Book Reviewed: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Metaphorical expressions of the American Dream This book is an emblematic of 1920s America, a classic of American literature. It is often studied in schools and colleges for its exploration of the American Dream, symbolism, and the disillusionment. This fiction was inspired by a youthful romance of Fitzgerald with socialite Ginevra King, and the fun he had on New York’s Long Island in 1922. The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young man from the Midwest who moves to Long Island, and becomes a neighbor with a wealthy man named Jay Gatsby. Much of the story is about the wild parties and the wealthy lifestyles in New York. It chronicles the lifestyle of the rich, the dreams of the nouveau riche and the ambitions of the working class through the eyes of Nick Carraway. His life and social relationships with other characters such as Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan are featured in this book. Author Fitzgerald examines money in the light of the economic boom in America. Money is divided into two types: new money and old money. New money is the fortune that self-made millionaires like Gatsby have, and the old money encompasses the inherited wealth of Daisy and Tom Buchanan. Author Scott Fitzerald fronts the main characters but discusses how American dream was an illusion for many in the country. This story is about America itself, and not Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway or the Buchanans. This work has provided an enduring platform in high schools and colleges where the imaginations run wild, and there is an abundance of ideas and interpretations. The Original 1925 Edition has about 110 pages, but this edition has 218 pages including some cool illustrations. Gatsby had four film adaptations, with two big-budget and well-known movies: the 1974 version starring Robert Redford, and the 2013 film with Leonardo DiCaprio. The film adaptations have influenced readers’ understanding of the novel, but there is not one best Great Gatsby movie that fully captures the spirit of the book. If we compare this with Lee Harper’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which has just one film adaptation that critics consider worthy of the book, and one of the best movies of all time. One of the weaknesses of this book is it fails to go deep into the jazz age and the life in New York. At this time when the city had new immigrants from Italy, and few decades earlier, Irish immigrants, and of course African Americans who were living in Harlem and parts of Brooklyn. Jewish immigrants from Europe were also in living in Manhattan. It was a melting pot of race, culture and values that ran wild. The city had numerous law and order problems, raising Sicilian mafia, gangs operating in Irish and Jewish neighborhoods, and African Americans caught in the middle. Life was tough, but they coexisted and led to creativity. The Harlem renaissance and inventions of Jazz contributed by African Americans, and tap dance to go with jazz was a contribution by Irish and African Americans. Scott Fitzgerald perhaps pities himself that he did not have the life of Jay Gatsby, or he could not overcome the racial and antisemitic prejudices he had while living in New York. Despite all the positives, and some negatives of this book, this work is not free of the “writing tricks” of a sagacious author participating in an essay competition to win the top prize.

Book Reviewed: The Catch of a Lifetime: Moments of Flyfishing by Peter Kaminsky

The passion for flyfishing Fly fishers have a deep connection with nature that allows them to relax more in natural surroundings away from civilization to make fly fishing not only a great a sport but an intimate meditative activity. In this edited book, there are twelve chapters that include fly fishing of trout, Atlantic salmon, steelhead, Pacific salmon, blue marlin, blue fin, bone fish, pike, and others. This is a collection of about seventy-six essays, twelve by women, and three by the editor Peter Kaminsky. This is remarkable because there was a time when fishing was dominantly a man’s sport, but it is brightening find so many women getting involved, and they enjoy the sport as much as the men do. Many of the personal stories narrated by the authors are brilliant expressions of themselves enjoying the fishing life to the fullest. These encounters bring to life recollections, as Paige Wallace describes the sight of a rising trout to the primal shiver of romantic attraction on the dance floor. Hilary Hutcheson describes a trout rising above the surface as a little more than the gentlest kiss with the spinner, but the fisher’s presentation must land as delicately as a falling leaf. Then there is the heart–warming story of a father – daughter’s month-long transcontinental fly-rodding adventure that ends at the Blackfoot river in Missoula, Montana. George Semler and his daughter Hannah Semler describes the natural setting of the river which fascinated years earlier by Norman Maclean in his book “A river runs through it.” Semler recalls that he was bewitched and enchanted by the river. In many ways streams, creeks, brooks, lagoons, and rivers are like living creatures. They exist, grow, and move. They have their mood swings, being angry and being peaceful. A fly fisher who spends time in such an environment comes to an understanding that these waterways have a soul, and one must respect them. You will get a sense of that in the story of Norman Maclane’s fishing in the Montana landscape that engages a reader with profound metaphysical questions. These moments are a physical rapture in the presence of unsullied primitive America that are as beautiful as in the works of Henry David Thoreau and Ernest Hemingway. One of the things that is missing in this book are the photographs that summarize the excitement and joy of the fisher, the moment he/she caught. Many authors recall some of their biggest catches on water, but the reader would like to connect with that moment and imagine how that instant flew for the author. Most essays run from one page to three or four pages.

Book Reviewed: The Central Theme of the Srimad Bhagavatam by Swami Ranganathananda

The practice of Bhakti yoga This is a small book of fifty-six pages that summarizes the principal teachings of Bhagavata Purana (Shrimad Bhagavatam) by Swami Ranganathananda, a well-known follower of the Sri Ramakrishna Math order. Swamiji brings his spiritual knowledge of Dvaita Vedanta to illustrate the path of Bhakti, the aesthetic delight of Prema or Pure Ecstatic Love for the personal God. This practice, strengthened by jn̄an̄a (knowledge of self) and vairagya (renunciation) leads to breaking free from karma (individual self’s suffering and bondage) that ends to the cycle of birth and death. Shrimad Bhagavatam is a crowning moment for the Dvaita Vedanta philosophy that distinguishes the divine from the individual self. According to this philosophy, the divine is a personal God, distinct from the individual self is in control of this universe. The individual self, on the other hand, is a finite limited entity that is subjected to the laws of the universe. Karma that results from life’s bondage to these laws is viewed as the cause of the individual’s self’s suffering. The only way to break free from karma is to surrender to the personal God. The concept of Maya of Advaita Vedanta is regarded as the cause of the individual self’s ignorance and bondage in Dvaita school of thought. Surrendering to the personal God Lord Krishna brings forth the eternal bliss. The text of Srimad Bhagavatam consists of twelve books (skandhas or cantos) with 335 chapters and 18,000 verses. The tenth book, with about 4,000 verses, the most popular is discussed by the author. The 31st chapter of this mandala is the Gopika Gita singing the praises of Lord Krishna. It illustrates the true love for the personal God; a believer of Bhakti yoga sees Lord Krishna through the eyes and heart of a Gopi. It is a journey to experience the Oneness with the Lord that strengthens the seeker’s relationship with the Divine. The author discusses one important verse from each of the twelve skandhas. A prior knowledge of Bhagavadgita and Srimad Bhagavatam is helpful to appreciate the teachings of Swamiji.

Book Reviewed: The Warped Side of Our Universe: An Odyssey through Black Holes, Wormholes, Time Travel, and Gravitational Waves by Kip Thorne

Spacetime storms This is a sort of children's picture story for adults. Author Kip Thorne's verse encourages readers to read and understand impressionistically than they might if he explained in densely formatted prose with math formulas. It is a neat way for someone to describe the gravitational force, the bending of spacetime around matter, work without physics and math. But in this book he illustrates the physics of gravity with verse and paintings. The goal being not the high level of accuracy but to convey the essence of the science to connect with the reality of the cosmos we live in. This book is a representation of artwork featuring more than one hundred paintings. The painting (illustrations) of gravitational effects does not fully take over but helps in some instances to mentally visualize the effects of spacetime bending. Co-author Halloran’s wife, Felicia Halloran is a frequent character in the book that includes her ghostly figure stretched and squeezed through a spinning black hole. The gravitational waves stretch and squeeze spacetime in orthogonal directions as they travel but it also twists space-time. As Felicia falls into a black hole, her feet spin in one direction while her head rotates in the other. In the paintings this motion is represented by spirals which are referred to as vortenses. Some of the illustrations are unappealing. I question the appropriateness of including Felicia Halloran in this work when her contribution to this book is minimal. The Playboy magazine turned down this painting years ago when the authors were considered for a publication in their journal, but fell through because the sex appeal of her image did not meet the bar of the magazine. The stretching and squeezing of spacetime is measured by the gravitational waves reaching the planet Earth from colliding black holes or neutron stars. The measurable difference is small, four one-thousandths of the diameter of a proton, but this is measured by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) at Hanford, Washington State, and Livingston, Louisiana. This is not the first time Kip Thorne has attempted to do an artistic approach to describing the black hole and its gravitational force, the 2014 film “Interstellar” starring Matthew McConaughey focuses on the black hole where NASA pilot Nolan (McConaughey) careens into the black hole (Gargantua). The movie and the book by Kip Thorne about this movie had numerous inaccuracies, for example, the depiction of the black hole is not accurate according to recent discoveries by the James Webb Telescope. In one painting the author shows how a human being is spaghettified right away if the black hole is young. What if the black hole is large and old, wouldn’t that get her spaghettified right away? If not, why not? In the last chapter, one of the paintings depicts the black hole as strings with the title, Quantum gravity, the physics holy gravity. This image is too fictious because quantum gravity may not exist at all. Attempts to reconcile classical gravity with quantum physics fail because the physical reality we observe is only partial and incomplete. The observable universe is only five percent, and the rest (95 percent) of it is made of dark matter (gravity) and dark energy (anti-gravitational energy). The laws of physics fail inside black holes where the light (photons) is completely controlled by the gravity, and the light speed is not constant. All physics formulas that have “c” the speed of light is inapplicable. The reality as we know outside the black holes will be quite different inside. The so called “spaghettification” is at best a guess work, certainly by string theory and quantum mechanics. The Kip Thorne’s part of this work, the physics in a poetic manner is interesting, but I did not think that the paintings would make this book any more interesting. The illustrations that show how gravitational waves are generated are helpful but most of the paintings are not helpful. In the Wi-Fi world there are numerous artistic sketches about the impact of gravitational force. Images of James Web Telescope, NASA images and illustrations, Space.com, and numerous blogs and web-based newspapers are always giving us the best illustrations of the gravitational waves and gravity.

