Events Books

I must admit that before this book was brought to my attention I had no idea what a Sentinel Event was, and had not heard of the author... but, being a fan of mysteries and thrillers, and for some reason trusting the person that recommended it, I gave it a go. I was pleasantly surprised-this book is a real page turner- I finished it in a single evening and started looking for the next book by the writer. My only complaint- I need more Jake Stein books! Jules Seletz is a very talented writer, and his love of the process shows in his books.

I finished this book the same day I started it! Wonderful plot - a mix of suspense, action, and mystery, all set in a colourful, interesting location. The main character was great! Can't wait to read the next one....

I started this book with some trepidation, since (in the spirit of full disclosure) I have known the author in his other careers as a surgeon and Joint Comission surveyor. I couldn't imagine the premise holding my attention--but I was certainly wrong. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the whodunit; and I especially enjoyed Seletz' craft of describing the politics of the modern hospital and his gift for dialogue. I found this a thoroughly enjoyable read--and I look forward to his next book.

Couldn't put it down, from beginning to end. Couldn't wait for the next chapter. The main character was so believable I thought I must have really known him in person. Can't wait for the next in the series. I love Jake Stein.

I read "Sentinel Event" at the gym while on the treadmill. I got so absorbed in the book that I forgot everything else. It was the shortest three hour workout I ever had.

This murder mystery had all the suspense, action and twists to keep me turning the pages. I definitly rate "Sentinel Event" right up there with all the classic whodunits.

Can't wait for the next Jake Stein novel!

In a world in which "parable" has been reduced to trite and trivial, Blumberg has achieved the remarkable-- a powerful story that teaches a great lesson on what happens when work overwhelms life. Blumberg is a talented writer who also keeps the pace moving and characters believable. I have recommended this book to many! It also mirrors my belief in the power of choice as seen in two of my books: Work for a Living & Still Be Free to Live and Gifts from the Mountain:Simple Truths for Life's COmplexitites.

Bottom line: read it!

This book is a quick read with very simple message. While we are all busy working hard at our jobs, or trying to find one -- often we forget to reflect on our lives and people around us. In our search of money, comfort and race for a success, we forget about our families, genuine friends and life issues that are truly important. The book will be a gentle reminder to all readers to stop, reflect and re-assess life priorities. We will be reminded that we all have to realize that life is about serving others around us, just stopping for a minute and enjoying the simple moments in life, dedicating our energy to people and causes that make our life more rich and fulfilling. In another word, money and success is not everything. There are higher responsibilities in life and we have to take charge of making sure they happen, because no one else will.

I can only put this book down long enough to write this review. I left corporate 2 years ago to follow my purpose. It's the best thing I've ever done. I know that the overall outcome of the work I do is benefiting the planet. However, even I still forget to look around and take in what's important. I picked this book up in the airport... I had 3 other books in my bag, I didn't need another one. But this one leapt out at me and I'm sure a little angel had something to do with it.

I on the other hand, couldn't put this down and had to finish it in one reading. I'm glad I took time out of my busy life to do that! A great reminder that life is way too short, and a super script on creating the tools to get to the heart of your life. You'll know how to go about finding your passion, which can be easier said than done in our information overloaded world. A must read for the smarter, harder, fast trackers.

While an easy read, it is not a book to be read in one night. This thought provoking and life altering experience through the eyes of a high strung, bottom line driven personality will resonate with all individuals seeking a better way.

Choose which is most important to you. If is is God and your faith first, family second, job third, you may well be on your way to a truly successful lifestyle. Consider the alternative of an empty, greedy, bottom line way of life. How many true friends do you find there? How many "friends" will be there in your greatest time of need?

These and many other moral and ethical questions can be answered if you take the time to search yourself. Read slowly and deliberately.

You may just find the person you lost so many years ago.

Hello avid readers of true stories. I appreciated The State Boy's Rebellion, as I too was a victim of the mental health system when I was 8 years old. I remained institutionalized for 10 years; even though authorities were informed I was not retarded. Like the kids in The State Boys Rebellion, I was deprived of my civil liberties, denied an education, and horribly abused. If you want to read a remarkable story of the human spirit to survive horrific odds, read my true story. You'll be glad you did.
Charles A. Carroll, Author, Victim/Victim's Advocate
HARD CANDY: Nobody Ever Flies Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A must read for anybody. I am currently employed at one of the said institutions in MA and heard of this book through a co-worker. I have worked here for over 20 years, long after they stopped admitting people. The residents that currently reside there get the best of care available and the staffing ratios way outnumber the amount of clients residing here. I am in no way condoning what happened to Freddie and all the other state children, I just wonder how some of the residents would have turned out if not institutionalized. My supervisor and I have roamed through the old dormitories and found a wealth of info and pictures. Some of the pics show young children about Freddies admission age that looked scared to death, it brought tears to my eyes to think of what these poor kids went through and reading Freddie's story helped me better understand just exactly why these children were admitted. When I started working here, over 1,000 residents lived here, now we have under 300 and the remaining people really do benefit from the care they receive. I just could not comprehend why some of the residents were there 20 years ago, now I know. My family has welcomed in a former resident in the shared living program and it has been benificial to both him and my family. After reading the "State Boys Rebellion", my only regret is that I never got to meet Freddie Boyce. In my eyes, he and all the other state children are true heroes for surviving the great injustice done to them. In closing, I have to truly say that I have been humbled.

Michael D'Antonio has provided us with a very interesting book that he has subtitled "The Inspiring True Story of American Eugenics and the Men Who Overcame It". There is no doubt that he cares tremendously for his subject, but this is not a comprehensive history of the Eugenics movement or even of the the State Boys Rebellion at the Fernald School for the Feebleminded.

