Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

Brother Odd features one of the fascinating characters created by Dean Koontz: Odd Thomas. Odd Thomas is just what his name implies. He is odd. “Oddie” is living at St. Bartholomew’s Abbey, a monastery that includes a sect of monks, a convent, and a refuge and school for children sharing various degrees of physical and mental disabilities. Odd Thomas is here after a horrific event (detailed in a previous Koontz volume, Odd Thomas)

A bit about Odd Thomas is in order. Odd Thomas is capable of seeing the dead. Those who have not gone on are visible to Thomas. His self proclaimed mission in life has become his assisting these departed souls find the peace within to move on from this plane. Odd, throughout the book, interacts with the ghost of Elvis Presley, who is not yet ready to move on. Odd is also able to see other apparitions, including what he names ‘bodachs’, sinister black flowing beings that swarm a location prior to unknown tragedy and loss of human life. The bodach invasion begins at the beginning of the book, with the evil beings attracted to the helpless children.

Other characters bring mystery, comedy, and emotion to the book. The monks are of varied backgrounds, including a former mafia enforcer, veteran combat medic, and Los Angeles newspaper crime reporter. In addition, one of the ‘monks’ is a former billionaire physicist who has donated his fortune to the Abbey, and has constructed a secret underground laboratory in which he continues his research. Also in the plot is a mysterious Russian, claiming to be a Librarian from Indianapolis. Odd Thomas does not believe the Russian’s story.

Koontz weaves a supernatural tale told through Odd Thomas’ eyes. His interactions with new, strange and frightening events make this book a true “can’t put it down” volume. The conversations between characters are delightful. Odd’s interaction with a few of the children open communication with Stormy, his former true love who was gunned down in a previous book. His interaction also will be the key to discovering the source of the deadly menace that threatens all of the monks, nuns, and children of the Abbey in a secluded area in the High Sierra Mountains of California.

Brother Odd is a scary read. It has malevolent creatures, ghosts, and evil and virtuous people. The story line will keep you turning pages. Plot twists will keep you guessing. You will not be disappointed.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Robert Langdon is back. The ‘hero’ of The Da Vinci Code, Brown’s blockbuster bestseller, is thrust into yet another romp through history, complete once again with horrific villains, Masonic secrets, art history, and a rapid paced thriller of a plot.

The story opens with Langdon traveling to Washington D.C., allegedly to present a lecture for his longtime friend Peter Solomon in the U.S. Capitol building. The key phrase here is ‘allegedly’. Langdon soon realizes that his travel to DC is just a ploy to immerse him into yet another plot to use his skills as a symbolist. Langdon is being interrogated by the CIA. The first of many clues has been left in the Capitol rotunda. His friend has been kidnapped, mutilated and tortured. Thus the story begins.

In this volume, Landon does not travel all over the world. His unfolding of the twists and turns take place within the Beltway of Washington. However, the smaller geographical setting does not diminish the intricacy of the plot. Symbols must be deciphered. The history of the Masons is once again brought to the forefront of the storyline.

The story is, ironically, predictable with its unpredictable twists and turns. Any reader of Brown’s work will feel a familiarity with the flavor of the plot development. Names and places are different, but the same ‘feel’ is present in this work, and is somewhat a letdown. I kept waiting for something new to be introduced.

What were most enjoyable to this reviewer were the detailed descriptions of portions of buildings in Washington D.C. not accessible by the general public. I would love to have access to the upper areas of the Capitol Building, complete with roof access. In addition, the details given about the Washington Monument were most fascinating.

A history buff will enjoy the book. A reader of thrillers will enjoy the book. A fan of Dan Brown will enjoy the book. I recommend The Lost Symbol, even though I was slightly disappointed.

The Instinct Diet by Susan B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Betty Kelly Sargent

This review is contributed by my husband. He really likes this diet philosophy, and is doing quite well with his changes in eating habits.

This book comes complete with much praise from "professionals" in the field of diet, weight loss, and health. The authors have many, many years experience in clinical research, primarily conducted at Tufts University, and this volume is dotted with many anecdotal stories from persons involved in the clinical trials of the diet techniques.

One soon realizes that the foundation for the Instinct Diet is a self-searching analysis of your personal relationship with food and eating. The five instincts detailed most certainly give a new insight into current (and past) food consumption habits. The first section of the book deals with these instincts.

