The Bestseller - An e Publishing murder mystery

Buy - An ePublishing murder mystery

Would you kill to write a bestseller? Well Adrian Slater says that he’s prepared to do just that – and announces the fact in a creative writing class.

Lecturer Dudley Grose is convinced that Slater is a psychopath and means what he says. But the Dean of the university doesn’t believe him and neither do the cops.

But when a student on the course vanishes and her bathroom is awash with blood, the police wonder if Slater has actually carried out his threat, and if the book he’s writing contains the evidence that will put him away.

The Bestseller is a book about murder, but it’s also an insight into the creative writing process and how ePublishing has changed the rules for ever, creating a world where murder as entertainment might actually pay.

The Bestseller is a fast-paced novella of 53,000 words, about 200 pages, with a shocking twist in the tail.

It's already had a great five-star review from an Amazon Top 100 reviewer!

By Midnight - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) 
This review is from: The Bestseller (Kindle Edition)

Wannabee author Adrian Slater attends creative writing classes and reveals to the class he intends to commit a murder so he can have a factual basis for his novel.

Stephen Leather has come up with another engrossing thriller that at around 53,000 words provides an absorbing journey to an unexpected destination. Readers may think they have worked out the ending before reaching the climax but as they read on, the story takes a final twist - but you'll have to read the story to find out what happens!

His offerings have ranged from the short very gentle Inspector Zhang locked room mysteries; the excellent Dan (Spider) Shepherd series; the Jack Nightingale occult detective series through to the hard biting novellas specifically written as ebooks 'The Basement' and 'Once Bitten'. Those who found that for them 'The Basement' was a tad on the gory side will find 'The Bestseller' does not come into the same category; nor are there any vampires - I simply found 'The Bestseller' an excellent fast-paced thriller and would heartily recommend it.

The formatting and flow of the text is excellent with noticeably absent typos - something which can be a problem with some ebooks.

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Mindful of Words: Spelling and Vocabulary Explorations 4-8

[Buy]Mindful of Words: Spelling and Vocabulary Explorations 4-8 (Solving Problems in Teaching of Literacy)

Preview Book

Providing a wealth of tools to enhance upper-level spelling and vocabulary instruction, this engaging book features more than 120 reproducible sorting activities and games. It offers specific suggestions for helping students build mastery of vowel patterns, syllable structure, syllable stress, consonant and vowel alternations, compound words, prefixes, suffixes, and word roots. Also featured are "Did You Know?" sections with absorbing stories about specific words; tips from teachers at different grade levels; discussions of idioms; literature recommendations; and lists of vocabulary related to social studies, science, and math. Teachers can use this book on its own or in conjunction with Ganske's bestselling Word Journeys, which presents a comprehensive approach to assessing and building word knowledge.

Children's Literature - Meredith Kiger

This interesting concept of spelling development was created for students from grades four through eighth grades focusing on polysyllabic words that feature more "sophisticated relationships." Although teachers desire correct spelling at these levels, little time is spent on the actual development of higher level spelling skills and word relationships. This word study approach explores not only spelling prefixes and suffixes but the origin of words. The author has devised the mnemonic THAT'S: thinking, humor, appropriate instruction, talk, and systematic approach and sorting to be used for each component studied, such as compound words, adding ed or ing or consonant extensions, for example. The book is set up in three parts: I is mostly explanations and tips from other teachers, II is for syllable juncture spellers, and III is for derivational constancy spellers; the next stage in spelling skills. Within each part are lessons in the various components, each using the THAT'S approach. Word history is also dealt with when appropriate. The whole word study approach is game-like and perfect for working in teams. There are 121 reproducibles to assist the word sorting process as well as forms for performance records; 100 of the most important math, science and social study words; and blank card templates and answer keys. While the book seems overwhelming at first, its approach is rather simple once one finds the time to learn it. Reviewer: Meredith Kiger, Ph.D.

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The Great Destroyer- Barack Obama's War on the Republic

[Buy]The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Tonight, we continue to do what the main stream media will not do, and that is vet the president. Now back in 2008, President Obama promised that if elected, he would bring hope and change to the country.
Well, my next guest says we got the change that he promised, but none of is it for the better. After thoroughly examining this president's numerous executive orders, questionable appointments, David Limbaugh reached one conclusion -- that is the president's administration is waging war on the American way of life.
Now his latest sure to be bestseller is being hailed as the definitive indictment against the Obama administration.
He joins me now in studio to explain why. David, always good to see you. How are you?

