The Terminal Man (9)

The Terminal Man (9) Michael Crichton Read Oct 14, 2020 I read this book back in High School after reading an excerpt in my Psy textbook. It is the story of a man who has blackout where he turns violent. It all happened after a car accident where he incurred brain damage. The doctors will insert electrodes into his brain to stimulate it and stop the violent attacks. Much as a pace maker stimulates the heart. Of course it goes wrong and action ensues. Still an interest book, written in 1972 still very readable. Crichton has written many book probably most notable is Jurasic Park. I have read a number of his books and do enjoy them. The end notes say he went to Harvard and Harvard Medical... didnt know that...

Tony Mandrich (8)

Ty Cobb My Life In Baseball (7)

Ty Cobb My Life in Baseball (6) With Al Stump Read 9/21/2020 Ty Cobb one of the greatest baseball players ever, and one of the best Tigers ever. Much malined and till controiversal 100 years later. The sub title to the book is The True Record. Written in 1960 about a year before he died this was Cobb's attempt to refubut all his critics and have the last word on seemingly every disagreement he ever had. It was exactly what I expected. He was still very bitter after all those years. First thing that surprised me was they he was born into a highly respected and educated family. His father, a US Senator was disapointed he didnt study law, and instead played ball. Over all the book was a bit tedious with lots of very specific information about games, people etc. If you were a baseball fanatic I am sure this is gold. He talks glowingly about teammates and opponents alike. He lived and breathed baseball, and has some intersting stories about some of the greatest players of the game. The one thing that stuck me was he talking about how great a pitcher Cy Young was and how he had trouble hitting him... We forget he was an ACTUAL pitcher, one of the best, and not just an award at the end of the season. He didnt have anything good to say about the modern (1960's) game, thought the players were soft and did not like the long ball. While bitter a lot of what he said still rings true. The coddling of pitchers, and players in general... the length of the games... the moving around of players that breaks the traditional rivalaries and appeal of the teams, and the leagues. I am sure he would be discusted at the present game... but so are some of the fans, myself included. In closing I think he was a complex man. One of great skill that attracted people that wanted to tear him down. I dont think he was a saint but I also dont believe all the wild rumors you hear about him either. Those rumors were there when he played too, and I think he kept quiet or promoted them as an imtimataion factor against his opponenets.

Maya Civilization

Maya Civilization (5) By Capitvating Histroy Read Sept 6, 2020 Interesting book discussing the major phases of the Mayan civilization, their customs, rituals, writing, beliefs etc. Includes some pics and maps, and a nice retelling of the Mayan creation story. Read this on my tablet via Kindle, trying to read more on my tablet as I am trying to get rid of some of my stuff... and a lot of my stuff are books.

We (4)

We Yevgeny Zamyatin translation by Natasha Randall Read Sept 2020 This book was written in Russia in 1918 and considered to dangerous to publish there (it was finally published there in 1988). It is a dystopian view of the world in the distant future when people live by logic and everyting is preplaned for happiness and efficiency. Our hero becomes infatuated with another woman who is trying to start a revolution which he unwittingly becomes part of. This book is said to have been read by Orwell and Huxley before they wrote their dystopican classics. And I can see similarites in the love story and retraining from 1984, and the structure of the world from Brave New World Over all I had trouble following the story... I really didnt get it lol. But I can now say I have read it.

I'll see you again Lady Liberty (3)

I'll See You Again Lady Liberty Ernst W Floeter Read Aug 2020 Story of a young man growing up in NW Germany when Hitler came to power. He turns 18 in 1945 and is drafted in the Army, by a set of concoindence and luck he gets transfered several times before his old unit takes heavy losses. He is caputred as an American POW shortly after D day in France. They are sent to the US and move through several different place. He spends most of his time in Texas and New Mexico during farm work. After the war he is sent home to destroyed Germany. Within 10 years he is given the opportuity to move to the US and he and is wife and small child move here where he starts a new life working largely in photography. A really interesting look a life in German prior to WW2 and how not everybody was caught up with Hitler's movement. Ernst had always like the US he had learned from movies and books and was thrilled to be able cross the country by train as a POW en route to he new camp. He settles in a small town near Lansing MI, where I live. There is a German supper club there which I was a member of for a while and I recall Ernst there, I didnt really know him, but I recall him taking a picture of me and my young daughter at a Xmas party.

