Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan

First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

David Levithan has written a novel of loss and grief, but also one of hope and redemption as his characters slowly learn to move forward in their lives, despite being changed forever.

I felt that some parts of Love is the Higher Law were really well written but other parts, not so much. Claire was a fantastic narrator, I wanted more scenes with her because scenes with her made me feel as if I was right there, in New York City on 9 September 2001. I do not remember 9/11/01 very clearly unfortunately. But reading this book as I said, while reading Claire’s scenes, it was as if I was experiencing everything.

Jasper. I liked him. His character was nice enough and quite understandable. My major complaint is Peter. His character was not developed and the plot for his side of the story was stagnant. Initially, the pacing for the book was just right but as I read more it started moving slowly. The aftermath of 9/11 was a little draggy for me but ultimately the message that David Levithan is trying to convey is that there is hope.

Thank you David Levithan for writing a book about September 11 as I have never read any book about it. Love is the Higher Law portrays the events of 9/11 very clearly making it a heart-breaking yet beautiful and moving novel. Before reading this book, make sure you have a box of tissues beside you.

Sorry but I think I’m giving this a Silver star. I may not have found this book spectacular but I’m sure others will love it.

Silver star

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - Being true to your mission

This is from the book -  Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

“Your life is not just about you. It’s also about contributing to others. It’s about living true to your mission and reason for being here on this earth at this time. It’s about adding your piece of the puzzle to the world. Most people are so stuck to their egos that everything revolves around me, me, and more me. But if you want to be rich in the truest sense of the word, it can’t only be about you. It has to include adding value to other people’s lives.”

This extract just really touched my heart. I connected to this and I feel like what I’m really doing right now in IMG is my piece of the puzzle to this world. In my company, it’s really about the mission and changing people’s lives for the better through financial education.

Our country lacks this, and there are so many lives wasting away because people are too caught up doing the things that don’t really matter, and yet they wonder why they are still in the rat race… working so hard but getting nowhere financially. They own the best toys thinking that their retirement plan would come easy when they’re older.

That’s way too wrong!  Wake up. It doesn’t . You may earn more when you’re older but it will only be harder to save since  your lifestyle also changes, you spend more. And before you know it, you haven’t really saved anything significant.

What will you do then? Keep working after 60? Depend on your kids for your needs? Guess when all the illnesses will come in? That’s right! When you’re old and if you lacked the foresight, you probably didn’t save enough either. Too bad.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

This book is absolutely enchanting.  It spoke to me on so many levels that I ripped through 500 pages in just 5 days of commuting.  It also feels apt to have been prompted to read it by seeing it on the subway.

Betty Wehner Smith was born in 1896 and her heroine,  Francie Nolan, is a few years younger than her author, making her only a half dozen years older than my own grandmother, who also grew up Irish and working class.  Like Francie, she and her siblings left school to work and she was a young woman in the war years.  Reading the novel made me feel connected to my grandmother, to the clothes she wore (with hats! and gloves!), to the shows and the dances she enjoyed, to the worries and hopes she had.

And then there are the ways Francie reminds me of myself – as a voracious reader, as a big sister to a little brother, as an internal monologist.  And now, living in Brooklyn, just like Francie, I can marvel at the multiple cultures I traipse through each day, perfect my technique for weaving through the Manhattan crowds and revel in the beauty of a rooftop view of the bridges.

The writing style of the novel is a charming blend of Francie’s voice and an omniscient narrator’s gentle and plainspoken statements.  In another author’s hands, it could easily be didactic or faux-naive, but somehow it rings true.  The only thing I don’t get is assigning this book to kids – I could never had appreciated the book’s emotional depth until I had some of my own.

Moral Monsters

Everyone likes to feel vindicated. From my childhood I have felt marginalized because of my interests in monsters, and now a book has just been released from Oxford University Press that vindicates my interest! Stephen Asma, a philosophy professor at Columbia College, Chicago, has written a monograph entitled On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. Further vindicating my idiosyncratic interest is the fact that the Chronicle of Higher Education even has an electronic front-page article on the book this week. I am overcome with credulity! I haven’t been able to lay my hands on the book yet, but I hungrily read the article and look forward to the whole product.

Readers of this blog know my assertion that monsters originate in a mental space shared by religion. Both are responses to the unknown. Asma writes in his Chronicle article, “The monster concept is still extremely useful, and it’s a permanent player in the moral imagination because human vulnerability is permanent.” Indeed, his article is entitled “Monsters and the Moral Imagination.” The thesis he promotes is that our morality (again tied to religion for many people) benefits from its struggle with monsters. We imagine our moral responses to being faced with the truly horrific, and the monsters themselves are less frightening than our imaginary responses. The top box-office winner this past weekend was Paranormal Activity, a movie noted for not showing the menace, but implying it. There is an evolutionary advantage here; we learn about coping with real danger by imagining danger.

