Book Review: Snake in the Grass, a Fina Mendoza Mystery

Snake in the Grass: A Fina Mendoza Mystery, by Kitty Felde (Chesapeake Press, 2025, 287pp, $11.90)

Ten-year-old Fina now lives with her dad (and 16-year-old sister and grandmother) in Washington, DC, since her mother passed away. Her father is a member of Congress from California which gives author Kitty Felde plenty of information for another book in the Fina Mendoza mystery series (numbeer 3).

I had to read this book twice, I learned so much more the second time around about the House, about the best places to snack (according to a 10 yo), about which Senators and Representatives had dogs!

Snake in the Grass, Or Wolf in Sheep's Closing?

Readers not familiar with the phrase, snake in the grass, will learn it (the same as 'sheep in wolf's clothing') and debate among themselves if the snake phrase should have been the title of the book. On one hand, the wolf phrase is better known but less prone to being portrayed in a book about 'real life.'

Set in contemporary times (maybe this year), author Kitty Felde simply doesn't mention the political party of our starring family or any of the other characters, making it fun to guess their real names and parties. And not too hard, either.

Basically every page (every paragraph?) has the opportunity for elementary school age children to learn about how our government operates. But still, the emphasis is on the plot - Fina solves another capital mystery aided and abetted by Senator Something (probably a golden retriever and the cover dog), this one about a snake in a gym bag that bites a Congressman, an Independent (while our starring family is Democratic, no doubt).

Who placed the snake in the bag and why? Is this the beginning of another political war between the two parties with a girl and a dog in the middle? Read it to find out!

A fast-paced story, Snake in the Grass can easily be read in almost one sitting. The characters are a real family and (drum roll, please!) did you know that Congress is populated with dogs, like Senator Something, my favorite? Fina walks him after school for 5$ so the people who make DC work know her. Well.

Look carefully at the cover and you will see, besides Senator Something, a snake! 

Book Review: Scabmuggers (OT)(A Novel)

Scabmuggers: A Novel, by Yvonne Martinez (She Writes Press, $17.99, 110pp, 2025)

Based on a true story, Scabmuggers is like no other book you have read. It's fast reading, composed primarily of dialogue and covers many subjects from Harvard to Geisha Girls to unions.

The protagonist and narrator, Simone from Seattle, is selected to attend a four-month course at Harvard on unions. Students come from all over the world (Japan, Australia, etc.) and the curriculum is fascinating - a course I would love to take myself.

Attendees take up sides when one woman (a plant?) is the recipient of unwanted attention from a male student. The 'sides' continue until graduation when class speakers are chosen, then unchosen, then chosen once more.

Scabmuggers is easy reading if you can remember all the students' names (at lease 16 are mentioned) and which side they are on. Both the subject matter and the writing style are contemporary, leading this reader to get lost at times since she has not kept up with the latest lingo.

Scabmuggers is well-organized and follows attendees throughout the course from day one to graduation, including weekends, and rises to a climax when the graduation speaker is announced. At times, the reader will have to read slowly, or get lost, but that is fine: it is a good test and if you fail, you realize it and simply back up and reread a few sentences.

Although this reader has never been to Harvard, the description of the campus in winter and the interiors of centuries-old buildings seems historical, traditional and even inspirational.

Book Review: The Black Sea Whale: A Beacon in the Sea of Troubles (OT)

The Black Sea Whale: A Beacon in the Sea of Troubles, by The Froms (The Magazine Cafe, 2026, 121pp, $25)

A lovely, heavy, literary magazine, a fictional collection of true stories based on current life in Ukraine, this is the third issue and contains four selections. More like a small book with simply gorgeous illustrations, Issue Number 3 contains examples of brilliant writing.

From villages and cities, academics and peasants, young and old, the reader gets a flavor of what living abroad is like for both the resident and the foreigner. And The Black Sea Whale will bring back memories of when the reader was not a tourist but someone living abroad.

