The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls: A Brief History of Flight, Nine Challenging YA Stories by Tom Durwood; Rupa and Her Fellow Geniuses Take to The Friendly Skies in Third Installment

 

The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls: A Brief History of Flight, Nine Challenging YA Stories by Tom Durwood; Rupa and Her Fellow Geniuses Take to The Friendly Skies in Third Installment

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: If you are interested, please reviews of the previous volumes, The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Geometry Girls and The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls.

Rupashana Lal Pyradhakrishnan AKA Ruby Pi is back and she brought more geniuses with her. In this third installment in Tom Durwood’s The Adventures of Ruby Pi series, the girl geniuses who conquered the Geometry and Mathematical world now take to the skies. In The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls, Readers are given nine stories in which characters explore flight in its many forms: through birds, kites, balloons, airplanes, rockets, and spaceships.

Durwood appeals to his strengths by giving good characterization, plot, and setting to help his young Readers understand the mathematical, scientific, and historical themes and concepts introduced in each story. He fits the role of an educator who makes learning fun. 

The best stories in this volume are: 

“The First Manned Flight”- In 1820, Germany, Anke had to use her recent invention of a battle kite to rescue her older sister, Romy, when she was kidnapped by a lecherous nobleman.

In his attempts to drill an educational lesson into his young Reader’s heads, Durwood never loses sight of telling a good story and here he gives an interesting protagonist. Anke is a multifaceted character. She is argumentative with her siblings during their daily routine but fiercely protective of them when it matters the most. She is lazy and slovenly but also industrious during her scientific pursuits. She is arrogant, dedicated, obsessive, curious, intuitive and brilliant, all of the things that make a good scientist and inventor and fortunately for Romy, a good rescuer.  

We get a glimpse of the scientific process as Anke uses trial and error to build her flying machine, calculate its trajectory, and use it to attack the fortress and rescue her sister. 

“Gia Finds a Love”-In WWII, Gia Tomasso a young Italian-American mathematician is called into service to partake in a secret mission to study the trajectory of Japanese fighter planes before they attack Aleutian villages in the Arctic. 

Gia is a sharp, memorable protagonist with immense brain power which she uses in her personal and professional life. She takes charge of the family finances to save them from bankruptcy and her only request before she takes part in this assignment is that her family’s debts are cleared so they now own their apartment building and business. 

The way that Gia takes part in the war effort is very strategic and analytical. She studies the photographs of Edweard Muybridge and is inspired to have step by step photographs taken of the Japanese aircraft. She and Tayra, an Aleutian hunter, fly to various locations to leave tree-mounted motion detector cameras. Then she studies the photographs to find the plane’s weaknesses. It’s a smart plan that ultimately pays off when her information is right on the money.

Besides Gia, the story is rich with other characters. There’s Tayra, who not only guides Gia but uses his hunting skills to save her life and becomes a love interest. Her handler, Sheila and colleague, Tessa show courage and sacrifice in times of great conflict. Above all there’s Daichi Yamada, a Japanese pilot who is on the offensive. He is someone who doesn’t have any extreme devotion to the Emperor (in fact he disagrees with him most of the time) and bears no animosity to the other countries, but he knows that he must serve his country. Daichi is also devoted to his girlfriend and keeps her picture in his cockpit for luck. It’s refreshing to take time in a WWII story to develop both sides of the conflict and see human beings instead of propagandistic stereotypes.

“A Corpse in the Moon Colony Saraswati”- One of the more intriguing aspects of this book is that Durwood is moving out of his comfort zone and exploring other subgenres in his work. The first story, “Flight of Birds” is a mythological tale with no humans that is told from the point of view of birds. The story, “A Corpse in Moon Colony Saraswati” leaves the Historical Fiction past and journeys into the future. It is a Science Fiction short story set in the year 2076 on a lunar colony.

Teen botanists, Mahi Jaat and Saanvi Yadav and their journalist friend, Dhruv  Masal discover a dead body while on routine assignment studying the produce, grain, and orchards in the Botanical Gardens. They receive permission to investigate the body, which is identified as a Russian security officer. The investigation leads them to discover some secrets and conspiracies involving those around them.

There are some memorable descriptions of the Moon colony itself and the details that such a place would have including the topography, industry, technology, population, sociopolitics, education and other facets. Durwood put as much thought into a fictional location as he did to his real ones. He also explores Mahi and Saanvi’s interests in magnetic flight, showing that even in outer space, there are always new theories to test, new inventions to try, and  new discoveries to make. 

Mostly, this is a top notch murder mystery where Mahi and Saanvi use their scientific minds and Dhruv’s communication skills to find the various clues and answers to their investigation. They are intelligent and clear headed enough to find a solution and dedicated to the pursuit of justice to reveal the truth.  

“Ruby and the London, Paris Air Race”- Of course, where would this series be without its eponymous protagonist, engineer, botanist, inventor, mathematician, scientist, genius, amateur detective, know-it-all, Rupa Lal Pyradhakrishnan? This time she is recruited by Lloyd’s of London to do risk assessment at the famed London, Paris Air Race. 

Her detailed notes on aircraft such as the Voisin, the Zeppelin, and the Wright Military are fascinating. She observes each airplane and provides a lot of fascinating information about the aircraft that was available in the 1900’s. Also to think that this was a few short years after the Wright Brothers took their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina shows how quickly the idea of airplanes took and how engineers and pilots adapted and changed their original concept to fit their needs. 