So as I look out the window on yet another cold, gray, rainy October morning, and see the trees swaying in the wind, my imagination takes flight. Those Saturday afternoons and late nights filled with cinematographic visions of even worse things that could happen are cast in a new light. Instead of scaring myself, I was building moral character! As my friend K. Marvin Bruce likes to say, “monsters are only mirrors.” Sometimes the mirror reflects a truly untamed world, and Dr. Asma informs us “inhuman threats are great reminders of our own humanity.” I would simply add, “and of our religions.”

Monday Bookworms: The Known World

The Known World, Edward P. Jones

386 pages, @2003

Sorry that I was MIA last week guys!  I don’t know, I just felt like I needed a little break to veg, have no fear, I won’t make it a regular occurence. 

The Known World has been on my bookshelf (or my mom’s) since it came out in 2003.  I remember when this book came out it had a lot of buzz surrounding it and it won the Pulitzer Prize to boot.  A friend of mine also let me know that Edward P. Jones, the author, was a Holy Cross grad, which made me that much more excited to read it.

Henry Townsend, was freed from slavery by his parents when he was a teenager.  A favorite of his master, William Robbins, when he went into his own business he solicited Mr. Robbins assistance and became one of the best bootmakers in Virginia.  After building up some wealth he bought his own land, built a house and started a farm.  Then he purchased his first slave.  He continuously sought the help and tutelage of Mr. Robbins as he built his farm and continued to purchase more slaves.  His farm was very orderly and he never overstepped the boundaries of the law.  However, after his untimely death, his wife Caldonia, is unable to keep order.  Jones explores slavery in every light.

I wanted to love this book .  A unique story, a Holy Cross grad, a Pulitzer Prize winner, I kept telling myself I would feel rewarded when I finished, but unfortunately that just wasn’t the case.  The book had too many characters and it was hard to follow the windering story arc.  As soon as you got used to one story involving some of the characters, he would move on to another story line with other characters and I felt like I was starting all over again.  It all wove together in the end but I just didn’t find it riveting or really even that interesting.  I was incredibly disappointed that I didn’t love it.  I’m not sure if any of you have read Toni Morrison, but in away he reminded me of Morrison, but just not quite as lyrical.  Her books (I’ve only read 3 so this is a generalization) are very all over the place with cirular stories that you can’t understand until you finish the entire book. 

Overall I would not recommend this book at all.  It was long, tedious, and if I was someone who put books down and didn’t eventually finish them, I wouldn’t have finished it.  I would be curious though, if you read it and liked it, to hear what you liked about it.  So if that’s you – post a comment.

Rating:  2 stars

 

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What book have you recently been disappointed by?

Review: The Sociopath Next Door

Timing is everything! As I was finishing up my post on good and evil my copy of Stout’s The Sociopath Next Door arrived. Both of these posts compliment each other and they almost make a thematic Halloween post, too!

So without further adieu here’s the review!

Dr. Martha Stout’s The Sociopath Next Door should be required reading for all martial artists. In her book, Dr. Stout delivers an honest look at the 4% of the U.S. population that falls into the category of sociopath. She is quite right too when she cautions that most people are under the mistaken impression that sociopaths are all violent criminals. Stout writes:

The ominous truth is that a shocking average of 1 out of every 25 U.S. citizens is one of “the remorseless”. While varied, as sociopaths they are each completely devoid of conscience and can do literally anything to achieve their personal goals, whatever they may be.

The teacher who ridicules his students,  the cheating boyfriend who left you in debt, the cranky neighbor who seems to just lay in wait for the chance to cause trouble and the boss who belittles you publicly might all have sociopathic personalities. Typically, sociopaths are social chameleons, charismatic, intelligent and attracted to positions of power. They will climb the social ladder as high as their own desire, abilities, and opportunity will allow. All sociopaths have a desire to win, but their definitions of winning  can be as vastly different as the symptoms of sociopathy itself. For many that lack of an innate moral compass leaves them trying to fill the void with risk-taking behaviors. For some that means treating people poorly, manipulating people, achieving power, etc., while for a very small percent it can also mean becoming a serial killer.

What stout does is to use and cite scientific studies in an effort to scratch away the sugar-coated notion that everyone has some good in them. Statistically, 4% of the population does not. Interestingly, Stout does not dwell on the problem this poses for a certain major monotheistic religion–though she does touch on it briefly. Stout rightly observes that Christianity once struggled with a very basic problem: If God created everything did he also create evil? The solution to this dilemma was created in the 13th century by St. Thomas Aquinas. He proposed the following:

1. Morality is absolute (i.e. there are certain things that are clearly right or wrong)
2. All people are born with this moral truth
3. Bad behavior is the result of imperfect human thinking

This simple solution influences Christian thinking even today. It’s not God’s fault, rather, it’s an imperfect human with flawed logic that does not listen to his or her own conscience. In effect, they ignore this innate moral truth. The very simple and fairly conclusive fact is that psychological studies of the past 40 years turn Aquinas on his head. This poses a problem for many religions including Christianity: It would seem that some humans are born without the capacity for good.

