A Committee of One and Other Essays by Chuck Avery

Thoughtful Ruminations of a born and bred Hoosier

Published in 1997 by D and C Publishing

Chuck Avery writes a column for the Richmond Palladium-Item, the local paper in Richmond, Indiana. His typical essay could be classified as one of those slice-of-life pieces - a little reminiscing, a little wry observation, a bit of good-natured humor. Avery is also a teacher.

I never heard of Chuck Avery before I picked up this book at a local book sale (ironically, he describes picking up books in a similar sale in one of his essays  - the essay that gives the book its title). A Committee of One is one of those rare books that gets better as it goes along.

I particularly enjoyed the essays "Clevenger's Pond" (a humorous look at human nature and why his farm pond is no longer open to the public), "The Allure of Instant Esteem" (a look at the self-esteem movement in the classroom and why it makes no sense unless you have actually done something), "Solitude and Reform" (the world of instant communication vs. the need to talk to those closest to us and even to work on ourselves).

I particularly liked this serious line from a humorous essay called "Food: The Chore of Eating:" 

"In our continuing effort to make life effortless, we have made child rearing frightening to parents, pushed education beyond the scope of even the most competent teachers, confounded the family to the point that we must have psychologists to untangle relationships."

A little humor, some serious points. All in all, a good read.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Committee of One and Other Essays.

Reviewed on February 18, 2012.

Great Tales from English History, Volume III: Cheddar Man to DNA (audiobook) by Robert Lacey

An Entertaining Take on English History

Published in 2007 by W.F. Howes Ltd.
Read by the author, Robert Lacey
Duration: 6 hours, 15 minutes

Abridged.

Robert Lacey's quirky 3 volume collection Great Tales from English History was truly a joy to listen to. Volume III ran from the late 17th century to the 1990s and covered such topics as John Locke, The Boston Tea Party (a remarkably even-handed presentation of the American Revolution in general), King George III, the beginnings of the Methodist movement, the Industrial Revolution, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Darwin, Queen Victoria and World Wars I and II.

If you are listening to this audiobook to get a complete history of England, you will be sorely disappointed. This series cherry picks the interesting and fun stories (the type I love to tell  in the classroom) and strings them together for a most entertaining listen.

Lacey reads the book himself and does a very good job. Sometimes it can be a problem when the author reads his or her own work in an audiobook format but as a reader Lacey was everything a listener could ask for.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Great Tales from English History Volume III: Cheddar Man to DNA by Robert Lacey.

Reviewed on February 18, 2012.

Note: The links provided here are to an abridged re-working of the audiobook I listened to. I could not find the exact version I listened to. This would also be a great listen, but not of all of the same stories in the same volume. It looks like the has publisher rearranged the same stories into different volumes.

Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again by Kevin Freeman

Exposes the vulnerable state of the American (and the world) economy

Published in 2012 by Regnery Publishing, Inc.

When I was reading Secret Weapon I was tempted to make a sort of smart-aleck introduction about the complex nature of Kevin Freeman's warning about the dangers we face by way of economic terrorism. After all, Paul Revere just rode through the streets yelling, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" and that was enough. But, after a little thought I realized that Freeman can't just yell, "The economic terrorists are coming! The economic terrorists are coming!" It has to be explained and that explanation is long and can be full of statistics and new terminologies.

I am a licensed high school economics teacher and I can honestly say that I knew just enough about finance, the real nitty-gritty of the to and fro of the markets, to say that this book is downright scary. It is the proverbial "firebell in the night" that screams out that we have some serious weaknesses in the way we do business in America (and the rest of the free world as well). Some of this information was completely new to me (I am an econ teacher, but let's face it, high school economics is pretty basic stuff - I consider myself an informed entry level amateur in the world of finance - I know enough to know that I don't know much).

Freeman lays out evidence that we may have already been hit by economic terrorists - and more than once. Someone may have gotten quite wealthy on 9/11 due to foreknowledge of the attacks and we may have been hit again in 2008. On page 177 he has an interesting section called "A Failure of Imagination." To me, this section was a microcosm of the whole book. It seems that no one in authority has imagined that someone might be willing to risk a fortune to derail our economy because of the basic rule of economics that states that people tend to act in an economically rational way (this is the kind of stuff high school econ teachers like me stress).  But, if someone is willing to die to crash a plane in a building or to blow up a crowded street market, why not risk a few billion to bring the entire Western economy to its knees?