Rupa also receives another assignment at the Race, one of espionage and suspense. While the race shows a positive side of progress this investigation gives us a darker more negative side. It reminds us that this time was also one of feuding countries whose simmering hatred for one another would soon explode into two World Wars. It also reminds us that those fascinating beautiful airplanes that were once technological marvels would later be used as weapons that would increase with every subsequent war. 

“The Price of Flight”- Rupa isn’t the only character to return in this volume. Another returnee is Isoke, the 18th century Beninese architect from the story, “Isoke and the Architect.” The previous story showed her ascendancy as she was recruited by Queen Nala to create and oversee the construction of water pumps. It ended with triumph for Isoke and a fine patronage from and friendship with the Queen. 

Now, Isoke’s status is diminished. She has been cast out from her village and forced to live in exile. She cares for an injured falcon and faces her own personal insecurities and inner strength. 

Isoke’s relationship with the falcon is beautiful as she tenderly nurses it and teaches it to fly. She also gains the courage and insight that she needs to return one day  to the village and fight for her position. 

Each story comes with notes and commentary from Durwood and other academics that lend their knowledge and expertise to the subjects. We learn more about the concepts that are written and where they fit in with a technology that will always be able to take off. 

The Ingenious and The Colour of Life by J.Y. Sam; Intelligent and Character Driven Science Fiction About Genetically Engineered Genius Children

 The Ingenious and The Colour of Life by J.Y. Sam; Intelligent and Character Driven Science Fiction About Genetically Engineered Genius Children 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I can never truly say that I am tired of a genre when there are books out there that are set to prove me wrong. Just as Darren Frey’s Psychonautic, Blythe Gryphon’s The Genius of Our Wiles, Ian Conner’s Cardinals, and Stacy Keenan’s Love is Eternal did with Vampire Romances so J.Y. Sam’s The Ingenious and The Colour of Life does with books about Superheroes and Children With Magical/Psychic Abilities. It shows that there is still enough life left in that genre to impress even the most bored reviewer. In fact, it is a top contender already for one of the Best Books of 2024.

Years ago, a secret project was created called Project Ingenious to create genius children through genetic engineering. Things went awry, the project ended, and the children were separated. Years later, someone is hunting down these kids. The doors of the project are forced to be reopened as three of the kids are located. They are Millicent Bythaway, a genius with a photographic and eidetic memory, Calista Matheson, a beautiful tech expert, and Tai Jones, an empath who can see auras. They are led by Professor Harald Wolff who wants them to hone their gifts, find the other missing kids, and keep safe from whoever wants to kill them.

Sam develops the protagonists through their abilities and personalities. Their origins and previous experiences are diverse and play into who they are as individuals. Millicent was raised by one of the former scientists who conditioned her to avoid using her gifts in school to avoid detection. She knows that she has these powers but mostly keeps them to herself. However, they manifest in different ways such as suddenly learning new languages just by reading them in phrase books or feeling her late mother’s spirit literally communicating with her. This remains mostly within herself until she accidentally rescues a young boy at her workplace. Since Millicent’s abilities allow her to absorb knowledge and information, she is the most intelligent of the trio and is usually the first to provide information and make strategic plans. 

Tai also has an interesting backstory. While Millicent is ordered to hide her abilities, Tai does not have that option. His second sight appears whether he wants it to or not and it ends up helping to save his life when he has to face homelessness. Unlike Millicent who was protected by loving but overprotective parents, Tai was abandoned by his mother and left to face a harsh impoverished world alone. Despite his difficult upbringing, he is the kindest character of the trio, even in the whole book. His empathic abilities are exacerbated by his kind nature, one that is displayed when he cares for a family of cats like they were his own children. He is able to feel the cats’ pain and see the colors reflecting their moods as he helps them.  

Calista is a much more extroverted character than her colleagues and her background builds on that. She hid her abilities in ignorance. Unlike Millicent who had to hide her intelligence and talents behind an average facade, Calista cultivated a beautiful public image and downplayed her intelligence almost too successfully. There is some implication that the “dumb beauty” role was foisted upon her by parents who wanted her to stay hidden and she fell into it so well that she became that role. Some of her early dimness is held up as comic relief, but the implications make it a dark comedy as she is unable to be who she really could be. It is only when she is a teen and meets her boyfriend, Jake, that she is able to free the potential that had been inside. Calista and Jake’s relationship interests her enough to study computers and to absorb the information to the point that within a short time she is able to hack into classified government information after Jake mysteriously disappears.

When Professor Wolff brings them together, one would expect them to become a superhero team, start saving innocent lives, and take on evil forces. Okay, some of that happens but it’s less to do with the characters becoming a force for good than it is about them learning about and expanding on their abilities and above all keeping safe from those who will harm them. It’s less about the greater good than it is about their personal good. They are tutored and trained by colleagues in various advanced academic subjects, self defense, and techniques to hone their powers. They are also kept isolated in Wolff’s compound and being teenagers, they get cabin fever and are ready to defy orders. These acts of defiance end up challenging and enabling them to work together as a team. Ironically, even though they weren’t intended to be a team of superheroes, that is exactly what they become especially after they locate others with special abilities and recruit them to join their team. 

