See Through: Stories by Nelly Reifler

If you don’t finish a book, how can you give a credible opinion on whether or not it is any good? Especially considering that in See Through, the best stories are in the second half of the book. “The River and Una,” a story about two sisters, one young and buddingly innocent, the other voluptuous, depraved and deteriorating, is dark, fascinating and really well put together. It has the propensity to be a really kick-ass novel. “North Curve,” about a prostitute, is dark and sad. “See Through” and “Memoir” are also beautiful, as all the stories are beautifully written and polished. Sure, some of the stories end kind of abruptly, but that’s one of the challenges of the short story itself. Additionally, the diversity of the characters in these stories assures that no one can ever accuse Nelly Reifler of writing only from her own perspective/experience. These stories are definetly worth it, and you can enjoy them over and over again. When you give up on something or pass it up entirely, you’re the one who misses out.

See-Through Pirates (See-Through) by Kelly Davis

This book is attractive and engaging, at first glance. When I was a child, I loved the see-through portions of encyclopedias. The book looked like fun for a ten-year-old who loves pirates. The book is full of interesting facts about pirates. However, I do not feel it is appropriate for children because of the many disturbing facts and images about torture and hanging, etc. I am a firm believer in protecting the minds of young children. I purchased the book today, based on a first impression, for my ten-year -old nephew. However, I was horrified when I got the book home and took time to look at every page. There are pictures of a dead pirate hanging from the gallows, a skeleton cage, keel-hauling, flogging, and more. I will be returning the book. It most certainly is not suitable for four to eight year olds, as your reviewer suggests.

See-Through Mummies (See-Through) by John Malam

I looked at a number of books on mummy-making before settling on this one, and I made a very good choice! The pages are VERY colorful, the see-though sections neat, and the text clear, informative, and interesting.

I highly recommend it.

Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls (Lulu Dark) by Bennett Madison

Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls at first brought back memories of my own reading material when I was a pre-teen, but after the first few chapters I really got into the plot and forgot that I was reading a book aimed at young adults. The first person narrative is witty and smart and draws on a lot of pop culture references that I was fortunate enough to get. I think that young girls who are looking for something a little different from the mainstream books that are usually marketed to them will really enjoy this change of pace. The characters are snarky and a little jaded for their age, but they always remain morally centered and essentially honest. The twists and turns of the mystery will also keep them intrigued until the last chapter.

God Will See You Through by Mary L. Kupferle

Although this books is small, it is packed with wisdom and guidance on how to bring God into your life. Ms. Kupferle has a wonderful way of inspiring the reader and making God truly near. She helps with day to day problems and also the major ones that come along. I will keep this book by my bed, and read it many more times. I know that there are many more jewels buried in this book, so I will dig and dig. I higly recommend this book.

Leopold, the See-Through Crumbpicker by James Flora

This was one of my favorite books growing up in the late 60′s- early 70′s. Flora’s books were wildly fun and inventive and “Leopold the See-through Crumbpicker” was one of his most original. It has been a while since I read it, but I remember the story involves a little girl who befriends an invisible creature named a “crumbpicker”. If you like wildly creative illustrations and HR Pufnstuf, you’ll love this book.

It’s a shame that Flora’s books are nearly all out of print. Hopefully, this will change upon the release of the book “The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora” by Irwin Chusid in ’04 or ’05. The publisher that eventually decides to rerelease Flora’s children’s books will surely rake in the bucks when Baby boomers get wind of it!

As I See It by Elton John, Greg Gorman, and John Hurt

Word’s can’t describe this beautiful new male nude-photography book from Greg Gorman. The photos in this book are so beautifully reproduced, I don’t think I have ever seen better. The book binding itself from the brown cloth cover to the beautiful sepia tone black & white photos is perfect. The images of these models (Gorman’s friends, acquaintances, and professional models) are so sensual and so clear because of Gorman’s talented use of light and shadows. These hot men are handsome and good-looking. There are over 240 photos in this collection, a great achievement that was 20 years in the making by this photographer. These young men are not big and overly built, but very natural looking young men. As Gorman says, “They are not really boys, yet they’re not really men, either.

Anyone who appreciates male beauty, great photography, or both should own this beautiful collection. I have reviewed and collected many male nude photography books, but I was more than impressed with this book. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars. It’s a must for the collector of male figure study books.

