Second blog post of the day after 3 month hiatus

How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time by Nina Amir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am posting my Goodreads review on my blog - my first blog post in 3 months! I'm posting this now, while still working my way through this excellent guide, for the express purpose of "blaming" Nina Amir for this neglect. She says, more than once, to complete all the preparatory work before posting your first post on your blog. Of course she means the blog on which you intend to "blog your book one post at a time," and she differentiates this from a personal blog that roams among various interests of the blogger. Mine has been the latter, but I'm intrigued with the idea of blogging one or more of the books I've intended to write for so many decades. Harry Browne, in his excellent How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World wrote of the "Previous Investment Trap." After putting time and money into a project, you hesitate to stop - even if you should stop. I find it hard to even contemplate scrapping 9 years of work and starting over, and am also too lazy to want to start one or more additional blogs. Thanks to Ms. Amir, I will do one or more of these daunting tasks because I don't want to die with my "music" still in me...



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Mystery novel that caught me by surprise

The Cellar by Minette Walters

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In spite of the hints (bordering on spoilers) on the book jacket, this caught me by surprise more than once. Walters' writing seems straightforward, yet she manages to inject mood and emotion into the situations and transactions among the limited cast of this novel. Nicely done.



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Shame on The Boston Globe for "Hiding" Book Reviews

Here is most of the front page of the Sunday Arts "Holiday Arts Preview" section of today's Boston Globe.

In case it's hard to make out the headings under the six circles at the bottom, they are: Theater; Dance; Pop; Television; Classical; Movies.

I applaud highlighting their coverage of Classical Music, of course, but am so disappointed at the continuing diminishment of their coverage of BOOKS!

It's bad enough that it is down to 3 pages in the back of the section, but to not even list books as one of the categories on the "front cover" is pathetic. If memory serves, this is a newspaper that used to feature an entire BOOK SECTION! How sad...

Stephen King at the top of his form!

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This review is probably superfluous – I assume this will be widely reviewed (or at least rated.) However, I want to share my opinion that this is Stephen King at the top of his form – if you prefer his character-oriented, not-so-supernatural writing. Like any great master, he makes the work seem effortless. Getting swept along by his seemingly simple prose feels similarly effortless to this reader. I don’t turn the pages to see what will happen next to his characters because they are glamorous; I do so because they have become real to me. Among the special gifts in this one are some musings, seamlessly worked into the story, about the phenomenon of being so immersed in fiction that its world can seem more “real” than that of the reader. I enjoyed this thoroughly at multiple levels. Thank you, Stephen King!



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Satisfying novel I expected to dislike!

Eye for an Eye by Erika Holzer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


About half way through her Kindle book, Ayn Rand, My Fiction-Writing Teacher: A Novelist's Mentor-Protégé Relationship with the Author of Atlas Shrugged, I stopped to read Holzer’s novel, to see if she knew what she was talking about. I placed an interlibrary loan request, prepared to dislike her writing.
It arrived with wonderful blurbs from awesome authors: Nelson DeMille and Dorothy Uhnak on the front cover, Ed McBain and Sandra Scoppetone on the back. Inside were more from Dorothy Salisbury-Davis, Barbara D’Amato, Warren Murphy (one of my favorites), Thomas Chastain, Donald Hamilton and others, including major newspapers. Her portrait, inside the back cover, made me think, “She looks like someone who idolizes Ayn Rand – no happy idiot here, but one who is uncompromising in her views and values.”
I was not prepared for the experience of reading Eye for an Eye and enjoying it so much. It kept me turning pages, rooting for heroes and heroines, hoping that justice would be meted out to evildoers. It also kept me guessing. Wait, that’s not exactly it. It surprised me with unexpected plot and character twists that made sense once revealed, and never felt contrived. This was a very satisfying novel. Bravo, Erika Holzer!




