"Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us." -- Psalm 2:3 (NKJV)

When most people think of the Environmental Protection Agency, they imagine the environment being improved, the air becoming cleaner, rare species having a better chance of surviving, and the beauties of nature being more available to future generations. To some people, the EPA presents a different face: a source of regulation that limits outdoor activities that provide their livelihood.

In Breaking Point, C.J. Box adds to these two perspectives by illustrating the dangers of the Federal government's power being abused in arbitrary ways, crushing the spirits and hopes of those who are affected. I'm sure you'll sympathize with the plight of the Roberson family in Breaking Point.

That said, the book's main virtue is an astonishingly vivid story of a manhunt in the wilderness. These sequences contain some of the best writing of this sort that it has ever been my pleasure to read. I could feel myself in the scenes almost as completely as if I were truly there.

Unfortunately, the book has a major weakness that undermined my sense of reality in the story: the actions taken by government officials just didn't seem credible to me. Consequently, I felt as if I were having a bad dream during much of the book rather than reading something that could actually happen. Mr. Box needed to tone down his villainy to make it more like the actions of a bureaucracy than unleashing of an unlimited war.

I do recommend the book. It fits in well with some of the earliest stories in the series. If you haven't read any other books in the series, I suggest you start with Open Season and work through the series in order of publication.

Enjoy the amazing scenes in this book!

"A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." -- Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV)

I must admit to being one of the tens (perhaps hundreds?) of millions of people who is fascinated by the Renoir masterpiece, Luncheon of the Boating Party. I've been known to camp in front of it for hours.

As much as I love the work, it overwhelms me ... so much so that I failed to grasp the astonishing difficulties it presented to Renoir until listening to this intriguing fictional account of its creation. I came to appreciate that beneath each masterful brushstroke lay painstaking sacrifices by Renoir and his friends. Gaining some sense of the people involved also increased my appreciation for the genius of the work ... how it captured important insights made by Renoir, in addition to ideally filling the canvas with color and form, comme ca!

If you've ever wished you knew the story behind a painting, I highly recommended that you become familiar with this book. Although my decision to listen rather than to read the book was almost accidental, I'm glad that I did. Karen White's fine reading brings the material to life in unforgettable ways.

Brava!

"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance." -- 1 Timothy 4:9 (NKJV)

Some nonfiction books state important ideas for the first time. Others restate what is known in terms of new information. Still other texts capture the essence of what's known in more powerful ways. Contagious falls into the last category. If you haven't studied marketing before, it's a solid place to start with understanding what attracts attention and draws more people ... especially through face-to-face or telephone-to-telephone conversations. In other words, this book is about word of mouth, a profoundly important way to market anything.

In today's world, many people are convinced that only social media drive trends. While that may happen someday, the trends start elsewhere and are echoed later in social media. Unique experiences and word-of-mouth testimonials are at the core of how such things start and spread.

If you just want a recipe for marketing, go to page 209 in the Epilogue, which succinctly summarizes the book's elements: social currency, environmental reminders, generating emotion, visibility, practical benefits, and effective stories. I found the list a little overly summarized to be completely helpful. Professor Berger's strength as a business author is explaining what the labels mean. I advise you to dig in and study his examples.

While I've been involved with business marketing as a professional for many decades (you don't want to know how many), I found his examples to be more compelling than those I recall from other fine books on the subject.

I intend to recommend this book to all my entrepreneurial students who need a stronger marketing program.

Bravo, Professor Berger!

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." -- Romans 12:21 (NKJV)

Trust No One is without a doubt the most suspenseful and terrifying book in the series so far. Pressure is starting to take its toll on the desperate Cahills and their allies. This book would not be a good choice for someone who easily transfers reading into nightmares.

I thought that the plot developments were rewarding and the character development continued to be interesting. Where some of the books in the series seem like just another cliffhanger, Trust No One definitely advances the story in meaningful ways.

My interest in the series was increased by this book, and I'm very excited to read the next book, which is out now.

In the meantime, Trust No One!

"a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;" -- Romans 1:28-31 (NKJV)

The Isaac Bell series has several strong points: an interesting, unusual detective; a close look at the emerging technologies at the turn of the twentieth century; a social history time capsule of the great conflicts of the age; and some pretty cold-blooded villains. The Striker presents several new dimensions to these elements, ones that I think you'll find intriguing.

If you have been reading the series, realize that this novel moves back in time to when Isaac Bell was first earning his credibility as a detective. As such, he makes mistakes ... which add to the story for the most part.

I graded the novel down slightly for describing sequences that I could not follow in places. I just made up something in my head, but I'm sure I got it wrong.

The overall plot was quite intriguing, and it had more plausibility than some of the other Isaac Bell novels.

Unlike other series, I'm not sure it's a good idea to start with this story even though it precedes others in time in the series. It's told, in part, as a back story that you'll better appreciate if you've been reading the books in order of publication. Stick to that order.

"They change the night into day;" -- Job 17:12 (NKJV)

Having worked with many students to develop social histories of the United States, I'm always struck by how little has been written about the social impact of electricity on the nation. Well, that gap has been nicely filled by this fine book.

If you don't often read social history, be aware that such works focus on how people are affected. It's not the same as a biography of an inventor, or a history of the science and development involved. If you are looking for those, please do look elsewhere.

