Alvah’s Books

Gemma
By Meg Tilly
St. Martins Griffin
210 pages
$13.99

After quitting acting some years ago, Meg Tilly (Agnes of God, The Big Chill) turned to writing novels. Tilly who was a very good actress proves to be an even better writer, but let’s first get the unpleasantness out of the way: Gemma is disturbing; Tilly doesn’t pull any punches with any of the details, but that’s what makes Gemma such a gripping story.

Told from Gemma’s point of view, readers first meet the 12 year old while she is still at school, telling us that her mother’s boyfriend has arrived to pick her up. She’s surprised and says that it’s out of context for him to be there. From there we learn that Gemma enjoys going to school and studying. She likes learning new vocabulary and using the words. Although she has a bit of an edge to her, Gemma is a charming little girl.

However like most tweeners who like to talk, Gemma has a tendency to say too much, and the reader discovers early on that Buddy has been molesting her since she was eight years old, telling her that if she says anything she will be going to jail. So Gemma has kept quiet, wondering if her mother even suspects of these nightly visits. Now Buddy feels that he can make an easy $100 and sells her for the afternoon to his friend Hazen Wood, who becomes obsessed with the girl.

A few days later, Wood kidnaps Gemma, throws her in the trunk of the car and embarks on cross-country trip a la Lolita. But Hazen is by no means the sophisticated and non-violent Humbert Humbert. Wood is a monstrous beast. He repeatedly rapes and beats Gemma, yet deludes himself to think that Gemma will eventually love him.

Tilly skillfully switches narratives often. From Gemma’s point of view, we read how she copes through “Gemma Travel,” imagining safe beautiful places where she’s far from the reaches of men like Buddy and Hazen, while Wood’s thoughts are twisted fantasies of a child bride and family (Tilly includes a chilling passage that harks back to Lolita about fantasies of incest).

By the time Hazen and Gemma reach Chicago, the nightmare ends for the girl. Wood is taken into custody and Gemma goes to live with a sympathetic foster mother who was also sexually abused as child. Tilly ends Gemma on cliff-hanger, with Wood going to trial and Gemma telling the jury her story.

Some readers will probably want more psychological drama, angst, and more backstory, but there is no doubt that Gemma will leave readers raw, angry, and even dazed. Tilly’s characters jump from the pages in a realistically and frightening manner that overly sensitive readers might find the first half the book difficult reading, but given that 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys are sexually abused (U.S.Department of Justice Statistics, 2002) it’s a story that needs to be told often and read by many. Kudos to Tilly for writing such a heartbreaking book.

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
By William Zinsser
Collins Reference, 2001
308 pages
$14.00

About four years ago, I took a fabulous writing class to break into magazines and newspapers at the New School in Manhattan taught by Sue Shapiro. Sue is a prolific writer: She’s written five memoirs, a novel, hundreds of book reviews, and thousands of essays.If you take her class, she’ll give you realistic assignments that possibly can lead to publication in major newspapers or magazines like The New York Times or Newsweek in the sections that publish essays. Most of the reading assignments are in those sections, Sue’s published articles, in addition to what I consider an important book–On Writing Well by William Zinsser.

When we were told this was required reading because it would answer all our questions of how to write nonfiction, I was skeptical. However, good student that I was, I ordered it on Amazon. As soon as the book arrived in the post, and I started reading, I was hooked.

Zinsser offers clear and to the point advice on sharpening your writing style. Divided into four parts, Zinsser kicks it off with writing principles. Chapters include: how to simplify your prose, develop a style, get to know your audience etc. Part two concentrates on writing methods: How to construct a lede and conclude your piece, how to make your story cohesive. Part three is about the different forms of nonfiction: intervews, travel, book reviews, sports, humor, science and technology and so forth. The last part is about attitudes and these chapters include the sound of your voice, decisions you make as a writer, writing as well as you can, and the emotions and phases all writers experience–enjoyment, fear, and confidence.

After On Writing Well, Zinsser published Writing to Learn and this book has also been invaluable to me. Once again, he teaches you how to write clearly about any subject and how to use writing as a means of learning.