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Procrastination is death, sedentariness is death, homeostasis is death

Action!: Nothing Happens Until Something Moves by Robert Ringer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have enjoyed Robert Ringer since shortly after his first book, Winning Through Intimidation, was published in 1973. I regretted his decision to change the title to To Be or Not to Be Intimidated?: That is the Question. I only recently read that he revised and updated it before changing the title. That attenuates my disappointment a bit. This more recent work has a lot to offer. Rather than summarize, I will share a few quotes that I found (literally) noteworthy.
p. 158. "DON’T TRY TO CHANGE PEOPLE. Feeling compelled to change others is the height of arrogance. At least one of the reasons why there is so much hate and war in the world is that so many people feel morally obliged to remake people in their own image. Even if such a lofty objective were moral (which it isn’t), it would be impossible, which is why force is always used in the pursuit of such an objective. This ugly reality has been a fact of life since the beginning of recorded history, and, if anything, is worse today than ever before… people rarely change their basic personalities or moral structures… In those rare instances where significant change does occur, it almost always comes from personal revelation rather than through the efforts of someone else."
p. 244. "…there are few obstacles in life that can prevent you from transforming your dreams into reality through the genius, magic, and power of action… You don’t succeed by focusing on your handicaps; you succeed by focusing on your strengths. Concentrate on the abundance in your life rather than the problems, and take action to exploit that abundance. Discover your best assets, nurture them, and use them as they were meant to be used."
p. 261. "Theory is good for the intellect, but action is good for the soul. It’s also good for your mental health, your physical health, and your pocketbook."
p. 262. “Procrastination is death, sedentariness is death, homeostasis is death… Action is life – and life is meant to be lived.”

Wow! I’m especially delighted with this last as I have been re-listening to George J. Kappas on the newer online streaming (as opposed to the old audiotape) version of The Mental Bank Seminar, where he describes homeostasis as the most powerful force in human behavior, the one we must overcome if we wish to change and improve our lives. Thank you guys!



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Sometimes we are far too eager to "believe!"

Revival by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thoroughly enjoyed this new novel by Stephen King. Like several others of his works, I would give this one 5 stars instead of 4, if his endings could be as good as his beginnings and middles. Let me hasten to add that I don’t know how that could be done – or I would do so myself! (And maybe Stephen King would read me!)

The "official goodreads blurb" calls it "A dark and electrifying novel." There's a pun in there, probably intended. You might even call the story of the ANTagonist (I don't think this is a spoiler) an "Electric Slide." (My pun is definitely intended.)

Early in the book I found myself thinking his PROtagonist might be the only cynic or skeptic in a world of willing believers-of-hype. I didn't know if that’s where the story was going, but I felt myself identifying with that attitude. Sometimes we are far too eager to "believe!" Thought-provoking issues of faith, fanaticism and addiction never detract from King's special talent for creating characters we care about, whether cursing them or rooting for them.

An extra dimension of enjoyment for me was his description of playing in a rock band in high school. He made me nostalgic for The Butlers, HuSH and Hard Core Willie. I remembered how wonderful it was to sing and play in those bands, and decided I want to play again, and regularly! I wonder if he really did that himself, way back in high school. I know he played later with the Rock Bottom Remainders, with my boyhood chum (and later famous writer) Dave Barry, but I don’t know if he played as a teen, or only wishes he had.

In spite of what I said about "endings," I'm really glad I read Revival.



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Simultaneously shocking, satisfying, and apt...

Even by Andrew Grant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've recently reviewed several of Steve Hamilton's books about Alex McKnight, the hero I contrasted to James Bond - McKnight is "a hero who bleeds," and who suffers for seeking justice and upholding his values. David Trevellyan, hero of Andrew Grant's recent series, takes punishment but doles out a lot more - to those who have "earned" it with their evildoing. I saw his most recent book on the new book shelf at the Oxford Free Public Library in Massachusetts and was about to take it home, then decided to read his first book first. I'm glad I did. Now I have a couple of sequels to look forward to. I would be reading the next one already, except that my reserve came in for Steven King's new book, Revival, and that goes to the top of my reading pile. Andrew Grant's prose is so well crafted that my disbelief isn't just suspended, it's cast aside. I grabbed the book at every free moment to find what would happen next. He manages to come up with an ending that is simultaneously shocking, satisfying, and apt. Well done, Andrew Grant. Thank you.




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The Devil shares secrets to successful life on earth.

Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success by Napoleon Hill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I tremendously enjoyed this imaginative book in which – 76 years ago – Napoleon Hill recorded his “Interview with the Devil.” I took extensive notes and recorded many quotations. I’ll share a few to give you the flavor of the writing. For the Q&A the questioner is Hill and the answers are by the Devil. Who is this Devil anyway? p. 99-100: “You know that I exist only in the minds of people who have fears… You know that my hell is here on earth and not in the world that comes after death. And you know also that drifters supply all the fire I use in my hell. You know that I am a principle or form of energy which expresses the negative side of matter and energy, and that I am not a person with a forked tongue and a spiked tail.”

p 116 “Q: Which do you prefer to serve as your propagandists – the young or the old? A: The young, of course! They can be influenced by most bribes [temptations] more easily than people of mature judgment. Moreover, they have longer to remain in my service.” [This was written in 1938, long before the “youth culture” and advertisements using young people to serve as trendsetters.]

p 140 “The highest power in the universe can be used for constructive purposes, through what you call God, or it can be used for negative purposes, through what you call the Devil. And something more important still, it can be used by any human being just as effectively as by God or the Devil… you have but one source available through which you may appropriate the benefit of universal power, and that is by trusting and using your own power of thought. This is the direct road to the universal storehouse of Infinite Intelligence. There is no other road available to any human being.”

If you ever thought there was a satanic element to the promises and lies of marketers you may find this quote as amusing as did I: p 149-150 “Q: Why doesn’t your opposition [God] give your secret to all people by telling them to avoid you through definiteness of purpose?... A: Because I am more clever than my opposition. I draw people away from definiteness with my promises. You see, I control more people than my opposition because I am a better salesman and a better showman. I attract people by feeding them liberally of the thought-habits in which they like to indulge.”

Here is one more quote, a magnificent one: p 197 “A… There is no human being now living, no human being has ever lived, and no human being ever will live with the right or the power to deprive another human being of the inborn privilege of free and independent thought. That privilege is the only one over which any human being can have absolute control. No adult human being ever loses the right to freedom of thought, but most humans lose the benefits of this privilege either by neglect or because it has been taken away from them by their parents or religious instructors before the age of understanding. These are self-evident truths, no less important because they are being called to your attention by the Devil than they would be if brought to your attention by my opposition.”

This book is full of self-evident and not-so-evident truths. Whether they are called to our attention by the Devil, or by Napoleon Hill, I am grateful to have been exposed to them. I recommend this to anyone interested in enjoying and sharing the joy of our life on this Earth.




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I "had it figured out" more than once...

Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Hamilton interlaces an unfamiliar technique through this satisfying mystery. The familiar elements of Alex McKnight, the reliability of his steadfast friends and the frightful Upper Peninsula environment confront twists and turns of evil that keep you guessing - and reading. I "had it figured out" more than once, only to find the plot bobbing and weaving and deflecting my comprehension. While reviewing the fourth in the series, North of Nowhere, I wrote, "The satisfying conclusion left questions hanging about the fate of a couple of the characters." One relationship in particular (no, not a romantic one) I hoped to see evolve in an ironic yet believable way. Hamilton finds a way to accomplish this that doesn't insult the reader's intelligence, but rather feels inevitable and "bonds" the reader even more closely with the characters.



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Author kicks me in the stomach - and I love it!

A Stolen Season by Steve Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


While reading this I wrote in my Journal, "“I last cried reading a novel, when people (to me they become people – not just characters) get hurt or die in a well-written, moving story.” I was too stunned to cry for A Stolen Season - I doubled over. Author Steve Hamilton kicked me in the stomach so hard that when I was reading the following entry in the series (Misery Bay) I was sure the tragedy had been haunting McKnight for at least two earlier books, not just through this one. As always, I felt like some addict, craving my next fix (the next book in the series) as soon as I finished this one.



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Fiction with a believable - and bleeding - hero!

Blood is the Sky by Steve Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another gripping adventure. Another chance for series hero Alex McKnight to test the limits of human recuperation and recovery.
This is a hero who suffers without the assurance of survival. He tells you how badly he is hurt, but never says "It's not supposed to be this way."
Bill Belichick says "It is what it is." Alex McKnight says "Pain is not as important as justice." Justice for him is not revenge but rather setting things right when possible, especially when it comes to his friends.
We should all have a friend like Alex McKnight! Thank you Steve Hamilton for sharing him with us.

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Compelling, addictive mystery and suspense.

This reminds me of the 1960s when I gobbled up James Bond books as quickly as I could get my hands on them.