From a journalistic perspective, this is a tremendous piece of writing & investigation. Evaluating the events primarily through the eyes of Fred Boyce, the author skillfully weaves in the stories of fellow inmates at the Fernald school and the events leading up to the rebellion. Unfortunately, the key point that I see as the "rebellion" only gets about 4 pages of treatment, with regular references to the people involved in the riot throughout the rest of the book. Boyce's life is traced up through the time when the book was written, and is a compelling story.

From a historical standpoint, although there is no clear thesis, the book obviously was written to educate the reader about the Fernald school and a few key residents that were able to make great strides in their lives and lead a relatively "normal" life after being released from the institution. The most interesting argument the author presents is that some of the medical experiments conducted within the confines of the Fernald school were reflective of Cold War America, where government aims included furthering science in an effort to find a way to defeat the Communists.

Overall, this is a very interesting book and an easy read. The story is enthralling, and keeps the reader entertained throughout. If the reader is looking for a comprehensive story of the American Eugenic movement, this is not the book; I believe there are probably better scholarly works out there that address eugenics in America. I would recommend this as a book to start one's understanding of eugenics and how this one school in the Boston area plays into the bigger picture.

I never gave the imposing Fernald School campus much thought, even though the house I shared with my friends was literally across the street from the large brick buildings. It was not until I researched the effects of radiation on soldiers during the Cold War that I learned Fernald's dirty secrets. I immediately bought this book, and it filled me with rage and despair. D'Antonio's style is not preachy, nor does he editorialize. He allows the recollections of those who were there to speak for him. Wherever he can, he uses several sources to shade each event, from conversations with the boys, to the memories of the staff members, to the cold, un-enlightening medical records from the school. As others have said, the story ends not in misery but in triumph. It is a cautionary tale about society's complacency and willingness to let the horrors of our past remain behind the locked doors of our crumbling institutions.

The State Boys Rebellion tells the story of the Fernald State School in Massachusetts. Michael D'Antonio does a great job of telling the story through the eyes of Freddie Boyce, a child that grew up in Fernald. The story is quite chilling, specially to those of us who did not live through that time period. It is disgraceful that we, the United States actually started Eugenics, although I was taught in school that Nazi Germany was the creator. This book should remind us that as a society, we sometimes leave out the bad stuff our forefathers did, even if they meant no harm. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone, but it will touch the heart of anyone with a child who is considered "special".

Mr. Horovitz has written an excellent account of both the personal side to living in a time of constant terrorist attacks as well as a factual account of the detail that have been overlooked or misreported by most of the world's press outlets. Included in this book are some brief analyses of the political climate in Israel before, during and after some of the more violent bombings as well as Israel's responses. At times the author disagrees with the government's decisions, and is not ashamed to say it. In general, an excellent read and a good look into the facts of the situations as seen by a reporter who has to raise his family while enduring these terrible bombings.

When peace talks at Camp David collapsed in 2000, a conflict began which was stronger than any previously: Jerusalem Report editor and author David Horovitz considers the effects of this latest conflict and its terrorism in Still Life With Bombers, a survey of life in Israel since 2000. Israeli experience is the focus in a survey of daily lives, violence, and politics, with chapters juxtaposed between interviews with government officials on both sides of the conflict to experiences of relatives, refugees, and his own friends and family, creating an intimate social and political portrait of a country at war within its own boundaries.

This book is absolutely incredible! Thank you so much David Horovitz! I want to read your day-to-day accounts of life in Israel beyond the end of this book.

I have been a religious right-wing supporter of Eretz Israel, anxiously awaiting the time that I am in a financial position to make aliyah. I have strongly supported the anti-disengagement fighters.

Your book has made me think. It has opened my eyes to the Arab side of the story, as well as details of politics on both sides that I was not previously aware of.

This book has filled me with hope of someday living in the holy land and at the same time has made me cry, and evoked terror. Reading the chapter on Yussuf makes me wonder if there is ever any hope for peace - on the political side there is, but on the religious side it seems hopeless, as religious Jews can never voluntarily relinquish the Temple Mount or any of Jerusalem.

There have been times that I have had to put it down and walk away for a while to digest what I have just read (and cry) - and I'm only on page 166!

For a long time I have thought the solution to this problem was for millions of North American religious Jews to make aliyah and change the government in Israel, now I'm not so sure... More to come...

Reading through a volume of literature having to do with the Arab-Israeli Conflict, one is sooner or later impressed (or depressed)in realizing how little new ground is ever, really covered by the defenders of Israel, and by those of the Arabs. The same ground is laboriously traversed, over and over and over; the same charges thrown at the opponent, the same anger and outrage, the same impossible hopes floated. To paraphrase an unnamed British military man from Mandate days, "and Jew will kill Arab, and Arab will in turn kill Jew, now unto the end of time."
Horovitz's book, written by an Englishman who emigrated to Israel in the early 1980's, belongs to the Arab-bashing, or in his particular case, Arafat-bashing variety of books in this genre. He soon dispenses with his worm's eye view of fellow Israelis in the midst of the horror of the al Aqsa Intifada, perhaps the strongest and most interesting part of the book, and gets to his main argument.
To wit: all the violence that has afflicted Israel since the collapse of the Camp David Summit in 2000 can be left at the door of Yasir Arafat, who opted, at Camp David as after, to ignore substantive negotiations, even with a negotiation-mad Israeli leadership, and to proceed with the bombing.
Well, yes, this argument is possible, but Horovitz dins it into the reader's memory, again and again and yet again. There is nothing, he argues, that might explain Arafat's evident loathing for dealing responsibly with Israel save his long-harbored malificent desire to wipe out the Jewish state, by short range suicide bombings, or long-term Palestinian overbreeding. I resent propaganda, especially from a side I would otherwise support, and Horovitz's so-evident desire to "put the account straight" makes for a tedious, maddening reading, where objectivity is thrown out the window when it might uncomfortably intrude into his little truth.
How might he improve his work? Well, here is one way: tell the reader why so many Palestinians are willing to strap explosives under their belts and assure their own extinction, along with those of so many complete strangers. What, in other words, has Israel done to the Palestinians to make them so desirous of death?
I do not expect Mr. Horovitz to pick up the cue on this one. Whether or not he admits it, his political sentiments are that of the political right. He might have been a wet-behind-the-ears liberal naif back in the later 1980's or early 1990's, when he was still finding his feet on the treacherous Israeli soil, but he now, in this book, shows himself to be a Likudnik back to front. He never, ever, finds fault with the Israeli policy of saturating the Territories with Jewish setlements, depriving Palestinians of their land, their water, and their hopes of national sovereignity. He doesn't note the right wing religious-nationalist Jewish psychotics (Baruch Goldstein, Meir Kahane and his "Kach" neo-fascist thugs) whose own merry band of terrorists have further poisoned the atmosphere between Palestinian and Israeli. He doesn't talk much, most importantly, about the atmosphere of everyday Israeli inhumanity that makes Palestinian life so tedious and hard. But he does blame, vociferously,monotonously and uncritically, the string of Palestinian terror bombings, that he, again,views as Arafat's mark of Cain.
He forgets that Israel herself bears the mark of Cain, in bloodying the Palestinians, in taking their land, in treating them as second or third-class citizens of "Greater Israel".
In short, Horovitz's book is propaganda, not a study of history or current events; comforting for die-hard supporters of Israel, but in the end answering no new questions, breaking no new ground.