For anyone who wants to write non-fiction, On Writing Well is a must have. Buy it, read it, and refer to it often. You won’t regret it

Crime and Drugs on Trip City Street
By Timothy Louis Baker
Strategic Book Publishing 2009
103 pages
$21.50

 Reviewed by Randall Radic

Not too long ago, Cormac McCarthy wrote The Road.  It was a great book and McCarthy is a genius.  In 2006, Vintage Books – which is a part of the Random House empire – published McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited.  The publisher described The Sunset Limited as “a novel in dramatic form.”  Translation:  it was written in dialogue as if for the theater.  Whatever one cared to call it, the technique was effective.  Especially in the hands of someone as gifted as Cormac McCarthy. 

Timothy Louis Baker did just the opposite in his new novel.  It’s called Crime and Drugs on Trip City Street.  And to all intents and purposes Baker has – in effect – taken a dramatic screenplay and turned it into a novel.  And like McCarthy, Baker is neat-handed as he weaves a story of domestic terrorists plotting to take over the government. 

The terrorists finance their conspiracy by means of a continual criminal enterprise – the manufacture, distribution and sale of illegal substances.  Drugs.  To reveal much more of the story would spoil it.  So what happens and how it all turns out won’t be mentioned.  However, the plot is tightly wrapped and rockets along to an explosive ending.

If you want something to compare it to, think Reservoir Dogs, the bloody, intricate and action-packed movie made by Tarantino some years ago.  Which means that Crime and Drugs on Trip City Street would make a hecka-good movie.  In fact, the reviewer suggests Jean Claude Van Damme, Christopher Lambert and Rutger Hauer would be perfect as the principal bad guys.  Ridley Scott or Tarantino or Rodriguez could direct, adding their personal chromatic touches to an already dark story.  The interplay between directorial coloration and thematic blackness would produce a subtle turbulence. 

Baker’s growth as a writer is evident in Crime and Drugs.  He’s gone from the charm of miscellaneous stream-of-consciousness to the sharper images of a more traditional style of writing.  And his ear for dialogue is skillfully displayed in this latest effort.  Which means it’s an easy book to read, because it resonates with action and a linguistic sartorial flair.  Which means it’s all dressed up and it has someplace to go.  

On the Read-O-Meter, which ranges from one star (pitiful) to five stars (startling), Crime and Drugs on Trip City Street comes in at 5 stars.

Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen
Edited by Ruth Reichl
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009
1,009 pages
$40.00

When the news broke that the magazine Gourmet Today was going kaput I was heartbroken. This was one cooking magazine that I always meant to subscribe, but never got around to it. For 2010, I vowed that I would give myself this relatively inexpensive gift and then, well, Gourmet Today is no more.

However, I was easily consoled that Ruth Reichl, the editor-in-chief, had just put out a 1000+ page cookbook and even at the pricey $40 I thought I would get it and add it to the cookbook collection. The recipes in the magazine never let me down and I doubted the cookbook would, but prior to buying it I was able to preview it thanks to my wonderful local library. As soon as I opened it and went directly to the dessert section, I knew that I had to have this book. 

Apart from the sweets section what makes this cookbook so good? Well, if you’re like me at all and wonder why a recipe calls for sea salt, table salt, and kosher salt, Reichl provides a great sidebar about the differences right from the very get-go, and now I have all three. It’s information of this nature that makes reading a cookbook fun, interesting, and, hopefully, makes one a better cook.

Typically, I like to review a cookbook after I try three recipes and then give it my stamp of approval, but so far I’ve tried only one. Here, at chez moi, we’re trying to eat less meat and more vegetables and soy products. The one recipe we’ve tried so far was Grilled Tofu Sauteed with Asian Greens. It’s a simple dish to prepare. The only labor-intensive part of the recipe is making sure that you’ve pressed all the moisture out of the firm tofu (keep a full roll of paper towels on hand, you’ll need at least half a roll).

