Books: Minnie recommends two good novels

by Minnie Apolis

Hello again – Monday I posted a review of two history books, and today I am posting here two more mini-book reviews but of novels. One is about an elaborate art-theft thriller, and the other is about a charming mystery set in Botswana. Enjoy.

False Impression by Jeffrey Archer
Paperback, 448 pages, Published Nov. 28^th, 2006 by St. Martin's Press

A very interesting thriller, somewhat slow to build but with great characters, both on the good-guys side and on the villain side.
About an art historian specializing in attribution, Victoria Petrescu, whose best friend works as a secretary to a repulsive crook banker named Bryce Fenston, who specializes in extending multi-million-dollar loans to people who have fallen on hard times but have a masterpiece of art in their possession. There's an odd coincidence that many of these owners have their throats slit before they can get out of hock to Mr. Fenston.
Tch, Tch, such bad luck they have, hunh?

The story starts the day before 9/11, and go thru roughly two weeks of the calendar. Not sure if choosing that date is just a gimmick, but it does explain that the paperwork and other artworks have been vaporized in the destruction of the Twin Towers.

The setting is New York and London and Tokyo and Bucharest with a brief visit to Russia. The Romanian connection is key, as is explained in more than one thread of the plot as more than one character has roots there. Possibly the best one is the hit man, or hit lady, I should say, a former Romanian gymnast names Olga Krantz, who IMHO is a worthy successor to the memorable Russian hit-woman in >i>From Russian With Love -- Rosa Klebb.

Many supporting characters, most of whom have full histories provided. Giving it four stars.



The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith

210 pages, Published May 10^th, 2002)
ISBN 0349117047 (ISBN13: 9780349117041)

A charming novel in the series by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Botswana and starring the redoubtable Mme. Precious Ramotswe as the proprietor of the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. It is remarkable how one is drawn into the lives of these Botswanans (is that the word?) in the very simple and direct language used by the author.

This is number 4 in the series. Mme Ramotswe has moved her office into the premises of her intended, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, mechanic and proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors -- along with Mr. Maketoni's two apprentices and her own assistant, Mma Grace Makutsi -- who is so very proud of having achieved a final score of 97 on her typing exam.

Mr. Maketoni and Mme Ramotswe look for ways to supplement their meager earnings at the Speedy Motors site. One of the ideas they hit on is to start a driving school, to be called the Learn to Drive with Jesus school -- which I think would be a good name for a driving school anywhere, hey?

Mma Makutsi meanwhile, hits on the idea of teaching men how to type -- poor, hapless men who are pecking away at the keys by the venerable hunt-and-peck system, too timid to enroll in a regular typing class where they may be outshone by the women.

In some ways the classes are a roaring success and yet in another way it brings Mma Makutsi to the brink of the greatest heartbreak in her harsh life.

But that is averted by a little gumshoe-ing on the part of Mme Ramotswe. So never fear, and pick up what is possibly the best entry in the series of novels.

"There's always something terribly flawed about people who are tattooed" in Capote's opinion

by Minnie Apolis

Have been reading through this book called “Conversations with Capote” this weekend, and came across this part where he veers off into a bit of a tangent about tattoos. The interviewer is Lawrence Grobel, and the book came out in 1985.

GROBEL: I know magazines have asked you to write about the multiple murderer. Why haven't you?
CAPOTE: I started one particular piece. It was called “Darker Corridors: Opinions on the Mind of the Multiple Murderer.” But I'm not sure I'm going to finish it. I certainly have my opinions on the mind of the multiple murderer. I knew over four hundred of them. Everybody has their field. My field is the multiple murderer.

GROBEL: Is there anything they all have in common?
CAPOTE: I'm not going to go into that now. There is one thing that eighty percent of them have in common, and it's the only thing I'll tell you. Eighty percent of multiple murderers have tattoos. Interview after interview after interview, the person always turned out to be tattooed, either a little bit or a lot.

GROBEL: So when you see someone with a tattoo, stay away?
CAPOTE: you should do that for a lot of reasons. There's something really the matter with most people who wear tattoos. There's at least some terrible story. I know from experience that there's always something terribly flawed about people who are tattooed, above some little something that Johnny had done in the Navy, even though that's a bad sign.

GROBEL: What about the Japanese who are tattooed from head to foot? Is that a whole other thing?
CAPOTE: It's terrible. Psychologically it's crazy. Most people who are tattooed, it's the sign of some feeling of inferiority, they're trying to establish some macho identification for themselves.