After the collapse of the Camp David talks in 2000, Arabs launched a wave of terrorist attacks on Israel. And while some people in faraway nations may have failed to see just who the aggressors were, those who lived in Israel could not avoid noticing.

Horovitz does a superb job of describing living with the threat of terrorist attacks. We see how both Jews and Arabs react to all the fighting. And he also explains the extent to which the conflict is misdescribed by many in the media. I was shocked to discover that several star reporters were under the misimpression that the West Bank and Gaza had been some sort of independent sovereign territory prior to 1967. Other disturbing signs were the reluctance of reporters to believe Israelis who disagreed with Arab lies, the eagerness of reporters to believe that Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was some sort of wicked war criminal, and the "conventional wisdom" that Israel was to blame for the conflict since it was holding territory that it did not stake a sovereign claim to. In addition, I was puzzled by the fact that a reporter insisted that Israel had to be held to a "higher standard."

The author explains how the Big Lie technique was used to accuse Israel of war crimes at, of all places, Jenin (where Israel went in with ground troops, dramatically sacrificing the lives of many soldiers to reduce Arab civilian casualties). And he quotes Kofi Annan, who maliciously asked "Can the whole world be wrong (in condemning Israel)?" Horovitz has a one-word answer. Yes. Any reasonable person would, if shown the facts that European Union officials were demanding to punish Israel for trying to thwart terrorist bombings and simultaneously shown that the EU was supporting the bombers financially, letting them buy explosives with its money, would see that the EU is wrong. His point is that a misinformed world will indeed be wrong.

For me, the mangling of truth by the media stood out in this book as the most serious aspect of the fighting. It is sad that Arabs are attacking Israeli civilians. It is good that the media are positioned to report on this. I think even vaguely honest reporting would bring enough political pressure to bear so that the attacks would stop. That is why it is such a pity that we are seeing nothing of the sort.

There are many other regions in the world where there is plenty of violence. They don't have anything like the media coverage we see in the Levant. If the media are failing so utterly in covering the Arab-Israeli conflict, one has to doubt their ability to get anything right.

I highly recommend this book.

Democrat-Republican,Liberal -Conservative,Left-Right,Socialist-Capitalist are all labels we attempt to apply to the political aspirations and ideas of people within society.And they are only broad descriptions.To those,we have can add an endless number of terms we apply to special interests ,such as; Free-Traders,Pro-Lifers,Bleeding-Hearts,Hard-Liners,Appeasers,Self-Reliants,Fundamentalists,Libertarians,Fascists,Secularists,Isolationists,Enviromentalists,Freedom-fighters,Nationalists,Patriots,Dissenters,Free-Speechers,people who believe in big Gouverment and those who believe it should be restrained,and Activists of all descriptions;just to name a few.
However;all these philosophies ,more or less fall into two broad categories;namely Socialist or Conservative. While;at times, there are some overlappings. Nor is it possible for any one person to agree with either of the two main camps on every issue.Political expediency is an everpresent force and for that reason some people tend to alter their political party affiliations over the years;while others hold to their party of choice;regardless of issues.
The Author has done a magnificient job of defining what a Conservative in America ,and in fact,the whole western world,really is at these times in history. In other words ,if you believe in the ideas professed in this book;you are a Conservative thinker;and if you don't ,you are by default, not.
Rather than write a ling disertation,the author has chosen to approach a large number of Conservatives and have them write short essays of a couple of pages,to explain what being a Conservative is all about.
In all,we can read what 54 well known Conservatives have to say about defining Conservativeism.
Personally,I came from a very staunch Liberal background and considered myself one for many,many years, However as the 60's came to an end,I found there were many things that changed the way I thought and I no longer felt compfortable with that side of the political spectrum and for the last two decades have moved to the Conservative philosophy.
What I found startling is that so many of the people who wrote the essays in this book went through the same prosess as did I.
This has always concerned me and I think the words of Ronald Reagan pretty well explains things when he said ;"I didn't leave the Democratic Party;they left me".
Another thing I liked about this book is that it stays with defining what it is to be Conservative in a positive manner and is virtually free from negativism towards other points of view.
I really believe even someone who is not a Concervative could enjoy this book,they may well not agree with the philosophies of the writers.That is all well and good because the book does an excellent job of informing without being insulting,dismissive or disparaging to other points of view.

This little book is a collection of 54 essays on the subject of "Why I Am a Conservative." Each essay was written by a well-known member of political or media class, ranging from Bob Dole and Bill Frist, through Michael Medved and P.J. O'Rourke. Overall, I found them to be quite interesting and quite often a lot of fun (especially P.J. O'Rourke, naturally). So, if you want to understand the Conservative movement more, you really should read this book. I highly recommend it!