The first time I made this, I didn’t have enough paper towels and the tofu was a little springy. The second time, I followed the directions to the letter and the tofu seemed to better absorb the marinade’s flavor, plus it had more of a consistency or bulk to it.

What’s next on the menu? Tough question. There are too many recipes and I want to try them all. Maybe sometime this week, we’ll have Wuxi Spareribs, Hunan Scallion Pancakes, and Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (Millennium Trilogy, 3)
By Stieg Larsson
Quercus
602 pages

Note: American release of the book is scheduled for May 2010.

Lisbeth Salander fans who can’t wait for the American publication of the final installment of the Steig Larsson’s Millennium trilogy can order the book via Amazon.uk or the Book Depository, and for a few dollars more readers can find out what happens to her and Millennium’s publisher Mikael Blomkvist.

In the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Larsson played a cruel joke on readers, leaving them with a horrible cliff hanger that some (including this reviewer) thought a page was missing. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest immediately follows up with Salander and the evil Alexander Zalachenko flown in by helicopter to the hospital. Salander, with bullets in her hip, shoulder, and head, is barely alive and is rushed into surgery. From there the story evolves more of Blomkvist’s attempts to proves Salander’s innocence, who is  still suspected of the murders of two Millennium journalists.

However, this story is more about a covert operation run by Säpo, the Swedish secret police, and how Salander inadvertently  became a victim of the Swedish welfare system in order to hide and protect Säpo’s secrets. In this last tome, Larsson spends more time with the inner workings of Säpo and its bureaucrats—characters who seem to be stuck in an antiquated cold war mode. It’s in these sections that slows book’s pace, but to speed up the story, Larsson includes a subplot concerning Erika Berger, the editor-in-chief of Millennium and Blomkvist’s occasional lover. In the second volume, Berger has accepted the editor-in-chief job at Svenska Morgon-Posten. Right from the very start, she is seen as the enemy by many of the old-time staffers, who make life difficult for the forward thinking editor, but as days go by Berger begins to question about having left  Millennium for this new job. Life becomes even more complicated for her when she starts receiving sexually explicit emails.

There is more meat to the story and Berger has an out thanks to a story that Millennium plans to publish concerning the newspaper’s chairman of the board, but overall this secondary story seems gratuitous and really doesn’t add much to the overall plot of proving Salander innocent.

And that’s Blomkvist’s mission—to prove that his friend is not a murderer and to show that she’s been a victim of an illegal government conspiracy. Blomkvist convinces his sister–a woman’s rights lawyer with little trial experience under her belt–to help Salander with her defense. It’s in these scenes that feature Lisbeth that Larsson’s writing shines and  keeps readers turning the pages. Once again, he outdoes himself into bringing this fabulous character to life.

Although this final installment of the Millennium trilogy has sections that seem unnecessarily long, and some readers might be confused with the who’s who of Säpo’s cast of characters, it’s the ending that’s important. Larsson, before he died suddenly, had started a fourth volume and originally had planned a ten book series about Millennium. The question for most readers was whether Larsson would satisfactorily resolve the Salander and Blomkvist broken relationship. Without offering any spoilers, readers will be pleased with it how it concludes and it will leave them more than satisfied and  perhaps smiling.

Pure Simple Cooking: Effortless Meals Every Day
By Diana Henry, photography by Jonathan Lovekin
Ten Speed Press, 2007
192 pages
$21.95 

Yes, the cookbook reviews are back and with one little treasure that we discovered at our local library: Diana Henry’s Pure Simple Cooking! 

The title says it all. There’s no doubt that you will love how easy the recipes are to prepare, how tasty they are, and how beautiful the finished meal looks.

After testing out four recipes, I knew that this book was a keeper and I had to get my very own. So off I went to Amazon, bought it and I’m expecting my copy to arrive in the mail any day now. In the meantime, I am hoarding the library’s copy.

What’s to like about Pure Simple Cooking? Is it Jonathan Lovekin’s photography? Oh yes, and everything I made looks just like his photographs! This is a great feat for me because whenever I make something from a recipe it tastes good, but it always lacks the pretty factor.