Mistaken for a book about sea life at first, Whale is more than just symbolic as "a beacon in a sea of troubles." The characters are real, and though some (all right, many) leave town one after another, due to the gravity of the situation, others stay and survive because they understand the rules of the game.

The prose is lilting, the stories move along, with pictures in the reader's mind or depicted by the illustrators. One can read a story in one sitting or pause and come back without missing a beat. And the reader just may pay more attention to new about Ukraine or even search for articles on the war in the media.

Marichka Melnyk writes about accepting graft in the police world while Mace describes city life and Paddington even appears on page 11!

Book Review: Beyond the Politics of Contempt (OT) (Practical Steps to Buiild Positive Relationships in Divided Times)

Beyond the Politics of Contempt (Practical Steps to Buiild Positive Relationships in Divided Times), by Doug Teschner, Beth Malow and Becky Robinson (Together Across Differences, 302pp,, 2025, $19.95)

What a timely book to help heal America as she continues on the road to becoming more and more divided into silos. The cover illustrates that point with two groups of people - one blue and one red, separated by nothing but empty space. The title appears in red though I would put some words in blue, too.

Like the Dummies books or Idiot's guides that are elementary but excellent, the three authors of Beyond the Politics of Contempt have produced a bookful of ideas, explanations, and helpful hints, via boxed text and cute little figures. I believe Doug Teschner, Beth Malow and Becky Robinson have co-written a section then added their own anecdotes to make the 'lessons' on leadership more memorable - and it works. In addition, each chapter ends with additional questions, For Further Thought. The writing is easy to follow (perhaps due to simple illustrations) and short ideas flow into others. One appendix even has a checklist, a pathway to follow to help our nation heal.

The authors met in Braver Angels, "a citizens' organization uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America."

The authors discuss a graphic that is rather like a Johari Window (with Urgent and Important axes) but do not show the graphic itself so if the reader is not familiar with it, it slides by him. The reader is helped to remember COVID, and learns concepts like healthy and unhealthy conflict, how major decisions, if gone the other way, would result in different paths, and how we tend to gather round us, those who are like us.

This is a book that could very well help to change the world by starting with the individual.

Book Review: Stand Up, Speak Up (OT) (How survivors created a movement to end sexual violence)

Stand Up, Speak Up (How survivors created a movement to end sexual violence), by Tim Lennon (self-published by Tim Lennon, 2025, $24, 320pp)

My first question was why was a man writing a book about sexual abuse/violence but it didn't take long (though I was embarrassed) to remember that men can be sexually abused too. It happened to author Tim Lennon - by a Catholic priest - when he was just a child. Can you imagine holding that inside you for many years?

Stand Up, Speak Out is not too long a book but it seems long because it is more of a text book, a complete history, replete with all the information you might need to become involved - from subject matter details to how one person got a start in a movement, and grew in his recovery as a result. Highly referenced, it contains 33 pages of organizations that might help, as well as 20 pages, an entire chapter, on politics (related laws, e.g.)

Helpful also are the headings, especially when reviewing topics later rather than reviewing page after page straight through (though that, too). The Preface is the most prose-like part in that it shows Lennon's ability to use triplets as a good writing tool:"step forward, stand up, speak up"; "empower the victim, challenge the powerful, and raise social awareness"; "break free of past domination, take action, and create a world free of sexual abuse."

Stand Up, Fight Back

I look at all parts of a book and ask friends and colleagues and ask what they think (mostly titles and covers), from the index to the front cover. We noticed the cover font for Stand Up is masculine while the font for Speak Up is feminine. Hmmmmmm. Wonder what that means. If anything.

One way to recover from a tragedy or crime, even if or especially if unreported, is to become an activist, telling your story, helping others, with an organization behind you. This is what the author did, and began his book with his story, to grab your attention and try to have you follow his road to recovery by sharing it.

