Book Review: Blow by Bruce Porter is a post from: free book reviews

‘Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All’ by Bruce Porter tells the real story of George Jung, who was the largest importer of cocaine to the United States in the 70s and 80s.

As the full title of the book already suggests, George Jung led an extraordinary life that not only resulted in this book, written by Bruce Porter, but later also made it to the big screen. Most of us will remember the 2001 hit movie ‘Blow’, directed by Ted Demme and starring Johnny Depp as Boston George (Jung’s nickname) and Penelope Cruz as Jung’s wife. The movie, which is directly based on Bruce Porter’s book, made George Jung famous across the US and far beyond its borders.

Jung grew up in a middle class family in Weymouth, a small town in Massachusetts, USA. At high school he made some fame as a football player. But when he reached university, Jung started using soft drugs and soon after he started dealing these drugs as well. Blinded by the easy money that he was making, Jung stopped his studies and expand his smuggling business by transporting marijuana from the West Coast to the East Coast.

Unfortunately for him, Jung got arrested during one of his smuggling trips and ended up in Danbury prison. His cellmate in this Connecticut based prison was Carlos Lehder, a German / Columbian stolen cars smuggler with connections to Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel. After their release, Lehder and Jung go in business together, smuggling large quantities of cocaine from Columbia to the USA. Their supplier is the Medellin Cartel and usually the cocaine is smuggled into the US by small private airplanes. Being just the middle man in the cocaine trade, Jung made millions of dollars, building up a fortune of over 100 million dollar. However, things go wrong again for Jung, hunted down by the DEA and betrayed by his friends and business partners, he ends up in prison again At the same time, he loses all his money when his bank accounts get frozen. Jung is still in jail until this very day and his projected release date is set on November 27, 2014.

Porter did an excellent job, researching and writing the life story of George Jung and his involvement in the largest drugs trade in history. As usual the book is much better and more detailed then the movie. So, we definitely recommend to read the book, even when you saw the movie already. You will not be disappointed and get some new insights on the life of Jung. Apart from that, there are also some interesting contradictions between the book and the movie.

To conclude, Bruce Porter definitely deserves an applause for his exhaustive research on this book and translating it into an easy to read book that will catch your attention from start till finish. I can highly recommend this book as one of the finest non fiction work that I’ve ever read, regardless of the topic.

Book Publishing – Things That Writers Should Know About Marketing Their Works is a post from: free book reviews

Books help a person to get to know about different things and it will also encourage them to write their own books. When you start reading a book, you will be totally in a different world and become the character in the book. Everyone likes to write their own books and there are various themes and you must stick to a genre while writing one.

Before starting to write, read about the tips and procedure to develop it into complete manuscript. If you are going to write a novel then there should be a main character, side characters and surprise characters. Try to write in a different dimension and create various plots and don’t forget to co-relate them.

How to start writing a manuscript?

First, think about an interesting title for the book and also the theme.  The title should be somewhat innovative and must attract the target audience. After that, decide upon the characters, and the story of the book. Start writing the book chapter by chapter and take enough time to think and make sure there is continuity between the chapters. You should also know to whom you are going to contribute the book. Try to highlight the main purpose and the importance of the manuscript.

If your target audience is children aged between 5 to 10 then write according to their likings.  Eventually a book cannot be a favourite for everyone. You should also specify, why you are writing this book and its benefits. You can also promote the theme of the book in social networking websites and blogs.

How to publish your books?

Publishing a book is a long process and you must understand the process before getting started with it.  First, you must contact an agent and these agents will have many contacts in the publishing houses. Once your script is liked by the people, you could get your book printed. The next thing, the agent will decide on is the percentage of shares for this process.

If an agent is interested in your book, he will use the contacts in the publishing company to get the book done. Many publishing houses print only the books that are recommended by the agents. The publishing company employs many editors to choose the book to be published. If you don’t have an agent, you can contact the company directly.

How to contact the agent?

Before approaching them, you have to prepare the manuscript in a specified format. While printing the script make sure that you only print one side of the page. Along with it, provide the following information clearly such as the author name, contact information, book name, word count and chapter count. This information will be helpful for the editors to take final decision on the script.

Try to put your manuscript in an open folder and do not file them. After that, send it to the publishing house. Take 2 or 3 photocopies of your manuscript and you can send them to different companies. While sending it, attach a query letter along with it. This letter has to contain an introduction about your content.