The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger’s by Temple Grandin

“… see-through dresses made in bright Day- Glo colors. Her employer really frowned …”

This book is a collection of articles that were previously published in Autism journals. The articles have been edited, updated and neatly arranged by topic. The articles are 2-4 pages long and numerous articles make up each chapter. Due to this arrangement it is not necessary to read the book in its entirety or in order from start to finish. The reader can jump around from topic to topic if they want, and it will all still make sense. Temple Grandin PhD describes herself as a `high functioning Autistic person and she is presently in her 50s. While some of this is opinion and some is explaining the way life is experienced by the author, other parts are summaries and analyses of information such as medical studies. After reading this book cover to cover I can see that a lot of time, research, energy and passion went into Dr. Grandin’s writings.

The chapters having to do with medical information, diagnoses, medical treatments, and discussing what different kinds of research has shown are cited right at the end of the article with the references cited. I want to make it clear that it is apparent that the author has researched these topics thoroughly. Unlike so many other non-fiction books (or magazine articles or web based articles) on the market which comment on studies or shell out advice based on what the medical experts say this one actually does state what studies were referenced so they are believable and so the reader can go on to research more if they desire. Although many of these professional journal articles are not available to the layperson easily or for free, at least laypersons will know that the information is based on something it is not just made up or pure opinion based on someone’s imagination. Health care professionals who want to learn more would have easier access to those source materials than the layperson does.

Also included for many chapters is a list of source material for the reader to further investigate. The further reading is in various sources such as websites, books, journal articles and magazine articles. For example when discussing vision issues that some people with Autism have, she cites the medical studies published in professional journals and a list of websites available to everyone to read for free.

Chapters have these titles which sum up the broad range of topics addressed in this book: Diagnosis and Early Intervention, Teaching and Education, Sensory Issues, Understanding Nonverbal Autism, Behavior Issues, Social Functioning, Medications and Biomedical Therapy, Cognition and Brain Research and Adult Issues and Employment.

I mentioned the articles were updated for this book. Examples of that are citing journal articles dated 2007 and 2008 (this first edition of this book was published in September 2008) and including some information on the newest drugs for depression and anxiety. Sometimes the author comments on current event issues that happened very recently. I appreciated that these articles were edited and updated when reformatting them for publication in a book and they are NOT just a quick reprint of old articles. I appreciated that. I feel the book was edited well. It was not boring, it moved along providing just enough information on a wide variety of topics. When the reader is left wanting more information, which is when further research on one’s own would be worthwhile. Anyone dealing with Autism and Asperger’s has got to realize that to know more they will have to do a good amount of self-education by reading the research and other books and articles that pertain to the specific topic areas that are issues for their unique child with the Autism or Asperger’s diagnosis.

This book is not the first book on autism that parents of newly diagnosed children with Autism should probably read. However after learning the vague basics and generalized information that is so readily available, if a person wants more information more from the perspective of a successful person who actually has the Autism diagnosis, I highly recommend the writings of Dr. Temple Grandin. Her previous book “Thinking in Pictures” was eye opening to me as it was the first time I was able to read what life would be like for a person who is a visual thinker. This book was even better because it explains some things that can only be described by a person who has lived through them, for example, the sensory issues.

As the subtitle says, this is “a personal look at Autism and Asperger’s”. This is the information and research as viewed by Dr. Grandin. This book is what it says it is, it does not pretend to be something it is not. I do appreciate this book and have learned from it. If you crave a less personal view of the issues and information about Autism written by someone from a more distant perspective perhaps you would not like this book. As for me I hope that Dr. Grandin continues to write and speak at conferences to share her experiences and information `the way she sees it’.

One thing that I appreciated and don’t always see in writings about Autism was the positive attitude to attempt to boost parents who have children with Autism . She inspires parents to take action, to not give up, to find responsive health care providers, to not bow down to Pediatricians who are not taking the suspected diagnosis seriously in the early stages. She stresses the importance of having early intervention, to work with their children directly not ONLY rely on professional expert treatments, and to get parents to set high expectations of their children. (In this way she reminded me of Maria Montessori and in general about children’s education and standards of behavior she reminded me of Marva Collins). She tackles the difficult topics of household and behavioral rules and of etiquette. She discusses punishments (negative consequences for negative actions) even for young children with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. She discusses how her mother handled her in the 1950s and 1960s and I completely agree with Dr. Grandin’s assessment of today’s parents (all parents) and the different lowered standards for behaviors today in general which spills over and affects today’s parents of children with Asperger’s or Autism. Two common pitfalls are being too permissive due to wanting to be the child’s friend, not setting high enough standards–children rise to the standard set for them so if the parents bar is low then they’ll only rise to that and, in Dr. Grandin’s view, using the label-diagnosis as an excuse to not even try to set limits and behavior standards—which I call playing the victim role.