It's All Here

From historical days to how the author helped himself recover by volunteering in recovery organizations. From unknowns centuries ago to people we know, like Larry Nassar, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, members of the Supreme Court, Anita Hill. Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstien, Jerry Sandusky, and Joe Paterno, and "Me, too!" - even Trump - and organizations like the Catholic church, colleges and universities, and the military. And focusing on the experiences of author Tim Lennon especially. A very necessary book for a certain group of people. 

Book Review: Space Shock (OT)(18 Threats that Will Define Space Power)

Space Shock (18 Threats that Will Define Space Power), by Peter Garretson and Richard Harrison (Armin Lear Press, $24.95, 2025, 330pp)

                                                            

Space Shock is one book whose title says it all: "18 threats that will define space power." I leave it up to the reader to make the connection between the title and the text, however.

Written by two subject matter experts (SMEs) rather than reporters or journalists, Space Shock seems to be an expanded engineering document - very well organized.

Written for a high-level expert audience, the book seems long but isn't, because of the comfortable font size and spacing. Each chapter has a couple of illustrations (not captioned, just plopped in) that, if in color, would be worthy of being studied as works of art.

I had some difficulty with the index, though - there could have been better spacing and slightly smaller font size for ease of finding a topic. Loved the chapter summaries and recommendations, however, though a shorter version in the chapters' first words would tell the reader what to look for as well and focus his attention. And again, each chapter/senario has the same methodology so planning and comparisons are easier and more valuable.

We are at the beginning of another couple of decades of revived interest in space, particularly by China and Russia, so to help in planning, Space Shock provides a synopsis of scenarios with their discussion participants named - very helpful for high-level directors of space programs. Even if a scenario materializes, it would be years in the future, with different personnel in key positions: however, those personnel would have similar backgrounds and their discussion 'errors' committed now might be the same as in the future. Therefore, a critique of those role plays, if analyzed, would serve their purpose well.

Book Review: Confronting the Politics of Gridlock (OT)(Revisiting the Founding Visions in Search of Solutions)

Confronting the Politics of Gridlock (Revisiting the Founding Visions in Search of Solutions), by Steven Ludd (Distinction Press, 2025, $19.99, 285pp)

Confronting the Politics of Gridlock (Revisiting the Founding Visions in Search of Solutions) would be a good choice for an undergraduate seminar in history or contemporary politics. It iis not a hard book to read but the subject matter is detailed and requires a wide base of knowledge to get the best understanding of the subject.

The introduction describes each chapter which is very helpful to refer back to even if nothing sticks the first time through. Chapter 1 sets the stage and within it lies the job description of each of the three parts of our government - the judicial, the legislative and the executive. The reader may refer back to this chapter often.

Rather new terms include the "political elite" and congressional paralysis, the latter being quite illustrative.

My favorite chapter, the fourth, focused on the Fourth Estate, the press. Author Steven Ludd tells us that the dearth of objective reporting lately is caused by the need for newspapers to make a 'financial' living which has been the case for a long time - this book's seminar students might debate whether or not the demise of newspapers and subsequent rise of other forms of media will change this.

Though mentioned in chapter four, 'gridlock' might have been given more attention since it also appears in the title and is such an optical term. The front cover, depicting the signing of our Constituation shows the reader that history will play a large role, on many pages of Gridlock. 

Book Review: Love Rebels (How I Learned to Burn it Down without Burning Out)(OT)

Love Rebels (How I Learned to Burn it Down without Burning Out), by Kitty Stryker (Thornapple Press, $24.95, 193pp, 2025)

Love Rebels: A Book about Activism and Relationships

Love Re-bels' or Love Re'-bels? Reality favors the former. Or the latter. Or both. The answer may be found in the final chapter. Or the first.

Intriguing Title on the Cover (and something very intriguing - the book block)

The front cover is more informative than at first glance with letters of only two colors, red and black, red being the color of the title and black being the subtitle, a black flag replete with a cut-out heart and the flag nearly cut to pieces, and some letters with white smudgeons and other marks. 

