New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls (The Adventures of Ruby Pi Book 2): Teen Heroines Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems; Ruby and Her Genius Colleagues Return in Five More Intelligent, Exciting, Educational, and Clever Stories

 

New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls (The Adventures of Ruby Pi Book 2): Teen Heroines Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems; Ruby and Her Genius Colleagues Return in Five More Intelligent, Exciting, Educational, and Clever Stories

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I will admit that I am a Literary Genius but a Math Dunce.

I excelled in English Writing and Literature classes and even tutored other students. I earned my BA in English from University of Missouri-St. Louis and Masters in Library Science from Indiana University-Indianapolis. I have turned my talents in Writing and Literature into a loved (and hopefully one day lucrative) career as a Book Reviewer and Editor.

However, Math was a different story. Math and Science were my worst subjects in school. I liked logic puzzles and code breaking because they involved analysis and deductive reasoning but those were the only Math problems that I actually liked.

 I barely passed my undergraduate degree by taking Computer courses for Science credit and Contemporary Math (Math for everyday use like shopping and business AKA "Math for Dummies/English Majors") for Math. If it wasn't for those courses, I would either still be trying to get my BA or have long given up in frustration.

The reason that I am mentioning my terrible history with Math is to emphasize on how well Tom Durwood's The Adventures of Ruby Pi Series works. It works the same way many good educational PBS series do. It explains a subject that many Readers may have (and still might) have a hard time understanding and makes it clear and exciting to follow.

The second book, The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls is more of the same. Excellent stories featuring intelligent young women using their mathematical skills in diverse ways to help the society around them.

Just like in the Geometry Girls, the book is separated into five stories. They are:

"Ruby Pi and The Case of the Shy Mathematician"

The eponymous protagonist/super genius is back. This time Rupa is called by Inspector Daniel Summerscale to solve the murder of mathematician, Anaan Warinda.

This case is a personal one for Rupa. Warinda was a mentor to the young woman and even encountered her as a child, giving her the nickname of Ruby Pi.

As with her previous experience, Rupa uses a mathematical procedure to solve Warinda's murder. This time she uses "Bayes's Rule" which states, "The probability of arriving at a true theorem improves upon the processing of new data." Some Mathematical theories are created as means to solve problems, not just with numbers.

Rupa is able to gather data to find a solution, especially in solving Warinda's complex coded notebooks. She finds herself involved in a much larger case involving the tense relationship between the English and Indian governments. She also earns respect and admiration from Inspector Summerscale and the Mathematical Society. It is definitely a period of ascension towards Rupa's character and status.

"Blue Moon Over Mogollons"

While Bayes's Rule may be new to some Readers, many are probably familiar with the concept of card counting and how highly intelligent gamblers use it to cheat the system and sometimes try to beat the house.

In Wild West, Silver City, Casey uses her talent for card counting to help her mother succeed in card games (even if Ma doesn't always listen). However, their latest caper involves some dangerous desperados and new weaponry.

In this story, we see how Casey is able to use her talents to help her family. However, we also see how this makes her an outsider towards them. Because of her advanced intelligence, Casey is able to see and long for a life outside of the saloons, gambling houses, and shoot outs. Casey's mother however lives only for her current pleasures like gambling and drinking. While Math is important to the story,"Blue Moon Over Mogollons" is mostly a family story about what happens when families have different incompatible views about what they want out of life.

"Pen's Black Swan"

As we learned from the previous volume, societies need economic and statistical forecasters to predict the financial turns that could occur. Just like with the weather, it would be good to listen and prepare ourselves.

This story is set in 1992 when Penelope West predicts that the stock market will undergo a black swan, an unpredictable and unforeseen event typically with extreme consequences. This is also the time when markets coalesced to force the British government to exit the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by removing its currency from the government.

Of the five stories, this is probably the least interesting. It covers similar ground to "Yan Li and the Numerators" and "Shawnee and The Visitor" in which a fictional person presents a real prediction but is shot down by reality. However, it does give some credence by people accepting Pen's views in the end. This and similar stories prove that we should never be too proud or arrogant to not listen to warnings. Sometimes, it's best to over prepare and be calm when something doesn't happen than to not prepare and be in the middle of the explosion wondering what we could have done differently.

"Jayani's Big Gamble"

Similar to "Blue Moon Over Mogollons" this is a family story disguised as a math lesson. Third Aunt who raised and trained her apprentice chef, Jayani, is ill. Jayani must raise money for her medical care but how? She uses her baking skills and knowledge of volume to make pottery and rent out kilns.

