THE POWER OF ONE

“THE POWER OF ONE”

I’m probably the last one on the planet to read “The Power of One” by Bryce Courtenay.  I discovered this absolutely marvelous book, with remarkably complex characters, some time ago but frankly did not have the time to invest in reading until a few days ago.  The characters literally come to life as you go from chapter to chapter.  Their personalities evolve as you turn the pages.  Getting to know them is like looking through a dirty glass window but as you progressively clean the glass you get a much better indication as to what they look like.  As the story unfolds, we are introduced to Klipklop, Dee, Dum, Inksoi-Inkosikazi, Grandpa Chook, Peekay, Hoppie Groenweld, Big Hattie, Geel Piet and a host of additional colorful characters that provide great delight for the reader.  Mr. Courtenay weaves these individuals into the life of the young man Peekay, the major character of the book.   Another wonderful facet of the book is the introduction of words, apparently found only in South Africa during that generation. Rooineks, mootie, pisskop, sjambok, kaffir, tackies—all bring great variety to the reading experience. 

The theme of the book is, obviously, the power of one:  one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan and one determination.  This charts the road to success for Peekay.  We find this little boy going from a bullied five-year old to the welter-weight champion of South Africa and what a remarkable journey he does take to reach that point.   Peekay is challenged by the words of fly-weight boxer Hoppie Groenweld:  “First with the head, then with the heart. That’s how a man stays ahead right from the start.”  One must admit, a powerful and valuable concept that can and should be applied to affect success for any endeavor.  These words, adequately applied to one idea, can produce results far beyond all expectations.  I think one idea, with one plan for implementation, can carry an individual towards resounding success.

I strongly recommend you read this book—then give it to a member of Congress.

THE TWELFTH IMAM

THE TWELFTH IMAM

One of my new year’s resolutions is to read more.  Generally, I read about two books per month but that’s dependent upon having enough time to really get into a good book.  I’m not the type to begin a book, read five chapters then put it down for two or three months.  The book must be interesting enough to “read through” or I don’t begin in the first place.  I must admit that I am from the “old school” that says–you begin a book, you finish a book.  Sometimes I do feel cheated but not with my latest “reading adventure”.

I just completed reading “The Twelfth Imam” by Joel C. Rosenberg, published by Tyndale Books.      This is the first book I have read by Mr. Rosenberg and I must say I am very impressed by his style and ability to organize complex material into an exciting and coherent story.  He is one of those authors who can produce a generous blend of fiction and fact; weaving those two elements together so that you really aren’t that sure as to which is which.  He uses a writing style producing chapters that are two, three, four pages in length, which I consider to be definite plus.  There are ninety (90) chapters in “The Twelfth Imam” and each chapter moves the story line in a fashion that generates continued interest and keeps the reader constantly engaged.   I have, like all of us, read books in which the chapters are twenty-five to thirty pages in length with large doses of minutia spread in an ample fashion throughout.  This book considers the reader and yet delivers with continuity.  It is complex to the point that necessitates listing all of the characters at the very beginning and prior to chapter one.  You get to know “who’s who in the zoo”.  Very good practice in my opinion.   The main character is Mr. David Shirazi (AKA Reza Tabrizi ).  Mr. Shirazi is a CIA operative who uses a telecom in Munich as cover.  His assignment is to infiltrate an Iranian organization working to produce a nuclear weapon of mass destruction.   The twelfth Imam factors into the story as the “promised one” prophesized to bring about the destruction of the “great Satan” and Israel.  The story line moves very very quickly but, quite frankly, ends in manner that leaves the possibility of several outcomes, depending upon your optimism –or the lack thereof.  I think there is definitely room for a sequel and hopefully Mr. Rosenberg will do just that.

I can definitely recommend this book to you as a wonderful “read”.  You will not be disappointed and it will be time well spent.    I just hope the contents do not represent the future of the Middle East.

WINSTON CHURCHILL–THE FLAWED GENIUS OF WWII

I just finished reading a tremendously interesting book that discusses the life of Winston Churchill during WWII.  It was written by Mr. Christopher Catherwood; published by Berkley Canber; copyright 2009.  The basic thesis of the book is that even though Churchill was one of the very best Prime Ministers in England’s long history, many of the decisions he made during the Second World War were tactically incorrect costing the lives of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. He was definitely a man for the times but he was not a military genius and some of his errors were grave and prolonged the war by at least one and one-half years.   The author is of the opinion that the “real” winners of WWII were the United States and Russia and that England played a secondary role as far as providing the manpower to actually execute and win the war.  I might mention right now that Mr. Catherwood is from England so his conclusions are not biased by place of birth. He is a historian and presents the facts as he sees them from verifiable and multiple sources.

