Identity Matrix -- Jack L. Chalker

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Victor Gosner was your average social outcast. He never had many friends and had no real connection to society. He was just some guy camping in the back woods of the Yukon when some government agents and a Native American girl stumbled upon him. Before he knew it, Victor Gosner was that girl, trapped inside of her body. His former body had been taken over by an alien that was residing in the girl’s body. Gosner didn’t know how lucky he was to be alive. Usually, when one of the aliens switched bodies, the old body was killed along with the personality that used to inhabit the new body.

He found out rather quickly, though. He was on the run as a new person, without much money and any sense of a legal identity. He made it to a ferry where he met up with Dorian Tomlinson, a 19-year-old college student. Unfortunately, another encounter with one of those aliens put Victor in Dorian’s body and Dorian in that of the girl. That’s where things start to get complicated.

One of the agents that were initially with the girl, Harry Parch, takes the alien in for questioning. He also takes Victor and Dorian with him. After what happened, he couldn’t really just leave them. He explains that Earth is at war with the Urulu, which is what the alien race calls itself. There’s apparently also another alien race, but Parch has as of yet been unable to actually meet one. (It also has the ability to switch bodies at will.) Dorian and Victor are recruited to help Parch fight against the aliens, whatever they may call themselves.

Parch is in charge of a government project called the IMC. Its their job to find a way to do what the aliens do, which would give Earth an advantage. After a while, Victor and Dorian realize that Parch can’t be trusted. It’s up to Dorian, Victor, one of the aliens, and an old friend of Victor's to stop Parch before we become the enemy.

The book seems to alternate between science fiction and erotica. Victor had always wondered what it would be like to be a woman, and he got his chance to find out. There was also a part of the book where he and Dorian had to be “disposed of” for knowing too much. Since he is now a very attractive woman, he’s reprogrammed to be a stripper. Dorian is sent to a reservation.

Aside from that, it’s a very exciting book. No one can trust anyone, really. Harry Parch is the only character that has immunity, yet there are other reasons not to trust him. He really is the perfect character given his role. He is the lead government agent in charge of the facility; he needs a certain amount of detachment. Many of the characters worked out well. Even the erotic elements can be thought of as a necessary part of the book.

It turns out that there really are two alien races. The other race is called, simply, The Association. The Urulu are thought of as good guys and the Association is thought of as the bad guys. The Association essentially creates hordes of mindless zombies, which take the form of a huge cult on Earth. (It’s actually the result of a few smaller cults coming together.) It’s a little cliche, but it gets the point across.

The trouble is that it’s hard to think of a victory against The Association as a victory. We now have the ability to do what they can. It’s really a matter of what we’ll do with that ability. We’ll either become like the Association or like the Urulu. In the end, will we become a species that we can live with?

Gary Larson - The Far Side Gallery

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.


I was going through my collection of books and found The Far Side Gallery.  I grew up reading the single-panel comic, which ran from 1980 until 1995.  (Gary Larson, who penned The Far Side, decided to retire all those long years ago.)  That means that there are a lot of kids in high school now that have never seen it as a first-run panel.

How do you explain the comic to someone who has never seen it before?  The humor is definitely a little strange.  I don't think there's anything that someone wouldn't be able to get.  I can't recall any political humor or humor at the expense of any group.  Even though it was made a while ago, most of it could still be understood today.

For some reason, Gary Larson used a lot of ducks and cows.  (In one case, a professor at a lecture realizes that he's forgotten his duck.)  Most involved people, though.  One panel depicts a couple showing slides of their trip to Hell.  (Even though the phrase ‘to Hell and back' isn't as popular as it once was, most people would understand the impossibility of such a trip.)  In another Panel, a group of ‘primitive' people are hiding modern conveniences upon seeing that some anthropologists arriving.

There's no commentary in this book; it's just the panels.  Sometimes, it's nice to have some comments about the stuff, but it's also nice sometimes just to have a collection of the work.  In some of the other Far Side books, Larson explains what he liked about some panels or what didn't work about others.  Some of those panels appear in this book, so you may be a little confused about some of them.  Don't worry; you're in good company.

Because of the lack of commentary or any other new material, it's kind of hard to review the book.  I don't want to recount every single panel.  Then again, it's hard to talk in generalities because that takes up all of two sentences.  It's especially hard since the comic isn't running any more.  There's really nothing modern that I can really compare it to.

There was no continuing story like many modern comics have.  Each panel was its own story, so you could very easily pick up the book, look at one panel and get everything that was intended for the reader in one glance.  Some modern comics, like Bizarro, are like this, but it's still hard to compare.

I grew up on The Far Side, which probably explains why I look at the world a little differently.  The Far Side will be missed and I don't think will ever truly be replaced.  I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone.  As I said, anyone can enjoy it.  It would definitely make a great gift for someone.

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner -- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.


Economics isn’t really about money. At least, it’s not solely about money. It’s really about what motivates people. People generally want to get the most while giving up the least. That doesn’t always involve cash. That being said, you may ask what motivates certain people to do certain things. Freakonomics takes a look at that.

Some do deal with money. In one chapter, the authors look at why drug dealers live with their mothers if they’re supposed to be so rich. (Many have to take a second, legitimate job.) Others aren’t directly about cash at all. Sumo wrestlers, for instance, have something in common with teachers: both are motivated to cheat. Chapter four deals declining crime due to abortion. (The authors admit that this is a touchy subject, but handle it well.)

The last two chapters deal with the effects of parents on children. In the fifth chapter, the authors explain certain safety scares and why they’re really nothing. In the last chapter, the authors mention two brothers, one named Winner and the other, Loser. There’s also the story of a woman who named her daughter Temptress. (One story has expected results and the other is the opposite.)

My brother got this for me, thinking that I would like the offbeat nature of the issues discussed; he was right. There is a politically incorrect angle to the book. The authors feel that Roe v. Wade was the biggest help to fighting crime. That statement is bound to get people thinking the wrong thing, but you can’t always take things at face value. People will sometimes give into their names and sometimes, they won’t.

Steven D. Levitt is a professor of economics; Stephen J. Dubner writes for the New York Times. These are two people that have some sense of what they’re talking about, or at least how to say it. I got the impression that the book was well researched and well planned out. The pairing of a writer with an economist worked out pretty well.

