The Miramar Seduction by Keeling Jordan

The Miramar Seduction
by 

Keeling Jordan

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 31, 2020  ·  edit

liked it

Could subliminal advertising elect a President? This novel investigates that interesting scenario.

Rick Craig is a founding partner of the Atlanta ad agency, Collins & Craig. Unexpectedly, an enormous conglomerate, Miramar Media (helmed by Maxwell Hunter) bids to own the small ad agency. They set the company to work on three accounts: one for Fresh! soda, one for Chartwell Books, and one for a long-shot presidential candidate, Congressman "Hap" Hapworth.

Why would such a large media company want to control such a small ad agency like C&C? Craig smells a rat. After some twists and turns, Craig discovers that the three advertising campaigns will include subliminal advertising designed to boost Hapworth's image and tear down Hapworth's opponents in the Presidential race. As can be guessed, Craig's goal is to expose the plotting of Maxwell--with the help of psychology researcher, Dr. Paul W. Prescott, M.D., author of the (hastily recalled) book, Mind Control: The Role of the Sub-Conscious in Influencing Behavior.

How realistic is the book? Well, Jordan's novel sketches an ambitious subliminal advertising campaign--including video, audio, and print-based subliminal messages (pp. 252-286). And there are a couple of references to the "popcorn experiment":
During a six-week test in a movie theater, more than forty-five thousand
movie patrons perceived subliminal suggestions flashed on the screen: 'Hungry? Eat Popcorn.' They sold half again as much popcorn as usual. And the machine they used was a tachistoscope... (page 128)
But, alas, the so-called "popcorn experiment" has been long-ago debunked. For further discussion, see:
*Does subliminal advertising actually work? (BBC News, 2015)
*The Shocking Drink And Incredible Coke History Of Subliminal Advertising (Business Insider, 2011)

Also, readers might find Michael Crichton's take on the concept interesting. He directed and wrote the screenplay to the movie, "Looker" (1981)

Skeeball and the Secret of the Universe by Barbara Hall

Skeeball and the Secret of the Universe
by

Barbara Hall (Goodreads Author)

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 23, 2020  ·  edit

really liked it

bookshelves: books-for-young-people, coming-of-age

The author, Barbara Hall, is an acclaimed TV writer. This book, published in 1987, was her first.

It's the last summer before Matty Collier's graduation from high school. He wants a Big Something to happen this last summer:

I couldn't help feeling that I should have accomplished something by now. It didn't need to be big. But it needed to be something that I did with no help from anyone else, some idea that was totally my own. I knew I was headed for anonymity the year after I graduated. I would find a job
somewhere and ease into a quiet life, maybe get married and have a few kids. I was headed that way, but something inside me wanted to stop the motion I needed to have my moment of glory, and after that maybe the whole business of life would start to make sense. As it stood now, it seemed like stupid little traditions that everyone went through without ever asking why. I wanted to ask why. I wanted some answers (page 24)

But there's a problem. A few problems, in fact: His parents are hounding him to get a boring J-O-B for the summer. His best friend, Cal, just got a job at the Stop & Shop--and is showing all the signs of the zombification Mattie associates with boring work-drones. Meanwhile, Cal's sixteen-year-old sister, Dana, is following Mattie around like an overeager puppy. And the "Big Thing" Mattie hopes to encounter is nowhere in sight.

Until he meets beautiful Jennifer, that is.

In the tumble of events which follow, Mattie learns that Jennifer, while beautiful, has nothing in common with him--and Dana, for all her over-excitement, just might understand him. He learns from his father, a furniture restorer, just why "drones" find pride in their work. He learns he owes more of a loving obligation to his parents than he'd originally appreciated. Oh, and Mattie shoots a perfect 450-score of Skee-ball (a recurring theme in the novel), helped by the promptings and advice of the elderly Skee-ball lane custodian, Mr. Finch.

(For those who are unfamiliar with Skee-ball, here's a link to a video of the game in action)

The book is alternatively touching and insightful. The book is written for teenagers--but, since I was a teenager Mattie's age when the book was published, I found it easy to relate to his insecurities, yearnings, and frustrations.