The Freemasons (2)

The Freemasons (2) Jeromy Harwood Read Aug 2020 I have been cleaning out some of my books and ran across this book which I dont remember getting. Read it after the Detroit Temple book. It starts off ok, the author had some familiarity with the Masonic ritual, the first few chapers where interesting looking at some of the symbolism of Masons. It kind of gets off track after that, he goes into great deal about the arcituture and geometry and he was way off, some of it is intersesting but not that important in the ritual... I feel at some point he is just trying to fill pages.

Detroit's Masonic Temple (1)

Detroit's Masonic Temple Alex Lundberg & Greg Kowalski Read July 2020 This is largely a picture book of the Detroit Temple, the largest in the world. Has a lot of interesting history on the construction and detail of the building. Unfortunately the book is all in black and white so it fails to capture some of the glory of the building. As a Mason I have toured the Detroit temple and it is a masterpiece!

Dopefiend (3)

Dopefiend Donald Goines Got a bunch of new oOines books and decided to start reading them from the beginning again. This was his first published books, about black people hooked on heroin in Detroit in the early 1970s A first hand look at what a dopefiend is capable of to keep away the sickness

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood A dystpoian classic. Reread after many years, there are parts that I remember clearly and lots that I did not, like the ending...

The Circle (1)

The Circle Dave Eggers We follow a young woman as she goes to work at The Circle. A Google like company that is slowly working itself into every part of peoples lives where social media is everything and cameras let you view any part of peoples lives. The moral question if this is good or not, and her struggle to see if this is what she really wants and the company works to "Close The Circle" Raises some interesting questions about information on line.

Call Girl Confidential (4) 2016

Call Girl Confidential Rebecca Kade Woman becomes an escort to pay for custody battle with ex husband over daughter Suppose to be true story

(3) High On Arrival By Mackenzie Phillips Read 7/10/16 This is the autobiography of child TV star Mackenzie Phillips. She is daughter of rock start John Phillips of Mamas and the Papas and such had a wild childhood filled with heavy drug use and almost no parental guidance. No surprise as an adult her life spiraled out of control filled with drugs, failed relationships and getting fired from lucrative jobs. The book is terribly disturbing and highlights the idea the money does not bring happiness. In the end she is clean, but you wonder what toll this life style has taken on her body.

(2) Sugarbabe By Holly Hill Read April 7, 2016 Story of a therapist who met a very wealthy married man and started an affair with him. At his urging she quit her job, this went find until his wife found out and he broke off their relationship... and along with it all her financial support. Left with out a job and a mortgage to pay she decided to look for a sugar daddy who would pay her bills in exchange for sex.. the girlfriend experience. The book is about her quest to find this person. She tries out a few people and has reservations about each one, and had problems finding someone who wants to do this long term. In the middle of this she spends a lot of time exploring her feelings on this, and what marriage and monogamy means to society. Her journals of this adventure became the book. The book was fair, it was a lot of self exploration and a lot of detail about how she dressed and what food she bought for her dates.