Tips for writing a book

The book you write must contain good information, whether it is based on scientific or social theme. It should be useful and also see to it, that it does not have any controversial statements. Write them in a simple language, so that everybody can understand what you are trying to say.  Clear writing and good explanation will gain good reputation among the audience. First, write in a rough paper and proofread it. Follow it, until you gain good standard of writing.

Author’s Bio:

Patricia Jackson is a keen follower of literary works, and she also expresses her opinions about various authors on her blogs. She also follows well known writers like Orlando Figes who has published many books on Russian revolution.

Book Review: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a post from: free book reviews

After finishing my bachelors degree, and still undecided about whether or not I wanted to pursue a masters degree, I decided to take online classes to keep up my writing skills. I was lucky enough in one of these classes to be given the assignment of reading Yann Martel’s Fantasy/Adventure novel The Life of Pi.

Though a little skeptic at first of a book where a boy is trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger in the middle of the Pacific, I was astonished by the literary qualities it possessed and realized soon after I began reading that it is a masterpiece of contemporary literature and an incredibly intriguing read.  This story has not only entertained millions of readers, but has also been made into a feature length movie that will be out in theatres this year!

We are first introduced to our protagonist Piscine “Pi” Patel, a student of religion and animal science in Canada. Pi describes his educational triumphs and disappointments by explaining how “when a person suffers a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.” He even describes his life as a Momento Mori painting, where there is constantly a grinning skeleton at his side. As a student of animal science and the son of a late zookeeper, animals consume Pi’s life and he often compares those he works with to animals. In a humorous statement he compares three toed Sloths to his classmates, whom he described as “muddled agnostics that didn’t know which way was up.

As a young boy Pi worked at his family’s zoo in Pondicherry, India. Pi’s father decides to move to Canada, taking all their zoo animals with them. This proves to be a rather large and painstaking endeavor with many of the crew not treating them with any respect, until an incredible storm threatens the ship, sending the animals scurrying around the corridors and up on the deck just as the crew and passengers are. With the ship sinking, Pi takes refuge on a lifeboat that is nearly destroyed by the crashing waves. However, as the storm settles and the enormous ship sinks to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, Pi discovers that he’s not the only one aboard the lifeboat.

Being joined on the lifeboat by an injured zebra, orangutan named Orange Juice, spotted hyena and Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker, he imagines phone calls being frantically made for his relief, and even pilots running to their planes and helicopters without even bothering to tie their shoelaces. However, he still manages to spend 227 days on that lifeboat as one by one of the creatures perish from the elements, and each other.

This story is so compelling because the voice of the tortured Pi contains so much imagery and description in each sentence. We understand why he counts himself among one who has suffered immensely as he explains how he has had so many bad nights, that none of them, not even a particular one on the boat, has been named the champion. However, he does differentiate his suffering between his bad and worse nights by describing the worst among them as when he had the strength to fully understand what he was experiencing.

Just as he animalized his college classmates to the simplicity of a three-toed sloth, he humanized the animals that accompanied him throughout his journey on the pacific. After having only contact with these creatures, he tends to see himself as just another animal who has lost everything in the world. He wants for nothing more than water and enough food to sustain his life, just like the rest of the boat’s residents. Having seen the orangutan give birth to twins back in Pondicherry, Pi claims that he observes Orange Juice staring out at the water on several occasions, thinking of her “prized” twins.”

As the occupants of the boat begin to dwindle, Pi is left with only the Tiger, and soon his fishing becomes a way not only to feed himself, but to feed Richard Parker and to establish himself as the Alpha animal on the boat. Pi is delirious throughout half of the 227 days on the lifeboat until his boat washes up on the coast of Mexico, allowing Richard Parker to escape into a costal jungle and leaving him to be rescued alone.

With the book such an amazing read, and the movie coming to theatres soon, I’ll leave the ending to be discovered for yourselves. However, a little hint is that as a boy and then man with such a talent for personifying animals, and in retrospect, animalizing humans, a surprise retelling of his story to the authorities will leave you haunted well after the tale is told.

This book review was written by Lucy Markham.

Lucy Markham has a Bachelor’s Degree in English: creative writing from the University of Florida and worked as an academic and career counselor for three years before pursuing her Master’s degree in Education. She enjoys blogging, creative writing and discovering new books.

Book Review: First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung is a post from: free book reviews

‘First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers’ is the true story and autobiography of Loung Ung, who’s childhood ended abruptly when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge seized power over Cambodia in april 1975. Loung Ung was just 5 years old at the time and living a worry free life in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh as the daughter of a high ranked government official.