Design for Growth: Twelve Steps for Adult Children by Veronica Ray

Design for Growth: Twelve Steps for Adult Children
by 

Veronica Ray

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 22, 2020  ·  edit

really liked it

How can the 12 Steps benefit adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs)? Veronica Ray offers this book to show "how various people have learned to identify their adult child problems and how the 12 Steps have helped them to a better life" (page 3). Each chapter contains a brief discussion of the Step, followed by a case study or two about a person's specific application of the Step to their own lives. In this review, I'll focus on Ray's discussion of the first three steps.

Step 1: Admitted we were powerless...that our lives had become unmanageable
Ray rightly observes that most people get caught up on pronouncing themselves powerless, so she explains, specifically, what kind of "power" Step One says we're surrendering. After all, there's nothing wrong with saying we have the power to choose, to change, to grow. The problem begins when we believe "we have the power to manipulate people and events" (p. 6). Thus, "we arrive at Step One when we finally realize that our attempts to control and manipulate [people and events] haven't worked" (p.8).

(One reason why ACOAs fall into the trap of manipulating people, places and things is that enduring a chaotic alcoholic household has left us with unpleasant feelings, attitudes and beliefs--that we're unworthy of self-esteem, that we can't trust anyone, that we can't ask for help, etc. But, rather than realizing that these feelings as collateral damage coming from our alcoholic upbringings, many ACOAs believe that "other people or outside influences have caused these feelings" (p. 2) and we seek to change, or control, or manipulate them.)

Step Two: Came to believe that a Power Greater than Ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Of course, much of Ray's guide is similar to what we find in other guides to the 12 Steps (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, for instance, or Terence Gorski's Understanding the Twelve Steps: An Interpretation and Guide for Recovering). So I'll focus on nuances which are unique to Ray's presentation.

In Step Two, Ray rightly notes that most people's trouble with Step Two (and Three) concerns the theology technically referred to as, "The God Crap." But Ray points out that "Higher Power" doesn't necessarily mean some all-powerful supernatural Deity. Rather, on Ray's view, a "Higher Power" can mean a "Helpful Guide," even "an imaginary guide--a mother, father, friend, teacher--who can give us what our own parents could not" (p.15). Ray's only suggestion is that this Higher Whatever is "a positive force--loving, understanding, and forgiving. It does not judge or punish. It will not control or condemn" (p.15). On this intriguing view, one could even imagine, as a Higher Power, an ever-present Mister Rogers , always in the mind to whisper good and encouraging affirmations.

Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God as we understood Him.
How does a Higher Power "work" in a person's 12-Step program? To Ray's credit, she provides a brief, specific example of how she envisions a Higher Power giving a recovering ACOA the courage to face life:

"For example, we may be in a relationship where we habitually worry and manipulate. We may have believed that we can make a person like us or accept us. We now consciously turn that relationship over to God and accept whatever happens. We may catch ourselves worrying about it or trying to make something happen. At those times, we can ask for help in remaining willing to surrender the relationship to God's care. Then we can ask God to handle the relationship in any way God chooses. The relationship may improve, deteriorate, or even end. Whatever happens, if it's our Higher Power's will and not the result of our manipulative behavior, we can assume that it's the best possible outcome" (p.20).

Ray deserves credit for specificity and clarity. On the other hand, the above description presupposes a "Higher Power" who has real-world powers (over events, relationships, etc.). But what if we took Ray's advice at Step Two, and opted to choose an "imaginary guide" as our "Higher Power"? Obviously, imaginary friends and guides lack the real-world power to cause "the best possible outcome" in the real world.

Ray's guide is similarly clear and helpful in her discussion of the remaining Steps. (Ray's discussion of humility at Step Seven deserves comparison with Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions's discussion of the same concept at the same Step.) And, at only 100 pages, Ray's book deserves credit for brevity. I'd read it again.