Book Reviewed: Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford

A tale of pilgrims in America This is the first-person narrative of the pilgrims' adventures and triumphs during their early years in America including their planning years prior to their departure in 1620. The book covers the period of 1620 to 1646, which is the ultimate source for the term 'pilgrims' as applied to the separatist congregation who were looking for total freedom from Church of England, as William Bradford observes that "they knew they were pilgrims" in describing their journey of faith to an unknown land. William Bradford's congregation in England and the others who traveled with him left all of that behind for a vision of a new life in a new world. They had little hope that they would reach the land again. After numerous meetings with merchants, ship builders, and their friends they finalized that a voyage to Virginia in America, which already had a colony from England, would be a good choice. The choice was costly in terms of the loss of human lives and the challenges they faced. Mayflower landed in Cape Cod in the winter of 1620. Between Nov 11 and Dec 21, they explored the area. Earlier English expeditions prior to 1620 by other English colonists had spread disease killing significant Native American population. The expedition by Thomas Hunt had kidnapped a number of natives to be sold into slavery. The Mayflower passengers did not receive a warm welcome from the Nauset tribe when they first met on 8 December 1620. By March of 1621, 50% of the passengers and crew were dead, but the survivors refused to give up and continued building the settlement. Much of the book was written when Bradford was the colonial governor, one of his intentions was to inspire others. The book contains honest expression of a man who inspired many of his believers and freedom seekers. Every passenger who boarded the Mayflower surrendered their former lives in the hope of something better, and they did not look back. This work is the most significant part of early American history.

Book Reviewed: The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka

Do bees have feelings? Trying to understand the mental experience of others is a philosophical, physical, and neurobiological challenge. Experiences are inherently subjective; hence it is hard to know how others experience the realities of life. For example, we know the complete genome of a laboratory mouse, but we do not know what it is like to be a mouse. In this book, the author examines the nervous system, navigational, and learning abilities of bees and tries to find if they have consciousness, and how does it compare to that of human consciousness. The human brain has eighty-six billion neurons, but insects get by with a lot fewer. The honeybee has about one million neurons, and the tiny wasp (Megaphragma mymaripenne) lives with fewer than 10,000 neurons. How does a bee with a small brain produce highly sophisticated behavior? Apparently, the size does not limit their behavioral sophistication because they are wired for efficient information storage and retrieval Bees see different colors than humans, they are sensitive to light, magnetic and electric fields. Thus, they perceive and respond to information that humans do not experience. For example, bumblebees may use minor changes in the electrostatic patterns of flowers to assess which ones have been recently drained by other bees. They also learn to recognize human faces and spatial structures which is significant evolutionary behavior considering their brains are small and lack the specialized module that humans use for facial recognition. The author paints a remarkable picture of bee behavior and psychology in which he argues that bees have sophisticated emotions resembling optimism, frustration, playfulness, fear, and other traits commonly associated with mammals. He observes that bees are sentient and can suffer like advanced life forms as a conviction that creatures without a backbone have rights too. The author’s style of writing and narrating his scientific arguments are engaging by connecting one chapter to the next in a continuous manner. One fact that haunts me is the consciousness debate which needs to address physical (theoretical physics) and philosophical implications and not merely neurobiological and evolutionary attributes. Consciousness is most fundamental like matter and energy. Another surprising thing is that Insect biologists have also been advancing the rights for bees and wasps just as humans and other mammalian species have.

Book Reviewed: Mason-Dixon: Crucible of the Nation by Edward G. Gray

The American Frontier King Charles I of England granted the Calvert Family a charter for the Colony of Maryland in 1632,, and in 1681, Charles II awarded the Penn Family a similar charter for Pennsylvania. However, a dispute over a sixty-nine-mile parcel of land between the 39th and 40th degrees of North Latitude led to the creation of Mason-Dixon line. If the Calverts had prevailed, part of Philadelphia would be in Maryland, if Penns had succeeded, Baltimore would be in Pennsylvania. The Mason-Dixon Line is the story of America’s colonial beginnings, nation building, and conflict over slavery. Pennsylvania became a slave-free state and Maryland was a slave state. African Americans faced a boundary between distinct legal regimes. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the Mason-Dixon Line became a federal instrument to arrest the northward flow of freedom-seekers. After the Civil War, the Line’s significance faded. This is a clutching story of colonial grandees, Native American diplomats, Quaker abolitionists, fugitives from slavery, and capitalists all contending with the relentless violence and political discord of a borderland that was transformative in American history. The borderlands between PA and MD were under the control of Native Americans that had abundant natural wealth. The colonial assault on Native population led to loss of countless lives and the destruction of Native communities. The African Americans living south of Mason-Dixon line had too many challenges. It is clearly expressed in the words of Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist and social activist. “When I found I had crossed that line," Harriet Tubman recalled, "I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven, I had crossed the line. I was free." Of course, the glory that came over Tubman was qualified. With freedom came a clear sense of loss and fear: "My home, after all, was down in Maryland; because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there." The runaway slaves had a deep fear that the federal agents would be looking for them, so that they could return them to their owners in Maryland. The reality of the situation was clear to the African America population, but it took decades for White Americans to understand that. But White abolitionists and quakers struggled to help freed African Americans to bond with their enslaved family members still living in Maryland. The end of slavery in Delaware was not due to a revolution. Through the amendment process, the federal government altered the law so that Delaware did not have to alter its legal code. The end of slavery in Maryland was not revolutionary either. The Line's defining slave state only abolished slavery after four years of martial law and de facto federal military occupation. The author recalls that the Mason-Dixon line was not conceived of as territorial border, but that concept evolved gradually. This is a book of 456 pages, although exhaustive, the counties at the border line had significant difficulties in applying and enforcing the relevant laws, be it Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Delaware.

Book Reviewed: Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post by Martin Baron

Washington Post is a fake news media trying to sabotage democracy Washington Post is one of the sources of misinformation and crackpot conspiracy theories of today that is destroying democracies not only the United States but also in other countries like India and Israel. For example, the Washington Post incessantly fact-checked Donald Trump’s presidency, but now the Post does not fact-check Biden’s speeches. The platform has been taken over by Leftist journalists, liberals, and Islamists, promoting critical race theory (CRT), Black Lives Matter (BLM), ANTIFA. LGBTQ, antisemitism, and Islam has become the focus of newspaper. The Post took down a recently published cartoon in which Hamas terrorists surrounded themselves with civilians and children while fighting Isarel. The Post apologized excessively for publishing it, but the apology is unnecessary and uncalled for since the cartoon spoke truthfully. In another publication, the Post described a high-value terrorist like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as an "austere religious scholar" in a 2019 obituary. They also support anti-Semitism, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas conspiracy theories, and trying to destroy democracy in India. Why would not they report or comment on their opinion column about human rights abuses in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Islamic Africa, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. And not to forget Islamic savagery that is happening in African countries. The Global Opinions Editor Karen Attiah promotes antisemitic, Hinduphobic, and anti-India opinions. The paper ignores the truth in a way that sabotages democracy. It is known for hiring controversial and biased journalists who act more like activists for liberal causes rather than as objective journalists for truth. Anti-Modi, anti-India and Hinduphobic journalists like Meena Venkataraman, Anumita Kaur, Khaled Beydoum, Rana Ayyub, and several others regularly spew venom against India but remain silent when Hindu minorities are killed, abducted, and forcibly converted in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Hindus are getting killed all over India, especially in Kashmir. Indian Hindus are prevented from practicing Hindu faith by Islamists in several Indian states. Untruthful stories about Hindus in India are featured regularly in the Post and used every means possible to create anti-govt and anti-Modi sentiments. In this book, Washington Post Editor Martin Baron shares his experience as the managing editor, and working for Jeff Bezos, the new owner. He argues that journalists at the Post must work with objectives to get the truth and report it. But the fact is the Post and other leading newspapers like NYTimes have become a place for social activists to promote their beliefs in the gospels of CRT, ANTIFA, LGBTQ and antisemitism. They supported Adam Schiff who launched an all-out political campaign built on baseless distortions against a sitting U.S. president, Donald Trump. Why did Post did not realize that Schiff politicized the Russia collusion in 2016 election when there was no evidence for it. The U.S. House of Representatives censured Schiff for engaging in falsehoods. Matt Taibbi reported “Twitter Files” in 2022/2023 that indicated the Biden campaign reached out regularly to ask Twitter to investigate and remove posts which Twitter complied. In the case of Hunter Biden laptop story, Twitter went into overdrive, falsely categorizing the story as “hacked materials” early on, then locking prominent accounts that shared it. The Post enthusiastically protected the President from its ill effects. I do not think you will miss it much if you choose not to read this book.

