Stacy’s Book Reviews

He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
from The Apostles’ Creed

In the truest sense of the phrase, there is an urban myth about disenfranchised souls that are caught somewhere between life and death. They roam the concrete canyons of our major cities; searching for something that they can not identify. Some city-dwellers call them sailors; most of us out here in the boondocks call them teenagers.

Dan’s book is about a sailor (he calls them the Quick) named Jimmy Miles, who is a detective for hire. At a Hollywood MENSA party (Wow! A triple oxymoron!), a woman named Jean Kantke, claims that her father was convicted of murdering her mother a couple of decades ago, and she is just now getting around to finding out whether he was truly guilty. How did this woman ever get into MENSA?

Our hero, Jimmy, drifts through the story, spending a great deal of time and energy feeling absolutely nothing. No righteous anger, no brooding guilt, no affected apathy – nothing. Jimmy Miles is a poster-boy for genuine apathy. He feels nothing, and we in turn feel nothing for him. During the brief and sporadic moments when any other literary gumshoe would be reveling in passion or exercising his outrage, Jimmy’s involvement leaves the reader flatter than a beat-cop’s arches. This novel is remarkable in its ability to tell an entire story without a flicker of emotion.

Vining tries to build a counter-culture around the myth of the sailors, but the insights he offers into their world are sporadic and out of context. Whereas most writers will use this tool to develop suspense and interest in a certain environment, in this book each revelation is met with a resounding “Huh?” And the reader is left with a puzzle piece that seems to have gotten into the wrong box. Vining fails to build on previous flashes into the world of the Quick. Instead of slowly climbing a mountain of discovery, we are left picking up debris that has fallen to the ground.

The investigation is pretty lack-luster. It seems that Vining could not decide whether to tell an urban myth or a detective story, and ended up failing at both. I would love to describe exactly how pedantic his investigation is, but I don’t want to include any spoilers just in case there are still some masochists out there who still want to read this doorstop.

If the reader has enough hope and/or endurance, he/she will discover the truth about Mr. Kantke’s guilt or innocence, but no one cares; least of all, the reader. Instead, we are treated to ‘The Big Show’ in the world of the Quick. And again, nothing is resolved, but that is okay because, again, no one cares.

If I could sum up my opinion of this book in ten words or less, it would be something to the effect of, “What the hell was that all about?”

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy – your life appeals to a select few. But if someone’s obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

Hmmm, I was not expecting that. Interesting. And yes, my fans are a strange bunch indeed.

I absolutely loved going to the library when I was a kid … still do!

In this day and age of PS2, Gamecube, N64, and Xbox. I fear that many kids will never understand the value of reading. They’ll miss out on the wonderous treasure of many a good book.

I take my kids, (all five of ‘em), to the library as often as I can. Honestly, our home library is well-stocked enough to keep them reading on up through H.S. But, nothing beats a trip downtown. It’s a shopping spree where you get to check out, but you don’t have to pay! The kids love it!

My 9 yr. old daughter, Erin, normally picks out a book right away and then sits down to delve in. She reads as voraciously as I did at her age. I do believe that she finished the latest ‘Harry Potter’ book in less than a week. Way to go, Erin! Hoo-Rah!

My 12 yr old son, Christian, takes a bit of time in his choosing. He usually comes out from between the shelves with the max allowed. Most times, half of them are non-fiction, sports related. He enjoys learning about the baseball greats. As for non-fiction, he tends to choose stories of triumph over obstacles … usually something in the ‘wilderness’ genre.

My 11 yr old daughter, Miranda, is often times still looking for that perfect book while all the rest of us are ready to leave. I’m not certain if she’s ever read a one of the books that she checks out from the library though. Hmmm, I’ll have to ask her. Normally, she’s reading the books that she checked out from her school library. The kids’ school has an awesome ‘reading program’ that they follow. The kids are rewarded for reading. That’s cool! Anyway, I do believe that we will be reading a fun, adventurous story written by Miranda one of these days. She likes to write, as well as read.

