The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-up Bird ChronicleHaruki Murakami 

 

Having quit his job, Toru Okada is enjoying a pleasant stint as a “house husband”, listening to music and arranging the dry cleaning and doing the cooking — until his cat goes missing, his wife becomes distant and begins acting strangely, and he starts meeting enigmatic people with fantastic life stories. They involve him in a world of psychics, shared dreams, out-of-body experiences, and shaman-like powers, and tell him stories from Japan’s war in Manchuria, about espionage on the border with Mongolia, the battle of Nomonhan, the killing of the animals in Hsin-ching’s zoo, and the fate of Japanese prisoners-of-war in the Soviet camps in
Siberia. The plot of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is little more than a skeleton, and an ad hoc one that doesn’t really hold together. There are key characters in the first half, for example, who simply disappear in the second. And the episodes from World War II seem like parts of a different novel that didn’t quite come together. Murakami’s writing is good enough, however, that this doesn’t really matter. Toru Okada is a sympathetic protagonist going through exciting adventures and the other characters remain convincing even at their strangest.  

 

The Reliable Killer

AK-47
The Weapon That
Changed the Face of WarBy Larry Kahaner
Wiley — 258pp — $25.95 

 

Here’s today’s puzzler: Name a Russian innovation that whips most everything America and Western Europe throws against it, has astounding firepower, and is unaffected by heat, cold, and sand. It’s the Kalashnikov assault rifle, also known as the AK. Since its first large-scale production in 1947, this low-tech weapon of mass destruction has spread across the globe, doling out death from Afghanistan to the
U.S.

The AK has become the firearm of choice for at least 50 standing armies and uncounted ragtag outfits, from insurgents and terrorists to drug dealers and street gangs.

 

For inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, inspiration came in 1941 in the form of direct contact with Nazi invaders’ Schmeisser submachine guns. As the young tank commander recovered from his wounds, he vowed to create a weapon that would help defend the motherland. However, it took him years of tinkering, along with technical schooling, to perfect his brainchild, the Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947.

 

It was in
Vietnam, Kahaner tells us, that the AK really earned its stripes. In jungle skirmishes, whoever pumped out the most rounds in the shortest amount of time won.
America countered with its own automatic, the space-age-sleek M-16. But for years that rifle was reputed to have problems. One story, plucked by Kahaner from the
Vietnam memoir of Colonel David Hackworth, illustrates the issues. Hackworth came across an accidentally exposed Viet Cong gravesite, yanked out a mud-caked AK, pulled back the bolt, and fired off thirty rounds as if the gun had just been cleaned. “This was the kind of weapon our solders needed and deserved, not the M-16 that had to be hospital cleaned or it would jam,” wrote Hackworth.

 

Kalashnikov culture also spread to
Latin America, beginning with the Nicaraguan Contra war of the 1980s. Again the
U.S. helped spread the epidemic, as Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North’s secret White House project shipped thousands of AKs to the counterrevolutionaries. Soon, “just as it had done in the Middle East and Africa, the indestructible and cheap AK worked its way from country to country, turning small conflicts into large wars” in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia.

 

Today the AK’s place in civilization seems clear. In 2004, the Iraqi army, trained by the
U.S. military, nixed American-made M-16s and insisted on being issued AKs. That same year, Playboy issued its list of “50 Products That Changed the World.” Near the top–beaten out by only the Apple (AAPL ) Macintosh, the pill, and the Sony (SNE ) Betamax–was the AK, the embodiment of innovation’s dark side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Reliable Killer

AK-47
The Weapon That
Changed the Face of WarBy Larry Kahaner
Wiley — 258pp — $25.95 

 

Here’s today’s puzzler: Name a Russian innovation that whips most everything America and Western Europe throws against it, has astounding firepower, and is unaffected by heat, cold, and sand. It’s the Kalashnikov assault rifle, also known as the AK. Since its first large-scale production in 1947, this low-tech weapon of mass destruction has spread across the globe, doling out death from Afghanistan to the
U.S.

The AK has become the firearm of choice for at least 50 standing armies and uncounted ragtag outfits, from insurgents and terrorists to drug dealers and street gangs.

 

For inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, inspiration came in 1941 in the form of direct contact with Nazi invaders’ Schmeisser submachine guns. As the young tank commander recovered from his wounds, he vowed to create a weapon that would help defend the motherland. However, it took him years of tinkering, along with technical schooling, to perfect his brainchild, the Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947.

