Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond

    2003; 440 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Full Title: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.  Genres : Ancient History; Human Geography; Non-Fiction.  Laurels: 1998 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction; 1997 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    Outnumbered armies of Western European countries pulled off a pair of amazing victories in the 16^th century.  Cortez and a couple hundred conquistadors vanquished the powerful Aztec Empire in Mexico.  A few years later, Pizarro duplicated that feat against the Inca Empire in Peru.

 

    But both Spanish armies had some huge advantages.  Their soldiers had guns and horses, the Aztecs and Incas had none.  The Spanish also carried germs that decimated the Aztec and Incan populations with deadly plagues.  The Spaniards had steel swords, the Aztecs and Incas fought with stone hatchets.

 

    Those were all decisive edges for the European invaders.  But why hadn’t Mesoamerican civilizations developed similar weapons technologies?  And why weren’t the Aztec and Incan populace infested with their own sets of germs to which Europeans invaders would have no resistance?

 

    Jared Diamond examines the possible root causes of these technological and bacteriological factors of Guns, Germs, and Steel.  He comes to some surprising conclusions.

 

What’s To Like...

    After a brief Prologue wherein Jared Diamond recounts the incident that caused him to research this subject, Guns, Germs, and Steel is divided into five sections, namely:

    Part 1: From Eden to Cajamarca.  Notable conquests.

    Part 2: The Rise and Spread of Food Production.  Farming and animal domestication.

    Part 3: From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel.  The evolution of armies.

    Part 4: Around the World in Five Chapters.  How each global landmass was populated.

    Epilogue: The Future of Human History as a Science.  Conclusions and Critiques.

 

    I was impressed by the author's meticulous research into the history of global conquests.  Regardless of geographic location, human civilization begins with the formation of hunter-gatherer bands, which still exist in a few, isolated areas of the world.  With some exceptions, those bands grow into tribes, which grow into chiefdoms, which grow into states.  The greater the population of the state, the more likely it will develop centralized government and armies.

 

    There are many factors that can hinder such a natural progression though, which are detailed in the text.  Not all crops are rich enough in proteins to feed sizable quantities of people.  Geographic boundaries, such as deserts, mountains, and oceans can also deter progress.  So does the absence of any sizable animals that are amenable to domestication.  There’s no use in inventing the wheel and chariots if you don’t have any beasts to pull them.

 

    I loved the way Jared Diamond presented the details of the evolution of Civilization.  How do you go about “inventing” writing?  Why did the Norsemen fail to found a permanent settlement in Canada after they discovered it?  And perhaps most curious of all, why did the clunky QWERTY keyboard become the worldwide standard for typing communications?

 

    There are at least three editions of Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997, 2003, 2007).  I happened to be reading the 2003 edition, which closes with the author responding to the various feedback—both positive and negative—that arose from people after reading the 1997 version.  Guns, Germs, and Steel won a Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction in 1998, which means it garnered a wide and diverse leadership.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 14,611 ratings and 3,190 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.04*/5, based on 469,675 ratings and 16,336 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Inventing a writing system from scratch must have been incomparably more difficult than borrowing and adapting one.  The first scribes had to settle on basic principles that we now take for granted.  For example, they had to figure out how to decompose a continuous utterance into speech units, regardless of whether those units were taken as words, syllables, or phonemes.  They had to learn to recognize the same sound or speech unit through all our normal variations in speech volume, pitch, speed, emphasis, phrase grouping, and individual idiosyncrasies of pronunciation.  They had to decide that a writing system should ignore all of that variation.  They then had to devise ways to represent sounds by symbols.  (pg. 217)

 

    The striking differences between long-term histories of peoples of the different continents have been due not to innate differences in the peoples themselves but to differences in their environments.  I expect that if the populations of Aboriginal Australia and Eurasia could have been interchanged during the Late Pleistocene, the original Aboriginal Australians would now be the ones occupying most of the Americas and Australia, as well as Eurasia, while the Aboriginal Eurasians would be the ones now reduced to downtrodden fragments in Australia.  (pg. 405)

 

What caveman or cavewoman ever got the idea of “domesticating” a plant, and how was it accomplished?  (pg. 114)

    As would be expected in a work of scholarly non-fiction, there is almost no profanity in Guns, Germs, and Steel.  I noted just three instances, all of which involved the use of the word damn.  I didn’t catch a single typo, but perhaps these were caught and corrected in between the first and second editions.