Jayani is a clever woman who is able to take charge during troubled times. She helps her aunt showing a strong familial love. She also is able to become a success achieving fame and wealth for her talents. She and her aunt are the opposite of Casey and her mother in that they show deep loyalty and encouragement.

"Sasha With the Red Hair"

We come to one of my favorite Mathematical puzzles, code breaking in probably my favorite story in this volume. It is similar in content to the previous volume's "Simone and the Mean Girls" involving an intelligent woman trying to solve a code while dealing with a vain and arrogant rival. Only this time, the rival is her sister.

 Uly won the  Vavilov for Mathematical achievement and she and her family are going to Moscow for the honor. Unfortunately, her sister Sasha ("with the red hair" the narrative says), gets the attention with her beauty and claiming credit for the achievement. 

While in Moscow, Uly stumbles upon a secret Mayan codex and Sasha gets herself in trouble with the NKVD.

This story is a reminder of the old fairy tales in which a good hard working sibling triumphs over the bad tempered lazy sibling. Uly is a reminder of many who have been overlooked by peers, leaders, friends, and even family members because of better looking, louder, and more talented siblings. It can be hard to deal with when one's talents are so often overlooked. However, in this instance both sisters get exactly what they deserve in a clever roundabout way which finally rewards Uly's intelligence. While Sasha brings about her own comeuppance.

Weekly Reader: The Descendants (The Descendants Series Book One)by Destiny Hawkins; Intriguing Concept in YA Science Fiction About Finding One's Own Personal Power in a World Full of Energy Abilities

 

Weekly Reader: The Descendants (The Descendants Series Book One)by Destiny Hawkins; Intriguing Concept in YA Science Fiction About Finding One's Own Personal Power in a World Full of Energy Abilities 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Many Science Fiction dystopian novels have characters being separated by some arbitrary type, as an analogy on how modern society separates people from larger categories like race and social class to minor sets like IQ's or personality types. Whether it's by brain type like in Brave New World, social and personality factions like in Divergent, or assigned careers like in The Giver. 

In each one, there is a character (or characters) that doesn't fit into these assorted categories and questions the system that does this. 

The themes often are that people are people. They are flexible, learning, adaptive, complex, messy, and can't always be put into a box. Human nature by its own definition is changeable and often resists such placement. A person who prefers to be introverted in private may be extroverted in their jobs. A person with a high IQ may not have a lot of common sense or street smarts. 

While sometimes exploring such concepts may be interesting, that's a poor way of viewing the society at large.

Studying one's race and culture may drive a person to look into their own family history and where they came from. When someone takes a personality quiz, they could find favorite interests or a career in which they shine. But what is problematic is when people use those types to maintain superiority rather than equality. When they use those categories as an excuse to isolate and segregate people as a means to maintain that superiority.

That is the main theme that can be found in Destiny Hawkins' YA Dystopian Science Fiction novel, The Descendants. It is set in an alternate future in which people have different abilities in which they can control energy. They are called Lighters and are in charge of the Lighter Nation. 

The Lighters are then put into three categories: Brighter (possessing incredible speed and strength), Elem (the ability to control earth, air, fire, and water), and Dim (create darkness). They are then separated into subcategories depending on the color that the Lighter emits like soma for dark blue, vex for turquoise blue, and kali for white. They then operate on different levels depending on the brightness of their light. As if to make the point less subtle, the narrator even remarks that it's a terrible way to separate people by color and by shades of that color (get it?). 

Then there are the Nulls, people who cannot bring light forward at all. Rayah Bardeau, the narrator and protagonist,  is one such Null. Nulls are treated horribly. If they can't demonstrate Lighter powers by the time they finish school, then they have to become slaves.

 Major Artemis St. James, Rayah's former owner, is licking his lips in anticipation for that moment. While Rayah is at the Academy, her mother has taken her place as a slave but it is clear that he intends to use Rayah for more than chores.

Nulls are subjected to pain tests and other students are allowed to bully them. There are many intense scenes where Rayah is bullied by Artemis and the Lighter students. She isn't a slave by name, but it is apparent that most people in Lighter Nation do not treat her as a human being with equal rights.

What is particularly fascinating about the scenario that Hawkins writes is that The Descendants is almost the exact opposite of the scenario of X Men. Whereas the Marvel franchise depicts the people with powerful abilities as the outsiders, The Descendants portrays the ones without abilities as "The Others." Either way, they make the same point: that somehow bigoted people will find someone different to scapegoat, to look down upon, to isolate, to hate, to threaten, to hurt, and sometimes to kill just for who they are.

