For the Win, by Cory Doctorow

In spite of my disappointment with his recent collaboration with Charles Stross (see my review of The Rapture of the Nerds), Cory Doctorow remains a favorite author of mine.  His vision of the near future and the realistic projection of technological trends is brilliant and unequaled.  In his 2010 book For the Win, Doctorow explores the world of online gaming and the workers who toil away in the gold-farming sweat shops.  If you are like me (before I read For the Win), that last sentence makes no sense.  So for non-gamers like me, FTW is an education.

There are, in real life, these games that involve players from all over the world (massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs), playing against each other independently and in teams, using an online economy for buying and trading rewards, weapons, etc.  Thus there is a market for in-game objects, and an industry of professional gamers who play for the sole purpose of obtaining said objects to sell to other gamers.  Many of those gamers work for wages in computer sweat shops.

Gamers at a sweat shop in China.

With me so far?  Like I said, this is a world I have never experienced.  Doctorow tells the story of some of these gamers who lead a labor revolt, melding real-world and online-world tactics, to gain better working conditions and rights as workers.  The result is quite interesting and believable.  He draws on the history of labor movements from the industrial revolution forward, drawing direct connections to the era of internet labor.  The sidebars on economics, labor movements, multi-level marketing, and the like do interrupt the flow of the story, but are thought-provoking and draw FTW into the realm of the polemical novel.  (This will please some and turn away many, but I think it's interesting that Doctorow seems to have a larger agenda than to simply tell an interesting story.)

Besides the message of FTW, the story is well-told.  Spanning several continents and developing characters from several cultures, Doctorow puts it all together, not letting the reader get bogged down with the interlocking story lines.  All in all, FTW is a fun novel with a good story, but has a social message worth thinking about as well.

Mars Attacks Volume 1: Attack from Space, by John Layman and John McCrea

Remember the movie Mars Attacks from the 1990s?  This new comic from Layman and McCrae captures the same over-the-top humor, with the same Martians, but in completely new stories.  After repeatedly being attacked by humans on exploratory visits to Earth, the Martians have had enough and are set on revenge and nothing short of the collapse of human civilization.  By breeding giant insects, assassinating world leaders, and wreaking general chaos and destruction, the Martians look to be well on their way to their ultimate victory.  Little do they know that humans have more pluck and desire to survive.  This volume ends with hints at a resistance movement among the humans.

This isn't brilliant writing or brilliant comic book art.  It's fun, humorous, violent sci-fi, in the tradition of the movie and the genre spoofed by the movie.  So grab your popcorn, set aside your literary and art criticism hat, and enjoy the ride.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Raising Cubby, by John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison's new book Raising Cubby: A Father and Son's Adventures with Asperger's, Trains, Tractors, and High Explosives, is really two books on one. One thing it is not, is a manual for parents who have a child on the autism spectrum.

The first book, as the title suggests, is a collection of vignettes of Robison's adventures with his son, Cubby. Any parent will appreciate the lengths to which Robison went to enjoy his son, to offer him a variety of experiences, and to help him explore his interests. Since both father and son have Asperger's. their adventures are perhaps a bit more quirky than many of ours. I especially liked their practice of buying small amounts of stock in companies, then showing up at a work site to request a tour of "their" property. They were aided by the fact that they arrived in a pristine, vintage Rolls Royce, bought cheap and carefully restored by Robison. When someone shows up in a Rolls, says he's a share holder, and requests a tour, people can be pretty accommodating.

His stories are amusing, but it sometimes felt as if I were reading someone's blog which, while it may be interesting to close friend and family, and as a means of chronicling events for Cubby's later perusal, got a bit tiresome for me. I will say that although this is not a manual for parenting children with Asperger's, I can imagine that many parents will be nodding in recognition as they read about Cubby's obsessive behaviors, social skills, and difficulties at school.