She also addresses behavioral issues with teens and adults, urging them not to play the victim role and to stand up and learn to play by society’s rules rather than play the Asperger’s or Autism card and refuse to comply with normal cultural norms or workplace etiquette. That section is perhaps her toughest and least flexible and may cause some readers to bristle.

Over and over Dr. Grandin reinforces that her opinions are her opinions based on her experience. She says multiple times that the Autism spectrum is wide and even the perspectives, perceptions, and experiences of people with the same exact diagnosis or who are functioning seemingly on an equal level vary so greatly. She does NOT ever claim to be living the one and only way that all people on the spectrum live. For example people who are nearsighted and are told they have a vision rating of 20/200 may all report their vision as seeming the same, things are blurry if they are a certain distance away and so forth. Anyone who knows anything about Autism understands that Autism is not at all as simple as a medical diagnosis of being nearsighted. Despite that fact, I know some people will say what Dr. Grandin says is not 100% true or applicable for their child on the Autism spectrum, however expecting such a high standard from a person writing of their own unique experience is ridiculous. Many people say if they learn one really useful thing from reading a non-fiction book or attending one seminar then it is worth it. There will be at least one thing if not many that readers will find useful, they may see a new perspective, perhaps be able to be more empathetic, or maybe they will learn something new, hear of a study they didn’t know about, realize they want to go on to read a different book sourced, or perhaps they will feel uplifted and encouraged to be an advocate for their after reading this book. If any of that happens with readers then it makes this a useful book that did its job.

The bottom line is that if you like and appreciate past writings of Dr. Grandin you will love this book. If you like her writing style and opinion sharing and have not read all these articles before then this book is a great value and convenient to have all these articles in a bound book format. If you are sick of general cold information that seems too clinical you may like the fresh perspective in this book with its personal take on source materials. If you seek more general information from a more distant source there are other books on the market for you about Autism. If you are a purist who has access to and can understand and properly evaluate statistics you may prefer to read the original medical studies and professional journal articles instead. Certainly if you are a medical doctor working with Asperger’s and Autism issues you should be reading the original professional journal articles and source medical studies. This book is primarily written for the layperson parents and teachers who live or work with people with Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome.

One last thing I will mention is I have just finished reading a book about gifted children and adults who have a dual diagnosis or a misdiagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome. In case that book might be something you are interested in I’ll mention it. The title is “Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, Asperger’s, Depression, And Other Disorders by James Webb MD (ISBN 978-0910707671). That book was excellent.

See How They Run by James Patterson

“… the Chandler Pavilion. Shrieks came from the velvet tuxedos and see-through dresses out in the audience. …”

Some James Patterson readers just cannot understand why his early books are actually very good. But they are…

James Patterson’s early books are gems to be savoured as they are some of the few example of him when he actually wrote GOOD prose, before he began churning them out like Danielle Steele just for a few more bucks. The prose in his latest books is unashamedly simplistic and shallow, and completely lacks any kind of depth. here, at least, his prose is far better.

And, the story looses absolutely nothing. It is still very suspenseful, pageturning, etc. All the things for which Patterson is best known. The good writing takes absolutely nothign away from the excitement and overall quality of the plot and even, at times, adds to it.

The plot itself is strong (if rather unrealistic…but then, we do not look to Patterson for realism) and much better developed than those of his latest books. The characters are also more well-drawn (still not good…but character development has never been one of his grest strength, unless of course you’re talking about the villains in his first three Cross thrillers.) It’s also a book which puts forward lots of moral issues, and probably plays around with yourbeliefes and conceptions about what is good and what is bad. I.e. the villains are not who at first we think they are, but they are an altogether different group of people whom we feel a great empathy for.

There are still twists aplenty throughout the book, and it powers along with the speed and inevitability of a freight train. The climax is great, and the relationship between Alix and David touching (although its not quite understandable how David so quickly gets over the death of his wife)

If only James Patterson would go back to this style. Good writing AND a great plot…now, there’s something to look out for from JP.

Daily Life in the United States, 1960-1990: Decades of Discord (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series) by Myron A. Marty

“… body. So there were short skirts, sleeveless and Fashions backless dresses, hot pants (preferably worn with boots), skin- tight T-shirts, see-through dresses, and increasingly brief swimming suits. These were years, however, …”

Dr. Marty must have put in a lot of time and effort into this book. He discribes each century and the ideologies that the people believed in. He describes all the problems and benifits of each time period. He accomplished this through quotes; well broken up chapters and thorough anaylsis. At some points, the book becomes to thick with facts and very slow. It never lacked inspiration or serious effort. Dr. Marty’s book is a well writen work that a lot of time and effort went into. If you are serious about history I would recomend that you read it.