My keyboarding skills suck. “How can that be?” you ask, “You practiced law all those years and now you are an IT consultant.” To understand how this travesty came about we need to go back to high school. Way back then there was no keyboarding class. It was called office skills and included typing classes and shorthand. Very few boys took typing. This was the stone age when a lot of girls aspired to be secretaries and office managers and the boys believed they would just dictate their correspondence.
“But what about college, you had all those papers to type?” Yes there were papers, but I had been given a very cool typewriter for a high school graduation present. No, I couldn’t use the typewriter but there were friends who could, and would use my typewriter to type both of our papers. Even if I didn’t have friends to type for me, there were services that charged to type papers. In law school there was no keyboarding either. There were a few who typed and lugged their IBM Selectrics around. After law school almost everything I did, except take notes, was dictated.
Even on the computer side very little I did required mastery of the keyboard. Doing computer programming while I was in law school was done on punch cards. You used these 80 column layout forms to write your statements, and then typed the cards on a punch machine. You had to be very careful not to make any mistakes. One extra space or forgotten period would result in an error in the batch run. Even after personal computers started making inroads I really didn’t have a lot of contact with keyboards outside of gaming until our firm got Westlaw. I became the go to researcher using this wonderful new tool. Still crafting Westlaw quires was not really keyboarding.
When I left law and started working in the IT field the path I chose was not one that put an emphasis on keyboarding skill. If I had become a programmer then I would have been required to improve my skills. Companies that hire programmers want them to be good coders, but they also want them to keyboard at a descent speed. It does little good to hire a programmer that is good at coding but types so slowly that productivity grinds to a halt. I, however, went into networking and server support. You need to use the keyboard but typing 40 wpm is not a job requirement.
So now I come to writing. Now I need good keyboard skills. If I am to compose at the computer I have to type at least as fast as I write and the faster the better to try to keep up with my brain. I can’t be distracted from the flow of my writing to look down at the keyboard and hunt and peck. What to do? I have years of bad keyboarding habits that I have to unlearn and relearn from the beginning how to do it correctly. Enter Typing Master Pro. Now I have tried typing tutors before, including the famous Mavis Beacon, but I seem to have clicked with Typing Master. Maybe it’s because I have developed more determination to get it right. So now each day I will take my typing lessons and when I have achieved a respectable net speed I will brag about it until the…*Where’s the damn N key grrrrr*
Book Review: The Killing Floor by Lee Child
I admit that this is the first Lee Child book I have read. For some reason I just wasn’t interested in stories about a wandering hero who hobos around the country stumbling into trouble. After much cajoling I picked up the first Jack Reacher novel, The Killing Floor. It is not a bad book; in fact I am hoping that the causes of my main criticisms will disappear in later Reacher novels.
The Killing Floor has some very strong points. Child does a masterful job of plotting. There are twists throughout the book and even a throw away subplot works its way into the story. I only have two issues with the plotting. First, the identity of the head villain is apparent too early in the book. The second is hard to explain without referencing events in the book and disclosing spoilers, but I'll try. There are certain events that would have even incompetent cops asking a very significant question about how these events could have occurred. Unbelievably, neither Reacher nor a detective with 20 years of experience in a big city police department ever asks the question.
Regarding criticisms, I have two major ones. The first is a lack of character development. The story is told in the first person from the perspective of Reacher. I understand this makes development of other characters harder to pull off. Even so, the main supporting characters come off as two dimensional. I found myself not really caring what happened to them.
The second criticism is Child not only goes into too much detail, but at times he does so in the middle of action sequences. This is supposed to be a page turning action thriller, yet in the middle of the culminating action scene Child has Reacher go off on a page of repetitive and excruciating detail about what he sees. Ruining the flow of that action scene alone is a reason not to give the book a great review.
I have a couple of other quibbles. First, Child has a habit of ending characters’ statements by tacking on the word “right” turning it into a question. The second quibble is Reacher will enter into a kind of Socratic teaching mode. He will learn something important; tell a character that he has learned something; then instead of telling them what he knows he asks questions trying to get the character to discover the information. This is so annoying I am surprised one of the characters didn’t pull out a gun and shoot him. It is also incredibly unrealistic as there is an impending deadline to solve the mystery and asking questions instead of just telling what you know is ridiculous.