Freeman's message? Wall Street needs to watch out
for economic terrorism. Will they?
That remains to be seen.

I do not know if we have actually been victimized already, but the combination of massive government debt loads, dependence of foreign oil, lack of market transparency and tolerance of naked short selling and credit default swaps leaves us open to these sorts of attacks. Our financial front door is wide open and our economy is subject to manipulation by any number of foreign powers.

So, despite the jargon, Freeman's message came through loud and clear: We are at risk. Now, if only we could come up with some sort of catchy phrase like "The British are coming!" Perhaps, "Credit default swaps leave the entire market at risk of foreign manipulation and should be highly scrutinized by an independent agency!"

Nope. It just doesn't have the same ring, does it?

Nonetheless, I hope Freeman continues to shout it out to anyone who will listen.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Secret Weapon.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on February 12, 2012.

The First Rule of Ten: A Tenzing Norbu Mystery (Dharma Detective #1) by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay

A twist on the L.A. detective novel

Published in 2012 by  Hay House Visions.

For years, Los Angeles has been the home of the detective story. For Raymond Chandler, Dragnet, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly and even videogames like L.A. Noire, Los Angeles has been the seedy, diverse world that has all of the secrets that our intrepid detective heroes must dig up and expose.

The First Rule of Ten brings us a different take on the L.A. Detective STory. Tenzing Norbu (he goes by Ten) is a different kind of detective in that he grew up in a monastery and used to be a Buddhist monk but moved to America at the age of 18. His literary hero is Sherlock Holmes and he has just retired from LAPD as a detective because the job was simply getting too bureaucratic - too much paperwork, not enough mystery-solving.

Ten may not be a monk any longer but he is still a practicing Buddhist. That's a different twist, and in some ways a refreshing twist on the stereotype of the alcohol-abusing chain smoking detective. Not that Ten is a prude, but he is mindful of what he does to his body,

But, this fresh character would be pointless if the story were poor. I am glad to say that this mystery is interesting and the story comes to a satisfying conclusion. This was an enjoyable read and I will keep my eyes open for more stories of Tenzing Norbu.

I was offered this book from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

Edit: March 30, 2013: See my review of The Second Rule of Ten by clicking here.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 
The First Rule of Ten: A Tenzing Norbu Mystery (Tenzing Norbu Mysteries)

Reviewed on February 11, 2012.

1812: A Novel by David Nevin

Good - but comes with problems

Published in 1996.

If you do not already know something about the War of 1812, I cannot recommend this book for your reading pleasure. Why not? The author, David Nevin, goes into the story without much of an explanation of who the characters are and just assumes you know who they are. I would have recommended a small two to three page introduction that laid out the issues of the day and something about the personalities of the day as well.

Instead, we spend page after page getting these introductions as a part of the story. Along the way, Nevin introduces us to the innermost thoughts of such people as James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Winfield Scott and Dolley Madison. Nevin seems fascinated in exploring each of these characters as sexual beings. We get to read about James Madison's lusting for Dolley (he refers to her breasts so often that I blush when I see Madison in my history book).

However, the book is saved by his descriptions of the battles. They are very well done.

Dolley Madison (1768-1849)

If you don't know your War of 1812, be sure to keep your computer handy so you can check the 'net to learn the background material to the things Nevin is referring to.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 1812: A Novel.

Reviewed on December 7, 2007.

Campaigns of the Civil War: A Photographic History by Walter Geer

A very solid but one-dimensional look at the Civil War

Originally published in 1926

Photographic History edition published in 2009 by Konecky and Konecky.

Unabridged.

Walter Geer's title for this book, Campaigns of the Civil War: a Photographic History, certainly describes it - this is a no-frills look at the battle action of the Civil War with little analysis of the political situation that led to the war or influenced the way it was prosecuted.  There is no chapter about the daily life of the typical soldier. There is nothing about home front difficulties or even much about the navies of either side. So, if you are looking for an in-depth history of the war, this is not your book. But, if you are a serious student of the war, especially the land campaigns, this is a very solid history.

Union General Lewis
"Lew" Wallace
(1827-1905)

The text is strong, but almost all of the original maps are too busy. They are clearly the style of map that was popular when the book was written, but the proliferation of detail makes them difficult to read. They are accurate, perhaps too accurate for their size and black on light gray color scheme.

