Book Review: The King of Infinite Space by Tyler Dilts

If you're a fan of the detective/PI-typed mystery, I highly recommend that you read Tyler Dilts' The King of Infinite Space. If you follow my book reviews, you know this is a genre I tend to read a lot of, so I'm pretty particular about this type of book. And after reading the entire book in a day (thanks, insomnia) I am shocked that this is Dilts' first book.

Beth Williams, an English teacher, is brutally murdered one night in her classroom. Long Beach Detective Danny Beckett and his partner, Jen Tanaka, begin investigating the crime that doesn't seem to have any suspects, until suddenly, a number of possible murderers materializes. Beckett and Tanaka try to figure out what happened to Beth while Beckett is struggling with his own personal demons, and Tanaka is trying to keep one of her martial arts students on the straight and narrow, which isn't proving too easy.

I really enjoyed the main characters in this book. The dialogue seemed authentic; sometimes books try to throw too many police procedural terms into the mix to prove their authenticity but wind up seeming fake. I worried that Beckett's personal issues might prove too overwhelming for the plot, but they served as an intriguing counterpoint to the action, and deepened the dimensions of the character. While ultimately I figured out who done it, it was tremendously interesting the way the discovery of the murderer unfolded. I hope Dilts intends to write more books, especially those featuring Beckett and Tanaka. Seriously, read this book.

Talking Change When You Don't Want to Change...

Today, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, conservative commentator Glenn Beck held his "Restore Honor" rally in front of tens of thousands of people from around the country. It was lost on no one that Beck's rally was held on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, given on the same steps; in fact, Beck, former governor Sarah Palin and other speakers repeatedly invoked King's name and legacy during the rally.

My political bias and general dislike of Beck and Palin aside, many things troubled me about this rally. For one, King's speech talked about setting aside racial differences and uniting for a common cause. Beck and Palin, addressing a predominantly white crowd, mentioned that the US was in danger of "turning into Mexico." Rally participants distributed pamphlets that depicted President Obama with Hitler's mustache and wore shirts that said "Treat Obama like a used teabag; dump him now!" One can only wonder whether such a rally would have been held had anyone other than the nation's first African-American president been in office.

Another thing Beck spoke of is the need to "restore traditional American values." We hear this a lot from conservatives. But of course, these traditional American values—where Christianity is valued above other religions, where people can get married and divorced and married and divorced but same-sex marriage destroys the "sanctity" of marriage, where "patriotism" is valued only when personal civil rights are trampled—only benefit those who espouse them. They don't actually uphold those values. After all, Beck called President Obama a "terrorist," and Palin likes to create her own version of reality to suit her purposes.

And the third worrisome thing about this rally is what Beck called "America today begin[ning] to turn back to God." One supporter chanted to a heckler "Go to church. Restore America with peace." So whose God are we speaking of? I'm fairly certain that a person like me wouldn't be welcomed into this group unless I renounced who I was.

So should I just move to Canada now?

This world, especially the world of politics, is governed by the philosophy of "do as I say, don't do as I do." And while the hypocrisy is alternately troubling and amusing most of the time, I am frightened by the once-again-growing conservativism of this country. I know that our nation was built on the idea of freedom for all, but I believe people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin would like to amend that philosophy, and offer freedom for those who believe what they believe and act as they say you should. Daring to be different doesn't deserve the same rights. And to me, that's not restoring honor. That's building a nation on fear, ignorance and prejudice.

Not the same idea that our founding fathers had in mind.

Book Review: "Labor Day" by Joyce Maynard

It's Labor Day weekend in the small town of Holton Mills, NH. Thirteen-year-old Henry lives a fairly solitary existence with his divorced mother, Adele, a former dancer who has retreated further and further into herself over the years. Henry knows his mother is unhappy and unlike other mothers (she usually waits in the car and sends Henry to do her errands, she eschews friends and a job) but refuses to tear her down to his father and stepmother.

And one day everything changes. While at a store, Henry is approached by Frank, an escaped convict. Frank is bleeding and in pain, and asks Henry if he can get a ride with him and his mother. Adele doesn't think twice about helping Frank, and gladly allows him to take control of the situation, even letting him stay with them. Frank acts as a pseudo father figure to Henry, teaching him how to catch a baseball, even giving him lessons on life. And Henry watches as Frank's presence transforms Adele into the person Henry remembered, one who danced and was full of life. He knows that Frank poses a threat to his relationship with his mother (he is fairly convinced that the two will escape one day and leave him to live with his father), and is torn between the desire to turn Frank in for the reward and the opportunity to be a "normal" family. The few days change every one of them in unimaginable ways.