 

    About the only quibble I can come up with is that the section on Agriculture was how many pages dealt with the way Food Production arose in various areas of the world.  Different crops work well or not-so-well in different climates.  Some were better at being hybridized than others; some contained oodles more protein than others.  Spending pages comparing corn to, say, sorghum got a bit tedious for me.

 

    But overall, Guns, Germs, and Steel thoroughly resonated with me.  I learned a lot from reading it, and since I muchly enjoy reading about Ancient History, this book was tailor-made for me.  It’s actually the first book in a trilogy; with the other two books titled Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis.  I think I need to go looking for these.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  Chapter 19, How Africa Became Black, deals with the history of the various empires, conquests, and peoples of that continent, particularly in the sub-Saharan and tropical areas.  I don’t recall ever reading such a detailed, informative account of this.  It was freakin’ awesome!

Useless Etymology - Jess Zafarris

    2025; 330 pages.  Full Title: Useless Etymology—Off Beat Word Origins for Curious Minds.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Etymology; Linguistics; Language; Reference.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    Quick!  What the plural of “octopus”?  Is it octopuses, octopi, or octopodes?  If that kind of question fascinates you, you’re probably a word nerd.  Don't worry, so am I.

 

    It’s all a matter of from which older language the word “octopus” is derived.  Ancient Latin?  Ancient Greece?  Early English?  Some other even older and now-forgotten language? 

 

    Jess Zafarris freely admits she is a word nerd.  She’s researched the origins of a plethora of English words and has compiled them into this book, Useless Etymology.

 

    Hmm.  I wonder how much a “plethora” is and from what old language it came from.  Happily, the answer is in this book.  So is her opinion as to which “plural of octopus” is the most correct.  It might surprise you.

 

What’s To Like...

    Useless Etymology is divided into 22 chapters, plus a Prologue and an Epilogue.  My favorites were:

Chapter 09: Hit the Books: The origins of Literary and Rhetorical terms.

Chapter 11: Animalogical: Critters Hiding in Other Words.

Chapter 19: Word Gaffes: When Words Trip Us Up.

Chapter 22: Extralongitudinal Linguistifabulatons.

 

    I liked the writing style.  The author assumes the reader is a word enthusiast, but doesn’t have a PhD in Linguistics.  The text is by necessity scholarly, yet it is also easy for us recreational wordsmiths to understand.

 

    The chapters are separated into three parts.  Part One, The Oddities of English Etymology, introduces the reader to the technical aspects of Etymology.  Part Two, Twist and Turns, presents chapters dealing with specific etymological wordlists, such as Colors, Food, Astronomy,  Seasons/Months, etc.  Part Three, Whimsy and Wonder, is a delightful collection of offbeat words, silly vocabulary, slang, and incredibly lengthy words.

 

    I was happy to see one of my favorite dictionary terms, “Dord” get mentioned.  Ditto for Interrobangs, Aardwolves, and Grawlix, and a word of recent origin, Vellichor.  I agree with the author, the obsolete term “Slangwhanger” needs to be restored to everyday language.  And I appreciated inclusion of a quote from one of my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 143 ratings and 39 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.17/5 based on 303 ratings and 173 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Just like other collocated verb phrases we looked at, none of these is set in stone.  But they’ve become so commonplace that they’re difficult to avoid.  Try coming up with different versions of a few and see how they sound to you.  “Explode into tears” is less common and might evoke a different mental image than “burst into tears.”  And “awfully ill-prepared” isn’t found as frequently as “woefully ill-prepared” despite meaning  more or less the same thing.  (pg. 57)

 

    Scuttlebutt, a nautical-inspired term for gossip, rumors, and interpersonal news shared among coworkers, dates to the early 1800s and is quite literally the sailor’s equivalent of “watercooler talk.”  A “scuttlebutt” was a cask of fresh drinking water kept aboard a ship, around which sailors loitered and chattered much as they might around the watercooler in an office break room.  (pg. 261)

 

Kindle Details…

    Useless Etymology sells for $9.99 at Amazon at present.  Jess Zafarris has two other etymology-themed e-books available: Words from Hell and Once Upon a Word; both of which are in the $8–$9 range, plus another two tomes that are in the works but which you can already pre-order.

 

 

“I would there was a blister on this plaguy tongue of mine for making such a hollo-ballo.”  (pg. 7) (*)

    I only noticed four instances of profanity in Useless Etymology, and one of those was there because the etymology of “shit” was being addressed.