For those not familiar with Diana Henry she is the food columnist for Britain’s Sunday Telegraph and the author of five cookbooks. In addition she co-hosts a popular UK television show and was also named Cookery Writer of the Year in 2007. Not too shabby, eh?

Pure Simple Cooking consists of 13 chapters that cover chicken, chops, sausages, leg of lamb, fish, pasta, greens and herbs and a good variety of the seasonal fruits and vegetables.  For the most part, it appears that Ms. Henry’s palate is inspired by cuisines of the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Levant and that is fine here at chez moi since we do have a predilection to those types of recipes.

If you like sausage, specifically Spanish chorizo, then you’re in luck. Ms. Henry section on sausages has a handful of recipes that include this savory and smoky sausage. The one recipe that I we tried Spanish Sweet Pototato with Chorizo, Peppers and Fried Egg.  This was the perfect meal for a coldish night and because we had so much of it leftover, I discovered that it’s just as good for breakfast as it is for dinner.

Our actual first venture was an evening that we really wanted something light, but savory and healthy. I’m a big zucchini fan and so we decided that Zucchini with Ricotta, Mint and Basil would be the perfect dish. The mild flavor of the zucchini along with ricotta salata were perfectly combined along with a drizzle of olive oil and the juice of a lemon. Paired with some crusty bread the meal left you feeling more than satisfied. 

We’re big pasta eaters and so far we’ve repeated one dish: Trofie with Shrimp, Feta, Parsley and Lemon. Trofie is essentially gemilli—tight and thinner corkscrew pasta. The pairing of the shrimp and feta make a great combination and play off each other in a delightful way. There’s also enough garlic in the recipe to give it some bite, but it doesn’t overwhelm or upstage the feta’s flavor.

As someone with a notorious sweet tooth and a penchant for brûlée, I couldn’t resist the Summer Berry Brûlé. Easy as pie to make this dessert only required cream, Greek yogurt, berries and sugar. Combining the yogurt with the cream gave the dessert a wonderful consistency and cut down (a tad) the richness of the two ingredients. To get the sugary sheet that all brûlées share the only thing you need to do is to carmelize the sugar. One thing to note: make sure your broiler is very hot; if it isn’t you’ll have cream/yogurt soup.

As we wait for our copy to arrive, we’re already checking off what we want to try next. I’m already eyeing the Roast Lamb with Prosciutto and Garlic while my husband is making noises about Lamb Stuffed with Goat Cheese, Tomatoes, and Basil.

Tonight’s menu is the leftover Trofie, but maybe tomorrow’s dinner will be one of the lamb dishes.

The Sartorialist
By Scott Schuman
Penguin Books
512 pages
$25.00

Reviewed by Randall Radic

 “The clothes make the man.”  An old, old adage, which, depending upon the amount of chemical-electrical activity in your prefrontal cortex, might be true.  For beautiful clothes, or a beautiful person caparisoned in beautiful clothes, reflect achievement and affluence.  Yet withal, clothing is highly personal, thus it also reflects taste. 

Beautiful clothes have an indirect impact upon physical beauty.  Clothing serves to enhance and influence beauty.  And the bizarre thing is this:  clothing evokes feelings of beauty rather than defining or pointing to beauty.  That is, beautiful clothing arouses feelings of beauty both in the observed and the observer.  Or try putting it this way:  beautiful clothes give action to beauty, which means that for many simply being beautiful is not enough — for beauty, in and of itself  is quite static, from some perspectives.  Thus beauty, in its erotic pursuit of esteem, seeks to place itself in evidence, i.e., give itself action, for esteem is awarded only on the basis of evidence.  In this sense, then, the artful display of beauty is an achievement — an achievement which itself is a form of beauty. 

What we’re talking about then is the beautiful display of the beautiful.  Beauty within beauty — beauty surrounded by beautiful taste and beautiful fashion — all presented beautifully.

