Murder Short and Sweet - Paul D. Staudohar (Editor)

Mystery is my favorite genre and this book is filled to the brim with short stories of murder and mayhem. It is a compilation of short stories by authors like Agatha Cristie, Edgar Allan Poe, John Updike, Ruth Rendell, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Roald Dahl to name a few. Each story is had a title page giving a slight history of the literary career of the author. I'm ashamed to admit that though I love mystery I'd never before read any Sherlock Holmes. This was my first taste and I found it to be quite good. Written close to eighty years or more ago, Doyle's works are still fresh. I was also curious to read an adult story by Roald Dahl. As a child I read all of his children's books. His adult writing is not quite as brilliant but still interesting. My favorite story was Dark Snow by Brenden DuBois. Lets just say it was quiet dark.

*****Five Stars out of Five

Dogged Pursuit: My Year of Competing Dusty, the World's Least Likely Agility Dog - Robert Rodi

288 pages of light reading chronicling one year of trying to turn Dusty-- a rescued, abused dog--into an agility champion. Rodi is heavy handed with humor but definitely lacking in realistic expectations. Dusty was never going to be a champion so what follows is basically a journal of failure, albeit a laugh out funny one.

****Four Stars out of Five

Finger Lickin Fifteen - Janet Evanovich

This is the same old same old Evanovich. Stephanie finds her self covered in paint twice and flower once. Her apartment is destroyed more than once. No fewer than three cars are destroyed. Lots of swiping mascara. Lots of tensions with Ranger. Lots of Joe complications. No new material, but it reads fast and did make me smile a few times. Truly though only for those who enjoy the chick flick writing genera.

*** Three Stars out of Five

Damned Lies and Statistics - Joel Best

I was already cynical. This didn't help. Basically the argument is there is a lot of gray in how statistics are collected, presented and understood. If you want to be well informed you need to ask more questions. Only 171 pages but with the ability to rock your world. Much more reader friendly than your typical academic fare.

***** Five Stars Out of Five!

Sex Trafficking: Inside the Bussiness of Modern Slavery- Siddharth Kara

I went to the library today to return this book. When I was checking out new books the librarian told me I had a booked still checked out and asked if I wanted to return it. I said, "What book is it?" And he whispered back, "Sex Trafficking." I almost died laughing right there. He was so embarrassed, as if I had some guide to becoming a trafficker myself or something. Silly. Anyway here is the scoop on this book. Siddharth Kara had an MBA from Columbia and was working as an investment banker. He got interested in the sex trade and what made it tick and spent years visiting countries doing interviews and trying to get real numbers on "sexual slavery". There are some personal interviews by victims but they are told in a very straight forward way. The man truly is an economist. He gives you the numbers of trafficking including a 30 plus page appendix with charts and graphs. The real shocker of the story, countries that have legalized prostitution or have very lose laws against it have very high rates of sexual slavery. Lets just say if you come from a poor country and someone offers you a job in Italy, Amsterdam, India, Thailand, Turkey, or the United Emirates, you would probably be better off just saying no, because there is a good chance you are going to end up locked up with no way out. I thought the book was interesting and Kara had some valid points but he lost me in the last few pages of the book. The last chapter basically covers how the United States has very low levels of slavery, especially sexual slavery, but then Kara falls into the trap of blaming the slavery in the world on the US and its aggressive capitalist policies and says that we should spend more trying to fight sexual slavery around the world. Interestingly enough we spend 60 million a year on anti trafficking. Considering how little trafficking we have in this country I thought that was AMAZING! Kara wants to compare that number to how much we have spent on the Iraq war but I'm sorry that is ridiculous. If we didn't have that war going on we'd do something else with that money, like maybe actually pay off some of our medicare/medicaid debt, or improve schools, or roads or something. As for the blame that we are at fault for the poverty that makes trafficking so enticing you have got to be kidding me. The countries that have problems with this have multiple things resulting in the sex trade being so high, and poverty isn't the only thing going on. I happen to be a lover of Cuba. I know if you didn't follow Fidel he was a monster, I'm not excusing that, but the man has done amazing things for his country. We are talking some of the best health and education stats in the world with some of the fewest resources. The United States has purposely tried to disrupt the financial state of that country for 40 plus years, not just some hypothetical disruptions but real honest to goodness we will keep you from prospering so you will overthrow your leader and follow us, and yet while some people are fleeing here in boats Cuba is not a huge area for sexual trafficking. And so when Kara started in on his blame game I pretty much lost it. What I wanted to know is what about the people that are going to these slaves. Where is there culpability for being moral depraved. In Thailand alone 90% of men admit to visiting a prostitute at least once in their lives and 50% say they lost their virginity to one. All I have to say is....clean it up men. As for the US we happen to be one of the few countries that has laws that allow us to convict child molesters who go to other countries to molest. All I have to say is if you ever hear someone saying we should make prostitution legal to make is safer tell them they are out of their minds!

The King of Sting - Craig Glazer and Help

In the early 70's Glazer and some friends were ripped off trying to buy a big load of weed to sell on campus at ASU. Grazer becomes obsessed with this moment in his life and revenge. He finds an vet Don Woodbeck to be his side kick, and posing as cops the two set up a ton of stings that allow them to rip drugs and money off from mulitple dealers in their area and around the country. At some point Glazer ends up being hired by the Kansas City attorney general as an undercover operative. That last only a few months and he soon finds himself in prison. This book just goes on an on. Glazer is a total creap and quite a bit of the stuff he says makes you wonder if he is lying or exagerating. Worse the book is just poorly writen. I don't know if it is the and help who is the problem or if Glazer is to busy trying to build himself up he doesn't take any time to work on his style of story telling. ICK!

Out of Five Stars- Two Stars (**) I'm being generous but if he fooled as many people as he did, well can I just say there are a lot of stupid people out there.

Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War - Asne Seierstad

The subject of this book was horrific but the writing was something truly beautiful. Often times when I am faced with a journalist turned author I'm left feeling hungry, as if the journalist can't fill up all the pages of their book. Asne does not have this problem. In 1994 Asne traveled to Chechnya as an independent war journalist. While there she was almost raped and shot at more than once. Ten years later she returns to Chechnya to try and discover what has happened to the area since the war. What she documents is heartbreaking. She describes a young boy who slowely kills dogs who he finds eating unburied bodies. She documents the struggles of a woman trying to run an orphanage whose husband has fled the country with many of the older boys to keep them out of the army or from being rounded up as Islamic terrorist. She writes of neighbors who no longer speak because of fear of being labeled as "one of them". This story is not for the faint of heart but if you can stomach the content it is a treasure.

Out of Five Stars I give it Five Stars *****