Book Reviewed: How to Interpret the Constitution by Cass R. Sunstein

Reconstructing the foundations of American constitution To determine the meaning of the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court Justices use one of several methods of constitutional interpretation. In some cases, the meaning of the constitution is apparent from the text itself, but much of the Constitution is broadly worded, leaving room for the Court to interpret its provisions before it applies to a particular circumstance. For example, the Second Amendment reads, A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. Does this right extend to all citizens, or only to militia. It is unclear, but the 2008 Supreme Court ruled that every American has the constitutional right to bear arms. To choose a theory of interpretation, the author says that justices seek reflective equilibrium, which means that fixed points in the constitution are relevant. These fixed points are related to morality and justice. Among the methods of constitutional interpretation include Textualism, adhering to the text of the Constitution; Semantic originalism, deciding on the meaning of words; Original Intentions, based on the idea of authorial intentions or what went through the minds of the framers of the constitution; the original public meaning; the ratifiers' expectations; protecting democracy, democracy-reinforcing judicial review; Traditionalism that observes long-standing traditions; and moral readings that makes best moral sense. These methods have both benefits and disadvantages. Moral readings are unmoored or dangerous. Who are judges to tell us what morality is. Clarence Thomas is a good example for originalist judge, and we heard a lot about it during the confirmation hearing of Judge Bork during Ronal Reagen presidency, when he said that he would be following a literal interpretation of the framer’s language and intent. The extent of such applications is evident in recent SCOTUS decisions like the ban on abortion. Justice Clearence Thomas suggested that other cases that rest on the right to privacy must be reviewed. Specifically, cases protecting contraception access and same-sex relationships. In addition, regulating the social media companies which have too much control over online discussion about political and economic events. These digital platforms provide avenues for historically unprecedented amounts of speech which is controlled by a few people in the organization. The U.S. Constitution as it stands now protect the Islamic Sharia Law and its core beliefs that include, jihad and Fatwa orders are religious duties, and so are killing apostates and infidels, blasphemy laws, practicing Ummah and Sharia. The constitutional experts must weigh in on these topics. It is pertinent to note that the European Court on Human Rights has ruled more than once that Sharia is “incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy.” However, it has effectively legitimized an Islamic blasphemy code in the interests of "preserving religious peace" in Europe. The author states that the Constitution must be defended on the ground that it makes the relevant constitutional order better rather than worse. But he doesn’t define what is better or worse, and for whom is it better? This book needs some work that includes some edits.

Book Reviewed: Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert M. Sapolsky

The science of spontaneity and freedom In this book, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky argues that we have no free will and that such choices are determined by factors that are beyond our control. We live in a deterministic universe where all events are determined by an initial state and laws of nature. The events of the remote past are not under our control, and the human brain registers a decision long before an individual consciously decides to do so. Many unconscious factors play a role in making free will non-existent. The author makes a good argument for determinism which means everything in the universe is preordained. No matter how thinly you slice a particular situation or an event or an action, you will find that each unique biological state is caused by a unique state that preceded it. And if you want to understand things, you need to break these two states down to their component parts and figure out how each component comprising “Just-Before-Now” gave rise to each piece of “Now.” This is how the universe works. But what if that isn't the case? What if some moments aren't caused by anything preceding them? What if some unique “Now” can be caused by multiple, unique “Just-Before-Now events” The science of reductionism by breaking it down each state to its component parts is futile. Because in the world of chaos theory, emergent phenomenon, and quantum physics, indeterminacy is ever present, it defies reductionism. Hence, determinism is not compatible with free will, in essence a neuron has no apparent cause for an action of a free will. It turns out that we are at present through the scheme of biological evolution and have emerged to the current state. We had no control over our history. The author presents his arguments well in the middle chapters, and the last two chapters focus more on the sociology of how the lack of free will affect humanity. It is interesting to read another book also published in 2023 is, “Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will by Kevin J. Mitchel makes an opposite argument stating that we have free will and it is conferred by the transition of matter (non-life) to highly self-organized and self-regulating entities (life) during biological evolution.

Book Reviewed: We Survived the End of the World: Lessons from Native America on Apocalypse and Hope by Steven Charleston

Finding hope among indigenous people The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … .” For Native-American religion this was a hard truth because it was never considered as a religion. This faith system features a creator as well as other deities: Place, land, spirit world, and nature are important, and burial grounds are treated as sacred. Ceremony and rituals played an essential role in Native American culture and spirituality was an integral part of their being. They believed in natural forces that controlled their lives, in essence physics also proposes four physical forces, and the laws of physics in creating the physical reality. But the European invaders never respected their faith and chose to enforce Christian education by force and violence. In this book, the author uses Biblical concepts such as apocalypse and hope to find solutions from the pain and suffering of his ancestors. Apocalypticism cultivated a sense of meaning and encouragement through dire circumstances. It sought to make sense of suffering, and it predicted an end to suffering. In doing so, it gave people hope. Above all, apocalyptic thinking bonded people together in uncertain and challenging times. They turned to their prophets. The author has done the same thing in this book. In trying to discern how and why his ancestors lived through death and destructions at the hands of the invaders of their land, he rediscovers the prophets among his ancestors. He finds the apocalyptic revelation to uncover the mystery and miracle of their survival. It is though hope and healing, he observes that all people must unite for love, peace, and harmony. Well, this message is not new and never worked in the past and why should it now? The greatest enemy of human beings are the established religions, especially Islam and Christianity. Historically they used force and coercion to convert people of other faiths. There were numerous religious wars to establish their faith system, in the process, people suffered, and this is no different from the sufferings of native Americans. The use of Biblical theology to find revelations in his ancestors is confounding.

Book Reviewed: The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science by Erik

Do we create physical reality? The discussion of consciousness and free will involves neuroscience, physics, philosophy, history, and mathematics. It is huge in scope and reaches the core of physical reality itself. This is not a neuroscience book per se but a philosophical one that combines all the relevant fields. Consciousness hinges on two characteristics: the extrinsic world that operates on the laws of physics, and the intrinsic world of life that is related to feelings, thoughts, and ideas. The presumption is that in this world cognition exists and evolves in mobile living beings in parallel with the evolution of life, and the cosmos we observe is real. It is hard to put the two perspectives together in a science of consciousness. Could these two perspectives be reconciled, or whether science will remain incomplete. This is the point at which where the intrinsic and extrinsic meet, that is ontology (what exists for one to know about) and epistemology (how knowledge is created and what is possible to know) becomes meaningful. When they begin to merge and breakdown in their distinctions, something dimensionless and unnamable is formed. This creates a structure that we call "experience” and the standard correlational approach of certain behavior with a part of brain becomes irrelevant. What makes someone or something conscious is described by the integrated information theory (IIT), and consciousness has a physical basis which can be mathematically measured. IIT proposes that consciousness emerges from the way information is processed within a ‘system’ (for instance, networks of neurons or computer circuits), and that systems that are more interconnected, or integrated, have higher levels of consciousness. Having free will means being an agent that is causally emergent at the relevant level of description for whom recent internal states are causally more relevant than distant past states and they are computationally irreducible. The logical fatalism is a philosophical and abstract argument against free will because everything is predetermined in this world. The opposite is a universe where the future is not dependent on the past, not even randomly, as there is no probability distribution drawn from it, and therefore this looks unappealing. In either case, one must guess how recent and past states play a role in the emergence of free will. The author’s use of bombastic phrases and technical jargon make reading a little challenging, but nevertheless he makes a valiant effort to address issues. My only gripe is that this is an open-ended book that does not draw any conclusions about the existence or nonexistence of free-will.

Book Reviewed: What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

The world of a mysterious bird This book explores the life of owls, the enigmatic birds with their remarkable anatomy, biology, and behavior. Their hunting skills, stealth, and sensory prowess distinguish them from all other birds. Their flight is quiet, and hunting skills are unique. Owls exist on every continent except Antarctica, and in every form one can imagine. Some owls migrate but not in a predictable pattern. Owls eat everything from insects to possums, rabbits, and young deer. The author discusses how owls communicate, court, mate, and raise their young. The book is descriptive, but the discussions are not stimulating. Owls’ flexible necks help them to compensate for immobile, tube-like eyes. Unlike humans, birds can’t move their eyes in their sockets to look around. This is a worthwhile sacrifice for binocular vision, which helps owls to boost their depth of perception. Many species also have ears located at different heights on each side of the head allowing them to find the location of a prey. There is the housekeeping habit of eastern screech owls, which “bring live blind snakes to their nestlings, not just for food, but perhaps to keep their nests tidy and sanitary. The small snakes live alongside the young owlets, eating parasites, insect larvae and other bothersome houseguests. The nestlings with live-in blind snakes are more likely to survive and grow fifty per cent faster than broods without snakes. This is an excellent adaptation to an efficient pest control and protecting the chicks. Burrowing Owls live in underground burrows, sometimes alongside prairie dogs, and when threatened, will hiss like a cornered rattlesnake.

Book Reviewed: Our First One Hundred Years: The Ingleside Book Club of Morgantown, 1923–2023 by Beth Reseter

A women’s’ reading circle The Ingleside Book Club was formed by twenty-one women in 1923 in Morgantown, West Virginia that steadily grew in range and now celebrating their 100th anniversary. This is a great story of women who enjoyed literature, home economics, poetry, opera, music, and social issues. Some of the earliest book clubs in the United States were Bible study groups, which became women's reading circles that focused on education, self-improvement, and friendship. The first two women's clubs in West Virginia that are now extinct were formed in 1892. The early guest speakers at the Ingleside book club spoke about topics such as, "West Virginia Birds," and "Religious Education in the Home." They also made musical presentations, gave book reviews, discussed poetry, and learned about opera. In 1929 the book club members participated in two debates: abolishing the capital punishment, and abolishing Christmas celebrations. Who would have thought women could be so progressive in a rural state like West Virgina? During the 1930s, some program topics included astronomy, comparative religions, governments of nations, and the potential of atomic energy. Some members wanted to discuss the WWII, but they lacked knowledge about the war in Europe. Some of the books exchanged by members included Bess Streeter Aldrich's bestsellers A Lantern in Her Hand and A White Bird Flying; Obscure Destinies by Willa Cather; The Good Earth by West Virginia native Pearl Buck; White Fang by Jack London; and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There are numerous photographs of the Ingleside book club members of the past and almost all of them are white. It partly reflects the institutional racism that existed among women’s clubs that operated at the total exclusion of native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. Morgantown is the home of West Virginia University, and the book club could have been a little more inclusive. On a positive note, the Ingleside members successfully participated in a community-wide effort to bring African American poet Langston Hughes and speak to them at the book club in 1944. He was a social activist, novelist, playwright, columnist, and one of the innovators of the literary art called jazz poetry. He was well known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.