I’d give the book five stars. It’s an easy read, especially for a book about economics. Even though it’s 242 pages, each of the six chapters is well written. I couldn’t put the book down until I was finished with a chapter. You won’t come out of this book understanding economics much better, but it’s still a good book. I’d definitely suggest reading this book all the way through. You may not agree with a lot of the initial statements, but you should at least read their arguments before dismissing them.


 Web Site

John Brockman - The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I’ve always held that if predicting the future was an easy thing to do, all psychics would be millionaires.  I’m reminded of a commercial for IBM with Avery Brooks.  He started the commercial by asking where his flying cars were.  The science fiction of decades past showed everyone going around in their flying cars.  Unfortunately, predictions are vague at best, predicting a trend here or a general direction there.  (This is why I tend not to believe the 2012 doomsday ‘prophecies’.)  Even with vague predictions, we do occasionally get our flying cars.  Not always, though.

Someone had the idea to get together 25 scientists to predict what the future will hold for their respective fields.  Each person wrote an essay about what major advancements they foresaw or what might be necessary for the field to advance.  Since there are 25 different essays, I’m not going to go into detail about each for two reasons.  One, some of the essays tend to be technical or beyond the interest of the average person.  Two, each essay is so short that any detailed analysis would pretty much require me to give away the bulk of it.

The book is divided into two sections.  The first part has to do with theoretical stuff.  For instance, there’s an essay by Martin Rees where he deals with the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.   There may be a high degree of probability of life existing, but what can we expect in terms of receiving proof?  The second half is more practical.  Paul Davies has an essay about life on Mars.  If there is to be colonization of other planets, Mars is a good candidate.  If there was life on other planets in our solar system, Mars is also a good candidate.

As I said, each essay is rather short.  The book is 300 pages total, meaning that each essay is about 12 pages.  I was able to read one or two essays in a sitting, which is about average for me.  This doesn’t mean that it’s going to be an easy read.   It’s not so much that their technical as it probably won’t be of any interest to someone not in the  field.  Most of them don’t get all that technical.   Some of the essays, like those on psychology, are relatively easy to understand if you can get past a few technical names.  It’s just that you may not want to read 300 pages of scientific predictions if you’re not into science.

My sense was that the book was meant for the general reader.  The essays don’t go into a lot of detail on their subject.  Since many of the scientists have overlapping fields, there will be some overlap in the essays.  (The Human Genome Project is mentioned in several, mostly in those dealing with disease and psychology.)  If there are a few topics that you’re interested in, like math or computers, you could easily get the book from the library and read just the essays that you want to.

All of the authors did a pretty good job of writing.  There weren’t a lot of technical terms, but it didn’t insult the reader’s intelligence, either.  I think the assumption may be that putting science in the title will scare off a few people.  Because the book deals with science, there does have to be a certain assumption of prior knowledge.  Quantum computing will require a certain understanding of science.

It would be interesting to come back in the year 2050 and see how many of the essays have come true.  Yes, some do speak in vague terms, but a few do have specific predictions.  Richard Dawkins predicts that everyone will have their DNA sequenced, as the technology to do so will become cheaper.  It won’t be uncommon to give your doctor access to this information to see how best to treat you.

You could probably get a book out of each essay.  If I had been asked to do this project, I probably would have done it as a series of books, or at least several volumes.  There could have been one on psychology and medicine while another handled math or quantum physics.

All things considered, I’d recommend checking the book out of the library.  I don’t know that you’ll be able to follow enough of it that it would justify the purchase price, but it’s definitely worth a look. 

Elizabeth Moon - The Speed of Dark

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The Speed of Dark is about Lou Arrendale. Lou is autistic, but is able to function in society. The book is sent somewhere in the (presumably) near future. Shortly after Lou was born, treatments were developed to prevent children from being born with autism. Lou was able to benefit from some treatments for adults, but still requires accommodations at his job, where he analyzes patterns for a large pharmaceutical company.

Pete Aldrin supervises Lou’s group. (All of the members of the group have autism.) He seems nice enough. The one that Lou has to worry about is Mr. Crenshaw, who seems to have it in for the group. He wants to eliminate the division or at least get rid of the special accommodations, stating that it would cut costs. No one in Lou’s group can figure this out, citing that most of the accommodations have been bought and paid for; the cost of upkeep is very minimal.

Eventually, Lou figures out that there must be something bigger going on and he’s right. Crenshaw is pressuring them to take an experimental treatment. Lou and several others don’t want to take part in the experiments. They also realize that it’s illegal to be pressured. (Crenshaw tries to choose his wording carefully, so as to hide behind technicalities.)

The new treatment makes up most of the plot, although Lou does have other problems to worry about like someone that’s out to hurt him. (The person actually plants a bomb in his car.) Most of the book is narration by Lou. It becomes obvious early on that Lou doesn’t use contractions, which is somewhat distracting. During the narration, Lou points out several things he doesn’t get, such as phrases that he takes too literally. He also doesn’t understand facial expressions.

I thought the plot was thin. Lou went between home, work, a fencing club and church, with the primary focus on work and the fencing club. The primary story line was the experiment; the stalker ended up being sort of a side note to reinforce the main point, which is that autism isn’t something that should necessarily be ‘cured’.

The procedure that Lou and the others were being coerced into taking would essentially eliminate any traces of autism while leaving the rest of their personalities unaffected. The procedure had yet to be tested on humans, which only added to the desire to resist. It was entirely possible that the procedure would fail on humans and have undesirable side effects or that the people performing the experiments would try to do more than just eliminate their autistic attributes.

The real focus of the book is to ask what normal is. Is it right to say that Lou would be cured of autism? Granted, there are those that have severe limitations, but is it right to change them? (Pete Aldrin had a brother who is very severe and under professional care; hopefully, the procedure would help him.) However, just as Lou has a rigid view of the world, there are those that have a rigid view of abnormal. 

elizabethmoon.com

Terry McMillan -- It's OK if You're Clueless and 23 More Tips for the College Bound

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

In my quest to find really easy things to review, I decided to go to several local libraries to see if they had any small, easy-to-read books.  Scanning the stacks for books that were physically small, I found this one.   It looked like a simple read, so I checked it out and brought it home.

The book is based on a commencement speech that she gave at her son’s high school graduation.  As you might have gathered from the subtitle, there are 24 pieces of advice that Ms. McMillan has to give to prospective college students.  The title refers to her advice that you don’t need to know what to major in right away.  (Chapter 11 is called “It’s OK if You’re Clueless About What to Major In.”)