Texture, color and light.  These elements aid beauty in acquiring status.  To that end, St. Thomas Aquinas asserted that beauty abides in the realm of the transcendental; and that beauty is “good” because it affects that perfervid ambience that mankind has designated ‘the soul.’  Indeed, St. Thomas went so far as to actually define beauty:  “Beauty is the splendour of form shining on the proportioned parts of matter.”  Saint Augustine said of beauty, “unity is the form of all beauty …. If beauty delights the mind, it is because beauty is essentially a certain excellence or perfection in the proportion of things.”  In other words, to these acknowledged men of holiness, we enjoy beauty because we like and admire unity, order, and brightness or clarity of color.  St. Thomas listed four qualities of beauty:

1.  perfection of proportion.
2.  integrity, and unity of form.
3.  brightness and clarity in color.
4.  degree of splendour — something luminous in itself.

And according to St. Thomas, deciding that an image or a person is beautiful has its provenance in judgment, not in intuition, and involves “a dialogue” with beauty.  Beauty, then, is what pleases when it is seen.  And to touch beauty is apotheotic, an ascension to God.  For the truly beautiful is ‘whole,’ or ‘complete’ in all its parts and proportions.

The French have termed this ‘completeness’ elegance — that which is gracefully refined and luxuriously attired.  And the term includes, but is not limited to:  line, grace in movement, and a harmony between person, costume and environment.

In other words, the dialogue between beauty and mankind is found in clothing.

Scott Schuman’s book – The Sartorialist – presents in photographs what the reviewer has attempted to present in the above paragraphs – the action that beautiful clothes give to beauty.  Some of the photos depict clothing of the most bizarre and disparate type, but the effect when viewed as a whole is wonderful and may truly be designated as “sartorial elegance.” 

The photos were taken in locations all over the world.  And they demonstrate the distinctiveness of nationality and ethnic taste.  In the end, though, as one flips through the pages, the reader is led to a singular conclusion:  sartorial beauty is a universal concept.  No one person or ethnic group or nation has a monopoly on elegance.  In fact, the photos prove that elegance has many faces:  conservative, outlandish, somber, and colorful.  And many times elegance is most pronounced when displayed with unabashed extravagance. 

When perusing The Sartorialist, do yourself and favor and pay particular attention to the shoes being worn.  The evidence is obvious to even the most myopic – shoes can make or break one’s fashion statement.  As can hats, scarves, and handkerchiefs.  

The Sartorialist is a gem of a book.  It is without peer.  For it provides a glimpse of just how important clothes are in human interactions.  Wearing just the right dress, a woman can shout, “Here I am!” without even opening her mouth.  And for a man, the perfect hat can speak volumes about his masculinity, his personality.

On the Lookyloo-O-Meter, which ranges from 1 star (squint in pain) to 5 stars (gaze in rapture), The Sartorialist beholds 5 elegant stars.  Don’t miss this one.  Simply having it on your coffee table will let everyone know how elegant you really are.

Life After 187
By Wade J. Halverson
Xlibris Publishing
236 pages
$19.99

Reviewed by Randall Radic

If you’re of a certain age, then you probably remember action-adventure writers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard, the creators of Tarzan and Bran Mak Morn, respectively.  Nowadays we turn to W.E.B Griffin and Vince Flynn for our adrenaline fixes. 

 There’s a new kid on the block.  His name is Wade J. Halverson.  And he’s a combination of Robert E. Howard and Vince Flynn blended together with what ESPN reported as the “world’s fastest growing sport” – Ultimate Fighting.  The result is action-adventure goosed up to maximum overdrive!  For Wade J. Halverson writes fight scenes like a large-scale gamma ray emitter on crystal-meth and fly agarics – potent and hallucinogenic.

In other words, Life After 187 – which is the penal code designation for murder – flat out ROCKS!  We are talking head-banging heavy metal.

The story is compact and fast-paced.  Wham!  Bam!  Slam!  There are good guys, bad guys, in-between guys, money, beautiful women, and lots of hand-to-hand combat.  The kind of combat where the only rule is that “there are no rules.”  Anything goes.