The second part of the book deals with Cubby's obsession with explosives, and the legal trouble he got into as a result. As a teen, Cubby took a deep interest in chemistry. He studied voraciously and became an expert (an expert at his trial he had a level of knowledge equivalent to a PhD candidate in chemistry), especially with explosive compounds. He was always safe and not destructive, but local police got wind of his work and overreacted. The DA thought she had a great career-building case and pursued Cubby as if he were a 9/11 bomber.

This part of the book serves as a cautionary tale of the damage caused by an overreaching government. Even though Cubby was fully cooperative and truthful with investigators, and his lab in his mother's basement was safe and legal, the police still treated the house like it was an al Qaeda bomb factory, trashing it and then sending his mom a bill. Then even though the police found nothing for which to arrest Cubby, the DA pressed charges, costing Cubby's family thousands of dollars in legal fees and months and months of stress. At one point Robison says Cubby is interested in libertarian politics. After the experience he had with the legal system, I can't blame him!

One early theme that stood out to me, and that many parents of children with special needs can relate to, is the Robison's struggles with the school system.  In the dedication, Robison notes that Cubby's mother "grabbed hold of the school system, shook hard, and made them accommodate our kid."  I love that description.  The same could be said of my wife!  Later he talks about attempting to get special services for their hard-to-classify son.  "Public schools have a legal obligation to make education accessible to kids who are impaired or have learning disabilities.  The two things they don't have an obligation to remediate are 'dumb' and 'stubborn,' so that's what they wanted him to be."  So true.

Robison is a gifted writer whose style and content captures the Asperger's-tinged perspective and attitude of both father and son.  Readers, especially those with a family member on the spectrum will enjoy getting to know the Robison family.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Signs, Wonders, and a Baptist Preacher, by Chad Norris

I grew up in a strong, traditional Southern Baptist church.  Like most Baptists, we rarely talked about the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.  I used to joke that the reason the music minister would sometimes have us sing the first, second, and fourth verses of a hymn is that the third person of the trinity was barred from our services.  In college I attended a Southern Baptist church which practiced healing, prophecy, and tongues, and it rocked my religious world, opening my Christian life up to a dimension I had not experienced before.

Chad Norris, like me, grew up in a traditional Southern Baptist church, became a Southern Baptist pastor, and began to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in ways that challenged what he thought he knew about Christian theology and practice.  In his refreshing book, Signs, Wonders, and a Baptist Preacher: How Jesus Flipped My World Upside Down, Norris tells his story.

Norris asks the provocative question, Why do churches in America so rarely practice the three things Jesus did while he was here: "he preached the Kingdom, healed the sick and cast demons out of people." We are quite comfortable without the supernatural. Sure, Jesus has been misrepresented by many in the church whose flashy and sometimes deceptive ministries exploit the gospel rather than preach it, but that doesn't change the fact of who Jesus is. As we walk in intimacy with Jesus, we can share experiences with him, including the supernatural gifts. Chad concludes that "If my life is not supernatural to some degree, then it is superficial to a great degree."

This is not a book of theology. Chad doesn't tackle the cessation argument or set out to prove anything. Instead, he relates his experiences and invites the reader to a deeper relationship with Jesus. Reading his book gave me a thirst for a renewed life of intimacy with Jesus, a fresh friendship with him. Norris reminds us that "it is amazing what happens web we act in faith and try to hear" God's voice. God loves us--and likes us--and wants us to enjoy friendship with him.

Jack Deere, who is teaching pastor at my church, wrote the foreword to Norris's book and played a role in his formation in experiencing the supernatural, as he has for many other pastors and lay people. Chad's book can do what Jack's book Surprised by the Power of the Spirit has done for so many: introduce them to the third person of the trinity and invite them into a more intimate friendship with God.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Something to Prove, by Rob Skead, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

In 1936, two of the greatest baseball players ever to play the game faced off in an exhibition baseball game.  Baseball was different then, in many ways.  It would be more than a decade until Jackie Robinson would be the first black player in the major leagues, but people who followed baseball knew that Satchel Paige was the greatest pitcher around.  So when scouts wanted to see how good the hot prospect Joe DiMaggio was, they arranged a meeting between the two.