Some of the most interesting passages are when Rayah is in the Wild Lands, an area outside her homeland in which the citizens are forbidden to go. Of course, Rayah does and encounters people who live outside of Lighter rules and regulations. Her romance with Soren, one of the people from the Wild Lands, is a typical one for this genre though they are likable characters.

 Soren is particularly helpful in that he sees Rayah as a person not a Null. She also sees Soren as a person and not a wildling. They see beyond the programming that society has given them into the soul inside.

What the Wild Lands chapters do is give Rayah chances to reveal her own power. During her academy studies, she has shown a strong talent for hand to hand combat. She is able to use that to defend her new friends when they are threatened. She also discovers new abilities that were never dead, just dormant.

Without spoilers, on the one hand this revelation plays into the problems in Rayah's society by revealing that she fits in after all. However, on the other hand, that could also be the point. The Lighter Nation citizens may believe that they need someone to look down on to the point that they will deprive someone of their innate abilities to make it happen. They would rather have a class of slaves than admit that everyone could be treated as an equal.

The Descendants has a lot to say about how we separate people into various types and categories and sometimes use them to look down upon others. It also shows how we can use our personal power to stand against that categorization and be seen as individuals.

New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Geometry Girls: Teen Heroines in History Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems by Tom Durwood; Intelligent YA Series That Encourages Girls to Study STEM Subjects

 

New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Geometry Girls: Teen Heroines in History Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems by Tom Durwood; Intelligent YA Series That Encourages Girls to Study STEM Subjects

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: What Tom Durwood's previous series, The Illustrated Colonials was to History, his current series The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Geometry Girls is to Mathematics. It takes a certain subject and creates a brilliant series with memorable characters that make a fascinating learning guide.

The book involves five girls from different eras using their expertise in engineering, code breaking, architecture, statistical analysis, and economics to solve problems around them. These stories show the different ways mathematics plays into our lives sometimes without us knowing. If Readers (like me) have trouble with math, the concepts and theories are easily explained and the characters are proactive enough to make the book interesting.

The five stories are:

"Ruby Pi and the Case of the Old Carthusians"-The super genius of the pack is Rupashana Lal Pyradhakrishnan AKA Ruby Pi, the eponymous protagonist of this and the other books in the series. Ruby is a prodigy in various areas such as mathematics, engineering, botany, and various other fields. She shows high intelligence and observation skills to solve mysteries.

In this story, Rupa is put in charge of overseeing the reconstruction of the Charterhouse Cathedral. However, while watching the building and growing concerns about payroll, Rupa stumbles upon a bigger mystery that dates back to the Boer War revealing the cruel realities of war, prejudice, and a deadly pact.

This is one of the strongest stories in the book because it shows Rupa solving mysteries and how to solve engineering problems with reason and fact. However, she can't solve the problems of hatred and war that are found in the human heart. The only thing that she can do as an Indian woman is to prove the white Englishmen's assumptions about her wrong.

"Simone and the Mean Girls"

While war was a backdrop in the previous story, it is upfront in this one.

Set during WWII, Simone is a French volunteer nurse. She is working in the middle of a bombing raid with other nurses, most of whom aren't very friendly towards her. However, Simone is able to decipher a code that could turn the tide on the battle and possibly the war itself.

This story is suspenseful as Simone and the other nurses strive to keep working amidst bombing and terror. There is also a strong sense of character development as Simone is able to break through the other nurses' antagonistic feelings towards her by using her gifts and talents to aid them.

"Isoke and the Architect"

One of the underlying themes in this book is the women using their intelligence to break through barriers closed off to their gender, race, or country of origin. One of the ways that they do this is to cultivate alliances. No story is that more prominent than in "Isoke and the Architect."

Isoke, a woman from Benin, is highly skilled in geometry. When Isoke's geometric gifts allow her to save her queen, Nala, from an assassination attempt, the queen gifts her books of geometry and engineering. Isoke then designs buildings and weapons, overcoming flaws in original designs.

While this is another great story of a woman showing her brain power in a mathematical capacity, what is particularly notable is the relationship between Isoke and Queen Nala. Isoke has a lot of intelligence but very little opportunity to show it until Nala befriends and encourages her. Nala needed someone that can think differently and to build a legacy for her. 

