Reality Is Broken

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal
Penguin Group, 2011
Hardcover, 388 pages
ISBN-13: 9781594202858
nonfiction
http://realityisbroken.org/
http://janemcgonigal.com/

Recommended

From the Publisher:

More than 174 million Americans are gamers, and the average young person in the United States will spend ten thousand hours gaming by the age of 21. According to world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, the reason for this mass exodus to virtual worlds is that videogames are increasingly fulfilling genuine human needs. In this groundbreaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, McGonigal reveals how we can use the lessons of game design to fix what is wrong with the real world.
Drawing on positive psychology, cognitive science and sociology, Reality is Broken uncovers how game designers have hit on core truths about what makes us happy, and utilized these discoveries to astonishing effect in virtual environments. Videogames consistently provide the exhilarating rewards, stimulating challenges and epic victories that are so often lacking in the real world. But why, McGonigal asks, should we use the power of games for escapist entertainment alone? Her research suggests that gamers are expert problem solvers and collaborators, since they cooperate with other players to overcome daunting virtual challenges, and she helped pioneer a fast-growing genre of games that aims to turn gameplay to socially positive ends.

My Thoughts:

In Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal purports that gamers can make reality better for everyone. She writes, "The real world just doesn't offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn't motivate us as effectively. Reality isn't engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn't designed from the bottom up to make us happy." (pg. 3)

The book is divided into three sections: Part I: Why Games Make Us Happy; Part II: Reinventing Reality; Part III: How Very Big Games Can Change the World. At the end of the book she helpfully includes an appendix to help you find more information on the games she's mentioned, notes on her sources, and an index.

Jane McGonigal is most enlightening and convincing in the first part of her book where she is explaining how games can make us happy. In parts two and three, she began to lose me. Part two deals with specific games and mainly some she's work on designing. In part three, although I could see some of the benefits she was claiming, I ended up feeling more concerned than hopeful. (More on that later.) She certainly validates gamers and the time they spend gaming as a new form of collaboration and community building.

The book itself is a quick and easy read. Although she's not the best writer, the writing is very accessible. Actually, since a speech she made motivated her to write this book, the whole book comes across as a motivational speech stretched out to book length. But at least in this form it includes the appendix, notes, and index.

Basically, I had three problems with Reality Is Broken.

I might as well admit that while reading Reality Is Broken the song "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk3 started playing through my head in a continuous loop. And that is one of the huge problems with her whole argument. She never addresses any negatives (or dismisses them quickly.) She's w-a-y too much of an optimistic futurist rather than a pessimistic realist. McGonigal is an enthusiastic, chipper, pro-gaming cheerleader.

She writes, "The truth is this: in today's society, computer and video games are fulfilling genuine human needs that the current world is unable to satisfy. Games are providing rewards that reality is not." (pg. 4)

Additionally, she notes that "Philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual leaders agree: the single best way to add meaning to our lives is to connect our daily actions to something bigger than ourselves - and the bigger, the better." (pg.97)

I have a problem with the whole premise that games are the bigger thing that we need to connect to in order to have meaning in our lives. Is it truly better to have an unending supply of meaningless rewards in order to be happy? It seems to me that if people are playing games to escape reality the problem runs much deeper than something games can fix. I'm not sure if providing more rewards or making up games for more escapism is truly beneficial. And do all of these gamers who want to escape reality also want to save the real world?

But my main problem with her book is the Big Brother overtones that come with tracking where people are through their cell phones - in order to play a game. I find it truly frightening when she writes "...it represents the new kind of epic win that is possible in a world where more and more people are willing to use their mobile phones to broadcast where they are and what they need." (pg. 257) Being tracked is not an "epic win" in my mind. And I can also see where many of her ideas for creating happiness while interacting with others could also easily be used for nefarious activities. The final part of the book only convinced me that in the future there will be an even greater need for more safe guards of our personal online security.

I would be remiss if I didn't add that I could see several positive uses for new games in the future that would be epic wins, especially in education, which is why the book is recommended.

Recommended

(Disclosure: I received this copy from the publisher after winning an online giveaway.)

(Additional note: My son, a programmer, said to tell people to read Halting State by Charles Stross. It's relevant to the topic but not nearly so optimistic.)