My 7 yr old daughter, Gloria, is a quiet reader. Which, I suppose you’re wondering what I mean by that? It’s funny really. Last year, as she was just beginning to learn how to read … she would tell us that she didn’t like to read, or that she wasn’t any good at it. And, when she had reading homework, she did seem to struggle a bit over the words. Nowadays, you’ll find her sitting quietly on the couch with a book in her lap. She’s reading, without being told to do so, and enjoying it. She sits there, so quietly, thoroughly absorbing every word. You can almost see her imagination taking hold and running headlong into the fray. She’s the thespian of the family. Always off in that wonderful world of make-believe.

My 7 yr old son, Jon, tackles the library experience about the same way as my other son. He spends his library time picking out as many books as allowed in one sitting. He has a bit of a twisted sense of humor. His picks often hold at least one worthy of a raised eyebrow.

One of my favorite things to do, after we’ve all returned home, is to read one or two of the younger ones’ book aloud to all. And I don’t mean that we just gather together and read these books … we actually go all out with animation and exagerated feeling. Nothing’s more delightful than a room full of giggling children.

Go on now …

Pick up a book and read!

~ Stacy ~

Just a little thought … books are fun!

And now some quotes from one of my all-time favorite movies …

Ha! Yeah, a movie. But, it starts out with a grandfather reading a book to his grandson … so I say it’s befitting this blog. (sheepish shrug)

“The Princess Bride”

The Grandson: A book?

Grandpa: That’s right. When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I’m gonna read it to you.

The Grandson: Has it got any sports in it?

Grandpa: Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…

The Grandson: Doesn’t sound too bad. I’ll try to stay awake.

Grandpa: Oh, well, thank you very much, very nice of you. Your vote of confidence is overwhelming.

Prince Humperdinck: First things first, to the death.

Westley: No. To the pain.

Prince Humperdinck: I don’t think I’m quite familiar with that phrase.

Westley: I’ll explain and I’ll use small words so that you’ll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon.

Prince Humperdinck: That may be the first time in my life a man has dared insult me.

Westley: It won’t be the last. To the pain means the first thing you will lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists. Next your nose.

Prince Humperdinck: And then my tongue I suppose, I killed you too quickly the last time. A mistake I don’t mean to duplicate tonight.

Westley: I wasn’t finished. The next thing you will lose will be your left eye followed by your right.

Prince Humperdinck: And then my ears, I understand let’s get on with it.

Westley: WRONG. Your ears you keep and I’ll tell you why. So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, “Dear God! What is that thing,” will echo in your perfect ears. That is what to the pain means. It means I leave you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever.

Prince Humperdinck: I think your bluffing.

Westley: It’s possible, Pig, I might be bluffing. It’s conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, that I’m only lying here because I lack the strength to stand. But, then again… perhaps I have the strength after all.
[Westley slowly rises and points his sword directly at the prince]

Westley: DROP… YOUR… SWORD!

Prince Humperdinck: [mouth hanging open, drops his sword to floor]

Prince Humperdinck: Surrender.

Westley: You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept.

Buttercup: We’ll never survive.

Westley: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.

Inigo Montoya: I donna suppose you could espeed things up?

Westley: If you’re in such a hurry, you could lower a rope, or a tree branch, or find something useful to do.

Inigo Montoya: I could do that. I have some rope up here, but I do not think you would accept my help, since I am only only waiting around to kill you.

Westley: That does put a damper on our relationship.

Review by BEN @ “The Path Less Traveled”

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Excerpt:

Primal Leadership should be required reading for every person who wishes to complete a business degree. It is the essence of how to be an effective leader.

Effective leadership is not authoritative. Effective leadership is not about control. Effective leadership is about finding resonant energy in those you lead, to infuse your people with enthusiasm and energy to produce on their own …

Click Here to read Ben’s full review.

”In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.”
-The Little Prince

Sidenote: This synopsis, (followed by my review), contains spoilers.

SYNOPSIS:

A little prince from outer space, believing that he has been spurned by his rose, leaves to travel to neighboring planets. He eventually lands on Earth where he wanders through the desert in search of humans, and eventually is found by a fox. The fox teaches the little prince his secret, and the little prince realizes the value of his rose. Whereupon, the prince then meets a pilot (narrator) who has crashed in the Sahara desert. He passes along the fox’s instructions, and is then sent back to the heavens by the bite of a snake.