Book Reviewed: The Hidden Life of Ice: Dispatches from a Disappearing World by Marco Tedesco and Alberto Flores d'Arcais

The planet in transition This is a personal reflection of the arctic explorer Marco Tedesco and his tribute to Greenland, an inspiring place that is affected by the environment. This is not so much about the impact of the climate but an exploration of the beauty of Greenland formed largely by ice. Greenland is a vista of whiteness interrupted only by scattered ponds of azure-colored melt water. 90 percent of the land is covered by ice sheet that is the largest outside Antarctica. Some of the green color is due to the large number of icebergs that are calved as the result of glacier retreat and ice cap melting. The bottom of the ice sheet was formed 130,000 years ago, before the start of the last ice age. In places like Canada, Scandinavia, New England, and the upper Midwest, the ice melted away at about 10,000 years ago. In Greenland, it remained and in addition, thousands of years of snowfalls, year after year, never melting in the summer, becoming buried under yet more layers of snow. The moulin, the technical name for the hole in the ice through which the lake has vanished is another geological phenomenon in this part of the world. Underneath ice sheets there are numerous highly efficient drainage system that empties into the sea and raises sea levels. The water in the underground tunnels flows and change direction and size constantly. Cryoconite holes are another interesting feature of ice sheets that have microbial oases within the extreme environment of a glacier's surface ice. These holes form when sediment is blown onto the ice and is heated by solar energy, causing it to melt into the glacier's surface. This has micro animals like tardigrades, the water bears or moss piglets. Their genome contains more extraneous DNA than any other animal species known. To put it simply, instead of inheriting its' genes from its ancestors, part of the tardigrade's genetic makeup may come from plants, bacteria, and fungi!. There is also a different kind of life that depends on a process known as bacterial chemosynthesis. Unlike photosynthesis, it exploits the energy generated in chemical reactions to produce organic substances. These creatures are completely autonomous and self-sufficient, living their peaceful existence in complete isolation. The environmental factors in these landscapes of Arctic and Antarctic territories are considered as the closest to what life would be like on other planets like Mars, and icy moons like Europa, a satellite of Jupiter. The author presents an interesting description of how sea levels rise differently in different parts of this planet when Greenland ice melts. The author wrote a similar book about Greenland in 2022 entitled “Ice: Tales from a Disappearing World,” and a related review article in Guardian Newspaper in 2020. This is a short book of 153 pages which read flawlessly.

Book Reviewed: Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses by David Scheel

The inner lives of octopuses Octopuses are invertebrates that lack skeleton, and their legs have no femur, tibia or fibula, no feet, and no toes to wiggle. Instead, octopuses have a hydrostatic skeleton, combining muscular contraction and water's resistance to compression, to generate movement. The octopus genome illustrates how intelligence evolved in this animal. With its eight prehensile arms lined with suckers, camera-like eyes, elaborate repertoire of camouflage tricks and spooky intelligence, the octopus is like no other creature on Earth, which explains the evolution of their cognitive skills. The octopus’ genome is as large as a human, and they contain a greater number of protein-coding genes than Homo sapiens. One of the most remarkable gene groups is the protocadherin, which regulates the development of neurons and the short-range interactions between them. The octopus has 168 of these genes more than twice as many as mammals. This resonates with the creature’s unusually large brain and the organ’s even-stranger anatomy. Of the octopus's half a billion neurons, two-thirds spill out from its head through its arms, without the involvement of long-range fibers such as those in vertebrate spinal cords. This gives independent computing power to its arms. They have more autonomy than human arms. Each has its own miniature brain, giving it a degree of independence from the animal's central brain. On the contrary, the human’s nervous system is highly centralized, with the brain as the seat of sensory integration and other actions. They are the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. The author narrates his experience as an explorer of octopus in its natural habitats off the coasts of Alaska, Washington State, and Japan. This book does not explain the octopus’ biology or physiology but discusses from a behavior ecologist’s perspective. Octopus is a nature’s wonder, because this soft and boneless aquatic species survives with otherer formidable animals like sharks, killer whales, and eels. How do they hunt while avoiding danger in the ocean? Their anatomical structure, skills, camouflage, and a unique nervous system that matches human consciousness.

Book Reviewed: Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution by Elsa Panciroli

The extinct mammals Humans and dinosaurs co-exist in the cartoon world of the Flintstones. In a similar fashion, the mammalian ancestors shared their history with the Tyrannosaur Rex and related dinosaurs before the K-Pg mass extinction sixty-six million years ago. Some of these mammalian species included placental mammals that survived the catastrophic extinction. The surviving mammalian species, after the catastrophic event, rapidly diversified which was spurred on by the death of dinosaur predators, and emerging environmental factors that offered new opportunities. Two groups of animals existed in the late carboniferous period, between 320 and 315 million years ago, they were synapsids and sauropsids. The sauropsids are ancestral reptiles and some of these species evolved into birds. and synapsid evolved into mammalian species. The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event is the mass extinction of most plant and animal species on the planet about sixty-six million years ago when the Chicxulub impactor, a plummeting asteroid or comet, seven miles long, hit the planet that brought an abrupt and calamitous end to most species. The evolution of mammals’ centers on the shapes of the teeth, the evolution of the middle ear bones, fur, hair, warm-bloodedness, and proportionally larger brains than reptiles of similar size. Mammals could chew food, and hunt carefully. They had mouse-like earflaps for detecting sound that provided advantage, helping them avoid predators and communicate with one another in new ways for competing and caregiving. These changes increased brain size. Not only did more grey matter help them learn information from the senses, but they could also compute emerging behaviors. Their teeth also helped in digging. The mammalian ability to feed underdeveloped offspring on milk increased the survival of litter. Bipedalism is the basic adaptation of the hominid which is responsible for skeletal changes. The earliest hominin species, and non-bipedal knuckle-walkers (the gorillas, and chimpanzees), evolved from a common ancestor, Sahelanthropus or Orrorin species, about six million years ago. The bipedal hominin species underwent further evolution into the Homo Sapiens who are around 250, 000 years. The author briefly discusses the revolution in methodologies and new techniques in the field of paleobiology that estimated the origins of ancient mammalian species. Fossil records and ancient skeletons are the principal sources for studying the history living species, but now they compute enormous datasets of bone shapes, and estimate the form and function mathematically, similar to the methods used in evaluating the strength of building materials. This technique has helped paleobiologists learn the evolutionary history of mammals. There has been a radical transformation in the science of extinct life. The anatomy of various species is put together and predicted how animals emerged into distinct groups. My only gripe about this book is that discussions in some chapters are not stimulating, and there are no photographs and few illustrations.

Book Reviewed: Parasites: The Inside Story Hardcover by Scott Lyell Gardner, Judy Diamond, and Gabor R. Rácz

Diversity in living systems Parasites are usually described in negative terms, often as blood suckers, freeloaders, scroungers, flunkies, and deadbeats. In this book, the authors describe how parasites evolve by focusing on three kinds of parasites: the nematodes, the flat­ worms or platyhelminths, and the thorny-headed worms. These are endoparasites that live and thrive inside their hosts. The scientific data obtained with regards to parasite-host relationships between trematodes and snails, and tapeworms and whales makes an interesting read. Geohelminths manipulate and suppress their hosts' immune systems enabling them to reduce inflammation and decrease the likelihood that the host can expel them. It is also interesting to learn how species of parasitic helminth evolved independently to its specific lifestyle using a wide choice of hosts. Recently, scientists using an artificially streamlined version of Mycoplasma mycoides, a parasitic bacterium found in the guts of goats, synthetically eliminated 41 percent of its genes leaving all but the most essential sequences, which produced free-living cells without the need for a host tissue. Genetic drifting plays an important role in evolutionary mechanisms. The authors suggest deforestation, loss of native habitats and global warming may destroy the ecosystem that includes parasites-host relationship. But no scientific data is presented to show global warming has a direct impact on this relationship. This is a short book of 224 pages, in many sections, the discussion is insufficient and not stimulating.

Book Reviewed: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion by Sean Carroll

This book is not a theoretical minimum If you ever regretted not taking physics in college or like to think like a physicist, then this is not the book for you. Author Sean Carroll is a respected theoretical physicist and has authored several books for physics professionals and also for general readers, but this book intended for a lay person to learn mathematical aspects of physics falls too short. There are too many physics equations and limited explanations, and no exercises at the end of each chapter to recapitulate your learning. The entire physics falls within the "classical" or "quantum" frameworks. General Relativity is a physics framework, not a theory, and specific theories could be "non-relativistic" (like Newtonian gravity) or "relativistic" (like Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism). The distinction comes down to how we think about spacetime, the non-relativistic theories feature absolute space and time and instantaneous action at a distance, but the relativistic theories describe spacetime that amalgamates space and time. This places a limit on the speed of signaling. That is, information cannot travel faster than the speed of light. which is 186,000 miles per second. In classical mechanics, a physical system is described by the position and momentum or appropriate generalizations thereof. It is the study of the dynamics at the comic scales, human scales or at the subatomic particle level. I recommend physicist Leonard Susskind’s book “The Theoretical Minimum,” an introduction to classical mechanics for the ardent amateur to learn physics at their own pace. There is a second book by Susskind that teaches quantum mechanics. Susskind’s book is reader-friendly and introduces mathematics in an enjoyable fashion. YouTube also features many videos that help aspiring physicists to learn mathematical aspects of physics.