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve been out of high school.  You may be wondering why I’d read this book to review it.  It hasn’t been so long that I’ve completely forgotten college.  I do remember going to classes, although I didn’t go away to college.  This is going to affect my perception of the advice given here.  Chapter 16 is called “Bring Your Dirty Laundry Home”.  This chapter wouldn’t make much sense to someone who is living at home throughout college.

Some are universal.  Chapter 9 is “Success Should Not Be Based on Fame or How Much Money You Make.”  Here, she points out that there are plenty of miserable rich people.  There are also plenty of happy people that no one knows about.

There’s one chapter on moderating alcohol intake.  It seems a little lax for a parent to not ban alcohol and drug use outright.  I’m wondering if there were some officials at her son’s high school that were having heart attacks while no one was looking, but the chapter is more an admission that alcohol will be available to college students and as a warning that going overboard with drugs is not the responsible thing to do.

It’s kind of hard to recommend such a short book that’s geared towards such a limited audience.  If I was going away to college, I don’t know that I would have bought a book like this.  Instead, I think it would have been a nice gift from someone.  It’s a quick read and while it’s not necessarily wisdom for the ages, I probably would have picked up some useful information from it.

I’m not a parent, so I don’t know how parents would view the book.  There’s one section advising students to call home frequently.  I’m wondering how many parents got this book for a child only to have them call every five minutes.  (There’s also a section advising children not to listen to their parents, but it’s meant as a warning to not let your parents relive their own glory.)

As I said, the book is short.  The version I got is only 43 pages long.  With an introduction and 24 chapters, each section will be very short.  Chapter 17 is only two sentences long.  (I call them chapters; each is a different piece of advice.)  If you have a child going away to college, I’d consider getting this book, but you might want to give it a read before you give it to them.  Chapter 17 advises students to beg for money every chance they get.

terrymcmillan.com

David Wilton - Word Myths: Debunking Linguisitic Urban Legends

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are many theories on where words and phrases come from.  Few are entirely correct.   For instance, there’s a certain four-letter word that’s said to stand for Fornication Under Consent of King.  Or is it Fornication Under Command of King?  Or, maybe it’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.  (No, wait… that last one’s a Van Halen album.)  Whatever your acronym of choice is, you’re wrong.  The word goes way back to a Germanic root.

Word Myths deals with all sorts of urban legends and stories concerning words, terms and phrases.  The whole nine yards is said to have to do with the amount of cloth necessary to make a kimono or a kilt or some other garment.  It may also refer to the length that machine-gun bullets come it, meaning that to go the whole nine yards is to expend all the rounds.  There’s no proof that any of these are true.

The book goes deals with so many different myths that it doesn’t really spend much time on any given term.  At most, you may get a page or two and the pages aren’t really that big.  It doesn’t seem to be meant as an in-depth study of anything.  Instead, it’s more for a casual reader that’s interested in word origins.  (If you want something with more detail, there are other books and movies you might want to look into.  The aforementioned curse word has its own documentary, as does the N word.)

The introduction was a little boring and repetitive.  It took me several false starts to get into the book for that reason.  Once I got past that, it wasn’t so bad, mostly because of the short sections.  That and the small size of the book make for an easy read.  I could see where it would get boring, though.

I apologize for the short review, but there really isn’t much to review.  As it’s nonfiction, there’s no real plot to discus.  The subject matter is pretty basic.  It’s not like I can give you a rundown of characters or a brief plot description.  If I were to go into even a small amount of detail on each myth covered, there would be no point in reading the book.  The best I can do is give you a general idea of what the book is like.

This is one of those books I’d recommend getting from the library rather than buying for yourself.  If you’re going to buy it, get it as a gift for someone else.  Yes, it could be used for reference, but there’s not enough detail on each myth that I think it would be worth it.  I think the overall theme of the book and the message I took from it is to bee a little more skeptical when someone tells you a story or forwards a story to you.  You never know how much of it is true.

wordorigins.com

 

Bill Moyers - Welcome to Doomsday

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

 
I decided to look for some small books that I could read at the library without having to check out and take home.  I came across Welcome to Doomsday, which is apparently a transcript of a speech given by Bill Moyers.  In the lecture, he speaks of the religious right and their presence in American politics.

He feels that such a presence is dangerous because someone who believes the rapture is upon us doesn’t have proper motivation to protect the environment.  Forget the belief that God gave us a planet to use as we pleased.  If Jesus is going to come tomorrow and take you to Heaven, what do you care if the planet is shot today?

The speech refers to it being Bush’s sixth year, which would make it about four years old.  Things have changed a little.  We have a different President in office, but we do have a midterm election coming up, if I recall.  The president isn’t the only one with political influence; Moyer points out  that there are plenty of senators and representatives that have strong Evangelical constituencies.

There’ s a preface by Bill McKibben.  McKibben seems to agree with Moyers in that the Republicans worry him.  The book seems to indicate that Evangelicals and/or Republicans are solely to blame for the environmental mess we’re in now.  The Bush Administration, according to the book, is the one that wants to roll back all of the environmental legislation like regulations governing clean air and water or protection for endangered species.

I’m a liberal atheist.  I don’t belong to any political party.  I think it’s too easy to blame Republicans or Democrats or Evangelicals.  What we need is elected officials that will help protect the planet.  I’m also curious as to how many Evangelicals actually believe in rapture and how many of those don’t actually think it’s necessary to protect the planet.  (In other words, how do Evangelicals feel about how they’re portrayed in the book?)

One of the problems with a speech, especially such a short one, is that you can throw out some facts and innuendo.  There may be truth to what Moyers says, but I’ve learned not to take one person’s take at face value.   The book is worth reading, but I wouldn’t stop here.  I’d recommend getting several viewpoints on the subject.

It’s a very short book, which is why I chose it for review.  It’s only 56 pages; each page is relatively small, making the book easy to read in one sitting.  This book doesn’t really give any solid facts like statistics.  It’s more of a warning not to take the Bible literally as some people have.  It seems to be the opinion of Bill Moyers.  I’m not saying that this is good or bad.  As with any subject, I’d recommend getting at least a few different sources, whether or not this is one of them. 

 

 

Moyers & Company 

 

Bill McKibben's Web Site

David Simon - Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

Note: This review was originally posted to my Epinions account. 

Many years ago, there was a TV show called Homicide: Life on the Streets.  It was based on this book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.  Being a fan of the show, I decided to pick up a copy.  The book is written by David Simon, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun.  In the book, Simon follows the Baltimore Police Department for a year.  (Simon wrote the about the police for the Sun, so writing this book wasn’t much of a stretch.)