MAIN CHARACTERS:

The Little Prince

The Little Prince is a pure and innocent traveler from outer space whom the narrator encounters in the Sahara desert. Before the little prince lands on Earth, Saint-Exupéry contrasts the prince’s childlike character with different adult characters by having the prince hop from one neighboring planet to another. On each planet, the prince meets a different type of adult and reveals that character’s frivolities and weaknesses. Once on Earth, however, the little prince becomes a student as well as a teacher. From his friend the fox, the little prince learns what love entails, and in turn he passes on those lessons to the narrator.

The little prince has few of the glaring flaws evident in the other characters, and he is immediately shown to be a character of high caliber by his ability to recognize the narrator’s Drawing Number One as a picture of a boa constrictor that has eaten a snake. Nevertheless, the prince’s fear as he prepares to be sent back to his planet by a snakebite shows that he is susceptible to the same emotions as the rest of us. Most notably, the prince is bound by his love for the rose he has left on his home planet. His constant questioning also indicates that one’s search for answers can be more important than the answers themselves.

The Narrator

The narrator of The Little Prince is an adult in years, but he explains that he was rejuvenated six years earlier after he crashed his plane in the desert. He was an imaginative child whose first drawing was a cryptic interpretation of a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant. Eventually, he abandoned art for the grown-up profession of pilot, and he lives a lonely life until he encounters the little prince. He serves as the prince’s confidant and relays the prince’s story to us, but the narrator also undergoes transformations of his own. After listening to the prince’s story about the knowledge the prince has learned from the fox, the narrator himself learns the fox’s lessons about what makes things important when he searches for water in the desert. The narrator’s search for the well indicates that lessons must be learned through personal exploration and not only from books or others’ teachings.

Both the narrator and the prince are protagonists of the story, but they differ in significant ways. Whereas the prince is mystical and supernatural, the pilot is a human being who grows and develops over time. When the narrator first encounters the prince, he cannot grasp the subtle truths that the prince presents to him, whereas the prince is able to comprehend instantly the lessons his explorations teach him. This shortcoming on the narrator’s part makes him a character we can relate to as human beings more easily than we can relate to the otherworldly, extraordinarily perceptive little prince.

The Rose

Although the rose appears only in a couple of chapters, she is crucial to the novel as a whole because her melodramatic, proud nature is what causes the prince to leave his planet and begin his explorations. Also, the prince’s memory of his rose is what prompts his desire to return. As a character who gains significance because of how much time and effort the prince has invested in caring for her, the rose embodies the fox’s statement that love comes from investing in other people. Although the rose is, for the most part, vain and naïve, the prince still loves her deeply because of the time he has spent watering and caring for her.

Much has been written comparing the little prince’s relationship with his rose to the relationship between Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his wife, Consuelo, but the rose can also be read as a symbol of universal love. In literature, the rose has long served as a symbol of the beloved, and Saint-Exupéry takes that image in good stride, giving the prince’s flower human characteristics, both good and bad. Because of the rose, the prince learns that what is most essential is invisible, that time away from one’s beloved causes a person to better appreciate that love, and that love engenders responsibility—all of which are broad morals that obviously extend beyond the author’s personal history.

The Fox

The fox appears quite suddenly and inexplicably while the prince is mourning the ordinariness of his rose after having come across the rose garden. When the fox immediately sets about establishing a friendship between himself and the prince, it seems that instruction is the fox’s sole purpose. Yet when he begs the little prince to tame him, the fox appears to be the little prince’s pupil as well as his instructor. In his lessons about taming, the fox argues for the importance of ceremonies and rituals, showing that such tools are important even outside the strict world of grown-ups.

In his final encounter with the prince, the fox facilitates the prince’s departure by making sure the prince understands why his rose is so important to him. This encounter displays an ideal type of friendship because even though the prince’s departure causes the fox great pain; the fox behaves unselfishly, encouraging the prince to act in his own best interest.