Book Reviewed: On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory by Thomas Hertog

Time and physical laws are emergent phenomenon Stephen Hawking in his final theory, no­ boundary hypothesis proposes that our universe is a self-containing entity with no sharp starting point. Instead, it is described as a smooth finite wave function that extends back infinitely. According to this there is no singularity, the tiniest space where the big bang is supposed to have occurred. Therefore, the universe has no true beginning, and hence no need to invoke a cause or creator for its existence. Stephen Hawking strove much of his life to give a fundamentally causal explanation of the universe's origin. But his holographic cosmology tells us that physics and its laws fade away when we journey back into the big bang. This no-boundary hypothesis emerges from holography not so much as a law of the beginning but more as a beginning of the physics laws. The ultimate cause of the big bang becomes irrelevant in this theory. In a quantum universe, a tangible past and future emerge out of a haze of possibilities by means of a continual process of questioning and observing. This interactive process transforms and constantly draws the universe more firmly into existence. Observers in this quantum sense acquire a sort of creative role in cosmic affairs that imbues a delicate subjective touch. Conscious observation introduces a subtle backward-in-time element into cosmological theory. The act of observation today retroactively fixes the outcome of the big bang "back then.” Hence Hawking referred to his final theory as “top-down cosmology.” This meta-evolution has a Darwinian flavor, with its interplay of variation and selection playing out in the primeval environment of the early universe. Variation enters because random quantum jumps cause frequent small excursions from deterministic behavior. Selection enters because some of these excursions, especially the larger ones, are amplified and frozen with new new rules that help shape the subsequent cosmic evolution. The interaction between these two competing forces in the furnace of the hot big bang produces a branching process analogous to how biological species emerged on this planet. The biological and cosmological evolutions aren't fundamentally separate phenomena but two vastly different levels of one giant evolutionary path that freed from any claims of divine involvement in the creation of life or the cosmos. One of the shortcomings of this book is that physicist Lee Smolin proposed the cosmological natural selection that is analogous to biological natural selection. Smolin published the idea in 1992 and summarized it in a book called The Life of the Cosmos. His work is never mentioned in this book. Secondly, the recent advances in physics seem to suggest that physical reality is the same as described by the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. The current theory of Stephen Hawking is not any different, but the author never invokes this school of thought.

Book Reviewed: Celebrating Diwali: History, Traditions, and Activities – A Holiday Book for Kids by Anjali Joshi

The festival of lights explained to kids This book is written for Hindu children to help them understand and enjoy the spirit of the holy festival of Diwali. This is important not only for Hindus living outside India but also for kids growing up in India. Hindu children and their parents are badly in touch with their culture that stands for four thousand years of Vedic Dharma. The author teaches the young readers with a brief introduction to the history and beliefs behind the celebration of the festival of lights, but certain descriptions are confounding. In some pages the term “South Asia” is used, and at other places the term “India” is used. Diwali was celebrated long before the neighboring countries were even born, hence uniform use of “India” is more appropriate. Some of the illustrations in this book reminds me of the character “Apu” from the sitcom Simpsons, an Indian store owner whom colorists rendered in a deep dark brown tone. His character/illustrations were particularly problematic that incorporated inherent racism. It was just a normal representation of blackness that white people promote. I wished the author, and the illustrator could have been more conscious about their work.

Book Reviewed: What's Gotten into You: The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner by Dan Levitt

Itsy bitsy of cosmos and biological evolution This book is all talk but no substance. It is a hotchpotch of news items and history told in a non-stimulating way. The readers learn extraordinarily little from this author. A summary of the book is as follows: Understanding the origin and evolution of life in the Universe is a multi-disciplinary problem: from the astrophysics describing the processes giving rise to stars and planets to the chemistry and biology of organic matter and evolution of living organisms. Solar system is 4.5 billion years old, and the Earth was formed within a residual disk of gas surrounding the young Sun. Starts are living physical entities, they are born, physically exist with some order, and eventually die. But for most of their lives, stars fuse elemental hydrogen into helium in their cores (nuclear fusion reaction). Two atoms of hydrogen are combined in a series of steps to create helium 4. These reactions account for 85% of the Sun’s energy. The remaining 15% comes from reactions that produce the elements beryllium and lithium. When a star’s core runs out of hydrogen, the star begins to die out. The dying star expands into a red giant, which begins to manufacture carbon atoms by fusing helium atoms. More massive stars begin a further series of nuclear burning or reaction stages. The elements formed in these stages range from oxygen through to iron. During a supernova, explosion of massive stars, the star releases huge amounts of energy as well as neutrons, which allows elements heavier than iron to be produced. In the supernova explosion, all of these elements are expelled out into space. Other heavier elements are created when pairs of neutron stars collide cataclysmically and explode. Light elements like hydrogen and helium formed during the big bang when spacetime emerged and laws of physics began to operate. All the elements we have in our body are the ashes of long dead stars. Simple organic molecules could have been synthesized in the atmosphere of early Earth and rained down into the oceans. RNA and DNA molecules, the genetic material for all life, just long chains of simple nucleotides were formed on earth. Some of them may have been rained down to earth from comets and asteroids. Life may have formed on earth 3.8 billion years ago, and there were six major extinctions, the first being about 2.4 billion years ago. The emergence of life from non-life (biomolecules) was a thermodynamic wonder. A living cell (ordered structure, more information, and fully self-regulated) was produced from a state of disordered structures (less information and non-regulated).

Book Reviewed: The Summer of 1876 by Chris Wimmer

The outlaws of the Northfield Raid The summer of 1876 was an important time in the Old West era. In a ninety-day period from mid-June to mid-September, three major events happened: the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the murder of Wild Bill Hickok, and the Northfield Raid. Around this same time, Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson patrolled the streets of Dodge City, and Deadwood in South Dakota was becoming the richest and a notorious boomtown in the American West. Northfield was a growing Minnesota community, which had two colleges, the completion of a railroad, with many prominent business leaders and a healthy bank. The latter drew the attention of America’s most notorious bank robbers: the James-Younger Gang. In late August 1876, the James-Younger Gang headed for Minnesota. The gang consisted of brothers Jesse and Frank James; brothers Bob, Jim, and Cole Younger; Clell Miller; Charlie Pitts; and Bill Stiles. Upon arriving in the state, the gang divided into scouting parties of two, three, and four men. Looking for sites to execute their plans, they considered several banks in Minnesota, and their last choice was Northfield. It was a difficult time when the Battle of the Little Bighorn resulted in the biggest defeat to the American military. That was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory. Much of this book deals with these historical facts and the most relevant story of the Northfield raid are found in the last three chapters of the book. The detail of the raid is based on the facts discussed in many other books, and on the History cable channel.

Book Reviewed: Night Sky: Stargazing with the Naked Eye by Robert Harvey

Glory of the night sky This book depicts the glory of the night sky. The cosmic bodies photographed in this book may be seen with naked eye, which were taken with regular cameras and lenses. The author suggests that a digital camera, a manual control over exposure, and a sturdy tripod is all that was necessary for the photographs. In order to find a good dark sky, he drove away from city lights, areas of remote countryside, mountains, coasts, and deserts with strong foreground such as peaks, rocks, towers, or trees. There are numerous color photographs that show the Milky Way galaxy and its companions the two Magellan dwarf galaxies. The book is Eurocentric and some of the most beautiful views of the cosmic bodies may be seen from Africa and the highest peaks of Himalayas. The author devotes forty-eight pages to photographs from Europe, forty-two pages to photographs from North America, and only twenty-two pages each to photographs from Asia, and Africa.

Book Reviewed: Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything by Michio Kaku

Spinning with Qubits Quantum supremacy is the point at which a quantum computer can complete a mathematical calculation that is beyond the reach of even the most powerful supercomputer. One of the promising applications of quantum computers is simulating the behavior of matter at the molecular and subatomic particle level. The author gives a brief introduction to the physics concepts on which quantum computers function. But the rest of the book is focused on the applications of quantum computers to solve the problems of life. The author shows that they may be used in every aspect of life and the cosmos. For example, the role of proteins that accelerate the molecular repair of DNA may be precisely understood. If the precise mechanism of DNA repair is known, one might be able to improve on curing many diseases, and even eliminate the aging process. The author also discusses some fascinating topics such as, 1. Did God have a choice in making the universe? Could God have created the universe in any other way? 2. Is the universe a simulation? Are we just automatons living in a video game? Is everything we see and do a by-product of a computer simulation? 3. Do quantum computers compute in parallel universes? 4. Is the universe a quantum computer? This book is interesting but lacks details.

Book Reviewed: Eat Your Flowers: A Cookbook by Loria Stern

Feasting on Flowers The book has numerous color pictures which make the recipes look delicious, but be careful when you use flowers in a recipe because it is a non-traditional ingredient that must be suitably processed so that the bitter tastes of the flower do not dominate. Chamomile is one of the well-known flower products that is widely used for making tea. No tall botanicals are edible, but the author gives a list of edible flowers on pages 18-23 with their flavors, food uses, and comments such as the aftereffects of baking. Many flowers have an unpleasant taste, and they must be blended with appropriate ingredients in suitable proportions. Useful hints include pressing your own flowers, and drying flowers. Some of my favorite recipes from this book are Scarborough herb-pressed biscuits, golden curry lentil soup with apple, flower-pressed chapatis, and green papaya salad. There are numerous books available on Amazon.com that describe the use of flowers in cooking, and this book is good for illustrations, but I have seen much more enticing recipes from other sources.

Book reviewed: The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos by Jaime Green

A fantasy about the life and cosmos The title of this book sounds interesting, but I learnt very little from this work. It is pretty disappointing to read the perspectives of the author about life and the cosmos when she discusses very little science but plenty about science fiction, television, and sci-fi movies. As one might guess, Star Trek figures prominently in her imagination, and the influence of authors like Madeline L'Engle's fantasy book. I am very disappointed with this book.

Book Reviewed: Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird by Rebecca Heisman

Survival of migratory birds Many wonderful books have been written on what migrating birds do and how they do it, but if you dig a little deeper, you will find another story that is equally fascinating. The environmental impact on the survival of migratory birds. For example, many birds seek out similar climates year-round in the Americas, they spend the summer in drier parts of North America, and the winter in drier parts of Central and South America. Recent studies suggest that we are the sixth mass extinction on this planet. Approximately 3 billion fewer birds are living in North America today than there were in 1970. This is a staggering 29 percent decline. The volume of annual bird migration to the Americas alone has dropped by 14% in just the last decade. The causes are habitat loss, impact of pesticides, collisions with human-made structures, predation by outdoor cats, and climate change. This book focuses on how to fight the extinction of migratory birds with modern tools. The radar gathers data on migration patterns, the use of miniaturized tracking devices tracks the movements of individual bird, and the machine learning and high-volume genetic sequencing examine migration in finer detail. Instead of relying on trackers, we can now follow their journeys using information already encoded in their feathers, their blood, and their DNA (intrinsic markers). Birds’ feathers carry crucial information about where they've been and what's happening in their habitats, which can help with much-needed conservation efforts. In addition, the mercury concentrations in historical versus modern feather samples gives a sense of environmental effects. North American Breeding Bird Survey, an annual volunteer effort in which bird-watchers comb established roadside routes in spring and report what they find have been significant in understanding human impact of the habitats of migratory birds. This book is written for all readers interested in bird migration, and what one can do to minimize the extinction of birds.