The most memorable visual is the book block, the edges of the pages (all of them), this time printed with "Keep Loving, Keep Fighting."

Publishers should adopt book blocks! They would help bookstores and private libraries plus I like them!

A powerful, uplifting, well-organized and conversationally written conversation to boost the spirits of activists and to offer newly minted ones approaches to follow, Love Rebels provides helpful hints for activists, often taken from the author's experiences with details of her own life as a queer woman. The reader has a big sister in author Kitty Stryker.

I especially like the half dozen or so questions at the end of each chapter that bring out the main points. 

Boundaries, families, four-letter words, protests, arrests, all are covered in a stream of consciousness style that makes for easy reading and since there is a plethora of material about the subject matter but not with the style, Love Rebels is welcome.

Book Review: Strong Floor, No Ceiling (OT)(Building a new foundation for the American Dream)

Strong Floor, No Ceiling (Building a new foundation for the American Dream), by Oliver Libby (Advantage Books, 2025, $19.99, 344pp)

Ah! Reading the back cover explains the title. Love it!

So glad this author is considering running for office. He is extremely well-rounded, coming from a European family of academics, physicians, and Nobel Laureates. The author adds just the right amount of personal story to make the book believable and inspiring. Oliver Libby's writing style is fascinating and his writing style, easy reading.

With a puzzling title like Strong Floor, No Ceiling, author Libby has written a book that can serve as a blueprint for the return of the American dream. I would not necessarily use it as a college text but perhaps as a book for an upperclass seminar, along with other books.

I generally look at all parts of a book, from the index to the acknowledgement to the preface and skip over the pre-publication quotes but this time after reading the book, I went to the quotes and counted 29. including many names I was familiar with. This only cemented the value of the book for me.

Well-organized beyond the requisite introduction and conclusion chapters, Strong Floor focuses on severn topics from education to immigration, justice, the economy and more, so the reader can begin with the first and last chapters, then go to the topic chapter of greatest interest. 

Libby's writing style is invisible in that the reader does not notice how he writes, but on what he writes - ideas and content over style of expression.

My only suggestion is to perhaps rename the book to grab more readers and pull them inside Strong Floor. The cover design is crisp and clear but might be made more representative of what's inside. For example, since it is about the new American dream, perhaps a house with a white picket fence.

Book Review: A Perilous Time (OT) ("Keeping Faith During Periods of Adversity")

 A Perilous Time, by N Kurz (Dogwood Publishing, 146pp, 2025, $14.99)

Though the front cover is magnetic, I could not easily make the connection between it and the book's topics itself. In addition, I feel A Perilous Time will resonate with only a small group of readers.

However, even with illustrating key points by using contemporary examples such as the bombing of the Alfred Murrah federal building in 1995 in Oklahoma City, the themes are universal with many questions about faith deserving their own chapter. For example, Is God a Real Person? Where is God? and others like Does He Really Care? How Powerful is God? and What Does He Know?

Kurz' writing style is quite good (seamless) as is the use of quotes (though possibly overused) and it is evident the author has spent a considerable amount of time researching the topic, a painstaking endeavor. Each chapter focuses on a different question that Christians must come to grips with in order to truly believe.

Well-organized, this third book in the Window of Opportunity trilogy, Perilous almost reads like a sermon, bringing in both the King James Version and the New International Version of the Bible.

Book Review: Conquer the Planet (OT), A modern-day global enslavement handbook

Conquer the Planet, A Modern-day Global Enslavement Handbook, by Sir Lawrence McAlister (Ingsoc Publishing, $24.95,  432pp, 2025)

Not having had any experience with dystopian* books, I was apprehensive about reading Conquer the Planet, so I saved it for last and actually looked up the term, dystopian. However, the title is perfect and the front cover illustration is descriptive. So, I plunged in.