Quotes:

Gamers have had enough of reality. opening

What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what's wrong with reality? What if we started to live our real lives like gamers, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists? pg. 7

And I've come to believe that people who know how to make games need to start focusing on the task of making real life better for as many people as possible. pg. 8

The people who continue to write off games will be at a major disadvantage in the coming years. Those who deem them unworthy of their time and attention won't know how to leverage the power of games in their communities, in their businesses, in their lives. They will be less prepared to shape the future. pg. 11

In fact, it's a truism in the game industry that a well-designed game should be playable immediately, with no instruction whatsoever. pg. 25

....it's evidence that gamers aren't escaping their real lives by playing games. They're actively making their real lives more rewarding. pg. 51

Games like Lexulous and FarmVille ensure we'll show up and do our part to nurture our relationships daily, and make a gesture of friendship whenever it's our turn. pg. 81-82

By the age of twenty-one, the average young American has spent somewhere between two and three thousand hours reading books - and more than ten thousand hours playing computer and video games. pg. 266

Into the Looking Glass

Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo
Baen Book; copyright 2005
Mass Market Paperback , 366 pages
Looking Glass Series #1
ISBN-13: 9781416521051
http://www.johnringo.org/

highly recommended

Synopsis:

When a 60-kiloton explosion destroyed the University of Central Florida, and much of the surrounding countryside, the authorities first thought that terrorists had somehow obtained a nuclear weapon. But there was no radiation detected, and, when physicist Dr. William Weaver and Navy SEAL Command Master Chief Robert Miller were sent to investigate, they found that in the center of the destruction, where the University's physics department used to be, was an interdimensional gateway to.... somewhere. An experiment in subatomic physics had produced a very unexpected effect. Furthermore, other gateways were appearing all over the world¿and one of them immediately began disgorging demonic visitors intent on annihilating all life on Earth and replacing it with their own.

My Thoughts:

Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo is the first book in his Looking Glass series. When an accident in a physics lab at University of Central Florida causes a huge explosion, physicist William (Bill) Weaver and Navy SEAL Command Master Chief Robert Miller are sent in to investigate. They discover that an experiment in subatomic physics has produced a gateway to another world - and the gateways are spreading.

This is military science fiction novel. Ringo adds some humor along with the science (and some parts were quite funny), but the star of this book is the military action. After the initial explosion the novel slowed down while the physics of the event were being explained, but the action soon took off at a breakneck pace.

Let me reiterate that this is military science fiction. If supporting the American military or the warrior culture of the military is going to offend you, don't read this book. It's pro-military. It's also science fiction, so, if (simplified) scientific explanations are going to confuse you, don't read this book. If neither the military nor science aspects are going to bother you, then by all means read Into the Looking Glass. (Additionally, keep in mind that the novel supports conservative political views.)

Ringo is not the best writer technically but then, that's not really what you'd be looking for in a military science fiction novel. He does deliver on the action and the battle scenes. I'm looking forward to reading the other three novels in this series sometime: Vorpal Blade (Looking Glass, Book 2) by John Ringo; Manxome Foe (Looking Glass, Book 3) by Travis S. Taylor; Claws That Catch (Looking Glass, Book 4) by John Ringo
Highly Recommended - especially if you enjoy military science fiction

Quotes:

The explosion, later categorized as in the near equivalent of 60 kilotons of TNT and centered on the University of Central Florida, occurred at 9:28 a.m. on a Saturday in early March, a calm spring day in Orlando when the sky was clear and the air was cool and, for Florida, reasonably dry. It occurred entirely without warning and while it originated at the university the effects were felt far outside its grounds. opening

The rumble of the detonation was felt as far away as Tampa, Cocoa and Ocala and the ascending mushroom cloud, roiling with purple and green light in the early morning air, was visible as far away as Miami. Flaming debris dropped into Park Avenue in Winter Park, setting the ancient oaks along that pleasant drive briefly ablaze and crushed the vestibule of St. Paul's Church. pg.2

"Right now this ... event is not consonant with a nuclear attack, sir," the specialist said, firmly. "There is no evidence of EMP or radiation. Nor ..." He paused and then squared his shoulders. "Nor does it appear to be an asteroid strike." pg. 10

The base of the cloud was dark, obscuring the light from the sun that still hadn't reached zenith. But near the ground there was a deeper darkness. There was a crater as well, one that looked very much like an enormous bomb hole. The darkness, though, wasn't at the bottom of the crater. Then an errant gust of wind pushed some more of the dust aside and the darkness was revealed. It was a globe of inky blackness, darker than the spaces between stars on a cloudless night. It seemed to absorb the light around it. And it was hovering above the base of the crater, right about where ground level had previously been. pg. 16

It was a giant insect.
No.
It was... It had black and red markings, mottled, not like a ladybug but some of the same color. It was... his sense of perspective zoomed in and out oddly. It couldn't be as large as it looked, but if it wasn't, then the
pilot in the front seat was a child and his head the size of baseball. Crichton shook his head as the thing, using too many legs, wriggled and got to its feet. It was the shape of a roach, colored red and black and it had... more, way more, than six legs. It looked... wrong. Everything about it was wrong. It scared him more than any spider, however large and they got pretty damned large in Florida, he'd ever seen in his life.
It wasn't from this world. Not in this time. Or from any time in the past. And, hopefully, not any time in the future. It was from... somewhere else.
It was alien. pg. 17-18