The darkest part of the book is an extended flashback which fills in the blanks about Project Ingenious and what it did. Millicent, Tai, and Calista have to see through the memories of another character, one who was driven insane by the experiment and the abuse and mistreatment that they endured. There are many disturbing things revealed in this flashback notably that it begins inside the womb through the character’s mind and includes the scientists’ discussions and thought processes outside. This reveals that these characters were meant to become geniuses even as fetuses. Imagine having full awareness of your surroundings even before you are born, being able to think, plan, and reason before you understand basic concepts like love, warmth, home, and family. It would be enough to drive a person insane and that is what happens here. 

Because of what we learn in the flashback, it’s hard to see the characters in simple black and white, good and evil terms. Wolff’s true motives are highly suspect. He appears to genuinely care about the geniuses beyond being experiments but many of his goals and motives are questionable. Is he a scientist who realized that his original project was wrong and is trying to redeem himself? Is he a potential megalomaniac who has his own ambitions for what he wants to do with the young people? It’s hard to tell and this book can go either way.

The shades of gray in which the characters inhabit are particularly unveiled in one of the most puzzling chapters. Milicent, Calista, Tai and their other new friends do something questionable to counter an enemy. For spoiler’s sake, it won’t be revealed but it raises a lot of ethical concerns in whether the characters overstep their boundaries in committing this action. To be fair, they are called out on it and there are some hints that they opened up a huge problem for themselves that wouldn’t have been there if they hadn’t acted. It’s a definite open ended decision that will potentially take the next book to reveal the consequences.

With interesting characters, unique abilities, and shades of gray, Ingenious and the Colour of Life proves itself to be a cut above most in the superhero subgenre.

Lit List Short Reviews: The Undeniable Power of Movement by Nicole Mott; The Performance CEO by Michael Koch; Unexpected by Dr. Jill Carnahan; God is Good by Margaret Liu Collins

 

The Undeniable Power of Movement: The Irrefutable Power Habits of Elite Athletes, Leaders & High Performers to Achieve of Any Goal

By Nicole Mott

Sometimes, when people have a goal that they have trouble starting it, staying motivated, or get easily discouraged against it, they quit their goal before achieving it. Nicole Mott’s book, The Undeniable Power of Movement, delivers common sense advice to help readers not only make and reach goals, but provides tips and advice on how to stay focused on that goal.

Mott was inspired to write this book after her son, Caleb, was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. Despite the diagnosis and the difficulties that the syndrome took on Caleb's body, he wanted to try out for the major league soccer development academy team. After a lot of practice and determination, Caleb became part of the team. He was released after a year but used that experience as inspiration for later obtaining an academic and athletic scholarship at a university in West Virginia. This example of Caleb's life reminds the reader that despite hardships goals can be achieved and sometimes changed but with a positive outlook, one can still find happiness and personal satisfaction.

Many of the chapters consist of certain steps like “Focus” (stating the goal and the steps towards meeting it), “Discipline” (working hard to achieve each step and being a team player at work and home), “Mindset” (maintaining a positive mental attitude and using each setback as a learning experience), and “Health” (making sure to diet and exercise to heal the body and mind).

The best chapter is the one on “Reducing Distractions.” It is particularly concerned with people who have Depression and Anxiety. Those and other mental disorders are some of the biggest stumbling blocks that interfere with goal setting and achieving. This chapter provides some good advice for people whose minds might be filled with those nagging questions, doubts, and those times when the body is too overwhelmed or too unmotivated to move beyond that moment and seek a positive future.

The Undeniable Power of Movement is a plainly written book with steps, tips, and exercises that engage readers. Like any good personal development book, it allows people to get moving.

God is Good 2nd Ed. by Margaret Liu Collins

Margaret Liu Collins’ book, God is Good 2nd. ed. is a deeply spiritual and inspirational book for readers who look for a Higher Power to help them with their life struggles.

Collins inserts Biblical passages from the text that serve as comfort for the readers. Verses such as “The Lord says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.’”(Psalms 32:8 NLT) They illustrate the recognition of faith in the life of a religious or spiritual person.

The author also uses examples from her own life in which she felt God's presence encouraging and aiding her in times of trouble. One of the most dramatic chapters recounts her abusive first marriage when she relied on God's strength to help her persevere through the tremendous physical and emotional abuse and give her courage to rebuild her life with her children when the marriage came to an end.

God is Good is an excellent book for the spiritual and religious minded person to remind them that they are not alone.

Unexpected: Finding Resilience Through Functional Medicine, Science, and Faith

By Jill Carnahan, MD

Unexpected: Finding Resilience Through Functional Medicine, Science, and Faith is a book about deeply personal struggles and how anyone can find comfort and strength within them.

Many of Carnahan's struggles are detailed and lead to lessons that she learned that are to be shared with others. Carnahan writes lovingly of her childhood on a farm in Illinois with a large close family. Unfortunately, that farm life took a tremendous cost on her health. She developed allergies and fatigue and later breast cancer at a young age. The cause, she later discovered, was the highly toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that her father and other farmers used for their crops. This experience not only got her interested in science and medicine, but taught her the importance of trusting one's intuition, to study the environment and how to implement functional medicine, a systems based biology based model that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of the diseases. 