 

    Some of the early, more technical chapters have lots of footnotes.  For the most part, they reference the literary source being quoted in the text (which, after all, is the main purpose of footnotes), so if that doesn't interest you, they can be ignored.  In later chapters, some of the footnotes gave added insight to the text, so when you’re about halfway through the book, you might want to start reading them.

 

    I can’t think of anything else to quibble about.  For me, Useless Technology was a great read, on a subject I immensely love learning more about.  Word Nerds of the world unite!  We have nothing to lose but our linguistic ignorance!

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  The tagline above marked with an asterisk (*) is from a book by Tobias Smollett, titled “The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves”, published in 1762, and cited here for its etymological forerunner of hullaballoo.  I’m amazed at how “ancient” that sentence sounds.  I think I might go find that novel and read it.

Red Rising - Pierce Brown

    2014; 383 pages.  Book 1 (out of 6) in the “Red Rising” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Dystopian Fiction; Military Action; Adventure Fantasy.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    It’s a dirty job, but Darrow’s got to do it.  After all, he is one of the best Helldivers in underground Mars, tunneling deeply, and dangerously, into the rock to gather precious Helium-3.

 

    He may die doing his job, but Darrow is prepared to make that sacrifice.  Helium-3 is the key to eventually terraforming the Martian surface, something he would love to see someday.

 

    That’s years away, though.  And something a lowly “Red” like Darrow can only dream about.  But now, he’s learned that there’s a secret shaft that you can climb up and maybe glimpse the lifeless Martian surface.  What an opportunity!  That’ll be spectacular!

 

    You don’t know the half of it, Darrow.

 

What’s To Like...

    Although it is set on the planet Mars, Red Rising is first and foremost a Dystopian tale.  The story is told in the First Person POV, Darrow’s; and the book is divided into four Parts, namely:

    Part 1: “Slave”  (@ 1%)

    Part 2: “Reborn”  (@ 13%)

    Part 3: “Gold”  (@ 34%)

    Part 4: “Reaper”  (@ 65%)

 

    The central theme of the book is watching Darrow gradually learn to be a leader.  The culture on Mars is a strict caste society.  Gold is the highest, and Red is the lowest,  As the book’s title implies, Darrow is a lowly Red.  Becoming a leader will be an uphill challenge, and Darrow is going to make his share of mistakes along the way.

 

    The worldbuilding is fantastic.  The story is set in the considerable future since we learn that there are multiple underground Martian colonies and they’ve been there for generations.  Weaponry has advanced accordingly; arms such as scorchers, stunners, thumpers, slingBlades, ionSwords, and ionArrows are now standard issue.  I recall only one strange creature in the story—pitvipers, the bane of Helldivers.  But there are probably more.

 

    I enjoyed the details that Pierce Brown blends into the story.  Darrow learns to play a game called “BloodChess”, and since I’ve been a chessplayer all my life, I’m dying to learn this variant.  Darrow is taught a Kung-Fu-like martial art called “Kravat” and the correct spelling of a governmental system is now “Demokracy”.  On the other hand, youngsters still love to play a game called “Red Knuckles”, which was around when I was growing up.

 

    The book ends at a logical place, with a plot twist that I never saw coming.  Red Rising is part of a 6-book series, and I’m sure the sequel, Golden Son, will continue the timeline of Darrow’s adventure without interruption.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 94,997 ratings and 6,826 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.27/5 based on 845,123 ratings and 93,395 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “I’ve hidden from everyone but you,” Mustang says.  “It keeps me alive and ticking.”

    “What’s your plan,” I ask.

    She laughs at herself.  “To be alive and ticking.”

    “You’re better at it than I am.”

    “How do you mean?”

    “No one in your House would have betrayed you.”

    “Because I didn’t rule like you,” she says.  “You have to remember, people don’t like being told what to do.  You can treat your friends like servants and they’ll love you, but you tell them they’re servants and they’ll kill you.”  (pg. 267)

 

    “Do you really eat your own Housemembers?”

    “After months in darkness, you eat whatever your mouth finds.  Even if it’s still moving.  It isn’t very impressive, really.  Less human than I would have liked, very much like animals.  And anyone would have done it.  But dredging up my foul memories no way to negotiate.”

    “We aren’t negotiating.”

    “Humans are always negotiating.  That’s what conversation is.”  (pg. 347)

 

Kindle Details…

    Red Rising currently is priced at $5.99 at Amazon.  The rest of the books in the series cost either $9.99 or $12.99.  You can save a couple of bucks by buying the first three books in this series as a bundle for $26.99.

