Ben Winters' The Last Policeman trilogy comes to an end in World of Trouble. Hank Palace's investigation in this third book is personal. With only days before the meteor is due to crash into the earth, Palace is desperate to find his sister Nico. As we learned in books 1 and 2, Nico has been a part of a group that believed a secret government plot was going to destroy the asteroid.
Palace teams up with his thief acquaintance from book 2 to go on a cross-country search. OK, I'll save you the trouble. He finds her but things don't work out like he thought they would. On the one hand, Winters brings together some of the themes and plot lines from the other two books. On the other hand, it's all very anticlimactic and dull. By the end I was cheering for the asteroid--come on, get this thing over with!
Monday, September 30, 2019
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Good News! It's Christmas, by Glenys Nellist
Christmas is around the corner (I know it is because last week--the last week of September--Wal-Mart had a forest of Christmas trees for sale. . . .) so here's a new Christmas book. Glenys Nellist has written Good News! It's Christmas, with illustrations by Lizzie Walkley.
This is definitely for the very young, pre-reading set. Moms and Dads might get tired of the simple, sing-songy rhymes, but toddlers will eat it up and remember the words. The pictures are a cute, child-friendly, sanitized version of the Nativity story. It's a simple book, perfect for snuggling up for story time by the fireplace in the weeks leading up to to Christmas.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
This is definitely for the very young, pre-reading set. Moms and Dads might get tired of the simple, sing-songy rhymes, but toddlers will eat it up and remember the words. The pictures are a cute, child-friendly, sanitized version of the Nativity story. It's a simple book, perfect for snuggling up for story time by the fireplace in the weeks leading up to to Christmas.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Someone Farted, by Bruce Eric Kaplan
The Krupke's weekly trip to the supermarket took a nasty turn when
SOMEONE FARTED.
That's the title of Bruce Eric Kaplan's book about a foul smell and the way it derails a routine family outing. No one will take the blame. The smell permeates through the car. Dad is so distracted that he gets pulled over. The policeman takes them all to jail. And still, no one will admit they dealt it.
This is a silly, fun book that most any kid and family can relate to. There's no particular lesson, although it's nice to see how the experience brings the family together. Check it out.
SOMEONE FARTED.
That's the title of Bruce Eric Kaplan's book about a foul smell and the way it derails a routine family outing. No one will take the blame. The smell permeates through the car. Dad is so distracted that he gets pulled over. The policeman takes them all to jail. And still, no one will admit they dealt it.
This is a silly, fun book that most any kid and family can relate to. There's no particular lesson, although it's nice to see how the experience brings the family together. Check it out.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Radicals, Resistance, and Revenge, by Jeanine PIrro
Judge Jeanine Pirro has a popular Fox News show on Saturday nights. Her no-nonsense, confrontational tone comes through in her new book Radicals, Resistance, and Revenge: The Left's Plot to Remake America. It's an (almost) up-to-the minute account of the attacks on the Trump administration and his agenda. (Seriously, somehow her publisher shrank the usual months between completion and publication down to weeks or days. I guess that's how publishers have to work in the fast-moving world of Trump tweets and the 24-hour news cycle.)
In her inimitable style, Pirro takes apart the left's positions on the border, on socialism, on the basket of issues with which the left tries to out liberal itself. If you watch her show or follow conservative news, most of what you read here won't be news to you. But piling it all together in a brief book makes you realize how much it really stinks.
The bad news is that by the time you read this, it's already old news. The good news is that Pirro has gathered her perspectives on the news here in one place, and the better news is that she is, I am certain, already hard at work on the next book in the saga of the Democrats' Quixotic quest to take down Trump.
In her inimitable style, Pirro takes apart the left's positions on the border, on socialism, on the basket of issues with which the left tries to out liberal itself. If you watch her show or follow conservative news, most of what you read here won't be news to you. But piling it all together in a brief book makes you realize how much it really stinks.
The bad news is that by the time you read this, it's already old news. The good news is that Pirro has gathered her perspectives on the news here in one place, and the better news is that she is, I am certain, already hard at work on the next book in the saga of the Democrats' Quixotic quest to take down Trump.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Strings - The Ables Book 2, by Jeremy Scott
In The Ables, Jeremy Scott put a fresh twist on the superhero origin story, turning a special ed class into a band of superheroes. I loved the message of inclusiveness and empowerment. In the sequel, Strings - The Ables Book 2, Scott picks up the story a few years later. The kids are older, and the special ed class is now larger, bringing in some new emerging heroes.
In the years since The Ables, custodians, as people with super powers are called, have become personae non gratae. Residents of their enclave of custodians are disappearing, and custodians are showing up around the country doing uncharacteristically criminal acts around the country. When Phillip, the leader of the Ables, has to face down his own father multiple times, he knows that someone else is controlling the bad acting custodians.
Phillip and his friends show extraordinary creativity as they begin to realize that they are more powerful than they had realized, and that by working together they can be even more powerful. In Strings, the themes of disability and inclusion fade more into the background, but still play a crucial role in the Ables' activities as they take on those who want to lock up all the custodians.
