Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954: Pain and Passion by Andrea Kettenmann

A wonderful introduction to Kahlo (a review of the English translation)

Originally published in 1999.

If you saw the Selma Hayek movie on the life of Frida Kahlo and want to know a bit more, this book is a wonderful introduction to her professional life. In fact, the movie and this book complement one another quite nicely, since the movie tended to focus on her personal life.

Andrea Kettenmann's book follows the life of Kahlo and does a great job of explaining the symbolism of Kahlo's work as it pertained to her personal life, her health setbacks and her political beliefs. In my opinion, the intensely personal nature of her work is what makes her such a compelling artist. She was especially good at depicting her pain, both psychic and physical. This book goes a long way to explaining many of her works.

Frida Kahlo with
Diego Rivera in 1932

There are 93 illustrations in this book and most of them are of her paintings. Also includes a couple of photographs of Diego Rivera's works that included images of Kahlo.

This is a small book (less than 100 pages), but it packs a whole lot of punch and is very effective as an introduction to this fascinating artist.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954: Pain and Passion.

Reviewed on November 9, 2007.

African Kingdoms (Great Ages of Man Series) by Basil Davidson and the editors of Time-Life Books

Strong history, only limited by the fact that the book itself is practically an antique

At the time of this review, this book is 41 years old. It was published in 1966 by Time-Life books as part of a series of books entitled "The Great Ages of Man."

Of course, several of the photos of contemporary Africa are now hopelessly outdated (but you can choose to look at the book itself as a piece of history and look at those pictures as photographic evidence of historical Africa) and any references to contemporary Africa are not accurate - no mention of any of the tragedies that continent has witnessed over the last 25 years - starvation, genocide, AIDS, etc.

Fortunately, those references are few and far between. Mostly this is a well-written, accessible history that taught me more than the half-dozen or so textbooks that I read in college as part of my coursework.

Its greatest strength is in detailing the civilizations that were built from roughly 1000-1600 AD in West Africa. It does a great job of comparing them with the European explorers that were just beginning to investigate the African coastline in search of trade. Cultural comparisons are also made. So-called "strange" and "barbaric" African customs of the day look pretty run-of-the-mill when compared with the activities of their European and Middle Eastern neighbors.

Beautiful pictures and illustrations round out the book. I would love to see this book updated and re-issued for the the 21st century.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: African Kingdoms.

Reviewed on November 22, 2007.

With Bowie Knives & Pistols: Morgan's Raid in Indiana by David L. Taylor

Nice history of Indiana's "moment" in the Civil War

Published in 1993 by TaylorMade WRITE

From July 8-13, 1863, Indiana became the focus of attention in the Civil War. Despite the massive losses incurred by the Confederacy from the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, the Confederacy still had enough life to mount an invasion into the North (albeit small) and it caused a first-rate scare throughout the Midwest.

Confederate Brigadier General
 John Hunt Morgan

"With Bowie Knives and Pistols": Morgan's Raid in Indiana is a good, detailed history of the Indiana portion of the raid (it continued on into Ohio). Taylor starts with a short general biography of Morgan and his famed cavalry unit. Taylor also describes the situation in the Kentucky theater of war and explains the logic behind Morgan's raid and why he went against his orders to carry the war into Indiana and Ohio.

What could be a tedious read is actually told in a lively manner filled with lots of local stories about the raid as they cut across southern Indiana. A must read for any Hoosier Civil War buff.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: With Bowie Knives and Pistols.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Reviewed on March 1, 2012.

Gun Games (Decker/Lazarus #20) (audiobook) by Faye Kellerman

Poor detective story, mostly the story of a romance between two high school kids

Published by HarperAudio in 2012.
Read by Mitchell Greenberg.
Duration: 12 hours, 1 minute.

Unabridged.

Gun Games is the 20th book in Faye Kellerman's long-running Decker/Lazarus series, featuring police detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus. Peter and Rina are serving as foster parents for Gabriel Donatti, a boy with parents who are estranged from him and one another. His father is a mobster and his mother is out of the country starting a new life.