The coup of Pol Pot changed everything in the lives of Loung Ung and her family, as it affected the lives of all people living in Cambodia. Loung and her family had to flee the city and they were torn apart. Eventually Loung ended up in an orphanage where she was trained to become a child soldier. Her older siblings, on the other hand, were sent to work camps. The family would never be reunited again and those lucky ones, who survived the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, only found each other again after the war.

This breath taking book will pull you straight into the horrific tragedy that hit Cambodia in the 1970′s and will make you witness all the horrors of the Khmer Rouge through the eyes of a 5 year old girl. It’s a book about human cruelty, but also about the strength to survive and hope for a brighter future.

This book is a short read with its 288 pages, but nevertheless highly recommended for anybody interested in Cambodia’s recent history. It’s also a must-read for travelers planning to visit Cambodia in the near future. It will help you imagine the horrors of the Khmer Rouge when visiting places like the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, Tuol Sleng and other historic sites.

Apart from historic sites in remembrance of Cambodia’s tragic past, the country has so much more on offer for tourists and independent travelers, interested in a journey off the beaten path.

Cambodia’s main touristic center is the city of Siem Reap and more in particular the mythical temples of Angkor Wat nearby. The temple complex of Angkor Wat is an UNESCO world heritage site and the biggest religious construction in the world. These temples are a remembrance of a much richer era in Cambodia’s past and are exceptionally well preserved.

For the Cambodian people, Angkor Wat is much more than a touristic site and a reminder of a once powerful nation. It’s a symbol of reunification after the horrors of the communist Pol Pot regime and the symbol of Angkor Wat was even added to the national flag of the new democratic Cambodia.

Interested in visiting Cambodia and more specifically Ankor Wat? Then it’s definitely recommended that you make an upfront booking in one of the many Siem Reap hotels. The city can get extremely busy, especially in the high season from the beginning of November till the end of February.

Our rating: 5 out of 5 stars

• Author: Loung Ung
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Harper Perennial trade edition, 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060856262
• ISBN-13: 978-0060856267

8 of the Greatest Books about Dystopian Futures is a post from: free book reviews

There are a number of dystopian books available; most of them have been classed as science fiction. But before you go and purchase one of these books, it’s important to understand what dystopian novels are about.

The dictionary states that ‘dystopian’ means “an imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression or terror”. Often, the subject matter of these books revolves around a society controlled under a repressive social control. Here’s a look at some of the finest examples of sci-fi literature about dystopian futures.

Worldshaker, Richard Harland

Worldshaker is a dystopian novel written by Richard Harland. The book is based on an upper class boy that falls in love with a lower class girl. Worldshaker is the ship the boy lives on and he is destined to take over, this ship is powered by the lower class that lives below deck. When a girl hides in his room, they fall in love and together they learn the truth about the world they live in and start a war which changes the lives of everyone on board.

Fahrenheit 451, Roy Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 is a book by Roy Bradbury and centres around Guy Montag, a fire-fighter. He is not a fire-fighter that we know today, but rather one based in a dystopian world where books are banned and the firemen are men that are responsible for burning the books so people can’t think of themselves or have an opinion. The homes are fireproofed, but when they are suspected of having even one book, they are burned to the ground. The story evolves when Montag reads a book and starts thinking for himself. People found reading or suspected of reading are not judged, but immediately found guilty. This book is believed to be interpreted from historical book burning.

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was published in 1932 and is about a futuristic society what lives with pleasure without any moral repercussions. The society is dependent and the book reveals the evils of a successful society believing that combined together they are working for the greater good. This is a highly controversial novel because it goes against any beliefs that technology can save us in the future.

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949 written by George Orwell and one of the most controversial books which was banned in Russia, UK and the USA due to its communist and sexual content.

The book is about a society terrorised by a group called The Party, they are forced to live according to the group’s ideology. A society of war, government surveillance and mind control where past newspaper articles are written to change historical records.

Demolition Man, Richard Osborn

Demolition Man by Richard Osborn is set in a futuristic society where Los Angeles has become a war zone. The story is based in 2032 where police are constantly watching society, where people don’t have much of a say and are forced to comply with the police state. The police don’t need guns until Phoenix escapes, a prisoner who has been held in stasis since 1996. The only person who can save them is Spartan, a cop who was arrested falsely and also placed in a sleep state for years. Using traditional guns and force the story evolves.