What we have now is some sort of gate. pg.26

That big black ball could be a boson, but it does not meet the theory of a Higgs boson particle or its effects. Yes, something came through, that might have been from a Higgs boson universe but, again, it doesn't fit the theory. Shouldn't be able to get in or out of the universe. Also, its physics should be different, so different that it would have either died right away or, more likely, exploded. pg.27

"Where are the bugs?" the SEAL said, ignoring the comment.
"The sergeant and I trussed them up with duct tape and then dumped them in the back of a Humvee with all the windows rolled up and big signs on it not to open it. But they're both dead, sir. They just stopped twitching after a while."
"I guess something on this side is poisonous to them," Glasser said. "Which is the first good news I've had today. And bad, for that matter, it doesn't mean the other side isn't poisonous. Any idea what?"
"No, sir," Crichton responded. "They were moving fine and strong as bejeezus. Sergeant Grant helped me because he usually works in an alligator farm wrestling gators. And it took both of us on them to get the tape on them. They didn't attack us or anything but it was like riding an elephant if you know what I mean; they just didn't seem to feel the weight, even the smaller one. If I'd make a guess, sir, I'd say that it's a higher gravity world on the far side and that something in our air, carbon dioxide or oxygen, is probably what killed them. Too high or low of oxygen or too high carbon dioxide. pg.32

A year, about what it would take despite the "recommended" three years, in the People's Republic of Massachusetts was more than he could stand. pg.36

River of the Brokenhearted

River of the Brokenhearted by David Adams Richards
Arcade Publishing, copyright 2003
Hardcover, 381 pages
ISBN-13: 9781559707121

Very Highly Recommended

Synopsis

Spanning generations, River of the Brokenhearted tells the life and legacy of Janie McLeary, a strong-willed Irish Catholic girl who dares to marry a man from the Church of England. Their union is quickly deemed scandalous, and when her husband dies young, just before the Great Depression, Janie is left alone to raise a family and run a business - the first movie theater in town. Through the strength of her character, she succeeds in a world of men. For that she is ostracized and becomes a victim of double-dealing and overt violence. Based on the author's own grandmother, Janie is a pioneer before the age of feminism, but her salty individualism burdens the lives of her children and grandchildren." Her son Miles, impish and genteel, tragically misunderstood and quietly courageous, is bullied and bruised by those his age, and unable to escape his mother's shadow. When sorrow befalls the family he retreats into eccentricity and alcoholism. The specter of Janie is raised again in her granddaughter Ginger - brilliant, funny, tempestuous, as fiery in spirit as Janie ever was. But moving without her grandmother's sure-footedness through an equally treacherous world. Ginger forms an alliance with the one person most likely to destroy her.

My Thoughts:

David Adams Richards uses the life of his grandmother as inspiration for the character Hanna Jane (Janie) McLeary King in River of the Brokenhearted, a multigenerational family saga set in a small New Brunswick village. The novel is narrated by her grandson, Wendell King, and covers four generations of the McLeary/King family. Joey Elias is the family's nemesis, as well as the Druken family. Where Janie's tenacity helps her overcome great persecution and brings her financial success, her family crumbles due to her lack of emotional support. They are overwhelmed with the petty cruelty of their lives and become alcoholics.

Richards is a brilliant writer. He always covers conflicting themes of love and hate, good and evil. His character development is exquisite. And while all of his characters are flawed and struggle with memories, faith, and integrity, often their reflections strike the core of a vital truth for all of humanity. Even as Janie's descendants fail to learn from their mistakes, there is the underlying sense that redemption is possible for even the most flawed characters and that in the end justice will prevail.

The sense of time and place remain consistently strong in River of the Brokenhearted. Richards has a gift for setting the scene and placing his characters squarely in that world. Even their speech patterns are distinct for each character. He can also clearly record the irrational thinking processes of those overwhelmed by greed or drink and the explanations they give themselves for their actions.

I am starting a personal David Adams Richards Fan Club. After reading Mercy Among the Children and The Bay of Love and Sorrows I can safely say that Richards is an incredible, amazing writer who deserves a wider audience - and a fan club.

Very Highly Recommended

Quotes:
The graves of the Drukens and the McLearys are spread across the Miramichi River valley. If you go there you might find them -- “run across them” is not the exact phrase one might want to use for graves -- in certain villages and towns. I don't think we have hamlets here, but if we do, then in certain hamlets as well.
What is revealing about these graves is their scarcity. opening

My father Miles King once told me that some are damned by blood, by treason, by chance or circumstance, some even by the stars themselves, or as Shakespeare, denying that, said, by ourselves. This in a way is a journey back in time to see how I was damned.
My name is Wendell King, and I have looked for these forgotten places, and found them in their quietude and hope, and have gone to the archives, reading old tracts, deeds, family history, searching out what I can, to try to dislodge the secrets that have plagued my father's life. pg. 4

