Book Review: The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln by Anthony Gross

Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln by Anthony Gross
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Through various sources, Anthony Gross brings together a collection of stories told by or about Abraham Lincoln. While some of them are well known, others are not and are interesting. However, some stories need a lot more context or are related to the era that getting them is somewhat hard to do. Given the number of stories that others wrote about Lincoln either say or about Lincoln after his death, it’s hard to know how many are true and not invented by those wanting to be connected slain President. Overall a nice collection, but the reader should be weary that maybe everything might not actually be Lincoln stories.

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Book Review: Artic Drift by Clive & Dirk Cussler

Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Global warming is causing the Artic ice sheet to melt opening the Artic Ocean for the once fabled Northwest Passage and a Canadian businessman plans to do anything including ruining relations between Canada and the United States to exploit resources in the region. Artic Drift is the twentieth book of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series and third with his son Dirk, finds NUMA navigating the quickly troubling waters around Canada to solve not only the threat facing the entire globe but peace between longtime international friends.

The plot begins in the year 1847, when the Franklin Expedition becomes stranded trying to find the Northwest Passage and they experience a harsh winter during which the men are seemingly going mad. Their stranded ships, Erebus and Terror, are loaded with a mysterious, unidentified silvery metal. The story switches to the present day as the United States is in a major energy crisis due to other nations, including Canada, restricting oil and natural gas production due to global warming. The resulting loss of northern icecap has opens resources in the Artic Ocean that a Canadian businessman, Mitchell Goyette, looks to exploit for his bottom line while publicly being seen as an environment-first businessman. Using his extensive bribery network that has ensnared the bellicosely patriotic Canadian Prime Minister and the natural resources Minister that he uses to get the fossil fuel deals he wants and sets up faux “environmental saving” businesses to hide his activities. When President initiates a nationwide effort by the government and scientists to find a solution to crisis, a scientist at George Washington University accidentally discovers a process to break down carbon dioxide but her assistant on the payroll of Goyette informs the businessman’s hitman Clay Zak who attempts to kill her. But wanting to keep the United States out of the Artic, Goyette sets up incidents that appear to be American businesses and military threatening Canadian citizens which quickly spirals into various other international incidents between the two nations almost to the verge of military action. During this Dirk Junior and Summer are studying the waters off Alaska and British Columbia when they come across a boat of dead fishermen who have all died of asphyxiation, one of whom is the brother of a Canadian wildlife scientist Trevor Miller. The three investigate the mysterious deaths under the cover of the Pitt’s NUMA & Canadian sponsored research and find Goyette’s recently opened carbon dioxide storing facility is a front for dumping it into the sea and save a cruise ship from a massive cloud of carbon dioxide. Meanwhile the GWU scientist has meal while Dirk Senior and Loren, telling them of her breakthrough and the need for a rare element in the platinum group. After Dirk Senior saves the scientist after her lab is firebombed by Zak, he goes searching for the element and finds himself in a race with Zak who is attempting to find the element as well so Goyette and corner the market. The trail leads to the Artic and the failed Franklin Expedition. Dirk Senior joins a NUMA expedition to explore ocean floor for thermal vents taking Rudy Gunn’s alongside Al Giordino and Jack Dahlgren. The NUMA ship flying under Canadian colors and avoiding various Canadian government ships get to the area where the missing expedition might have come to an end to find a Goyette owned cargo ship lead by Zak looking for the same thing. Dirk Senior and Zak confront one another in the haul of the Erebus with Zak dying and Pitt coming out very much the worse for wear, but thanks to the arrival of a U.S. sub the NUMA crew gets control of the cargo ship with evidence of the illegal activities to Alaskan waters which leads to the decrease in tensions. As the Canadian government is shaken by the bribery scandal, Trevor Miller gets revenge on Goyette in his own country club. Dirk Senior’s search for the rare element came to not, but the NUMA Artic expedition hits on a motherload of platinum group elements thus allowing the GWU breakthrough to go full speed ahead on combating carbon dioxide.

Since Dirk Cussler joined his father in writing the series, the narratives have been some of the best in the series and this book is no exception. While Dirk and his children tackle the same problem and antagonists, they do so without interaction from the other allowing their respective subplots to develop independently to independent resolutions without attempting to bring together in some complicated way. Having Dirk Senior not able to save the day though his actions were a nice change of pace, but the NUMA discovery would have played out better if the Cussler’s hadn’t changed Rudy’s character to be forgetful about bringing samples back to headquarters to be studied. Though once again the antagonist was a greedy businessman, a trope for many books now, however the main actions were caused by his hired hitman who was one of the better henchmen villains of the series. The only other complaint would be the retconning of the fuel cell technology from Trojan Odyssey that was to solve global warming, though maybe because that book was bad it was decided to ignore somethings about it.

Artic Drift continues the string of strong books that began with Dirk Cussler joined his father Clive in writing the series. Though there are the usual clichés, the overall narrative over comes these and gives the reader an enjoyable time.

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Book Review: The Promise by Gerhard F. Hasel & Michael G. Hasel

The Promise by Gerhard F. Hasel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What are Biblical covenants? What do they mean? Who initiates them? Are they conditional? In The Promise, the supplement book for the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide (2nd Quarter, 2021) originally by Dr. Gerhard F. Hasel—originally titled Covenant in Blood—though revised and updated by his son Dr. Michael G. Hasel, it’s discovered that “the Covenant” began all the way back in Eden through the ages been refined by God in fuller and greater detail beginning with Abraham and going through Sinai and leading towards Christ after the fall of Judah. All the while the Covenant is reflected in the Sanctuary, the Law, and the Sabbath as well as being reflected upon. Over the course of 127 pages, the reader learns the sure foundation of on which they stand as a child of God.