GROBEL: Have you known many Jewish multiple murderers with tattoos?
CAPOTE: They're rarer than most. Not as gangsters, Jewish gangsters are just as prevalent as Italian gangsters.
GROBEL: Did you know that a Jew with a tattoo cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery?
CAPOTE: I didn't know that. (Pauses, thinking.) That's fascinating. I'm glad you told me that. I wish I had know that a long time ago. *



Truman Capote was of course most famous for writing “In Cold Blood” which was billed as a nonfiction novel, detailing the story of the infamous murder of the Clutter family. Capote took six years to interview the two perpetrators and follow their legal battles against the death penalty for their crimes. In the book quoted from, he shares many controversial stories about him and his opinions of various classic and modern authors.

As for tattoos, I know that several Viners have mentioned tattoos that they have – Marine is one of them. I guess most people expect certain groups of people to have tattoos: ex-Marines, bikers, some rock performers. Maybe some criminals who get symbols related to gang life, such as for the number of people killed, or for having done prison time.

And I know, it is goofy to have Capote say that something is psychologically crazy – it isn't like he didn't have his own demons.

My question is, does having a tattoo related to some loss or traumatic event make it harder to recover from that loss or traumatic event? In other words, does a tattoo tie you to a painful past – preventing you from moving on?

[I think we can omit the tattoos that are acquired while one in the military, or soon after one is mustered out from the military. I think they are not related to the trauma-related iconography that many people choose. Like Sean Connery got his tattoo while in the British Navy – “Scotland Forever” is on one arm. Makeup artists cover it for any film role he does. ]

I do not have a tattoo and have no plans to do so. It was just very low on my to-do list. I knew of acquaintances who went out and got a tattoo like some people get a new CD or DVD. You choose a symbol – a rose or a Japanese character, say – and twenty years later it doesn't mean the same thing to you at all. You are lucky if it means anything more than that you were a stupid twenty-year-old.

• SOURCE: Conversations with Capote, by Lawrence Grobel, forward by James A. Michener, New American Library (Penguin and Signet editions), New York, 1985.
  

No, I Do Not Want a New Thesaurus! Will Stick with Falling-Apart Oldie, Thanks

 by Minnie Apolis
 
My thesaurus (BTW what’s another word for thesaurus?) is falling apart. So am I, but that’s another story. The cover of the Roget’s has been affixed to the rest of it with clear packing tape. The first three pages are not affixed to the rest of it by anything, which reminds me I should sit down with the scotch tape and do some more repairs. Pages 145 through 158 are also loose, so that I have to open it carefully or else I’ll have to pick up pages from the floor. The cover bears the original price: 60 cents. Washington Square Press edition from 1962, 6th printing, May 1962. 
 
Since I really do not think I bought it during my primary school years, I somehow clung to this keeper of a reference even though it has delivered its money’s worth many times over.

I have looked at new copies of a thesaurus from time to time, my head turned by a shiny cover and freshly trimmed edges. Ooh, the smell, tang, scent, odor, reek, pungency, whiff, aroma, bouquet, perfume of a new book’s glue can be addictive. If I were some faithless hussy (dame, broad, wench, baggage), I might let it show me a good time. But I do not judge (assess, appraise, rate) a book by its cover!

I page through new editions and just do not find them as helpful as the oldie I have. Flip open my 1961 version to a word, any word.

How about FIGHTING? There is about a whole column (a half page) of synonyms for the noun (strife, brawling, pugilism, fisticuffs, battle, conflict, clash, combat, skirmish, donnybrook), verb (battle, brawl, tussle, scuffle, box, spar, duel, fence, tilt, joust) and adjective (warlike, aggressive, belligerent, bellicose, martial, jingoistic, combative, pugnacious, scrappy). Then if that is not enough, it refers the gentle reader elsewhere for another word fix: “See also ARMS, ATTACK, CUTTING, DEFEAT, KILLING, OPPOSITION. Antonyms – See PEACE, SUBMISSION.”

Perhaps all this talk of war is offensive to the gentle reader’s sensibilities.
Perhaps it will soothe you to think about the gentle art of painting, or drawing, illustration, design, picture, piece, canvas – See FINE ARTS. OK, back to the F’s.

