Category Archives: Review

BOOK REVIEW: Secrets of Self-Healing by Dr. Ni

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Secrets of Self-Healing: Harness Nature's Power to Heal Common Ailments, Boost Your Vitality,and Achieve Optimum WellnessSecrets of Self-Healing: Harness Nature’s Power to Heal Common Ailments, Boost Your Vitality,and Achieve Optimum Wellness by Maoshing Ni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Secrets of Self-Healing title is a little bit of a misnomer. This book is not so much a collection of secrets as an overview of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM.) This is probably not so much an attempt to defraud as it is a sound marketing strategy. In America one can sell something as a “secret” even if it’s been done for 3000 years in the open– if it’s from China.

The book is divided into two parts. The first (between 1/3rd to 1/2 of the book)includes an overview of such topics as yin/yang, the five elements, nutrition, herbs, supplements, exercise [qi gong], and acupressure meridians. It also includes information about how to diagnose problems from external cues (i.e. examining the face, tongue, and hands in particular.)

The second part is an ailment-specific reference section. For 65 of the most common ailments, the book gives six-part advice on diet, home remedies, dietary supplements, herbal remedies, exercise, and acupressure.

It mixes some modern medical science in along the way, where it is useful.

I found this book to be approachable and informative.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

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The RoadThe Road by Cormac McCarthy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sparse and haunting.  The Road is about a father and son walking cross-country in search of a safe harbor in a post-apocalyptic world. The story pulls one in and leaves a tightness in one’s gut. Every person the duo comes across on the road must be treated as a dire threat, making them each other’s only thread of connection to humanity. One particularly powerful moment is when they get to the ocean and see nothing but ghost ships lolling in the water. To reach the end of the road, the end of one’s world, without a flicker of hope is crushing, but they make a left turn and keep going.

McCarthy uses description in vivid flourishes, but it’s the spartan dialogue that really creates the tone. I was distracted by the lack of quotation marks and dialogue markers at first, but with only two speaking characters McCarthy’s approach works just fine. One soon gets a feel for the unique voice of each, and then the minimalist approach works.

McCarthy cuts away everything that is non-essential. Some of these non-essentials, like names, we so take for granted that their absence helps create a somber tone.

If you don’t like sad stories, this one won’t be for you. I found the ending to be tragic, but some may see it as hopeful.

I haven’t seen the movie, but from the trailer and what I’ve heard, it’s a bit different. Hollywood not willing to take the risk of stripping it bare.

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BOOK REVIEW: Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

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Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time TravelPhysics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Michio Kaku is the master of pop physics writing. While you may find names like Brian Greene or Neil Degrasse Tyson more recognizable, if you haven’t read any of Kaku’s work, this is a good one with which to start.

This book examines the possibility (or lack thereof) of many technologies and scientific concepts prevalent in science fiction.

Why spend time reading about things impossible? It turns out that one’s definition of “impossible” matters greatly. Kaku divides the world of impossible into three classes. The first, and largest class by far, are those technologies that are impossible given today’s capabilities, but aren’t prohibited by the known laws of physics. This class includes technologies that one can readily imagine such as: robots, starships, and phasers. However, it also includes developments that one might think are firmly in the realm of sci-fi, such as: teleportation, telepathy, force fields, and psychokinesis.

Class II impossibilities are those that look impossible now, but which may prove possible as our knowledge increases. They include faster than light travel, time travel, and the existence of parallel universes. The first two require uncovering loopholes in prevailing Einsteinian paradigm. The second also begs the question of why we don’t have time tourists.

Class III impossibilities are those that violate the known, well-established laws of physics. Kaku only puts two items in this bin, perpetual motion and precognition.

Kaku’s book discusses a fascinating topic in a highly readable format and using good science.

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BOOK REVIEW: You Suck by Christopher Moore

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You Suck (A Love Story, #2)You Suck by Christopher Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven’t read Twilight or any of the many YA vampire books that have glutted the market in recent years, but You Suck perfectly captures what real teenage vampires would be like. Tommy Flood is not a confident, suave, sexy vampire. He’s an awkward, if likable, dumb-ass. Christopher Moore’s characters are hilarious and, sadly, true to life.

Moore tickles the funny-bone as he tells a love story of a young couple up against an elder vampire, a group of other young idiots, and the cops. The fact that the couple isn’t pitted against each other– despite the fact that the female, Jody, turned Flood into a vampire– is testament to the strength of the relationship. If anything can sour a relationship, it’s one half of the couple turning the other into a vampire (or a Zombie for that matter.)

While the tension is not intense, the humor is ubiquitous. More importantly, one gets food for thought on such mundane vampire questions as:
– how does one recruit a good minion? (Abby Normal holds her own as a font of humor.)
– do cats make suitable substitutes for a blood meal?
– what happens when you bronze a vampire?

I enjoyed this book, and suspect you will too.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

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The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide, #2)The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The adventures of Arthur Dent and company continue as Zaphod Beeblebrox chases after whatever it was that he made himself forget, and the group seeks the question to match the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Neither of these issues is resolved with great satisfaction (leaving plenty to be covered in the remaining three books of this five book trilogy.) However, we do learn why Earthlings are so prone to war and bureaucracy.

