Book Review: My Dead Friend Sarah

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My Dead Friend Sarah: A Novel by Peter Rosch is the story of a man in recovery (Max) bothered by dreams of a beautiful stranger. The dreams always end with the stranger being abducted and her death.

Max meets the stranger (named Sarah), and while he can’t work up the guts to tell her about the dreams, he does decide to warn the police, just in case.

And then Sarah disappears…..

While the book appears on the surface to be a “Gone Girl” knockoff with the alternating viewpoints by chapter, it actually predates the other book by about six weeks, meaning there is no connection whatsoever.

The book looks mercilessly into Max’s self-destruction while thinking he’s in control. He’s a pretty sizable douche in his efforts to “save” everyone from himself.

Sarah isn’t undamaged either, and serves to feed his addiction while having a few of her own.

The ending of the book is especially thought provoking, leaving the reader to decide what has happened in the spiral of addiction.

You don’t often see books filled with so many unlikable characters turn out to be such a good read. I’m trying to form a list in my head of the different characters, and can’t say for sure that any of them were particularly likable.

Max…douche
Sarah…crazy
Rachel…enabler/doormat (but the most likable character)
Jon…distant/enabler
Sam…jerk

etc, etc… maybe the author is just trying to say that deep down we are all selfish assholes. I’d like to think not, but I’ve been wrong before.

5/5 stars on this one. And that’s pretty rare with me.

Book Review: Matt Monroe and The Secret Society

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Disclaimer: This review is based on a pre-release electronic copy of the book.

Matt Monroe is the son of a dentist living in Kingston, PA. He learns that many dentists are part of a secret society foresworn to protect the Earth from evil. Matt comes to find from a prophecy that he is “the Chosen One” and will soon be sent with six others to another dimension in order to save the world.

My main issue with Matt Monroe and The Secret Society lies in the other world, Paragon. All the dental references were kind of overwhelming for me. I couldn’t really tell if Dr. Torba (the author is in fact a practicing dentist) were supposed to add an air of campiness or if he was being straight with the reader. It kind of felt straight to me, which lost me a little.

Obviously the book is written for YA boys and girls, so they may like it better than I did. It was an OK book, but I just didn’t get as engaged in the story as perhaps I could have. Still, it isn’t a bad story. The characters were rounded and complex, and the interactions between them were believable.

I’d recommend this book to a reader in the 9-13 range, who likes Harry Potter, or has an unusual fascination with dentistry. If the potential reader possesses both traits, then you’ll have a lifelong fan.

Book Review: Pink Globalization

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Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek across the Pacific by Christine Yano is a very extensive book detailing Sanrio’s influence on international pop culture. From the beginnings of Hello Kitty in 1974, to her arrival in the states in 1976, onward throughout today.

For all the mercenarial nature of the company, this book demonstrates how Sanrio does several things right: having multiple price points so that it is a natural gift choice, especially in Japanese society, a continual reinventing and refreshing of their brand to hook new customers while keeping most of the old, and perhaps most importantly not trying to quash any infringements on their brand that could be argued as satire (any exposure is good exposure!)

The book interviews many Kitty fans from all walks of life, with various levels of devotion. That alone makes this a somewhat interesting read. One is also surprised to learn that none of the rich and famous you see “endorsing” Hello Kitty (think Lisa Loeb’s album Hello Lisa) were compensated at all from Sanrio. Smart, smart company.

My main beef with the book is that it reads like a college sociology text, and is pretty dry in places. I give it 3.5 stars.

I’d recommend this book for someone who wants to know how to make a societal movement seem effortless and fresh.

I would NOT recommend this book for someone merely interested in Hello Kitty, because I can’t see them actually finishing the book.

Book Review: The Ten-Cent Plague

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From the early days of comics, there have been people who claimed the art form to be “low art”, “a waste of time” and most critically “harmful to children.”

David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
goes back in time to show how comic books of the 1940s and 1950s were subject to repeated Congressional hearings, legislative attempts (and successes) at regulation, and even widespread comics burnings by so-called “well meaning” individuals.

The book takes a special look at Fredric Wertham, who used the idea of comics making kids into deliquents to further his own career by using junk science and falsified information when writing SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT. The Influence of Comic books on Today’s Youth. Wertham made appearances before Congress using panels from comics clearly removed from context while also having some strange ideas himself.

Wertham and others tried to tie juvenile delinquency in with readers of comics, which is the same as presently trying to tie delinquency in with video games, cell phones or television. There is at best no connection, as Hajdu shows.

The rise and fall of several genres of comics is covered (Crime, Detective, Romance and Horror) over many years, and some impression is made about the hundreds of (mostly derivative) titles that used to exist. There are a lot of interviews from people who lived through the times; and a lot of space is dedicated to William Gaines, who tried his best to save an industry only to be steam-rolled by the McCarthyism of the 1950s.

The end of the book has a long list of people who lost their careers over providing something that the buying public wanted, but that power-grabbing Church and Government officials didn’t want people to see.