This book contains synopses from several figures on what it means to them to be classified as a Reagan Conservative. Great book. A really fun read if you're on the go. Read a chapter or two in the airport at Atlanta, read another on the plane, read another when you arrive at JFK, read another in the cab...
Well composed! I was very happy with this book!

This book is a collection of short essays from different politicians, activists and writers that claim to be Reagan conservatives. It's a truly entertaining, uplifting and colorful compilation; most of the essays are only a couple of pages long and will reveal personal stories - and the message of each of them is beautifully obvious, yet thought-provoking. Don't expect detailed academic papers - we have enough of those in other books. The miracle of this one is actually its modesty and simplicity. You'll get several up front, honest, extremely hard to argue confessions that might "satisfy the skeptic as well" - as it says on the cover.
As of today, it's undoubtedly one of the greatest tributes to the man whom history books are likely to be going to call the greatest American President of the 20th century.

Edited by Michael Deaver, this is a series of essays by prominent Republicans who are remembering Ronald Reagan. Reagan will probably go down in the history books as one of the better presidents during this time period. After all, at the beginning of the period we were in the midst of the Cold War and at the end it was over, the Soviet Union was no more. Untold fortunes spent, tremendous risks of nuclear war, all were gone, the Cold War was over.

Note that this is concerned with Ronald Reagan conservative views. This is not necessarily the same as the George W. Bush views. Mr. Bush seems to have taken the conservative agenda re abortion, affirmative action, and other issues much further than did Reagan.

The present day conservative Republicans would have you believe, would like to believe themselves that the country has made a major turn to the right wing. They view the past election as confirmation of this rightward shift. I believe they are ignoring the fact that a couple of week candidates in the form of Kerry/Edwards, and good fundamental politics on the part of the Republicans (especially the Ohio grass roots effort) enabled a victory.

It is at their risk that they forget that the country isn't as right wing as the stalwarts of the Republican party. Nor is it as liberal as the hard core of the Democratic party. One thing about our country, there's another election coming. The country votes for the one considered the most center oriented. The country doesn't want gun or abortion control.

This book is worth reading as a view of what these particular party members are thinking.

Roy Freirich introduces the reader to a divergent group of characters linked by a shared traumatic event. The interweaving of these characters stories, both externally and internally, is real and raw and deeply touching. It's as if you're living inside each characters' head as they traverse their individual journey to regain their balance and make sense of their altered world view. It's a captivating, intimate read - my favorite sort of stories.

This is an amazing novel. The language is fluid and expressive. It felt like it wasn't authored at all, as though I was witnessing a natural unfolding of character, each slowly spinning out of control by their now tainted souls after witnessing 1st hand the senseless murder-spree of a public massacre -- which seems to be part of our Modern-American society. It beautifully plunges into the darkness of their souls, growing darker with every page turn. It masterfully intertwined the threads of these people's lives with perfectly placed flashbacks that piecemealed fragments of the event that began the whole bloody thing. And I really enjoyed the ending which I won't give away, but was the only real way to end it. Anyone who has suffered a traumatic event wonders: "What if I did... one thing differently that morning?" This is a beautiful piece of story-telling. And masterfully done.

What's most stunning about this novel is the way Freirich gets inside of each of his varied characters as each one bends -- or even breaks -- under the weight of their shared tragedy. His prose is always fluid and elegant, even as it shifts between the characters' many distinct points of view. The novel does skip around a lot -- between characters and through time, as the details of the shooting are gradually revealed -- but it does so in such a deliberate and skillful way that it feels like this is the only way this story could have been told. It builds steadily to an ending that's both surprising and inevitable. In short, this is a masterful first novel. I can't wait to see what else Freirich has in store for us.

Writers are not like you and I. They see things in our every day existence that the rest of us just overlook. Is that a door handle that you are reaching for to go into the next room? No, rather it is a portal that leads you into a world of memories and emotions. Get out of your car, close the door behind you, and with every step you take the flow of consciousness relives a past moment, reflects on a possession, undoes an injustice. What Mr. Frierich has done is to peel back the sedimentary layers of our selves, graph out the dig site, and catalog the key components of an experience that shakes us to our foundations. And in observing ourselves under extreme conditions we reveal our most basic survival skills, our coping mechanisms, our strengths and weaknesses. We reveal what makes us human.

How great is it to read real literature again? Such a breath of fresh air. Freirich has written a rich, completely absorbing, yet totally accessible novel. He digs into the characters and we stay with them on their transcendant journey from hapless bystander to complex, fully realized, emotionally wounded collateral vicitms of random violence. This moment is surely the most indelible moment of their lives and we feel that as they fight and struggle to figure it out themselves. The multiple viewpoints and storylines serve the incident nicely as it forces us to think how different people might process the exact same event in a completely different manner. It's provoking, and thoughtful. And the themes certainly stay with you long after you've finished. It'll be interesting to see what Freirich comes up with next.

This reviewer is an avowed conspiracy/cover-up supporter regarding the 1960s assassinations of JKK, RFK and Martin Luther King. He welcomed the opportunity to learn more of the MLK murder. Author Pepper's voice rings loud and clear: "James Earl Ray did not shoot Dr. King!" Unfortunately, in buttressing that statement, author Pepper over examines the evidence and overstates his case. Pepper tries to be thorough but succeeds only in being repetitive to the point of confusion. MLK's opposition to the Vietnam War and proposal of a Poor People's Campaign had angered too many powerful people who wanted him eliminated. It is totally unclear who those individuals might have been. Mysteriously one name that does emerge is that of New Orleans Mafia Boss Carlos Marcello, just as it also does, on the fringe of the JFK hit. The bottom line is that while Mr. Pepper may be a superior lawyer, he has failings as a writer of long and detailed prose. To his credit, Chapter 9 does attempt to marshal the supporting facts in one place-one ray of sunshine where more light is needed. An interesting sidebar to "An Act of State" is Pepper's unabashed skewering of Gerald Posner. GP is the Establishment's point guard in debunking any conspiracy theories, be they related to MLK or JFK. Pepper goes after Posner with a vengeance that can only emerge from the deepest sincerity. The final word here is that "An Act of State" is too important to NOT rate 5 stars. Potential readers are urged to focus on Pepper's efforts and not his results. Mainstream media (what a great term!) has ignored the MLK hit. We should be grateful that the William Peppers of the world have the intestinal fortitude to investigate and publicize periods of our history that many would just as soon ignore.