The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood

This novel by Margaret Atwood in 1985 this novel is set in a futuristic society where a group has taken over the US government. The society is homophobic, male chauvinist and military run causing severe degradation of the country. Women are kept as concubines until a woman finds out about an underground organization set to overthrown the current group.

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

A highly popular futuristic novel written by Suzanne Collins and set in a post-apocalyptic world and written in the voice of a sixteen year old. Based in a highly advanced city the Hunger Games is an annual lottery where boys and girls are drawn to fight to the death on national television as entertainment.

The Iron Heel, Jack London

The Iron Heel by Jack London is believed to be the only novel by this author where his true socialist views are displayed. Based on the “Everhard Manuscript”, this novel is written from a scholar’s perspective with Oligarchy as the Iron Heel who has powered over three centuries of revolution. It covers oppression and socialist movements and is a story within a story that is about the past, present and future.

Article contributed by PrinterInks.com – online sellers of printer cartridges all over the UK and Europe.

Free Books Friday: Travel to Bangkok by Stig Albeck is a post from: free book reviews

It’s been a while since we did a free books friday! So today we make up for that by offering you a great travel guide for free. This free ebook will give you a great introduction to Bangkok city, the capital of Thailand. In this blog post we give you a short introduction to this magical and exotic city, but don’t forget to download the ebook for more details.

Why you should visit Bangkok

Are you planning to visit Bangkok in the near future? Then we might have some useful tips for you. Thailand’s capital has plenty of attractions and lots of tourists visit the city every year. After a recession at the end of the 1990s, the tourist trade is booming again to the benefit of local people and visitors alike. We collected some facts and must-see attractions.

Thailand: Historical legends, food and shopping

Many people begin their visit to the marvelous country of Thailand by flying to Suvarnabhumi – the international airport of Bangkok. Suvarnabhumi means the mythological ”Land of Gold”. There can be no better welcome as there are new perspectives to the exciting historical legends everywhere in Thailand… and gold and golden adornments in such great numbers that it will make you reach for your digital camera constantly.

Thailand is warm and lush and it is a country of great natural riches that can be experienced both in and outside the capital of Bangkok. From north to south, the country covers 2,000 kilometres and the variation from the green mountains and big rivers in the north over the rice paddies and open green areas in the central region to the many kilometres long beaches in the south, makes round trips and a continued reunion with Thailand, something to be wished for.

Enjoy the tasty Thai cooking which will treat you to everything from a tasty mellow to something so hot, it will bring both tears to your eyes and sweat to the brows of Westerners. Fish and shellfish are a wise choice and the fruits of Thailand are a cornucopia of healthy and refreshing food.

Shopping is something unto itself in Thailand. Large, modern shopping centres are placed side by side with dilapidated stalls and some of the hundreds of markets that you run into during a roundtrip of Thailand. The prices of many goods are very attractive, and many of the locally produced goods are beautiful, practical and also memorable souvenirs.

Some must-sees of Bangkok

• Boat trip on the Chao Phraya River

A good way of getting a first impression of Bangkok is by taking a boat trip on the Chao Phraya River. The name means “the River of Kings”. Several of the major sights of Bangkok are situated along the river, and there are fine and easy ways of transportation by boat.

Ordinary river busses go north and south from all piers on both side of the river. It is always possible and cheap to board a river bus and get to the next pier. If you do not live by the river, take the Skytrain to the Saphan Taksin Station, which is close to a big pier on the river. Saphan Taksin is also close to River City where many of the tour boats depart from.

• The Santa Cruz Church

The Santa Cruz Church in Thonburi is the oldest Christian church in Bangkok. The church was originally built in 1770 when Thonburi was the capital for a short period. The Portuguese built the Church. They were the first Westerners in Thailand as they had traded with Ayutthaya since the 16th century.

After the Burmese attacked and destroyed Ayutthaya, the Portuguese gave King Taksin military aid to drive out the enemy. To thank the Portuguese, the King granted them land where they erected the Santa Cruz Church. Originally, it was a wooden building, but the Church was rebuilt in 1835 and again in 1913 in its present form. The Church was constructed in European style under the leadership of Italian architects.

• The Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaew

Bangkok’s Grand Palace and the temple complex of Wat Phra Kaew belong to some of the most remarkable building complexes in the world. They were founded by King Rama I in 1782 when Bangkok became the new capital of the country.
There is one shared entrance to the two sights.