The McLeary family arrived in 1847. They left Ireland crammed into a ship's steerage with those like themselves, unseafaring and sick. pg. 7

Both families, never forgetting their children on the gallows, carried this holy war against each other, a war of attrition, war of words and staffs and peevies, all the way from Ireland into each other's little houses and sheds in Newcastle, New Brunswick, a full century later. pg. 9

I am the happier. For this Hanna Jane McLeary, this darling rebel girl, this sweet lost light of Bobby Doyle's eye, became my grandmother, became in all her dancing, tragic scope one of our great Maritime women, although she never wanted greatness - no, thrust upon her. pg. 11

That he was dying was a shame. However, the other life, the one that tells people someone else's death is not a shame if it opens a door for themselves, was now opened. pg. 18-19

It was the first time he felt her temperament - her will. And it was not like her old drunken father, whom he bullied and laughed at. He had not felt it before, not directed precisely at him. pg. 27

He himself had not seen it, which was a little thing - but Harris was a little thinker. If he had been the sort of thinker he pretended himself to be, the smallness and pedestrian quality of his life would have appalled him. pg. 40

In fact, all men should blush at the moment of death - just because of the great foolishness of their dreams. pg. 159

It was as if her womb, so silent for so long in such a bitter life, started to bleed again. pg. 226

Salvation City

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2010
Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN-13: 9781594487668

http://www.sigridnunez.com/salvation.htm

Highly Recommended

Synopsis

After a flu pandemic has killed large numbers of people worldwide, the United States has grown increasingly anarchic. Large numbers of children are stranded in orphanages, and systems we take for granted are fraying at the seams. When orphaned Cole Vining finds refuge with an evangelical pastor and his young wife in a small Indiana town, he knows he is one of the lucky ones. Sheltered Salvation City has been spared much of the devastation of the outside world.
But it's a starkly different community from the one Cole has known, and he struggles with what this changed world means for him. As those around him become increasingly fixated on their vision of utopia - so different from his own parents' dreams - Cole begins to imagine a new and different future for himself.
Written in Sigrid Nunez's deceptively simple style, Salvation City is a story of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, weaving the deeply affecting story of a young boy's transformation with a profound meditation on the true meaning of salvation.

My Thoughts:

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez is a coming of age novel set in a changing world. Young teen Cole Vining is the narrator. He has lost his parents, Miles and Serena, in a global flu pandemic and, after a brief stay in an orphanage, is currently living with Pastor Wyatt (PW) and his wife Tracy, who hope to adopt him.

As Cole remembers his past with his parents, both academics and atheists, he clearly recalls the tension and their arguments. He knew their marriage was on the verge of divorce. This past contrasts sharply with life in the Christian community of Salvation City with PW and Tracy, where home life is calm and secure, based on their Christian faith. Nunez handles equally deftly the characterizations of both Cole's atheist parents and the Christian Wyatt's.

This is not a dystopian novel intent on showing the collapse of civilization. Because the story is told through Cole's perspective and his memory is imperfect, we don't have a clear global view of what the pandemic has wrought. Instead, we have glimpses of the horrors, as recalled by Cole. While the flu pandemic does influence all aspects of the story, it is truly more of a coming of age story set during hard times and a character study.

Nunez does an excellent job in developing her characters using a deceptively simple style of writing. I really felt that the story was being told by a young adolescent boy, with all of his insecurities and conflicted emotions. He struggles with change just as we all would. (In fact, she actually did such a good job that some reviewers incorrectly labeled Salvation City as a YA novel. It isn't.) She never falters from telling the story through Cole's perspective and in the end we are hopeful he will find the right direction for him in his changed world.

Even though I was expecting Salvation City to be more of a dystopian thriller, I actually quite enjoyed this thoughtful novel based on Nunez's writing alone.

Highly Recommended

Quotes:

The best way to remember people after they've passed is to remember the good about them.

The first time Cole hears Pastor Wyatt say this he remembers how his mother hated when people said passed, or passed away. opening

He was not yet comfortable looking Pastor Wyatt in the face. Cole was keeping so much in - he had so many secrets - he did not like to look anyone in the face if he could help it. He knew this gave the impression he'd done something wrong, and that is just how he felt; as if he'd done something wrong and was trying to hide it. pg. 4

Pastor Wyatt still shakes hands with people. He pays no attention to the warning to switch to the elbow bump. pg. 5

But he is not sure anymore if in fact it was his mother he heard that day. Maybe it was his father. This has become a familiar problem. Cole gets mixed up. He is never completely sure of anything he remembers anymore. He was told that after his fever broke he did not even remember his own name. It wasn't exactly amnesia, but the illness had damaged his brain. He was not the only one to whom this had happened. pg. 8