Book 2 is not as fresh as The Ables, and Scott makes a few leaps in the plot that make the story more uneven than I remember The Ables being. But it's still a lot of fun and inspiring, a reminder that even those who society looks at as disabled have extraordinary abilities indeed.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
In the years since The Ables, custodians, as people with super powers are called, have become personae non gratae. Residents of their enclave of custodians are disappearing, and custodians are showing up around the country doing uncharacteristically criminal acts around the country. When Phillip, the leader of the Ables, has to face down his own father multiple times, he knows that someone else is controlling the bad acting custodians.
Phillip and his friends show extraordinary creativity as they begin to realize that they are more powerful than they had realized, and that by working together they can be even more powerful. In Strings, the themes of disability and inclusion fade more into the background, but still play a crucial role in the Ables' activities as they take on those who want to lock up all the custodians.
Book 2 is not as fresh as The Ables, and Scott makes a few leaps in the plot that make the story more uneven than I remember The Ables being. But it's still a lot of fun and inspiring, a reminder that even those who society looks at as disabled have extraordinary abilities indeed.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Squirm, by Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen is one of the most entertaining writers around. In his latest YA nature lovers book, Squirm, he makes a rare departure from Florida to the Rocky Mountains. Snake-loving, socially awkward Billy Dickens has little memory of his dad. But he knows Mom gets a regular check from him. Mom tries to keep Billy from knowing anything about his dad, but Billy manages to reconstruct the return address on a shredded envelope and promptly books a ticket to Montana to surprise his dad.
Dad is working mysteriously in the mountains, but Dad's wife and stepdaughter take Billy in. As Billy learns about what his dad is actually doing, they team up to thwart a wealthy poacher. Back in Florida, and then back in Montana, they face off with a guy who loves his money, loves to hunt, and has no respect for endangered animals (or plentiful species, for that matter).
Squirm is a fun story, and Hiaasen fills it with his trademark nature-loving, anti-development characters. Billy's family (and step family) are quirky and lovable, and he is brave, smart, and a little bit pathetic (in a lovable way). Hiaasen takes some plot shortcuts at times, but I still enjoyed the story.
Dad is working mysteriously in the mountains, but Dad's wife and stepdaughter take Billy in. As Billy learns about what his dad is actually doing, they team up to thwart a wealthy poacher. Back in Florida, and then back in Montana, they face off with a guy who loves his money, loves to hunt, and has no respect for endangered animals (or plentiful species, for that matter).
Squirm is a fun story, and Hiaasen fills it with his trademark nature-loving, anti-development characters. Billy's family (and step family) are quirky and lovable, and he is brave, smart, and a little bit pathetic (in a lovable way). Hiaasen takes some plot shortcuts at times, but I still enjoyed the story.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Please Stop Helping Us, by Jason L. Riley
I am interested to see the rise of conservative African Americans who are willing to buck the Democratic Party line. Jason L. Riley has had enough of white liberals and left-wing politicians "helping" the black community. In Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, Riley bucks the standard positions of black leaders and calls on American to stop looking at race in creating public policy.
Writing during Obama's second term in the White House, Riley wonders how, with a black man in the highest office in the land, the overall progress of blacks in America stalled and even took steps backwards. Typical liberal policies and talking points, like higher minimum wage laws, softening of crime enforcement, opposition to charter schools, and affirmative action in higher education, while intended to help blacks, end up harming them, on the whole.
With black kids disproportionately suffering through poor education in failing schools, it seems that giving black families more choices in selection of schools would be a no-brainer. But liberal political leaders and teachers' union leaders, who tend to send their own children to private schools, consistently oppose public funding for charter schools, despite evidence of their success.
On crime, liberals look at statistics that seem to show disparities in sentencing and enforcement, where blacks are stopped more often, arrested more often, and receive harsher sentences. In response, liberals want to lessen penalties and enforcement, which ends up harming law-abiding blacks when their communities are not policed appropriately.
Riley surely hasn't made many friends in the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or the Democratic Party. But that doesn't mean he's wrong. He has facts and history on his side, and, for the sake of blacks in America, we should hope that more black leaders like him rise to prominence.
Writing during Obama's second term in the White House, Riley wonders how, with a black man in the highest office in the land, the overall progress of blacks in America stalled and even took steps backwards. Typical liberal policies and talking points, like higher minimum wage laws, softening of crime enforcement, opposition to charter schools, and affirmative action in higher education, while intended to help blacks, end up harming them, on the whole.
With black kids disproportionately suffering through poor education in failing schools, it seems that giving black families more choices in selection of schools would be a no-brainer. But liberal political leaders and teachers' union leaders, who tend to send their own children to private schools, consistently oppose public funding for charter schools, despite evidence of their success.
On crime, liberals look at statistics that seem to show disparities in sentencing and enforcement, where blacks are stopped more often, arrested more often, and receive harsher sentences. In response, liberals want to lessen penalties and enforcement, which ends up harming law-abiding blacks when their communities are not policed appropriately.
Riley surely hasn't made many friends in the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or the Democratic Party. But that doesn't mean he's wrong. He has facts and history on his side, and, for the sake of blacks in America, we should hope that more black leaders like him rise to prominence.
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