• Anantasamakom Throne Hall

The Anantasamakom Throne Hall is built in Italian renaissance and neo-classical style in Carrara marble. The central dome is 49.5 metres tall and the building is 112.5 metres long. Of all the buildings in Bangkok that were inspired by European architecture, this is the most impressive. The Throne Hall was completed in 1915 after 8 years of construction work. In 1932, King Rama VII decided that the building should house the National Assembly of Thailand, which it did until 1972.

• Wat Pho

Wat Pho is a very large temple complex in central Bangkok. This is where the enormous Reclining Buddha can be found. With a length of 46 metres and a height of 15 metres, it is the biggest of its kind in the world. The statue is impressive in other ways than size, as it has some very beautiful mother-of-pearl engravings on the soles of its feet. The Reclining Buddha is from 1832 and it was built to draw people’s attention to Buddha’s Nirvana.

Close to the viharn with the Reclining Buddha, there is an enclosure with the four biggest chedi out of the temple total of 95. King Rama I built the middle chedi to house the Phra Si Sanphet Buddha, which was brought here from Ayutthaya. The ashes of King Rama II and King Rama III respectively are kept in the northern and southern chedi. King Rama IV built the fourth chedi to an unknown purpose.

In the grounds of Wat Pho, you can see statues of people wearing hats symbolising Westerners and a Chinese philosopher depicted so that he appears to be in a good mood. The remaining works put together form an immensely beautiful complex with many details of classical Thai architecture and temple art.

• The Giant Swing

The Giant Swing was set up in 1784 by Rama I to perform a ceremony in honour of the God Shiva, who swung in Heaven. During the ceremony, four persons would swing to a height of 25 metres. The temple Wak Suhat, which is situated by the Giant Swing, houses, among other things, a bronze statue of the Buddha in the Sukothai style. The statue is 8 metres tall.

• The National Gallery

The National Gallery has been set up in the former Royal Mint. The building is a mixture of European and Thai architecture and as such typical of the buildings that were constructed during the reign of King Rama V. The permanent exhibition of the museum displays a broad selection of Thai art. The museum also has temporary exhibitions of foreign and other Thai works of art.

• The Golden Mount

The Golden Mount was built in the temple area Wat Saket (วัดสระเกศราชวรมหาวิหาร). The Mount is the highest in Bangkok and on its top, there is a building with a big, golden chedi where King Rama V installed a Buddha relic in 1877. The relic is believed to come from the Sakya clan. They received it after the cremation of the earthly remains of the Buddha. The other temple buildings are very interesting and they have been significant in the history of Thailand since the first king of the Chakri dynasty.

• Wat Benchamabophit

The elegant temple complex Wat Benchamabophit was built under King Rama V 1900-1910. The interior of the central temple hall is very beautifully executed in various materials, including gold. Wat Benchamabophit is also called the Marble Temple, because Italian Carrara marble has been used. The style is Thai, but inspiration from European neo-classicism can also be seen. The symmetry and lovely proportions of the temple makes it one of the most beautiful in Bangkok.

• Chinatown

The Chinese quarter in Bangkok was founded in 1782 when Bangkok became the capital. The king constructed the Grand Palace where the Chinese living quarters were and they were moved to present-day Chinatown. In and around the Yaowarat Street, you get the feeling that you are in China. There are Chinese street signs, shops, restaurants, and the whole area gives a vivid impression of the entrepreneurial and commercial spirit predominant with the Chinese in Thailand.

• The Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Traditionally, part of the local trade in Thailand took place in floating markets. This was possible because of all the dug out canals, which were often the easiest and most direct way of getting to the market place.

Today, the Damnoen Saduak is the only floating market left in Thailand. A market that is great to experience with its myriad of small boats where the vendors sell fruit and vegetables from the surrounding rural areas. Some boat vendors sell tourist goods, other boats are floating fast food stalls. The atmosphere is very lively and a trip on the canals in the area, known as the Venice of Thailand, is also interesting.

To find your way around you can visit the websites of the public transport in Bangkok:

Bangkok City Transport: www.bts.co.th
Bangkok Metro: www.bangkokmetro.co.th
Bangkok Airport: www.airportthai.co.th
State Railway of Thailand: www.railway.co.th

Of course, there is a lot more to see of Bangkok. To prepare for your journey to this famous metropolis download the free travel guide of Bangkok. Enjoy your trip!