 

“You’re about as pretty as a gargoyle’s wart.”  (pg. 292)

    There's a moderate amount of profanity in Red Rising; I counted 15 instances in the first 10% of the book.  Pierce Brown lessens the cussword-count by utilizing a couple of euphemistic words: “slag” and “gory”.  They are multifunctional; two examples are “slag that” and “bugger my goryballs”.  I’ll let you deduce their meanings.

 

    This is a work of Dystopian Fiction, so things like rape, dismemberment, and slavery are to be expected.  I also recall at least one “adult situation”.

 

    I can’t think of anything to grouse about in Red Rising.  True, the ending doesn’t really tie up any of the main plotlines, but, as mentioned above, it does pause things at an important moment, yet without degenerating into a cliffhanger.

 

    I find the high value of the Amazon and Goodreads ratings fully justified, and the incredible number of people who took the time to rate and/or review tells me this series is immensely popular right now.  Book Two resides on my Kindle, awaiting my attention.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  Is Red Rising a goryfine read?  You better slagging believe it!

Being Ram Dass - Ram Dass

    2021; 405 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Biographies & Memoirs; Philosophy; Meditation.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    Back in my college days, there was a “way cool” book that all the hip students were reading.  It was titled Be Here Now, by a guy named Ram Dass.  Okay, that wasn’t his real name, his birth name was Richard Alpert, and he was a Harvard Professor of Psychology.

 

    Be Here Now was an easy book to read.  It had lots of drawings and the text was compact.  In a nutshell, it urged the target audience, Westerners, to travel to India, to practice Meditation, and to lose your sense of attachment to Self.

 

    Being Ram Dass is a memoir of that Self named Ram Dass, nee Richard Alpert.

 

What’s To Like...

    After a Foreword and an Introduction, both of which are worth reading, Being Ram Dass is divided into six sections, namely:

Part 1: Learning and Unlearning (14 chapters)

     Growing up, Academics, Psychedelics

Part 2: Pilgrim of the Heart (8 chapters)

    Travels to India; Meditations and Pure Love

Part 3: Service Center (6 chapters)

    Seeing God in Others

Part 4: The Wheel Turns (5 chapters)

    Growing Older

Part 5: Ocean View (3 chapters)

    Final Thoughts

The Next Chapter: Ram Dass Here/Not Here (6 pages)

    An Epilogue by a Friend

 

    Richard Alpert/Ram Dass’s life is presented chronologically—he grew up in a well-to-do family, attended Tufts University, got a PhD in Psychology, and became a professor at Harvard.  He met Timothy Leary, got turned on to LSD, and spearheaded a Harvard-sponsored research project to see if taking psychedelics could enable convicts to turn from their criminal ways.  Which got him fired from Harvard, something that hadn’t happened since Ralph Waldo Emerson taught there in the 1800s.

 

    I loved his “warts and all” approach to writing this memoir.  Enlightened gurus are common in India, and jealousies between them sometimes arise.  A mystic’s diet is quite austere, so Ram Dass and friends would occasionally sneak into town to munch on M&Ms.  Becoming One with God does not preclude making out in the backseat of a car.  And while Love is all you need, once in a while a hit of acid or psilocybin is a fun excursion.

 

    The main message, of course, is that if you give yourself totally to an enlightened guru, he will teach you to love everyone unreservedly, render service to mankind, and become One with the Cosmos by shedding all of your earthly attachments.

 

    There is a lot of name-dropping, which is not a criticism.  A few of the celebrities who came to see, hear, talk with, and/or assist Ram Dass include: Aldous Huxley, Maynard Ferguson, Charles Mingus, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Wavy Gravy, Steve Jobs, Michael Crichton, George Harrison, Jerry Rubin, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Stokely Carmichael, and Robert Redford.  I’m in awe.

 

    Late in life, Ram Dass suffers a stroke, which leaves him unable to speak, unable to write, and wheelchair-bound.  It was touching to read how he dealt with this, and battled through depression and a lot of physical therapy to finally accept this.  For enlightened beings, Birth and Death are not starting and ending points; they are two depots in a cosmic journey propelled by Reincarnation.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Pellucid (adj.) : translucently clear

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.8*/5, based on 1,039 ratings and 96 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.57*/5, based on 1,747 ratings and 184 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Wavy Gravy helped keep things light with a pair of tacky clown glasses with Groucho Marx eyebrows.  If anyone uttered the word “serious”, also known as “the S word,” the meeting came to a complete stop while the offender donned the funny glasses.  We avoided taking ourselves too seriously, even as we addressed deep suffering.  (Wavy and his wife, Jahanara, named their son Howdy Do-Good Gravy, although as soon as he was old enough, he changed it to Jordan.)  (pg. 293)