In Rob Skead's new book Something to Prove: The Great Satchel Paige vs. Rookie Joe DiMaggio, beautifully illustrated by Floyd Cooper, the game comes alive with an inning by inning account of this great showdown.  Both men had something to prove, Paige, that he was good enough to pitch to major leaguers, and DiMaggio, that he was good enough to hit against a great pitcher (he went 1 for 4, barely!).

This game is probably a familiar bit of history to baseball buffs, but it was new to me.  Your budding baseball fan will enjoy this great story from a not-so-great era of a great game.  It brings to mind the what-ifs of baseball--What if blacks and whites had played together from the start?  What if Paige had spent his early career pitching against the great white major league batters rather than pitching in the Negro Leagues?  DiMaggio attested that Paige would have done well; he said Paige was "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced."

The major leaguers had trouble hitting Paige's "bat dodger," "trouble ball," and "whipsey dipsey do"

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Pantalones, TX: Don't Chicken Out

Yehudi Mercado works in film and animation with a slacker comedy Texas twist.  His new graphic novel Pantalones, TX: Don't Chicken Out is goofy, silly, strange, and a whole lot of fun.

Chico Bustamante, a go-kart riding rebel kid in Pantalones, Texas, gets under the skin of sherrif/mayor/judge/school principal/chicken shack owner Cornwallis.  On his quest to become a Texas legend, Chico relies on his friends and his faithful dog Baby T.  Maybe he'll ride a giant chicken, or maybe he'll challenge the chicken to a race.  And maybe he'll become a legend in the end.

This is probably unlike anything you've read before.  In attitude, it reminded me a bit of Bart Simpson's antics, at the same time more absurd and friendlier than the Simpsons.  (Texas is the Friendship State, after all.)  Pantalones, TX is appropriate for all ages, in terms of language and content, but some the humor might go over the heads of younger readers.  I liked it.

Yes, that's Chico at his bar mitzvah, with the rabbi in a grass skirt.What else would he wear?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary review copy!

A Sudden Glory, by Sharon Jaynes

I am fully aware that I am not Sharon Jaynes's target audience.  Most of her books have the words "woman," "women," or "mom" in the title, and the tagline on her ministry's web site is "Equipping women to live fully and free."  But I saw her newest book offered by Waterbrook/Multnomah and figured it would transcend gender.  A Sudden Glory: God's Lavish Response to Your Ache for Something More does seem to be focused on a female audience, but I still enjoyed it and was encouraged and challenged.

Recalling C.S. Lewis, whom Jaynes quotes frequently, A Sudden Glory addresses the question of that longing Christians have for more intimacy with God and awareness of his presence.  Jaynes has learned to live in an awareness of God's constant presence and companionship.  The more we focus what we do in everyday life on enjoying God, the more he will reveal himself in "sudden glories," ways that we otherwise would overlook.

I especially enjoyed her chapter on gratitude.  Jaynes points out that Paul wrote, "I have learned how to be content . . .," as if contentment or gratitude is a language to be learned.  From the womb we are naturally self-centered and self-absorbed, but "we can learn God's love language of gratitude . . . . We can speak words of gratitude that remove our blinders so we can see glimpses of His glory every day. As we discover and practice the beautiful language of gratitude, our native tongue of self-focused dissatisfaction begins to fade."  That's a language I need to become more fluent in.

Jaynes has a companionable tone and a passion for knowing God.  It's easy to see why she has a vibrant conference ministry.  Even though she occasionally addresses the reader as sister, and sometimes uses illustrations which speak primarily to her female audience, there's plenty here for a man to hear.  Man or woman, a higher level of sensitivity to God's is a worthy goal that A Sudden Glory can help to bring closer to reality.

For more about Sharon, go to sharonjaynes.com.

Thanks to Waterbrook/Multnomah for the complimentary review copy!