DAVID LIMBAUGH, "GREAT DESTROYER" AUTHOR: Good. How are you?

HANNITY: By the way, and for those, I've said this before. You have done work for me over the years. This is as an attorney. Full disclose or else Howie Kurtz will have a heart attack.

You know, I want to play something because you even mentioned in this the book. The first chapter in the book is the war on America. I want to show how Obama blames the American people. He blames everybody in anything. I want to show how he blames the American people for the bad economic news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, OCT. 25, 2011: We've lost our ambition, our imagination and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam and unleashed all the potential in this country.

OBAMA, NOV. 12, 2011: We have been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades. We have taken for granted, well, people will want to come here and we aren't out there hungry selling America and trying to attract new businesses in to America.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: Americans aren't hungry. We have lost our imagination.

LIMBAUGH: It's shameful. Charles Krauthammer said it's ill-conceived, ill-concealed content. It's preposterous for him to go after the American people. He is so narcissistic that he still can't accept responsibility for his own economic policies.

You know, he still blames George Bush after three years and now he is talking about the American people being soft and lazy. Let me tell you what they are, entrepreneurs. They are scared. They are scared to hire because of the massive regulations in ObamaCare.

There have been surveys saying they are on hold. He has increased regulations in his war on business like we have never seen before. People are at a standstill. But he doesn't understand the profit motive. He's against profits.

He thinks just hire more people. He gives these speeches, just hire people. He thinks that you can hire just because you want to as a matter of volition even if you don't have demand.

HANNITY: You have 100 pages of end notes and index in the book. You know, all the research that you have done, I mean, you know, it's exhaustive frankly just reading that part of it.

But here is my question. When you say "war on America," is it that he doesn't believe in capitalism? Is it that he has been sort of indoctrinated in this liberal ideology that he believes in it, which is why he won't change? What have you concluded?

LIMBAUGH: I don't think he believes in the American idea. I don't think he believes in our Constitution. He doesn't believe in the constitutional republic. He says democracy is messy. He kind of wishes he had it like China.

He says it tongue and cheek, but he now says he wishes he could get things done as if he had sole power. The thing is that people forget. He did get things done. He got his way. You mention this on your show and you've challenged people who said otherwise. He got ObamaCare. He got the stimulus done. He promised he wouldn't -- unemployment wouldn't go above eight percent. He got his way and it did go above eight percent. He owns it. Let's hold him accountable.

HANNITY: What do you think it is, though? Is it that the America that has made us prosperous and successful? Because you go in to this about oil, you go into this about the economy and attacks on conservative, which are numerous, too numerous to even mention. What is it that he believes? Where does this come from?

LIMBAUGH: Well, I think that he believes that in a more socialistic form of government, business cannot create jobs without prompting of the federal government. That's why he gave the speech where he talked about Teddy Roosevelt on to businesses, antitrust and all of that.

Implying that we conservatives believe in unbridled markets and that we wouldn't even regulate under the rule of law or antitrust laws. That is not true. We need freedom. We need businesses to operate in a free environment with lower taxes, lower regulations so they can do their thing. He has no idea, never met a payroll.

HANNITY: After I watched all the research you did, as I said it's exhaustive. What do you fear the most if he were to get re-elected?

LIMBAUGH: Well, the things he has done even with an election pending in six months or so are frightening. He is still doubling down on the Keynesian spending on the debt. Refusing to rein in the debt, refusing to give us a plan on entitlement, refusing to lead the Senate into giving us budget after 1,100 or so days.

I fear that he would do more administrative end runs around Congress, more abuse of authority with his executive power and would create even more debt. We only have a two or three-year window according to experts if you listen to what Paul Ryan has said.

I can't emphasize how grave the situation is. We're not just being sensationalistic. We're not being hyperbolic. The future of the country turns on this election.

HANNITY: You think it's a turning point election.

Here is my next question. Why is it that so many people fail to recognize the failure, his policies, in other words, they defend it to the death.

In other words, have the American people shifted their mind set and conditioned perhaps to believe that this, you know, spreading the wealth is the answer? Are there too many people dependent on government?