And if they had never moved, if they had stayed in Chicago, would his parents still be alive? Cole thinks the answer is yes, even though he knows that many people got sick and died in Chicago, too. In the big cities, so many people died so fast that bodies kept piling up and there were corpses everywhere, even outdoors. It is another one of Cole's guilty secrets that he wishes he could have seen this with his eyes. That, and the riots. pg. 12-13

Cole hopes to go around the world one day. One of his favorite words is explorer. pg. 20

Back in the fall, at the beginning of the first wave - the milder and less infectious flu that would kill mostly old people or babies or people already weak from other diseases - back when Cole was still living in Chicago, the assistant principal (the principal was out sick) stood on the stage of the school auditorium and introduced a man from the public health department. pg. 25-26

When the second wave hit, everyone hoped it, too, would be mild. A hope that died by the end of the first week. pg. 35

The Slynx

The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya
Jamey Gambrell, translator
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003
Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN-13: 9780618124978

Highly Recommended

Synopsis:

Two hundred years after civilization ended in an event known as the Blast, Benedikt isn’t one to complain. He’s got a job—transcribing old books and presenting them as the words of the great new leader, Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe—and though he doesn’t enjoy the privileged status of a Murza, at least he’s not a serf or a half-human four-legged Degenerator harnessed to a troika. He has a house, too, with enough mice to cook up a tasty meal, and he’s happily free of mutations: no extra fingers, no gills, no cockscombs sprouting from his eyelids. And he’s managed—at least so far—to steer clear of the ever-vigilant Saniturions, who track down anyone who manifests the slightest sign of Freethinking, and the legendary screeching Slynx that waits in the wilderness beyond.
Tatyana Tolstaya’s The Slynx reimagines dystopian fantasy as a wild, horripilating amusement park ride. Poised between Nabokov’s Pale Fire and Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, The Slynx is a brilliantly inventive and shimmeringly ambiguous work of art: an account of a degraded world that is full of echoes of the sublime literature of Russia’s past; a grinning portrait of human inhumanity; a tribute to art in both its sovereignty and its helplessness; a vision of the past as the future in which the future is now.

My Thoughts:

The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya is a Russian dystopian novel. Set two hundred years after some kind of nuclear accident or blast, a government scribe named Benedikt lives in what was Moscow. Moscow is now called Fyodor-Kuzmichsk, after its dictator Fyodor. Kuzmich uses scribes to copy "his" writing, which is actually that of past literary works.

In this society, mice are dietary staples and a source of trading currency. Citizens born after the Blast often have mutations, that are called "consequences" while "Degenerators" are used as beasts of burden, but actually are humans. "Golubchiks" are the citizens/workers. "Oldeners," citizens born before the blast, haven't aged at all, and more importantly keep secret libraries of forbidden books.

While seemingly a short dystopian novel, The Slynx is actually a dense novel that features references to Russia's past political eras and literature, so some knowledge of Russian literature and history would be very helpful while reading it. Equally both funny and frightening, there are so many details imparted that it doesn't seem to matter that the actual plot starts out slowly. It is part political and social commentary, while also addressing lovers of literature. In the end the slynx seems to symbolize the beast in man.

Jamey Gambrell translated The Slynx from the Russian and I can't imagine how difficult this task must have been since this is a very Russian novel. Even the translation feels Russian. This is Tolstaya's first novel and, as Leo Tolstoy's great-grandniece, she has a literary heritage. I have a feeling there is a lot of symbolism that went right over my head because of my knowledge of Russian history and literature lacks the depth needed to fully appreciate The Slynx.

Highly Recommended - if you are up to the challenge

Quotes:

Benedikt pulled on his felt boots, stomped his feet to get the fit right, checked the damper on the stove, brushed the bread crumbs onto the floor—for the mice—wedged a rag in the window to keep out the cold, stepped out the door, and breathed the pure, frosty air in through his nostrils. Ah, what a day! The night’s storm had passed, the snow gleamed all white and fancy, the sky was turning blue, and the high elfir trees stood still. Black rabbits flitted from treetop to treetop. Benedikt stood squinting, his reddish beard tilted upward, watching the rabbits. If only he could down a couple—for a new cap. But he didn’t have a stone.
It would be nice to have the meat, too. Mice, mice, and more mice—he was fed up with them.
Give black rabbit meat a good soaking, bring it to boil seven times, set it in the sun for a week or two, then steam it in the oven—and it won’t kill you.
That is, if you catch a female. Because the male, boiled or not, it doesn’t matter. People didn’t used to know this, they were hungry and ate the males too. But now they know: if you eat the males you’ll be stuck with a wheezing and a gurgling in your chest the rest of your life. Your legs will wither. Thick black hairs will grow like crazy out of your ears and you’ll stink to high heaven. opening

To hell with them, those Degenerators, better to keep your distance. They’re strange ones, and you can’t figure out if they’re people or not. Their faces look human, but their bodies are all furry and they run on all fours. With a felt boot on each leg. It’s said they lived before the Blast, Degenerators. pg. 2