Killer Gorgeous by Jane Holleman

Killer Gorgeous
by 

Jane Holleman

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 19, 2020  ·  edit

really liked it

Crisply written, gritty and glitzy, Jane Holleman's delightful book has a plot reminiscent of a Mexican Standoff:

*Allison Robbins, an abused high-society wife, wanders into "da hood" to hire a hitman to kill...herself;

*The Argani-clad hitman, Monty Jones, has a murderous grudge against the detective who killed his 14-year-old brother, Othel (when the detective mistook the boy's toy gun for a real gun);

*The detective, Mike Shiller, is trying to pin multiple murders to Monty--except Monty is being alibied by socialite Allison;

*Meanwhile, Detective Shiller knows that the husband abusing socialite Allison is...the District Attorney;

*The DA, Marshall Robbins, is trying to force a new grand-jury in order to frame Detective Shiller for the killing of Othel.

And yet, despite the dramatic chaos, Holleman's book contains more than a few moments of poignant human connection--between Monty's mom and Allison (pp. 94-99), Monty and his woman, Jasmine (105-09), and Monty and Jasmine's little boy (139-142)

I greatly enjoyed this book; I'd definitely read another one by the same author.

Free to Trade by Michael Ridpath

Free to Trade
by 

Michael Ridpath (Goodreads Author)

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 16, 2020  ·  edit

really liked it

bookshelves: financial-thriller

The author, Michael Ridpath, is an Olympic bronze-medalist in track and a longtime fund manager for an international bank. Coincidentally, the main character of this novel, Paul Murray, is also an ex-Olympic runner and portfolio manager for a London financial house. The result is a realistic, and gripping, financial thriller.

The event at the center of this book is the death of a detail-oriented attorney, Debbie Chater. Why was Chater pushed into the river Thames? By page 150, it's easy to spot 2 suspects with a personal motive, and two with a business-motive.

Ridpath's plot is studded with unexpected twists and revelations--I was greatly entranced by the story.

And given Ridpath's background, his novel contains a number of realistic real-time portrayals of financial events and concepts. Here's a short list:

*A few days in the life of a bond-trader (pp. 1-50)
*How does the US unemployment rate impact interest rates and, in turn, US government bond prices? (pp. 149-154)
*What's it like to make a "shutout bid" for 10-year T-bills? (pp. 183-186)

Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Geringer Woititz

Adult Children of Alcoholics
by 

Janet Geringer Woititz

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 11, 2020  ·  edit

really liked it

We've long known that children of alcoholics are impacted by their upbringing in an alcoholic home. After all, Alateen was established in 1957. But the idea that such effects persisted into adulthood was rarely attended to before the 1980, before the founding of ACoA in 1978 and the publication of Claudia Black's bestseller It Will Never Happen to Me! in 1987. Woititz's doctoral thesis (1976) and this book (1983) are early explorations of the issues confronting Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoAs).

Woititz's book is clearly written and well-organized. It falls into three parts:

1) How does a parent's alcoholism impact children? In the introduction and Part One, Woititz discusses three main effects of children's exposure to an alcoholic household: First, such a child is robbed of his or her chance at a carefree childhood (pp. 3-4); since being carefree requires a safe, predictable environment--and an alcoholic household is anything but--this loss of "carefreeness" certainly makes sense.

Similarly, Woititz points out that such children's self-esteem is often damaged (pp. xxii-xxiii): "The literature indicates that the conditions which lead an individual to value himself...can be...summarized by the terms 'Parental warmth,' 'clearly defined limits' and 'respectful treatment.'" But, obviously, such conditions are at best inconsistent in an alcoholic household.

Thirdly, Woititz points out that, in response to the child's need to keep the "family secret" of a parent's alcoholism, and the child's damaged self-esteem, a child often takes on one of four (now-famous) "family roles" to cope with the problem at home:

a) Hero: The child seeks self-esteem through hyper-responsibility and over-achievement.

b) Scapegoat: The child becomes a conspicuous troublemaker. Perhaps this is a kind of "self-fulfilling prophecy": If an alcoholic parent constantly berates a child as "no good," the child ends up "living up to the label" and behaves like a "no goodnik." On the other hand, perhaps the child's misbehavior is exaggerated, and becomes the scapegoat in a family's futile attempt to distract from the 1,000-
pound elephant in the household (viz., the alcoholic parent).

c) Mascot/Clown The child seeks to be a humorous center-of-attention. Perhaps this is an effect of trying to use humor to defuse tense family conflicts concerning a parent's alcoholism. This "court jester" personality becomes a way of life for the Mascot.

d) Lost Child The child withdraws from the stressful world into his or her own imaginations and pursuits.