My main issue with the book was the long list at the end. While it demonstrates the scope of how many lives censorship can destroy, it bordered on unneeded. I know these men and women had to find other work, but luckily (this time) nobody was thrown in prison or worse for the “crime” of drawing pictures.

The book was a little dry in places, but that’s what keeps it clinical. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

My cat is internet famous

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My cat loves dog food.

Every day at least once, my cat wanders down to the kitchen. Usually he’s after his kitty treats (Temptations Hairball Control), but sometimes he’s after dog food. The large chunk variety. Now before you go writing multiple nastygrams to me, I already know that cats shouldn’t eat dog food.

See, here’s the thing: if you don’t want the dogs to eat the cat food, you put it on a counter or desk. If you don’t want dogs to raid the litter box, you keep it in an area inaccessible to dogs.

But how do you keep a cat out of the dog food, especially in a multiple dog household? And a household where most of the dogs were shelter dogs? You basically hope for the best.

Anyway, a couple of years ago I decided to make a video of the cat as he ate his meal of Pedigree. Then, I got distracted but didn’t want to lose the footage, so I shot it up to YouTube. And I never did anything more about it. Over the years it got maybe 100 views, and 5 or 6 people helpfully stating that I shouldn’t feed a cat dog food. Like I said, no nastygrams.

The other night my phone beeps that I have an email alert. Someone commented on the video. Then a few minutes later it happened again. This was highly unusual!

It took a few more replies, but apparently Max on 2 Broke Girls said something that led people to look for cats eating dog food. I’ve not had time to chase down the episode yet, but now my video has over 2300 views. It kind of makes me wish I’d gotten around to adding music or something to the video.

I’ve also recently discovered the cat also loves barbeque potato chips. And baked Doritos. I’m trying to introduce him to all sorts of new foods, because a responsible owner shows their cat all sorts of new experiences.

His name is Dr. Scholls, and he has a problem...

His name is Dr. Scholls, and he has a problem…

...aside from only having three legs.

…aside from only having three legs.

 

Book Review: Numbers Never Lie

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Disclaimer: I got a copy of this book in exchange for this review. No other payment or endorsement should be implied.

So there was this contest to get a free book. I looked at the synopsis of the book rather quickly and thought “Cool! Computer crime stuff! I wonder how accurate it is?”

What I didn’t realize was that Numbers Never Lie was also a romance novel. Clearly not my favorite genre, considering I’m a guy and all. But, I decided to read it anyway, just so that I’d be square with Ms. Wall and everything.

Trevor (Trevan) is an FBI agent investigating computer fraud, and the suspect that the FBI (but not Trevor!) has in mind is a beauty named Sophie Henderson. He sort of stages a meeting with her, and she ends up using his bodaciousness to get a stalker to leave her alone at a club.

Sophie knows that there is computer fraud going on at her workplace too, so she asks Trevor/van to look at some files, thinking that he’s just a freelance computer hotshot looking to help a lady out.

Now here’s where I have to say that I *work* in the computer field, and with the exception of myself there aren’t exactly a lot of awesomely hot studs hanging around the office. But anyway….

So the book follows a somewhat predictable path, and the star-crossed couple become lovers. Not like a book that would embarrass your mother, but respectable-like.

You can probably guess the ending, because the whole book was set up like a movie. And you know how movies always end (except for the “original” ending of Clerks- I didn’t see that one coming!)

So remember when I told you three paragraphs ago that I’m a computer dude? I was wondering how realistic the book was, and I was pleasantly surprised… it turns out that much like the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, this could also potentially happen! There are no extreme flights of fancy, it could really happen!

One thing that I didn’t really care for… the book models don’t even passingly resemble the characters as described in the book. Although (and I did not think of this angle until just now as I type this) perhaps the cover people are actually ancillary characters; like “girl in street wearing handcuffs”, and “stoic soap opera dude”.

I didn’t despise this book, and I actually have read far, far worse in the past year (I’m looking at you, The Te of Piglet!) So it earns three stars.

Book Review: Prisoner B-3087

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Standard disclaimer: So I got a review copy of this book for free. They didn’t give me an envelope full of $50 bills with it, just the book (and an electronic copy at that.) I don’t even have to write a review, although people who send you free books tend to think that’s nice. And usually I am nice.

Prisoner B-3087 tells the story of Yanek Gruener, who was unfortunate enough to be young and Jewish in 1940s Germany. After watching his family get taken by the Nazis he is also shipped off to one of the camps.

Through several twists and turns he finds himself bounced from camp to camp, often just missing being one of the victims who pays with their life. Sometimes he comes close to giving up all hope but always finds a reason to persevere.

Ultimately when he is in the 10th camp within three years he is liberated by the Allies. He goes on to give a nice epilogue for the rest of his life.

This book is clearly written for kids in the middle-school age range. The writing style is very easy to digest and doesn’t have a lot of flowery exposition. That isn’t to say that it wasn’t an engaging book as an adult, because it was pretty decent even for me.

The only thing that I actually was disappointed about with the book was learning at the end that some parts of it may have been fictionalized. My review copy was electronic, so I am not sure if the physical book is more upfront about it, but just a minor quibble.