FINE ARTS: Here we have over a half page about the various fine arts or the aspects of art. Synonyms are grouped under Painting, Style, Picture, Portrait, View, Picture gallery, Sculpture, Statue, Dummy, Relief, Architecture, Paint, Pictorial, and Sculptured. “See also ARTIST, COLOR, ENGRAVING, ORNAMENT, PHOTOGRAPH, REPRESENTATION.”

Perhaps you prefer to just chat a bit. Or discuss, palaver, converse, dialogue, banter, speak, say, utter, pronounce, soliloquize, rhapsodize, drawl, cite, enumerate, chatter, babble, gabble, jaw, prate. But by all means do not equivocate! More synonyms take up three-quarters of a page. But wait! There’s more! “See also ABSURDITY, EXPRESSION, GREETING, HINT, INFORMATION, LANGUAGE, RUMOR, STATEMENT, TEASING, VOICE, WORD, WORDINESS. Antonyms – See SILENCE.”

You see? It helps you zero in on words that focus on different aspects of the idea of TALK. Is it the vocal expression, is it the use of language, is it communicating information -- or mere rumor, or are you searching for something about idioms? I don’t find this kind of helpfulness in the other paperback thesauruses (thesauri??) that I have perused, read, or pored over.

While it is great to have a large vocabulary, one must remember to keep the message uppermost in mind when crafting a speech or article like this one. Or, to cite the old injunction (advice, counsel, suggestion, recommendation, exhortation, admonition, directions, prescription) titled “Elegant English:”

“In promulgating your esoteric cogitations and in articulating your superficial, amiable and philosophical observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your extemporaneous decantations and unpremeditated expiations have intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without rodomontade and thrasonical bombast. Avoid sedulously polysyllabic profundity, psittaceous vacuity and ventriloquial verbosity. In other words, talk plainly, simply, naturally. Say what you mean, mean what you say – BUT DON’T USE BIG WORDS!”

Or to put it another way, KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!

More Employers Turning to Screening Software

 by Minnie Apolis

The tight job market is feeling even tighter to some applicants being bounced out by screening software. Where one used to be able to get a “survival” type job while you looked for something in your field, that door may be closing. Where one used to be able to sidestep into a related field that used your transferable skills, that door may or may not be open depending on whatever profile the employer has decided on.

The economy leaves smaller margins of error when it comes to the cost of hiring employees who do not work out for whatever reasons. And so recruiting software and screening software has become more popular to select the right person the first time. Examples of such software include Sage or People Answers. Big companies that have turned to screening software include Reebok and Michaels.

Recruiting software is not “one size fits all.” The software company allows the client to choose criteria that it feels is critical. An example is if the job requires car travel, then the software can eliminate applicants who do not have a car. The software allows the client to add different requirements for different positions; for example one set for sales people and another set for customer service.

Sage or People Answers will start by analyzing the top talent at the client company – looking for characteristics such as “success, discipline, cultural insights and performance on the job.” The actual interview questions or application questions may be designed around the profile created by this process. That these programs work is reflected in increased retention rates and reduced turnover – by anywhere from 28 percent to 59 percent. (Although I have to question whether anyone can possibly deal with applications that try to gauge one’s “cultural insights” – a nebulous quality at best.

The selection process can get more stringent over time with the use of intelligent software. The client may have selected its criteria at the beginning, but over time the software applies analytics to refine the profiles and to learn the best sources of successful candidates.

Two of the top three factors that employers felt made for a bad hire – not working well with coworkers, and negative attitude – were personality based. So one software exec stated that their recommendation is “to hire for attitude and train for skills.” (Makes you feel silly for going back to school, tho, doesn’t it?)

Recruiting software can help companies deal with the burden of reporting affirmative action data, in cases where they have a government contract. One company stated that they used to spend as much as 80 hours reporting affirmative action data; with Sage recruiting software, this data was auto-compiled. The company says it avoids re-interviewing applicants that they decided were not a good fit, as the software allows them to view both previous and current information.

CareerBuilder gathered data on the costs of making a bad hire. Forty-one percent estimated that a bad hiring decision cost them more than $25,000; almost a quarter said that a bad hiring decision cost them over $50,000.

It costs the company in terms of less productivity; the cost of recruiting
 / training a new employee as well as the lost time to do so; lowered employee morale; and negative impact on client solutions – the latter must mean when the bad hire really ticked off a customer…

The upshot for those of us who are looking for a job is that we have to work even harder to zone in on the right companies where we would fit in. You might have to read up on executive profiles at the prospective employer, to find whether you share any characteristics with them – such as alma mater, favorite hobbies, personality, etc.