Links:

Free books online from Bookboon

Download this free ebook:

Book Review: The Miracle of Wild Oregano by Dr. Cass Ingram is a post from: free book reviews

The Miracle of Wild Oregano is a non-fiction book that will teach you everything about the wild oregano plant (also called origanum vulgare), a very powerful natural medicine. This plant should not be confused with the more common oregano plant (Origanum marjoram) which is mainly cultivated and will rarely be found in the wild.

The book covers all the latest scientific facts about the wild oregano plant, it’s historical use and how oregano oil can be used to improve our health and cure several diseases. You will find yourself consulting this book again and again as a medical reference guide.

The author of this book, Dr. Cass Ingram, is an osteopathic physician and has written more than 24 books, including The Cure Is in the Cupboard and Natural Cures for Killer Germs. He is also a popular media figure and has appeared in several TV and radio shows.

The Cure Is in the Cupboard (see link above) was Dr. Ingram’s first book about the medical and curing benefits of oregano oil. The Miracle of Wild Oregano is a more detailed addition on the uses of wild oregano oil and it’s nice that the author sites several scientific studies to prove that the plant has medical power.

What I learned from the book is that the wild oregano plant can boost the immune system and cleanse the body of bacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast and other germs. The oil is also a very good remedy when suffering from common illnesses like flus, colds and bad coughs. The book convinced me to try oil of oregano instead of antibiotics next time when I’m suffering from sinusitis. Unlike with antibiotics, bacteria cannot build resistance against the active ingredients in oregano oil.

However not all oregano plants have the same curative power. Only the wild plants that grow in the mineral rich soil of the Mediterranean mountain tops contain the right mix of ingredients. The right mix means that the natural ingredient carvacrol should be 70% or higher and that the ingredient thymol should be less than 5% in the extracted oil before it is diluted.

Although the book is really informative, I also have two fairly big points of criticism. For a scientific work, it’s rather surprising that Dr. Ingram is referring to God and Jesus on so many occasions throughout the book. In my opinion, this undermines the author’s scientific credibility.

My second point of criticism is that the author is not objective in his recommendations on which oregano products to buy. He never mentions a brand name, but nevertheless it’s clear that he only recommends products from one specific brand. I will not mention the name here, but it’s easy to research which brand he is talking about. With so many suppliers of oregano oil out there, I’m a bit disappointed that Dr. Ingram doesn’t care to mention alternatives for his ‘high quality brand’. This makes the book quite biased and undermines the objectivity of the work.

All together though, it’s undeniable that the book has lots of informative value for everyone interested in the benefits of oregano oil. And even given the two points of criticism, I would still recommend people to buy this book. In many cases, oregano oil can truely be a natural alternative to traditional medicines.

Our rating: 4 out of 5 stars

• Author: Dr. Cass Ingram
• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Knowledge House; First edition (February 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931078297
• ISBN-13: 978-1931078290

Book Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is a post from: free book reviews

Whenever a film is made of a book I cringe a little. I have very seldom seen a film that is as good as, let alone better than, the original book. I have taken to avoiding film adaptations of books, and whenever a new movie in this genre appears I resolutely look away, or in this case, re-read the original source, to refresh my memory of how good it was to begin with.

So it was with Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, which was recently released as a movie and I’m sure the Powers That Be will figure out a way of creating Kevin lunchboxes and other merch. I haven’t seen it, nor will I, but in this case it is also because I didn’t particularly like the book in the first place.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of those books that unites people in discussion, which is the best that can be said of it. It’s a fantastic Book Club choice, for example, because it has such potential for disagreement. In the FrontLoad.com Book Club then, I am the curmudgeon in the corner who didn’t like it.

To reprise the book, for those who have neither seen the film nor read the book, it is ostensibly a series of letters, a first person narrative by career woman Eva Khatchadourian, mother of Kevin, by then a 15-year-old boy who has shot seven students and two adults at his High School, and who is currently imprisoned in a juvenile detention center for the crime. Eva explores the build up to this point through letters to her now estranged husband, Franklin.

So why didn’t I like it? Quite simply, I didn’t find it emotionally authentic. I found Eva’s voice unconvincing, Kevin an unconvincing disturbed child and Eva’s relationship with Franklin unlikely in the extreme. Franklin himself is little more than an adjunct to the story, and it is impossible to know him at all through Shriver’s portrayal. His behaviour is always inexplicable, and unrealistic. Nothing about him rings true at all, neither his relationship with Kevin, who can do no wrong in his eyes, nor with his other child, towards whom he seems chilly at best. As a periferal character this is bad enough. But when the narrator of the book starts by losing your confidence, the rest of the book is a house of cards waiting to fall down. And for me it did. Card, by tedious card.