The gist of the story goes like this:  Kane Silver is a member of a special operations unit in the U.S. Army.  His wife is brutally raped and murdered.  Kane annihilates the men who killed her.  He simply kicks ass and doesn’t even think about taking names.  But as with most things in life, there are consequences.  He is sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in prison.  While in prison, Kane and two other inmates recruited by the warden to participate in ultimate fighting matches.  Kane and the other two fighters manage to escape and end up in Hong Kong, and then in Brazil, where they take on the drug cartels. 

It’s obvious from the fight scenes that Halverson knows whereof he writes.  This isn’t some nerd in a bow-tie sitting down at his computer terminal, faking it.  This is someone who’s been there and done that.  For the action flows fast and furious with ferocious authenticity.  Yet at the same time, the combatants, who are the products of the harsh precepts of training, contend not only with each other but also with their own impulses.  Impulses which could lead to mistakes, injury, defeat and death.

Indeed, the action is so absorbing that the reader doesn’t even notice the author’s style, which is simple yet very effective.  Short sentences full of strong verbs and just the right amount of description.  Which is what action writing is all about.  Halverson’s ‘voice’ is rich and forceful, exuding an almost palpable energy.  And his dialogue is short and sweet, crisp and clean.  Which is the way the reader would expect such characters to speak.

Speaking of characters, there is just enough information about each one to promote the reader’s identification with them, but not so much that the action starts to drag.  Which is the right balance for the action-adventure genre.  Too much characterization slows the story down, whereas too much action eventually begins to cloy.  Halverson carefully maintains the equilibrium:  the action keeps the reader engaged, while the characterization keeps the reader cheering for the good guy.

Beware, though.  This book will suck you in.  Once you begin reading it you won’t be able to put it down.  And gosh by golly, it would make one heck of a movie.  Maybe Jean Claude Van Damme could be persuaded to take a little human growth hormone, thus shedding ten years of age.  He’d be perfect for the role of Kane Silver.  Or maybe Jason Statham would do it

On the action-adventure Read-O-Meter, which ranges from one star (whimpy) to five stars (bad-ass to the max) Life After 187 commands a hypertrophied 5 stars.  Whatever you do, do not miss this one!

Musical Chairs
By Jen Knox
All Things That Matter Press 2009
176 pages
$15.95

Reviewed by Randall Radic

Book reviews are strange things.  Supposedly, they are a light critique with a recommendation tacked on at the end.  Or not.  But let’s face it.  What they really are, is one writer (or wanna’ be writer, who is toiling away on a novel) judging the literary outpourings of another writer.  Which means book reviews are very subjective.  Of course, none of the parties involved ever admits to this subjectivity, because reviewers are – ostensibly – objective, dispassionate monitors who make a virtue of inscrutability.  Indeed, reviewers are ascetic, austere, and devout to an astonishing degree.

Right?  Right?!

The present reviewer admits to being random, contradictory, biased, and quite frequently unable to integrate a proliferation of information.  Which in common parlance means he will not like some books – no matter how wonderful they really are – for any number of reasons, most of which he couldn’t articulate even if his life depended on it.  Why?  Because it’s an emotional thing.  It’s not intellectual. 

He is trying to make a point, so bear with him. 

For example, he thoroughly enjoyed the present book – Musical Chairs, by Jen Knox.  But he can’t really tell you – the all-important reader – why.  So he reverts to his usual deductions.  It’s well-written, which means Jen Knox knows how to string words together into comprehensible sentences.  And her ‘voice’ is honest, unapologetic and – vital! – likeable.  In other words, she’s like the Apostle Peter in the Bible.  She’s a weak, frail, vulnerable human being, who makes lots of mistakes.  Which means – thank God – that she is human.  Which means that despite all her flaws and failures, she is not a fraud or a charlatan.  She’s not pretending to be someone who has their ‘shit’ together. 

Jen and most of her family are gloriously dysfunctional – just like most families.  And they have a tendency toward mental illness.  And – shockingly – she talks about it.  Which is what makes her story and her book so wonderful.  It’s downright refreshing to read a book that acknowledges what most people know is true, but are afraid to confess:  Most people are one brick short of a load.  Which is what makes them and life so interesting.