Carnahan’s marriage taught her to trust and rely on others and find humor even in bad situations. Eventually, the marriage ended in divorce which taught Carnahan to learn to let go. These situations may run parallel to circumstances that readers find themselves in and can practice in their own lives.

Unexpected is a book that leads by example. It tells the readers that if Carnahan got through her troubles, so can they.

The Performance CEO: An Extreme Cognitive Protocol for Entrepreneurial Success by Michael Koch 

Michael Koch’s The Performance CEO: An Extreme Cognitive Protocol for Entrepreneurial Success is a high energy, cognitive approach for the ambitious forward thinking CEO who often feels discouraged and a little out of focus.

This book is encouraging towards those who have a daring ambitious active drive to be a success in all that they do. In fact, there is something of the drill sergeant/tough love instructor in Koch’s narration. This approach works for the type of reader that this book is aimed for: the reader who wants the straight forward tough approach of facing life's challenges. They want the author to give them the facts and activities and leave out the sentiment.

Most of the book consists of physical activities like diet and exercise. Koch recommends a very rigid and active approach that requires dedication. For example, the diet chapter encourages fasting 23 hours for one day per week requiring a high level of commitment. 

The exercise chapter encourages high activity with weight lifting and strength training along with stretching and poses to encourage mindfulness. 

The Performance CEO is the type of book for the high energy ambitious executive who needs incentive to keep moving.

New Book Alert: The Email From God by Neil Stevenson; Talk To Text Style Highlights Immediacy in This Science Fiction Message From The Future

New Book Alert: The Email From God by Neil Stevenson; Talk To Text Style Highlights Immediacy in This Science Fiction Message From The Future

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: If all of Earth gets an email from God then we will know that we all screwed up big time.

That's the premise behind The Email From God by Neil Stevenson, a Science Fiction novel in which a small group of people from the future send an important email from God to the past to create a better world and beat the secret society determined to stop it.

Brother and sister, Fahim and Amina Graham both work at CERN in 2046 and have a very ambitious plan. In 2023, the entire world, I mean everybody in the entire world, received an email from God telling Earth that humanity messed up and caused mass environmental destruction, endless wars, socioeconomic collapse, hate crimes, and terrorist acts. However, there is time to turn it around before it's too late. So God sends a list of 23 Commandments to follow. The Commandments include ways of saving the environment, improving the economy, obtaining good mental and physical health, and ending violence and prejudice.

Oh and if anyone has trouble with that, then they get hit with a massive headache. Not fatal but just enough to let everyone know that the deity means business. 

That's all well and good. Everything begins to improve.  To make sure of this positive outcome, Fahim, Amina, and their respective husbands Mattheo and Dorje create Hindsight which contains uploads of the email, news articles about the email and subsequent events tied to it, and instructions on how to implement these plans. Then they will send these uploads on a nanochip through a wormhole into the past for Readers of God's email to create this new and better future.

Unfortunately, not everyone is excited about this prospect. The Illuminati is still around (because we can't have a good Science Fiction conspiracy novel without a certain infamous organization). They have a plan to destroy the email, kill God's message, in effect kill God, and create a dystopian society in which they will emerge as rulers.

What is particularly brilliant about this novel is its writing style. There have been other works written mostly or almost entirely in email or text form, e by Matt Beaumont, The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot, Love Virtually by Daniel Glattaur, ttyl by Lauren Myracle, When You Read This by Mary Adkins among others. This is not a new format but in this context, it particularly works.

The Talk to Text Style throughout this book exacerbates the characters' sense of urgency and immediacy. They have an important message to share and need to get it sent. They are aware that they are constantly being observed and monitored by Illuminati members (some of whom they work for) and have to make sure that their uploads and God's email are properly uploaded. We don't have time for setting description, interior monologues, and other literary tropes. These protagonists are in a rush.

There are some suspenseful moments throughout the book in which the style really helps. For example, in one chapter two characters text each other and then a third enters the chat. It becomes clear that this person is not friendly and at odds with their plans. The two protagonists instantly switch to typical office chat and small talk.

A few other chapters feature the main characters listening in on the Illuminati's plans and becoming sickened by them. It's a heart thumping moment which reveals what could be lost in their current and former lives if they should fail.

The different fonts and writing styles are jarring at first but allow us to realize who is who, even giving us insights into their characters. Amina's font is very soft and curvy, like someone who weighs out her words and considers what to write. She writes long elegant phrases and summaries letting the world know what she, Fahim, and the others are doing so they can be heard and understood. She only stops once in a while to drop a casual informal reprimand to her brother revealing their close, loving, and teasing nature. She is the one chosen to write about and deliver the message.

In contrast, Fahim's font is short, dark, and concise. It is filled with grammatical errors and lower case nouns like someone in a hurry who doesn't have the time or interest to correct his writing. He is also prone to swearing and speaking out of turn showing his pride, quickness to anger, and impatience. However, he also writes in scientific terms and theories revealing his genius in the fields of science and physics. He is the one chosen to create the Hindsight program and the nanochip.

Rather than be a pessimistic book about the future, The Email From God shows a chance of hope. We don't have to turn Earth into a dystopia out of Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, and Atwood. We have options and choices. Instead of creating the worst, we can make a clear plan to make the world better. 

