Movies for Readers: Alice Through the Looking Glass

From the looks of this trailer for Alice Through the Looking Glass, this film is very obviously influenced by Tim Burton's vision of the Lewis Carroll classic novel even though it is directed by James Bobin.  It stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Alan Rickman, and Stephen Fry, among many others.  It is visually stunning and should be quite an experience on the large screen.  Take a look; you just might want to put this one on your calendar for next year.

Movies for Readers No. 3

Beautiful Trees

I first became aware of British flash fiction master Nik Perring with the publication of Not So Perfect, his collection of short short stories published in 2010.  That particular book was, in fact, also my introduction to the whole concept of flash fiction.  As I mentioned at the time, I was fascinated by a book from which I could read an entire story while sitting at one of the many traffic lights I encounter every day.  Then Perring’s beautifully illustrated Freaks, a collection of stories featuring some of the most unique freaks and superheroes imaginable, came along – and I was hooked for sure.

And now there is Beautiful Trees, the second book in a trilogy that will ultimately include Beautiful Words, Beautiful Trees, and Beautiful Shapes.  As in the past, the author’s words are supplemented by illustrations that help bring the stories to life.  This is a picture book for adults, the story of Lily and Alexander, two people who love each other very much and often mark the milestones of their relationship through their shared love of trees. 

Author Nik Perring at a Beautiful Trees Signing

In one of the more poignant scenes of the book, for instance, Alexander brings a dwarf cherry tree to Lily’s sickbed because of how another cherry tree played such a significant role in the couple’s first meeting. In fear of spoiling Beautiful Trees for others, I’m going to stop here.  Let’s just say that Nik Perring packs a lot of emotion and understanding of relationships into the relatively few pages he allows himself to tell his story.  And that is why I call Nik Perring one of the masters of flash fiction. 

Nik is a young man with an old soul – and I love his work for that very reason.

A Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving Illustrated

I first posted this in November of 2012, just a few days before Thanksgiving, as I recall.  I want to repost it a little earlier this year because Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday of all, and I'm already starting to feel that good old Thanksgiving vibe.  

Interestingly, this three-year-old post still draws "hits" from around the world during almost every month of the year.  Norman Rockwell seems to be universally popular even today.  His work was very special.

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Norman Rockwell did it longer - and better - than anyone.  His illustrations have become national icons, and many of the most familiar ones pertain to the Thanksgiving celebration.  Here are some of them, and I wonder how many more there are:

Levar Burton Presents "Problems Only Book Lovers Understand"

Levar Burton is quite the reading advocate these days (and has been for a number of years), so who better to illustrate "Problems Only Book Lovers Understand."  And, since I can't imagine anyone reading a book blog unless they are true book lovers, I'm sure that most of you can easily relate to these "problems."  Time to laugh at ourselves a bit...after all, everyone else already is. 

Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath

Ted Koppel’s Lights Out is one of the scariest books you are going to read this year, or even anytime in the next five years - if what the book predicts hasn’t already happened by then.  And you don’t have to take my word for it, because a look at the book’s subtitle says it all: “A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath.”

It is the third part of that subtitle that I find particularly terrifying.  I have survived the aftermath of a major hurricane or two.  The last one knocked out my electricity for exactly 14 days, but during that extended downtime most of the rest of the city had regained power, so the social structure around me did not break down.  While living without power even for two weeks is no picnic, food, water, and cool air were available only a short drive away.  

Now imagine that your state and all of those surrounding yours are without power and that no one can tell you how long it will be before power is restored.  Communication has, in fact, broken down to the extent that no one can even tell you why the grid is down.  How long do you think it will be before for food and water shortages develop in the region’s major cities?  How long before the smell of raw sewage forces everyone from their homes?  How long before armed thugs decide it is the perfect time to simply take what they want and to hell with everyone else?  According to Koppel, you have maybe a week if you are lucky.  Simply put, it very soon becomes an “every man for himself and his family” situation.

