Kyle Mills continues to raise the bar and get Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp into bigger messes. Order to Kill brings Rapp against perhaps his toughest opponent yet, and puts him undercover in the toughest place yet.
To the chagrin of the Americans, the Pakistanis are playing fast and loose with the security of their nuclear weapons. On a mission to recover one, Mitch and his team fall into a trap. Rapp's colleague Scott Coleman nearly gets taken out by a fighter whose prowess makes even Coleman and Rapp pause.
This super fighter turns out to be Russian, and the nukes turn out to be duds, so Rapp has to figure out who has the actual nuclear material and what the Russians have to do with it. Of course the Russians want to detonate dirty bombs in Saudi oil fields and make it look like ISIS did it. Rapp embeds himself in ISIS, impersonating an American ISIS member. If you've read a Mitch Rapp novel, you know it's no spoiler to tell you Rapp prevails.
Order to Kill has the great action and intricate plotting that characterizes the entire Mitch Rapp series. Mills has fully taken the mantle of Flynn, may he rest in peace.
Friday, February 9, 2018
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
A False Report, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong
With the "#MeToo" movement constantly on the front pages lately, awareness about sexual harassment and rape is at perhaps an all-time high. So T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong's book A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America comes at a timely moment to add to the conversation. Miller and Armstrong tell the story of a young lady who was raped, but who ended up being charged with falsely reporting a crime. They also tell the story of a serial rapist who, despite his careful and meticulous planning, eventually gets caught. The zinger is that these two stories collide.
In a readable and detailed narrative, the two stories develop: a rape in Washington, a serial rapist in Colorado, and, eventually, a dedicated team of investigators who put the puzzle together. The biggest tragedy is that this poor young lady, living on her own for the first time, suffers rape and the indignity and trauma that comes along with that. She immediately reports the crime and tells friends and her support network about it. As the investigation proceeded, the police think they see holes in her story. Under stress, she eventually recants, admitting that she made it up. But she quickly reverses herself and insists that she was in fact raped. The police latch on to her confession that she made it up, and turn the investigation on her. They find reasons not to believe her and charge her with a false report.
Meanwhile in Colorado a number of women are raped, crimes spread across several jurisdictions. Investigators put the crimes together, noting the similarities. A few lucky tips point them to the rapist, and once they gather evidence at his house, including computer files that contained pictures of his victims and his acts, they file charges. (I was troubled by the revelation that this serial rapist traced his compulsion to rape back to when he saw Princess Leia in her bikini, a slave to Jabba the Hutt. This led to him fantasizing about dominating women.) Among the Colorado victims, investigators discover pictures of an unknown victim, who turns out to be the victim in Washington. Puzzle solved, and the Washington victim is vindicated.
This is a memorable true-crime story, but the authors' agenda is larger than simply telling this story. Placing these crimes and investigations in historical context, they recount how the law has been inclined to disbelieve women who accuse men of rape. "The criminal justice system has long embraced the 'cherished male assumption that female persons tend to lie,' . . . In courtrooms throughout America, the historical default setting has been doubt." What a travesty. This is the great strength of #MeToo and related awareness campaigns.
On the other hand, Miller and Armstrong neglect to address men who are in fact falsely accused. They choose a case study in which a woman was not believed, and in which the rapist fits the profile of a small portion of rapists. He stalks women, breaks into their homes, and rapes them. Very few rapes fit this profile, yet it's the rape scenario which garners the most sympathy. The majority of rapes, committed by someone close to the victim, tend to be much grayer. Given the grayness, they are also more likely to bring the veracity of the victim and the aggressor into question. I certainly don't want a rapist to go unpunished, but plenty of compelling case studies can be written about men who have been unjustly accused of rape and, whether convicted or not, see their careers, reputation, and livelihoods crumble.
As they say, hard cases make bad law. The case of A False Report wants to reader to believe the woman, every time. The abuses of the past are real and unjust. But let us not proceed without believing that every person deserves to have his or her story told. Let us proceed with a conviction that every man and every woman deserves a fair trial, and that reputations and jobs and livelihoods should not be destroyed without reliable evidence. As much as I felt compassion for the victims in A False Report, especially the one who wasn't believed, I came away having heard only a part of the national story.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
In a readable and detailed narrative, the two stories develop: a rape in Washington, a serial rapist in Colorado, and, eventually, a dedicated team of investigators who put the puzzle together. The biggest tragedy is that this poor young lady, living on her own for the first time, suffers rape and the indignity and trauma that comes along with that. She immediately reports the crime and tells friends and her support network about it. As the investigation proceeded, the police think they see holes in her story. Under stress, she eventually recants, admitting that she made it up. But she quickly reverses herself and insists that she was in fact raped. The police latch on to her confession that she made it up, and turn the investigation on her. They find reasons not to believe her and charge her with a false report.