Old people say the Slynx lives in those forests. The Slynx sits on dark branches and howls a wild, sad howl—eeeeennxx, eeeeennxx, eeenx- aleeeeeennnxx—but no one ever sees it. If you wander into the forest it jumps on your neck from behind: hop! It grabs your spine in its teeth—crunch—and picks out the big vein with its claw and breaks it. All the reason runs right out of you. If you come back, you’re never the same again, your eyes are different, and you don’t ever know where you’re headed, like when people walk in their sleep under the moon, their arms outstretched, their fingers fluttering: they’re asleep, but they’re standing on their own two feet. pg. 3

Well, and what do they give out at the Warehouse? Mousemeat sausage, mouse lard, wheatweed flour, those feathers, then there’s felt boots, of course, and tongs, burlap, stone pots: different things. One time they put some slimy firelings in the basket—they’d gone bad somewhere, so they handed them out. If you want good firelings you have to get them yourself. pg. 9-10

Two hundred and thirty-three years Mother lived on this earth. And she didn’t grow old. They laid her in the grave just as black-haired and pink- cheeked as ever. That’s the way it is: whoever didn’t croak when the Blast happened, doesn’t grow old after that. That’s the Consequence they have. Like something in them got stuck. But you can count them on the fingers of one hand. They’re all in the wet ground: some ruined by the Slynx, some poisoned by rabbits, Mother here, by firelings . . .
Whoever was born after the Blast, they have other Consequences—all kinds. Some have got hands that look like they broke out in green flour, like they’d been rolling in greencorn, some have gills, another might have a cockscomb or something else. And sometimes there aren’t any Consequences, except when they get old a pimple will sprout from the eye, or their private parts will grow a beard down to the shins. Or nostrils will open up on their knees. pg 10

Our town, our home sweet homeland, is called Fyodor- Kuzmichsk, and before that, Mother says, it was called Ivan-Porfirichsk, and before that Sergei-Sergeichsk, and still before that Southern Warehouses, and way back when—Moscow. pg. 12

And where there's mystery - there's government service. pg. 19

The Lincoln Lawyer

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
Grand Central Publishing, copyright 2005
Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Mickey Haller Series , #1
ISBN-13: 9781455500246

http://www.michaelconnelly.com/

Highly Recommended

Synopsis from cover:

For defense attorney Mickey Haller, the clock is always running. With two ex-wives, four Lincoln Town Cars that he uses as offices, and dozens of guilty clients, he can't afford to miss a trick. when he gets picked by a Beverly Hills rich boy arrested for assault, Mickey sees a franchise case: a nice, long, expensive trial with maximum billable hours - until it hurtles him into the last place he wants to be. Suddenly hustling, cynical

Mickey Haller is confronted with pure evil and someone who may be truly innocent. Now, for a lawyer who has always gone for the easy score, getting justice means taking the deadliest risk of all.

My Thoughts:

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly is his first legal thriller - and the first book in a new series featuring Mickey Haller. Mickey is a criminal defense lawyer whose office is the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car. He is cynical, shrewd, hard-working, and ethically challenged, but he also has a hidden shred of integrity left.

Mickey is generally scrambling to make a buck any way he can. When he is called to defend Louis Ross Roulet, a Beverly Hills real estate agent, Mickey sees a potentially easy, but big-money making "franchise" case. What he doesn't immediately see is the evil behind Roulet's facade.

Connelly is a master at story telling and moving the plot along. There are several twists and turns that kept me very interested. Additionally, Connelly does a great job developing his characters. Mickey comes across as a very flawed but sympathetic character. This is a great introduction to a new series.

No spoilers, but I was questioning Mickey's actions during a rather important point in the plot. It seemed that he could have done something different - there are avenues of action in place for lawyers with that dilemma.

The Brass Verdict, the second book in series, pairs Haller with his half brother, Harry Bosch, a long-time Connelly character. The Reversal is the third book, and the fourth book, The Fifth Witness, is scheduled to be released at the beginning of April 2011.
The movie version of The Lincoln Lawyer stars Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller and is due to be released on March 18, 2011.

Highly Recommended

Disclosure: This book and a movie poster was sent to me by the publisher after I won a give-away for it at Beth Fish Reads.