I rode once in a pickup truck associated with a black college professor running for a city council seat, which was soot blackened because it had been fire bombed. That was in the early 1980s in a progressive university town. The threat of violence in reaction to political activism is not academic. It is out there and it is real.

It is chilling that one of Peppers' interviewees matter of factly states that he thinks the book will be buried, so his testimony can just be part of a record without his drawing consequence from providing it. The mainstream media certainly does bury stories that don't fit an establishment narrative. That they have done so in this case shall be a stain on the Fourth Estate for all time.

This is an important work. Every citizen should read this, and it should be taught in all the schools along with material on who King was. One of the things that Pepper does best, in addition to show a lot of persistence in seeking evidence, is reflect on King's value as one of America's leading thinkers of all time.

Given the state of the world, King's moral force is no less and his call to action to bring America back to its original vision still rings out like the echoing of the Liberty Bell.

I think that Pepper's work brings a lot of implications that need to be seriously addressed, especially since there might be some sort of connections or parallels to the JFK and RFK assassinations. What does this mean for any attempt to gain power for a more progressive vision of America in the future? What can we do to make sure our civil processes are not to be trumped by those with a will to do violence in response?

William Pepper's exhaustive research could be better served-- An Act of State meanders in and out of consciousness with a loose structure and story line--it's confuing. There are seemingly several relevant and compelling theories layed out on King's murder but the book is so convoluted it is sometimes difficult to follow Pepper's aruguments or thesis if there is one. Lloyed Jowers, the centeral figure at the heart of the conspiracy surrounding King's murder (According to Pepper) is presented as a relativley one dimensional character? With so much riding on Jower's involvement the reader begs to know more about the credibility and character of the man who came out of the shadows and pronounced to the world a mass conspiracy of murder involving the New Orleans Mob (they always get blamed--think JFK) the FBI & Hoover, and the local MPD. One missing componenet in all Pepper's research is Hoover's motive--Hoover no doubt despised King, spied on him and thought him a hypocrite but why would he want to Marytr him by having him killed?? These are not stupid people, Hoover must of known King would be canonized if he was murdered and naturally Hoover would be subject of hate as being such a public adversary--Pepper brings forth the theory of "Raul" the gun runner and hired assasin--perhaps the most intriguing charcter...Overall worth reading--labor intensive--Something happened down in Memphis on April 4th in the shadows of the Lorraine and downtown but by reading this book-- Pepper and everyone else are none the wiser.

An excellent book, William Pepper's An Act of State can be read alongside Waldron and Hartmann's Ultimate Sacrifice, the best available book on the murder of JFK. The links between these two "hits" are particularly intriguing.

This book is written by an English lawyer, who comes to these events with an analytical eye. He compiles evidence, and draws conclusions based on the evidence. The resulting portrait is not flattering to the US government. The evidence he cites points to apparantly rogue elements of the FBI and intelligence services actively involved in plotting and cover-up of the assasination attempt. This book deserves a film or investigation of its own, as it reverses the commonly-held view that a lone gunman succeeded in the assasination attempt. Taken in context with later relevations of J.Edgar Hoover's abuses of power, spying on US citizens, the Nixon Enemies list, The Pentagon Papers, the growing power of the mob over political figures, and the insidious intersection of the drug trade with the arms trade and politics, this book shows a way that institutionalized violence by elements of the US government can undercut the democratic process.
Students of English repression of the Irish, Indian colonies, double-dealing in Egypt and the Middle-East, and so on, will recognize the symptoms of absolute power corrupting absolutely. If the evidence in this book were demonstrated with the modern techniques of 3-dimensional (3-D) animation used in modern courtroom investigation, it would be even more convincing. As a sidenote, fans of the distinguished journalist Earl Caldwell will note how his eyewitness testimony (along with that of others) was ignored or contorted to the detriment of the evidence. If DNA analysis were available at the time this book was written, it is quite possible that the level of proof would be even more conclusive. This book, even at this late date, argues convincingly that the MLK investigation was absolutely inadequate. A potential remedy would be independent investigating commissions, perhaps under the aegis of the UN's Human Rights Commission. Modern investigations are failing to protect democracy and human rights; indeed, they are becoming part of the problem. An issue for schools of science to advance seriously, for the common good.

When the Worlds Series of Poker started, the best poker player was chosen by a vote! Tidbits such as this make this an essential guide to the history of the burgeoning event. A lack of hand records makes some of the reconstruction of questionable reliability, however.

There is very little analysis of the hands, although the match-turning decisions are recounted well enough. There are insightful bios into some of the players, including Stu Ungar, who had won three tournaments during the time the increasing size made this an incredible feat. Recommended for those with an historical interest in the event and the growth of the popularity of poker.

I have always been interested in seeing a behind the scenes look at a professional "wiseguy" sports betting group. Michael Konik, a top gambling writer, excuse me, a top writer...period, has done a tremendous job of showing exactly how a big-time, big-money betting team operates. Konik shows how they bet into the Vegas casino sportsbooks and later with the large offshore bookmakers. How did he write this excellent book? He was recruited and became a member of a wiseguy group and later formed his own group. I pretty much knew how these outfits operated but did not know who did their actual handicapping, and how. Now I do know. Great job, Mike.