As a writer, your primary tasks is to engage the reader, and most good writers do this by using their imagination, if they have no personal knowledge of the subject matter. The greatest literature in history does just this, and can move us to tears of pity. Who could not weep for Hardy’s Tess? Who would remain unmoved by King Lear? And although I am not a Russian living in Saint Petersburg, I could enter fully into the world of Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. So, if Shriver could not convince me of Eva’s reason for even being with Franklin, and of even a remote affection for her child, how is one to feel anything other than indifference towards her, as a reader? If I don’t believe in a character, or  find their emotional landscape remotely engaging or compelling, then the writer has failed. For me, a lack of emotional authenticity came through very strongly, and although some might argue that it is the authorial intention, I am not so sure.

I heard a radio interview with Lionel Shriver recently, and whilst I won’t fall into the trap of confusing a reader with her work, I found the interview revealing. Shriver, herself childless, and quite militantly so, sounded as emotionally disconnected as Eva. There was no sense of warmth, and seemingly no understanding of children or mothers in her explanation of the work. She clearly lacks the ability to realize these relationships either as an imaginative writer, or speaker. There are women who are ambivalent about bearing children. Shriver actually writes very well about this, since she is speaking from a position of emotional knowledge, and it shows. If her book had been about this subject alone it would have succeeded better, and contributed something useful – an often unheard and scorned voice would have been heard. Her portrayal of an emotionally conflicted woman is highly insightful. But of course the book is about far more than that.

The subject of High School shootings is a serious and complex one. Kevin bears absolutely no emotional similarities to any of the teenagers involved in shootings over recent years. This sort of inaccuracy and disregard for facts is irritating, and occurs throughout the book. One small example is when Kevin is presented from birth as a child who refused the breast. Eva takes it as symbolic of his rejection of her and an indication of his disposition. In reality breast refusal in babies is always as a result of one of a host of medical problems. There is no other authentic reason for a baby to refuse the breast, and certainly not an emotional one. 
This could have been a brilliant book, touching as it does on subjects such as wide-ranging as childbearing, relationships, the nature of good and evil, free will and the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate. But for me it became too much like a tick list of Book Club discussion points, with none of these issue tackled in enough depth, or with enough intelligence. As one fellow reader pointed out, accurately, there was no debate about nature/nurture to be had, since none of the ‘nurture’ offered to Kevin was accepted by him. Shriver’s presentation of a situation in which nothing could be done about Kevin by anyone became a fatalistic one. For that reader Kevin becomes an allegory for intransigent fundamentalist ideology in a post 9/11 world. Some ‘positions/people are just wrong’, and time should not be spent trying to understand them or help them. Nothing is to be gained by trying to excuse or explain their behavior, nor will you earn their respect by doing so. It is an interesting interpretation, if a depressing conclusion. I certainly share his frustration with the ‘nothing worked’ portrayal of Kevin. Having worked with disturbed children myself, I simply fail to recognize Shriver’s presentation of Kevin at all, and doubt she is speaking from a position of knowledge here either. 
So, I would not, as you may surmise, recommend this book. It’s far too long, self-indulgent, and light weight in all the places where it might have been really interesting. I have no idea why it has garnered so much praise. Perhaps I should go and see the movie after all. It might just be better than the book.

Our rating: 3 out of 5 stars

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Mti edition (December 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062119044
• ISBN-13: 978-0062119049

Treasure Hunting for Rare Books is a post from: free book reviews

My grandmother was an antique dealer who often enlisted my help as a child to run estate sales.  As an eleven-year-old adventure seeking literary snob, I was convinced there was a tremendous fortune to be had discovering rare, signed first editions in Oklahoma City basements.  The biggest find, which I still have, was a mint condition 1901 reprint of Alfred Lord Tennyson poems, for which I paid $1, which might now buy me lunch.

Though my discovery won’t be needing to travel via courier service to ‘go under the hammer’ at Christie’s in the future, one Oxford family will be sending a book from their bathroom shelf to do just that.  A couple of years ago a man visiting a Darwin exhibition recognized the spine of a first edition of The Origin of Species.   He recognized it because an exact copy of the same edition book resided on the shelf of his in-law’s bathroom shelf in Oxford.  This particular treasure is in mint condition and expected to fetch nearly $100,000 at auction!