 

    From a Hindu perspective, you are born into what you need to deal with, your karmic predicament.  If you try to push anything away, whatever it is, the reaction against it creates more attachment, just like getting pulled into it.  It’s got your mind.  It was no accident that I was born into a Jewish family, and I finally was able to appreciate its mark on me.  Only when you honor your karma fully can you begin to be free.  (pg. 330)

 

“If a pickpocket comes to see a saint, all he sees are his pockets.”  (pg. 182)

    There’s only a smattering of profanity in Being Ram Dass; just 11 instances in the whole book.  Most of it was direct quotes of others, but frankly, I was surprised there was any at all.  I didn’t note any typos.

 

    If you’re homophobic, be aware that Richard Alpert was bisexual.  He doesn’t make a big deal of this in his memoir, but he doesn’t try to hide it either.  He worries that it will hinder his quest for Enlightenment, and is blown away that his guru Maharaj-ji, accepts him as he is.

 

    The only nit I have to pick concerns the criticism Ram Dass’s Harvard colleagues had with his (and Timothy Leary’s) tests, results, and evaluations of the psychedelics-for-inmates investigation.  Ram Dass felt their criteria was too objective and scientific-oriented, and not humanistic-oriented and subjective enough.  I found their criticisms valid, but hey, I’m a scientist, so that's not surprising.

 

    For me, Being Ram Dass was a thought-provoking, fascinating memoir.  Ram Dass was born in 1931, and died in 2019, which puts him a generation older than me.  But a lot of his experiences and insights resonated, and it was interesting to read a memoir where Eastern mysticism is a central theme, yet the text never becomes preachy.  We can debate the theological validity of Ram Dass’s spiritual beliefs, but we can’t dismiss the huge positive effect they had on his life.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  At one point, late in his life, Ram Dass relates a bad trip he experienced with a hallucinogen called “toad slime”.  He records that he took “a big hit” which induced a ”brief, intense trip” where he “turned into a large black woman surrounded by beings who were children, all suffering, hungry, frightened, sick.”   Wowza!

Fall of the Dark Magicians - Marlin Williams

     2025; 569 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Action-Adventure; Dark Fantasy; Time Travel.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    Stephanie Richardson has had enough.  Her husband Gerald is is not only involved in illicit arms deals, but he’s a wife-beater as well.  She’s been living comfortably off his money, but it’s no longer worth it.

 

    It’s time to go away, to get as far from Gerald as she can.  Maybe find some out-of-the-way island in the South Pacific where she can sit back, relax, and make a new life for herself.

 

  Although even there, she’d have to watch over her shoulder, always fearing that Gerald might find her.  If only she could fly away to someplace even further away.  To another world, even.

 

    Hmm.  Be careful what you wish for, Stephanie.  Sometimes, they have a way of coming true in unexpected ways.

 

What’s To Like...

   Fall of the Dark Magicians is Marlin Williams’ latest offering in the epic-fantasy genre.  If limited to six words, I’d describe it as “Lord of the Rings Meets Dune”.  Our protagonist, Stephanie, is a reluctant “Chosen One” who struggles against impossible odds to return a powerful artifact to its proper place, thereby saving a world or two.

 

    I loved the time-&-dimension travel mechanism.  Unlike most sci-fi chrono-hopping devices, using this one is rather dicey.  Oh, you’ll get zapped to a faraway cosmos alright, but good luck trying to figure out just where and when you'll get dropped into, those are variables.

 

    Just like in LOTR, the group of supporting (and opposing) characters are diverse and fascinating.  Some of them provide a bit of comic relief, others offer metaphysical pointers, and still others threaten imminent destruction to Stephanie and her cohorts.  One even stirs a romantic interest in her.  The character development of all of these is impressive; none of them are the same person by story’s end, albeit for a few, that's because they’re dead.

 

    Action and adventure abound, but Marlin Williams imbues some lightheartedness into the tale as well.  Two of the characters are curiously named Ida March and Rue Bella, a number of the chapter titles are wittily dubbed, and at one point Stephanie’s vegetarianism is sorely tested.  Several mystical oddities from this dimension are also referenced, including the Philadelphia Experiment and Chavin de Huantar. Both of those were new to me.  Look them up in Wikipedia; they will amaze you.