While I would have liked a little more detail than the book provided about the electrical generation industry, I felt that I was well served. One of the personal mysteries of my life has been the little-discussed death of my maternal grandfather who worked for an electric utility: He was electrocuted while working on a power line. The Age of Edison made me appreciate that it was often dangerous to work with electricity in those days before government regulation, various codes were not yet in place, and worker safety rules did not exist.

I was most interested in how perceptions of the night and family life changed due to electricity. I hope that many future social historians will become familiar with this work and weave its findings into their writings, as well.

Bravo, Professor Freeberg!

"Love suffers long and is kind;" -- 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NKJV)

A Week in Winter is one of those books that will stay with you for a long time, and with good reason: It's a superb book. More than that, it's a book filled with encouraging perspectives on how to recover from mistakes and move onto doing the right thing. Maeve Binchy loves her characters, even the ones who ignore the chances she provides to be redeemed. If you feel that the whole world is against you, pull out this book and read or reread it. Your spirits will be raised.

It's difficult to give a full sense of this book without spoiling it a bit. I'll do my best to avoid such an error here.

A new hotel on the Western coast of Ireland is open for its first week, having just finished being converted from being a private home. The owner and the staff are described in terms of their past lives and hopes for this hotel. In the book, you'll meet all of the guests, learn their back stories, and find out what happens to them during what for most will be a momentous week of self-discovery. The interactions among the characters are just delightful, showing the kind of caring attention that we should all provide to one another.

The back stories are quite varied, providing lots of room for reflection and surprises. And naturally, the hotel itself and its environs provide the context for a number of interesting events and epiphanies.

Anyone who has loved Maeve Binchy's past books will only have one complaint about A Week in Winter: It's not long enough!

Brava, Ms. Binchy!

"Let the young men now arise and compete before us." -- 2 Samuel 2:14 (NKJV)

Top Dog is that rare book that combines psychology with physiology while also attempting to provide some practical insights that readers can apply. I believe that those who are looking for physiological information will probably like this book the best. The psychological insights are next best. The practical lessons come next in value.

Those who think that competition has been downplayed too much as a mechanism for social improvement will find powerful arguments here for ways that vying with others can lead to accomplishing much more.

For me the big takeaway message was that individuals perform best in quite different ways: Some need to be part of a team; others need maximum stress, many need very little stress, and still others need to identify with a purpose. While I was quite aware of what my own best combination is, I hadn't given much thought to how that might differ for others. While I'm helping students prepare for competition in the future, I intend to pay much more attention to first understanding what is optimal for each one. That was well worth the time I spent reading the book.

While it was good to know a lot more about the various hormones and their effects on competitors, the book had a lot more of that information than I can use or interested me. If you are a student of physiology, you may well have the opposite reaction that much more should have been included.

If you want to get a quick sense of the book's practical tips, they are efficiently summarized from the bottom of page 238 through 240. If you decide to read the book, you may find those three pages to be a good place to go when you decide to refresh your appreciation of the book.

I agreed with the argument that competition has more benefits than drawbacks. As a mechanism for helping most people to improve, it's hard to beat ... just because most people like to win so much. The book's advice will help those who find competition overly stressful to adopt a more effective approach.

I thought the writing was quite good and easy to follow, being much better than in many popular science books.

"Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death." -- Mark 13:12 (NKJV)

Let me be clear that I am reviewing the audio recording read by Ralph Lister.

The story begins with two deaths, one ghastly and one that's hard to swallow for those who detect carefully. While many people are quick to decide that one is a murder of a prostitute and the other a suicide, William Monk isn't so sure. Teaming with his wife, Hester, and Oliver Rathbone, the investigation goes into some pretty chilling territory.

If you haven't read Execution Dock, I strongly urge you to do so before reading A Sunless Sea. Otherwise, you'll probably like this book about one star less than by reading the two in tandem. Several of the most deft plot developments in A Sunless Sea tie back to that earlier story.

I thought the novel put us back into the Victorian perspective quite effectively, allowing us to see with horror some things that we are hardened to today. There are also some nice moral dilemmas that will interest anyone who enjoys such challenges.

Ultimately, I found the book a little tedious in the way that the final investigation unfolded during Oliver Rathbone's defense efforts during a criminal trial. Anne Perry could have sped matters up quite a bit and readers might have enjoyed the story more. See what you think.

"These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding," -- Isaiah 29:24 (NKJV)

The big takeaway from this book for many people will be that their success depends, at least in part, on their ability to sell their ideas and beliefs so that others will act on them. Daniel H. Pink aptly points out that tens of millions of Americans have such challenges, most of whom are unprepared for how to meet them.

Once a reader joins the boat of realizing the need to persuade others, naturally some advice is needed. Mr. Pink deftly combines the lessons from the better books in the field of persuasion to present some simple, but critical, principles to apply:

Attunement: See the situation from the other person's perspective and add to it the emotional connection of empathy, while mirroring what other people do physically when with them.

Buoyancy: Be ready to bounce-back from whatever setbacks and discouragements occur by managing your mental and psychological state.

Clarity: Find the right problem, frame it so others can relate to it, and give people directions for what to do.

To apply these principles, be prepared to pitch your idea in six new ways. apply the principles of improvisation to work effectively with others to accomplish more, and engage in adding more service to improve matters for others.

The book is filled with compelling stories, nice examples, and crisp writing.

Here's my pitch for the book: Need You need it!