Weekly Reader: Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity by Dave A. Neuman; A Surreal Bizarre Fantastic Trip Through Nightmares, Bad Memories, and Other Strangeness

 

Weekly Reader: Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity by Dave A. Neuman; A Surreal Bizarre Fantastic Trip Through Nightmares, Bad Memories, and Other Strangeness 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Dave A. Neuman's Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity is one of those types of books that is almost too surreal to be believed. There are moments that seem so disconnected from the reality of the pages of a book that I wasn't sure whether they were actually in the book itself or I dreamt it as being part of the book. 

It's a strange bizarre trip of a narrative but it is impossible to forget once it's over. It's one of those types of books that you will mull about for days wondering about the various moments and what they meant.

In 2011, solar flares drove South Australia, particularly the town of Adelaide into near chaos. Communication was down, electricity was erratic, and strange almost supernatural things happened. Among the people who lived through that strange event are Bob and Sue Triplow. 

After the weirdness passes, the two move to Corona, California, have a son named Joshua, and become regular members of the community. Twelve years  after the solar flares, weirdness follows the Triplows and everyone else, I mean everyone around the world. 

This introduction is fascinating as it draws from many unexplained phenomena stories that suggest that the solar flare encounter and what happens in the book are only the latest events in a long string of things that happened over time that are somehow linked together. 

Before we read about the Adelaide Solar Flares, we are told about a man in the Victorian Era who stepped back into Medieval Europe. It makes one wonder if in this Universe, many of these phenomena are part of this situation. Can we attribute the Bermuda Triangle, creatures like Bigfoot, Time Slips, UFOs, alien abductions, and ghost sightings to these events? The plot widens the scope and gives reason to the strange bizarreness, making these seemingly random global events not so random.

After the introduction, we get the first strange event in the narrative proper. Joshua and several of his schoolmates have tense nightmares of a strange man in a dark suit observing them. The nightmares are so prevalent that Joshua and his peers suffer through the day. They move sluggishly, are afflicted with dark circles under their eyes, and have no energy. They look and act like they went several rounds with Freddy Krueger during the night.

What is particularly compelling about these nightmares is that the mysterious man in black never does anything physical to these kids. He never even talks to them (except Josh begins to hear taunting in his head that might be from this nightmarish apparition). He sits next to them and takes notes as though he is studying and observing them for some unknown reason.

His presence is just enough to terrify them. It's sort of like the child who swears that the Boogeyman is in their room. Then Mom and Dad come in and say no that's just a pile of clothes, but he's not convinced

Only in this book's case, the pile of clothes really is a terrifying monster.

This by any means isn't the only strange thing that is happening. As the book continues, we are subjected to a lot of weird incidents around the world that seem unconnected but we later find out really are.

An Englishwoman spontaneously combusts. A township in Brazil just vanished. A house with a strange old man with a love of Louis Armstrong appears and disappears in California. An old man is mysteriously flattened to death. Around the world, people see these strange balloons and hear the sound of bells. Bob is tortured by memories of his abused childhood that seem to become real.

It gets to the point where while reading each page, the Reader is just waiting for the next strange thing to happen. It's like a surreal journey into a dream which starts normal and gets progressively weirder the deeper into sleep you go. Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity is one of those works that isn't so much a book as it is an experience. You have to dive right in and immerse yourself into what is going on.

Eventually, an explanation is given that is compelling and opens up other possibilities about alternate worlds, alien species, and science experiments gone awry. However, the explanation does little to help those that have to live with these disturbing events. 

Bob and Joshua in particular find themselves surrounded by a world that becomes so strange and nightmarish that it's hard to tell what is real and what isn't. 

Neuman deserves high praise for taking his Readers on this surreal journey that confuses and disturbs them almost as much as the characters. It's completely unforgettable and is one of the best books of 2022.

New Book Alert: The If Way: The Power of 100 Ifs by Imagine Singh; Poetry of Imaginative and Clever Possibilities

 

New Book Alert: The If Way: The Power of 100 Ifs by Imagine Singh; Poetry of Imaginative and Clever Possibilities 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Imagine Singh is the type of poet who loves to dream up different possibilities and put them into words. That is exactly what he does in his book, The If Way The Power of 100's. This book is a series of poems that imagine different scenarios.

Singh's poems are very pleasant and clever, somewhat reminiscent of Dr. Seuss by way of Lewis Carroll. They start with a an idea such as "If Time Reserved Its Direction." Then the stanzas ruminate on what could happen in that scenario.("The old would be young and/The young would be children./The population of the world now in billions/Would turn into some millions.") Each poem is like that.

Even though the format is the same for each poem, the ideas that Singh writes about keep each poem appear fresh and new as well  as fun engaging. Titles range from "If the Question is Q" to "If We Could Touch Emotions." Topics range from geography ("If All Countries Could Be One"), science ("If All Magnets Suddenly Disappeared Into Thin Air"), biology ("If We Could See With Our Ears and Listen With Our Eyes"), animals ("If Animals Had The Power To Think"), weather ("If We Could Swap Seasons Between Different Regions"), history ("If We Could Witness The Past As Time Flies"), economics ("If We Were All Very Rich and No One Was Poor"), families ("If We Could Become Our Parents For One Day"), and interconnectivity ("If Everybody Listened To Us It Would All Be Very Nice.") among others.