Meanwhile in Colorado a number of women are raped, crimes spread across several jurisdictions. Investigators put the crimes together, noting the similarities. A few lucky tips point them to the rapist, and once they gather evidence at his house, including computer files that contained pictures of his victims and his acts, they file charges. (I was troubled by the revelation that this serial rapist traced his compulsion to rape back to when he saw Princess Leia in her bikini, a slave to Jabba the Hutt. This led to him fantasizing about dominating women.) Among the Colorado victims, investigators discover pictures of an unknown victim, who turns out to be the victim in Washington. Puzzle solved, and the Washington victim is vindicated.
This is a memorable true-crime story, but the authors' agenda is larger than simply telling this story. Placing these crimes and investigations in historical context, they recount how the law has been inclined to disbelieve women who accuse men of rape. "The criminal justice system has long embraced the 'cherished male assumption that female persons tend to lie,' . . . In courtrooms throughout America, the historical default setting has been doubt." What a travesty. This is the great strength of #MeToo and related awareness campaigns.
On the other hand, Miller and Armstrong neglect to address men who are in fact falsely accused. They choose a case study in which a woman was not believed, and in which the rapist fits the profile of a small portion of rapists. He stalks women, breaks into their homes, and rapes them. Very few rapes fit this profile, yet it's the rape scenario which garners the most sympathy. The majority of rapes, committed by someone close to the victim, tend to be much grayer. Given the grayness, they are also more likely to bring the veracity of the victim and the aggressor into question. I certainly don't want a rapist to go unpunished, but plenty of compelling case studies can be written about men who have been unjustly accused of rape and, whether convicted or not, see their careers, reputation, and livelihoods crumble.
As they say, hard cases make bad law. The case of A False Report wants to reader to believe the woman, every time. The abuses of the past are real and unjust. But let us not proceed without believing that every person deserves to have his or her story told. Let us proceed with a conviction that every man and every woman deserves a fair trial, and that reputations and jobs and livelihoods should not be destroyed without reliable evidence. As much as I felt compassion for the victims in A False Report, especially the one who wasn't believed, I came away having heard only a part of the national story.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Not Cool, by Greg Gutfeld
I think Greg Gutfeld is pretty cool. He's a panelist on "The Five" on Fox News, always funny and insightful. His 2014 book Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War On You treats some of the political content he covers on the news panel show, but ventures more broadly into culture. His libertarian leanings are strong. If you've seen him on TV, you know he leans conservative, but he's too much of an iconoclast to fall into line with mainstream conservatives.
Not Cool explores what, if your source is mainstream culture, is considered cool and contrasts it to what is really cool. Environmentalism is cool. But there is more to creation care than recycling. Gay marriage and transgenderism is cool. But traditional marriage is the foundation of society. Celebrity lifestyles are cool. But hypocrisy among celebrities is rampant. Liberal arts is cool. But business and science create progress. Socialism is cool. But capitalism lifts people out of poverty.
Gutfeld says all of this and more, but more articulately and more hilariously. As an example, "There's nothing cooler than putting the planet before people. . . . How many have died because it became cool to demonize DDT?" Rachel Carson, whose book led to a world wide DDT ban, is the coolest, a patron saint of environmentalism. Not only have millions died due to malaria, less severe consequences included infestations of bedbugs. "The cool, too shallow to do the research, rallied around this precious pesticide. The result--more New Yorkers are scratching, and somewhere else far away, people are dying. Not cool."
Gutfeld has the personality of a standup comic, the perspective of Reason magazine, and the insight of Mark Twain. Be uncool and read his book.
Not Cool explores what, if your source is mainstream culture, is considered cool and contrasts it to what is really cool. Environmentalism is cool. But there is more to creation care than recycling. Gay marriage and transgenderism is cool. But traditional marriage is the foundation of society. Celebrity lifestyles are cool. But hypocrisy among celebrities is rampant. Liberal arts is cool. But business and science create progress. Socialism is cool. But capitalism lifts people out of poverty.
Gutfeld says all of this and more, but more articulately and more hilariously. As an example, "There's nothing cooler than putting the planet before people. . . . How many have died because it became cool to demonize DDT?" Rachel Carson, whose book led to a world wide DDT ban, is the coolest, a patron saint of environmentalism. Not only have millions died due to malaria, less severe consequences included infestations of bedbugs. "The cool, too shallow to do the research, rallied around this precious pesticide. The result--more New Yorkers are scratching, and somewhere else far away, people are dying. Not cool."