Ice Run by Steve Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Weird, strange, bizarre - not just the precipitating event but the extended families of bad guys and the history that resonates into the present. Arrayed against this is our flawed hero, Alex McKnight, with his character and courage, and his few friends, solid but merely human. Keeping up with them is exhausting but rewarding - rewarding as always.




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A Wizard's Secrets - densely packed with concepts.

Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

H. R. Williams reviews a book by R. H. Williams - no relative as far as I know. I stumbled across this fascinating book at the Pearle L. Crawford Memorial Library in Dudley, Massachusetts. I was Library Director there 25 years ago when it was in a much smaller building. The cover art and graphics caught my eye and a quick scan of a few pages enticed me to bring it home. I returned it to the library today after getting my own copy so I can read it at my leisure. It is one of those books that is easy to read, with a captivating style, yet so densely packed with concepts that I prefer to take it in small doses to be savored and (hopefully) remembered. Here is a wonderful quote from page 44, Chapter 18, Living with Tarzan in the Jungle, "Though our 100 million sensory receptors enable us to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell the real world, our 10,000 billion brain synapses allow us to relate new data to stored memories and ideas - to experience things that never happened... We are much better equipped for experiences that are contained fully in the mind. We have lived with Tarzan in the jungle, journeyed beneath the sea with Captain Nemo, been stranded on an island with Robinson Crusoe, and sailed with a peg-legged man named Ahab as he pursued a great white whale."

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Stephen King, tormented souls, "real people" in our everyday world

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I gave Stephen King's latest five stars. In Goodreads that means "It was amazing." That is not literally true, because there is nothing amazing about Stephen King producing a five-star book. I had to give it more than four stars because "I really liked it" does not begin to describe the pleasure I found in this novel. King does a wonderful job enabling us to suspend our disbelief in stories that involve the paranormal or supernatural, but when he shines his flashlight into the dark corners of tormented souls, down-to-earth "real people" in our everyday world, his magic is even stronger. I rooted for the flawed hero and the innocents he struggled to protect. I woke up, the morning after finishing the book (today, actually) with the villain's name floating in the forefront of my mind. I marveled at an ending that was truly satisfying without feeling the least bit contrived. I also found one of the bleakest bunch of sentences ever, when he described on page 323 the ruminations of the mass murderer contemplating his next atrocity: "Off you go, killers and killed alike, off you go into the universal null set that surrounds one lonely blue planet and all its mindlessly bustling denizens. Every religion lies. Every moral precept is a delusion. Even the stars are a mirage. The truth is darkness, and the only thing that matters is making a statement before one enters it. Cutting the skin of the world and leaving a scar. That's all history is, after all: scar tissue."
Wow! If that doesn't scare (or scar) you away from it, I highly recommend this novel.

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I enthusiastically recommend Steve Chandler and his works

Time Warrior: How to Defeat Procrastination, People-Pleasing, Self-Doubt, Over-Commitment, Broken Promises and Chaos by Steve Chandler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Steve Chandler is one of my favorite "gurus." I listen to him when I'm walking and read him when I'm not. The only problem he gives me is that at the end of each book, as I think about what insights to quote, I feel compelled to tell you to "Just read the whole thing - it's all quotable!" He is wise, compassionate, and committed to empowering his reader. He is humble enough to embody his own advice on page 155: "A ruined life is full of funny stories. And if the warrior emerges from it, then all the stories of the past can now help other people in powerful ways." He embodies this by freely sharing, in all of his works, tales of drunken dissipation and ineffective wheel-spinning in his youth, with a focus on lessons learned. I'll share two more quotes. Page 40: “The biggest fallacy there is about making good use of one’s time is that you have to feel like doing something before you can do it. That you have to know how to motivate yourself prior to your action.” Later, on Page 198, he gives the alternative: " I need to stop all thinking about thinking. Stop trying to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. All this thinking is overrated as a motivational force. Doing, on the other hand, is underrated. Doing is the most underrated thing there ever was." Even if you have already got life figured out, you may find yourself forgetting and backsliding. Steve Chandler is one of our greatest "reminders." I enthusiastically recommend him and his works.


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This Book can Change Your Life - if you are or want to be a writer!