The United States fought the war on two fronts, the Pacific Theater and the European Theater.  The Russians fought on the Eastern front and the struggle was absolutely heroic in proportions.   In the early years of the war, England committed troops but did so only in Western Europe and during the Normandy invasion although they were very much involved in Northern Africa and Italy with one great victory being the defeat of Field Marshal Rommel at El Alamein.  This battle was perhaps the greatest victory England experienced during the war.  Also, Churchill was adamant that India and Greece must be kept from Nazi invasion and was committed to sending troops to those areas if needed to push back German soldiers. This consumed a remarkable amount of time and was a considerable frustration to the other Allied powers.

  The United States and Russia were continuously pushing for the invasion of France; i.e. Operation Overlord, and hammered Churchill and his cabinet for approval to launch the invasion of Normandy.    Russia needed help with the Germans to reduce armed conflict on the Eastern Front and the countries in Western Europe needed a frontal assault that would initiate their liberation.  At one time there were close to 400 divisions of Russian and German soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front.   The loss of life was remarkable.

In looking at the loss of life, the following information has been stated in the book:

• Between 1939 and 1945, 144,000 British lives were lost.
• Between 1941 and 1945, 143,000 American lives were lost.
• The Russians lost 11 million people, both military and civilian
• In the battle of Kursk (1943) there were 325,000 German and Russian lives lost, both military and civilian.
• In the battle of Stalingrad, 973,000 people died.
• On the beaches of Normandy there were 132,000 Allied lives lost.
• The battle of the Bulge, 38,000 lives lost
• 6 million Jews were executed by the Germans.
• An unknown number of gypsies died the same death as the Jews.

Remarkable numbers!  In today’s world, we cannot imagine such a loss of life and yet these facts have been documented and verified as being correct.  If anything, they are conservative.

On of the most striking comments made in the book is the list that Churchill presented to Stalin detailing those countries which would be “carved up” and controlled by England, Russia and others.  This list reads as follows:

RUMANIA              Russia—90%         Others—10%

GREECE                    Britain—90%         Russia—10%

YUGOSLAVIA         50%–50%

HUNGARY              50%–50%

BULGARIA              Russia—75%         Others—25%

THE BALKIN STATES—Russia—100%

This meeting altered the European political structure and changed the course of history for decades.  It also declared Russia to be a major player in world events until this day.

Catherwood states correctly that:

• The greatest loss for future generations resulted from the great number of deaths occurring as a result of the war.  Think of the teachers, musicians, artists, scientists, engineers and other professional people lost as a result of the war.  All the knowledge, creativity and optimism lost and not available to rebuild Europe and Russia.
• The end of the war was the commencement of the “cold war” between the West and Russia.
• The Jewish state was decimated and reduced in numbers by at least six million people.

The book is very interesting, especially if you are a history enthusiast or just interested in Winston Churchill. I can recommend it to you without hesitation.

BUILDING A WORDPRESS BLOG

I am a relatively new blogger and as such, decided to read several books to aid my efforts in structuring AND understanding this wide-world of blogging.  I was particularly interested in gaining additional knowledge relative to WordPress.  For this reason, I purchased” Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read”.  The book was written by Mr. Scott McNulty; published by Peachpit Books; copyright 2009.  The major chapters are:

• Why WordPress?
• Installing WordPress
• Managing User Accounts
• The Dashboard
• Future proofing Your Blog
• Preparing to Post
• Publishing Your Post
• Working with Pages
• Handling Links
• Coping with Comments
• Working with Themes and Widgets
• Themes: To Find or To Build?
• Using Plug-Ins
• Troubleshooting and Maintenance

The book was written in a very straight-forward manner and easy for a novice, like myself, to follow.  I certainly did like the fact that each chapter could “stand alone” and serve as a future reference.  Most of the way through the book, I had my computer up and running and was logged into WordPress.

I can definitely recommend this book to you if you are “in the mood” for a reference relative to blogging.

BLOGGING-100 SUCCESS SECRETS

I have just completed reading; what I consider to be an excellent book, “BLOGGING-100 SUCCESS SECRETS”.  The writer is Daniel Harris, copyright 2008.  The book is very comprehensive and answers questions such as:

• The significance of blog traffic
• Examples of a “group” blog
• The importance of blog layouts to content
• How to build more traffic to your web page and blog
• Tips on how to blog and gain money doing so
• The importance of blog pinging
• How a template helps a blog
• Blog editor: Choosing the best style for the category
• Tricks for getting readers

There are segments on political blogs, entertainment blogs, food blogs, travel, sports, medical, education, books, celebrities and many others.  I always look for how efficient the writer is relative to “the mechanics” of writing; i.e. sentence structure, layout, punctuation, logical presentation of ideas, etc.  Mr. Harris did a commendable job in this department.  If you are looking for a good reference book on blogging, I would certainly recommend this 165 page paperback book.  The cost was under $20.00 and for a new blogger, worth the price.