Of course, these Roles of Children of Alcoholics is now in all the textbooks

2) How does a child's experiences of an alcoholic household persist into adulthood?

Woititz lists 13 traits which have an increased likelihood in ACoAs:

*Guess at what normal behavior is

*Have difficulty following a project through from beginning to end

*Lie when it would be just as easy to tell the truth

*Judge themselves without mercy

*Have difficulty having fun

*Take themselves very seriously

*Have difficulty with intimate relationships

*Overreact to changes over which they have no control

*Constantly seek approval and affirmation

*Feel that they're different from other people

*Are super responsible or super irresponsible

*Are extremely loyal, even in the face of evidence that the loyalty is undeserved

*Are impulsive

Note: It's worth comparing this list to the 1978 "Laundry List" compiled by ACoA support groups.

3) How might we mitigate the damaged caused by an upbringing in an alcoholic household? Once an ACOA notices some (or all) of the above 13 characteristics in their own orientation towards life, such deficits can be confronted. In the third part of Woititz's book, she recounts various common-sense thoughts and actions to help guide the ACOA away from the deficit(s).

I tend to think that an ACOA might require more support than just reading 70 pages in a book (pp. 97-168). Sustained individual- or group- therapy may very well be called for. For a lucid illustration of what such therapy looks like, see Szifra Birke's book, Together We Heal.

All-in-all, this is a fine primer for those who wish to inquire about the issues attaching to upbringing in an alcoholic household.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

All Quiet on the Western Front
by 

Erich Maria Remarque

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 09, 2020  ·  edit

it was amazing

The truth be told, I started reading this book in 2005. I set it aside back then, promising I'd read it later. Well, here I am finally finishing it up :)

This book's been called "the greatest war book ever written." I see why. It easily fits in my list of memorable war books--next to Crane's The Red Badge of Courage about the Civil War and Michael Herr's Dispatches about the Vietnam War.

The book, especially, brings across how war destroys the idealism and zest-for-life of youth. And the book spares no details about the brutality that is war: "A hospital alone shows what war is like," writes Remarque.

Definitely would read this book again.

The Fifth Horseman, by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre

The Fifth Horseman
by 

Larry Collins,

Dominique Lapierre

Timmy Cham's review

Jul 07, 2020  ·  edit

really liked it

bookshelves: terrorism

So in the Libyan fable it is told
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
With our own feathers, not by others' hands
Are we now smitten --Aeschylus (quoted at p. 378)

The history books tell us that, when Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi surrendered his 30-year nuclear program in 2004, his program had "remained in very early initial, developmental stages."

But what if Qaddafi had succeeded in his nuclear ambitions--succeeded beyond his wildest dreams? This thriller offers a thoroughly detailed and believable scenario, wherein the Libyan dictator smuggled a 3 megaton H-bomb into New York City. Qaddafi threatens to detonate the nightmare weapon, unless Israelis evacuate their "settlements," and allow the "right to return" to Palestinians.

The book makes for an exciting read, and is an absorbing book, on account of the authors' 4 years of research to detail the book with a number of "open secret" details:

page 34: The essential workings of the hydrogen bomb, with a reference to the Charles Hansen letter of 1979, offering more details (if anyone's interested) :P

pages 123-132: A detailed description of the "fail safe" procedures of an Israeli pre-emptive nuclear strike on Libya. In the book, the strike is aborted at the last minute.

page 151: A reference to the US "Doomsday Plane".

pages 195-199: The detailed effects of a 3 megaton groundburst detonated at the heart of New York City

pages 211, 242-250, 294-297, 337-338: Discussion of the feasibility of evacuation of New York City. The book refers to a document, "The Feasibility of Crisis Relocation in the Northeast United States," which is a very real document

pages 330-333: How to divert plutonium from a nuclear reactor

Needless to say, this is a deeply interesting, suspenseful and well-crafted thriller.