Robert's Rules of Writing: 101 Unconventional Lessons Every Writer Needs to Know by Robert Masello
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I gave this one five stars, "It was amazing," because it would have been so easy for this to be a disappointment. Instead, I looked forward to each new "lesson," each of which is its own "chapter." Masello is often tongue-in-cheek in how he conveys his lessons, but deadly serious in giving budding (and experienced) writers a wealth of options for making their work better. I found silly humor in the little slips of paper on the cover, with lesson numbers and bits of the lessons looking like a page of them had bit cut into strips. Humor because (does this count as a spoiler alert?) the lesson numbers on the strips on the cover do not correspond to their numbers in the books. (Who checks these things? I do but don't know if anyone else does, or cares.) For me, this works best when I read just one or a few lessons at a time, so my brain doesn't get overloaded. It only looks like "light" writing - it is actually dense with experience, information and perspectives. I recommend it highly.

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This is Nonfiction that can Change Your Life! Highly recommended.

Go Wild: Free Your Body and Mind from the Afflictions of Civilization by John J. Ratey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

But I LOVE "the Afflictions of Civilization!" At least, I love them until I look at my overweight body, or realize that my chiropractic visits are the result of not "Going Wild." This book pulls together scientific and "wild" threads to show us how we can enjoy the benefits of living in the 21st century without the frequent side effects of health issues, stress and lack of connection. They (author John J. Ratey and coauthor Richard Manning) make meditation and exercise much more attractive than you might imagine. They will make you at least think about getting more sleep, and they may send you back, as they have for me, to Christopher McDougall's Born To Run - A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

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A gem - small and worth reading and rereading!

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reading Austin Kleon's delightful small book was filled with serendipity and pleasure. Jody and I were on the subway (Boston Green Line) just after leaving The Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. I turned to page 73 in Chapter 4 "Open up your cabinet of curiosities." As I read his description of the Wunderkammern, aka "wonder chamber" or "cabinet of curiosities" in the homes of wealthy, educated Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, I realized the "Isabella" is nothing, if not an immense "cabinet of curiosities." Her will assured that it would be shared, heeding Kleon's advice on that page, "Don't be a hoarder."
As "Harry The Librarian," I love the section later in Chapter 4, "Credit is always due." Kleon points out that "Crediting work in our copy-and-paste age of reblogs and retweets can seem like a futile effort, but it's worth it and it's the right thing to do." This recalls a conversation decades ago with library colleague Carolyn Noah, both lamenting the "borrowing" that was already widespread. "I'm a Librarian, and I believe in footnotes!"
Later, in a section of Chapter 7, "Don't turn into human spam," he counsels "You want hearts, not eyeballs." If you have a web site, you will know what that means. His quote on page 131 from record producer Steve Albini echoes one of my favorite self-improvement writers, Steve Chandler. Kleon tells us "Albini laments how many people waste time and energy trying to make connections instead of getting good at what they do, when 'being good at things is the only thing that earns you clout or connections.'"
In 17 Lies That Are Holding You Back and the Truth That Will Set You Free, Steve Chandler tells how he and songwriting partner Fred Knipe "invested a huge amount of our time... to expand our network of connections in the music business. We networked and schmoozed... And if there was ever time left over, we also wrote songs. In the end, however, our biggest financial successes came from people we did not know. In the end, networking meant nothing at all. The schmoozing was an empty waste of time and ego."
I will finish this review where Kleon starts it, with the lesson of Chapter 1: "You don't have to be a genius."
I highly recommend this book to artists, writers, musicians and anyone who would like to indulge their passions and make a life-affirming, gratitude-filled impact on their world.


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Five Star Fiction's Hero Gets Beaten Up - Again. I loved it!

North of Nowhere by Steve Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I gave each of the first three titles in this series four starts. It's time to be honest and admit, "It was amazing." His craft is such that his artistry is subtle and "off screen." Hamilton gets better and better. The satisfying conclusion left questions hanging about the fate of a couple of the characters. I find myself willing to live with that uncertainty, and curious if their fate will unfold in one of the future volumes. I can tell you this: I am leaving for the library after writing this, to return the book and get my hands on the next one in the series. This is an excellent series, one in which our hero continues to get the heck beat out of him, yet moves on because that is the least important (which is not to say the least painful) consideration as he chooses to do “the next right thing.” Steve Hamilton has given us, in Alex McKnight, a hero we can be proud to “know.”

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