On the other hand, the addition of more than 150 photographs to this book is a real joy (except for one detailed below). The book is large - each page is nearly the size of a regular piece of paper - and there are multiple pictures that fill or nearly fill an entire page.

Union General W.H.L.
"Lew" Wallace
(1821-1862)

But, the publisher made on regrettable error in the picture on page 51. The picture is of Union General William H.L. "Lew" Wallace of the 11th Illinois Volunteers who fought and died in the Battle of Shiloh. It is identified with the correct name but states that he was also the author of the famed novel Ben-Hur- the best-selling American novel of the 19th century. The author of Ben-Hur was Lew Wallace, but not that Lew Wallace. Ben-Hur was written by Union General Lewis "Lew" Wallace of the 11th Indiana Volunteers who fought at Shiloh (with controversy) as well but survived. In fact, he survived the war and I nearly stopped reading the book at that point, figuring that I could not trust the book if it had simple mistakes like listing generals as being killed when they were not. But, a little research cleared up the source of the mistake and I am glad to say that I did not find any more mistakes.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Campaigns of the Civil War: A Photographic History by Walter Geer.

Reviewed on February 11, 2005.

The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution by Brion McClanahan

Great as a resource but...

Published in 2012 by Regnery History
197 pages of text, 63 pages of appendices, end notes and an index.

I am torn when it comes to The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution, which is the reason for the three star review. I will start with the positives:

-McClanahan gives a thorough, research-based look at the original arguments that went into the creation of the Constitution and is aiming right at the current debates about the proper roles of federal, state and local governments. This is a timely work and points out the obvious truth that our national government is busy doing things in 2012 that it was never designed to do and it has been doing those things for a long time despite the stated fears of many of the Founding Fathers that the government would eventually become bloated and intrusive .

-He points out both sides of the arguments and provides generous quotes that explain how the discussions progressed and eventually resolved themselves. This is a very strong point, in my mind. It is best to let them speak for themselves, especially if they say it well.

Now, the negatives:

-The way the book is organized. The book is designed to be a resource as it discusses the Constitution from the beginning (The Preamble) to the newest amendment, what McClanahan calls "a virtual clause-by-clause discussion of the Constitution" (p. 6). This makes it pretty simple to access the arguments about a certain point of the Constitution. For example, the discussion on Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 "To establish Post Offices and post roads" is placed in its chronological location based on the actual Constitution in Chapter 2 - the Chapter that discusses Congressional powers (pages 57-62). The only problem is, this makes for rather disjointed and often dry reading. The arguments are laid out, but there is no general context as there would be if the book were developed on a more thematic basis. The detailed small arguments are there but the larger philosophies behind the Federalist and Anti-Federalist arguments are scattered about throughout and not laid out in a coherent presentation.

Luther Martin (1748-1826)

-The Founding Fathers mentioned are not even briefly introduced so if the reader is not already familiar with important, but less well knows Founders such as Charles Pinckney, Luther Martin or Elbridge Gerry, he or she will remain ignorant of their roles. These men (and many more) are quoted quite often (which is good) but the reader is not told anything about them except that they were involved in this debate. This is not a problem for readers who know all of the men that came together to fashion our Constitution, but will prove to be a difficulty for the new learner who may have been encouraged to pick up this book by the its title.

-Some discussions are ignored completely or merely hinted at (because they are not germane to current day political struggles, I presume). For example, there is a long discussion on pages 16-22 about the ratio of Representatives in the House to the population. Would it be 30,000 to 1? 40,000 to 1? Should there be a cap on the number of Representatives? All of this discussion, but no mention of the three-fifths compromise which resulted in every 5 slaves being counted as 3 persons when it came to counting heads to figure out Congressional seats. Here is Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

 I am not sure why it was left out, but I think it should have been addressed, at least in a cursory manner. It was controversial then, it is controversial now and should be explained.

So, in balance, this book ends up being a strong resource for people who love to argue about things like the finer points of  the concept of "judicial review" and would find it handy to have a book that will provide insight and plenty of quotes. But, as an introduction to these concepts for the novice, it really would be analogous to learning how to swim by jumping into the deep end of the pool.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution by Brion McClanahan.

Reviewed on February 11, 2012.