Historic Photos of Fort Wayne

Historic Photos of Fort Wayne is a well-crafted, simple collection of pictures taken of Fort Wayne up to the nineteen eighties. Well the pictures tell their own stories, the captions detail the people and significance of the scene. Interestingly, the author notes the Germanic founding of Fort Wayne and the later toned-down German influences that were a distraction during the onset of WWI. I have read Fort Wayne history and being a native of Fort Wayne, I was surprised to learn even more with this book. Since it is a fast read, while interesting, I would recommend this book for any Fort Wayne native. People liking historic photos could also benefit from this neat and clever book. While it was near me, family read it and had much the same praises as do I for this book.

While I normally harshly criticize many books and focus on the negative, I will endorse this one. Good viewing, good reading.

Deathly Hallows

Okay, well ... it was a fair conclusion, parts needlessly contrived and long-winded, but a good deal better than book 5 -- piece of garbage. Anyway, the only bits I'll add, not spoiling a bloody thing:

it is a dark book, you get to learn about Snape -- more than you knew.

There is no spoilage here ... I've given away nothing. It also finishes with a "now what?" epilogue.

If I were to rank the books, I like the books in this order: 4, 1, 3, 6, 7, 2, 5

media to avoid

"Who Moved the Cheese?", unless you like a sarcastic, "no, duh". It was a terrible story. It was a allegory to change in your life. Two mice, two mice-sized humans are in a maze. They have different ways of doing things. One human adapts the tendencies of the mice and does better. The end. This could have been a one-page story, but it was a retch id mess. Much of it was introducing the story, then noting how good it was, then the story, then more promotion of how good it was.

The simple bulleted items: adapt to change and avoid non progressive habits
....
"Discover Your Sales Strengths" (audio book) was more than a waste; it was an insult to your intelligence. The narrator had a peculiar speech error, which made the person pronounce 'strengths' incorrectly. Since it is in the title and a common word in the story ... funny.

POS, is a generalized assessment of this thing.

Fighting book

"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk. I watched the movie first, which jaded me to the movie. I would suggest this book, even if you watched the movie. There are some differences. There is a charcter oddity, the narrator has a hole in his cheek that doesn't heal, has had emergency surgery, but is squeamish about putting medicine up his butt to keep him awake and Tyler asleep.

It is an odd novel and I would liken it to part Stephen King and part Dogma.

Homicide book review

Homicide Special by Miles Corwin. It is interesting that the Special Unit was set up, but failed later on due to lack of recent experience. This team was responsible for the OJ case. After that, they made some changes. The book includes profanity from the dialogues between detectives and suspects. The work, while interesting, is not good case work. It is for entertainment and choppy. The cases are a bit hard to follow, for it is written as if it were a TV serial (soap opera). While good for entertainment for some, I like more non-fiction, more science than this offers.

If you like fictionalized life with case-based studies and mild biographies on some persons, this is a book for you. Mind you, in deals in murder and rape cases. I was not impressed.

Don't Know Much

"Don't Know Much About History" is well worth hearing or reading. You may disagree with some of it. It is disheartening, disturbing, yet starkly refreshing. It is a more complete picture to fill in gaps in your forgotten history. Americans tend to do poorly on history reviews, so this might remind you and fill in missing pieces. It isn't too bad and I liked it. Of course, I like non-fiction, which helped.

One-Minute Manager

Good Grief! The first twenty minutes was a waste, unless you're stupid. If you needed that, then you aren't a manager, period. It turns out that I taught like this. Who knew it was a book?

Harry Potter 7

Deathly Hallows. Hmmmmm
I'll buy it, then regret it in the morning.
July 21, 2007
Coming to a bookstored married to Starbucks near you.

Let me read through the books, with the knowledge that they are children's books.
Philospher's/Sorcorer's Stone: neat intro, humor, saving poor Harry and he find's he is someone in the Wizardry world. It is an okay book, bordering on very good. It was a start and finish that could either lead to other books as it did or end.
Chamber of Secrets: introduces deception and disguises, characters develop and grow, but not as well written as book 1
Prisoner of Azkaban: more fearsome creatures, new threats, new friends
Goblet of Fire: longer than other others, intriguing, two murders, more talk about wizardry, you know ... the backdrop to the book. By far, my favorite in the series.
Order of the Pheonix: 600 pages too long, angry was Harry and the reader as they sifted through the chapters of false starts. Nose goblins and the Weasley brothers were the only two highlights
Half-Blood Prince: better than OoP, but weak in so many ways and for so many reasons. Rowling has still kept Snape elusive in this book ... on which side is he. She has never revealed his true nature, unless "A muse has no place in battle. I was an artist!"+

If it was done like book 5 -- it'll blow nose goblins, if done like the highlights of the other books, it'll be grand.

+ Dogma, demon Azreal explains his planning and waiting during the angelic battle for control