SOURCES for CareerBuilder data and quotes: "Hiring Managers Turn to Software," by Kathleen Koster, Employee Benefit News, August 2012.

Books: Vampire Hunting Becomes a Family Affair in Children of the Vampire

The middle volume in the trilogy of the vampire diaries is supposed to be the weakest of the three. If that is the case, then I am determined to find the rest of Jeanne Kalogridis' trilogy.

“Children of the Vampire: The Diaries of the Family Dracul” is a well-written, well-researched novel of a clan's descendents who feel cursed by the family history. The reader is treated to diary entries of various lengths from two brothers – Stefan and Abraham Van Helsing – their mother Mary Windham Tsepesh Van Helsing (who is not a descendant of the clan but married into it), and of an aunt and uncle to the brothers – Zsuzsanna Tsepesh and Arkady Tsepesh. (Tsepesh means impaler in Romanian.)

The story, set in the mid-1800s, follows Arkady as he tries to protect his son from being enslaved by Vlad, who is still flitting around in remarkably well-preserved form, considering he is 400 years old. The brothers are swept up in the clan curse and away from their medical practice when Stefan is abducted by his nasty yet glamorous aunt Zsuzsanna.
Family secrets leak out all over the place, such as the truth of the boys' identity.

It is Abraham who shoulders the responsibility of trying to weaken Vlad by releasing victims of vampirism. By killing them in the ritualistic way (that is, with a stake through the heart PLUS beheading) their souls are released and can at last rest in peace. He is trained and aided in this mission by a mysterious hermit-like monk who lives in the middle of a forest. The hermit has a knowledge of both herbs and spiritual warfare.

“Jeanne Kalogridis” is a pen name for J. M. Dillard, who is probably better-known as a writer of several sci-fi novels in the Star Trek genre. She also wrote the novelization of the cultish hit movie Bulletproof Monk (2003). The other titles of the Dracula trilogy are Covenant of the Vampire (the first volume) and Lord of the Vampire (the final volume).

This middle volume has been criticized for repeating some of the material in the first one and setting the stage for the last one – but I feel that important new characters appear, such as the hermit who aids Abraham in his mission.

I like this novel! I would have been sorely disappointed if had resembled most of the other vampire-themed media for the teen crowd. And I am not interested in the Anne Rice vampire stories set in the modern day, sorry about that. But I have seen most of the movies about Dracula, and I like this novel because it is well-grounded in the traditional story and background of the characters and legend.



Children of the Vampire: The Diaries of the Family Dracul, Jeanne Kalogridis (aka J. M. Dillard), Delacorte Press (of Bantam Doubleday Dell), New York, 1995, 301 pages.

Swedish vampire film a lovely, chilling diversion for hot summer nights

The Swedish film "Let the Right One In" is an oddly named work that revisits the popular vampire strand of horror movies. It is based on a Swedish novel.

The lead character is 12-year-old Oskar, a lovely blond child who allows himself to be bullied by schoolmates. They offer to help him take a swim in an ice hole on a field trip, for example.

Enter the sympathetic girl next door (Eli), who solves his Rubik's cube puzzle and tells him to fight back. Oskar learns Morse code so they can tap on the common wall between their apartments.

The live in a small town outside Stockholm. The scenery is pristine, with frequent dustings of fresh snow and woodlots scattered around the landscape. It is not especially colorful, except for the dots of red sweaters, bookbags or blood.

Did I say blood? Unfortunately the idyllic town is being marred by a few murders here and there. A man (Jocke) is apparently attacked by a child. A boy is found hung up by his feet in the woods, being drained of blood.
Nasty stuff.

But Oskar's predicament is the main story and has nothing to do with those serious things that keep happening. Or does it? Why doesn't the girl next door go to school? Why is it that they only see other at night?
He daydreams of getting back at his tormentors and collects clippings of murders and disasters. He enrolls in a weight training course after school that involves doing exercises in the pool, but his tormentors again follow him there.

Oskar and Eli grow serious about each other. Unfortunately, Oskar's idea of cementing their bond is to cut his hand and offer it in a blood bond ritual. Eli manages to restrain herself but laps up spilt blood from the floor.

Meanwhile the brother (Lacke) of the man who was murdered earlier, starts drinking himself into the bottle and abusing his girlfriend. The girlfriend walks out and is attacked by this child, but the brother is following her and kicks the child away. The woman eventually gets admitted to the hospital, saying she's been infected with something. A phlebotomist arrives at her bedside in the morning to take a blood sample, but first the woman asks him to open the shutters (blinds). He obliges and she, oh I can't tell you. It's too horrible.