 

It was in
Vietnam, Kahaner tells us, that the AK really earned its stripes. In jungle skirmishes, whoever pumped out the most rounds in the shortest amount of time won.
America countered with its own automatic, the space-age-sleek M-16. But for years that rifle was reputed to have problems. One story, plucked by Kahaner from the
Vietnam memoir of Colonel David Hackworth, illustrates the issues. Hackworth came across an accidentally exposed Viet Cong gravesite, yanked out a mud-caked AK, pulled back the bolt, and fired off thirty rounds as if the gun had just been cleaned. “This was the kind of weapon our solders needed and deserved, not the M-16 that had to be hospital cleaned or it would jam,” wrote Hackworth.

 

Kalashnikov culture also spread to
Latin America, beginning with the Nicaraguan Contra war of the 1980s. Again the
U.S. helped spread the epidemic, as Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North’s secret White House project shipped thousands of AKs to the counterrevolutionaries. Soon, “just as it had done in the Middle East and Africa, the indestructible and cheap AK worked its way from country to country, turning small conflicts into large wars” in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia.

 

Today the AK’s place in civilization seems clear. In 2004, the Iraqi army, trained by the
U.S. military, nixed American-made M-16s and insisted on being issued AKs. That same year, Playboy issued its list of “50 Products That Changed the World.” Near the top–beaten out by only the Apple (AAPL ) Macintosh, the pill, and the Sony (SNE ) Betamax–was the AK, the embodiment of innovation’s dark side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Reliable Killer

AK-47
The Weapon That
Changed the Face of WarBy Larry Kahaner
Wiley — 258pp — $25.95 

 

Here’s today’s puzzler: Name a Russian innovation that whips most everything America and Western Europe throws against it, has astounding firepower, and is unaffected by heat, cold, and sand. It’s the Kalashnikov assault rifle, also known as the AK. Since its first large-scale production in 1947, this low-tech weapon of mass destruction has spread across the globe, doling out death from Afghanistan to the
U.S.

The AK has become the firearm of choice for at least 50 standing armies and uncounted ragtag outfits, from insurgents and terrorists to drug dealers and street gangs.

 

For inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, inspiration came in 1941 in the form of direct contact with Nazi invaders’ Schmeisser submachine guns. As the young tank commander recovered from his wounds, he vowed to create a weapon that would help defend the motherland. However, it took him years of tinkering, along with technical schooling, to perfect his brainchild, the Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947.

 

It was in
Vietnam, Kahaner tells us, that the AK really earned its stripes. In jungle skirmishes, whoever pumped out the most rounds in the shortest amount of time won.
America countered with its own automatic, the space-age-sleek M-16. But for years that rifle was reputed to have problems. One story, plucked by Kahaner from the
Vietnam memoir of Colonel David Hackworth, illustrates the issues. Hackworth came across an accidentally exposed Viet Cong gravesite, yanked out a mud-caked AK, pulled back the bolt, and fired off thirty rounds as if the gun had just been cleaned. “This was the kind of weapon our solders needed and deserved, not the M-16 that had to be hospital cleaned or it would jam,” wrote Hackworth.

 

Kalashnikov culture also spread to
Latin America, beginning with the Nicaraguan Contra war of the 1980s. Again the
U.S. helped spread the epidemic, as Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North’s secret White House project shipped thousands of AKs to the counterrevolutionaries. Soon, “just as it had done in the Middle East and Africa, the indestructible and cheap AK worked its way from country to country, turning small conflicts into large wars” in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia.

 

Today the AK’s place in civilization seems clear. In 2004, the Iraqi army, trained by the
U.S. military, nixed American-made M-16s and insisted on being issued AKs. That same year, Playboy issued its list of “50 Products That Changed the World.” Near the top–beaten out by only the Apple (AAPL ) Macintosh, the pill, and the Sony (SNE ) Betamax–was the AK, the embodiment of innovation’s dark side.

 

 

 

 

 

UNCLE TOM’S CABIN

                                           UNCLE TOM’S CABIN      

                                      BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

 

ABOUT AUTHOR:

Harriet Beecher was born June 14, 1811, the seventh child of a famous protestant preacher. Harriet worked as a teacher with her older sister Catharine: her earliest publication was a geography for children, issued under her sister’s name in 1833. In 1836, Harriet married widower Calvin Stowe: they eventually had seven children. Stowe helped to support her family financially by writing for local and religious periodicals. During her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical sketches, and children’s books, as well as adult novels. She met and corresponded with people as varied as Lady Byron, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and George Eliot. She died at the age of 85.REVIEW