Well-written and well-organized, Conquer the Planet is a thick book that you might not read in chapter order, depending on your interest. If you are as apprehensive as I was, think of Conquer as a parody, which it is. It is also a history book (with unknown/unnamed countries), explaining the steps in how a country has become authoritarian. It also serves as a warning to those who see this slowly happening in their country and wanting to halt it. Conquer has been called an allegory.

World Domination

The purpose here is to take over the world with a process that starts slowly and then gathers speed as it gathers acceptance. This is why it is so hard to overcome the speed - because the populace has been in the habit of accepting small changes at first.

Author McAlister has given us a handbook that reads like a novel.

It reminds me of the (unscientific) story of a frog dropped into a pot of water that is heated will not perceive danger and will eventually boil to death but if the same frog is put into a pot of water that is already boiling, he will jump out. 

What would you have done if you were Jewish in Germany in 1938 before (after) Kristillnacht? What would you do under the circumstances of "First they came for the communists but I was not a communist, . . . . "? When would you leave?

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*authoritarian; the opposite of utopia; an imaginary, nightmarish society characterized by oppression, dehumanization and extreme misery, often under totalitarian control or environmental ruin

Book Review: The Illusory Bargain: Liberty in the Aftermath of the 17th Amendment (OT)

The Illusory Bargain: Liberty in the Aftermath of the 17th Amendment, by Ralph Lehman (Brown Books Publishing, 2025, $24.95, 197pp)

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot. . . . " (Thomas Paine) 

The 17th amendment (1913) changed the election of senators from state legislatures to the citizenry.  The Illusory Bargain goes into depth reminding us of the history of our government so as to explain various events and types of governing.

Written for both subject matter experts and the average person, The Illusory Bargain brings in what the reader knows OF but may not recall: terms, dates of events, names. This will send many  readers to Wikipedia if they have time (e.g., democracy v. republic). An excellent choice, therefore, for book clubs.

Such a long introduction may not have been necessary but it was fun seeing names from Roman times.

Perhaps using the word, triangle, would bring in more readers - triangles are such an important theme of author Ralph Lehman. He begins with functional, fractional and foundational framework, uses the Triangle of Tyranny, and compares a monarch with an oligarchy and a democracy, in stating when power is in the hands of one, it results in tyranny eventually; in the hands of two, that one of those eventually comes out on top; and in the hands of three, the country gets checks and balances (which the author later debunks). Lehman finishes by saying  that one can win votes if one promises new programs for the populace as demonstrated in the fields of education, medicine and housing (currently highly regulated by the federal government.

The author is quite successful in writing for the common person to understand  - the use of triangles throughout is memorable and easy to picture and understand. The graph on page 113, however, is too small to read, However, transitions from chapter to chapter are helpful as is the explanation of the book's organization, in the front matter.

Book Review: State of Georgia versus Clevon Jamel Jenkins (OT)

State of Georgia versus Clevon Jamel Jenkins, by Robert Kelly (RMK Legal Publishing, 2025, 552pp, $47.95)

Intimidating?

At 552 pages, the State of Georgia versus Clevon Jamel Jenkins' length is intimidating but the story of a possibly wrongly convicted person will keep you on the seat of your pants even when we know how it turns out. 

At first I thought the book might include the transcript (thus explaining the length of the book) of the trial, thereby making it so long, but it does not. Instead it contains background chapters on Jamel the convicted, on the attorney author, on a judge, and if you don't know much about a trial, you will by the time you get to page 552, or sooner. The chapter, "Why Did I Fail?", is especially illuminating.

The legal profession has its own lingo that law students learn in their three years of law school. We may know some of the terms like pro bono, felony, misdemeanor, but that is about the extent of my legal lingo. I can't even defiine habeas corpus although I have heard many many times. I would have preferred each new term defined the first time, perhaps in a footnote.

And even the character's names could get wordy, hard to tell from one another, and add to the confusion of who's who. The five main characters each have a first and a last name and some have middle names as well, each of which is referred to at times.