The poems rhyme scheme are simple rhyming couplets that would attract younger Readers. For example, "If We Circled The Earth and Lived On The Moon's" opening lines are "If we circked the Earth and lived on the moon/We might not like to come back to Earth anytime soon." 

There is also some lovely imagery that activates the senses. The poem, "If Colors Could Express Themselves In Words"  is rich with lines like "Red would be the loudest of all/And black would be the proudest of all/Indigo, somewhat depressed, would most of the times be a little bit snappy/Violet, somewhat bright would always be happy." The rhyme scheme and imagery help contribute to making these poems a delightful reading experience.

The possibilities that Singh imagined are filled with interesting scenarios that almost evoke a dream state. The poem, "If We Lived Undersea" describes the wealthy having air pools, and residents fighting with octopuses and racing with fish. Singh clearly had a wonderful time dreaming up these possibilities. It would be an interesting educational experience for teachers to use this book to have students write their own possibilities of things that they would like to see in the world.

While most of the poems evoke a sense of fun, childlike situations, and fantasy, some of Singh's poems strike at the very heart of social commentary. One poem, "If We Could Have A Cure For Human Lust, Greed, and Hate," is blunt but meaningful. "There would be no crimes against humanity/Good sense and love would prevail against insanity/Women would lead a life of dignity and grace/Every man would be humanity's englightened face." Even though, it would be hard to implement such change in reality, nothing can or should stop one from dreaming, imagining, visualizing, or writing about it. 

In The If Way, Singh opens a world of dreams and possibilities and invites the Reader to come along. Sometimes the dream world is better, brighter, and more evocative than the real world. Imagine Singh gives a wonderful tour into his.

New Book Alert: Life is Big by Kiki Denis; Bizarre, Undefinable, Unforgettable Tale About Life, Death, Interconnectivity, and Achieving Immortality

New Book Alert: Life is Big by Kiki Denis; Bizarre, Undefinable, but Unforgettable Tale About Life, Death, Interconnectivity, and Achieving Immortality

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with only words on the cover


Spoilers: Kiki Denis' book Life is Big is not an easy book to categorize. It's a fantasy that focuses on life after death. It's a science fiction because it explores scientific and technological achievements and how researchers quantify our everyday existence, even thought and emotion. It's a satire in which many characters' discoveries and theories are so extreme that they become ridiculous. It's a tragedy that discusses death and how connected we are to each other in strange but meaningful ways. It's bizarre, weird, and sometimes confusing. But most of all, Life is Big is a book that is unforgettable and hard to get out of your mind.


Because Life is Big is such a difficult book to categorize, it is also a difficult book to summarize the plot. It's neither long nor unwieldy, but it takes the point of view of 11 characters all with their own stories, pursuits, beliefs, and agendas. It seems to tell 11 different stories, but the chapters reveal that they are somehow connected to each other in different ways.

The first character that we meet is Alma-Jane, AKA A.J. A.J. is a brilliant 11-year-old girl who is the most genetically happiest person on the planet. (Seriously, she took a test for it.) Unfortunately, because of a genetic mutation, she is dying. A.J., her brother, Ayrtron, and friend, Alejandro have declared war on death. The trio use their mighty brain power (and these kids are geniuses so that brain power is mighty), to find a way to beat death or at least give A.J., a few more years of life. A.J. and Ayrtron have created a website which if successful could help change A.J.'s gene color (which is a contributing factor to her illness.). A.J. also is using the brief time that she has left researching other people who have genetic happiness and consoling a woman whose genetic happiness is zero.


Ayrtron also has another project going on. In cyberspace, he assumes the identity of a 42 year old scientist and gives advice to adult geniuses. (They wouldn't listen to advice from a kid, but maybe from another adult, he reasons.) He calculates heartbeats and thoughts in a person's lifetime. During his studies, he communicates with another scientist, Lazslo, who claims to have part of Einstein's brain in a jar. Ayrtron may be a genius kid, but he is still a kid. He recklessly books a flight to London to visit Laszlo and the brain so he can continue his studies.

Their buddy, Alejandro is also studying the behaviors of an iCub, Qining particularly while it interacts with him and A.J. He wants to study "the little brain people", how the mind works. He asks Qning questions such as whether it is alive and how it feels not to have a father.(Qning was created by a female inventor.)

In their own way and through their private studies, the trio are trying to find some meaning in their lives, and answer questions about the overall key to existence. Maybe through their researches, they are not only hoping to save A.J.'s life, but find something lasting, recognition that will outlive them.


The kids aren't the only ones who are doing bizarre scientific research. Ayrtron's online friend, Laszlo, also has his own studies, creating the Potentiality Puzzle, which measures happiness, delight, and fearlessness in a person. He was inspired by his late girlfriend, Sonia who was the smartest and most fearless person that he knew. Sonia had a mentor, Dr. Maurits Harvey, who created genetically modified mice so he could study their thought patterns and emotions. Sonia was on her way to meet Dr. Harvey when she booked a flight on September 11,2001, so her research remained unfinished. The once self-conscious, Laszlo is determined to continue her work, ironically becoming more fearless in his pursuits.