LIMBAUGH: I am more optimistic and I actually believe that more people than you think -- not you, but people think -- are still optimistic about the American spirit. If he gets defeated, there will be an unleashing of optimism like we've never seen before.

And I actually think he will be defeated. Notwithstanding the fact that 49.5 percent of the people are not paying income tax anymore. I actually think that people will vote him out. I think he's way less popular than the main stream media would have us believe because his record has been an abysmal failure. People can see it, terrible failure.

HANNITY: It's funny. I read your book and you go through everything from the economy, the war on the economy, war on culture, war on values, the war on oil, the war on energy and then the national security, you go through this whole thing.

I was surprised -- and this is why I almost called the book encyclopedic because it's chapter and verse on his presidency. I found there was so much I forgot. Do you think people forget? It's almost been on a daily basis --

LIMBAUGH: No question. We have almost become numb to it because there is an overwhelming amount of evidence of things that he has done. This is almost humorous.

When I finished writing the book I had probably 12,000 articles and 57 folders. Not exaggerating. It was overwhelming. I wrote the book in five and a half months and went through the editing process. Then I started reading it and preparing for these interviews. I was overwhelmed reading it again. No, I can't even remember how am I going to do interviews? There is so much that he has done. You can read it and you lived it all and you're still surprised when you read some of this stuff.

HANNITY: I was -- no, what it does, you put it all -- it puts it all together.

LIMBAUGH: That is the point. I want people to see it together because the evidence is overwhelming. This is our kids' futures we're dealing with and I'm not making this up to sell books. Of course, I want to sell books, but I would not want to sell any bock if he gets elected. I would trade anything for that. Get him defeated. We have to.

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How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Book Review

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food

  
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Book Review

  favorite book:   I had every expectation of not liking Mark Bittman’s new book, “How To Cook Everything Vegetarian.”

I was completely unaware of his column “The Minimalist” that has been running for 10 years in the New York Times, or his previous hugely popular book “How To Cook Everything,” as well as the public television show spawned by that book. My first exposure came through hearing him promote this latest book on National Public Radio’s January 10th edition of Fresh Air, as I’m a subscriber to its daily podcast.

I read the show notes before listening to the show, and was surprised there was going to be a whole segment on a vegetarian cookbook, which is why I guess I was taken aback by an interview introduced by saying the cookbook had an “obvious limitation — no meat.”

Upon relistening to the show, I found Bittman to just be following the lead of the host, as all interview subjects do, who spent seemingly a third of the show talking about how rib-eyes are the best part of the steak, and a method for drying a rib-eye out in the refrigerator for two days before cooking it. Bittman did get into the idea that he did this book because he thinks more people need to include more vegetarian dishes into their diet because of health and the global warming footprint, and the notion that a meat-based culture is damaging and unsustainable. That little nugget propelled me to find out more.

So, I go to Amazon and see this book has a starred review from Publishers Weekly that includes the seemingly back-handed compliment that the book provides “a wealth of recipes that don’t scream vegetarian.” It also says readers will “appreciate Bittman’s avoidance of faux meat products in favor of flavorful high-protein dishes like Braised Tofu in Caramel Sauce and Bechamel Burgers with Nuts.”

Now, I don’t know any good cookbooks that say to go out and buy vegetarian burger crumble from the supermarket and build a dish around it. Certainly none of the books in my collection say such a thing. However, if faux meat refers to seitan, tofu, and tempeh (the only three things I consider as meat substitutes), then they clearly didn’t read far enough into the book, as Bittman includes all of them.

Scrolling down some more on Amazon, there is a blog entry from Bittman where he says he is not a vegetarian, and follows it up with the odd declaration: “I’m not an advocate of a vegetarian diet; I’m an advocate of Americans eating fewer animal products – less meat, fish, poultry, and dairy.” Wouldn’t the latter make you the former by default, whether or not you were a vegetarian?

He goes on to answer the one big question that keep coming up with this book, the old ‘Can I get enough protein as a vegetarian?’ thing. While he’s adamant about not being a vegetarian, which has no qualifications, he jumps right in as a nutritionist without any such caveats. So, in Bittman’s words, can you get enough protein being vegetarian?