Instinct number one is hunger. The book details means of confronting hunger head-on, and insuring that healthy meals and snacks satisfy hunger cravings.
Instinct number two is availability, and covers rather simple direction for keeping your kitchen environment free from those food items that can and will sabotage your best efforts at control.
Instinct number three is calorie density. Now you begin to get an education in calories and not only their effect on your body, but also an expose of the volume of calories in certain foods. Tips are given on making low-calorie foods more appetizing. The "sandwiching" technique is clever, to say the least.
Instinct number four is familiarity. Routines and rituals are graciously bashed and condemned. Direction is provided to assist even the most die hard, stuck in a rut individual the means to alter their comfortable, non-healthy eating habits.
The final instinct is variety. The premise here is that a restricted variety of diet often leads to hindering weight control. Variety as a tool can be skillfully manipulated to reduce the intake of unhealthy foods, and increase the intake of healthy foods. Clever, indeed.

Once the reader has completed the first section of the book devoted to the five instincts, the authors turn to the meat and potatoes of the volume. Uh, excuse me, I mean the broiled fish and non-starchy vegetable portion of the book. Shopping guides are listed, with detailed descriptions of items to be purchased in order to start the diet plans. Recipes make up a large portion of the book, with a wide variety (remember instinct five?) of dishes presented.

The program outlined in detail is comprised of three stages: The initial two weeks, Stage "I", followed by six weeks of the Stage "II" Keep It Going diet plan, and the Stage "III" maintenance plan. All three stages are explained in great detail.

The authors bring real life examples of success stories, coupled with the feeling of genuine concern they feel for you, the reader. With my diabetes prompted dietary requirements, I have "tweaked" this program somewhat for my personal use. However, simply reading the sections about the five instincts provided for me, as one of the book's references stated, a real paradigm shift in my thinking concerning my eating habits. I strongly recommend this diet book for that reason alone.

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

The novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, is primarily written from the perspective of a young pregnant female named Tish. So what’s the big deal? A lot of stories are written from the perspective of a female. This story is unique because the author is not a pregnant female, the author has never been a pregnant female, and most likely never will be a pregnant female. Mr. James Baldwin is all male. If Beale Street Could Talk is considered one of America’s classics, could this be because a male author is successful as writing female? Is Baldwin breaking the barrier between masculine and feminine writing? Can he be considered a genderless author? I think not.

Note that I said the story is PRIMARILY written from the female perspective. At one point Baldwin transitions and the fathers lead the story. I do not feel that Baldwin is a genderless writer, in fact, I feel that he is an extreme gendered writer, but unique in that he has mastered both very feminine ideas and masculine ideas. Let me explain with a few examples.

Tish is pregnant and the father, Fonny, is in jail. While Tish has a very supportive family she cannot help but feel alone sometimes. Whenever she feels alone she remembers her baby. Baldwin does an excellent job of describing how a woman physically feels when she is pregnant. “Then, it [the baby] turns, beating the water, churning, obviously becoming unspeakably bored in this element, and wanting out. We are beginning to have a somewhat acrid dialogue, this thing and I—it kicks, and I smash an egg on the floor, it kicks, and suddenly the coffeepot is upside down on the table, it kicks…” (pg, 158). Baldwin is able to explain how the baby is constantly interrupting Tish and by talking about the baby turning and “beating water” Baldwin seems to be describing something only the mother can feel, not someone on the outside feeling the belly. Baldwin takes a stand and makes it clear that he knows what is going on by using words like “obviously becoming unspeakably bored”. There is no playroom; he does not leave this section open for interpretation.

Like I said, and to prove my argument, Baldwin not only writes extremely well as a woman, he also writes extremely well for a man. There is a part in the book where Joseph (Tish’s father) and Frank (Fonny’s father) are sitting in a bar discussing what the two will do to help Fonny get out of jail. This part of the story is heavy dialogue between the two men. The story is still “in Tish’s view” but she does not play a role in what is happening, she is simply discussing events that she heard about later (122). Frank expresses his love for his son. He describes Fonny as “…a real sweet manly little boy, wasn’t scared of nothing—except maybe his Mama. He didn’t understand his Mama…I don’t know what I should have done. I ain’t no woman. And there’s some things only a woman can do with a child.” He expresses that women are supposed to be raising the kids because they can do something men cannot. Frank feels bad that he could not “save” Fonny from jail, so what does Frank do, he blames the woman. Patriarchy anyone?

Baldwin is able to take two sides, Tish and Frank, and be very feminine and very masculine. Baldwin can describe a woman’s physical feelings of being pregnant yet he can also portray a patriarchal idea. Even though he can do both, I would not call him genderless, but rather gender extreme, for both genders.