A great deal of the book follows Gabe, although there is a mystery for Peter Decker to solve. It involves a suicide by a student from a local, very expensive private school. The case seems fishy to Decker as he and his team uncover nebulous links to a group of bullies from the elite school who like to pretend they are gangsters, carry weapons and intimidate teens in and out of their school. Unbelievably, these same kids get involved with Gabe and his new girlfriend, Yasmine. Yes, the foster father is investigating a case and the bullies that he can't quite get a handle on end up tangling with his foster son, making the case burst wide open. How many people live in Los Angeles? What are the chances?

My real frustration with the book comes from the lengthy, explicit details of Gabe and Yasmine's exploration into sex. I am in the midst of my 23rd year of teaching high school and middle school students - I am very aware that students have sex. I am a well-read person and hardly am a prude. But, this book crossed the line between demonstrating that Gabe and Yasmine had a strong, physical interest in one another and had begun a sexual relationship and instead went very close to child pornography with its emphasis on details and the constant discussion of Yasmine's physical immaturity when compared to Gabe (she was described as looking like she was 10 years old many times). What could have been a sweet romance between star-crossed lovers quickly (and frequently) became creepy and threw a pall over the entire book.

On top of that, Kellerman's teen characters rarely sound like teens when they talk or text one another. I speak with teens every day and these teens sounded nothing like them. There was very little slang, except for slang that no one under the age of 50 uses (like a boy "taking a shine" on a girl to say that he "liked" her). Most of the teen conversations sounded stilted and overly formal, like teenagers talking to an aged relative at a family gathering. Kids curse - and curse a lot, especially when no parents are around. Even more so when they are trying to act tough, like the gun-toting wannabes from the elite school. Nothing about their conversations sounded remotely authentic.

Narrator Mitchell Greenberg did a solid job with the reading of this story. He is especially good at keeping track of things like mentions that the characters have, for example, runny noses and incorporating that into his voices by making them sound stuffed up.

So, in a sentence - this story has unbelievable coincidences with teens that sound nothing like teens and long, detailed descriptions of underage teens having sex.

I rate this book 1 star out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Gun Games by Faye Kellerman.

Reviewed on February 27, 2012.

Next by Michael Crichton

Many hated it but I think it may be Crichton's best book

Published in 2006 by HarperCollins

I have not read all of Michael Crichton's books but I have come close. His best books are generally warnings about the dangers of science without the guidance of ethics: Just because you can do something - does that mean you should do it? 

Next delivers that theme in spades. It is all about genetic manipulation - not just genetically modified corn or houseflies. No, Crichton is talking about genetically modifying people to eliminate certain behaviors and even splicing human DNA into animals.

The book comes at the reader in a kinetic mish-mash of bits of plot from several plotlines, news headlines and news articles. This mess finally coalesces into a real story about halfway through the book and I assumed that Crichton's writing had deteriorated when he wrote this thing and he was just not able to juggle it all.

Michael Crichton (1942-2008)

Then, I got it.

This out-of-control story is supposed to be out-of-control. It is haphazard, random and full of too many crazy coincidences that work together. This is the way that Crichton saw our current state of research and funding in science - it is a crazy mix that is working towards "sexy" discoveries but not thinking about their consequences. It is Jurassic Park, but not just restricted to an island. Instead, it is being shotgunned into our everyday lives. As Jeff Goldblum notes in the movie Jurassic Park: "Life finds a way."

Crichton is warning that a willy-nilly rush into these discoveries cannot be reversed.

Yes, the plot is contrived. Yes, there are too many coincidences. Yes, the characters are often shallow. But, Crichton also demonstrated that through coincidence, accident and fraud there will be consequences that we have not imagined.

It is a warning worth considering.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Next.

Reviewed on February 25, 2012.

Ronald Reagan: Our 40th President by Winston Groom

Published by Regnery Publishing, Inc. in 2012.

Winston Groom, forever to be known as the author of Forrest Gump , has busied himself with a series of non-fiction books as of late. His latest is this short biography, Ronald Reagan: Our 40th President. The publisher lists this book as "juvenile nonfiction" but this adult also enjoyed this 148 page biography.

