Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction, page 9

Two Reviews of The Alien Effect

From Frank Kaminski of resilence.org
http://www.resilience.org/stories/201...
By turns wondrous, wise, witty, tense and gripping...an auspicious new entry in this daring series that refuses to stick with easy answers or safe issues...finds just the right balance between candid political commentary and a tale...for both adult and young-adult readers. Frank Kaminski, Resilience.org

And from Douglas R. Cobb:"... a fantastic book, and my review of it is at:
http://guardianlv.com/2014/11/the-ali... ..."captivating characters and the main character, Shawne, has a noble goal she pursues, despite being met with people who do not always like the message she is trying to teach them. ...reading the first two books in the series is highly recommended, as they are both great, and will provide useful background to help understand and get into The Alien Effect quicker."

Two More Books in Archives of Varok series released!

I'm thrilled with the beautiful editions Penscript has put out this week. To celebrate the release of The Alien Effect and the updated first book in the series, The View Beyond Earth, I am starting a Giveaway of the award-winning second book in the series, The Webs of Varok.

I've been taking a break from this blog to move across country, while preparing these books for publication (Whew!), but will be back reviewing at least one book per month soon. Meanwhile, you're invited to sign up for the Webs Giveaway and check out more information on http://archivesofvarok.com about our Triple Giveaway.

A Note About Gary Kowalski’s Blessings of the Animals and the Importance of Titles:

After viewing the Nature program “Animal Odd Couples,” a PBS video, I focused on the many engaging stories aired by PBS and by many authors, including Penny Patterson, and Koko, Temple Grandin, making a difference, and Frans deWaal, studying animal emotions. Therefore, I expected more anecdotes when I started reading Gary Kowalski’s Blessings of the Animals.

Indeed, in the middle of that book, there are some wonderful stories--a polar bear coming nightly to play with Huskys in Alaska, a young leopard playing with a Golden Retriever puppy in South Africa, the friendship of two Groton goats and a timber wolf at the San Diego Zoo, the gorilla Koko and her kitten.

As I began reading I became disoriented. The first two chapters of Kowalski’s book talked about animals in church and something about old saints. I should have known better. The book was about blessings. The title said so.

Once I woke up to that fact, I was ready for the wonderful examples of blessings the author had written. Each chapter illustrated a different way in which animals have blessed human life.

Our job as writers clearly demands that we do our best to reflect the essence of our stories in our titles and 25-word tags. As readers, it would be helpful to believe what the titles of books are trying to say. I will next time.

Why I'm Not Reviewing Collapse

I have decided not to review The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View From the Future by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway (Columbia University Press, 2014). Though I agree with the authors’ worry about what they call “anti-intellectualism” in current Western thinking, I will neither read this book nor recommend it. Rather, if you are still curious, I suggest doing a close read of Michael Shermer’s August 2014 Scientific American Skeptic article.

Then concentrate on reading the many thorough nonfiction studies that suggest real solutions to our many concerns, including our health problems, malnutrition, population stress and limited resources. Many such books appear in the previous reviews in this blog.

Or read our series The Archives of Varok, where solutions to our dilemmas are portrayed as realistically as possible in a fun setting so you can see what might be required to secure a long-term future. Two more books in the series will be coming out in November. Let’s focus on solutions. We don’t need more poorly presented dystopias. We can do better than they portray. The guidelines to an equitable humane future are rational and clear, though not easy.

Previewing an Academic Dystopia

The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View From the Future by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway (Columbia University Press, 2014) Is this just another dystopia, an academic one? If you read this book, please don’t neglect to read the current books outlining the long-term solutions we desperately need: Dietz and O’Neill’s Enough Is Enough, Lester R. Brown’s writings. Or if you like an entertaining fiction, read award-winner The Webs of Varok and the rest of The Archives of Varok series. A double release is coming November 3. http://penscript-publishing.com/news-... Stay tuned.

I’ll read Oreskes and Conway’s book and review it next month. Meanwhile, I am shocked by what it might have missed, as reported in Scientific American August 2014.
I agree with the authors that current “anti-intellectualism” has prevented the West from acting intelligently on “scientific knowledge available at the time.” They list several causes for this, but apparently have neglected several facts—that we are not conserving, not even recognizing our resource limits; that living things, including humans, are already moving north; and that too many are hungry and ill. I hope they include these disturbing situations and focus on the difficult solutions that are clearly stated by other authors. We aren't required to sit back and watch dystopias play out. We know what we have to do. Comments are invited at ScientificAmerican.com/aug2014 and here, of course.

Reviewing René Dubos’ The Wooing of Earth: New Perspectives on Man’s Use of Nature—another oldie not to be missed

René DubosThe Wooing of EarthNew York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980.

The 1970’s explosion of interest in environmental degradation was tempered in 1980 by a voice we need to hear now, in this age of dystopias that go on and on. René Dubos--the Pulitzer Prize winner for So Human An Animal and microbiologist who demonstrated that microbes could provide us with antibiotics--reminds us that we can do better. In fact, we have. The human imprint on Earth was beautifully integrated, when we respected nature’s answers and restrained our tendency to ride roughshod over its genius.

We don’t need to cut down all the trees on planet Earth—not even those in our neighborhood—just enough to keep warm or grow something to eat. It was done in the ages-old hedgerows of Europe and Great Britain, which became interesting biosystems, as well as windbreaks and fences. The examples go on and on in this book. We need the reminder of good examples, for, apparently, in much of the world, we have forgotten how to do it, or we don’t care how much we pave and tear down.