Like all friendships, each woman filled a need in the other's life. Sometimes it is important for a genius to be recognized and patroned.

Also this story places this book in the same universe in Durwood's previous series, the Illustrated Colonials by showing a cameo from one of the latter books's characters. This part allows these young women's actions to be recognized on a wider global scale.

"Yan Li and the Numerators"

This story and the next one demonstrate that even in an alternate universe, certain things are fated to happen. They also show that sometimes genius isn't recognized in one's lifetime.

Yan Li, a Chinese woman is able to read the statistics of upcoming crops and analyze that the country is heading for a famine. Unfortunately, she has to contend with Mao Zedong's government and his stubborn insistence to not listen to a perfectly reasonable warning.

This story shows how leaders often become full of themselves to the point that they don't listen when someone points out the flaws in the system. Yan Li shows courage by standing by her prediction even to the point of being threatened.

"Shawnee and the Visitor"

This is another story where a great idea is trampled upon by the realities of history.

In 1968, Shawnee, an expert in finance, was approached by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She gives him an interesting proposal that could provide long term financial assistance for the poor by creating a banking system that specifically caters to African-Americans and impoverished people.

This idea impresses King, unfortunately he has to go to Memphis to give a speech and the next day have a rendezvous with destiny because of one James Earl Ray (and possibly others).

Like "Yan Li and the Numerators," this story shows the potential ideas of a better world becoming shattered by the reality of history. Though unlike Yan Li's case, it's not because of the personality of the leader but by the outside forces of racism and hatred resulting in death. 

Shawnee presents the opportunity for people like her to be financially independent, despite those outside forces that created stumbling block after stumbling block for her and her people. Unfortunately, they aren't done yet. 

The good news is that as long as there are courageous women like these, restrictions can't and won't last forever.

New Book Alert: Desire's End (The Desire Card Series Book Five) Predictable but Satisfying and Cathartic End

 

New Book Alert: Desire's End (The Desire Card Series Book Five) Predictable but Satisfying and Cathartic End 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: If you haven't yet, I insist that you read either my reviews or the books themselves: Immoral Origins, Prey No More, All Sins Fulfilled, and Vicious Ripples by Lee Matthew Goldberg before reading this review. This review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!

Ready? Then let's go.

Now we finally come to the end. The Desire Card and its depraved demonic leader, Jay Howell AKA Clark Gable come to a satisfactory completion.

This book is pure resolution, where all loose ends are tied, all things are revealed, and the characters meet their final destinies. All previous volumes have led to this moment and head towards the final successful pay off.

If you have grown to detest Howell as much as this Reader has, it's quite satisfying to see him brought down in a schadenfreude sort of way. On the run from his various enemies, he attempts to kidnap Gracie, his granddaughter and unsuccessfully rebuild his empire. This goes quickly awry and he is forced to hide out in the jungle.

In hiding, he encounters a female shaman who gleefully shows him the eventual ruin of his empire and his life.

Meanwhile, three other people are fast approaching, all familiar to the Readers: J.D. Storm, former assassin turned enemy, Monica Bonner, police detective who investigated Gracie's previous kidnapping and cannot stop her investigation against the Desire Card, and Helene Howell-Stockton, Jay's daughter, a philanthropist who has finally realized that her father is a monster who needs to be stopped. Even the shaman has her own pound of flesh to take from the corrupt CEO/Crime Boss.

It helps to take satisfaction in Howell's end by not making him sympathetic. He's a weasley bully who uses everyone around him in the beginning and is a weasley bully who uses everyone around him at the end. No part shows this more than the chapters between Howell and Gracie.

Gracie was an unwilling pawn in Vicious Ripples but during her captivity from J.D., she displayed some potential sociopathic tendencies that suggest that she was meant to become Jay's little heiress. 

In the previous book, she cold bloodedly shot another kidnapper.

In this book the young lady displays her worst qualities as almost a way of saying, "Look Grandpa Jay, look what I can do. See what a good little girl I am?" She manipulates girls to join her grandfather's prostiution ring and uses her ballet skills to create a dancing school front for the ring. Even when she is separated from Howell, she still inherits his evil tendencies by selling hard drugs to schoolmates.

Of all the things that Howell did in the five books, his manipulation of Gracie is the worst. He made the choice to take a life of crime as an adult, fully aware of the potential paths that lay before him. He chose the path of easy money, notoriety, and luxury.