Some have criticized the book for its preposterous coincidences and unbelievable plot, noting that if these events had really happened the place would be crawling with both federal and state law enforcement. To these criticisms I say, “So what.” This is fiction and Child has a literary license to tread into the unbelievable. Some readers constantly complain that a book is, “not realistic enough.” How much realism do they want? Cops' lives are full of boring detail and in real life events take much longer than most readers would be able to tolerate.
In summery The Killing Floor is a good, but flawed thriller. I give it 3 ½ stars.
The Killing Floor has some very strong points. Child does a masterful job of plotting. There are twists throughout the book and even a throw away subplot works its way into the story. I only have two issues with the plotting. First, the identity of the head villain is apparent too early in the book. The second is hard to explain without referencing events in the book and disclosing spoilers, but I'll try. There are certain events that would have even incompetent cops asking a very significant question about how these events could have occurred. Unbelievably, neither Reacher nor a detective with 20 years of experience in a big city police department ever asks the question.
Regarding criticisms, I have two major ones. The first is a lack of character development. The story is told in the first person from the perspective of Reacher. I understand this makes development of other characters harder to pull off. Even so, the main supporting characters come off as two dimensional. I found myself not really caring what happened to them.
The second criticism is Child not only goes into too much detail, but at times he does so in the middle of action sequences. This is supposed to be a page turning action thriller, yet in the middle of the culminating action scene Child has Reacher go off on a page of repetitive and excruciating detail about what he sees. Ruining the flow of that action scene alone is a reason not to give the book a great review.
I have a couple of other quibbles. First, Child has a habit of ending characters’ statements by tacking on the word “right” turning it into a question. The second quibble is Reacher will enter into a kind of Socratic teaching mode. He will learn something important; tell a character that he has learned something; then instead of telling them what he knows he asks questions trying to get the character to discover the information. This is so annoying I am surprised one of the characters didn’t pull out a gun and shoot him. It is also incredibly unrealistic as there is an impending deadline to solve the mystery and asking questions instead of just telling what you know is ridiculous.
Some have criticized the book for its preposterous coincidences and unbelievable plot, noting that if these events had really happened the place would be crawling with both federal and state law enforcement. To these criticisms I say, “So what.” This is fiction and Child has a literary license to tread into the unbelievable. Some readers constantly complain that a book is, “not realistic enough.” How much realism do they want? Cops' lives are full of boring detail and in real life events take much longer than most readers would be able to tolerate.
In summery The Killing Floor is a good, but flawed thriller. I give it 3 ½ stars.
Book Review: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
The end of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest was both very satisfying and bitter sweet. The satisfaction comes from Larsson’s brilliant winding up of all the story threads in what has been called The Millennium Trilogy (the trilogy is comprised of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest).
It is bittersweet because after turning in the manuscripts of all three novels to his publisher, Stieg Larsson succumbed to a massive heart attack. He never lived to see the international phenomenon his work has become. For us it means we will never again travel with Liz Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a five star work. First, it ties up all of the story lines created in the first two novels. It does so in a page turning thriller and in a believable way that leaves the reader cheering. The book starts were The Girl who Played with Fire left off. We find ourselves in the emergency room of a local hospital waiting for a life flight arrival of a girl who has been shot in the head.
From the start a secret section inside Sapo, the Swedish secret police, moves to protect the secrets surrounding the Zalachenko affair. They manipulate the prosecution of Salander, cutting her off from everyone except her lawyer and doctor. They will stop at nothing to hide their secrets including covert surveillance, intimidation and even murder. Their plan is to have Salander found incompetent and committed to an institution for the rest of her life, thereby discrediting her story as the ravings of a mad woman.
Arrayed against this group is Mikael Blomkvist together with Armansky and others who are fighting to free Salander and expose the truth behind the Zalachenko affair. But first he needs Salander’s help and he must contrive a way to communicate with her.