Parts of the book read like prose but are very detailed, e.g., about the robbery and murder, told twice which helps cement the details in the reader's mind, but other parts of the book remain for legal eagles only to fully understand: they focus on the appeals and the errors made at trial.

Errors?

Reading Jamel's story may cause you to lose faith in our judicial system or it may give you hope in elucidating just what is wrong that can be corrected.

Book Review: We the Men: How Forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality (OT)

We the Men: How Forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality, by Jill Hasday (Oxford University Press, 2025, 301pp, $34.99)

Well organized into four parts (Erasure, Distortion, Consequences, and Hope) and seven chapters, We the Men uses the introduction 'Forgotten Women' to expand upon these which also serves as an excellent review of the book.

On the other hand, We the Men is not a textbook. A textbook goes into great detail in explaining concepts while We the Men seems to include as many facts and quotes from source material as possible: think breadth not depth.

With a title like We the Men, author Jill Hasday could have penned an expose or an insightful treatise. Instead, we seem to have been given a list of quotes and facts, albeit put into paragraphs, about some wonderful topics, prime among them being the invisibility of women in, e.g.,  the media (newspapers and other print materials), due to credit given men even if belonged to women. Erasure. Fogetting. Period.

"How Forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality," the subtitle, makes perfect sense to serve as Hasday's thesis with chapters that can be read in just about any order.

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*I. Courts Ignore Women's Struggles for Equality

Remembering America without Remembering Women

II. Courts Declare Victory Early and Often

Popular Culture Announces Women's Emancipation

III. Courts Protect and Perpetuate Inequality

Anti-Feminists Capitalize on America's Misremembered Past

IV. Building on the Past to Create a More Equal Future

Book Review: Overcoming Information Chaos (where is the true information?)(OT)

Overcoming Information Chaos: A Guide to Cultivating Peaceful Communities in a Digital Age, by Danielle Reiff (editor) (Upriver Press, 2025, $29.95, 440pp)

She wanted to write a book and the topic finally came to her after COVID.  The next step was to find experts to write a chapter each and she did. Some were PhDs and some were librarians. Others were other things. All are good writers, perhaps because they write a lot in their areas of expertise. 

I wish book covers were attributed like magazine covers are - along with an explanation. This cover with red circuits (?) on one side and blue-green circuits on the other side are perfect for this reviewer who may be wrong (me).

One particularly fascinating chapter explained the history of the election process and the differences among states. Not really how to get elected but the procedures how the states differ in their boards of election and what the various jobs are in the voting process. 

I have very little to say about the writing styles - I saw nothing I didn't like except possibly to make the text more exciting. 

Information disorder and the media are the main topics covered - they appear as sections under which the chapters fall. Misinformation, disinformation, disorder, election integrity, media literacy - all are covered in detail by experts.

Book Review: Women Who Talk to the Dead (OT)(cold cases)

Women Who Talk to the Dead: The True Story of 200 Forgotten Murder Victims and the Relentless Pursuit of Justice by an FBI Agent and a Detroit Police Detective, by Katherine Schweit (82 Stories, 2025, 215pp PB, $21.99) 

Do you know that Detroit is a murder capital - and why? Are you intrigued by police, FBI and detective stories, movies, TV programs and college majors? Then this book is for you. You will learn why the field of body-finding and identification is replete with women, why they are so perfect for the fields of anthropology and related majors. You will follow two women - an FBI agent and a Detroit police detective as they try to find and identify the unknown, even if they have to dig them up! You will learn how exacting and detailed those in this job must be and yet how sensitive to the families concerned. And you will learn patience.

Why Detroit?

You will learn the history of Detroit and what made it so prone to murders.

You will follow too many cases of babies left outside alone on purpose to die most likely because their new mothers were overwhelmed.

You will learn about body parts and how those in the field of anthropology can identify bones by feel and you will learn how the new science of DNA helps, though it is costly.

This book has its flaws but they are easily glossed over. I suggest reading it rather quickly.