So what causes sociopathy? Science is still studying the problem. According to Stout here’s what we do know: We do not have evidence that early abuse in childhood creates a sociopath. In fact, according to the research Stout cites, there is a direct link to criminal behavior at adulthood and childhood abuse.

“Those with a more stable past first appeared in court at an average age of twenty-four, and those with a troubled background came to court for the first time at about fifteen.”

In contrast, psychopathic criminals appear in court at the age of fourteen and research shows it matters not if their childhood was good or abusive. So, for now, science thinks there is a genetic predisposition that may be activated or enhanced by a yet unknown environmental factor.

Fear not! While the book may be a wake-up call for those who look at the world through rose-colored glasses, it’s not all negative. Stout identifies the symptoms of sociopathy and also provides 13 steps for dealing with this type of person. In fact, statistically speaking, 96% of the U.S. population is still wired with a conscience so that in and off itself is also good news.

Where Stouts advice falls short is on two fronts: First, she unwittingly poses a problem for those that may subscribe to a certain religious viewpoint of good and evil–yet she offers no solution for them. Second, her advice for dealing with the sociopath that may be in your life only goes so far.  It’s true that leaders can be voted out or dismissed from office. Bosses and co-workers can be endured or a new job found. Even those we believed to be close friends can be removed from our lives and eventually forgotten. But what do we do if the sociopath is our spouse, a family member, or worst of all… our own child?

My other observation is this: I skimmed several reviews of this book before writing my own and I noticed one criticism–that certain reviewers say Stout is appealing to our paranoia. Based on having worked with the criminal element I have to disagree. I can personally attest to the fact that it’s very hard for people of conscience to accept that some in society are criminal predators. Ask any law enforcement officer, corrections worker, or mental health employee and I bet they’ll agree with me. Moreover, why do you think I left that career path behind? What I suspect is happening with these reviewers is their conscience is having a hard time digesting the fact that 4% of the population lacks what they have.

Regardless, Stout offers positive advice to counter the gritty reality she presents. So I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in psychology, science, or self-defense. It’s well-written and the author does a very good job of presenting science in an accessible form!

-BCP

Book Review: "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

When I first saw Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s popular masterpiece, The Shadow of the Wind, at the local bookstore, I was immediately drawn by the book’s unique title and its plain but intriguing cover illustration.  However, it wasn’t until my fellow blogger at theninthdragonking recommended it that I decided to give it a go.

I just finished it today and all I can say is ‘wow’.  This guy, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, can really write, and the translator Lucia Graves (who converted the book from its original Spanish), can really translate.

The Shadow of the Wind is regarded as a tribute to 19th century gothic novels, something I admit I have never read before.  It tells the story of a young boy in post-Civil War Barcelona, whose life is changed forever when he comes across a rare book written by an obscure author who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.  It is a coming-of-age story about books, love, friendship and fate, with just a hint of the supernatural.  At times it is frightening, and other times it can be heartwarming, shocking, gut-wrenching – sometimes all at once.  It is the type of book that makes you want to read it again immediately after you finish it.  It is the kind of novel that gives you goosebumps.

I don’t think the The Shadow of the Wind falls within any specific genre.  I guess I would simply call it good, old fashioned story-telling.  The narrative just blew my mind.  The words spilled off the page and into my imagination.  The pacing was superb, the mysterious plot unfolding with atmospheric tension and suspense.  Zafon makes you believe in his characters, and each one of them has a story to tell.  The clear standout for me would have to be the charming, hilarious and loyal friend of the narrator, Fermin Romero de Torres, one of the most memorable characters I’ve ever come across on page.

If I have anything negative to say about the book, it’s that sometimes it gets just a little too melodramatic.  A bit too over the top.  If a lesser author attempted the same thing, it would probably be a disaster, but Zafon, for the most part, manages to pull it off.  Another minor complaint is that some of the subplots were a tad too long and unnecessarily complicated.  I guess you could say it’s a part of the book’s charm but because of that I felt the story dragged on a bit, especially in the first half of the book.  For me, the second half of the novel was utterly unputdownable, so by contrast the first half was slightly weaker.

Ultimately, a great read, and from a writer’s perspective, terrific to learn from, in particular for characterization and building suspense.  I am already looking forward to picking up the ‘prequel’ to The Shadow of the Wind, the recently released The Angel’s Game.

4.5 stars out of 5