Gutfeld has the personality of a standup comic, the perspective of Reason magazine, and the insight of Mark Twain. Be uncool and read his book.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Inside the Star Wars Empire, by Bill Kimberlin
You probably don't know Bill Kimberlin's name, but it's almost a certainty that you have seen his work. Kimberlin, a special effects artist at Industrial Light and Magic for many years, was behind many of the memorable scenes of the Star Wars movies, Jurassic Park, and many more. In Inside the Star Wars Empire: A Memoir, Kimberlin reflects on his career in the movie business, telling story after story about movies and the people who make them.
Lest you get distracted by the title and cover illustration, Inside the Star Wars Empire isn't all about Star Wars. Fans of that great movie franchise will find plenty to love, but Kimberlin writes more broadly about ILM, George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch, and the many other Lucas films and side projects Kimberlin worked on. In addition, Kimberlim tells lots of anecdotes about movie history, and reflects on his own life and his family's history. At times, these subjects mix and mingle in a rambling way, but mostly they are fun to read.
The strongest thread through Inside the Star Wars Empire is Kimberlin's love of movies and joy he has experienced from being a part of the process. He's in love with the "magic to make it all happen--that rare mix of technology, money, business acumen, talent, and luck." In his role producing special effects, he "wanted to take temporary control of the viewer's brain and convince him or her that we were telling the truth, when we obviously were lying." And as he points out, we in the audience are coconspirators. We "love being fooled and scared."
While many of his stories have him rubbing shoulders with big-name stars, flying on private jets, or hanging out in cool locations, he also captures the day-to-day of the business. He writes, "if you could just get past the well-advertised but largely absent glamour of working in the movie business, it could be a hell of a lot of fun." The fun he experiences in the world of movies is contagious and his narrative of it is fun to read. If you love movies, especially George Lucas's many hits, you will enjoy this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
Lest you get distracted by the title and cover illustration, Inside the Star Wars Empire isn't all about Star Wars. Fans of that great movie franchise will find plenty to love, but Kimberlin writes more broadly about ILM, George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch, and the many other Lucas films and side projects Kimberlin worked on. In addition, Kimberlim tells lots of anecdotes about movie history, and reflects on his own life and his family's history. At times, these subjects mix and mingle in a rambling way, but mostly they are fun to read.
The strongest thread through Inside the Star Wars Empire is Kimberlin's love of movies and joy he has experienced from being a part of the process. He's in love with the "magic to make it all happen--that rare mix of technology, money, business acumen, talent, and luck." In his role producing special effects, he "wanted to take temporary control of the viewer's brain and convince him or her that we were telling the truth, when we obviously were lying." And as he points out, we in the audience are coconspirators. We "love being fooled and scared."
While many of his stories have him rubbing shoulders with big-name stars, flying on private jets, or hanging out in cool locations, he also captures the day-to-day of the business. He writes, "if you could just get past the well-advertised but largely absent glamour of working in the movie business, it could be a hell of a lot of fun." The fun he experiences in the world of movies is contagious and his narrative of it is fun to read. If you love movies, especially George Lucas's many hits, you will enjoy this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Hey-Ho, to Mars We'll Go, by Susan Lendroth, illustrated by Bob Kolar
It may not be in my lifetime, but I would bet that some people living today will see a manned mission to Mars. Susan Lendroth embraces that dream, and shares it with today's toddler set in Hey-Ho, to Mars We'll Go! A Space-Age Version of "The Farmer in the Dell." Combining portions of sing-songy rhyming lines with more in-depth content, Lendroth speaks to a couple different sets of kids at once, on a couple different levels.
For example, she writes:
Bob Kolar's illustrations are certainly on the little-kid level, yet he manages to include details that make the book believable, anticipating some of the actual equipment and requirements of a Mars mission.
Lendroth and Kolar make a great team. Your toddler to elementary-age child will be enthused and inspired by Hey-Ho, to Mars We'll Go. Maybe someone reading this book today will be on that first mission to Mars.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
For example, she writes:
Can you catch my sock?The accompanying illustrations show the astronauts floating around the cabin, and the text describes life in zero-gravity, where everything not secured "will drift like dandelion fluff." Incidentally, the pages are printed in a variety of orientations, giving the full effect of not knowing which way is up!
Can you catch my sock?
Hey-ho, to Mars we'll go--
Can you catch my sock?
Bob Kolar's illustrations are certainly on the little-kid level, yet he manages to include details that make the book believable, anticipating some of the actual equipment and requirements of a Mars mission.
Lendroth and Kolar make a great team. Your toddler to elementary-age child will be enthused and inspired by Hey-Ho, to Mars We'll Go. Maybe someone reading this book today will be on that first mission to Mars.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
Friday, February 2, 2018
The Survivor, by Kyle Mills
It's been a while since I have read a Mitch Rapp novel. I read The Last Man over five years ago, so it was high time I returned to the series. Fans of Vince Flynn will remember that The Last Man was the last novel he published before he passed away at the age of 47 in 2013. With the blessing of Flynn's wife, the literary world that Flynn created has continued with Mitch Rapp novels written by Kyle Mills, of which The Survivor is the first.