As you might expect, the book takes place in Baltimore. It’s mostly in chronological order with a few exceptions.  In the book, you get to read a lot of detail that you normally wouldn’t get in a movie or TV show.  The book goes into a lot of detail about how criminals are caught and tricks that police use to get suspects to confess.

In the book Simon explains how few cases are ever made on evidence alone.  Witnesses forget or move; things like prints are circumstantial; even video doesn’t always mean anything.  A certain percentage of suspects will never see the inside of a courtroom.  Even those that make it to pretrial may get dismissed on a technicality.  For this reason, police are given some leeway in interrogating a suspect.  Most cases are cleared based on confession rather than trial.

Sometimes, they do catch a break, such as finding the murderer standing over the dead body and saying that they’re proud to have killed the person.  It’s not like TV, though.  Many times, the person believed to have committed a murder doesn’t go to jail.

It’s also a physically demanding job, and it‘s not just running after people.  If I recall correctly, the detectives would rotate shifts, meaning that they would have to work mornings one week, afternoons the next and nights the week after that.

The first year of Homicide: Life on the Streets relied heavily on this book, so if you’ve seen the show recently, you’ll probably recognize many of the characters and cases from the book as the people and events that they were based on.  This isn’t to say that it would ruin the book for you.  As I said, I was a fan of the show while it was on.  I had basically wanted to read the source material for the show.

Even if you haven’t seen the show, it’s worth the read.  As I said, many people watch police procedurals and think that every criminal is caught, or at least identified.  This isn’t the case.  Many cases go unsolved.  Many detectives spend their entire careers trying to put someone in jail only to have to retire knowing the case will never be resolved.

I’d recommend buying this book.

Lee Smolin - Three Roads to Quantum Gravity

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Quantum gravity isn’t a subject for everyone. I’ve been reading a few books on it recently and this book is the most recent. For those that don’t know, the theory of quantum gravity is one of several attempts to unify the theories that deal with large-scale things, like planets, and the theories that deal with small-scale things, like electrons and other subatomic particles. It would essentially create one theory that explains everything from the largest object down to the smallest possible particle.

I hadn’t heard of the author, Lee Smolin, before I came across this book. However, he does have a firm grasp of the subject. According to the back of the book, he’s a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and Professor of Physics at Waterloo University.

If you haven’t heard of quantum theory before, you’ll probably need to do some reading before you start this book. It’s not that the information is unclear. It’s just that you might not catch everything. It’s like trying to drive a sports car if you’ve never driven before. You’ll have to work your way up. Someone new to this kind of science in general will probably be confused after the first few chapters.

The author admits that the book is meant for the “intelligent layperson”. He hasn’t assumed a previous knowledge of the book’s subject. However, physics isn’t really what you’d call an ‘easy’ subject. Some of the stuff you may remember from high-school or college science. Much of it will be new to you.

You’re probably wondering about the three roads that the title refers to. They refer to three methods of uniting large-scale and small-scale physics. One is M Theory. (No one is really sure what the ‘M’ stands for.) Another is Loop Quantum Gravity, referred to as LQG. The third is Black-Hole Thermodynamics. The answer could be on one of these ‘roads’ or some combination of all three.

The book deals with all three. However, instead of devoting a section to each ‘road’, the book is written chronologically, which does make it easier to understand. The three areas of research have some things in common and may one day prove to be parts of the same thing.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in physics. There were a few parts that were somewhat difficult to understand, but the book as a whole was easy to read. For someone who knows at least something about physics, the book is fairly easy to understand. The chapters are very well organized and presented. The author does a good job of explaining things. The only complaint that I had was that at times, it seemed like the author was almost bragging, telling about certain things that he’s done. However, it does help to have someone that’s done work in the field, which makes feeling like that unavoidable. I’d give the book four stars. 

Quantum Physics Overview (about.com)

Quantum Mechanics (pbs.org)

Lynne Truss - Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I remember once I was at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Throughout the zoo, they had several signs posted about “Free Ranging Monkeys.” I turned to my father and said that I liked free stuff as much as the next guy, but I had no idea what a ranging monkey was. (What they had probably meant to say was “Free-ranging Monkeys.”) That was many years ago.

It wasn’t until just recently that I found a book for people like me. “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” is Lynne Truss’s way of telling the world what she thinks of a particular movie title (“Two Weeks Notice”) and various other grammatical mistakes, many of which she blames on greengrocers.

There’s one chapter dedicated to apostrophes, mostly because people find it so difficult to tell when to use one. It would seem that possessives confuse a lot of people, especially when it comes to ‘its’ and ‘it’s’. (‘Its’ is possessive while ‘it’s’ is a contraction for ‘it is’ or ‘it was’.) There’s also another chapter dedicated to the comma. (For some reason, people seem to have trouble with the comma, as well as the apostrophe.) Truss points out several examples where a well-placed comma could have made a difference, as in the joke to which the title refers. (For those that haven’t heard it, it’s printed on the back of the book.)

The book also covers the colon, semicolon, dashes and several other punctuation marks, but not in as much detail. That’s because commas and apostrophes seem have the greatest impact on how we read a sentence. Consider the words, “woman without her man is savage”. (This is actually brought up in the book.) One way of punctuating it is: “Woman, without her man, is savage.” You could also go with, “Woman: Without her, man is savage.” Notice how commas make all the difference. As I’ve mentioned, dashes also have a great impact and are also covered in detail.

Truss is British and wrote the book for a British audience. No attempt was made to rewrite or edit the book for American audiences, but it doesn’t really matter. Most readers shouldn’t have a problem with the book. Many of the differences are in terminology. What Americans call a period, the British call a full stop. (I have to wonder: if a period is a full stop, is a comma a rolling stop?)

I’m tempted to recommend this book just to certain people, and I don’t just mean those within the Epinions community. However, I’d recommend this book to anyone who writes. Truss writes that the fluid nature of the Internet and the popularity of email and text messaging are partly responsible for the decline of punctuation and the language in general. (This isn’t the first time that I’ve heard such a sentiment.) I haven’t noticed it as much, probably because I deal mostly with people that hold themselves to a higher standard. (In other words, I’d like to think that I’ve chosen my friends well.)

The main reason that I’m recommending this book is the clarity with which it’s written. Anyone, British or American, can pick up this book and understand what’s being said and why the author can’t stand certain mistakes and what, if anything, she’d like to see people do about it. You wouldn’t think that you could take a subject like punctuation and keep it interesting for 204 pages, but Truss did it.

