikson described the child's need, particularly in middle childhood, to establish a self beyond adult control, and the important role of forts, hideouts, and other special places near the home." [p124]

The second dimension:  nature is scary.  

"So where is the greatest danger? Outdoors, in the woods and fields?  Or on the couch in front of the TV? A blanket wrapped too tightly has its own consequences. One is that we may end up teaching our children, in the same breath, that life is too risky but also not real -- that there is a medical (or if that fails, a legal) remedy for every mistake."

"In 2001, the British Medical Journal announced that it would no longer allow the word 'accident' to appear in its pages, based on the notion that when most bad things happen to good people, such injuries could have been foreseen and avoided, if proper measures had been taken. Such absolutist thinking is not only delusional, but dangerous." [p132]

So should you read this book?   Yes, I believe so.  Even though it is depressing; it feels as though everyone is intent on preventing kids from having a real nature experience:  the litigation model, over-zealous environmentalists, PETA members who dislike fishing, headline -happy media outlets who of course sell more air time with horror stories than with joy, uptight adults who love an excuse to keep kids off the grass, school districts (driven to insanity by educational goals set up by nincompoops in state and federal roles) that are trapped between rocks and hard places.

It seems there's no end to the problem.   So read this book if it will help you become indignant about the topic.   And, there is a section in the back of the book that lists activities for parents and school activists.

Khrushchev's Shoe, by Roy Underhill

This book is about public speaking:   the title continues "and other ways to captivate an audience of 1 to 1,000."     The author is the woodworking world's Roy Underhill;  public television fans might recognize him as the host of the Woodwright's Shop.

There's no woodworking here.  Just logical advice, laid out clearly, with a few useful anecdotes and some stories.   A solid book, in the Shaker tradition of furniture making.   Simple, practical, useful.

But surprisingly little is said about Khrushchev but that he regretted becoming a spectacle.

The Affair: A Reacher Novel, by Lee Child

I am a fan of Mr. Child's action / mystery series featuring hero Jack Reacher.   Like many of his successful colleagues, Mr. Child has the challenge of publishing new stories about the same person over a very long timespan.  Unlike Hercule Poirot, Reacher is a quite physical hero; can he credibly deliver against a heavy action plot line as he ages?

This novel deals with the problem by going back in time, to 1997.   As a consequence, I was not eager to read this:  for some reason it didn't seem interesting to go back to an earlier Reacher character.   But I had to spend a few hours in a waiting room, the library had a copy for me, so I gave it a go.

It was a fortunate situation.   This is a very enjoyable novel for what it is (this isn't Dostoevsky we're discussing you know).   It quite follows the standard Lee Child template:   hero rolls into town, meets lovely lady, meets numerous bad guys, outwits them and out fights them, hits the lonely road again after having saved the day.

One complaint.    Even by the standards of this genre, the violence was extreme.   Well, not so much extreme as in a horror movie, but extreme in that there were three executions with no consequence.  No discussion really, about their appropriateness or implication.   If Mr. Child wants to maintain the premise of a moral hero (who does illegal things on occasion), then it seems to me he needs to build a hero who at least acknowledges the immorality (or at least the questionable legality) of his actions.

I'm betting that the typical Lee Child fan isn't bothered by this any more than the typical Brad Thor fan gets annoyed at jingoistic rants.

Zombie, Ohio, by Scott Kenemore

First off, it is difficult to believe that I'm more than mid-way through February and this is the first book I've completed in 2012. Yikes! I'll chalk this up to a move and a seemingly infinite set of "old-house get ready to sell" and "new-house get ready to live in" chores. Still...

Now to Mr. Kenemore's book. This is not your typical zombie novel; it is intelligent and interesting. One novel twist: the narrator is a zombie, albeit an atypical one. This differentiates the book and gives it a winning edge. I recommend it as an interesting novel, so even if you don't like zombie movies or texts, you may well like this.

As an aside, if you enjoyed Justin Cronin's "The Passage," then you'll probably like "Zombie, Ohio."  Mr. Kenemore's book isn't as high on my list, but it is similarly a pleasant and enjoyable deviation from the genre.

2011 Best of List

Once again in 2011, only five books made it on to my best of the year list.

Best fiction of the year:

* The Informationist, by Taylor Stephens
* Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield
* Topic of Night, by Michael Gruber


Best non-fiction of the year:

* Jesus on Death Row, by Mark Osler
* On China, by Henry Kissinger
 
As usual, I like to keep track of the numbers -- just because.   I expected to have read more books in the latter part of 2011 but a move late in the year caused almost all of my reading queue to be boxed up, and my reading time to be consumed with packing and unpacking.   In 2011, of the 116 books I read, fiction outweighed non-fiction at 67 to 49.   But I'm expecting lots of reading time in 2011; I've promised myself to make it through the stack of books in the box before taking on any new titles!

Keeping Pet Chickens, by Paul, Windham, and Stahlkuppe

This cute little book has excellent photos, but few of them as it is quite thin.   There is a narrow purpose for which I think this book might be very good:  if you are considering raising chickens and want to inch your way forward slowly as you determine if it will be fun for you, this, early on, provides just enough information to be a gate.   It explains enough so that you will have sufficient understanding to say either, "nope, not for me," or "okay, I'm game, now let's get a real book and learn some more."

Reamde, by Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon" is one of my favorite novels ever.   Apparently this is true for many people, whose reviews of "Reamde" tend to the negative only so much as they compare this latest novel to his prior work.    But this is not a problem for me:  this is a terrific novel.

There are two primary heros:  Richard, who got rich smuggling marijuana between Canada and the USA and then went straight with a massively multi-player online role-playing game called "T'Rain."    And, Zula, Richard's adult niece, who demonstrates considerable resourcefulness under pressure.   Several secondary characters are well described.

The plot, as is typical of Stephenson, is complex and multi-layered.  Chinese game players (for profit) have hacked the game such that files on a player's computer get encrypted.  They require that one make a $73 payment (inside the game structure) to get the decryption code.   The game structure allows virtual currency to be converted to real world currency, so with enough players paying, there's big money to be made.

Russian mobsters get involved when some of their files are affected.   And from there, there's too much risk of plot spoilers to say more.

Bottom line:  ignore the reviews that say "I liked his other books better," and read "Reamde."