Gracie is a child surrounded by adults who come to her grandfather like he's the Pied Piper of crooks. She has been groomed to become a criminal with no choice or chance to be normal. Now that she knows, she can't live in denial. Her innocence has been forever ruined by Howell's actions and choices. Her own agency and control for her future had long been taken away from her.

J.D., Monica, and Helene are as wounded as ever and are ready to end Howell's hold on them once and for all. The book covers a period of several years, so there are moments of hope and sadness. Helene loses some important people in her life, but finally becomes closer to her hippy boyfriend, Peter. She is trying to rebuild a new life and wants to cut her former life as a Howell and a Stockton. 

Helene was a philanthropist just to make her family look good. Since then, she became involved in philanthropy in earnest because she knows about loss and pain. She sees others sufferings. She has a chance to be a better person and she won't let her father take that from her.

J.D. and Monica also find a new life in a surprising place….with each other. It's a pairing that seems abrupt but considering that they have suffered tremendous loss and have a shared history (even if it was once as opposite sides of the law), the initial weirdness disappears. 

J.D.'s girlfriend, Annie was killed by Desire Card operatives, feeding his thirst for revenge. Now his vengeance is gone, he just floats along, finding a place of quiet and solitude.

While Monica's son died from an illness, her grief fuelled her search for Gracie and put her right into Howell's orbit.

She also resigned her police position and is trying to live a stress free life.

Monica meets J.D. trying to rebuild his life and the two hook up. Despite their burgeoning relationship, they can't put their past behind them until they face Howell one final time.

Another character with her own interesting backstory is the shaman. Her story is too enticing to reveal in this review but let's say the series finally comes full circle and if anyone has a major ax to grind against Howell, it's her. She uses intimidating physical threats and her supernatural abilities to show the literal and figurative monster that Howell is and why so many people would like to see the back of him. The shaman gives Howell his final comeuppance in a way that is long predicted but ultimately satisfying and cathartic.

Desire's End is the perfect ending to an exciting and suspenseful series. After all the twists, turns, duplicity, and betrayal, it's great to see this card get canceled on a high note.

November's Reading List

 

 November's List

Okay I achieved most of the backup from September's issues but I'm still a bit behind.

I still am looking forward to reading and reviewing projects and even a large editing project! So look forward to some November fun from the ol' Bookworm!

The Mysteries Inside My Head by Lawrence J. Epstein

Dead Winner by Kevin G. Chapman 

The Descendants by Destiny Hawkins

Cleopatra's Vendetta by Avanti Centrae

Desire's End (The Desire Card Book 5) by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Life Between Seconds by Douglas Weissman

The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Geometry Girls/The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls by Tom Durwood 

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic (The Pentagonal Dominion) by Erika McCorkle

Slipstream by Alice Godwyn

vVilrRuUsS/Rose/Hollow by Jazzlyn

Augmented Lean by Trond Arne Undheim

Glitches and Stitches by Nicole Givens Kurtz

Cloud Cover by Jeffrey Sotto

A Kelly Society Christmas by S.K. Andrews

Vorodin's Lair (Book Two of the Warminster Series) by J.V. Hilliard

The White Pavilion by Ruth Fox

Plus I will be understanding a large editing and proofreading project for for a client, Waseem Akbar. I will be very busy.

If  you have a book that you would like me to review, beta read, edit, proofread, or write, please contact me at the following:

LinkedIn: 

Facebook: 

Twitter

Upwork 

Reedsy Discovery 

Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Prices are as follows:

Beta Read: $15-20.0

Review: $25-50.00**

Copy/Content Edit: $75-300.00

Proofread: $75-300.00

Research & Citation: $100-400.00

Ghostwrite/Co-Write:$100-400.00

**Exceptions are books provided by Henry Roi PR, Coffee and Thorn Book Group, BookTasters, Reedsy, Online Book Club, and other noted book groups 

All prices are negotiable and are subject to change depending on project size.

Payments can be made to my PayPal account at juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Well that's it. Thanks and as always, Happy Reading!

Weekly Reader: Racism is Real by Clive Henry; Personal Story of Encountering Racism and Turning to Activism

 

Weekly Reader: Racism is Real by Clive Henry; Personal Story of Encountering Racism and Turning to Activism

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Some books that strike against racism take the historical or sociopolitical approach. They look at the whole picture of racism in the historical context describing such events as slavery and segregation and also current issues such as police racial profiling and redlining. It defined what racism is, how it was used throughout history, how it can still be recognized, and what can be done to end its still tremendous hold.

