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I
don't set-aside as much time to read as I should.
When I do, this is what I've
been reading and personally recommend:
FICTION
 THE SILENT
ASSASSIN by Lori
Andrews The newest novel
featuring Dr. Alex Blake, the hot geneticist and forensic expert, is
certainly fast-paced -- hurling her from an autopsy at Walter Reed
to VietNam, to a befuddled personal life, to White House politics,
to her own physical danger.
It isn’t easy to write a simple synopsis of Silent
Assassin since there so many interwoven subplots. With the help of well timed,
steady disclosures and surprising revelations, the book's twists and
turns kept my attention from beginning to end. When Lori writes
of the people of VietNam, it is authentic and perceptive. The characters who are
American veterans are treated with understanding and accuracy. As in her previous novel
(Sequence), the attention to detail is superb. The bits and pieces of
trivia you pick up along the way are downright fascinating. The writing is crisp and the
excitement builds to a surprising conclusion. Alex and the other
on-going characters continue to evolve slowly, layer by layer
showing real growth and maturity in the author's development as a
fiction writer. Lori
manages to keep interest without sacrificing credibility. When you
finish it, pick-up SEQUENCE – which is now in
paperback. In this book, take note of the unconventional
politician-boyfriend who wears cowboy boots and a
Waylon t-shirt.
 NINETEEN MINUTES – a powerful
new novel by Jodi
Picoult. She
draws characters so well that you think you know them -- and can't
stop thinking about them when you put the book down.
This
is a must-read for parents of teenagers; for those who work
with teenagers; and certainly for teenagers themselves.
Told with the straightforward style for which Jodi has become known,
it asks simple questions that have no easy answers: Can your own
child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in
our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who --
if anyone -- has the right to judge someone else? I was reading this book
about the time of the shootings
at Virginia Tech which made this all the more
real.
"Nineteen Minutes," takes its title from
the duration of a high-school shooting rampage by a New
Hampshire 17-year-old
who has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of
classmates. His best friend succumbs to peer pressure and now hangs
out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One
final incident of bullying sends him over the edge and leads him to
commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of all in
the community.
The
Washington Post said:
“Picoult has become a master-almost a clairvoyant-at
targeting hot issues and writing highly readable page-turners about
them…It is impossible not to be held spellbound by the way she
forces us to think, hard, about right and
wrong.”
Jodi majored in creative writing at Princeton and has a master's in
education from Harvard. The recipient of the 2003 New England
Book Award for her entire body of work, she is the author of
fourteen novels, including The Tenth Circle,
Vanishing Acts, and My Sister's
Keeper.
Recently, she penned several issues of Wonder Woman for
DC Comics.
 NEXT – Michael
Crichton’s current best-seller that tells
an exciting story as well as shows what's wrong with the
U.S.'s current handling
of gene patents and with the laws governing human tissues. Michael focuses on genetic engineering in this cerebral new thriller
that features cloned
sheep, genetically
altered foods, stem cell lines, mapping the human
genome.
interweaves many plot strands, one involving a California
researcher, Henry Kendall, who has mixed
"NEXT is set in the bizarre world where genetics and
law intersect. Part fiction and part nonfiction, readers have found
it both funny and genuinely disturbing. It features a transgenic
parrot that quotes movies, a talking chimpanzee named Dave, a bounty
hunter chasing after tissues, and a bar of soap made from a
politician’s liposucted
fat."
In
early 2007, Xavier Becerra (D-Calif) and Dave Weldon (R-Fla)
introduced legislation to ban gene patents—HR. 977, the Genomic
Research and Accessibility Act. You
can support their efforts by writing to your congressman.
NON-FICTION
POLITICS LOST:
How American Democracy Was
Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid.
by
Joe Klein
People on the right are
furious. People on the left are livid. And the center isn’t holding.
There is only one thing on which almost everyone agrees: there is
something very wrong in Washington. The country is being run by
pollsters. Few politicians are able to win the voters’ trust. Blame
abounds and personal responsibility is nowhere to be found. There is
a cynicism in Washington that appalls those in every state, red or
blue. The question is: Why? The more urgent question is: What can be
done about it?
Few people are more qualified to deal
with these questions than Joe Klein. As the
Washington Post said: "It is no
exaggeration to say that Politics Lost represents the
culmination of Joe Klein's life work. It spans every
presidential campaign he has covered. It draws on sources nurtured
over his three decades as one of the country's leading political
reporters. And its topic has clearly obsessed him for a very long
time: Why is American politics no longer
fun."
Klein knows
firsthand what he’s talking about. I've read his coverage of
every presidential election since Carter-Ford in 1976, first
for Rolling Stone, later for Newsweek and then
Time, where he’s a regular columnist today. Each of the eight
chapters of Politics Lost weaves into and out of one of those
elections.
Klein doesn’t
just explain why politics today is largely empty-rhetoric-rich and
content-free; he tells us what to do about it.
The real problem
with the system, Klein seems to be saying, isn’t in our inadequate
political process or in the plunder and pillage by the
rich and powerful so much as it is our inability to find
candidates (or, BE candidates) that -- when the chips are down --
are honest, balanced, courageous, mature, and
visionary.
Ultimately,
he says, we can’t create a better society until more of our
politicians embody “strength, originality, and a vital
humanity.”
 THE POWER OF NOW:
A Guide to Spiritual
Enlightenment by Eckhart
Tolle
Learn to let go of the past and of the future -- to live in the
now.