Book Reviewed: But Have You Read the Book?: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films by Kristen Lopez

Stories that inspired great films This is an eclectic collection of fiction that transpired into great movies on the big screen. The Color Purple, Dr. No, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Little Women, and the Shining are some of the movies discussed in this book is published by the cable channel, the Turner Classic Movies (TCM). The work of giants of American literature like Ernst Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, and Harper Lee inspired successful films, and there were also books that were out of prints for like Bringing Up Baby, and All About Eve. Many directors like Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, and John Ford converted the book stories into great movies. This book offers an insight into the process of turning a story into a screenplay. Some screenplays remain true with the text upon which it is based, but some don’t mirror its source material. This book takes us behind-the-scenes look at the successful process from the printed page to the big screen. For me as a reader, I have read some of these stories elsewhere and this is simply a summary of what has been written elsewhere on the web.

Book Reviewed: Cinematic Places by Sarah Baxter

Illustrations of the places that inspired Hollywood films This book is inspired by twenty-five Hollywood films that explore some of the cinema's alluring locations in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The book provides illustrations that do not appeal much to the readers. In fact, it did not help me recall these locations, many of which I have seen many times. I would have liked to see the still prints from the movie and compare with current pictures of these locations. That would have helped connect with the stories of these films. The book includes Spike Lee's Brooklyn-set “Do the Right Thing,” the cultural backdrop of 1980s New York, which is as important as the movie's authentic neighborhood and brownstone stoops; “Rocky,” starring Sylvester Stallone, much of the filming was done on a limited budget in Philadelphia. especially in the Kensington neighborhood; and “Vertigo,” starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novack in the iconic San Francsico area. The illustrations are clearly a bust to inspire readers to connect with these historic locations.

Book Reviewed: The Return of Wolves: An Iconic Predator’s Struggle to Survive in the American West by Eli Francovich

Rewilding the wolves This is a fascinating story of the wolves that were restored to the ecosystem the American Northwest. In 1995, after years of planning, a team of experts carefully relocated fourteen wolves from the Canadian Rockies to the Yellowstone National Park. The final result was wolves’ population grew and spread to the State of Washington. The news of their resurgence provoked reactions. For scientists, wolves represented a singular opportunity to observe, in real time, the consequences of a long-absent predator returning to an ecosystem. For activists, the return of wolves was a clarion call for conservation. For some ranchers and farmers, wolves became a prime example of government overreach, an attack on their values and way of life. For journalists, like Eli Francovich, who works for a newspaper in Spokane, Washington, this was the opportunity of a lifetime for investigative reporting. The author was familiar with the story of Daniel Curry, a range rider who’s a job requires him to spend most of the year in the woods trying to keep wolves from killing cattle, and cattle from wandering into the mouths of wolves. The author details his experiences of working with Curry and how his efforts are balancing the wolf problem particularly in the State of Washington. The primary tension underlying the wolf wars is one that's common to all human-nonhuman relationships, the problem of coexistence. Do we have the will and wisdom to coexist with animals? The reintroduction of wolves has fueled debates about the wolf's role in ecological rewilding and for the restoration of biodiversity. In today's fraught political climate, Eli Francovich’s captivating storytelling is peppered with fascinating insights into the human-wolf relationship.

The voice of a native poet warrior

Book Reviewed: Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years by Joy Harjo Joy Harjo’s poems is a collection of songs of a woman warrior's journey, a chant for survival of native heritage in the America her forefathers founded. Her voice illustrates resistance to occupation and describes the legacies of displacement. She claims that her voice is rooted itself in the Sandia Mountains, the Rio Grande River, in the sunrises and sunsets of the Southwest. Harjo's work is known for its lyrics and evocative language. She incorporates the elements of storytelling and oral tradition in her writing. I am fascinated by one of her poems, THE LAST SONG, part of which reads as follows. it is the only way I know how to breathe an ancient chant that my mother knew came out of a history woven from wet tall grass in her womb and I know no other way than to surround my voice with the summer songs of crickets in this moist south night air Here, Joy speaks bravely about the legacy and roots of her culture. She is the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, a position appointed by the Library of Congress. There are several poems in this book that resonates in spirit of “The Last Song.”

Book Reviewed: Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage by Rachel E. Gross

Perspectives on the female anatomy Author Rachel Gross explores the female anatomy from a social and historical perspective in eight chapters ranging from the glans clitoris to the egg cell to the vaginal microbiome. Most chapters skew medically dense areas to cause wince for the squeamish. In fact, this book is less to do with scientific accuracy and more to do with the views of a LGBTQ activist who tries to convince the readers that vagina doesn’t mean female anatomy, instead redefine it from non-binary, transgender, and intersex perspectives. She asks medical professionals to de-stigmatize vagina from feminism and women. Many chapters include personal stories of women who had medical issues with undefined genitals and the medical professionals who treated them. She concludes that scientists are still exploring the female body because the gender boundaries are fuzzier than ever. She believes that the gender and sex is a spectrum, and that hormones, chromosomes, and genitals can arrange themselves in myriad permutations. It is suggested that it is wrong for medical doctors to decide whether a child is a boy or a girl. This is the most absurd conclusion for an author writing about the whole idea of women. I did not expect anything stimulating from this over enthusiastic activist who questions the accuracy of scientific and medical opinions. Authors like this are creating unsafe social conditions for women and feminists to enjoy their natural rights, but they are seriously challenged by the trans-women who think they are “real women.”

Book Reviewed: The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival by Ron DeSantis

Standing the ground Ron DeSantis is a great example of achieving success through dedicated hard work. This book provides an in-depth look at his career and work to make Florida a better place. He describes how he rejected using polls as a guide in his political career, and became an active and energetic executive who focused on important issues that were relevant to Floridians. This biography of Ron DeSantis is a must-read, which shows the human side of a man who is changing the state of Florida in a way that no one else could. His legacy includes many far-ranging measures in Florida, which includes the passing of the “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act," (WOKE Act) that would allow parents to sue school districts that teach critical race theory (CRT). The bill also combats "woke indoctrination" in Florida businesses and schools by preventing instruction that could make people bear "personal responsibility" for historic wrongdoings due to their race, gender, or national origin. The passage of this bill came close to the heels of the passage of the education bill known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, which forbids instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through Grade 3. DeSantis signed an anti-"sanctuary city" bill into law that prevents illegal immigrants find sanctuaries in Florida cities. He also worked for the legislation to prohibit technology corporations from de-platforming political candidates. The private corporations wielding de facto public power is not in the best interests of the people of Florida. He stood up and fought against Disney Corporation for opposing "Don't Say Gay" bill. DeSantis is also fighting the Fake News media and the woke journalists who believe that their role is to transform America into a progressive utopia by the creation of manufactured narratives. The book reads well, and readers interested in conservative values and the work of Gov. DeSantis would love this book.

Book reviewed: Woman Without Shame: Poems by Sandra Cisneros

A celebration of the self (five stars) This is a collection of poems that reflect Sandra Cisneros mind and heart; a mood-strewn collection of poetry that focuses on family, culture, and her thoughts. She explores themes of identity, gender, race, class, and the challenges of Hispanic women in an American society. Her poetry has emotional resonance that has significant impact on contemporary American literature. Two poems had a personal appeal for me. In Case of Emergency Contact nearest cloud. Begin by calling Milky Way. Summon: pepper tree, maguey, donkey shit, jacaranda shower, river, caliche, scorpion, hummingbird, or pearl. Will vouch we are kin. Instructions for My Funeral For good measure, smoke me with copal. Shroud me in my raggedy rebozo. No jewelry. Give to friends. No coffin. Instead, petate. Ignite to ''Disco Inferno." Allow no Christian rituals for this bitch, but, if you like, you may invite a homeless dog to sing, or a witch woman to spit orange water and chant an Otomi prayer. …….. Smoke a Havana. Music, Fellini-esque. Above all, laugh. I could not help but remember the following poem by Tony DeLorger: As the pendulum swings incessantly, and life comes and goes, the cosmos expands and grows, and we meld together with our past and future, souls of abundance shared and old. I find Cisneros’s metaphysical thoughts in these poems. As a poet, she reflects on our existence, life in cosmos, and how it could be related to each other. Physicists, biologists, and philosophers have their own language to mesmerize the beauty of existence. Cisneros is bold in admitting that a man-made religion cannot dictate terms of life to her. Many scholars have argued that her Catholic upbringing had impacted her writings, and this could be true in her earlier writings. But these poems were written later in her life as she ponders on life in a much more profound manner.

Book Reviewed: A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul

Living in the wind Avian migration is the seasonal movement, often between north and south, and between breeding and wintering grounds. The Arctic Tern holds the long-distance migration record for birds, traveling between Arctic and Antarctica each year. Some species like albatrosses circle the planet flying over the southern oceans. Bird migrations also include altitudinal migrations on mountains such as the Andes and the Himalayas. This is a unique natural phenomenon that allows birds to stitch the continents together in almost an immeasurable endurance. What makes these living beings so good at mapping great distances that human beings cannot do without advanced scientific instruments? Recent studies have shown that birds visualize the magnetic field of earth through the physical phenomenon of quantum entanglement that allows them to build a map in the bird's eye with the geomagnetic fields during its migration. Photosynthesis by plants, and bird migration are the only two biological processes that involve quantum mechanics in a direct manner. The author and his team travels around the world like Alaska, South America, India, Australia, and China studying the uniqueness of these species. He also observes that migration carries high costs in predation, mortality, and the destruction of habitats by environmental changes brought about by humans. The book lacks pictures, I wished the author could have considered including the photographs of some of these unique birds in their natural environment.