“The short answer is, ‘Of course.’ The slightly longer one is, ‘If you eat dairy and eggs, you never even have to give it a thought,’” he writes. “It gets more complicated if you eliminate those as well, but my understanding is this: Even if you were to entirely eliminate animal products from your diet, as long as you replaced them with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes – and not junk food – you’d be just fine. There is plenty of protein in broccoli, brown rice, and kidney beans.”

So, all of the information is true, but it seems to suggest if you want to be super-duper careful about this stuff, just eat dairy and eggs and never worry. So, once again, I keep liking the fact that he is sort of providing this bridge over which many people may find healthier diets that are more gentle to the planet, and the fact that they might feel more comfortable being led over by an avowed meat-eater than one of many “it tastes just like/better than meat” lying vegetarian cookbook authors, but there is always this sort of ‘But don’t forget, I still eat steak’ vibe rubbing me the wrong way.

I just figured this tone would pervade the book and I don’t really need all this cajoling and convincing to eat vegetarian. But the one thing that intrigued me was that Amazon listed the book as being 1008 pages. That seemed… wrong. Do I have any cookbooks that are more than 500 pages?!

So, one day, my friend and I are in Borders killing time and he’s grabbing some stuff to read over iced tea in the café, and I figure I’ll check this Bittman guy out, as well as “In Defense of Eating,” Michael Pollan’s follow-up to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” which I hope to review on this site in the near future.

First of all, it turns out that the 1008 page thing was a complete lie. There are a mere 996. But beyond that, it just seemed to be amazingly comprehensive. In the introduction, he talks of his appreciation for the noncarnivorous world, health and the effects of the Standard American Diet, treating animals fairly. He also takes people to task for the “but I don’t have time to cook from scratch” excuse, which I know I hear a lot of when people eat my food. He admits that why people become vegetarian is a complicated tangle of personal and political issues.

“But the health and nutrition factor isn’t complicated,” he writes, “and it can be summed up like this: A diet that’s high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes is a healthier diet than one that isn’t.” (emphasis his)

It seems he comes off much better when it’s not dashed off like a blog entry or subject to the whims of an interviewer. After reading most of the introduction, I flipped through to the recipe index and there was a nice green V on recipes that were vegan, and a vast majority of them seemed to be vegan. What I learned after giving the book a closer inspection is how many of the recipes without the magic V had instructions on how to make a particular recipe vegan (save for the section on Eggs, Dairy, and Cheese, heh).

I kept flipping through the book and found one of the most exhaustive cookbooks I’ve ever read. If you are starting with no utensils and no abilities, it is all covered in here. There are the pantry essentials, cookware, kitchen utensils, knife skills, and this sense of walking people through the recipes continues throughout. There are more than 250 diagrams everywhere showing you how to make your own tofu, cheese, ravioli, pizza dough, which make everything so much more clear-cut than trying to describe it with only text.

The sections included in the book are: Salads; Soups; Eggs, Dairy, and Cheese; Produce – Vegetables and Fruits; Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings; Grains; Legumes; Tofu, Vegetable Burgers, and other High-Protein Foods; Breads, Pizzas, Sandwiches, and Wraps; Sauces, Condiments, Herbs, and Spices; and Desserts.

And the recipes are all pretty phenomenal. First of all, at no point does it stray from being completist. Many of the dishes have a basic recipe, followed by many ways to alter the recipe in different ways, some with up to 25 variations. The produce section is organized alphabetically by ingredient, and each section starts with a detailed history and description of that ingredient, such as how to buy it fresh, store it, prepare it, and substitute for it when out of season.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is how Bittman views leftovers as the starting point for future meals, rather than just heating it up again. The most hilarious example of this that I found is that, on one page, he has a pull-out section on “Using Leftovers to Make Vegetable Purees,” and on the very next page another pull-out section reads “Turning Leftover Purees into Griddlecakes.” His philosophy seems to include a lot of variety, that cooking extra grains and beans is always a good idea, and then figuring out what to do with them later. It is certainly something I want to make a bigger part of my cooking method, since I’m more of a ‘make a big one-pot dish and live with it’ guy right now.

I hasten to include a sense of the recipes, because I can’t think of much that isn’t touched on. It seems to hit every major cuisine in interesting ways. Just flipping through before writing this, I hit on “Roasted Vegetables, Thai Style,” which has you oven-roasting various veggies with curry or chili paste, coconut milk, peanut butter and soy sauce. I often roast vegetables, and I’ve made Thai curry dishes before, but for whatever reason, I never put those two concepts together.