Lights Out is divided into the three sections indicated by the book’s subtitle.  “Cyberattack” sets the stage by describing exactly how malicious hackers have already penetrated the computer systems that control the distribution of electricity throughout the United States.  Koppel, and the experts he interviewed, believe that software “Trojan horses” have already been left behind by the governments of Russia and China, and he fears that Islamist terrorists representing groups such as ISIS are close to having the capability of doing the same thing.  Bad as this is, the unleashing of the contents of those Trojan horses already in place is not extremely likely because the Russian and Chinese governments understand that the U.S. has placed similar malware inside key computer systems of their own governments.  This is the nuclear determent theory of the Cold War replayed.

No, what scares Koppel and his experts is the possibility that terrorist-related hackers might do the same thing – and they have nothing to lose by triggering the collapse of the electricity grid of the U.S.  The main goal of groups like ISIS is to bring the world to its end, so those groups would welcome both the complete collapse of the U.S. social structure and any attempt at retaliation on our government’s part.  But how do you even begin to retaliate against a group with no government and nothing to lose?  And identifying the source of such attacks is not easy, making it likely that the U.S. would retaliate against the wrong country or group anyway.  The terrorists are holding all the best cards in any such confrontation.

The second section of Lights Out makes very clear just how unprepared this country is if and when such an attack occurs.  Not only are there no emergency plans in place to handle such a catastrophe, experts do not even agree that it can happen.  That means that nothing…nothing…is being done to prepare the country for what could be a war to forever end the United States as we know it today.

Author Ted Koppel

I found the book’s third section, “Surviving the Aftermath,” to be a little disappointing.  I came away from this section without picking up any ideas that I, as an individual concerned about surviving the certain chaos that will quickly develop following the kind of massive and extended power outage that Koppel predicts, could actually use.  Rather than offer the kind of advice I hoped for, the author more often points out the futility and ultimate foolishness of most of what individual “survivalists” and more structured groups (such as the Mormon Church) are already doing. 

So where are we?  Most people are not even aware of the potential threat, much less trying to do anything to keep themselves and their families safe if the threat materializes.  Most politicians don’t even want to talk about this.  Industry experts cannot agree on the likelihood of such an attack on the U.S. or what to do if it does happen.  Almost no one with any authority is talking about making the changes that would safeguard the collapse of this country’s electrical grid.  And the time bomb already inside that grid continues to tick.

Yes, Lights Out will make readers very, very nervous, but we have to hope that the right people read this book and take it seriously.  Read it yourself.  Talk about it and pass it on to others who will read it and talk about it.  Do your best to help Lights Out get the attention it deserves. 

Post #2,607

Another Courageous Publisher Is Slaughtered

Yet another brave man has been slaughtered for daring to publish something that "offends" the ever-encroaching evil that is slowly taking over the world.  I cannot even imagine the courage to do what these people do, and it breaks my heart to see them butchered by those whose tiny little brains have been filled with stupidity and hatred, leaving no room for rational thought.

This time it is publisher Faisal Arefin Deepan who has paid the ultimate price for daring to publish books in Bangladesh that contained the work of an American-Pakastani blogger who himself was hacked to death in February.  As reported in U.S. News, this was actually the second attack of the day:

Earlier in the day, publisher Ahmed Rahim Tutul and two writers were shot and stabbed by three men in the office of the Shudhdhoswar publishing house, said police officer Abdullah Al Mamun.

Police chief Jamal Uddin Meer said the assailants then locked the wounded men inside the office before escaping. "We had to break the lock to recover them," Meer said.

The two writers were identified by police as Ranadeep Basu and Tareque Rahim. All three of the victims were hospitalized, and Tutul was in critical condition, Meer said.

Ansar al-Islam accused the "secular and atheist publishers" of putting out books by blasphemers that dishonored the Prophet Muhammad, and threatened more attacks.

If you don't believe that all of this is brought on by stupidity, just read that last sentence again, especially the part about publishing blasphemous books that dishonor good old Muhammad.  

Wake up world, enough is enough.  Haven't we reached that point yet.