For all those that cringe whenever you see misplaced or misused punctuation, you can feel better knowing that there are others like you out there. For those that don’t cringe, this book was written for you.

'Eats, Shoots & Leaves':  Punctuation, Long Abused, Makes a Comeback

Amir D. Aczel - Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Anyone who took math in high school would remember the Pythagorean theorem. It states that the sum of the squares of the two sides of a right triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse. (More basically, that a squared plus b squared equals c squared.) Then, along came Fermat, who stated that two is the only whole-number power greater than one to which this equation is possible, at least with whole numbers as a and b. This means that you could have A cubed plus B cubed equaling C cubed. Supposedly, Fermat had proof, but he never wrote it down.

In the 300 years since Fermat wrote that down, many great minds have tried to figure out how to prove (or disprove) what became known as Fermat’s Last Theorem. This book shows many of the major players and how they went about trying to get the answer, which was eventually solved. (Yes, it was an extremely difficult problem.)

I thought the book was a little short. It was only 147 pages, which made for an easy read. While the book covered the subject matter pretty well, it didn’t go into a lot of detail. There were many mathematical theorems and proofs that built up to the proof for Fermat’s Last Theorem; someone that doesn’t know a lot about higher math will probably be lost. I was able to follow the book, but there were still a few things that I didn’t know much about.

Instead of focusing on the mathematical detail, the book is more of a historical account of what happened. For instance, Fermat lived for another 26 years, I believe, after writing out his famous equation. In that time, he never bothered to write out his proof. It’s believed that his proof was much simpler than the one we have now, mostly because it used a lot of math that Fermat didn’t have available. However, we’ll never know if Fermat actually had a proof or if he just wrote out this equation on a whim.

(On a side note, there was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Captain Picard mentions Fermat’s Last Theorem, stating that it hadn’t yet been solved. That episode aired a few years prior to the finding of the solution.)

One thing that I noticed, and I might be imagining this, is that it seemed like there was a lot of repetition. I know that I wasn’t repeating any pages, but there were some passages that seemed familiar, as if I had just read them a few pages back. Maybe I had accidentally gone back a few pages, but I doubt it.

I’d give this book four stars, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. You will need some understanding of math. It may be somewhat difficult for the average person. If you’re into math, this would be a good book to read. 

Fermat's Last Theorem on Wolfram Mathworld

A Short-Form Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem

The Directory Of Signs & Signals: A Guide To Signs, Codes And Signals From Across The World

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I’ve always had an interest in communication, whether it be learning to communicate or different forms of communication.  Usually, I’ll read newspaper articles or get books from the library.  When I came across a book on signs and signals that was on sale, I decided to pick up a copy.

It’s a fairly simple book that covers various forms of nonverbal communication.  There are five groupings of signs and signals in the book:  Distance communication, personal communication, survival, sports and miscellaneous.  Each section is further divided into a few forms of signs.  Distance communication has semaphore, Morse code and maritime signal flags.  Personal communication has Braille, American Sign Language, British Sign Language and Emoticons.  Survival has ground-to-air signals, body signals and trail signs.  Sports is American football hand signals, soccer hand signals and motor-racing flags.  Miscellaneous is simply trading signals and weather symbols.  There are tabs on the side of the pages to make it easy to find each main section.

Each of the sections is broken down into two or three subsections.  There’s a brief (two-page) overview of the system, covering things like how it was invented or how it’s used.  There’s usually a few pages showing all of the symbols.  After that is several pages showing larger images of each symbol.  So, the semaphore section will have two pages, one showing A-O and the next showing P-Z, error and numerical sign.  After that comes pages showing two letters at a time.  Each letter is shown with an image of a head, feet and hands holding the flags.

With American Sign Language and British Sign Language, it’s just the letters and maybe one or two words.  There’s nothing on grammar or syntax or anything.  If you wanted to learn sign language, this would be a very basic introduction.  If you were going camping and wanted to know about using trail signs or ground-to-air communication, I’d recommend getting a better book than this.  I don’t think that this is meant to be comprehensive.

The subtitle indicates that the signals are supposed to be from across the world.  Yes, Morse code is used internationally, but there does seem to be a slant towards British and American.  Things like Braille and Morse code don’t even have international letters.  Other languages, like French and German, use letters that aren’t included in this book.

I feel compelled to write a very long review, but there’s not that much to the book.  It consists mostly of pictures with very little writing to it.  What writing there is doesn’t really go into much detail.  I’m sure that there are must more detailed books out there, especially on sign languages.  If you were interested in the history of Morse code or Braille, I’m sure you could find books dedicated to either one.  The book is nice to look at, but I don’t think is intended to be full-on reference.

That said, it’s worth getting if you can get it on sale.  I don’t know that I’d recommend paying more than a few dollars for it.

Ian Spector - The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the World Greatest Human

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Every so often, I have the urge to look up Chuck Norris facts.  (He’s a pretty amazing guy.  Did you know that he makes onions cry?)  I’ve always wondered why Chuck Norris and where all of these ‘facts’ came from.  I’m not sure about the first part, but Ian Spector started the meme.  (Actually, the particular celebrity was put to a vote.  Chuck Norris was the winner.)  Spector created a site with a random fact generator and eventually saw fit to make a book.  I’ve known about the meme for a while.  I came across the book in a bag of books from my aunt.  I decided to look through it to see if I wanted to keep it.

At the risk of incurring a roundhouse kick from Mr. Norris, I may have to pass.  It’s not that the facts aren’t funny.  Many are.  There’s not going to be a lot of replay value, though.  I don’t think I’ll be reading the book a second time, especially considering that many of the facts are available online.  (Go to Google and look them up.  There’s even a Twitter account.)  I find that when I buy books like this, I often put them in a bookcase and forget about them.  Even when I come back to them, I may look at one or two and put it back.

Normally, I’d spend a few paragraphs about the plot, but there really is none.  It’s a series of mostly one-liners about how awesome Chuck Norris is.  One common theme is roundhouse kicks.  (One of the facts, in fact, is that he lives in a round house.)  Many are similar to The Most Interesting Man in the World ads.  (Chuck Norris can speak Braille.)

As you can tell, the ‘facts’ aren’t real.  They’re meant to be humorous.  I suppose that most of it comes from the fact that Chuck Norris has the name recognition, but not everyone loves him.  In fact, I’ve never met anyone that was a huge fan of his work.  I’ve heard him talk about the jokes and he doesn’t seem to mind the attention.  In this sense, he’s the perfect subject for the jokes.