Anyone who has an interest in not just the World Series but poker in general will enjoy this book. All In provides a thorough and detailed history of the World Series of Poker and the fascinating characters involved.

This is a nice, though incomplete history of the World Series of Poker. What's ther is well written and engaging. It is an interesting read but is far from comprehensive.

I didn't really expect much coverage of the secondary tournaments, but I did expect a more complete coverage of the main event. With a lttle more this would be well deserving of 5 Stars. As it sits, it is more like 3.5-4.

Nope. There are no discussions of how to play poker here. But whether or not you play poker you will enjoy this book. As the title says, it's (almost) the entirely true story of how the WSOP got started, the bumps along the way, and of course, the characters involved. It takes you from the humble beginnings to the behemuth that it is today.

And such stories...like the 1972 WSOP had 13 entrants, but only 8 of them played because they would rather play in the lucrative sides games than the WSOP. 1972 is also the year that Benny Binion made it a $10,000 buy-in...but paid half of it for the players who entered.

You'll watch the rise of the Binion family only to see it implode along the lines of a "Dallas" script. You'll read where a tournament director was fired because he refused to move old grumpy Johnny Moss who didn't want to sit by the railbirds during the tournament. Stories of great poker players like Jack Strauss, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim and others fill this book. Read how Jessie Alto, who made the final table 6 times, went on a full tilt after he was bluffed out of a pot.

It's a fast read and I definitely recommned it to anyone who has a passing interest in poker.

To steal a line from another reviewer "Crusading environmental journalist Jeffrey St. Clair has written a devastating tale of corporate plunder, political hypocrisy and ecological loss." Too bad my copy was printed on virgin not recycled paper. This is a great book for paranoid earth first types who ignore the good and focus on the bad. It tells one side of the story very well. A side that needs to be brought to the fore but I personally am put off by the unwillingness to look at all aspects of the environmental movement. While the focus on a number of individual truths is not necessarily a 'lie' it most likely is also not the 'truth'. Books like this are written for the already indoctrinated not those looking for enlightenment. I suspect dollars had more to do with St. Clair's motivation than concern for the environment.

But the book itself smelled GOOD! It is a very interesting read and an eye opener as well. An eye might just even pop right on out of your head matter a fact! Though it shouldn't, just look around at our world today and our exploited environment. Some issues may just be speculation at the least, but it is definitely a great book for the critical reader.

Don't send in that Sierra Club membership renewal payment just yet, before you read this book!

"Been Brown So Long..." is author Jeffrey St. Clair's best work yet. Consider it required reading for anyone who's ever given money to an environmental group, and especially for environmental activists who want to know which groups are doing the critically important work and which are not. In an era where environmentalism is in decline as a grassroots movement, it is critically important for those who care about the fate of the Earth to examine the nature and cause of this crisis that is perhaps invisible to those who are not involved in movement politics on a daily basis.

One of the most incisive critics of industrial environmentalism today, Mr. St. Clair is, sadly, one of the few writers willing and qualified to dissect the body impolitic of the big enviro groups and their patrons, the Environmental Grantmakers Association and its member foundations chief among them.

Capitalism, the free-market and progress give noble aim to the spirit of man. As documented by St. Clair, their gifts include the advent of factory fish trawlers that make a haul of 400 tons of fish, crabs, and squid in a matter of a couple of hours in the Alaska Bering Sea, 40 percent of which is by-catch waste, churned up and spewed back into the sea, some 550 million pounds a year. What are fish after all, next to Almighty Dollars?

St. Clair disposes the myth of the tree-hugger in his common sense description of the wanton destruction of 95 percent of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, an irremediable teasure. You'll seethe with him at the six figure incomes of leaders of the co-opted and ineffectual environmental NGOs like the Sierra Club. Corporations that "patent" mineral claims for as little as $2.50 an acre by virtue of the anachronistic 1872 Mining Act, and thereby reap millions of dollars of profits off public lands for pennies on the dollar gives animation to the old saw about if you're not outraged!

When Louisiana-Pacific discovers that its newly-patented and supposedly innovative Inner Seal siding emits deadly fumes when exposed to humidity it is quietly shipped off to the mere dusky-hued in Vietnam and Bolivia. Separately, politically connected, L & P profits handsomely in buying cedar off the publicly-owned Tongass Forest in Alaska for $1.50 per thousand board feet and then sells it to Japanese sawmills for as much as $1,500 per thousand board feet. What are American jobs next to corporate profits?

"Hostile intentions toward the people of another country. Deployment of chemical weapons and biological agents. Pursuit of a scorched-earth policy. Sounds like Saddam's Iraq? Think again. This neatly sums up the Bush administrations ongoing depredations in Colombia, all under the shady banner of the war on drugs." Nice to know St. Clair bothers to keep us informed even if our pathetic media don't.

Through all this and more, St. Clair counsels good humor and optimism. And while the stark immensity of what he reports in this book ought by all rights engender a hopeless despair, through the skill of a singular investigative jounalist and a peerless story-teller, just the opposite is true.

Only in Michener's story of the missionaries' sailors' attempt to round Cape Horn in a storm in "Hawaii," have I found the printed word exceeded as viscerally compelling and dramatic, as in St. Clair's narrative of coming face to face with a rattlesnake in the Mojave Desert.

It's the Life Support System, Stupid.

BY

MICHAEL DONNELLY

"They say we can't win without the Big Greens and the funders. Yet, that's the only way we've ever won."
Mike Roselle, co-founder Earth First!

Jeffrey St. Clair's book, "Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green To Me" (Common Courage Press, 2004) is a 400-page verification of Roselle's statement.

After a brilliant "Opening Statement," the book starts out with an edited version of Alexander Cockburn and Ken Silverstein's summary of the events that led to the modern environmental movement and giving credit where due, surprisingly for many, to our "greatest environmental president" Richard M. Nixon, and, not so unexpectedly to the great Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and his allies.

