Dry Ice by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson

Genre:  Fiction

Published by:  ForgeBooks

Pages:  Paper Back

Rating:  4 JAGS

The Dry Ice review or red flag about this read should have been the reviews by ABC’s Good Morning America Anchor George Stephanopoulos and GMA’s TV Weather Editor Sam Champion-not to mention Bill Cosby and Regis Philbin that should have made me, the reader, refrain from purchasing new. 

Engrossing?!  No!

Compelling Reading?! No!

Terrifying?! If by terrifying you mean my mind would wander to something scarier, than yes. Terrifying as a paper cut.

Deep in the Antarctica frozen wasteland lays a weather monitoring installation known as TESLA. The brain child of Dr. Greg Simpson, TESLA is a fully functioning global weather station bankrolled by an equally large global agricultural conglomerate that can control the weather. Dry Ice opens with the sudden removal of Dr. Simpson because of recent rouge weather patterns created by Dr. Simpson for the U.S. Intelligence agencies.

Tess Beauchamp, up and coming Climatology scientist and rival of Dr. Greg Simpson, is pegged to replace him as head of TESLA, but Dr. Simpson will not give up control of a weapon of such scale.  Simpson triggers a planetary Armageddon in retaliation, and it is up to the brilliance of Tess to stop the global genocide that Dr. Simpson has initiated.

Purchase Used! Good quick read, but definitely not worth the $9.99 to purchase new. See if you could get someone to buy it as a gift.

Sherlock’s Logic by William Neblett

Genre: Non-Fiction

Published By:  University Press of America

Pages: Hard Cover

Rating: 4 JAGS

If A =B and B=C, then A has to equal C. Better Put, if Jan likes Pepsi, and Pepsi is Soda, then Jan has to like Soda.  William Neblett’s Sherlock’s Logic is a simple and brief introduction to the deductive reasoning behind Sherlock Holmes master detective skill. One part story of the Great-Great Grandson of the Mater Sleuth Sherlock Holmes, Holmes the III and his trusted friend Dr. John Watkins solve a present day crime of murder and intrigue.

The second part of the book, William Neblett breaks down the story and the logical process of deduction by illustrating the various forms of reasoning, correct and fallacious, deductive and inductive, while demonstrating how logic is present in everyday living.

The story is marginal at best, paling in comparison to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective series. Interesting read if you are curious how the thought process of one of literature's greatest characters. Quick read, but long and drawn out during the second half of the tutorial.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost

Genre: Non-Fiction

Published by: Broadway Books / Random House

Pages: Hard Cover

Rating: 3 JAGS

Wordy! First recommendation is to have a pocket-size dictionary available when you are about to jump into this book. I will admit, I would like to pride myself on a large vocabulary, but even I made several reference pauses to look up certain words in J. Maarten Troost’s Sex Lives of Cannibals.

This comical true story of Troost’s 2 year sabbatical on the island nation of Kiribab in the South Pacific is entertaining in parts, and predictable in others. After graduating with his degree and endless temp jobs, Troost decides to join his girlfriend who was recently hired to be the director for the Foundation for the Peoples of South Pacific-Kirbati Office, for an adventure even he could have never imagined. 

Expecting an island paradise of fruity drinks with umbrellas and women clad in bikinis, the real life hard-ships of 3^rd world living shakes awake the 2 year life Troost hadn’t anticipated.  From a brief tangle of sharks, lack of palatable food options for a spoiled US citizen, and not to forget to mention smoking marijuana with the local residents

.

In short, The Sex Lives of Cannibals is an educated version of National Lampoons vacation series. Would not waste more than second hand price, for a second hand read….yawn! Lastly, if you are interested in reading a constant reminder of someone’s global resume over and over again, this would be the read for you.