Quotes:

The morning air off the Mojave in late winter is as clean and crisp as you'll ever breathe in Los Angeles County. It carries the taste of promise on it. opening

You could say his name is also permanently scratched onto my Christmas list. At the end of the year I give a can of salted nuts to everybody on it. Planters holiday mix. Each can has a ribbon and bow on it. But no nuts inside. Just cash. I have a lot of bail bondsmen on my Christmas list. I eat holiday mix out of Tupperware well into spring. Since my last divorce, it is sometimes all I get for dinner. pg. 3-4

While being held in the Lancaster jail he had cut his hair and shaved, as I had requested, and he looked reasonably presentable except for the tattoos that wrapped both arms and poked up above his collar. But there is only so much you can do. I don't know much about the effect of tattoos on a jury but I suspect it's not overly positive, especially when grinning skulls are involved. I do know that jurors in general don't care for ponytails — on either defendants or the lawyers who represent them. pg. 9

Boyleston was going to go away for a long time and there was almost nothing I could do but negotiate a deal trading Boyleston's cooperation for a lower sentence. That didn't matter, though. What mattered to me were the tapes. I had taken the case because of the tapes. The federal government would pay me to listen to the tapes in preparation for defending my client. That meant I would get a minimum of 50 billable hours out of Boyleston and the government before it was all settled. So I made sure the tapes were in heavy rotation whenever I was riding in the Lincoln. I wanted to make sure that if I ever had to put my hand on the book and swear to tell the truth, I could say in good conscience that I played every one of those tapes I billed Uncle Sugar for. pg. 17

Lorna is the first buffer. To get to me you start with her. My cell number is given out to only a few and Lorna is the gatekeeper. She is tough, smart, professional and beautiful. Lately, though, I only get to verify this last attribute once a month or so when I take her to lunch and sign checks — she's my bookkeeper, too. pg. 18

There was nothing about the law that I cherished anymore. The law school notions about the virtue of the adversarial system, of the system's checks and balances, of the search for truth had long since eroded like the faces of statues from other civilizations. The law was not about truth. It was about negotiation, amelioration, manipulation. I didn't deal in guilt and innocence because everybody was guilty. Of something. But it didn't matter because every case I took on was a house built on a foundation poured by overworked and underpaid laborers. They cut corners. They made mistakes. And then they painted over the mistakes with lies. My job was to peel away the paint and find the cracks. To work my fingers and tools into those cracks and widen them. To make them so big that either the house fell down or, failing that, my client slipped through.
Much of society thought of me as the devil but they were wrong. I was a greasy angel. I was the true road saint. I was needed and wanted. By both sides. I was the oil in the machine. I allowed the gears to crank and turn. I helped keep the engine of the system running.
But all of that would change with the Roulet case. For me. For him. And certainly for Jesus Menendez. pg. 25

It didn't matter in terms of the strategy of the case whether the defendant 'did it' or not. What mattered was the evidence against him - the proof - and if and how it could be neutralized. My job was to bury the proof, to color the proof a shade of gray. Gray was the color of reasonable doubt. pg. 47

Inside a Cutter's Mind

Inside a Cutter's Mind: Understanding and Helping Those Who Self-Injure
by Jerusha Clark, with Dr. Earl R Henslin (contributor)
NavPress Publishing Group, 2007
Trade Paperback, 240 pages
ISBN-13: 9781600060540

nonfiction

Very Highly Recommended

Synopsis

Considering recent statistics, chances are you know someone who deliberately harms himself. In fact, you might know several, though their behavior may remain hidden from or a mystery to you. Experts estimate that millions of people engage in some form of self-injury, a shocking physical expression of emotional and spiritual pain. Because "cutting" is so misunderstood, some people believe it's just a bid for attention or an adolescent phase. Others assume self-harm is a girls' problem only and doesn't happen to "good" people, let alone Christians. Yet this practice has quietly spread into mainstream America, crossing all age and gender lines and even into the church. When confronted with this silent epidemic, how can we respond and help those in desperate need? Drawing from a rich blend of research and interviews, best-selling author Jerusha Clark, with Dr. Earl Henslin, explores this complex problem that has no easy solution. With an empathetic heart and a compassionate voice, she brings light to a dark condition and delivers hope to victims and their loved ones.

My Thoughts:

Inside a Cutter's Mind: Understanding and Helping Those Who Self-Injure by Jerusha Clark, Earl R Henslin presents a balanced perspective on self-injury. Clark writes: "I want you to know from the outset: Self-inflicted violence is all at once a psychological, physical, and spiritual battle. Consequently, this book will examine all three aspects. But we will do so with balance and patience, recognizing that discussing biochemistry, psychoemotional issues, and spirituality can be intimidating." (pg. 16)

This book is mainly written for the family and friends of cutters to help them understand and empathize with what self-harmers feel while dealing with their own conflicting emotions. The authors do a great job covering all aspects of self-injury while presenting it in such a way that the information is very accessible. "I decided to write Inside a Cutter’s Mind because I believe that a vigorous and tangible hope can be found. I have witnessed the freedom of people brought back from the brink of self-destruction. In their lives, the power of redemption overcame the pull of devastation. But I have not merely observed redemption at work. I have personally experienced the wholesale rescue of my mind, body, and soul from the ravages of self-annihilating compulsion." (pg. 17)

Clark is very empathetic and sensitive while explaining the behavior and the many ways of treating/helping people who struggle with self-injury. She clearly understands that in order to assist self-injurers, a variety of treatment methods are necessary because every person is a unique individual. Dr. Henslin does an excellent job explaining the physiological and clinical sides of treatment. The information on SPECT brain scans shows that self-injury also can have a physical component.

