Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

Thomas Foster presents the reader with a number of skills in literature analysis. It is a light and pleasurable read providing a good introduction to symbolism in literature.

The first few chapters cover simple object and form analysis, then he expands into looking at events and actions. The book concludes with a short story and full analysis at three different levels.

Thomas often states that analysis isn’t necessary to enjoying literature, you can still enjoy a story for what it is. And a good story should stand on its own without analysis. But understanding symbolism can open a new window to literature and its enjoyment.

The book has loaded with examples from well-known literature. Thomas does a very good job of helping the reader to understand the symbolism and how the reader can get there.

The book is very enjoyable and enlightening. Anyone who enjoys literature, but misses the symbolism, should check it out.

This book is different from others in the series. This is evident starting with the author’s forward, not from Laurie King, but from Mary Russell. In it, she warns that the events of the manuscript my seem incredible, and suggests that the reader can disregard the events. I presume this means the events in this book will not be referenced in future books.

The first portion of the book adds to the confusion. The story is about a director making a film about an acting troupe that is producing The Pirates of Penzance, and during the play, they have an encounter with real pirates. So, we have actors playing actors playing actors, actors playing pirates, actors playing actors playing pirates, producer, actor playing producer, and more confusion.

Laurie King does sort this out early and gets on with the plot. sort of. the mystery never really develops much, the book is more an adventure of the actors, and Mary’s adventures with the troupe.

The book is fun and witty. It stands on its own within the series, it isn’t necessary to know the characters or events from earlier books. Too much is left unexplained to make a good mystery, but does make a good adventure story.

For the first portion of this book, it felt like a rehash of old jokes from the previous novels. However, once the Pirate Captain gets entwined with Karl Marx, the book really picked up.

In this adventure, the pirates explore London and Paris in disguise and the Pirate Captain gets an opportunity to show his expertise in the French language. The Pirate Captain manages to land an endorsement from Perkin’s Gentlemen’s Pomade which provides him with ample supplies of the pomade. The book explores pirate philosophies as Karl Marx and the Pirate Captain get involved in a philosophical competition, and the captain gets to share his wit with the elite Frenchmen.

All jolly fun, but someone is trying to sabotage Marx’s reputation and discredit him. So the adventure takes a turn.

This is a great adventure and a quick read.

Heads You Lose tells the story of Paul and Lacey Hansen. They are pot grower who find a headless body in their yard and are afraid to call the police. So they move the body, but it turns up again. They begin their investigation involving some odd characters in a small town.

The characters personalities change from chapter to chapter, events happen out of the blue, and it is otherwise a disappointing mystery.

But that isn’t what the book is about.

The book is about the authors. Formerly a couple, who decided to co-auther a book. They are strictly hands-off for what the other person creates, well, sort of. The rules are they alternate chapters and do not undo or strongly change what the other has written. But they threaten each other, they mess with each other’s characters, and the banter makes the book!

Each chapter indicates which author wrote that chapter, a saving grace! I constantly referred to the header to see whose chapter this was, the writing author was in a normal font, the other was slightly grayed.

Each chapter ends with a letter from the chapter author and a return from the other. The authors leave footnote comments on the other’s work. This is what drives the book. This is the real plot. It is funny, occasionally laugh-out-lout hilarious. The book is worth the read and is time well spent.

Ironically, it also feels like the book could have been a lot more. After finishing, I don’t feel like these authors have much more to offer, the material was covered and its done.

Heads You Lose is still a good book and well worth the read.

Little Bee is the story of a Nigerian girl who is fleeing for her life. She arrives in England, and after spending two years in a refugee camp, manages an escape and begins an experience in a foreign country, where her life intertwines with another woman she had met years ago.

The author does a great job of presenting Little Bee as an alien and her adventures in England as an alien. He gets into her mind and provides an unusual perspective of the young girl. As the story progresses, the past unfolds and we attain an understanding of what has happened and what will come.

The story is very well told and is powerful. It is also somewhat depressing. The minor characters can get depressing and the major characters have many unresolved issues.

I can’t say I enjoyed the book, but it is probably one of those that is good for me. I did find it interesting and makes for good conversation with others who have read it.

This is a book on behavioral economics. The animal spirits is derived from Latin, and refers more to states of mind. Economics is driven more by perceptions and ideas about economics, sometimes irrational. The Keynesian adherence to simple profit-motivated activities can be misleading and inaccurate.

George Akerlof argues in support of behavioral economics over the more popular Keynesian economic theory. He pulls examples over the past 20 years or so to establish his argument over behavioral economic’s superiority. He posits that people work from stories about economic behavior. These stories are patters of behavior that they expect others to follow. Through the book he uses these stories to explain unemployment, recessions, other behaviors.

The book makes good use of examples and the author does take the time to explain his theory and how it differs from Keynesian economics.

Its weakness is in the approach. Some of the “real people” examples seem odd, for instance, the real person who who is young, and fresh out of school is a female professor at Harvard. This doesn’t feel like a real person and weakens the value of his example. Many of his examples, especially those from history feel either contrived or cherry-picked. In my opinion, the book would have been much stronger if he had pointed out criticisms or alternate theories and addressed them in comparison. He does provide a lot of notes, some with references, which does give it some feel of a scientific paper.

I don’t feel there is enough in the book to convince me of the strength of his theory of behavioral economics, but it does offer some real good food for thought.

The Surgeon’s Mate is book 7 in the Aubrey-Maturin stories. This book continues following the escape from America, Jack and Stephen end up dealing with French imprisonment.

The book further explores the relationship between Dr. Maturin and Diana Villiers, while we see almost nothing of Aubrey’s own family.

I’m continually impressed with Patrick O’Brian’s knowledge, not just of the management and operation of tall ships and the British Admiralty, but of the English culture and politics as well. Of course, I’m presuming he is accurate. 🙂

The stories are well written and I always look forward to the next adventure.

This is a story of a man with multiple personality disorder. What makes it interesting, is that the personality dominantly portrayed in the book is from another planet and has vast insight into the human condition, as well as unexplainable and verifiable information on another world.

It isn’t clear whether this is a psychology book or science fiction. The reader is intentionally left hanging over the decision, as ever new data point clearly in one direction or the other.

I was drawn to this book after seeing the movie. Although I enjoyed the movie, it didn’t quite feel complete. The movie was fairly accurate to the book, but left out some details and the final chapter. The book explores several interactions with other patients of the psychiatric ward than the movie does, and provides a few new twists. It is worth reading even if you’re familiar with the movie.

*** Somewhat of a SPOILER follows ***

The book doesn’t give a clear answer to the questions raised – what is the truth of the patient? Is that a spoiler? I understand there is a sequel (or two even) which may provide clearer conclusions.

This is the third book in the Tarzan series. Tarzan and Jane’s son is kidnapped by Rokoff (from previous books) in an effort to seek vengeance against Tarzan. In this book, Tarzan tames Sheeta, the panther, and trains the apes to respond to his call.

It is good to read of Tarzan with his personal weaknesses, and his building relationships and skills that were used in the movies. This book is an adventure as Tarzan chases Jane and Rokoff, Jane chases her son and Tarzan while fleeing Rokoff, and occasionally their paths crossing unbeknown to each other.