The Snake

Even though the snake the little prince encounters in the desert speaks in riddles, he demands less interpretation than the other symbolic figures in the novel. The snake also has less to learn than many of the other characters. The grown-ups on the various planets are too narrow-minded for their own good, and the prince and the narrator edge closer to enlightenment, but the serpent does not require answers or even ask questions. In fact, the snake is so confident he has mastered life’s mysteries that he tells the prince he speaks only in riddles because he can solve all riddles. In a story about mysteries, the snake is the only absolute. His poisonous bite and biblical allusion indicate that he represents the unavoidable phenomenon of death.

“The Little Prince” is a fantastic story that leaves a lasting impression within your soul. Your heart will be forever touched by this thought provoking journey of love, loneliness, friendship, innocence, imagination, and life lessons to be learned. Through the Prince and his tales you will learn much about the dangers of narrow-mindedness, enlightenment through exploration, and about how relationships teach responsibility; (love and friendship). This little book, (barely over a hundred pages), is difficult to define. It requires a child-like faith to comprehend; to fully grasp the importance of perspective…

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again. … That’s the way they are. You must not hold it against them. Children should be very understanding of grown-ups.”

That being said, (and as grown-ups tend to have a thing for facts and numbers), this next paragraph may hold a bit of interest for them. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. His body was never found. This is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s most famous work; it is also one of the most successful and best-selling titles in the world. It is filled with delightful prose, rich imagery, and wonderful illustrations. It is quite simple, yet profound. More than a half century later, this fable continues to teach little nuggets of wisdom; matters of great consequence and what is truly important in life…

“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

More than likely, I have failed in my attempt to relate the wondrous beauty of this incredible tale, for mere words cannot express the depth of emotion delivered within the pages of “The Little Prince”. This book will make you smile, as well as bring tears to your eyes. It will cause you to rethink your views on living and life, and perhaps, it will bring you to reminisce on the miracle of friendship…

“And when you’re consoled (everyone is eventually consoled), you’ll be glad you’ve known me. You’ll always be my friend. You’ll feel like laughing with me. And you’ll open your windows sometimes just for the fun of it… And your friends will be amazed to see you laughing while you’re looking up at the sky. Then you’ll tell them, ‘Yes, it’s the stars. They always make me laugh!”

Like a dear friend, “The little Prince” is a priceless treasure that will forever remain in your heart.

******

To view this novel online, click here: “The Little Prince”

Review by BEN @ “The Path Less Traveled”

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Excerpt:

Prisoner of Azkaban begins with Harry believing he is going to be expelled from wizarding school. He runs away from home and encounters his first of what will be a theme for the whole book—the Grim. A large, dark dog, lurking in the background …

Click Here to read the full review.

This test is partially based on research by Dr. Max Lûscher during the early 1900′s. He has devoted his life to the study of how color affects behavior and has been hired by some of the world’s largest companies as a consultant.

The test itself is based upon fundamentals in color psychology. With years of research by color psychologists the characteristics of certain colors has been identified to cause an emotional response in people. This was done by studying the response from hundreds of thousands of test subjects around the world in order to isolate how certain colors make us feel. By doing the reverse, using the colors people prefer to determine how people feel, we can get some interesting indicators about a person’s current emotional state.

It is important to understand that the results from tests like this can be both short-term and long-term in their meaning. For example, if you are feeling depressed about something when you take the test you may see this reflected in your results. You may also notice deeper conflicts showing themselves consistantly if you take the test time and time again. This test can be taken quite often and still yield results that are accurate. The results will not be the same each time you take the test, for the most part, unless you are taking them without some time interval between them.

The test is widely used in Europe and overseas. There are very few experts of Luscher’s work in the United States, so for some of our American visitors the notions behind this test may seem rather strange…But give the test a try and you will be surprised!

Is the test reliable? We leave that to your opinion. We can only say that there are a number of corporations and colleges that use the Lûscher test as part of their hiring/admissions processes. It can be a useful tool for doctors and psychologists as well and is used to get a quick overview of potential issues patients may have in their lives.