If you’re wondering what kind of gift it would make, I’d advise caution.  Many of them are safe for general audiences.  There are a lot of goofy jokes, like Chuck Norris beating several tough animals by tying them together with an Anaconda.  There are some vulgar jokes.  Yes, there are penis jokes.  There are also four-letter words.  I might buy this book for one of my brothers or a friend, but definitely not my grandmother.  This is another case where the binary ‘recommend to a friend’ is difficult.  It’s the kind of gift that you’ll probably know whether or not they’ll like it.  I just don’t know that I’d ever buy it for myself. 

Chuck Norris Facts

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

 

I remember seeing these stickers all around town many years ago.  It read, “What is God?/God is love.”  Carl Sagan has a slightly different interpretation of God.  It’s not that he doesn’t believe in God.  It’s simply that he defines God as the sum of all the rules of physics, chemistry and other sciences that the universe has set forth for us.

The Varieties of Scientific Experience is the printed transcripts of his Gifford Lectures, in which he goes over various scientific topics like extraterrestrial intelligence, Darwin and our changing image of where we fit into the universe.  The book is divided into nine chapters, although I’m not sure if it was one long lecture, nine shorter lectures or somewhere in between.

The first chapter is called Nature and Wonder: A Reconnaissance of Heaven, which deals mostly with the universe and the various things to be found in it, such as stars, galaxies, supernovae and so forth.  The second is called The Retreat from Copernicus:  A Modern Loss of Nerve and is about the various theories of Earth, the universe and how old everything is.  The third chapter is called The Organic Universe and deals with evolution and the possibility of life in and beyond our solar system.

Chapters four and five, Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Extraterrestrial Folklore: Implications for the Evolution of religion deal with, as you might expect, alien life.  This is where he gets into things like the Drake Equation and abduction theories.  Sagan treats extraterrestrial life with the same skepticism as he does religion.  As much as one might want to believe that there are aliens out there, we have no definitive proof that they exist.  He does deal with the various ways that we might encounter and/or detect their presence, like radio waves.

In chapters six and seven, he gets into religion and how religion was often at odds with science.  Some have even tried to use science to prove the existence of God.  Sagan doesn’t buy into any of the supposed proofs.  At one point, he asks why God would put so much proof into the Bible, but leave such a small amount of proof in everyday life.  It would be hard to deny the existence of a God if he had a very large crucifix in orbit or was able to put some undeniable scientific truth in the Bible.

Chapter eight deals with how life on our planet might be destroyed.  It looks at nuclear war and objects hitting the Earth.  The threat of nuclear war is real and life could easily come to an end by our own hand.  The last chapter ties everything up.  Sagan tries to give us a sense of how small we are compared to the cosmic background.  After chapter nine are selected questions presented to Sagan by the audience and answers he gave.  This is definitely worth reading.  (Some of the questions were lost due to poor recording instruments.)

The overriding theme of the book seems to be to not take things at face value.  Those that argue against science say that it’s supposed to be perfect, but it’s not.  It may try to put us closer to perfection.  It may give us a set of rules that work very well, but to say that we will definitely attain perfection is a mistake.  We cannot even take what we know of science at face value.  One of the core tenants is to keep checking what we know verses what we see.

On that note, I’ve never been clear as to why radio transmissions have been our best bet for alien contact.  Sure, it’s the only means by which we can look right now, but I’m not sure why an alien civilization would necessarily be using it or why we’d be able to know that some alien transmission is what we’re looking for.  I suppose that it’s possible that an alien civilization might pick up ours and figure it out, but that’s assuming that they’re even looking.

The book isn’t long-winded or boring.  The copy I got from the library is 260 pages including the Q&A section.  It’s very easy to read a chapter at a time.  This is partly due to the pictures in the book.  Many of the pictures were used in the lecture, although a few were replaced with better versions.  The lectures took place in 1985 while the book wasn’t published until 2006.

I can’t say for certain that there is no God, but if there is a God, I doubt very much that God is anything like in the Bible or any other religious book.  I don’t think that we could possibly understand that kind of God.  Instead, I would tend to think as Sagan does that we have an entire universe set before us and it’s up to us to figure it out.  I’ve never understood why someone would accept creationism based on the word of one book, yet discount evolution despite the evidence.

I’d recommend reading the book.  I realize that there are probably people on both sides of the science/religion debate that are firm in their beliefs and either won’t read it or will come into it with some sort of preconceived notion.  Don’t do this, as it will take away from the book.  One thing I like about the book is Sagan’s ability to set up reasoning as to why he believes as he does.  Sure, people will challenge his beliefs.  This is what science is about.  I’m not saying that I’m always right.  I’d simply ask you to make a lucid counterargument.

Admittedly, a few things here ore there were left out for the sake of making the book more readable.  If anyone reading this was present at the lectures, I’d like to know how true the book is to what was actually said.

Feel free to leave comments.

Google Books page

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum (e-book)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are a lot of movies based on books.  I didn’t realize it at first, but The Wizard of Oz was based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  He never intended to write any sequels, but he did.  The first of these was The Marvelous Land of Oz.  (Since the books have long since fallen into the public domain, I was able to download both as ebooks from Project Gutenberg.)  Granted, this is a children’s book.  As such, it is somewhat simple.  However, this isn’t to say the book isn’t worth reading.

The movie.roughly follows the first book. Dorothy Gale travels to a strange land and is sent to The Wizard of Oz to find a way back to Kansas, which she does.  This book picks up some time after that.  A boy named Tip wants to get away from Mombi, who has ‘cared’ for him since birth.  (I say ‘cared’ because he’s more of a servant.)  He intends to scare Mombi with a scarecrow, but the best he can do is Jack Pumpkinhead.  (As you might expect, his distinguishing feature is a pumpkin for a head.)  When Mombi finds him she uses her powder of life to animate him.  Tip and Jack run away, taking the powder of life and a sawhorse, which they also animate.

They eventually meet General Jinjur and her all-girl army.  They plan to take over The Emerald City (the seat of power for Oz) with knitting needles.  They feel that it’s unfair that the central city has all the wealth and that women are subservient to men.  (While their complaints may be fair, who brings a knitting needle to a knife fight?)  Tip, Jack and the sawhorse have to get to the Emerald City to warn the Scarecrow, who has been ruling in The Wizard's absence.

