Book Review: Dumbocracy

In a nation where politics rule and extremists run rampant through our neighborhood streets, one man dares to stand up against the insanity to voice his opinions loud and in all profanity. Get ready for the outrageous ranting about feminists to the raving doctrines of religious zealots in Marty Beckerman’s newest slanderous novel “Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right and Other American Idiots.”

Spending four years on the frontlines of the hottest American debates interviewing the grunt workers from both the political left and right, Beckerman has created a hilarious and scathing commentary bashing the “True Believer mentality.” The book explores American and foreign policies when it comes to abortion, gay rights, sex, drugs and all those other things considered poisons on society. Packed with interviews from both sides, Beckerman exposes the hypocrisies lying at the heart of their arguments and gives his candid opinions, no matter how offensive, saucy or chock-full of vulgarities.

The first sentence in the introduction sums up what a reader should expect from this book: “Opinions are like genitals: if you force others to swallow yours, something is seriously wrong with you.” The insults, criticisms, “snarky” footnote comments and all around bashing are refreshing.

Making fun of extremists and the government is nothing new — “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” do this five days a week. Even cartoons such as “South Park” are constantly ripping on anti-sex/violence/drugs/fun movements.

It’s refreshing to get the same quality entertainment from a book. Each chapter highlights specific arguments between the left and right from abortion, to foreign policy, to the insanity of a puritanical government that cares nothing for free will and the right to pursue happiness (however each person defines the phrase).

The titles for each section are hilarious enough by themselves. Beckerman’s satirical ravings bring tears to the eyes and pain to the diaphragm from all the subsequent laughter.
The most difficult thing to accomplish with such a book is to actually get people to read and take the opinions written down on the page into consideration. Beckerman does this easily with his style of writing: openly critique with clever one-liners and let the crazies dig their own holes with their words, and throw in a few well placed profanities for some flavor. Magnifique!
He also throws stats around left and right (no pun intended), using nifty little factoids to spice things up and laugh in the faces of those he criticizes.

This is a must read for anyone, whether a feminist or god-fearing zealot, pornographic supporter or anti-fun campaigner. Go out today, purchase a copy, laugh a lot and enjoy a wonderful novel bashing the insanity of today’s society.
5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Other Queen

Romance, intrigue, and politics can all be found in Philippa Gregory’s newest historical fiction novel, “The Other Queen.”

Moving away from the Tudor royal court, Gregory takes her readers into the countryside of England to the home of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. It is here that Mary Stuart, also known as Mary, Queen of Scots, resides as a “guest” after she seeks sanctuary from her own country. In reality, she is a prisoner, treated with comfort and care until her execution day. But she finds no love or sympathy in the Earl’s wife, Bess of Hardwick, who is a staunch royalist. Determined to see Mary hung, Bess will stop at nothing to bring her down and gain back the love of her husband.

Also wrapped up in the political intrigue are William Cecil, the right hand man of Queen Elizabeth, and Thomas Howard, cousin to the Queen and the Duke of Norfolk, as well as many more prominent figures in 16th century England.

As always, Gregory does a beautiful job of painting a picture of England while under the rule of the Tudors. Unlike her other novels of this era, Gregory switches gears, focusing on a Queen whose reputation as “a vain woman, a sinful woman, an idolatrous Papist woman” clouds the truth of who she really was. Gregory attempts to open her readers’ minds by showing the true character of Mary, giving her audience her vision of a strong woman faced with difficulty choices trying to keep her head.

This is what Gregory does best in her writing; she chooses women, strong women in their own right, and extrapolates from her research their characters, their personalities. Talbot’s wife, Bess, is a woman who had at least three marriages before landing an Earl and all three times she married to her advantage. Her business-like nature, conniving and cunning are the attributes that kept her alive and well, but it’s easy to forget her vulnerability and the vulnerability of Mary as well.

Though Gregory is a great writer, her stories are pretty much predictable. The trickiest thing about being a historical fiction author is that they cannot change history. Certain events must occur, some characters are doomed to disaster and the “good guy” does not always triumph.

The reader knows how the story will end, but the joy of reading a historical novel is not to reach the culmination of events. One reads this genre to understand more about the people in history, to see how their minds worked and their personalities through the eyes of the author.

So even if Gregory’s stories can be predicted and her writing style never changes, she can still weave together a beautiful piece of fiction to be enjoyed by almost anyone, men and women alike.
4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Assassin's Rage

The newest edition to Western Illinois University professor emeritus Charles O’Brien’s Anne Cartier mystery novels, “Assassin’s Rage,” is a tale full of deception, intrigue, violence, the mystery of several assassinations of royal officers and the murder of an innocent baker.

Anne Cartier, wife of prominent Colonel Paul de Saint-Martin, is an ex-vaudeville actress turned teacher of the deaf living in Paris during the pre-revolution years. The story revolves around the storming of the Parisian Bastille and the plots perpetrated by the Duc d’Orleans to overthrow the King.

Beware: this is a historical crime novel that is embedded deeply in historical facts. Not only that, but “Assassin’s Rage” takes place during the late 18th century in pre-revolutionary France. There are terms that may be confusing and words that are difficult to pronounce.

Like all great historical novels, there are several prominent real-life people depicted as characters with their personalities and mannerisms fleshed out by O’Brien’s image of who these people were.
It’s interesting that the protagonist of an 18th century based novel is a woman and an ex-vaudeville actress to boot. Women barely had social standing, yet Anne is able to make a stand, to investigate a variety of mysteries and gain the respect of a patriarchal society. She’s an amazing woman, a great protagonist and makes for an intriguing character to follow through the course of events.

Unfortunately, this is the 7th book in a series, so the author assumes that the other books were read prior to starting the latest. In order to fully understand the characters, their motivations and pasts, start with the first book, “Mute Witness,” and work your way through.