Another of Harvey's protegees, Lila, is also interested in studying happiness. In fact, she created the Overall Happiness test that determined A.J's score. This book contains a great deal of interconnectivity between characters, mostly through their reasearch. Names are dropped that become prominent later. One person's research proves beneficial to another.

The connection between Lila and A.J. is particularly compelling. Lila was given up for adoption by her birth mother, Raduska. A.J. got the highest score on Lila's happiness study and consoles a woman online whose happiness level is zero. The woman whose happiness level is zero is, ta da, Raduska, Lila's birth mother. A.J.'s research not only gives her recognition and meaning, but it also provides answers to Lila and Raduska.

Oh yes, Dr. Harvey's scientific work has continued beyond his death as well. His chapter is told not from his perspective but from that of one of his mice, Mighty-11. Mighty-11 and the other mice, called the Mighties, have created their own society inside Harvey's lab,where the elder mice educate the younger. Yes, a talking mouse narrates one of the chapters. Did I mention this book was bizarre?


This book is almost satirical in describing the various theories that these geniuses create and study. They demonstrate how scientific minds analyze and quantify everything, even that which cannot be necessarily quantified. How do you measure things like Happiness, Contentment, or Love? What is the process in measuring emotions, intuition, things that by definition resist being measured? What would the results prove, that some people are happier than others? How? Many people in real life do study behaviors and there are lists about the "happiest countries" or "happiest states". But, this book takes those studies to the extreme by giving us characters who live to find a solution to everything, even that which cannot be truly measured.

As if the dying happy little girl, the oddball research, the sentient AI, the talking mice, coincidence of a mother and daughter being linked through the dying happy little girl, and Einstein's brain didn't make this book weird, things get even weirder. We meet Albert Einstein (yes that one) who now lives as one of the Great Immortals with his girlfriend, Sabina, the female protagonist of Milan Kundera's novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Yes, a deceased historical figure and a fictional character have shacked up in the cyberspace equivalent of the Afterlife. It's that kind of book. However, as anyone who studied Einstein's life knows how troubled his real-life marriages to his wives, Mileva and Elsa were, it makes sense that he would not want to spend eternity with either of them. He is attracted to Sabina's "lightness," and ever the scientist, he is fascinated by and studies it.


Einstein is also friends with Alfred Butts, the creator of the board game, Scrabble and Pablo Neruda, the poet who spends his time after death flying kites. These three are considered Great Immortals, people who are missed by many because they left something behind from a scientific theory that changed the world, to Nobel Prize winning poetry, to a board game played by millions.

Then there are people like Socrates, no not the philosopher (I am actually surprised he's not), but A.J. and Ayrtron's grandfather and his wife, Sofia. They are concerned Minor Immortals, because they are only remembered by friends and family, the people that they loved.

Meanwhile, Death and his younger brother, Hypnos AKA Obituary Man or O.M., also get their two cents in. They argue over who to push The Button on, i.e. who is going to die. Death still is ticked off with O.M. for making an unauthorized switch by trading one person's life for another. Death who is pretty cranky also has a conversation with the soon to be late, Grandma Sofia that indicates that he doesn't always like his job but rules are rules. It takes a lot of convincing to persuade Death to bend the rules one more time.


Reading about Denis' version of the Afterlife is similar to the one in Thomas Milhorat's Melia in Foreverland, where famous and average people are strutting around doing their own things, forming friendships, pursuing new interests, even researching new things, and seeing how their achievements affected those left behind. They achieve immortality through their legacies that others follow and remember.


Ultimately, that's what Life is Big is about. How one achieves immortality, not by literally and physically living forever. Immortality is achieved by the things a person leaves behind: their research, their art, their philosophies, their ideals, their actions, and of course by their friends and family. It's not how and when they died. It's who they affected emotionally and what their lives meant to others.

This theme is prominent in a phrase that is carried throughout the book, a phrase that inspired the title of the book: "Life is Big. Immortality exists, although it doesn't apply to humans (yet)."

This book shows that in a way immortality does exist for humans.

New Book Alert: Off Telegraph: A Novel of Berkeley in the Sixties by Joseph V. Rodricks; A Long Strange Trip Into Science, Politics, Religion, and Fanaticism

New Book Alert: Off Telegraph: A Novel of Berkeley in the Sixties by Joseph V. Rodricks; A Long Strange Trip Into Science, Politics, Religion, and Fanaticism

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Of course a novel about the late 1960's would be set at Berkeley. Where else but Hippie Central would you find so many students and professors experimenting, protesting, exploring, tuning in, turning on, and dropping out?

Joseph V Rodricks' novel Off Telegraph: A Novel of Berkeley in the Sixties explores that groovy time with a colorful cast of characters that pursue knowledge in science, religion, politics, and some get very lost in the pursuit of that knowledge.



Grad student, Will Getz is studying to make a pfaffidine synthesis for a reliable source of pffafadine. He has spent several months working on the project and has only achieved positive results once by accident. He can't replicate the feat and time is ticking with a fearsome deadline soon approaching. Rather than admit the stall, Will changes the data information. This deception haunts Will especially as his opportunistic colleagues get involved.

Meanwhile, Will's former girlfriend Gina Antinori, an anthropology student is become more involved in the sociopolitical structure of the 1960's. She considers switching her major to Law and makes a bevvy of eccentric friends including Chris, a former priest who is considering break a few of his vows with Gina, Kay, a journalist exploring lesbianism, and Schaefer, an anthropology professor whose outlook on the world heads dangerously towards fanaticism.