Book Reviewed: Salutations to Rudra by Sheela Balaji

Śrī Rudram This book provides the English translation Śrī Rudram Anuvāka 1 – 11 in the first section, and the same in Sanskrit in the second section. No English transliteration is provided in this book. This does not make much sense. There are 11 sections or Anuvākas in the Namakam section of Sri Rudram, each containing multiple verses. These hymns praise Lord Shiva, and the first Anuvāka is distinct in terms of its structure and content from the rest of the Anuvākas. It serves as an invocation to Lord Rudra seeking his blessings and protection. The recitation of the first Anuvāka before reciting the other Anuvākas helps to create a positive and receptive mindset to receive the blessings of the Lord. However, during the routine chanting of Sri Rudram, the dhyana shlokas are not usually recited. The dhyana verses in this book appear in the same order as found in the Sri Rudram by Swami Dayananda Saraswati. In fact, his book is the source and inspiration for this author. Śrī Rudram is widely available online and there are many sources which instruct the devotees to practice the recitation. YouTube and What’s App are useful avenues. I recommend the translations and additional commentaries by Dr. R.L. Kashyap from Sri Aurobindo Kapali Sastry Institute of Vedic Culture. You can find Anuvāka 1 – 11 transliteration and translation which includes the text with phonetic changes of Anusvāra and visarga.

Book Reviewed: Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness by Patrick House

Comprehending the cosmic design Where does consciousness begin? And where does it end? Where is the line between an individual biological entity and the rest of cosmos? Between life and non-life? Between living (not necessarily a biological entity) and a non-living entity? In this book, the author discusses a number of facts about consciousness and physical reality; the neurobiology, physics and philosophy of it. But he keeps the characterization of conscious experience open to discussion. At any given time, a brain is taking in more information than it can handle, with more possible ways of configuring itself than the universe has atoms. There is no single conscious experience that is unique and that cannot be listed, cataloged, and reproduced with electrical, physical, or magnetic stimulation of the brain. A simple bit of shunted electricity can cause a brain to compile, run, and display to the conscious clipboard. The author derives the ideas from the work of Eliot Weinberger “Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei,” which tracks the English translations of a short ancient Chinese poem, “Deer Park,” written in the Eighth Century C.E. Wang Wei’s original poem established the Buddhist propensity for parallelism, and śūnyatā which interprets that all things in this world are empty of intrinsic existence and nature.

Book Reviewed: How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex: An Unexpected History by Samantha Cole

Virtual porn In a virtual world, experiencing love, heartbreak, and healing are real. It creates a fantasy world where your thirst for online sex becomes unquenched, and drives you to desire for more. The technology has worked well for both the sides of the economy, the supply and demand chains controlled by the government legislation and the activists who fight for individual rights. Porn industry generates billions of dollars and offer employment for online sex workers and the investors of the platforms. Sex industry has strongly influenced the way the world wide web operates, and it has provided a relatively safe place to explore sexual fantasies from porn pictures to porn videos for all kinds of interests. The author provides an historical look at the public and private shows between cam models and their customers, from exotic dancing and pornographic videos to masturbation shows and erotic chatrooms. There are many virtual brothels and strip clubs with limitless potential for many avatars and make the Old-Time bedroom sex obsolete and unnecessary. In video games, "emergent" content occurs when two or more things collide in a game to produce something that was not programmed or scripted. The online porn is not free from racism or age discrimination or the physical attributes. In 2014, Chase Bank shut down the accounts of hundreds of porn performers. The adult industry suspected this was due to the Department of Justice's "Operation Choke Point," a 2013 initiative that demanded that "bankers behave like policemen and judges. Customers' access to financial services provided by PayPal, Venmo, and Google Pay were shut down, Denying payment services to service providers was a big blow. But the online creators produced creative ways like pre-paid tokens to access porn sites and their services. In one of the chapters, on deepfakes that allows making celebrity face-swapped videos as if the videos are real. The author discusses actual cases and some of these are either exaggerated or simply untrue.

Book reviewed: Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal by Juan José Millás and Juan Luis Arsuaga

The Smart Neanderthal Juan José Millás literary work in Spanish literature is psychological and introspective. In his work, everyday story is transformed into an experience that allows the reader to understand physical reality in philosophical terms. In this book he presents himself as Neanderthal living in the modern world and likes to know the perspectives of homo sapiens about the cultural evolution from Neanderthals. This book records his conversation with Juan Luis Arsuaga, a leading archeologist, and paleobiologist who specializes in Neanderthal research. This book is more of a work of literature for which the author Millás is known for. In fact, there is very little about the paleobiology of Neanderthals, the extinct species of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. The genetic evidence clearly demonstrate that the two species coexisted and interbred; about 1.8 to 2.1 percent of the genomes modern Eurasian population contain Neanderthal genes. This book is about curiosity, a good conversation, great food, nice place, and thoughtfulness that reflects on the exuberance of a wonderful relationship the two species had for a few millennia. This metaphysical enquiry reflects on the nature of José Millás and Arsuaga’s approach to the culture that evolved (or remained) when one species ceases to exist. This book turns out to be a work of literature and not evolutionary biology. In his 2006 novel, “Laura y Julio,” we find similar enquiry to the problem of identity, symmetry, love, and inhabitable spots within our space.

Book Reviewed: Location Filming in Los Angeles by Karie Bible

Filming in Los Angeles For more than one hundred years, the Los Angeles area has been shaped and reshaped to accommodate filmmakers' visions. It has played everything, the old South, Africa, Switzerland, Rome, ancient Greece, the Middle East, and even outer space. The location images in this book capture a time, a place, and a culture. The book is by no means comprehensive, but it presents a survey of the filming locations from the 1910s through the mid-1970s. This is the result of a runaway production in Hollywood and greater Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce enticed filmmakers with sunshine that promised 350 days of sun. Film pioneers like Thomas Ince and David Wark Griffith found LA the best location. Griffith filmed his 1915 The Birth of a Nation at his studio on Sunset Boulevard and on location in the Hollywood area. In 1925, after a wasteful stint in Italy, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought its multimillion-dollar Ben Hur to Los Angeles and recreated Rome on a vacant lot at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Brice Road (now La Cienega Boulevard). The show-stopping chariot race was one of many epic scenes staged by creative filmmakers in the Los Angeles basin. There are numerous black and white pictures of some of most successful movies of the golden age and early Hollywood. You get to see film locations around downtown, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu, Long Beach, Culver City, and Beverly Hills. The pictures are absolutely adorable and bring back the glory of the old studio era and its efforts to become a major industry in entertainment. This book is a must have for anyone interested in the history of Hollywood.

Book Reviewed: Harlots, Whores & Hackabouts: A History of Sex for Sale by Kate Lister

The journey of a harlot: An historical perception of the sex trade The joy of sex is always an interesting topic to read, and so is the investigation of the sex industry. This industry is generally linked with poverty and coercion of sex-workers. But the illustrations, pictures, and art works that packs this book looks more like a book of pornography that is intended to bring more men to read this book for fun and enjoyment. Much of the illustrative artwork are from the Wellcome Collection, a free museum and library exploring human experience, and each image in this book is printed on thick photographic papers. A scratchy fresco of the god Priapus weighing his own manhood gets one full page, and so is an illustration of a Norwegian heroine waiting for a gynecological screening, and the high platform shoes of Venetian sex workers. This questions the intention of the author. Is she exploiting the sex-workers story for a fast sale of her book, or she is examining the historical facts to come to a reasonable conclusion? The sex-workers profession existed in many cultures in numerous forms and served many different purposes in history. The archives of photographs here do not offer wisdom to the contemporary debates about sexuality and the empowerment of women. The front cover page is a good example to discuss. This is a picture of a woman from the wild west entertaining a gentleman. The ladies of the saloon played an important role in the social scene of the Old West. They were exotic, alluring, pleasant, and helped to create a friendly atmosphere of entertainment and relaxation. Despite the challenges they faced and the negative stereotypes that surrounded them, many saloon girls were able to earn a respectable living and make a place for themselves in a rapidly changing and often dangerous period. Many of them worked for the saloon-owner and helped their employer to promote the saloon business. Most customers who were hard working cowboys liked to enjoy a drink, a conversation and the company of a beautiful lady, and even play a game of pool or poker. Sex for cash was not a pre-requisite in this relationship. In contemporary terms, saloon ladies and dancehall girls are marketing specialists who worked for their employers and helped them in promoting the saloon business. Ambapali (also known as Amrapali) was a courtesan and dancer who lived during the 6th century BCE, at the same time as Buddha, in ancient India. She grew up to be so beautiful and intelligent that princes vied with each other for her hand in marriage. Instead of marrying, she becomes a courtesan and begins to entertain wealthy and influential men in the city of Vaishali. After meeting Buddha and learning his teachings, she becomes one of his devoted followers, and through spiritual practice, becomes an important nun in his order. She finds Buddha’s teachings very spiritual and uplifting since suffering in life follows from all forms of desire, such as for wealth, prosperity, physical appearance, etc. She set herself to free her mind through the direct observation of impermanence. Her insight into impermanence leads to complete liberation of the mind. She wrote several poems, like many other Buddhist nuns (called Bhikkhunis) of her time, that reflect on lives of these women, their former lives, their suffering, their happiness, what they left behind, and the peace they have found in their new lives as nuns. These poems are called “Therīgāthā” in Buddhism. They question their established beliefs, and reflect on their practices, life’s rituals and traditions that dictated them. Therīgāthā has an important dimension to contemporary issues that inspire women and spiritual seekers. The story of Mary Magdalene is another good example, a sex worker in ancient Israel meets Jesus and deeply influenced by his teachings, emerges as one of his closest disciples as illustrated by her gospel about Jesus’s teachings. In fact, she was instructed by him to lead his ministry after his departure. But the copies of her gospels would be destroyed in the third century by the church leaders since it does not agree with the teachings of the four canonized gospels of New Testament, until a copy was discovered in late nineteenth century. These are the fascinating stories of ancient sex-workers who found wisdom and peace in their lives. These are the stories that would be empowering to women.