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Book Review: This is Not Florida by Jay Weiner

This Is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the Minnesota Senate Recount by Jay Weiner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On November 4, 2008, an historic election took place that would determine policies that would affect the entire nation, but the winner wouldn’t be determined until the following June. This is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the Minnesota Senate Recount by Jay Weiner shows how a vicious mudslinging campaign turned into a long dragged-out recount fight that put the state of Minnesota centerstage on how the Senate would operate.

To put the 2008-9 Minnesota recount in context, Weiner explains how it got to that point through the mistakes of the Franken campaign and the truly mudslinging exchanges between the two campaigns that resulted in the Obama campaign deciding not making one appearance in the state that they had in the bag. Once the recount began, Weiner explains how the Franken campaign after getting a tip to a wrongly rejected absentee ballot turned their focus to getting all legal ballots to be counted while the Coleman campaign went into “prevent defense” since they had the most votes on election night and wanted to keep it that way. These decisions at the very outset would ultimately decide the outcome of the recount in the Election Contest trial, but before that the hand recount revealed that Franken had more votes before the wrongly rejected absentee ballots were event counted and increased Franken’s lead. After Coleman challenged the results of the hand recount, his campaign’s inadequate examination of wrongly rejected absentee ballots came to rooster as the Franken campaign ran circles around them during the trial and even increased their lead through their preparation and rejecting Coleman’s initial strategy of “prevent defense”. The unanimous ruling of the three judges at the end of Election Contest trial and the unanimous ruling of Minnesota Supreme Court—after Coleman appealed—certified Franken’s victory.

This book was based on Weiner’s own coverage of the entire recount saga, but while Franken and Coleman were the candidates the really “stars” of the book were their lawyers. Drawn from around the nation—besides the local lawyers hired by the campaigns—and specializing in recounts in which they faced one another numerous times including Florida in 2000 which was always referenced to by Weiner in comparison and contrast. To Weiner the entire process of Minnesota law regarding a recount worked, but like the Secretary of State and others said afterwards the fact that legal absentee ballots were rejected showed something needed to be corrected for the future though not all the changes Weiner thought were necessary have been enacted.

With the backdrop of the 2000 Florida recount as well as a filibuster proof majority in the balance, the Minnesota recount put the state in the political crosshairs. This is Not Florida shows how and why the events of the recount happened from the perspective of a journalist who had to cover every twist and turn. Jay Weiner covers the main players and events thoroughly through a tightly written 288 pages that any political junkie will appreciate.

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Book Review: The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

War! What it is good for? To everyone there is a different answer and when all those people populate the same battlefield it adds another layer to the fight. The Heroes is the fifth book and second standalone set in Joe Abercrombie’s First Law world as old foes locked in a new war that suddenly comes down to a devastating battle for all involved.

Eight years after the end of the original trilogy, The Union and The North are at war once again, but impatience is growing on both sides. Prodded by the ancient Magi Bayaz the Union army under commander-in-chief Lord Marshal Kroy with his ally The Dogman advance towards the town of Osrung that is situated next to a Stonehenge-like structure on a hilltop named The Heroes which is on the road to the capital of the North that Protector of the North Black Dow had slowly retreated towards. Seeing the sudden change of plans of the Union, Black Dow rallies his forces that are feed up with his fighting retreat strategy. Over the course of a little more than a week as the opposing forces head towards the battlefield, fight for three days, and aftermath which results in peace are seen by six characters: Curnden Craw, the aging chief of a crew of Named Men, known to all as a real straight edge; Prince Calder, Bethod's younger son, an infamous charmer and schemer among the straightforward Northmen; Bremer dan Gorst, King Jezal's disgraced former bodyguard, and a near unstoppable one-man-army; Finree dan Brock, the venomously ambitious daughter of Lord Marshal Kroy; Corporal Tunny, a long-serving veteran and cynical profiteer, who also does his best to keep his misfit rookies alive; and finally, Beck, a young farm-lad craving to follow in his famous father’s footsteps, until his first taste of the atrocious waste of human life. By the end of the book, the Union sets up a protectorate under The Dogman while transferring its army to Styria to fight the Snake of Talon while the North regroups under the rule of King Scale as his brother Calder begins manipulating things behind the throne.

Once again Abercrombie writings a compelling narrative with very questionably moral characters, though as his arc goes throughout the book Beck appears to be the most morale character by the end which is saying something. Though not directly connected, the effects of Monza’s vengeance tour through Styria have had ramifications in the North as the two supernatural powers of the world have to contend with this third player on the game board and that effects decisions on both sides of the battle. This is seen from the beginning when Bayaz joins the Union army looking to test new weapons while getting out of a needless war in the North but with a complaint King of the North who will not go along with his rival’s plans to spread Union forces on various fronts. For those following Black Dow, the long stretches of campaigning are tiring and frankly privately agree with Calder that the North needs to rebuild again but cannot come out and say it. Added to the mix are those looking for personal glory or advancement that themselves impact the broader battle and thus effect the politics on both sides for good or ill. Over the course of 541 pages that covers roughly seven days in which three are flowing with blood these interactions as well as in the heat of battle events shape not only the battle but the world in unexpected ways.

The Heroes might focus on one battle, but Joe Abercrombie packs so much into this battle that the reader realizes that so much more is going on that they’ll want to see what the fall out years down the road will be.

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