Despite the fact that they get there first, Jinjur and her army succeed.  The Scarecrow is chased out of The Emarald City on a Gump. (Actually, it’s a collection of items with a Gump’s head, which was made to fly and brought to life with the powder of life.  As if that’s any less confusing.)  They meet The Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated Wogglebug, who agrees to help them reclaim the city.

Meanwhile, Jinjur enlists the help of Mombi.  She’s able to use trickery to help Jinjur, but it’s not enough.  Jinjur’s army is chased out of the palace and eventually the city.  It turns out that the Scarecrow doesn’t reclaim his throne, which he didn’t particularly want to keep in the first place.  Tip has a little secret, which I won’t spoil.

Just like the first book was made into The Wizard of Oz, elements of this book and Ozma of Oz were made into the 1975 movie Return to Oz.  There’s also a prequel movie that came out called Oz the Great and Powerful.  I’d imagine that there will be a lot of interest in the books.

From what I’ve seen of the first two books, it’s probably best to read them in order.  Even though Dorothy and several other characters from the first book don’t make an appearance in this one, they are mentioned.  I don’t know that you’d be lost, but you probably would miss a lot if you read this book before The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

As it is intended for children, there will be a lot of things that seem silly.  (Take the use of knitting needles as weapons.)  There are a lot of contradictions, as in the first book, though.  The Scarecrow rules Oz, but would be just as happy not to.  You have The Gump, a being that doesn’t want to be.  And then there’s the Wogglebug, a creature that you wouldn’t think would be capable of intelligence, but is able to help.

I really only found out about the first book through the first movie.  It wasn’t until I looked up the book that I found out about the sequels.  If you have children, this would be a good book to read them, although you might want to get a copy with the illustrations.  If you’re just interested in reading the books for yourself, the ebooks are probably the way to go.  They lack the illustrations, but they’re free and you can probably find a version for your device.  (I was able to download both books for the iPod touch.)

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum on Project Gutenberg

Malba Tahan - The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures

Note:  This is a review I originally posted to my Epinions account.

I actually found this book by accident. After reading another math-related book, I decided to look in the library for other similar books. I couldn't find what I was looking for, but I came across this book, the story of Beremiz Samir, a man who has exceptional math skills. The story is told by Hanak Tade Maia and starts when the two meet. Beremiz demonstrates to Hanak the unusual abilities that he has and the two become traveling companions.

Much of the story takes place in Baghdad. Beremiz solves many problems for many people. The first one that he solves is for three brothers who have inherited 35 camels. The problem is that one of them is to receive half of the camels, which is impossible since 35 is not divisible by two. Beremiz comes up with an ingenious solution. From there, the problems get more complicated, but Beremiz handles them with ease. As the problems he solves become more difficult, his fame increases, as well. He is eventually tested by seven wise men and passes all of the challenges put before him. In so doing, he gets what he wants most.

I don't want to give away too much because that would take away from the book. You don't have to be a math nut to enjoy it. All of the solutions that Beremiz came up with were explained simply enough for anyone to understand. While I think that the story itself is fiction, there are some interesting mathematical curiosities. There's one section on getting any whole number out of four fours. For instance, 1 is 44 divided by 44. 2 is four fourths plus four fourths, or 1 plus 1.

This book was translated by Leslie Clark and Alastair Reed and illustrated by Patricia Reid Baquero. Aside from the cover, the illustrations were at the beginning of each chapter and in black and white. They were simple, but worked well with the story. I actually looked forward to each new illustration.

There was something about the story that made me not want to stop reading. I like math, but I don't think that was it. It's mostly to see how good this guy really is. You have to wonder if Beremiz will ever be presented with a problem that he can't solve. That's just it, though. While Beremiz's skills are very rare, the book illustrates how useful math is.

I'd recommend this book to anyone. There was a religious aspect that might turn some people off, but I don't think that it was offensive to anyone. It shouldn't be a problem to the vast majority of the people. Most of the religious references weren't too much. The chapters were short, which made for an easy read. I almost read the entire thing in the library, but I had to be somewhere, so I checked it out and brought it home. Five stars.

WIkipedia page

Publxihser Web Site

Flashforward by Robert J Sawyer

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I first became aware of this book through the ABC’s TV show of the same name.  Disappointed that ABC has put it on hiatus for several months, I decided that I would use the time to at least read the book.  This way, I could see how the show held up to the book.

The book starts with Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides conducting an experiment with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.  They want to find the Higgs boson, which theoretically gives mass to all particles.  Everything is controlled perfectly by machine.  Nothing should go wrong, but something does.

Just as the clock strikes 5:00 p.m. local time, everyone passes out.  Lloyd sees himself lying in bed with a woman that looks unfamiliar.  When everyone wakes up, most of the people had some sort of vivid dream.  Theo seems to be the only notable exception, which bothers him.  He passed out at 5:00 and woke up a few minutes later with no gap in consciousness.

It turns out that the entire world passed out at exactly the same time.  About a third of the world’s population was sleeping at the time, but there were a lot of people driving, on a plane or undergoing surgery.  This meant that a lot of people didn’t survive.  Everyone at CERN assumes that the experiment was the cause of the accident.  Even though there was no way that he could have known, Lloyd feels guilty.

The first part of the book deals with the fallout and potential ramifications of what happened.  What, exactly, happened?  All security footage shows static, so there’s no way to know what happened during the blackout.  Also, what happened to the experiment?  Again, there’s no record of anything happening.  CERN’s director is worried about lawsuits, so Lloyd agrees to hold off on any press conferences.

People start talking with each other and soon the world realizes that they’ve gotten a glimpse into their futures.  A project called Mosaic is formed, allowing people to post what happened.  First, the exact date that people got to see is established.  People got to see approximately 20 years into the future.  South Africa will be known under a different name in the future.  There will be an African-American president.  No female president will have been elected, but the Catholic Church will have ordained women.

One of the big discussions among the scientists is the issue of free will versus fate.  Theo believes that the universe is determined and the flash forward reinforces that.  It does raise a problem for him, though.  How can he go through with his marriage to a woman that he knows he won’t stay married to?  How will the marriage play out, if at all?

Theo has to think that there’s a chance at changing the future.  He posts his story and asks if anyone has news on him.  It turns out that he will be murdered, but details are not forthcoming.  He has to think that he might live.  After all, all it would take to change the future is for some landmark that still exists two decades hence to be taken down.  People do try, though.  Stock markets are closed for this very reason.  People even get the idea to try and put together winning lottery numbers.