The story starts out as first rate spy thriller and develops into a legal thriller. The pacing is relentless and there are no real slow spots in the story. The novel should be read in great chucks and savored. The trial will warm the hearts of Salander fans and has one of the most devastating cross-examinations since Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. But the story does not end with the trial and there a few more twists and turns. The end hits just the right note and will find approval of most fans.
Larsson, a liberal journalist, also made these novels into a social commentary. It is an indictment of a self proclaimed liberal socialist state’s failure to take action to stop acts of violence against and exploitation of women. Larsson also takes on Swedish society, which is supposed to be enlightened, for chauvinism and downright misogyny.
Larsson continues his social criticism pointing out how a social democracy has failed to protect its most vulnerable members. Finally, the books are an analysis of how secret police can, without proper oversight, create a group that is paranoid, self important, and view their mission so important that the ends justify the means to the point that their actions destroy the very thing they profess to protect.
In Summery if The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo rates four stars, then The Girl with who Played with Fire gets 4 and half stars and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest gets a full five stars.
It is bittersweet because after turning in the manuscripts of all three novels to his publisher, Stieg Larsson succumbed to a massive heart attack. He never lived to see the international phenomenon his work has become. For us it means we will never again travel with Liz Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a five star work. First, it ties up all of the story lines created in the first two novels. It does so in a page turning thriller and in a believable way that leaves the reader cheering. The book starts were The Girl who Played with Fire left off. We find ourselves in the emergency room of a local hospital waiting for a life flight arrival of a girl who has been shot in the head.
From the start a secret section inside Sapo, the Swedish secret police, moves to protect the secrets surrounding the Zalachenko affair. They manipulate the prosecution of Salander, cutting her off from everyone except her lawyer and doctor. They will stop at nothing to hide their secrets including covert surveillance, intimidation and even murder. Their plan is to have Salander found incompetent and committed to an institution for the rest of her life, thereby discrediting her story as the ravings of a mad woman.
Arrayed against this group is Mikael Blomkvist together with Armansky and others who are fighting to free Salander and expose the truth behind the Zalachenko affair. But first he needs Salander’s help and he must contrive a way to communicate with her.
The story starts out as first rate spy thriller and develops into a legal thriller. The pacing is relentless and there are no real slow spots in the story. The novel should be read in great chucks and savored. The trial will warm the hearts of Salander fans and has one of the most devastating cross-examinations since Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. But the story does not end with the trial and there a few more twists and turns. The end hits just the right note and will find approval of most fans.
Larsson, a liberal journalist, also made these novels into a social commentary. It is an indictment of a self proclaimed liberal socialist state’s failure to take action to stop acts of violence against and exploitation of women. Larsson also takes on Swedish society, which is supposed to be enlightened, for chauvinism and downright misogyny.
Larsson continues his social criticism pointing out how a social democracy has failed to protect its most vulnerable members. Finally, the books are an analysis of how secret police can, without proper oversight, create a group that is paranoid, self important, and view their mission so important that the ends justify the means to the point that their actions destroy the very thing they profess to protect.
In Summery if The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo rates four stars, then The Girl with who Played with Fire gets 4 and half stars and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest gets a full five stars.
Book Review: The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
There have been some complaints about the more recent Dirk Pitt and the NUMA files series that Cussler has become formulaic. As far as the Dirk Pitt novels go I think there is some validity to the criticism. However, Cussler and Scott have hit it out of the park with the introduction of Isaac Bell.
Bell is the best detective in the fabled Van Dorn detective agency, whose motto is “We never give up, never”. Set in the beginning of the 20th century, the authors integrate history with good old fashion storytelling to make a great page turner. Both the first book, The Chase, and the second, The Wrecker, are laced with historical events that are so tightly woven into the story you enjoy the history without it pulling you out of the book.
None of the main cast or primary supporting characters are two dimensional. Bell is richly developed. He comes from money but has chosen the life of a detective. He is self-confident, intelligent and rather crafty. He thinks both strategically and tactically. He can organize a fleet of Van Dorn agents yet is just at home in a gun or knife fight.