The one area I didn’t see much evidence of here (although with this many pages, I could be wrong; and one could argue Thai Style Roasted Vegetables is contrary proof) is a celebrated staple of nearly every other vegan cookbooks, which is fusion cuisine where you take the spices of one cuisine and the preparation of another and combine them. But I don’t see that as a detriment, because I don’t recall ever seeing a more exhaustive, globe-spanning, from-the-ground-up cookbook as Bittman’s. I consider this book to be an important work that should be de riguer in every kitchen, from omnivore to vegan.

It was a long journey from being somewhat disenchanted by the notion of this book to where I am now, but it was definitely a worthwhile one.

This book represents a lot of the philosophy behind Vegocentric, which is making informed personal choices to improve your health, your life, and your footprint on the planet. If one of the pied pipers leading people in this direction has the occasional rib-eye, so be it. 0 nhận xét

The Amateur - Best book of all time

The Amateur - Buy Now

   Favorite book :Edward Klein's new book on Barack Obama, The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House, is a withering portrayal of a radical adrift, in over his head, drowning in his own incompetency -- while being weighed down by a small circle of "advisers" who are compounding the problem of the Amateur in the White House.

Klein's book begins with a talisman-like quote uttered by Barack Obama when his recently appointed Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner tried to boost Obama's ego by telling him, "Your legacy is going to be preventing the second Great Depression." To which Barack Obama responded, "That's not enough for me."

As all of America knows by now, Obama has aggressively sought to "fundamentally transform" America -- one of the few promises he has kept from the days of 2008.  Five trillion dollars of borrowing, ObamaCare passed over the objections of the majority of Americans through legislative legerdemain and special deals made with resistant politicians, failed stimulus, green programs failing left and right as taxpayers are left holding the bag, a recovery that is the most anemic on record, an America that has been sundered by the man who promises to unite us, America weaker abroad and at home -- yes, America has been fundamentally transformed.  Mission Accomplished.

But how and why did Obama succeed in such a catastrophic way?  That is the question that Klein successfully answers in his extremely readable and enjoyable book, with enough spicy details to satisfy the craving of anyone interested in how President Obama and those closest to him have driven us to the condition we find ourselves in as we approach November.

One of the motifs that runs throughout the book is Barack Obama's sheer level of incompetency.  He has the fatal conceit of many politicians: an overweening ego.  That may be a prerequisite for politicians and leaders, but when it is unleavened by a willingness to consider the views of others, it becomes a fatal conceit.  And Obama has that trait in abundance.

Stories tumble out that reveal a man who believes he is all but omniscient -- unwilling to give any credence to the views of others (especially but not limited to those across the aisle).  Experts in management are interviewed who point out that he lacks essential qualities of leadership.  Indeed, the book gets its title from an outburst from Bill Clinton, who was trying to encourage Hillary to take on Obama in the Democratic primary of 2012:

Obama doesn't know how to be president. He doesn't know how the world works. He's incompetent. He's...he's...Barack Obama's an amateur.

But Klein does not rest there.  He delves into associates from Obama's career in Cook County politics, his stint as a state senator, and his rise to the United States Senate.  There is a common pattern: Obama likes to campaign, but once he is elected and actually starts working, his interest flags, and he starts looking for the next "big thing" -- electorally speaking.  He had few if any accomplishments or professional standing in any of his previous positions.  Even when he served as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, he avoided any encounters with other faculty who enjoyed discussing the law.  His reluctance to engage them is revealing in and of itself, suggesting he had a reason for his lack of confidence.

His disdain toward working with others is manifest.  He has gained a reputation over the last few years as being cold and distant, refusing to engage, as have other presidents, in the give-and-take of politics, in the social niceties that help grease the wheels in Washington.  Liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen recently advised him to read Robert Caro's newest volume on the life of Lyndon Johnson as a primer on how to be president.  Johnson, of course, was a master at pulling levers of power, but he also knew how to persuade individual politicians on both sides of the aisle to work with him on legislation.  But, of course, LBJ also had the common touch and, having risen from humble beginnings, never considered it beneath him to work with those underneath him.  Not so Barack Obama.  He complained to foreign leaders that he had to waste time talking with "congressmen from Palookaville."  At another time, he switched locales and said he was tired of dealing with people from "Podunk."