Other books are more personal. They discuss the individual experience with this harmful and ultimately destructive belief. How this person encountered racism and was then motivated to act against it. 

Clive Henry's Racism is Real takes the individual personal approach to prejudice. It is a wonderful powerful book that deals with Henry's experiences with institutional racism and how it affected his personal and professional life.

While racism is an important factor to Henry's book, it is not the only aspect to the book. Before he encounters the bigotry that made his adult life very difficult, Henry describes a happy childhood in Nottingham, England (home of Robin Hood) with loving parents, five siblings, and a love of comedy tv shows, 70's soul music, and movies by Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas. 

That idyllic youth ended with the death of Henry's father in 1983. The shift from childhood innocence to maturity coinciding with the death of a parent is heartfelt and recognizable. Familial roles shift and young people have to prepare themselves for a harder, tougher world that they are uncertain they are prepared for.

As Henry matured, his world became more complex. He eventually worked in retail, collecting data and managing stock levels. He embraced the New Jack Swing style of the mid-90's, partied, and had many romantic relationships. He also faced fatherhood at a young age, maintaining close relationships with his son and the boy's mother, Henry's former girlfriend turned close friend, Vanessa. He subsequently became the father of three other children. He also had to face the illnesses of his mother and sister.

In these chapters, we see not a perfect man but one who faces early adulthood with wild abandon and ultimately maturity and acceptance of adult responsibilities.

There were two major events that brought Henry face to face with racism. The first happened while Henry worked in the UPS Customer Service. After a great presentation, he was promoted to the Sales Department. He was excellent in making queries and practicing sales techniques, so much that he earned praise from his colleagues. He eventually became Inside Sales Executive for the Nottingham branch.

In 2008, ten years after he started working at UPS, he was put on a Performance Improvement Plan to evaluate his productivity and regain lost sales. This occurred when lynx accounts converted to UPS which Henry helped with. The results were 95% effective. Henry managed 30 staff members and collated the information. 

His work was practically flawless. He was given important managerial responsibilities and handled the merger successfully. There was no lost business. In fact, business had increased.

So why was he put under orders for improvement and why did Human Resources not sign off on it?

Those questions are merely rhetorical. There is one obvious reason especially when upon investigation, Henry realized that only he was singled out for this PIP and no one else, none of the white employees were. Henry filed an appeal and was told that "he was making a mountain out of a molehill." 

 During the appeals process, Henry received no support from his employers. He later left his job at UPS and found work as a taxi driver.

Henry's case was taken to court and made public all the way to the European Commission of Human Rights and Court of Appeal. When Henry's case went viral, he received support from many, some who have been in the same position in which he found himself.

Henry's second major encounter with racism occurred after the end of his relationship with Debbie, a woman with whom he had two children but was diagnosed bipolar. She charged Henry with rape. After Henry was out on bail, he collected information about Debbie's unstable behavior including stalking messages that she sent after Henry had been charged.

Once again Henry found himself in another court case that revealed the many cracks in the justice system, especially towards people of color. He revealed that neither Crown Protective Services (CPS) nor his solicitor sent important documentation regarding Debbie's health status in enough time to help with Henry's defense. Another barrister represented him and he was able to achieve a court victory. 

Some Readers may assume that what happened to Henry was an isolated incident of one individual. Unfortunately, there are many that share similar stories of workplace discrimination, harassment, and challenges when trying to oppose them. They happen too often for them to be seen as "just incidents." It is time for many institutions to look hard at themselves and the people who work within and require their goods and services and whether they are truly helping all people equally and fairly.

The institutional racism that Henry faced when his manager singled him out, his solicitor ignored him, and then when UPS and CPS refused to aid him reveals a harsh reality that many people of color face. They can follow all rules, obey the law, work as hard as they want, become an honest citizen and loving spouse and parent, and be considered a model employee. That doesn't always matter.

If an individual manager doesn't like them because of their skin color and that institution protects the racist manager over the employee, then yes that is institutional racism and they should be called out on it. If a person doesn't receive the proper assistance that they are legally allowed to have, then that service needs to be closely examined for their negligent treatment towards people of color.

Individuals, business, programs, and institutions need to be questioned, called out, and challenged. If a person can't treat everyone who walks through their business or governmental doors with the same care and helpfulness no matter what they look like, that person's behavior needs to be examined and they need to be removed.

Policies need to be changed to benefit all and everyone. It's not dismantling a system. It's asking it to be changed and live up to the promises of true equality, justice, fairness, and accountability 

That is true equity and equality.

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.