In The Chase he tracked down a cold blooded killer and bank robber. In The Wrecker Bell faces an even more cunning and dangerous villain. Known as the Wrecker, this shadowy figure moves through both the hobo camps and the world of railroad barrens. His goal is to sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad. He is ruthless, derailing trains, setting disastrous fires, and even more heinous plots. He indiscriminately kills innocents and if Bell does not stop him he will kill many more to reach his goal. Bell has met his match in the Wrecker who carefully plans for contingencies, some set in motion years before he started his overt acts of sabotage.
This is one of the best thrillers I have read in a long time. I can find no faults with it and give it a full 5 stars
Bell is the best detective in the fabled Van Dorn detective agency, whose motto is “We never give up, never”. Set in the beginning of the 20th century, the authors integrate history with good old fashion storytelling to make a great page turner. Both the first book, The Chase, and the second, The Wrecker, are laced with historical events that are so tightly woven into the story you enjoy the history without it pulling you out of the book.
None of the main cast or primary supporting characters are two dimensional. Bell is richly developed. He comes from money but has chosen the life of a detective. He is self-confident, intelligent and rather crafty. He thinks both strategically and tactically. He can organize a fleet of Van Dorn agents yet is just at home in a gun or knife fight.
In The Chase he tracked down a cold blooded killer and bank robber. In The Wrecker Bell faces an even more cunning and dangerous villain. Known as the Wrecker, this shadowy figure moves through both the hobo camps and the world of railroad barrens. His goal is to sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad. He is ruthless, derailing trains, setting disastrous fires, and even more heinous plots. He indiscriminately kills innocents and if Bell does not stop him he will kill many more to reach his goal. Bell has met his match in the Wrecker who carefully plans for contingencies, some set in motion years before he started his overt acts of sabotage.
This is one of the best thrillers I have read in a long time. I can find no faults with it and give it a full 5 stars
Book Review - 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
206 Bones is the latest in the Temperance Brennan series. The book opens with Tempe Brennan realizing, to her shock and horror, that she has been buried alive. Most of the book is devoted to her looking back trying to figure out who buried her. The book is set in Chicago and Montreal with most of the action taking place in Montreal. For those familiar with the series the only major recurrent character is Andrew Ryan, with whom she has had an on again off again romance, which is currently off.
There are two primary mysteries in the book. The first is to find out who is killing elderly women and the second is who and why Brennan has been buried alive. The problem with the book is there is not much of a mystery in either. The hunt for the killer of the women is mostly a police procedural, showcasing Reichs’ knowledge of forensic anthropology. Reichs makes no attempt to create tension or suspense in this plot line.
As for the second mystery, who buried Tempe, the answer will be apparent halfway through the book, as the perpetrators are also some of the most obvious suspects. While that is the sign of a poorly plotted mystery novel, the major flaw is that Tempe is blind to these suspects. Tempe’s blindness is so blatant that I actually found the book a source of irritation. I wanted to yell at her to get a clue.
While I have enjoyed Reichs’ earlier work this book is a mediocre try at best. Further, the inability of Brennan to see who is behind her abduction is so bad it makes reading the book painful at times. This is a 3 star book at best
There are two primary mysteries in the book. The first is to find out who is killing elderly women and the second is who and why Brennan has been buried alive. The problem with the book is there is not much of a mystery in either. The hunt for the killer of the women is mostly a police procedural, showcasing Reichs’ knowledge of forensic anthropology. Reichs makes no attempt to create tension or suspense in this plot line.
As for the second mystery, who buried Tempe, the answer will be apparent halfway through the book, as the perpetrators are also some of the most obvious suspects. While that is the sign of a poorly plotted mystery novel, the major flaw is that Tempe is blind to these suspects. Tempe’s blindness is so blatant that I actually found the book a source of irritation. I wanted to yell at her to get a clue.
While I have enjoyed Reichs’ earlier work this book is a mediocre try at best. Further, the inability of Brennan to see who is behind her abduction is so bad it makes reading the book painful at times. This is a 3 star book at best
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