His campaign trail comments regarding small-town America as being populated by "bitter" people who cling to guns and Bibles was not a one-off.  They are reflective of his views.

But the high and the mighty also come in for the Obama treatment.  Klein reveals dismay among former Obama supporters who feel they have been mistreated, maligned, and thrown under the bus.  Obama's most generous early donors have been all but ignored; early mentors in the black business community have been sidelined if not completely ditched; people don't hear from him or his staff unless a fundraiser is coming up.  But there is more: Caroline Kennedy is angry at the way she and her family were used for campaign purposes in 2008 and then summarily dismissed and stored away like so many movie props have been (the latter is my description).

Even Oprah Winfrey has been stiff-armed by the Obamas.  According to the book, Oprah took a big risk in supporting Obama in 2008 and campaigning for Obama in Iowa, being a big boost in his campaign.  The ratings for her show weakened significantly (and her new network has been a huge disappointment).  But when she has tried to visit the White House, she has been all but treated as persona non grata.  Apparently, Michelle Obama is a possessive person who fears the influence Oprah may have over Barack Obama (more on this below).  Oprah blames it on Michelle's anti-obesity campaign.  She is quoted as saying, "Michelle hates fat people and doesn't want me waddling around the White House."  Klein digs up a quotation of Michelle Obama's from a White House source that seems to confirm Oprah's suspicion:

Oprah only wants to cash in using the White House as a backdrop for her show to perk up ratings. Oprah with her yo-yo dieting and huge girth, is a terrible role model. Kids will look at Oprah, who's rich and famous and huge, and figure it's okay to be fat.

Oprah, Caroline Kennedy, Pastor Jeremiah Wright (who merits a chapter), and Obama's former long-time doctor (who feels Obama is distant and lacks feeling, passion, and humanity) all join a long list of people whom the Obamas have used, abused, and then cast aside once they moved into the White House.

A few have survived the winnowing process, of course.  There is Michelle, who might be described as the living and real-life descendant of Lady Macbeth.  The book provides some history of the early days between Barack and Michelle: marked by some tempests, yet also marked by Michelle's overwhelming push for Barack to win power and wealth.  Insiders are reluctant to tangle with the First Lady, and with good reason.  Michelle, like her husband, has a proclivity to blame others for her husband's failures.  Former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs felt her sting when it was revealed that Michelle had complained about life in the White House to the then-first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.  Gibbs acted to control the damage by arranging for the Élysée Palace to issue a denial.

But the response did not come quickly enough for Michelle, and she arranged for Valerie Jarrett -- close to the Obamas for years, and who has an omnipresence in the White House that makes the unelected and unconfirmed czar issue seem trivial -- to deliver a stern rebuke to Gibbs, who counter-attacked.  Anyone heard from Robert Gibbs lately?

The role of Valerie Jarrett has prompted much speculation.  As Edward Klein notes, she has a mouthful of a title --  senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement -- that "doesn't begin to do justice to her unrivaled status in the White House."  Valerie Jarrett apparently has a role in most major decisions: she often appears in meetings the president has with major political leaders from Capitol Hill and with foreign leaders as well.  She often stays behind to have private discussions with the president.  Obama admitted that he ran every decision by her.

That is worrying since, as Klein notes, Jarrett's own career is not one that would prepare her to assume such a prominent role.  Hers is no rags-to-riches story that would give her the "chops" to have such a Svengali-like influence over the president of the United States.  She was blessed with a wonderful set of advantages -- descended from a highly regarded political family in Chicago.  Jarrett was a force to be reckoned with in the Daley administration and then capitalized on her political connections to land a job heading up a real estate company in Chicago where she oversaw, among other developments, properties that under her company's management degenerated into slums.  Business leaders are aghast that she has such a powerful role in the White House.  A donor is quoted as saying that not only is Valerie Jarrett a liability, but others in the White House concur with his views.  Jarrett has butted heads with Rahm Emanuel, who felt that it was wrong to focus on passing ObamaCare when the economy and jobs should have been higher priorities.

Who won that match?  Rahm returned to Chicago and became mayor in 2009.

The roles of Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett cannot be overstated.  They are symptomatic of a larger problem in the White House decision-making process (one that I noted in "How Obama Makes Decisions").