It seems that there is also a bit of self reinforcement.  Knowing that China will still be communist in the future quells all resistance.  (One thing that wasn’t mentioned was risk compensation.  People that know that they’ll be alive in 20 years may be more prone to take risks.)

But why be given a vision if you weren’t meant to do anything about it?  Theo’s brother realizes that he won’t be where he wants to be in 20 years.  This causes him to wonder what the point of going on is.  He tells Theo that millions of people must be going through the same thing, wondering what the point of going on is if they don’t have the family or career that they want.  It will be hard for all of these people to wake up every morning knowing that they will all eventually fail.

Yes, they do try the experiment again.  I don’t want to say too much for fear of giving away major details.  For those that have seen the TV show thus far, don’t worry.  The TV show seems to be tackling the idea from a different angle, focusing on the investigation rather than the actual event.  I don’t think the TV show will ruin anything for those wanting to read the book.

I feel that the book is much better than the TV show.  Still, it's a shame it didn't get renewed.

Robert J Sawyer's web site

The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime - Miles Harrvey (book review)

Note:  This review was originally posted on Epinions.  It has been modified slightly.

The joke goes that men don’t like asking for directions. One commercial even went so far as to suggest that men don’t even really know what maps are for. It might surprise most people that Gilbert Bland went so far as to actually steal them. Miles Harvey started following the story when he wrote a newspaper article about it. In the book, Harvey expands on the story, including a lot of information on why maps are so valuable. Every so often, he’ll come back to Bland. The detailed information is meant to show why what he did is much worse than most people make it out to be.

Gilbert Bland made his criminal career by removing maps from volumes that were stored in libraries. At the start of the book, Harvey points out that really only librarians and map collectors were pretty much the only ones that cared. Map thieves know that the odds of being caught are pretty low and the odds of receiving any punishment are even lower.  Many libraries hadn’t even been willing to admit that he had stolen from them. In those jurisdictions where Bland did stand trial, it seemed that only one had a judge that was willing to throw the book at him and even then, there wasn’t much that the judge could do in the way of punishment.

You may be asking how Bland even got away with stealing maps. All he needed was a sharp edge, like a razor blade, and a list of which maps to steal. Once Bland had the maps he wanted, he’d put them in a jacket and simply walk off. Few people thought to look at him. Bland was described as having a very generic look. The only reason that anyone caught on to him was that he made the mistake of leaving a notebook behind. (In the notebook was a list of the maps he was looking for and the libraries where he was expecting to find them.)

I almost didn’t read all the way to the end. As I said before, most of the book deals with stories on why maps are so valuable and the trouble that a lot of people went through to explore areas and draw up the maps. There’s one part of the book dealing with modern map companies and the methods they use to tell when another company is illegally using their maps. (Apparently, modern espionage does still involve maps.)

It seemed like the book suffered from the same fate as many Saturday Night Live skits that were made into movies: It was hard to take something that started out as small as a newspaper article and make it into something as big as a book. However, by the end of the book, I was interested in what Harvey had to say. Much of the information is very interesting.

It’s hard to say that anyone would be interested in this. I can see a lot of people simply dismissing it as just some book about maps and never giving it a second thought. Even if you have an interest in criminology, I don’t know that you could necessarily read through the entire thing without losing interest. The truth is that the only reason I got it was that the book was selling for $2.99. Had it been at its full price, I probably would have simply dismissed it as just some book about maps and never given it a second thought.

The book is worth four stars. If you can make it all the way through to the end, you won’t be disappointed. 

Miles Harvey's web site

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (ebook)

Note:  This is a review that I originally posted on Epinions


Warning:  I’m going to give away minor plot details.  Those that have seen the movie shouldn’t be surprised.  I would imagine that most people know the basic story by now.  You’ve been warned.


I remember seeing The Wizard of Oz (the movie) on television growing up.  It’s one of those movies that everyone has at least heard of.  What you may not realize is that the movie was based on a book called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  From what I understand, the book was intended to be a single story, but it was so popular that Baum wrote several more books.  After his death, other authors continued the story.

In this book, we have the same basic set of main characters.  Dorothy Gale is a girl who lives on a bleak farm with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.  One day, a tornado picks up the house with Dorothy and Toto inside and deposit them in Oz.  The House lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her and thus freeing the Munchkins.  She’s told by the Good Which of the North (Glinda in the movie) to seek out Oz, who should be able to send her home.  She picks up the Wicked Witch’s silver slippers.  Along the way, she meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion.  Each wants something that the The Wizard of Oz could provide, so they join Dorothy.

They do meet with the Wizard, despite setbacks.  He tells them that he’s grant their wishes if any one of them kills the Wicked Witch of the West.  She sees this coming, but is unable to kill them.  As in the movie, Dorothy manages to kill the Wicked Witch of the West by throwing water on her, thus freeing the Winkies.

When they return to Oz, the Wizard is reluctant to honor the agreement.  Toto knocks over a screen to reveal the true nature of The Wizard.  The Wizard does his best to help The Scarecrow, The Lion and The Tin Woodsman.  He tells Dorothy that he has a hot-air balloon that can take them back to Kansas.  When Toto jumps out and Dorothy follows, The Wizard ends up leaving by himself.

This leaves Dorothy to find another way home, which The Good Which of the South may know of.  The party sets off to find her.  It turns out that Dorothy could use her magic slippers all along.  Dorothy returns home and all is well.

This is a children’s book.  You may be wondering why I read it.  I had always wondered how the movie related to the book.  When I found the book for free through Project Gutenberg, I decided to read it.  This is one of those cases where a lot was removed from the book.  The book takes place over several weeks, whereas the movie seemed to be much shorter.  Also, the movie treats the adventure as a dream.  In the book, it looks like everything actually happened.  There are also additional characters, such as field mice.  Dorothy and Co. have to cover a much greater territory and get to see a lot more of the lands and people there.

Since you can get it for free on Project Gutenberg, I’d recommend at least starting the book.  The only downside is that it doesn’t include the illustrations, but it does include the illustration captions.  This makes it a little frustrating, but I didn’t pay, so I’m not complaining.  (For those that are wondering, I tried to suggest the ebook version, but was told to simply post it here.)

I can see it being a little too childish for many adults.  I don’t think I would have read the entire thing had it not been for the movie.  I’ve also downloaded the next book in the series, but I haven’t felt as motivated to read it.  I may get around to finishing it, but it would probably only be for the review.