I read this book with a tremendous sense of anticipation and dread. Even as I felt fairly certain I knew where the plot would go, Maynard threw in some surprises. She took basic characters—the lonely housewife, the wise convict, the insecure boy on the cusp of manhood—and imbued them with new life. I was torn between racing through the story and wanting to savor it, although I needed to know how Maynard would resolve things. This was a memorable and affecting book.

Book Review: "You Lost Me There" by Rosecrans Baldwin

First of all, how friggin' cool is the name Rosecrans Baldwin? Definitely begs for some notoriety, don't you think? Well, after reading this tremendously affecting book, I have little doubt Baldwin is on the fame track.

Victor Aaron is a fairly well-known Alzheimer's researcher running a university lab in Maine. He is struggling with the recent death of his screenwriter wife, Sara, with whom he had only recently gotten back together after an estrangement. One sleepless night he finds a stack of index cards on which Sara was chronicling what she determined to be the instances in their marriage where their relationship changed direction. (This was an exercise recommended to them by a marriage counselor.) As Victor reviews more and more of the cards, he realizes his perceptions of their marriage—and some of his memories of their relationship—differed significantly from Sara's, which leads him to question much of their past. This soul-searching, plus his encounters with his childhood best friend, his goddaughter, his lab director, his wife's eccentric aunt and a woman with whom he has had a romantic encounter, leads Victor to at least a few moments of reckoning.

I really enjoyed the general premise of this book, as it tried to examine the concept of what makes a memory, and how two people might see the same situation completely differently. Baldwin is a gifted writer and I found the story very readable and compelling. I did struggle, however, because I didn't find any of the characters very appealing at first glance (and some characters had so many quirks they never appealed to me). I just couldn't understand why Victor wanted to deal with so many unpleasant people. But that's what life is about: taking the good with the bad. And that was the appeal of You Lost Me There: some parts I loved and some parts I didn't.

Book Review: "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins

This second book in the Hunger Games trilogy really wowed me. I was impressed by Hunger Games, the first book in the series, when I read it earlier this year, but Collins definitely outdid herself with this second book. It's amazing how well-written and intricately plotted a book this is, considering that many books traditionally geared for the "young adult" audience skimp a bit on quality. (Haters: I said many, not all.)

When the first book in the series ended, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark had emerged victorious from the annual Hunger Games, a government-sanctioned, brutal fight-to-the-death that pitted two young people from each district against each other. Katniss outsmarted the Capitol by ensuring that two people survived the Games for the first time, and this has caused ripples of rebellion to ignite all over the country. So the Capitol enacts its revenge by turning Katniss' world upside down, throwing her challenge after challenge, and putting all those she loves at risk. (This is a super general description because so much of the book works when it comes as a surprise.)

What impressed me about these books is Collins' creativity in dreaming up the setting, the Hunger Games and the characters, as well as the maturity her characters showed. These aren't sniveling, whining, pining people (most of the time) and you find yourself getting truly emotionally invested in what happens to them. So now there's one more book left—Mockingjay—and much as with other series of books, I find myself torn between wanting to immediately tear into the next book and holding off, since it's the last. We'll see which part wins out...

Music Break...

Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street is definitely one of my most favorite songs of all time. (I'll get to the list of songs soon, although that's a tough one.) This is such a quintessential 70s song and one I recall hearing so many times growing up. (I have a memory of hearing it on our bus on the way to or from day camp, although I don't know if that bus actually had a radio, but I digress.)

Grab a listen...the saxophone solos are pure genius.

The Things That Really Shouldn't Matter...

More often than not, what I read in the news appalls me. Sure, our world is in a precarious place right now; Mother Nature keeps wrecking havoc with floods, mudslides, earthquakes and storms, the economy is still shaky, and the general mood of our country is angry and pessimistic.

But it's not that news that gets me. This morning I was amazed by a story on Yahoo! which reported that Americans are increasingly convinced that President Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion. In fact, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, and Time magazine/ABT SRBI both recently conducted polls to gauge public awareness of Obama's religion.

While I realize that recent conversations about whether to allow a mosque to be built on land near the World Trade Center brings general fear and prejudice against Muslims into stronger light, I fail to understand why people really need to be focused on the President's religion, especially when he is not Muslim.

Why is this news? Why does it matter? It's one thing if he was bending over backwards for one particular ethnic or racial group, but he isn't. And all of the progress he has tried to push this country toward has no Muslim overtones.

I can't help but feel this is yet another move by those who oppose the President's policies and the Democrats to obfuscate the issues that are truly important. Clearly there is nothing else wrong with our society these days, so we need to focus on things like the President's religion and gay marriage. I guess if there is any silver lining in these polls, it's that 52 percent of people said churches should stay out of politics. Not that that will happen any time soon.

I wish we could learn to accept that just because people don't agree with our views, it doesn't make them inferior. But that may be too much news for many.