O’Brien taught European history during his time at Western. He started writing during the years he traveled between Williamstown, Mass. and Macomb “(wanting) to make use of his time on board and in airports.”
Both his interest in history and the reading choices of fellow passengers influenced his decision to write historical crime novels. “The idea of ‘Mute Witness’ blossomed in the air between Albany and Chicago,” he said.
The difficulty most academic writers find when writing a fictional piece is re-wiring how they think. Instead of simply describing an event in history, O’Brien had to write the event through the experiences of his characters, using their thoughts, feelings and biases to relay the event for the reader. With the help of a colleague in Western’s English department, O’Brien was able to make the transition to a true fiction writer while adding his own flavor of historical facts and well-researched backgrounds.

In his writing, O’Brien includes maps of the areas he talks about to aid readers as they try to grasp an image of where the story is unfolding. He also had more learning to do in certain areas of history.

For example, O’Brien says he “already knew a great deal of ‘high’ history,” such as political, social and economic trends, but he “needed to learn ‘low’ history” like puppetry, clothing, cuisine, popular customs and sports in order to etch out a well-rounded historical fiction. O’Brien’s effort has created a wonderful piece of literature, a great read for any student to broaden their horizon on 18th century French culture and intrigue.

4 stars out of 5

Book Review: The Bell at Sealey Head

“Inevitably his thoughts would turn to the bell that tolled each day, exactly when the last burning shard of sunlight vanished beneath the waves. As though someone in an invisible world watched, and in that precise, ephemeral moment, the dying sun and the single toll bridged one another’s worlds.”

World Fantasy Award-winning Patricia A. McKillip’s newest novel, “The Bell at Sealey Head,” is the tale of a seaside fishing town that is haunted with the ringing of an ethereal bell at sunset and the people who become wrapped up in discovering the truth.

Ridley Dow, a mysterious scholar from the big city, comes to Sealey Head in search of the bell and sets of a series of events leading to the destruction of an ancient ritual and discovery of a magical world inside the ancient Aislinn House at the outskirts of town. Along for the ride is Judd Cauley, son of the local innkeeper, Gwyneth Blair, bookish daughter of a local merchant, Emma Wood and her mother Hesper who work in Aislinn House and the strange and somewhat uptight Lady Miranda Beryl, heir to Aislinn House.

McKillip has a unique style of writing; she’s descriptive but not in the usual clichéd way. Her plots are captivating and her characters always multi-faceted. After reading several of her other works, I have to say that this is the weakest one yet. The story is blasé, and the characters are somewhat shallow. She doesn’t delve deep into what makes them tick and (aside from the aforementioned people) there are a multitude of characters dotting this new fantasy novel.

Even though the bell seems to be the underlying current of the plot (it is in the title, after all), you rarely hear mention of it. The people at Sealey Head have become so accustomed to the ringing of the bell that they don’t even notice it anymore, and even Ridley Dow mentions it only a few times and he’s supposed to be searching for it. The whole novel is pretty much all the characters riding to-and-fro in Sealey Head conversing about horses, books, and how to throw a dancing party without being rude. Disappointment comes to mind after reading this novel, but as a loyal fan of McKillip, I don’t want to put it down too much. “The Bell at Sealey Head” has its moments of suspense, romance, action and magic, you just have to stick with it through the parts that make you yawn and want to put the book down. I give it 2 ½ stars out of 5.

Book Review: 13 Things That Don't Make Sense

In Michael Brooks’ non-fiction hit “13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time,” he blows open the door to science’s most notorious anomalies that have our leading scientists running circles.

It may not sound so exciting. After all, it is a non-fiction novel about science; most of us have difficulty staying awake while reading our chemistry textbooks.

So what makes this science novel different from the rest? Brooks’ unique style of turning complicated scientific materials into easy reads and adding his own brand of humor helps keep the story lively and fun. If Brooks wrote purely science fiction, he’d be the new Douglas Adams.
The book begins with Brooks standing in a hotel lobby watching three Nobel laureates attempting to close the gate of an old-fashioned elevator. He makes a great statement with this first observation, noting how he “likes to think of scientists as being on top of things, able to explain the world we live in, masters of their universe. But maybe that’s just a comforting delusion.” Scientists aren’t omniscient; they can struggle with the most mundane like anybody else. In a word, they’re human.

According to Brooks, these 13 scientific mysteries are the key to an upcoming scientific revolution. Scientists are stuck at an impasse, and now they must go back to re-evaluate data and theories that could rock the very foundations of the science world. In the first chapter, Brooks says only 4 percent of the universe can be accounted for. What happened to the rest? He delves deep into the past, citing a variety of different scientists (famous or not) who have helped discover bits and pieces, shaping the puzzle. Simply put, the universe is expanding at a rapid rate and unseen forces, labeled by scientists as dark matter and energy, are playing havoc with our laws of physics.

Also in that category are the two Pioneer probes that are openly flouting the laws, and 30 years later, scientists are still no closer to figuring out why.

Some of the other mysteries addressed in the book include cold fusion, a giant virus that’s a freak of nature, the ever-popular placebo effect, death and a radio signal from outer space.
One of my favorite chapters deals with free will. Neurologists have long wondered whether we can consciously control our movements and actions. Some argue that it’s all self-deception. Through experiments, they found in their results that before one is even aware that they are going to tap their finger, the brain is already firing signals to do the action. Basically, the brain is telling our bodies what to do whether we choose to do it or not. But if we have no free will, what makes us human?

Not all of the chapters are as riveting as others, but they are well researched and worth reading. I found myself laughing at times and struck speechless at others. Go out to your nearest bookstore or Amazon.com and purchase a copy for yourself. This is a must read book for anyone. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.