In some areas and in the past our restraint and creative talents have created new environments enhanced by cultural inventions unimagined in the beginning. Benefit has come to both humanity and nature when we realized the necessity of those benefits and were wise enough to leave them alone.

We don’t have to pave every square foot or cut down every tree to maximize profit. By leaving to themselves a decent portion of wild lives and natural phenomena, we can use our common sense to work with planet Earth to create its best and most lovely potential. Only then will we secure the future for Homo sapiens. Dubos has shown us how it used to be done.

Putting It All Together—Elizabeth Warren’s A Fighting Chance

New York, Henry Holt &Co.,2014.
The solution is clear now--Elizabeth Warren points the way, along with other books I have referenced in my work: Dietz and O’Neill’s Enough Is Enough: Building A Sustainable Future in a World of Finite Resources and Tom Friedman’s Hot Flat and Crowded. We need to ‘fix what’s broke’ first—usury, dishonesty and subterfuge in business, law and politics—then, with the excess money saved, perhaps we will support (even subsidize!!) education, infrastructure renewal and honest research instead of overpaying CEO’s, rock stars and ball players.

As the steady state experts say, a small difference in income should be enough incentive to inspire creative work or compensate those doing less desirable jobs. Once the playing field is reasonably level, excess money from football tickets or other popular endeavors can be made available to create jobs repairing roads and bridges, supporting motivated students, and exploring new information and technologies.

Even the tougher problems could be tackled—like the relocation needed as the oceans rise and harsh weather forces us to move north. Maybe some excess money could be directed toward rebuilding efficient rail transport and sustainable energy systems, creating jobs while curing addiction to fossil fuels that now threaten our safe and healthy existence.

I suggest reading Elizabeth Warren’s A Fighting Chance first. Her story begins with her fight against the horrifying effort to tighten bankruptcy laws and ends with her equally horrifying battle to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. She makes her points clearly by sharing the details of her personal experiences, feelings and ideas as if she were talking to a close friend. There is no doubt that her axes to grind are hewn with deep concern, honest emotion and conviction.

Most of us care about our personal ethics. We don’t lie and cheat as a matter of policy. Neither should our politicians, bankers and businessmen, Warren insists. We are better than that. We deserve and should expect integrity.

Once we regain American integrity, we can embrace Tom Friedman’s “Code Green.” We can reverse the trend away from democracy that occurs in countries flooded with too much money. He makes a strong case that it has happened with too much oil money. We can also reverse our bad example and provide the world a good example in how to create a good life for all, without using up the world’s resources.

It will take a new paradigm that gives human well-being and a healthy Earth top priority above “money uber allus.” The guidelines are crystal clear in books like Enough Is Enough. We might even find solutions to social and religious dilemmas—like education and equal rights for women—that keep the human population growing at an alarming rate.

Recommended for a Heads Up—Reviewing Hot, Flat and Crowded

Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

Unlike many valuable books reminding us why we Americans must pull back on our overuse of the planet, Hot, Flat and Crowded focuses on the observation that the world’s economies are so interconnected (i.e. The Earth is flat.), the more we depend on high energy usage the more we support those who hate us. His message is a simple challenge—we know how. As Shawne teaches in our novel soon to be released (The Alien Effect) “You in America were the first to build too rich a life. Now you must do better. You know how to become the example to the world you used to be—an example of a much simpler, time-rich life that will preserve and enhance Earth’s beauty and diversity for all its natural time.”

Friedman’s anecdotes are precise, his challenges direct, and the consequences of failure frightening. We know what we have to do to pick up the lead being taken by Japan and Europe, to devise what he calls a “Code Green” now. This book was published in 2008.

Linking to story--The Birth of a Series

The story of 40 years developing fiction that portrays solutions to secure the future,including award-winner The Webs of Varok. Social issues in an alternate 21st century solar system.
http://archivesofvarok.com/articles/t...

Reviewing Maass' Writing 21st Century Fiction:

Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling. By Donald Maass, Blue Ash, Ohio, Writer’s Digest Books, 2012
This is the one book on writing that sits beside my computer as I write the Archives of Varok series. In the margins of Maass’ specific “21st Century Tools” at the end of each chapter, I have scribbled notes to myself, notes that required more than a little time and thought. Hopefully Maass’ suggestions will take my writing a bit further toward the goal he defines—a powerful story beautifully written.
I love words and the varied nuances of English, but I am also a musician. In the early years I sometimes wrote beautiful rhythmic sentences that made no sense. Plotting, dramatic arcs, big black moments in which the protagonist must choose between two nasty choices don’t come easily to me. Dialogue is no problem. Maass’ tools helped me to identify problem areas.
Maass points out that the books that stay on the New York Times Bestseller List for years, not just three weeks, are called literary/commercial fiction (Does “upmarket” mean the same thing?). Such books are “...personal, impassioned, ...downright quirky...[and] achieve universal appeal.”
I’ll quote here two examples of Maass’ tools, then leave you with my recommendation to make good use of this book. Don’t just read it. Enjoy the challenge.
Page 38: “Find a moment when your protagonist feels nothing in particular...Pick something. Whatever it is, note two conflicting feelings your protagonist has about it. Add them.”
Page 71: Open to another random page. What does your protagonist or POV character not want to admit, acknowledge, or face right now? Force it on him.”