Book Review: COVID Wars (OT) (the country vs the individual)

COVID Wars: America's Struggle Over Public Health and Personal Freedom, by Ronald Gruner (Libratum Press, 2025, $29.95, 387pp) 

COVID Wars will open your eyes! If you lived through the worldwide pandemic but haven't thought about it for a while or if you are too young to have followed it, this book is for you. Very well-organized - and I love introductions which give a one or two sentence summary of each chapter as author Ronald Grumer has done. I also like the fairly large print (hard cover) that allows me to read it in bed, in less than perfect light.

Beginning with a brief history of illnesses and viruses followed by chapters on COVID vaccines, deaths, and lockdowns (among others) and illustrated with charts, maps, photos, tables and images, COVID Wars will beat a theme into your mind, relentlessly, that you will not soon forget: red states had more cases than blue states and red states value individual freedom over the public health of the masses.

It is a rather long book and I would like to suggest a Reader's Digest version for those who are less scientifically inclined or who are pressed for time or who might otherwise not finish the book. Perhaps fewer graphs along with simpler ones but the photographs were well done and the cover is absolutely magnetic: a flag superimposed on a map of the US, torn in half.

Remember Operation Warp Speed? What do you know about mRNA vaccines? Find out more here.

I also would have liked being brought more up to date: for example, how life has changed as a result of COVID, such as working from home and the effects of school closures on student personalities and achievement.

Well worth the read!

Book Review: The Good Soldiers (Iraq)

The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel (Picador, 317 pp, 2009, $20)  

In a word: Wow!

Uniquely organized, The Good Soldiers' chapters each reflect one day in the year-long deployment to Iraq of a Ranger unit in 2007-08, the year of the surge (when this reviewer was deployed to Afghanistan, by the way). The author could have spent those few days (about one a month) embedded with that unit or those days may have been significant for other reasons, such as major altercations with the enemy, whoever they may be. In actuality, the organization and topic of chapters was neither. Or perhaps, both.  But, seamlessly.

This reviewer knew in the first few pages that Good was going to be a good book, a book with an incredible story, well-written. After hooking the reader, author David Finkel (a Pulitzer Prize winner) slipped only slightly but recovered in succeeding chapters until the abrupt final ones. The reader comes to know perhaps half a dozen soldiers with different ranks and life stories: the author follows them throughout.

Seamless Transitions

Through seamless transitions in many chapters, the reader comes to experience a deployment consisting of casualties, R&R (Rest and Relaxation, two weeks mid-tour of a trip back home), Soldier of the Month (Quarter, Year) competitions, going outside the wire (off base), meeting with Iraqi leaders, trying to explain things to family back home, understanding who the Iraqi interpreters are and why they do what they do, and the camaraderie* that military life can generate.

Does it Work?

The author attempts to not merely tell the reader about one year in Iraq but write a book to let the reader live it vicariously. Does it work? Does it read like a novel? Does the reader experience the camaraderie, the frustration of trying to help a people without knowing them and their culture, the frustration of living in a different world where opposite things matter? Perhaps it does work for the reader who has lived the military life or been deployed himself. (There are no women with major roles in this book.) Perhaps it doesn't. But nothing is sugar-coated.

Who are the "Good Soldiers"?

We follow the commanding officer of the battalion through pre-deployment training at Ft. Riley, Kansas (the 'arm pit' of the army) with his active-duty infantry unit, to arrival in Iraq replete with idealism ("Everything is good."), and living the evolution of how that idealism morphs into despondence, with each chapter introduced by a quote from President Bush.

Now I'm off to my library or bookstore to pick up a copy of Thank You For Your Service, also by David Finkel.

*often developing in prisons, summer camps by counselors or colleges and universities by freshman roommates, and other situations where strangers are placed with each other for long periods of time, 24/7, 

Book Review: By Hand, Making Communities: Northern California, Lookbook #13 (homecrafts, knitting, color, fiber arts)(OT)

By Hand, Making Communities: Northern California, Lookbook #13, by Andrea Hungerford (Blueberry Hill, 2020, 25$, 93pp)

Luscious lollipops for the mind in a coffee table book to keep and share and read over again and again. And drool at the photos of nature and yarn shops and colorful yarns and finished products and more.