This is not a controversial "let's set the record straight" book. I detected no political bias except for the fact that is a generally friendly book towards Reagan. That being said, Groom covers the lows of Reagan's personal (strained relationships with his children, for example) and political life (Iran Contra - it gets more attention than almost any aspect of his presidency) and covers them as thoroughly as a book of this size should.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

This is a great book for high school students because it is easy to read, does not dwell on topics for too long and covers all parts of Reagan's life well, not just his eight years as President.  It tells the basics of an extraordinary life (Reagan's more than most, but all presidential lives are extraordinary since there have only been 44 of them). I particularly enjoyed the stories of his days as a sportscaster and his early days in Hollywood. Groom also explains that Reagan's transition from Hollywood actor to politician was not abrupt or even an unnatural move, although I did find it interesting to note that his first response was, "I'm an actor, not a politician." (p. 82)

In my real job, when I am not blogging, I am a secondary social studies teacher and I can easily say that if Groom wanted to busy himself writing biographies of all of the recent presidents I would be glad to put them all in my classroom library. This one tells the basics of Reagan's life. Let the student learn that and later on, when they know more, they can start to put value judgments on his actions and choices.

That being said, there is a problem with the book. While Groom may know how to tell someone's life story in an interesting way, he seems to have no head for figures. On page 4 he discusses the impact of a horrific 12% inflation rate (the rate when Reagan assumed the presidency) and he incorrectly asserts that a 12% interest rate means that in 8 years the value of a dollar saved 8 years earlier "would be worth exactly zero." That is not correct. A 12% inflation rate means that in 6 years the prices of everything would be double (following the "rule of 72") and that saved dollar would only buy half as much, but it would still have value. On page 144 he states the United States spent $8 trillion dollars on the Cold War. He states that equals spending $1 billion per day for 8,000 years. Considering that 1 trillion equals 1,000 billion, it would really equal $1 billion per day for 8,000 days (about 22 years).

So, read this book for what it is - a story well told. And, as always, check the other guy's math. Or, as Reagan noted: "Trust, but verify."

I rate this biography 4 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Ronald Reagan Our 40th President.

Reviewed on February 25, 2012.

Touched with Fire: Five Presidents and the Civil War Battles That Made Them by James M. Perry

A unique biographical collection - a new angle on the Civil War

Published by PublicAffairs in 2003

I am a big fan of Civil War histories. I have more than 75 fiction and non-fiction Civil War books on my bookshelf (mostly non-fiction) so I am hardly a newbie to this area. When I comment that this is a new angle, I an really saying something.

It's not that James M. Perry has uncovered new documents or new information in Touched with Fire, but he has re-shuffled the "same old" information into a new pattern. In this case, he has focused on the five Presidents that fought in the Civil War (Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison and McKinley). Perry includes a modest pre-war biography of each of the men and then goes into greater detail on their war experiences. The level of detail is neither skimpy nor excessive - he strikes a nice balance.

As a group, they all had many things in common. To a man, they all became competent officers of brevet Major or higher, they all had extensive combat experience in the Western theater (although Hayes and his men were transferred to the Eastern theater) and they were all Republican (Perry does point out that the Democrats did run Civil War veterans, but none were successful).

Union Major General  (and future President)
James A. Garfield (1831-1881)

Mercifully, Perry does not cover the entire career of U.S. Grant since his Civil War biography would essentially be a re-telling of the war itself and his war biography would dwarf those of the other four combined. Instead, he begins with Grant at Forts Henry and Donelson and only chooses to include him again when he interacts in the lives of the other four. The other four are hardly a homogeneous group, despite all being Republicans. Their temperaments range from stoic and quiet to loud and openly scheming. Their ages range from 18 to 38 and previous military experience range from a West Point education to none at all.

Perry includes a chapter at the end telling the post-war political history of each of the five men which is also a basic history of Gilded Age politics. Perry points out the powerful influence that Civil War veterans groups such as the Grand Army of the Republic had.

Interesting. Easily accessible. Worth the read by Civil War buffs and devotees of the Presidency.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Touched with Fire: Five Presidents and the Civil War Battles That Made Them by James M. Perry.

Reviewed on November 16, 2007.