 

    Everything builds to a tense, exciting climax, with several  plot twists that will keep Stephanie, and the reader, on their toes.  Plot threads are resolved in what I call a “stutter-step” fashion, and that’s always a plus.  The Epilogue is both satisfying and heartwarming, and things close with a catchy little teaser for a sequel.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.8/5 based on 14 ratings and 14 reviews..

    Goodreads: 5.00/5 based on 2 ratings and 1 review.

 

Excerpts...

    “I shall have my revenge!”

    “Do not be a fool,” Shylite said, whirling to face his companion.  “That will only get you killed.”

    “I can have no peace without it,” Kamal told him.

    “Then go with my blessings,” Shylite replied.  He paused.  “But I will not join you.”

    “Where will you go?”

    “After I find my tribe,” said Shylite.  “We will hide.”

    “And continue to live a coward’s life, hiding like a rat inside a cave?” Kamal asked him.

    “There are worse things,” said Shylite.

    “Like what?”

    “Death.”  (pg. 96)

 

    I could’ve had you executed, like the others.  But that would’ve been . . . wasteful.”

    Stephanie’s voice came out low and steady.  “You think I’m part of a prophecy.”

    “I think you’re a variable,” Badra said flatly.  “And variables are dangerous.  They don’t fit the pattern.  They cause chaos.  But sometimes . . .”  She stopped in front of her.  “Sometimes chaos has its uses.”

    Stephanie met her gaze, unblinking.  “I’m not yours to use.”

    Badra tilted her head slightly.  “We’ll see.”  (pg. 465)

 

 

Kindle Details…

    Fall of the Dark Magicians currently sells for $5.99 at Amazon.  Marli Williams has seven other e-books for your reading pleasure, including novels, short story collections, and anthologies.  They range in price from $0.99 to $9.99.

 

“John Grinder is a man built out of scars.  Most of the time, he forgets he’s still bleeding.”  (pg. 113)

    There’s only a light amount of profanity in Fall of the Dark Magicians; I counted just 15 cusswords in the first 25% of the book.  There are a couple instances of drug usage, including Stephanie’s introduction to opium, but in no way is the partaking of drugs encouraged.

 

       There were some typos, the most glaring of which were several cases of misspelled character names: Caliamr/Calimar, Grider/Grinder, and Stehanie’s/Stephanie’s, but these weren’t frequent enough to be distracting.  Oh yeah, and if you're an animal lover, be warned: the horse dies.  So does the prairie dog.

 

    Overall, I thought this was a great read.  The writing is polished; the action is plentiful and the pacing was page-turning fast.  Fall of the Dark Magicians is a standalone novel, but I have a sneaking suspicion it is also the start of a series, which I am very much looking forward to.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  At one point, Stephanie resorts to Faraday’s Law in order to save the day.  Ultimately it was unsuccessful, but that was due to personnel issues, not scientific ones.  SCIENCE ROOLZ!!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

   1969; 310 pages.  New Author?  : Yes.  Genres : Biographies & Memoirs; Banned Books; Civil Rights Movement; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    When we think about the start of the Civil Rights movement in America, the 1950s will most likely come to mind.  Things like Martin Luther King Jr., Selma, bus boycotts, Rosa Parks, protest marches, and much more.

 

    But what was life like for Blacks in the years just before all that?  In the 1930s everyone struggled with the Great Depression, and in the 1940s, World War 2 saw over a million American soldiers either killed or wounded, including both blacks and whites. What was it like for black children growing up in those years?

 

    Also, were conditions different for blacks depending on what geographic area of the United States they were living in?  For instance, were things better in Missouri than in Mississippi?  Maybe being Black in California was better than both of those places.  If so, how much better?

 

    Maya Angelou, American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist, was born in 1928, so grew up in the 1930s/40s. and lived in all those areas along the way.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings recounts her turbulent experiences during those decades.

 

What’s To Like...

    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first book in the 7-volume autobiographical series.  It details her childhood experiences starting when she was three years old and, along with her four-year-old brother Bailey, moved in with her grandmother due to the divorce of her parents.  The book ends with a momentous life-changing event in her life when she was sixteen, and presumably the sequel, Gather Together in my Name, continues from there.

 

    The 310 pages are divided up into 36 chapters, which averages out to 8+ pages/chapter.  There is heavy emphasis on Maya’s interactions with her family members, particularly her brother Bailey.  We also watch the child Maya struggle to come to grips with racism (be careful when going to “whitefolksville”), sexual assault (Maya was raped when she was eight years old), and self-reliance (she grew up in a world where circumstances were heavily stacked against her).