The summary goes on to chart the rise and fall of the Big Greens as they tepidly challenged Republican-led depredations and then completely collapsed in a spasm of Clinton sycophancy -- illustrated perfectly by their surrender of the grassroots' Ancient Forest victory.

From there, it's the same thing over and over again in campaign after campaign. St. Clair charts how local activists rise up to challenge corporate assaults on nature only to see the Groundhog Day-like script repeat -- the Big Greens and their foundation masters come in, take credit for the grassroots' hard work, use the issue to raise funds and then cut a Democrat and corporate-friendly "compromise."

There are so many issues covered here, it could very well be the definitive history of every ecological issue since the first Earth Day.

Wilderness issues appear first, as they did for the early environmental movement's heroes like the arch-druid, David Brower. Contrast Brower's life-long dedication to all things wild with the sorry tale of Eastern millionaire G. Jon Roush, then president of the Wilderness Society, who clearcuts ancient forests on his own hobby ranch in Montana's Bitterroot Valley - an act called "roughly akin to the head of Human Rights Watch being caught torturing a domestic servant."

The slaughter of Yellowstone's bison, the strip-mining of the oceans, the suffocating of salmon streams and the murder of activist David Chain all come under much needed scrutiny.

The toxic nature of Big Ag is dissected early on, as are the predations of Big Oil, King Coal and the conscienceless Nuclear industry.

Excellent uncovering of the continued assault on America's indigenous people, their remaining lands and barely hanging on culture is perhaps the books most necessary section. These stories have been all but ignored in the mainstream press. That the spineless Democratic Party Senate "leader," Tom Daschle (D)-SD is able to get Big Green support for yet another raid on Paha Sapa (the Black Hills), the sacred lands of the Sioux is just about all one needs to know about the rot that permeates the Democrats and the DC-based environmental establishment. That the sorry deal on the Black Hills is being used by the Bush administration as the template for "post-fire" logging assaults all over the West shows exactly where the bankrupt pro-Democrat leanings have led.

Stories about military pollution and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and what's happened to the good people of Fallon, Nevada are the creepiest in the book. It's enough to make one throw up one's hands and run for a cave in the hills.

But, in the end, hope is all over the place. As St. Clair notes time and again, real activists are valiantly working to hold off the predators and their political and nonprofit enablers. Reading their stories and realizing that there are hundreds of folks out there who are fighting for the fate of Gaia, is the antidote to the despair one easily could get locked into.

This is an important tome. Unlike so many other cautious tomes written about environmental issues, it names names and has the facts to back it all up. It also names places - places that deserve better. And, hopefully, with this fine compilation out there, we'll see more support for these special places and an even greater vision motivate generations to come.

The dream of the electrical vehicle was first inspired by the success of the sunraycer, a vehicle capable of 41 mph and able to traverse the US on five gallons of gas. EV technology faced two signicant barriers: the DC to AC inverter and the 100,000 mile battery life. AC motors were lighter and but the electricity had to be chopped or inverted. Alan Cocconi had built a inverter for his SunRaycer and also designed and built regenerative braking. At Aerovironment, Brooks used the Sunraycer power design and built an EV with a more power inverter and AC motors and battery pack. Cocconi built two inverters which each powered a 50 kilowatt motor.

The GM impact prototype solved both of these problems. Alec Brooks was assigned to study Paul MacCready in the offices of AeroVironment and his efficient motors. MacCready had built an Electric Vehicle prototype for GM - with its streaming lines; the initial idea was too make the rear wheel base shorter than the front creating a tapering effect. The car was to be built from aluminum rather than steel. The Impact had a fiber glass body.

It was Baker's job to bring the EV car to market. Baker reluctantly took the task, a task he dreaded because of early failure with the electrovette.

Lead Acid batteries were a problem, but they were cheap and they worked. Lead acid batteries needed water replenishment; engineers tried to devise methods and these batteries could not be 100% discharged and recharged for a 1,000 cycles. Heat and cold affect the electrical output of the battery. The batteries weighted about 900 pounds. Nickle Metal Hydrid was proven but not used immediately; Baker didn't want any delays; Baker needed to get the EV quality to production status: heater, air conditioner, radio, and suspension system.

The impact could accelerate from 0-60 seconds in 7.9 seconds reaching a speed of 75 mph; it could travel 124 miles at 55 mph and in city reach 300 mile range.

This is a great book. The author follows the tangled story of how GM developed the first production electric car... but he went to press just a year or two before GM sent it to the crusher. See the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? for the sad end to this story.

For contrast, google for the on-line copy of "The Prius That Shook the World". While Schnayerson was following GM he was totally unaware of the development of the Toyota Prius. Like Shnayerson's book, the Prius book takes the development of a new car from a clean sheet of paper to production. From reading both, Toyota seems to have much longer term plans and much less in-fighting. GM changed it's mind with every new CEO.

By coincidence, neither book has a single photo in it (aside from the cover) and lots of personalities. But from 2007 looking back the Prius story has a much happier ending.

Shnayerson tells the story up to when the GM Impact was introduced. The film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" got me interested in electric cars. The GM Impact (EV1) was the most successful modern electric car, but it disappeared into the crushers shortly after its introduction.

His story is that of a dedicated crew inside GM working against budget cuts and management changes to make the car. It is a good read.

A shortcoming is that there are so many major characters-- A new one on each page in some chapters. One is Ken Baker, who runs through the whole narrative, as do Roger Smith (yes, that Roger) and Robert Stempel, one a former GM Chairman.

Another major character doesn't appear until chapter 20: Stan Ovshinsky. The 12 pages describe his career and the Ovonic 12-volt NiMH battery, and the test on the track at Mesa, Arizona, where his batteries powered the test Impact EV 201 miles on a single charge.