Issue number 13 focuses on Northern California and clothing

along with a waxed project (like the issue we reviewed yesterday here.)

Candlestick Holders

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By Hand is a series of community-based lookbooks that focus on different fiber and fabric communities around the country. Each serial features photo journals and interviews with both up-and-coming and well-known yarn designers and dyers, local yarn stores, knitwear designers, fabric artists and other makers who share the same philosophy and aesthetic of hand crafting functional forms to share and connect with others in the community. Projects, patterns, classes, and opportunities to purchase the artists' work are included, as well as an opportunity to explore what is beautiful and unique about each locale.

Book Review: By Hand #8, Colorado's Front Range (homecrafts, knitting, color, fiber arts)(OT)

By Hand, Making Communities: Colorado's Front Range, Lookbook #8, by Andrea Hungerford (Blueberry Hill, 2019, 23$, 97pp)

Color! Color! Color! in a series of 'lookbooks' to save and to savor, in print or digital format.

Table of Contents

What is the Front Range? 

It's the eastern section of the southern Rockies, running about 200 miles from Casper, Wyoming, to Pueblo, Colorado, and home to Pikes Peak.

The Fiber Arts

Published three times a year, By Hands feature the fiber arts as well as photography, local yarn shops, handcrafts, projects and patterns and classes and other opportunities. Each issue is a treasure trove to treasure if merely for the photography (and color) and family breweries - even Mason jar beer bread. Or a swatch tree.

Stitch art and weaving and even skin care! And tomorrow we feature another in the series, number 13, Northern California.

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By Hand is a series of community-based lookbooks that focus on different fiber and fabric communities around the country. Each serial features photo journals and interviews with both up-and-coming and well-known yarn designers and dyers, local yarn stores, knitwear designers, fabric artists and other makers who share the same philosophy and aesthetic of hand crafting functional forms to share and connect with others in the community. Projects, patterns, classes, and opportunities to purchase the artists' work are included, as well as an opportunity to explore what is beautiful and unique about each locale.

Book Review: The Wager (shipwreck, mutiny, murder)

The Wager, by David Grann (Vintage Books [Penguin Randomhouse], 2025, 406pp, $21 PB)

Written by the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, The Wager has everything: a shipwreck in the 1740s, the British high seas, mutiny, murder, scurvy and cannibalism, a court-martial, castaways, anarchy and treachery, starvation, officer-gentlemen and conscripted sailors, etc., etc., etc. Of course if you have been in the Navy you will understand more of the sea-faring terminology but, if not, you can skip and skim over it and still read a suspenseful true novel, even if you know how it ends.

The Wager was one ship in a squadron sailing from England around the 'bottom' of South America to find Spanish (enemy) ships laden with treasures for the taking. However, the Wager also found stormy weather and poor health, and was shipwrecked on an island, causing the crew to ration supplies and search for sustenance. 

In time, tempers grew short and the men divided into groups for infighting. Those whose health helped them survive had to respect the British laws of the sea or suffer the consequences - if not onboard, then when they miraculously sailed back to England.

The group divided into two factions, with each taking off, hoping to reach England again. And they did,  months apart, resulting in a book and a trial, the outcome which was conservative but I will leave that to your finishing this whale of a tale.

This reviewer's only comment is that about 2/3 of the way through reading The Wager, I misplaced the book for days and when I found it again, I had forgotten who was who. Therefore, my advice is to perhaps read it in four evenings (it has four sections). 

Makes me want to read Swiss Family Robinson or Robinson Crusoe or Mutiny on the Bounty in the original form! And it was interesting to see the class structure in 18th century British military compared to that in the US military today. And finally, I was so surprised that anyone survived! And yes, a dog makes his appearance, too.