(1) Tutankhamun The Book of Shadows By Nick Drake Read March 20, 2016 This is a mystery set in ancient Egypt. There are several brutal murders and it seems it may be a plot to destabilize the current King Tutankamum. The investigator works the case and also works with the royal family. Not a bad novel, a lot of detail of ancient times, and seems historicaly accurate from what I have read about this era. I would give this a 7.5/10

The Switch (5)

The Switch, by Elmore Leonard Read: 4/13/15 Was on vacation and laying on the beach, seemed like a great time to read a Leonard novel. Story is set in Detroit in the late 70's and some of the styles and habits are amusing. Bright suits, lots of drinking and smoking... ah the good ole days - lol. The story is of Mickey who is married to Frank Dawson, successful businessman, she has a nice house in the suburbs, membership to the club, money.. yet she is not happy with her life, or her marriage. As she struggles with her unhappiness and why she doesn't express it better to her husband, she is kidnapped by Ordell and Louis. They have the inside information that Frank has a racket going downtown restoring apartment buildings using stolen materials and then renting them to pimps for cash and putting half of it in a private account in Freeport. Mickey is oblivious to all of this... and also that Frank is there with his mistress... or right before he left he had filed for divorce. So his wife he is trying to divorce is kidnapped, and if he doesn't pay $1 million dollars he will never see her again. Huh... what to do... Like many Elmore Leonard stories that is a twist a the end. You get more wrapped up in the characters than the actual outcome.

Playground (4)

Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside The Playboy Mansion By: Jennifer Saginor Read: March 18, 2015 The story starts with the author is 6, her parents have divorced and she is with her father. Dad is a doctor in Beverly Hills, know as Dr Feelgood. He is good friends with Hugh Hefner and spends a great deal of time at the Playboy Mansion where he has his own room. While dad is playing backgammon with Hef, Jennifer is free to run around, feel monkeys, play in the pool, order room service and play video games. She thinks it is the ideal life. However she is also exposed to naked women, couples having sex, rampant drug use. But perhaps worst of all is her fathers attitude toward women in general and his great anger at his ex-wife. She and her younger sister spend their young years playing at the Mansion but are sworn to secrecy not to tell their mother. She eventually finds out and the parents enter into a bitter custody battle which is shocking in their anger toward each other and their utter disregard for their children. The kids become just a prize to claim in the battle. Eventually when she is about 13 Jennifer moves in with her father, she does this after an argument with her mother. This sets off a chain of events that will forever impact her life. With her father out partying all the time she is left alone at home. No parents, separated from her sister, her sadness lead to an out of control life, lots of drugs, out all night partying lovers... all this before she can legally drive a car. As time goes on Dad becomes more and more out of control. Vicky a 19 year heroin addict who had ties to a Columbian drug lord. As Dad descends into heroin addition he becomes more and more paranoid collecting guns, security and generally scarring the hell out of her daughter who feels trapped. Unable to return to her mother who tells her 'you should have thought about that when you moved out' and a father that gives his 17 year old a loaded hand guns with instructions to sleep with it. There really is no conclusion to the book, the author is now in her 40's and talks about how she is estranged from her mother and sister and the lasting scars her childhood left on her life. She does this in a matter of fact way rather than trying to generate sympathy. An interesting book but deeply disturbing that parents could be this reckless with their children.

Dirty Sexy Politics (3)

Dirty Sexy Politics By: Meghan McCain Read: March 15, 2015 Meghan is the daughter of Senator John McCain of AZ, who ran for President in 2008. Meghan had just graduated from college and joined the campaign. She was not an official staff member, but blogged about the campaign instead, which was still a new idea at the time, especially for the Republicans. The book is less about politics and more about what Megan went through emotionally on the campaign. Dealing with the handlers, denied access, constantly being told she was making mistakes that would cost them the campaign. In the beginning of the book she talks about how the Republican party has changed from a party of hands off government and personal freedom to a tool of the far Right. Too concerned about gay marriage and image than about the real issues. This of course is a big turn off for the younger generation which Meghan represents. This echos a sentiment I have long held. I voted in my first Presidential election in 1984 and had always thought of myself as a Republican. In the past several elections they have continuously disappointed me in their choice of candidates and the issues they promote. I increasingly have nothing in common with their platform. Overall it was an interesting book and a worthwhile read. It is a different take on how politics impacts the families of the candidates.