 

    Maya’s birth name was Marguerite Annie Johnson, and it was fascinating to learn how her first name morphed into Maya (Marguerite --> Margaret --> Mary --> Maya).  I presume the changing of her last name is due to marriage, but that doesn’t happen in this book. Religion plays a prominent part in Maya’s entire family, and along the way the reader accompanies her to a tent revival (I’ve been to a couple) and learn why the phrase “by the way” is considered blasphemous in some fundamentalist circles.  

 

    Maya’s teenage years were just as unsettled as her childhood, but the reader gets to watch Maya evolve from someone “ignorant of her ignorance” into someone “being aware of being aware”.  In a show of perseverance, Maya applies for, and is eventually hired as San Francisco’s first Negro streetcar conductor.  A short time later, she learns to drive a stick-shift car, with no advance training, at night, on a lonely stretch of road in Mexico, with her dad passed out in the back seat.  Which then leads to her getting stabbed by her dad’s girlfriend.

  

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 36,661 ratings and 4,245 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.30*/5, based on 555,423 ratings and 17,684 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Powhitetrash (n.) : someone so poor (and white) that they cannot afford the missing “o” and “r”.

Others: Siditty (adj.); Chifforobe (n.); Ordurous (adj).

 

Excerpts...

    San Franciscans would have sworn on the Golden Gate Bridge that racism was missing from the heart of their air-conditioned city.  But they would have been sadly mistaken.

    A story went the rounds about a San Franciscan white matron who refused to sit beside a Negro civilian on the streetcar, even after he made room for her on the seat.  Her explanation was that she would not sit beside a draft dodger who was a Negro as well.  She added that the least he could do was fight for his country the way her son was fighting on Iwo Jima.  The story said that the man pulled his body away from the window to show an armless sleeve.  He said quietly and with great dignity, “Then ask your son to look around for my arm, which I left over there.”  (loc. 2590)

 

    The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate, and Black lack of power.

    The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence.  It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.  (loc. 3284)

 

Kindle Details…

    The e-book version of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings sells for $7.99 at Amazon right now.  The other six books chronicling Maya Angelou’s life range in price from $5.99 to $13.99.  Maya Angelou was a prolific writer of poetry, plays, screenplays, memoirs, essays, children’s books, and cookbooks.  Most of her works are in the $3.99-$14.99 price range for the Kindle format.

 

Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware.  (loc. 3268)

    For such a tough start to her life, there is a surprisingly small amount of profanity in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  I noted just eight instances in the first 50% of the book, and most of those were the N-word racial epithet.  The sexual molestation is handled as tactfully as possible, and later on there is one roll-in-the-hay.  I caught only one typo in the whole e-book: staring/starring.

 

    The Wikipedia article mentions that some reviewers categorize I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as “autobiographical fiction” but it also cites other reviewers (in the “Style and Genre” section) as fully meeting the requirements to be called an “Autobiography”.

 

    I have always suspected that any autobiography will be inherently slanted to some degree in the author’s favor.  For that matter, I think this happens even in most biographies.  If you’re an biography writer, and you want to get paid for your work by your subject, you’re naturally going to present the life you’re writing about in a favorable light as much as possible.

 

    For me, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was a thoroughly captivating and heartfelt work.  I grew up in the Civil Rights era, but that was during the 1960s, not the 1940s/50s.  It was enlightening to read about the roots of the Civil Rights movement.  My only quibble is that I have to read six more books to learn the complete story of Maya Angelou’s life.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has been one of the most banned books in the US school system for many years.  Wikipedia’s article on the book devotes a whole section, titled “Censorship”, to the details and statistics of the bans.  It is worth your time.

Fuzz - Mary Roach

   2021; 292 pages.  Full Title: Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Animal Rights; Wildlife Science; Non-Fiction; Humorous Essays.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    He came with the house.  A cute little field mouse with reddish-brown fur and a white snout.  Actually, he was probably here first, back when the orange grove had not yet been cleared to make a housing subdivision.

 

    He was mostly a nuisance, scampering around from room to room.  The standard mousetraps we set up didn’t fool him at all.  So the exterminator suggested we buy some "glue traps" and set them around.

 

    One night, a week or so after we did that, there was a sorrowful squealing in the laundry room.  The little mouse had run into a glue trap, got stuck, but didn’t immediately die.  He started hyperventilating when I picked up the trap-plus-mouse and eyeballed him.