While it is written from a Christian point of view, it is very non-judgmental while covering all aspects of self-injury. Clark, in fact, points out that "...overscripturalizing or spiritualizing people's struggles or their paths toward recovery usually arrests rather than encourages recovery." (pg. 145) So, although specific information for Christians is definitely included, it is presented as just another aspect to helping in the recovery process and not as condemnation for the cutting.

It is interesting to note that: "A diet high in protein (including soy products and fish), whole grains, and vegetables gives the nervous system the nutritional support necessary to combat self-wounding impulses." (pg. 112) and "Taking brain-boosting vitamins and supplements (especially omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin E) may help self-injurer's mind and body be better prepared to deal with urges to self-harm. Sometime vitamins and supplements can actually decrease these cravings." (pg 113.) Clark also mentions other specific ways to help self-harmers or assist them in their recovery, including simply being available to be with them during difficult time periods or encouraging them to lengthen the time between episodes of self-injury.

I can't recommend this book highly enough for friends and family members of someone who self-injures or any one, like a pastor or youth minister, who might be asked to counsel someone. The myth that they are doing it just to get attention is exposed and the information included that can really lead to recovery is priceless.

Very Highly Recommended

Quotes:

If someone you love intentionally hurts himself or herself, you may have run the gamut of these emotions — frustration, anxiety, despair, helplessness, confusion, desperation, and even repulsion. Maybe you’ve felt all of them at once. Maybe, more than anything else, you have wanted to run away, to withdraw from the unnerving, painful reality. Still, the idea that your loved one might take a blade or a cigarette lighter to his or her own skin haunts you like a waking nightmare. Saying the wrong thing terrifies you. But you have to, you want to, do something. pg. 15

The act of intentionally wounding oneself goes by many names. Self-injury, self-harm, self-inflicted violence, and self-mutilation are the most commonly employed terms. Vernacular descriptions such as cutting, burning, slashing, or scorching reveal specific methods people use to wound themselves. Medical professionals use other descriptors, including Deliberate Self-Harm, Syndrome 5, and Self-Injurious Behavior Syndrome (SIBS ). pg.21

The majority of sufferers, like....Princess Diana, cut or burn because they seek relief from seemingly uncontrollable pain or deadening numbness. pg. 21

Likewise, as you care for and work with people who self-injure, I urge you to choose your words carefully. When in doubt, listen to the language the person who self-harms uses and mirror his or her vocabulary. This both honors individuals and their unique experiences and shows a desire to meet them on their turf. pg. 22

Over ands over, self-harmers chronicle feeling anger, anxiety, or sorrow so deep that it seems the world was unraveling around them. In the midst of this chaos, a thought "popped" into their minds: You can cut [or burn or break] this out of you. pg. 35

On a positive note, the sometimes ritualistic nature of self-injury can actually benefit those who want to help....simply being with a self-injurer during a particular difficult time of day or through a painful situation can significantly decrease the likelihood of self-inflicted violence. pg. 38-39

Self-injury is most often used as a survival technique rather than an exit strategy. pg. 42

Self-harmers substitute thoughts about hurting themselves - and then add the act of self-inflicted violence itself - to deflect negative thought patterns. Pushing aside obsessive thoughts with focused, if self-inflicted wounding, ones does work. Sadly, people often find it more effective, and definitely more immediate, than healthier methods of processing distressed thoughts and feelings. pg. 56

Recovery does not correlate so much with the severity or frequency of self-injurious acts as it does with the presence of ongoing support, vigorous and committed pursuits of care....and a willingness to look at one's self, family, and coping mechanisms openly and honestly. pg. 60

Self-injury does not often "travel" alone.... [M]any self-injurers battle one or several accompanying problems while fighting self-injurious impulses. pg. 63

Self-harmers may also experience symptoms associated with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). pg. 68

In order to begin healing, many self-wounders need help expanding their time horizons, lengthening the moments between urge and action by analyzing their situation and emotions.....

Fortunately, people can learn to expand their time horizons in the same way we all learn that a sensation of hunger does not mean we have to eat immediately. We may feel that we need to, but if we want to or must wait, the intense feeling will fade or pass with time. pg. 71

...self-injurers can heal best as they learn their own spiritual value. They can also benefit from developing communication skills that allow them to express their woundedness... pg. 135

...self-injurers are doing the best they can presently can to deal with emotional pain. We can trust that with time and help, as they are enabled, they can learn to cope in healthier ways. Shame and guilt will not help them get there. pg. 146

If you take the time to uncover why self-harm seems to make sense for the person you love, you will be better equipped to help over the long haul. pg. 147