Houses, a Novel by Cynthia Rogers Parks

Reviewed for Review the Book
Publisher Leigh Walker Books

This simply titled book was a pleasant surprise to me. It is written as a memoir and I had to keep reminding myself that this is a novel, not Cynthia Rogers Park's memoir, although I'm sure there is a great deal of herself in the book. "Houses" is the memoir of Lacey Winter. It is also a snapshot of historic moments of the U.S. through the 1950s, 60's, 70's and on toward the millennium; the growth of changes after WWII, through the Viet Nam era, the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. A time she measures by the houses she lived in.

Everyone has a method of recording the events in their lives. To me, it is generally the ages of my children, but after reading this memorable book, I find I identify with Lacey's memories of time, attached to which house she was living in. It seemed only right that she would eventually work in real estate. Lacey's story begins as a child living with her Grandmother and her younger sister with very rare visits from her father. Her mother died in an accident and he is "looking for a new mother". From this point on, Lacey seems to spend her life moving from house to house, sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes bad. Sometimes the houses are "happy" and sometimes they are not. All houses take on a personality that she tries to imprint herself on, but many times the houses imprint her. Sometimes she is upgrading, sometimes downgrading, according to her life and the turns of national economy.

In the real time period of this book, life sped up so fast, it was hard to know what would be thrown at you next. Segregation was still in effect, women were on the edge of being recognized, but these and wars, and yes, even the hippie movement all meant huge changes in the country. And for every change, another house, another hopeful start. I feel that the author has done a very good, tightly written novel of so many opposing factors, keeping the theme of houses commensurate with life. For many of us our home or lack of home, even shared home was our life. This would be a good book club read deserving discussion, as well as for individual readers who grew up in this era. I found the book to have a very intriguing style and a believable storyline. I liked the book very much. It covers a lot of ground and demonstrates a definite slice of life in the last half of the twentieth century, making it real.

Green Books Campaign: Future Babble - Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway by Dan Gardner

Reviewed for Eco-Libris Greenbooks Campaign
Published by McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
This book is printed on acid-free paper that is 100% recycled, ancient-forest friendly (100% post-consumer waste)

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco-friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

My Review for Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway by Dan Gardner:

One of the first things I've learned from this fascinating book is that the more you know, the less you know. You can not base the future on the past. The reason for this is that there are too many variables, the future is not linear. Too many things can cause hiccups in the reasoning. I learned that the economic and political experts who make forecasts for the future are rarely right, which leaves me to wonder if half of them predict something positive for the future, and the other half predict something negative, does that mean man would never progress? Nothing would ever happen? The section on randomness I thought was particularly interesting, I learned how the subconscious often overrides the conscious in making decision, but the conscious eventually gets there, it's just slower than the subconscious. In other words, the idea that is your first automatic thought is probably the right one, as in hunches or intuition. I've found that in my own life, if I am writing a letter, a story, or a comment to the newspaper, if I think about it after it's written, I start to overthink it and eventually go back to my original (if I haven't lost it, because that overthinking often messes up my clarity).

Foxes and Hedgehogs, Dan Gardner's names for the experts we place our faith on. The Foxes are the popular (right or wrong), confident, and probably entertaining; Hedgehogs, quieter, more careful and technical in their precision and declaration. Yet few predictions of the future based on the past and the present can come to pass. Hedged in wording that is not on a timeline or precise, but full of confidence and great presentation, the Foxes seem to do no wrong in their predictions, yet they are rarely right. When they are, because of their popularity, they are only remembered for their hits and their misses disappear in the human mindset. In Garner's words, "Be simple, clear, and confident. Be extreme. Be a good storyteller. Think and talk like a hedgehog." The author has chosen a few experts from each type of thinking for his examples. In his findings, though, there appear to be too many examples of misses and too few hits, exactly his point. Surprisingly, they almost all think they were right. Somewhat like proofreading your own words, you see what you thought you wrote, they, too, see their own predictions the way they think they presented them.

What I enjoyed most about this book is the section on experiments performed to learn how people are influenced in their decisions of what or who to believe. A wide variety of these experiments will no doubt amaze the reader as to how the mind can be manipulated or simply change sides by what they perceive in the first examples. An unusual book for a mostly economic, environmental, and/or political evaluation of future predictions, but the second part of the title tells it all: Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway. Based on no more information than what has been predicted by experts, I have decided, thanks to reading this book, I will no longer worry about the world in 2012.

Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and the People that Make Our Clothes by Kelsey Timmerman

Originally posted Thursday, November 27, 2008
Reviewed through Shelf Awareness, for publisher/author

How many people think about their clothes, right down to their underwear and wonder who made them where? This is the start of Kelsey's journey of discovery. I expected to hear about sweatshops, horrific conditions, and protests What Kelsey Timmerman did was personal, interesting, realistic in his approach. He learns from his first unsuccessful foray in the Honduras (his T-shirt) and plans his worldwide trip in a more original manner. He made contact starting at the bottom and working his way up in order to see the actual factory in which each article he is wearing was made. His underwear was made in Bangladesh, jeans in Cambodia, Flip-flops in China, and shorts in USA. His first contact is in Bangladesh. He learns as he goes along that rather than try to pose as a buyer, it's better to tell the truth, he simply wants to see where his clothes were made. He is able to get into almost every factory, they can identify each article of clothing made by them, no matter how old. But what he really wants to do is meet the people, not as factory workers but as human beings.

In each location he makes friends with people who are working in the factories, learning how little they earn and how many hours they work, often working overtime free, what their hopes are. He finds that they all have hope rather than the despair they knew before. The fact that there are factories to work at has actually given them this hope. He learns that almost all have had to move from home in the country to work, and rarely see family. But they have a certain happiness outside of work. They accept the hard work because it is going to gradually increase their economy. Kelsey is still aware of the terrible living and working conditions, and yet this has always been a problem, even in the US, when they had garment factory conditions with poor pay and ill treatment, but the economy did eventually grow.

In Bangladesh, he takes a group of children (and an old man everyone thought he should take) to "Fantasy World", an amusement park, to ride on a roller-coaster (and other rides). These children are not factory workers, and the old man was a farmer who had always wanted to ride on the roller coaster. In return Kelsey learns to play a game called Kabbadi. In Cambodia he takes a group of workers bowling. He is doing exactly what he wanted to do, meet the people who worked in these factories. China is the hardest country to get to see the factory that made his flip-flops. He learns that the amazing dam on the Yangtzee River has displaced 4.5 million people because their homes and orange groves are now under water. His final destination, in the US, he takes in on his honeymoon. Here he not only meets the workers, but the actual person who worked on his shorts.

The book is very interesting and personable. Kelsey makes a lot of good points. It's a lot to chew on, but begs the question of whether the garment factories are good or bad for the economy of the people, and leaves one thinking what is good for the people and what appeases our souls. The people have hope, they are earning money they couldn't earn anywhere else. They are in fear of losing their jobs if the factories are closed down. There is a lot packed into this book but it is not preaching anything. It states facts, it humanizes the people, and gives us a lot to think about. I highly recommend this book. 5 stars