Book Reviewed: Windows 11 for Seniors in easy steps by Michael Price and Nick Vandome

This book is absolutely for beginners Numerous books are available about the use of Windows 11 with laptops, and this edition offers some useful tips for Windows 11 operating system. I found this book in my local public library, and it is fun to read and learn some basic features. This is for absolute beginners and most things given in this book are very basic operations such as familiarizing with desktop, personalizing your system, browsing the web, classic applications of Microsoft Office; Word, Excel, Outlook, Email, edit photos, and play music. MS applications have become easy to learn by yourself and most questions are answered within the Microsoft system when you are using an application such as web browsing or using a Word document. The photo apps and Windows Media Player were of some use to me when I was trying to rip music from my music CD to my Media Player on the laptop. I suggest you check your local library before you purchase books of this type because they may be available for borrowing.

Book Reviewed: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir by Paul Newman

Paul This book is based on screenwriter Stewart Stern’s conversation with Paul Newman over six years starting in 1986. Newman was in his sixties, and he wanted to tell his stories, set the record straight, and poke holes in the mythology that's sprung around him. Stern was a family friend who knew about confidential things about Newman’s family. He is known for his screenplay “Rebel Without a Cause,” and also wrote screenplays for several projects of Newman and Woodward. Srewart Stern once asked Joanne Woodward who knows Paul Newman well, and her response was his daughters. The most interesting part of the book is his daughters reflecting on a Hollywood legend who was their father and best friend. It is wonderful to know how much he cared for them, and they have fond memories of him. Newman saw philanthropy as his greatest legacy. With the success of his charitable food company, he launched the “Hole in the Wall Gang Camp,” where kids could escape the fear and isolation of their illness. Later he created the “Serious Fun Children's Network.” In 2005, at eighty, he engaged in another important issue: water. Building on a lifelong commitment to environmental issues, he cofounded the “Safe Water Network.” He led the life of a legend, and he was not only a jack of all trades but in many cases a master of all trades. He was an award-winning actor and a successful racing car driver. Paul Newman wanted another great script to make a movie with Robert Redford, but they could never find a good project to follow box office hits like “The Sting” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” His daughters recall that was a big disappointment to both Newman and Redford. This memoir does not make a good read, and Stern is not illuminating as an author of a book. The conversation pops in and out taking away the interesting facts about Newman. I have read good books about Paul Newman, and this is not one of them.

Book Reviewed: Mean...Moody...Magnificent! Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend by Christina Rice

Grit and glamor Jane Russell was given a huge break in Hollywood by the eccentric multimillionaire Howard Hughes to co-star in his big-screen production, The Outlaw, a retelling of the legend of outlaw Billy the Kid. The movie was a huge flop, but her career did not end there. Hughes tried to manipulate her career, took advantage of her physical beauty, and forced it upon her. She fought him off and still managed to become a successful brunette in Hollywood. One unique feature of Jane Russell is that in direct contrast to her many smoldering on-screen portrayals, she was a woman of deep religious faith. she proudly and publicly heralded her devotion to the Bible. But she had no trouble managing that contradiction because a successful career in Hollywood enabled her to advocate for something she cared deeply about, the faith and the welfare of orphaned kids. She endured the harrowing pain after her abortion which left deep wounds in her mind and heart. She opened up about this trauma that haunted her entire life. Jane Russel had demons in her life. Her first marriage to professional football player Bob Waterfield was a disaster. It was a pairing rooted largely in animal magnetism, it was fraught with friction, frustration, and physical abuse. She was forthcoming about domestic violence as it happened. Despite many setbacks, she continued to make television appearances, including some on the Trinity Broadcasting Network of TBN Ministries. She identified herself as a Republican, and her beliefs moved further to the right as she got older. In 2003 she did an interview in which she said, “These days I’m a teetotaling, mean-spirited, Rightwing, narrow-minded, conservative, Christian bigot but not a racist.” This book is read effortlessly, it is interesting to note that her life was contrasting to that of Marilyn Monroe, her friend, co-star, and confidante. Incidentally, Howard Hughes played the same tricks with both of them in his sexual exploitation of women who were casted in his movies. If Hughes was alive today, he would have faced numerous lawsuits and possibly criminal charges from women he harassed.

Book Reviewed: Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon by Kate Andersen Brower.

An enduring legacy of Liz Taylor Numerous books are written about Elizabeth Taylor, and so much was published in the media and supermarket tabloids during her days. Is this any different from others? Perhaps not, the author researched numerous unpublished letters, personal diaries, interview transcripts, and had conversations with family members and friends. It took a decade after Taylor’s death in 2011, her family members felt comfortable to trust a journalist. They spent Elizabeth's entire life protecting her from the rabid press to revel in her heartache after eight failed marriages, her weight gain after binges, and her trips to rehab as she battled her demons. The author recalls a conversation with Senator John Warner of Virginia, one of Taylor’s husbands, explained to the author why he loved his wife. She was the first major star to use her fame to change the course of history through her bold and defiant HIV and AIDS activism. She chaired AIDS Project Los Angeles's Commitment to Life fundraiser which was the first major celebrity AIDS fundraiser in the world. Many of her closest friends were gay men, including Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, and Roddy McDowall. They were a source of friendship and love in her life. She also became an active supporter of Israel and Jewish causes. In 1964, she joined prominent civil rights activists at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's "Freedom TV Spectacular." The nationally televised event commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision to outlaw the segregation of schools. Death affected for the rest of her life; pneumonia, a broken foot, a twisted colon, three ruptured spinal discs, acute bronchitis, chemical thrombosis, phlebitis, sciatica, a tracheotomy, and three C-sections. She was married eight times to seven men, converted to Judaism, led a fast lifestyle, including the collection of the most expensive jewelry in the world. She was excessively late, always arriving hours after she was supposed to, even to her own funeral. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton honeymooned in Beverly Hills Hotel in California, and as legend has it, their standing room-service order included two bottles of vodka with breakfast, and another two bottles with lunch. By the evening, the room is strewn with alcohol, food and with furniture in disarray. Across interpretative frames, in the current political and social landscapes, Elizabeth Taylor was privileged to the possibilities open to postcolonial whites for mobility, pleasure, social and political agency without the burdens of race. Richard Burton once stated, "They say we generate more business activity than one of the smaller African nations.”

Book Reviewed: The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier

Lost in the Milky Way The author describes our home galaxy in an unconventional way where the narratives are in the first person, i.e., the Milky Way is speaking about itself to human beings using the term "I." The following examples illustrates this point: “I can get deeply honest about how it's felt to be your galaxy these last thirteen billion years. But don't pat yourself on the back for managing to read half of this book. I'm the one doing the onerous and, frankly, humiliating work of explaining myself to a hopelessly corporeal creature.” “For thirteen billion years, I've been making stars and waiting for them to die, some more gloriously than others.” “Because being a galaxy every day is exhausting. In addition to holding this entire neighborhood of at least fifty galaxies together, I also have my own gas to transport and mold, and over one hundred billion stars to supervise.” “Generally speaking, my body has three different regions: bulge, disk, and halo. So, allow me to introduce you to my hometown, which, by extension, is also yours.” This book does not have any photographs, illustrations, or graphics to connect with our home galaxy. The author does not fascinate the reader and gives limited information about the Milky Way galaxy.

Book Reviewed: Zelensky: A Biography by Serhii Rudenko

A Ukrainian hero There are thirty-eight chapters in this book which are written like essays. But the narratives are clear about an actor turned president of Ukraine. The Russia-Ukraine war goes down in the history as one of the biggest failures of NATO led by the United States, because NATO had the opportunity to make peace before the start of war. Washington is run by a coterie of incompetent leaders who do not understand international politics but are good at flexing muscles when threatened. Warsaw Pact countries became the allied countries of NATO at a tremendously fast pace, immediately after the fall of Warsaw Pact nations led by the former Soviet Union. This directly threatened the integrity and security of Russian Federation. Because Ukraine was one of the last countries of Warsaw Pact Nations rumored to become a NATO country, which is situated on the western boarder of Russia. Putin initially offered to make peace, but Biden administration flatly rejected it. The war has become one of the biggest tragedies for Ukraine. No one is more surprised by Zelensky's power to inspire and energize his compatriots than Vladimir Putin, who expected Russia's conquest of its neighbor to be a walk-through and an outright victory within few weeks. On February 24, 2022, Russian soldiers brought death, torture, rape, looting, and devastation into Ukrainian homes, which changed the lives of Ukrainians. On March 31, 2022, the brutality of Russian soldiers in two towns near Kyiv - Bucha and Irpin were revealed to the world. Shooting of civilian cars by Russian tanks, the mass murder of handcuffed adults and children who were shot in the back. In the small town of Bucha alone, the bodies of more than three hundred people were buried in mass graves. Zelensky is no longer playing the role of president. He is the leader of a nation that is defending its freedom and independence. A leader who has gained extensive experience in governing his country under wartime conditions. Not a single current European leader has this experience. Zelensky delivered one of his strongest speeches before the UN Security Council. In an online delivery, he spoke emotionally about the crimes of the Russian occupiers. He proposed to the Security Council deprive Russia of its veto, or else it should disband. Lamenting the helplessness and outmoded nature of the UN, Zelensky said what everyone in the world had known but was afraid to say. The sixth president of Ukraine has come a long way, from being an actor to the leader of the Ukrainian nation. He has the courage to lead a nation from certain defeat to victory. Putin is certainly scared, and the morality of Russian armed forces are dwindling.