Even though three years passed between the time The Last Man was published and The Survivor, Mills picks up the story smoothly. CIA super agent Rapp has taken out Rickman, a traitor to the CIA and the U.S., but Rickman had arranged for a series of computer files to be released after his death. These files would expose the CIA's global operations and networks, crippling their work.
Chasing down the source of the files takes Rapp around the world and in some ops that leave a whopping body count. Unfortunately, not all the bodies are the bad guys. In this series, Rapp is a survivor, but that doesn't mean people close to him always make it.
I did enjoy The Survivor. The action keeps escalating to the end. Mills seems to have made a great effort to keep the tone consistent with Flynn's. Does he measure up? I think time will tell. If I didn't know whose name was on the cover, I am pretty sure I would have assumed Flynn wrote this one, start to finish. But with that knowledge, I kept thinking this was perhaps below Flynn's standards. . . . It was probably all in my head. So, I will definitely be picking up the next book, as I'm sure Mills will get even better at shaping the saga of Mitch Rapp, a great American hero.
Even though three years passed between the time The Last Man was published and The Survivor, Mills picks up the story smoothly. CIA super agent Rapp has taken out Rickman, a traitor to the CIA and the U.S., but Rickman had arranged for a series of computer files to be released after his death. These files would expose the CIA's global operations and networks, crippling their work.
Chasing down the source of the files takes Rapp around the world and in some ops that leave a whopping body count. Unfortunately, not all the bodies are the bad guys. In this series, Rapp is a survivor, but that doesn't mean people close to him always make it.
I did enjoy The Survivor. The action keeps escalating to the end. Mills seems to have made a great effort to keep the tone consistent with Flynn's. Does he measure up? I think time will tell. If I didn't know whose name was on the cover, I am pretty sure I would have assumed Flynn wrote this one, start to finish. But with that knowledge, I kept thinking this was perhaps below Flynn's standards. . . . It was probably all in my head. So, I will definitely be picking up the next book, as I'm sure Mills will get even better at shaping the saga of Mitch Rapp, a great American hero.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Being a Christian, by Jason Allen
Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has the heart of a pastor and a passion to train pastors. In his new book, Being a Christian: How Jesus Redeems All of Life, Allen calls his readers to "discover that Christianity is not relegated to a couple 'spiritual' activities a week, but . . . the gospel invades our work, our leisure, our errands, and our families."
Allen covers marriage, family, time, money, work, recreation, your mind, and church life. Using plenty of scripture, Allen describes how life in Christ will transform each of these areas. Further, the overarching theme is that true Christianity will be marked by transformation in each area. As John MacArthur writes in the introduction, "A Christian who is not experiencing growth in grace is a living contradiction."
The bottom line is this: "The secret to the Christian life is: there's really no secret. It is simply loving, and intentionally living, for Jesus. We apply the gospel to every area of our lives. We bring the Scripture to bear on every aspect of our lives. We submit every area of our lives to Christ and his lordship."
Being a Christian is suitable for Christians at any stage. After all, doesn't every believer need a little reminder every now and then? It reminded me of a sermon series on the basic Christian life, or Sunday school curricula for the "Christian Faith 101" class. In fact, that's about the level of the writing. It's simplistic and plain vanilla, but that means the reader has no excuse for understanding the message and taking steps to apply it to his or her life! So whether you became a Christian last week or last millennium, pick up Being a Christian and let Jesus transform every area of your life.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
Allen covers marriage, family, time, money, work, recreation, your mind, and church life. Using plenty of scripture, Allen describes how life in Christ will transform each of these areas. Further, the overarching theme is that true Christianity will be marked by transformation in each area. As John MacArthur writes in the introduction, "A Christian who is not experiencing growth in grace is a living contradiction."
The bottom line is this: "The secret to the Christian life is: there's really no secret. It is simply loving, and intentionally living, for Jesus. We apply the gospel to every area of our lives. We bring the Scripture to bear on every aspect of our lives. We submit every area of our lives to Christ and his lordship."
Being a Christian is suitable for Christians at any stage. After all, doesn't every believer need a little reminder every now and then? It reminded me of a sermon series on the basic Christian life, or Sunday school curricula for the "Christian Faith 101" class. In fact, that's about the level of the writing. It's simplistic and plain vanilla, but that means the reader has no excuse for understanding the message and taking steps to apply it to his or her life! So whether you became a Christian last week or last millennium, pick up Being a Christian and let Jesus transform every area of your life.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
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