The book is rich with characters driven by their goals to help society in their own ways. But their goals become lost because of ego trips and narrow perspectives that cause them to commit fraud even violence to achieve those goals.

Will is particularly hit by this. As anyone who has spent time in academia knows, plagiarism and fradulent research are not looked on very favorably in that circle. (Or in any circle for that matter, nor should they be.) If caught the person is subjected to expulsion, lost funding, lost position, denial of a degree, and given a black mark towards any future hiring possibilities among other things. That's why most college courses begin with the professor lecturing their students about the penalties. It's no wonder why this deceit continues to trouble Will.

Will was fascinated by studying chemistry and biology and using pffafadine to create better treatments for cancer patients. He, as many researchers often are, is swept up in the glory of achieving an unattainable goal and the fame and prestige that goes with it. However, Will becomes consumed with guilt for changing the data. He alienates himself from close friends and is easily swayed to commit more fraud to cover up his initial fraud. He becomes depressed and agitated and starts experimenting with hallucinogens to cope with the inner stress.


Gina and her colleagues also strive to change things in different ways. They want to end the Vietnam War, achieve equal rights for all, and explore life beyond their comfort zones. Many of them experiment by exchanging lovers and discovering about themselves. Gina's relationship with Chris is one that is between two souls that want to explore the world in a larger context beyond their rigid Catholic beliefs.

Their relationship is almost a union of the body and Spirit. They seem to reject the orthodox Catholicism with their physical union. However, the relationship intensifies Gina's inner spirit and she is able to become more active within the world around her.


Violence is also explored in how people's ideals can metamorphosis into fanaticism. One intense subplot has Schaefer leading some grad students to Guatemala in the middle of a civil war. When they return things take a turn into the horrific as Schaefer takes his religious intolerance to violent disturbing levels.

In one graphic passage a former colleague of Schaefer's explains what the man's plans were when he returned to California. Schaefer is driven by his own charisma, fanatic views, and ability to lead others as a cult leader. He has the idea that only his way is the purest and that society is so flawed, that he must bring about its destruction.


Off Telegraph explores the highs and lows of the 1960's. It was a time when everything was new and just waiting to be explored, fought for, experimented upon, challenged, and questioned. It was a time of great ideals. However, under those ideals was a darkness that bred corruption, illness, violence, and death. For better and for worse we were marked by that time.

New Book Alert: Return of the Hypotenuse: Poetry in Math and Science by Sunil Mishra; Poems Explain Mathematical and Scientific Concepts in a Fun and Easy Way

New Book Alert: Return of the Hypotenuse: Poetry in Math and Science by Sunil Mishra; Poems Explain Mathematical and Scientific Concepts In A Fun Easy Way

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

PopSugar Reading Challenge: Book on a Subject That You Don't Know Anything About



When we are in school, sometimes we are taught memory devices to remember certain concepts. We all know ROY G BIV to learn the colors of the rainbow or the nursery rhyme, "Thirty days hath September" to remember the months of the year. Of course all children of the '90's and beyond still recall the ditties from Animaniacs: Yakko Warner's "United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru…." And Wakko Warner's "Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus is the capital of Ohio.." The devices take what could be difficult lists of learning by rote into easy to remember concepts.



Author and financial services representative, Sunil Mishra uses these devices to create poems that discuss math and science. For some people, Math and Science can be some of the most difficult subjects. Math can be hard for people who have trouble processing numbers and logical reasoning. Science can be tough for people to remember all of those laws, theories, and methods.
Mishra takes these difficult subjects and gives them form, rhythm, and rhyme. By using poetry, he engages the Reader by making these subjects easy to remember.


You have to give it to a guy who writes a poem about Pi. Humor and learning can be found with lines like "3.14 is called Pi/The Greek letter for P/P the circle for perimeter/The length of the periphery."


The book is written with a late elementary/middle school audience in mind. However, adults who struggled with Math and Science classes in school will enjoy getting reacquainted with the subjects that they may have struggled with in youth. In one poem,Mishra devotes different stanzas to the angles. There is a rhythm to such lines as "a, and b a and b making the right angle/The Hypotenuse being brought up by Mr. C" The rhythm helps make the poem and the Pythagorean Theorem easy to remember. (It also answers the question that you will need this for building and designing.)


The poems include prose explanations describing the subjects. A poem on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, for example, includes a prose section that breaks down the theory into aspects and sub theories. The prose section augments the poetry offering alternate ways to learn about these subjects.


The poems feature a variety of different topics under the general subjects of Math and Science. Some of the more interesting poems discuss various scientists and inventors and how they changed things with their discoveries. One poem, "History of Inventions-A.D. (Anno Domini Intel 8048)" talks about the early inventors and programmers like Charles Babbage and applications like Netscape Navigator and search engines like Alta Vista helped shape computers and the Internet into the juggernaut that we know now.


Mishra even has time to throw in a theological vs. scientific debate. In his poem, "There Must Be Some God," discussed the possibility of intelligent design. The poem offers the possibility that there may be something that provides answers to our unresolved questions.


Sunil Mishra's Return of the Hypotenuse takes complex difficult concepts and makes them simple, understandable, and even fun.