Which means that on the reviewer’s Read-O-Meter, which ranges from one star (yucky) to five stars (a wonderment) Musical Chairs scores a 4 and a half in the mini-astral department. 

Now, you might be asking yourself ‘what happened to the last half-a-star?’  Subjectivity is what happened.  The reviewer – who has already admitted to being impulsively biased – does not like books that lack presentation.  In other words, the publisher did a lackadaisical job in designing the book.  The font is wrong.  And there’s not enough white space on the pages.  Books without white space remind the reviewer of all those boring textbooks he read in college.  Yuck.  The paragraph and line spacing is tight, which hurts the reviewer’s eyes and makes his brain go shhhhzzzzzz.  And the borders – the side margins – are way too small.  Which makes the reviewer feel confined.

These complaints – of course – are subjective.  But when the reviewer picks up a book the first thing he does is look at the cover.  Then he turns the book over and looks at the back cover and the photo of the author.  Sometimes he reads the author’s bio, sometimes he doesn’t.  The next step is the make or break step.  He flips through the book – randomly.  If the presentation of the text on the page looks good – and meets his subjective standards – he will consider buying the book.  Otherwise, if it doesn’t, it’s bye bye baby bye bye. 

Musical Chairs failed the subjective test.  The only reason the reviewer read the book was because he promised to review it.  And now – after the fact – he’s glad he did.  It’s an excellent book and deserves to be read by oodles of people.  So don’t let the physical parameters of the book dissuade you.  Buy it!  You’ll like it.

Publishers take note.  Books are like cars.  A pleasing arrangement provides the reader with the luxury of emotional commitment.  In other words, the symmetry of a Ferrari is much more appealing than the toadstool configuration of a 1998 Saab.     

The Cosmic Pulse of Life: The Revolutionary Biological Power Behind UFOs
By Trevor James Constable
The Book Tree 2008
346 pages
$29.95

Reviewed by Randall Radic

The ‘energy of life’ is a concept that has been around as long as mankind.  According to some, it’s even mentioned inn the Bible, where it is called ne shema, which is the “breath of life.”  Many scientists, doctors and writers have attempted to locate and harness this energy of life.  Dr. Albert Abrams, Dr. Ruth Drown, and Wilhelm Reich to name just a few.  Reich called the energy of life orgone.  And he constructed a machine, which amplified and emanated orgone energy.  Reich maintained his discovery could save humanity from the ravages of disease.

The powers that be considered Reich another nutcase, so they put him out of business and imprisoned him.

In the 1980s, a bestselling book about electromagnetic energy was written and published by a medical doctor.  It was called The Body Electric.  Was electromagnetic energy the energy of life?  The book never propounded a definite opinion.  What it did provide was food for thought.

And candidly, it is easy and fun to scoff at such theories.  But there are hordes of intelligent people who accept these theories as truth.  Just as there are hordes of people who actually believe in miracles and angels. 

Trevor James Constable wrote The Cosmic Pulse of Life, in which he expands on what he calls “etherian physics” and the invisibility of UFOs, which are “fundamentally bioenergetic manifestations.”  In the Preface to his book, Constable admits that he is rejected because he is “too far out” even within the ranks of UFO adherents. 

Constable discusses his ideas, his techniques for discerning bioenergetic manifestations – UFOs – and provides photographs to prove his case.  Which means that the book is an amalgamation of history, avant-garde science, an apologia and a call to arms.  In the end, Constable is asking for a respectful hearing rather than attempting to convert his readers.  

The Cosmic Pulse of Life is an interesting book, which sounds like a cop-out.  But it is interesting, because it provides an overview of the research and the people involved in etherian physics.  The information presented about Dr. Ruth Drown, who was one of the foremost advocates of ‘radionics’ is worth the price of admission.  For Ruth Drown was either the sad victim of a modern witch-hunt or the greatest female huckster in the history of U.S. medicine. 

Admittedly, Constable’s book will probably be read only by those referred to as conspiracy theorists or New-Agers, which is a shame.  It deserves to be read by a much wider audience, who could then decide for themselves.