Time travel is a key plot device in this book. If hilarity will get you over any hurdle, you’ll love The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. But if you’re the kind who geeks out on the minutiae like the grandfather paradox, this book may drive you crazy. They travel forward through time from a period shortly after the end of Earth until the end of the universe. Then they go back to a period 2 million years before the end of Earth.

Spatially they travel from a Vogon-threatened Heart of Gold (ship) in deep space to the Ursa Minor headquarters of the publishers of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to a planet in the Frogstar system that is home to the Total Perspective Vortex (or so Zaphod thinks) to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (which, coincidentally, is on the same Frogstar planet) to a planet where a ship full of management specialists and telephone sanitizers (and Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect) crash lands. All the while they run into new puzzles and adventures.

While the book is named for the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, that locale is not especially significant to the story. They visit the restaurant in the middle of the book. The restaurant does provide more than its fair share of gags. For example, the group’s interaction with a cow that is bred to encourage diners to eat it is classic Douglas Adams.

This is definitely a character-driven novel. There’s not much of a plot to speak of, but it is hilarious.

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BOOK REVIEW: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

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Brave New WorldBrave New World by Aldous Huxley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Huxley’s utopianish dystopia, an individual’s fate is determined through a combination of genetic engineering, operant conditioning, and hypnopedia (sleep-teaching.) It’s a different dystopian vision than that of Orwell or Atwood; individuals are drugged and encouraged in unlimited promiscuity in order to pacify them and keep them believing that they are happy (without allowing exposure to alternatives by which they might contrast their lives.) Gone are the arts and religion as we know it, and science exists only as a shadow of its former self.

The book follows the story of a “Savage”, named John, brought from an Indian reservation on which this “Brave new world” is unknown. He cannot understand the “civilized” world, and to its occupants he is an interesting anomaly to be gawked at at cocktail parties.

The book ends on an upbeat note as the reader learns of a third world, a world beyond the Brave New World or the brutally impoverished aboriginal lands.

Everyone should read this book to learn that one can be killed with “kindness” as well as with sternness.

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BOOK REVIEW: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Grahame-Smith

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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire HunterAbraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this alternative-history / paranormal novel, Abraham Lincoln is re-invented as a man who experiences great tragedy at the hands of vampires and then devotes his life to hunting them- a battle which culminates in the Civil War. In the Civil War of this book, slaves are not just valued as plantation labor but also as vampire food.

Grahame-Smith’s book is written in the mold of Bram Stoker’s, as a series of journal entries, letters, and missives.This helps to give it a feel of authenticity as that seemed to be a common device in the late 19th century.

Lincoln comes into contact with a number of contemporaries, some vampire but most humans knowledgeable about vampires– such as Edgar Allen Poe.

The perspective jumps can be a bit confusion, but all-in-all it is entertaining.

A movie was made about this book, which I haven’t seen.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare

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The Comedy of ErrorsThe Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The premise is simple: mistaken identity. Twin boys separated at birth, neither knowing the other is alive, wander about Ephesus inadvertently wreaking confusion by their mere appearances. To add to the confusion (and hilarity), each of these men has a man-servant that is an identical twin of the other man’s servant. Servant and master confuse each other’s doppelgangers. There is a wife thought to be crazy by the man she only thinks is her husband. There is a merchant who is trying to collect from the wrong man.

It’s not the play’s leads, but rather Dromio of Syracuse (one of the identical servants) who I find to be the most clever and compelling character. Some of his witty lines are:

– “Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season?”
– “…she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.”
– “…he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.”

If one can accept the strained credulity of the play’s premise, it’s an enjoyable and light-hearted read.

It may not offer the most clever of Shakespeare’s wordsmithing, but Shakespeare at his worst is pretty damn good.

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BOOK REVIEW: Blue Zones by Dan Buettner

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The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the LongestThe Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blue Zones are places with disproportionately large numbers of 100+ year old folks. Buettner’s book contains case studies on four of these blue zones: Sardinia, Okinawa, Loma Linda (California), and Hojancha (Costa Rica), and provides interesting insights on living from the places that produce lots of centenarians.

Even those who aren’t particularly interested in longevity will find a great deal of valuable information in the book. Not unexpectedly, nutrition is at the fore in this book. However, there are other factors such as family and social life, sleep, and being active that correlate strongly with longevity.

A few things I picked up:
– As in Okinawa, one should say hara hachi bu before each meal as a reminder to stop when one is 80% full– rather than 100% or 180% full.
– Most nuts make a good snack even if they’re roasted in an oil that isn’t particularly healthy (the density means limited saturation.)
– Despite our species’ history, which presumably involved gorging on meat when it was available,vegetarians (and near-vegetarians) live longer.
– When you eat is as important as what you eat.

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BOOK REVIEW: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury

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Something Wicked This Way ComesSomething Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bradbury creeps us out by showing us a carnival through the eyes of two young boys. The month is October, and the carnival arrives in the dead of night. Everything about this story is meant to make one ill at ease, but at first we don’t know they boys minds are just playing tricks on them. The author gradually reveals the carnival is pure evil.

The boys, best friends, end up in over their heads, and being pursued by the carnies. Believing his son’s fanciful tales of time-bending carousels and a hall of mirrors that distorts more than light, a father plays a key role in the battle to restore normality to their town.

The strength of this book is Bradbury’s use of language. The book exudes creepiness, and in doing so captures just the right tone.

The weakness is its ending (which I will not get into to avoid spoilers.) It falls a little flat, particularly given the great build up.

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