All of these 100+ GM execs and engineers were heart-and-soul dedicated to making the EV succeed. One cannot read this book and feel that GM was against the electric car. Shnayerson is an outsider, and was in no way a mouthpiece for GM or an industry apologist. When he tells of GM execs moving their families to Lansing or to Troy so they can work more on the Impact, you get a strong feeling that GM wanted this car to happen. GM sunk a few billion dollars in it.

I could have done with fewer pages of office drama and a new character on every other page, all of whom "exuded midwestern charm," and less about whether so-and-so was "on the fast track to a senior vice-presidency."

I would have preferred line drawings of new assemblies, for example, regenerative brakes-- a first by GM. I wanted more technical details! Cut a couple dozen pages of drama and give us line drawings! For example, in one of the few technical discussions; Setting a standard for EV chargers, page 223, after 3 years and $10 million, GM accepted Hughes's inductive 220 volt charger. Ford stayed with the basic prong-and-socket conductive charger. I wanted a line drawing of each, a photo of each, a short description of each.

Shnayerson gives an objective account of politics, noting the reelection of California Governor Pete Wilson in 1994, and Republicans unseating Democrat governors, and Republicans making huge gains in Congress in Nov 1994-- as a factor in reducing the auto industry's motivation to push the EV. That political revolution is missing in explaining the death of the EV in California in "Who Killed the Electric Car?" where the government villians are made out to be Bush, Cheney, and Rice. Shnayerson suggests that a Republican sweep in 1994 may have been the bigger factor, with a repudiation of 25 years of environmental legislation.

We humans may be incapable of analyzing economic factors, but we always emphasize political factors. This mental shortcoming has to do with the Availability Bias, from cognitive psychology: We overestimate factors easy to imagine or remember (like political figures we don't like) and ignore factors difficult to imagine or remember (like anything to do with economics). So when GM cuts funding in 1992 for the Impact, everyone, like director Chris Paine of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" screams out that there is a giant conspiracy by bad guys in Oil, but few recognize that when a company has a loss of a billion dollars, they need to cut back somewhere.

Shnayerson spends only a few pages on Japanese electric cars: All four major Japanese carmakers had cars to show at the Anaheim California December 1994-- EV Symposium 12. Mazda had an EV Miata. In France, residents were paying for the privilege of test driving 50 Peugeot-Citroen ZX and 105 model prototypes. If Big Oil, Autos, and the U.S. Gov killed the GM EV, who killed the French and Japanese EVs? Which brings up the Big Red Cars in Southern California.

Did Standard Oil and GM and B. F. Goodrich destroy Henry Huntington's Pacific Electric, the world's best electric car system, with its more than 1000 miles of standard gauge track? Or rather than a giant conspiracy, is the fault in the hands of my mother and father and thousands like them who destroyed the Pacific Electric-- they purchased a shiny new 1949 Nash, instead of spending that money on tickets to ride the Red Cars. We blame the "greedy" oil companies, but we don't think about tens of thousands of Southern Californians ready to buy that status symbol, their own auto, after years of rationing during and after World War II.

This is a fascinating inside story about the development of electric cars in the early '90s.

GM unveiled a prototype electric car in 1990 and conveyed the message to California (and other states) that they could develop such a vehicle for consumer use. California shortly thereafter adopted standards requiring the top 7 car manufacturers to sell emission free vehicles totalling 2% of sales in 1998, increasing to 5% in 2001, then 10% in 2003.

GM proceeded to lose enormous sums of money in the early 1990s. But they still worked to develop the electric car for two reasons. One was to be able to meet the California standards. The other was hoping they would be ahead of the curve and make money on the new technology.

But many technical issues needed to be resolved to bring the car to market, the biggest being batteries. Developing batteries capable of providing adequate storage capacity for a reasonable amount of driving was (and remains) a monumental problem.

At the same time GM was developing a marketable electric car, they (along with Ford, Chrysler, and Big Oil) lobbied hard to eliminate the emission free mandates, claiming the technology and consumer demand wasn't there. What did GM want to happen? It seems that they didn't really know, in part because they were bleeding money.

California blinked in the 4th quarter of 1995 and eliminated the mandate. Then, in January 1996 GM unveiled the EV1, a 2 seat electric sports car.

For a follow-up on the "success" of the EV1 and other EVs, I recommend the movie "Who killed the Electric Car?". Disturbing.

The book "The Car That Could" tells the story of GM's EV1 much better than the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?". The book tells the story of the EV1's birth. That is of course a more hopeful story than the EV1's death, which the film covers. And that fact alone makes a big difference in the impact of the story that is told.

But there is another difference. "The Car That Could" tells the inside story of how the EV1 came to be. People within GM make a huge effort to give birth to the car. This was no sham attempt to live up to the California Air Resources Board mandate to put electric cars on the road. GM clearly had its technical and marketing people do their best work. And they did build a great little car, a car that could.

As we know now, though, GM's EV1 did not live very long. The passion of those who put their money down to lease the cars could not make up for the fact that they were few in number. When the California Air Resources Board's mandate went away, that spelled doom for the EV1.

No new EV1s were made. Those that had been made were crushed. A sad end for the car that could.

But though the film "Who Killed the Electric Car" implies that GM killed the EV1, the reasons for its death were more complex than that. And the real story of its death has not, I think, been told. Certainly not as well, and with so much insight, as the story of its birth.

But the story of the electric car has not ended. And there may be some hope for a happy ending. Recently GM's CEO Rick Wagoner has said that he regrets the decision to kill the EV1. And GM promises to come out soon with a new series hybrid electric car. That may put GM back into competition with Toyota and Honda, and their parallel hybrid cars. If so, maybe we will see another, more successful version of a GM car that could.

Michael Shnayerson did a great job researching and writing about the birth of the EV1. Many of the insights written into the book will help those thinking about electric cars today.

So in my mind, "The Car That Could" should be required reading for anyone who wants to participate in the electric vehicle industry. Copies are hard to find now. But if you are interested in electric cars, find a copy and read it. "The Car That Could" makes the must-read list; "Who Killed the Electric Car?" does not.