 

    What to do?  I could toss him into the trash can and let him starve, but that would be cruel. So I bopped him on his stuck head with a screwdriver and that did the trick.  He died instantly, executed for merely being in the way of human encroachment.  But I’ve always wondered…

 

    Was there a more humane way to handle the “mouse in the house”?

 

What’s To Like...

    Fuzz is Mary Roach’s latest book, and the fifth of hers that I’ve read.  In it, she examines the inevitable tensions that arise when humans overrun areas where other animals are already comfortably existing.  We humans will prevail, of course, but figuring out how to best handle those displaced species is quite the challenge.

 

    The diversity of animal groups examined is impressive.  Bears and wolves can get territorial when hikers and campers invade their domain; but they also take keen delight in raiding the dumpsters of any nearby cities.  In northern India, elephants and leopards are an obvious hazard, but deaths by macaque monkey attacks are also a problem.  California has its cougars, the Vatican has its gulls, farmers have their crows, and everyone everywhere (including me) may have to deal with rats and mice.  Even the plant kingdom gets involved.  Douglas firs engage in what the author calls “arboreal manslaughter”, and legumes such as rosary beans and castor beans are accomplices in murders.

 

    Mary Roach is a “hands-on” writer.  She takes an intensive 5-day WHART course (Wildlife-Human Attack Response Training) to learn what to do if you come face-to-face with a bear.  Hint: the answer is different for black bears vs. grizzly bears.  She travels to India to learn about controlling elephants and to Rome to learn whether it’s a sin to take the life of a rodent or bird.

 

    As always, the text is loaded with Mary Roach’s wit, humor, and trivia tidbits.  You’ll learn whether hibernating bears pee and poop during their long nap, the intricacies of “rabbit arithmetic” (2 x 3 = 9,000,000), and the German word for scarecrow (“Vogelverschrikker”).  But she discusses the serious issues of wildlife conservation as well.  You’ll learn why poisoning, relocating, importing predators for the pests, scarecrows/loud noises/lasers, glue traps and doing nothing are not permanent answers to the problem.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Bejesus (excl.) : an exclamation of surprise or emphasis.

 

Excerpts...

    On June 26, 1659, a representative from five towns in a province of northern Italy initiated legal proceedings against caterpillars.  The local specimens, went the complaint, were trespassing and pilfering from people’s gardens and orchards.  A summons was issued and five copies made and nailed to trees in forests adjacent to each town.  The caterpillars were ordered to appear in court on the twenty-eighth of June, at a specified hour, where they would be assigned legal representation.

    Of course, no caterpillars appeared at the appointed time, but the case went forward anyway.  (loc. 61)

 

    There is, or there was, a hunter gull that hung around St. Peter’s Square, site of the aforementioned floral vandalism.  We know this because the bird was caught on camera in 2014.  You can watch it in slow-motion as it swoops in, beak first and irony ablaze, to nail the white “peace dove” that Pope Francis had just released.  Every January the pope appears on a balcony with children from a Catholic youth group to read a message of peace and release a dove.  The dove survived, but the tradition did not.  In later years, a helium-filled balloon in the shape of a dove was released.  (loc. 3089)

 

Kindle Details…

    The e-book format of Fuzz costs $8.98 at Amazon right now.  Mary Roach has seven more e-books for your Kindle, ranging in price from $8.98 or $11.99.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 3,122 ratings and 201 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.84/5 based on 26,239 ratings and 3,574 reviews.

 

“It’s hard to be tolerant when there’s a bear in your kitchen.”  (loc. 623)

    There’s a small amount of profanity in Fuzz.  I counted just 12 instances in the first 50% of the text, but that included a pair of f-bombs.  Later on, the slang term for male genitalia was utilized four times.

 

    I don’t really have anything else to quibble about.  Some of the negative reviewers at Amazon and Goodreads didn’t like Mary Roach’s sense of humor and/or thought the text was boring.  I respectfully disagree on both counts.

 

    The final chapter is a poignant personal note by Mary Roach.  She finds peace and coexistence with a roof rat in her home, solving the problem by discovering, and closing, the entryway the rat uses to get into her attic.  I wish I had done that when I dealt with my field mouse.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  One of the highlights in Chapter 9 was Australia’s Great Emu War, fought in the 1930s, and which has always made me chuckle.  It shares the spotlight with a conflict I was unaware of: the American military versus the gooney birds (albatrosses) on Midway Island.  The winner in both cases was . . . well, Mary Roach tells it better than I can, so read the book.