Book review: The Ever-Running Man

Title	The Ever-Running Man (Sharon McCone Mysteries)
Author Muller, Marcia	Marcia Muller
Rating
Tags	series, mystery, fiction, sharon mccone
Your review	This is the latest in Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone series, and is an excellent addition to the series. McCone is hired by her husband's firm to investigate a series of bombings of the firm's offices. She learns things about the firm she dislikes, and isn't sure to what extent her husband Hy Ripinshiy is involved in. The case jeopardizes their relationship.
Other authors 1
Publication	Warner Books (2007), Hardcover, 320 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0446582425 / 9780446582421

Book review: Home to Holly Springs

Title	Home to Holly Springs (Father Tim, Book 1)
Author Karon, Jan	Jan Karon
Rating
Tags	fiction, christian, father tim, series
Your review	I always underestimate Jan Karon, and expect too little of her as a storyteller, and she always surprises me with her quality. Take this story... it is the story of Father Tim's childhood in Holly Springs, Mississippi, which was a time of severe racial oppression in that place. I had misgivings that she would downplay the oppression, and indeed the ugliness of it isn't as deeply felt as in some works. Yet Karon explores the complexity of racial relations through complex and well-portrayed family relationships. Recommended.
Other authors 1
Publication	Viking Adult (2007), Hardcover, 368 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0670018252 / 9780670018253

Book review: Spanish Dagger

Title	Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery)
Author Albert, Susan Wittig	Susan Wittig Albert
Rating
Tags	fiction, mystery, series, china bayles
Your review	Spanish Dagger is the 15th of Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series. China is a former lawyer who gave it up to open an herbal shop in the Texas hill country. Her best friend is Ruby, who owns the New Age shop next door. The two eventually open a tea shop together. Meanwhile, they solve mysteries, lots of them. In this particular book, Ruby's former boyfriend is killed at the same time that Ruby is trying to deal with her mother's dementia. The series isn't as cozy as it sounds. China has experience dealing with rough stuff in her lawyering days, and knows from experience that small towns that seem tranquil on the surface have their problems like everywhere else. China grows a lot as a character through the series, dealing with her intimacy issues which she resolves enough to marry McQuaid, a former policeman, now private investigator. She learns to cope with motherhood to McQuaid's son by a previous marriage, and to deal with the parents who virtually abandoned her, one a workaholic and one an alcoholic. Altogether a dynamic series and Spanish Dagger is an excellent entry into the series. Nice bits of herbal lore and recipes are included in the books. Albert also co-authors, with her husband Bill, a mystery series set in late 19th and early 20th century England under the pseudonym of Robin Paige. It is also an excellent series. Albert writes the Cottage Tales, which have Beatrix Potter as their main character. I've only read one, and it had more talking animals than I was ready to read about. Check out the Alberts' site at http://www.mysterypartners.com/ for details on all their works.
Other authors 1
Publication	Berkley Hardcover (2007), Hardcover, 320 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0425213943 / 9780425213940

Book review: Atonement

Title	Atonement
Author Mcewan, Ian	Ian Mcewan
Rating
Tags	fiction wwii
Your review	My book club read Atonement for the January 2008 meeting. I hadn't read very far into yet, and was not too engaged by it. The excellent reviews from the other people in the bookclub persuaded me to finish it, and I'm glad I did. The book has three parts. The longest section is set in England in 1935. The second part is duirng WWII, from the British retreat to Dunkirk through some time later. The third and quite short part is set in 1999. In the first part a great injustice takes place. The second part is the experiences of two of the important characters during WWii, and the last wraps up what happened. In hindsight, the story isn't what held my interest that much. The story of WWII was what captured my interest, and the power of McEwan's prose. It was mesmerizing. Now I want to see the movie. ;-)..
Other authors 1
Publication	Anchor (2007), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 368 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0307387151 / 9780307387158