Can you imagine randomly finding not just a fragment, but a complete book predating Shakespeare in your home?  In Sandy, Utah a 1493 copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle, which includes 1,800 woodcut illustrations, was discovered in someone’s attic!

In the event you are blessed with an incredible find such as these, find an expert appraiser immediately.  The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers are good resources to track down a qualified professional to inspect, value and locate a venue for sale or display if you so choose.  Good luck and happy hunting, the world is full of great books still waiting to be unearthed, and the best part is—they gain value with every passing year!

Book review: Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan is a post from: free book reviews

Esi Edugyan is a renowned Canadian author of Ghanaian descent. Her newest novel Half-Blood Blues was published earlier this year and has found itself on the short lists of many celebrated awards from the Man Booker Prize to the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and it walked away with one of Canada’s leading literary prizes: the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

And it’s certainly an interesting premise - Half-Blood Blues looks at life war-torn in Germany and France in the later 1930s and early 1940s from an Afro-German and African-American perspective. Edugyan spent a period of time as writer-in-residence in Stuttgart and it was during this time she found inspiration for Half-Blood Blues, her second novel.

When thinking about the experience of the Second World War and the Nazi regime, it’s very rare that the African experience is considered. Afro-Germans are a race whose presence seems to go unnoticed despite their population in Germany being traced back to at least the 18^th century with African immigrants adding to the population. It’s believed there were thousands of Afro-German citizens by the time of the Nazi takeover, including those described as Mischlings or half-breeds such as the key fictional character in this novel, Hieronymus Falk.

Hieronymus Falk, known as ‘Hiero’ or ‘the kid’ throughout the novel is a young and exceptionally gifted jazz trumpeter. Living in Berlin, he’s the member of a popular jazz ensemble known as The Hot Time Swingers who are banned from playing live by the Nazi regime who deem their music “degenerate”. After a number of close run-ins with “the Boots” of the Gestapo, Hiero and two of his band mates Charles C. Jones (Chip) and Sid Griffiths, both from Baltimore, USA, escape to Paris. The dream doesn’t last long as their arrival in Paris coincides directly with the declaration of war and the German invasion, meaning the band members are forced into hiding. Whilst in hiding, they use all their contacts and knowledge to try and get hold of forged visas to get to the States but one day, on Hiero’s demand, both he and Sid venture out onto the invaded streets. Although Sid can pass for white, Hiero has no chance and on visiting a café, he gets picked up by the Gestapo and we soon learn he’s sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where it’s believed he dies.

The narrator is Sid, takes the reader back and forth in time from wartime Paris and Berlin to 1992, where he and Chip Jones are returning to Berlin, as guests of honour in a premier screening of a documentary about Hiero. In his absence he has become somewhat of a jazz cult hero. Both Chip and Sid are in their 80s by 1992 and Sid in particular has a big, secret that has been eating away at him since Hiero’s incarceration and death. Chip also has a secret that he reveals quite early on in the novel, he has received correspondence from Hiero, who sensationally didn’t die in Sachsenhausen and is leaving in Poland. Chip decides that both he and Sid are going to visit him.

This novel promises a whole host of interesting insights into the Anglo-German experience during the Nazi regime and although it is discussed, it doesn’t feel central to the novel’s real story. Edugyan gives us the story of Sid Griffiths and his version of events leading up to Hiero’s arrest and capture and also his feelings in 1992, especially in relation to the changes in his relationship with Chip. The novel is also significantly concerned with jazz and Edugyan writes beautifully, using sentences that are crafted in such a manner that jazz becomes appealing to even those who couldn’t consider themselves fans, for example:

“Hiero thrown out note after shimmering note, like sunshine sliding all over the surface of a lake, and Armstrong was the water, all depth and thought, not one wasted note.”

This is just one example of Edugyan’s beautiful style and precision when talking directly about jazz, Hiero’s talent and the way it spoke to so many people. This example also shows the dialectal style in which Edugyan writes, displaying Sid’s Baltimore roots and also giving him a more genuine and believable voice. Edugyan gives Sid a voice with a warm and deep feeling to it which makes this novel perfect for settling into your comfy reading chair and getting lost.

Half-Blood Blues is written beautifully, Edugyan creates a voice for her narrator that is wholly unique and identifiable and the plot dealing with all issues from racial tension to the love of simple music is both powerful and thought-provoking.

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador (February 28, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250012708
• ISBN-13: 978-1250012708