If you know someone young (or are young yourself) and want to get a clear view of some of the terrors people felt in the concentration camps, this book is definitely worth a read.

Book Review: The Cat Whisperer: Why Cats Do What They Do–and How to Get Them to Do What You Want

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Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book for review. There was no contract other than a request that I write a review. No payment was made to me for doing this, other than the receipt of the book.

Millions of cats are needlessly euthanized every year due to behavioral issues. Some people take them to the vet; others drop them off at animal shelters where they will be put down after a short time waiting for an adoption that never comes.

The Cat Whisperer: Why Cats Do What They Do–and How to Get Them to Do What You Want is an attempt to help the reader understand why cats may behave in undesired ways and how to rectify the situation. From a young age Mieshelle had an affinity for understanding cat psychology. Starting as a vet tech she perfected her ideas and now has over 33,000 hours of experience in cat behavior analysis. She claims almost 100% success in most issues, and over 90% in others.

For that alone, if you are struggling with a cat “pooping outside the litterbox” issue, this book probably warrants a read.

The book outlines how we project our feelings into what cats think, and how we are totally off in understanding what they actually are thinking.

Chapter 2 helps outline how the successive chapters will be laid out, so that the reader can skip ahead to the (probable) reason they bought the book.

There is a lot of “how to” of dealing with new cat introductions, cat antisocial behavior and other problem behaviors. And there is even some cool stuff on training your cat to do simple tricks (the author has a soft spot for the “high five”.)

I only have a couple criticisms of the book.

The first is that there was a lot of space used in the beginning for the author’s backstory. It was all very interesting and helpful for the reader to realize that this is someone you should possibly pay attention to, but it was a lot. Like 20% of the book.

I also think that her methodology of introducing two cats would take too long and possibly freak out a cat stuck in one room even more than just introducing the cats in the beginning.

And finally (and this isn’t really a criticism per se) the book doesn’t seem to be written for someone to read straight through. You probably wouldn’t in a real-world situation since Fluffy shredding the drapes is different than Patches spraying.

If you’ve read this far, there is also a graphic description of how cats are declawed. I did it in the past, but now that I really understand I’ll never consider it again. Sorry about that one, Sparky. At least you never held it against me.

*Interestingly, the day after I finished this book on modifying animal behavior, it was eaten by my dog. Really.

Even the dog couldn't make it through the book in one sitting.

Remember the excuse about the dog eating your homework?

Book Review: The Te of Piglet

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The Te of Piglet was originally rated at two stars by me because it really paled in comparison to the Tao of Pooh, which I still highly recommend.

But after a little reflection, I downgraded it a little more. Why is this book now only one star? A few reasons….

1. Hoff clearly didn’t want to write it, from the way he was describing in the beginning. I don’t know if there was a contractual obligation or he just realized that he liked money, but he already went into it with a little less than “pure” intent.

2. While there was still some charm in the book, it wasn’t as good with tying philosophies into the other animals in the Hundred-Acre wood. A good attempt is made with Piglet, and even some with Tigger, but Rabbit and Owl just kind of fall flat.

3. Did you ever read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair? It’s a great book till the end, where it becomes insufferably preachy. This book veers into similar territory with a completely irrelevant bashfest on American political conservatives, while remaining completely silent on problems that may exist with the other side of the political aisle.

He even goes so far to bash Gulf War I while saying that we could learn a lot from Chinese philosophy.

Here’s the issue with that… Gulf War I was in about 1991-2…. China had the Tienanmen Square Massacre in 1989. If you want to contrast ancient philosophy with modern society but don’t critically analyze all sides you are doing yourself a disservice.

I would recommend this book for: People who have it all figured out already and know that they are never ever wrong.

I would not recommend this book for: True Pooh fans, and people who found the Tao of Pooh an endearing comparison of classic English literature to classic Asian philosophy.

A question…

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So if SOPA ever passes, will I have to be more clever in getting my pirated materials?

Anyhow, as funny as the Wikipedia page was the first two times I went to it, it was really getting annoying later in the day. It turns out that I use that site for reference several times a day.

Although normally it’s to find out things like what the highest charting songs (U.S.) were from “Huey Lewis and the News”.

I’ve read through three of the seven Harry Potter books now. My bud James says they actually get good from the fourth book forward. To be honest, if I don’t like the first three books, I can’t imagine staying at the show for the next four loooong books.

On a totally different note, I’ve learned more about iOS forensics in the last week than I knew as a whole beforehand. Some hints (if you follow the computer security scene).

  • In order to get an image from a phone with a backup password, you kind of have to hack it (it’s probably a SOPA violation even mention this.)
  • iPads without a password are a dream to work with
  • The iPhone 4S seems to be the device to have right now if you don’t wish for people to be able to examine your stuff. I’m positive that this will change before too much longer.

I didn’t bother contacting my Congressman or Senator about the whole “you’re going to break the Internet” thing, because frankly they are probably too corrupt to even care. I’ll bet they also drive drunk, and pass school buses that are unloading children at nursery homes. While voting in session via text message from behind the wheel.