Suffice it to say that true love wins out in the end, kind of. Boy meets girl, boy wins girl. Boy and girl together emerge triumphant over his tormentors and go to seek a new life together. The end. I like happy endings, don't you?

To learn further details you will have to see the movie. Recommended for hot summer nights when you'll enjoy a little chill down the back.

Let the Right One In, 2008, released on home video 2009, 1 hr. 54 min., rated R. A film by Tomas Alfredson. Magnet Films (Six Shooter series), Magnolia Home Entertainment. www.lettherightoneinmovie.com/

How We Got That Fake Tree, and Other Mysteries of Christmas

The very first fake tree that I ever saw was the one in my grandparents sun room. During the holiday season this room was occupied by the tree; the rest of the year it was my grandmother's sewing room. She had her plants arranged near the windows to catch the ample east light, and her mother's old treadle sewing machine (which at that time still worked). Now this fake tree of my grandparents was not anything that would fool the average bird, much less a kid intent on finding presents under it. It was aluminum. Your basic metallic-colored aluminum. I know there were colored one like pink or blue available, but this was the basic aluminum. Then of course one had to have the electric-powered color wheel that slowly rotated through blue, green, red, and amber to lend some color to this tree. It sufficed, I suppose, for the festivities held every Christmas eve at my grandparents bungalow. The good thing about this tree was that there was plenty of room between branches for large ornaments. The two main events were the dinner – with a large dining table covered in the aromatic dishes – and the opening of presents. Somewhere in between, all of us kids would huddle by the tree counting how many were for us. This seemed to be the main practical application of the ability to count: ascertaining whether you had been gypped in the gift distribution. The funny thing was, now that I look back on it, was this was a house that would have been able to do justice to a grand tree, perhaps a full six or seven-footer. It had high ceilings, dark wood wainscoting. The living room was a modest size but there was a glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Just about any corner could have accommodated the tree. Yet they settled for a dinky aluminum tree. Yeah, well, gramps was a cheapskate anyway. But I digress. It was sometime in the 1980s when tree prices began to rise steeply. Dad was outraged at the idea of forking over what was then a chunk of change for something that was only used for about two weeks. He grumbled but handed over the money. Then one year, probably while simmering over how much he'd been robbed for a mere Christmas tree, he had enough. It was the tree that broke the camel's back. A lovely tree, all in all, but it caused so much aggravation that dad finally decided enough was enough. He arrived home with our purchased tree. Untied it from the trunk of the car. Dragged it to the front door because that was closer to the destination, the front living room. Put the trunk end into the stand and tilted it upright. And it was too tall. Arrgghhh. Took the stand off. Dragged the tree out of the front door, to the side door and down to the basement workshop. The tree cried green needles all the way. There he sawed off a couple inches from the trunk. Reversing the procedure, he dragged the tree out the side door and in the front door again. Back in the stand it went. STILL TOO TALL. Double AARRRGGHHH. Back to the basement shop where it submitted to the saw blade a second time. Once more out the side door, in the front door, and this time the tree was an appropriate height for our modest living room. This was in a December that was unseasonably cold so early in the winter. We had browsed an outdoor tree lot and all of us just wanted to get back indoors. But poor dad was schlepping this tree up and down and in and out of the house, probably cussing under his breath all the time. Decoration progressed without further incident but a sea change had occurred. Never again would our loving father subject himself to this annual ordeal. No matter how we might beg or wheedle, we would never smell the scent of pine unless it came from a spray can, or bottle of Pine Sol. This from a dad who was generous to a fault when it came to indulging his children. He would buy what he could, he would fix anything that we'd broken, but never again buy us a tree. That is, except for the last tree he ever bought. The trusty, perfectly symmetrical six-footer had reasonably lifelike green (vinyl?) needles on heavy twisted-wire branches. Surprisingly, it still shed a few needles in the process of setting up and taking down. But we did not have to water it, and we could have it up as long as we wanted – sometimes, oh gosh, it was as late as January 10 or so when we took it down at last. Or whenever Mom wanted her living room back. The only drawback, really, was that you had to live with this tree year round. It filled a large cardboard box and we had to reserve a spot in the attic or basement to store it in the long months when it was not used. Should have bought the can of pine scent, though.