Barack Obama, to a greater extent than any modern president, refuses to listen to the views of others or consult with experts and advisers outside his own tight and constricted circle from Cook County.  There are many revelations of his faulty decision making uncovered by Klein.  Indeed, one of Jarrett's roles is to shield Obama from dealing with people who don't agree with him or who may say something that deflates his ego.

When Bill Daley (the chief of staff) realized that the contraception and abortifacient mandates of ObamaCare might offend Catholics, he arranged a meeting without Jarrett's knowledge between Obama and New York then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan to deal with an issue that would offend many as violating the principle of religious freedom (as well as Catholic beliefs).  Jarrett went to the president and vented her anger.

Anyone seen Bill Daley lately?

On issue after issue, President Obama remains his insular self, refusing to seek counsel or input from others with more experience.

Critics believe he has made a mess of foreign policy precisely because not only does he have a dearth of experience in this area, but because, under our system, foreign policy is one of the few areas where a president enjoys almost unlimited power.  Thus, he is free to formulate his own agenda regardless of the views of others and the damage these policies cause.

When pro-Israel Americans met with Obama to discuss his actions toward Israel (that many, including myself, view as being counterproductive) he dismissed the ideas of Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, with the statement "you are absolutely wrong."  The president, who has no compunction telling people that they are not only wrong, but "absolutely wrong" in public, needs to start feeling some of the empathy he accuses Republicans of lacking.  According to veteran journalist Richard Chesnoff, quoted in the book, "Obama's problem in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conundrum" comes "from his one-man style and his inflated view of his own leadership talents[.] ... [P]erhaps, even more egregiously, he seems to have an exaggerated sense of his own depth of understanding of the Middle East, which is simply not borne out by his background or experience."  There may be more to it than that to explain the pressure he has put on our one true ally in the Middle East, Israel.  American Thinker published numerous articles in 2008 covering not only Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Junior's views of Israel as an apartheid state, but Obama's associations with anti-Israel Palestinians in Chicago, his own suspect language regarding Israel, and his close relationship with Samantha Power (now playing a key role on his National Security Council), who not only has a long anti-Israel history but also made an anti-Semitic remark that was smothered by the media in 2008.  There were good reasons for the Los Angeles Times to run a column during the campaign that "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama."

Readers will thoroughly enjoy Klein's book on Obama.  There are substantive issues raised about Obama's leadership abilities that are enhanced with interesting digressions regarding life inside ObamaWorld and how those dynamics effect decisions made from the Oval Office.

Klein concludes the book with doubt that Obama could ever change his approach toward governing and suspicion that his agenda is to impose a vast redistribution scheme upon America that has worked so well in the decaying and disintegrating European Union.  He wonders if Republicans are up to the task of pointing out to the public the truth about Obama's agenda, given the overwhelming media bias in favor of Barack Obama.

Klein's book could serve as a roadmap for Republicans.

The Amateur -      Favorite book 

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The Traveler's Gift -Favorite book

The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success

Book Description

Much like the best-selling books by Og Mandino, this unique narrative is a blend of entertaining fiction, allegory, and inspiration.  Storyteller Andy Andrews gives a front-row seat for one man's journey of a lifetime. David Ponder has lost his job and the will to live. When he is supernaturally selected to travel through time, he visits historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, King Solomon, and Anne Frank. Each visit yields a Decision for Success that will one day impact the entire world.

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The Accidental Bestseller [Favorite book 2012 ]

The Accidental Bestseller Buy Now

Book Description

Once upon a time four aspiring authors met at their very first writers' conference. Ten years later they're still friends, survivors of the ultra-competitive New York publishing world. Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose bestsellers support a lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason is a single mother juggling two jobs, two kids, and too many deadlines. Faye Truett is the wife of a famous televangelist and the author of inspirational romances: no one would ever guess her explosive secret. Kendall Aims's once-promising career is on the skids-and so is her marriage. Her sales are dismal, her new editor detests her work-and her husband is cheating. Barely able to think, let alone meet her final deadline, Kendall holes up in a mountain cabin to confront a blank page and a blanker future. But her friends won't let her face this trial alone. Together they collaborate on a novel using their own lives as fodder, assuming no one will ever discover the truth behind their words.

No one is more surprised than they are when the book becomes a runaway bestseller. But with success comes scrutiny and scandal...as these four best friends suddenly realize how little 


they've truly known each other.




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