In The Power of Now
Eckhart
Tolle shows
readers how to identify themselves as the creators of their own
pain, and how to have a pain-free existence by living fully in the
present. Accessing the
deepest self, the true self, can be learned, he says, by freeing
ourselves from the conflicting, unreasonable demands of the mind and
living present, fully, and intensely, in the Now.
He
leads us into a new form of thinking (or, actually, not
thinking) that erases the consuming habits of waiting, worrying,
and being in fear. The first step he teaches is ending the "delusion
of time." He asks, "Are you always trying to get somewhere other
than where you are?”
For me, that rings way too true.
As
simplistic as this all may sound, Tolle's work has serious merit and
depth, especially for those of us who find our lives diminished by
jam-packed schedules and never-ending
busyness.
Eckhart shows readers how to quiet their thoughts, see the world in
the present moment, and find the truest path to
happiness.
It's a book to be revisited again and again. Pick it up – open to any
page – start reading and you are likely to find relevant insight
into whatever problem you’re facing.
 VIETNAM
TODAY:
A Guide to a Nation at a
Crossroads by Mark Ashwill & Thai Ngoc
Diep
VietNam is
land full of promise and potential -- yet is faced with pressing
political and economic challenges. This book provides a valuable
picture of VietNam, past and present, and defines the issues and
trends of today. It is
a very practical guide that capture’s the culture, politics and
complexity of today’s VietNam – a nation of 80+ million – the
thirteenth most populous country – with the second fastest growing
economy.
It is significant
to note that more than two-thirds of Vietnamese were born
after the last American GI left in 1975. This book describes the
21st Century VietNam where, for the first time in more
than 100 years, a generation has grown into adulthood not
experiencing war or foreign domination.
VIETNAM TODAY was written by Dr. Mark Ashwill & Thai Ngoc Diep for those who
will visit VietNam on business, as well as for travelers who come on
holiday yet who want to know something about the country they are
visiting. Furthermore,
it should be read by Americans who want to understand VietNam as a
country – not the name of a war.
It provides
chapters on geography, demographics, politics, economy and business,
history, changes since the war, cultural differences and offers
invaluable tips for dealing with Vietnamese. It describes
how to work with the fact that VietNam is a relationship-based
society in which everyone is tapped into a network. It makes the observation
that mavericks and lone wolves are likely to fail in making inroads
here.
Particularly helpful is Chapter 7, “How the Vietnamese See
Westerners.” It presents impressions and reflections – positive,
negative and constructively critical – from Vietnamese who have
worked with foreigners for many years.
Don’t let the subtitle "a
Guide . ." mislead you into thinking that this book is simply
your basic travel book (for that, I recommend The Rough Guide to
VietNam and National Geographic Traveler’s new
VietNam guidebook).
VIETNAM
TODAY offers a vivid, compassionate view of a
people and a land that captured my heart two-and-a-half decades
before Ashwill set foot in the country. It helped provide a context
for me to understand numerous things that I had
observed but hadn’t been able to fully comprehend. This book will not only
change the way you think about VietNam, it may
cause you to reflect upon how you view the world. That’s a lot to get from a
travel guide!
MAN IN THE SPANGLED PANTS: Story of Jack
Ragotzy & The Barn Theatre, Augusta, MI
by Joe
Stockdale Until I read this book, I had never
really thought about how special The
Barn Theatre is and how it
has had a reoccurring role in my life. The
Barn is one of
the nation's oldest Equity resident summer-stock theatres -- as well
as a longtime incubator of major talent. Aptly named, its
performances are held in an
abandoned dairy barn on a picturesque rolling
hillside between the cities of Kalamazoo and my home town, Battle
Creek, Michigan.
The Man in the Spangled
Pants tells the
story of the Jack Ragotzy family who have delivered more
than sixty years and nearly 500 performances of fine quality theatre
far, far from Broadway.
Simply having a theatre survive under the same management for
that long is a benchmark nearly unparalleled in the theatre
industry.
As soon as I got the book, I flipped to the pages featuring
productions I’d seen in the ‘70s and ‘80s with people I’d known and
cared about looking as fresh and eager as we all were back
then. Here was my
lovely Barbara (Marineau) in 1975 in
the company of GODSPELL, as Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, as
shining as Shelia in HAIR. In 1976 she chose to
leave, starred in a touring company in far bigger venues – and I
married someone else (but continued to visit with the casts and
attend the Barn’s shows).
In ’77 Barbara stopped by for few weeks to play Babe Williams
in The Pajama Game. Playing Carmen, was Dana
Delaney who I considered talented but way too serious and
much too “East Coast” for me.
How amazed I was a decade later by her dazzling performances
as Colleen McMurphy on the award-winning TV series China Beach
– the most powerful –
truly realistic -- show ever done about service in VietNam. Dana reappeared in my life
just a couple years ago when she came to Las Vegas to help
support Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada. Also in Pajama
Game that year (as Sid Sorokin) was Tom
Wopat. Soon after that, he
landed the classic role of Luke Duke in Dukes of Hazard and,
since my friend Waylon was doing narration for the show, I
kept running into Tom for years. Much to his credit – and to
show the esteem actors have for The Barn – Tom has
continued to go back and perform there as his career moved far
beyond The Dukes.
Anyway, enough of my name-dropping
rambling. I do hope this illustrates what a fabulous array of
“Barnies” there have been – and continue to be
(Jennifer Garner being one of the most
recent). As this book
shows, the success of The Barn is about the total family that
makes it happen: the
amazing Ragotzy’s – the casts – the crews - and
the fans. It shows that dreams can come true – even in
an abandoned dairy barn in Augusta,
Michigan!
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