Book review: Radicals in Robes

Title	Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts are Wrong for America
Author Sunstein, Cass R.	Cass R. Sunstein
Rating
Tags	supreme court, judicial theory, non-fiction, cass sunstein,
Your review	Sunstein describes four approaches to U.S. constitutional law: perfectionism, majoritarianism, minimalism, and fundamentalism. Perfectionism is the more liberal approach, following the text but also making decisions following their own views of freedom of the press, equal protection, etc. It was the main approach of the Warren Court. Majoritarians believe that unless there has been a clear violation of the Constitution, the "courts should defer to the judgements of elected representatives." (p. xii). Oliver Wendall Holmes was a majoritarian, but there are few if any on the Supreme Court today. The third approach is minimalism. Miinimalists rule narrowly, one issue at a time, rarely if ever making broad rulings with wide application. Finally the last approach is fundamentalism. "in their view, the founding document must be interpreted to mean exactly what it meant at the time it was ratified". (p. xiii) "But some fundamentalists have not hesitated to betray their commitment to the original understanding when the historical evidence points to results they dislike. Their willingness to do so suggests that some of the time, they are working for a partisan ideology rather than law." (p. xiv) Clarence Thomas is the foremost of the fundamentalists, willing to write broad decisions that overturn precedent. Scalia is similar, but less willing to overturn precedent. A summary, from chapter 10: "In the abstract, fundamentalism appears both principled and neutral. But too much of the time, fundamentalists offer an unmistakably partisan vision of the Constitution. Their Constitution casts serious doubts on affirmative action programs, gun control laws, restrictions on commercial advertising, environmental regulations, campaign finance reform, and laws that permit citizens to sue to enforce federal law. As many fundamentalists understand America's founding document, it raises doubts about the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and many other federal agencies. It allows the President extraordinarily wide authority to wage war even at the expense of the most basic liberties. It contains no right of privacy. It allows the national government to discriminate on the basis of race. It permits states to benefit religious believers and perhaps even to establish churches. It imposes sharp limits on Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce and to enforce the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment. Most ambitiously, fundamentalists want to move in the direction of some Lost Constitution or the Constitution in Exile - the document as it was understood in the distant past. " (p. 243) "Fundamentalists claim to embrace originilism, and to their credit, some of their conclusions do fit well with the original understanding of the Constitution. But they write as if their approach is the only legitimate approach to interpretation - as if those who reject the original understanding, and refuse to be bound by the views of those long dead, are refusing to do law at all. This is a myth. The Constitution doesn't call for fundamentalism. Nor have fundamentalists confronted the serious conceptual difficulties with following the 'original understanding' of a document that was written centuries ago. And they have been evasive rather than candid about the radicalism of their approach, which would threaten to undo much of the fabric of our democracy and our rights." (p. 244) Sunstein advocates a minimalist approach, which produces change over time but slowly. I can't say I understand all the details of Sunstein's arguments, but it is a surprisingly readable book for the layperson, and on a really important topic.
Other authors 1
Publication	Basic Books (2005), Hardcover, 281 pages
Publication date	2005

iPod thoughts

Last month I committed iPod. It took me a while, but I finally gave in to this bit of consumer culture. It brings up a lot of thoughts.

First, it makes me feel guilty. The iPod says up front that it was designed in California but made in China. I deplore that everything, especially all of our electronics, are made overseas, primarily in China, probably by workers earning a pittance in poor working conditions. I don't know Apple's policies on labor, but Milton Friedman (see Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctiine) and Wal-Mart have had a disastrous effect on the world economy. Wal-Mart not only has manufacturing plants in China, but insist that their suppliers bring in items for such a low price the suppliers have no choice but to start manufacturing overseas paying miniscule wages.

I'm totally perplexed at pricing for mp3 players. I did a lot of online shopping and price comparisons, including looking at non-Apple brands. For lower capacity players, the other brands are cheaper, but Apple gets competitive with their higher capacity players. But the p;rices are just all over the place. You can get players under 1 gig for under $50. 2-4 gig players range greatly in price. What I really don't understand is that you can get an 8 gig iPod Touch for $200 and for $250 I got an 80 gig iPod Classic. Ten times the storage capacity for only $50 more! I do understand they are different technologies, one solid state and one a hard drive, but don't know that there is much difference in the life of the product.

It sure is nice to have all this music in one device I can put in my pocket. And I can also save podcasts, video, and even documents (though I haven't tried that yet). The iTunes store makes a tremendous amount of material available. There is very little music I searched for that wasn't available. The major exception is, amusingly enough, the Beatles. Their albums are on Apple records, which has had an adversarial relationship to Apple Computer. iTunes also has movies and TV shows available. For example, some episodes of classic Star Trek are available for only $1.99 an episode. Not that much is available yet, but the price is a surprise... Paramount has up until now charged large amounts for Star Trek. Podcasts of Bill Moyer's Journal are available free - it is just the audio, of course, no video, but still!

Even more exciting is iTunes U, or University. There are free podcasts of lectures from many universities. I've found lectures from Paul Krugman, Al Gore, Molly Ivins, Cokie Roberts (on the Founding Mothers), Dan Rather, and many more. I do hope Georgia Tech is working on getting our material into this format.

I guess I'm just really entwined in consumer culture and have become a Modern Woman. I now have a laptop, a cell phone, and an iPod. What next?

Frontline great ideas

Just watched an episode of Frontline which has some marvelous stories. One I had already heard about, Kiva, which arranges micro credit loans to small businesses in the third world. All it takes is a credit card and an internet connection, and anyone can loan money. Several people who have loaned money then get it back and make new loans. One man profiled is involved in over 70 loans. The amounts are small, a large loan is $1100. Multiple people can be part of a loan. Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/) partners with organizations in 3rd world countries to take applications and approve loans. So far they've had a 100% repayment. Businesses profiled included a woman who has a peanut butter factory and a man who makes furniture. What a wonderful way for individuals to help change the world!

The second great idea was the Play Pump by entrepreneur Trevor Field. Clean water is difficult to find in Africa, and often requires walking long distances and cranking a hand pump for a lengthy time.. Field's Play Pump uses a merry-go-round like apparatus. Children in the school play on it and pump water to a tower where it is stored and then fed to a spigot. The story about it is here: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/10/south_africa_th.html.
Field started out producing it with his own money, and now has raised a good bit of money from many sources and plans to triple his production.

Genius is alive and in the service of humankind!