The historical significance of Stowe’s antislavery writing has tended to draw attention away from her other work, and from her work’s literary significance. Her work is admittedly uneven. At its worst, it indulges in a romanticized Christian sensibility that was much in favour with the audience of her time, but that finds little sympathy or credibility with modern readers. At her best, Stowe was a early and effective realist. Her settings are often accurately and detailedly described. Her portraits of local social life, particularly with minor characters, reflect an awareness of the complexity of the culture she lived in, and an ability to communicate that culture to others. In her commitment to realism, and her serious narrative use of local dialect, Stowe predated works like Mark Twain. This paper provides an overview and analysis of Stowe’s novel which illustrates the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery. Some of the characters in the novel provide justifications for slavery and others express their reasons for opposing it. Stowe’s novel also demonstrates how slaves were kept disunited and powerless, and how some slaves acted to resist authority. Stowe’s personal view son the issue are also revealed in the novel, as well as the role of lawmakers and the church in allowing slavery to persist.

 

A Sailor of
Austria

John Biggins

McBooks Press 2005

 

 

 

In A Sailor of Austria John Biggins turns to one of the less popular settings for naval fiction, the Austro-Hungarian submarine fleet during the First World War. At age 101 in a nursing home in
England, submarine commander Otto Prohaska looks back sixty years, describing his wartime exploits to a sympathetic nursing sister and a young workman.

There’s plenty of action in A Sailor of
Austria. The background setting is vividly portrayed, both in its broad sweep and in its details: the intricacies of government and military hierarchies and titles, the privations and economic hardships of the war, and the lost world of the multi-ethnic Habsburg empire. He himself speaks eight of the eleven official languages of the empire, while his final crew represents all of its nationalities. And some of the most moving parts of A Sailor of Austria come at the end, during the disintegration of the Empire, as Prohaska’s crew is gradually separated into its ethnic components. This, along with the framing story, helps to make nostalgia a dominant emotion.

A Sailor of Austria is not a novel of character. Prohaska himself is fairly bloodless and the other figures, while many are memorable and distinctive, are little more than outlines (perhaps in keeping with the perspective of an old man looking back at his youth). Biggins’ writing is most notable for its understated but probing humour, exploiting the follies of war and bureaucracy and the foibles of individual personalities with irony and wit but without malice, always remaining generous in spirit.

Like the best naval fiction, A Sailor of Austria will appeal to many who wouldn’t normally touch war fiction. Comparisons with the classics of the genre are not particularly helpful; Biggins is distinctive enough that he can stand on his own

 

 

MY EXPERIMENT WITH TRUTH
PROFILE:AN AUTO BIOGRAPHY BY M.K.GANDHI
 INTRODUCTION:
The Story of my Experiments With Truth” is a real account of experiments with truth or what is percieved to be the truth. Gandhi, the youngest of three sons was born and brought up in Porbandar, India. His love for truth and respect for all humanity was put in him by his father who was a lover of his clan, truthful, brave and generous…” His mother too left him with an outstanding impression of saintliness” as “she was deeply religious”, a woman devoted to prayer and fasting. It’s on this background that Mr. Gandhi built his life of Experiments on.
REVIEW:
Gandhi makes it clear at the beginning of the book that this is the only way to gain truth. Not to be strongly influenced by others. His agreements and fondness of other theologians really only comes after his experiments. They have to agree with him first. As you begin to read this book, you are on a journey. It’s like being a Martian or being from another planet simply because Gandhi will simply not take anything as truth unless he has experimented with it himself. He was very much the spiritual scientist. This book is also very easy reading. The chapters are short enough to stop and come back to as well. And it is journey which nearly killed himself SMOKING! Gandhi makes clear that anybody can follow. You can’t really follow this man’s experiments. He wants you to do your own experiments. So this book is really quite an adventure. Gandhi’s politics, as he makes clear in this book, really stem from his experiments in truth. You can begin yourself. Wake up, tell your wife she is fat, and see what happens! Gandhi came to the conclusion of always practicing “ahimsa”. He would practice it over and over again to see if it worked. And he came to the conclusion that it did. As he once said, “Ahimsa is heaven”. Ahimsa means non-violence in thought, word, and deed. One can still defend oneself while loving one’s enemy. He saw “satya”, or truth as synonymous with non-violance. This man stole at one point, eat meat, was far from celibacy. Buy and read this fabulous scientific inquiry into “How to Live”. Then start experimenting for yourself. Good luck on your journey. And please be careful with your duty and remember Gandhi’s word for ever.

MY EXPERIMENT WITH TRUTH
PROFILE:AN AUTO BIOGRAPHY BY M.K.GANDHI
 INTRODUCTION:
The Story of my Experiments With Truth” is a real account of experiments with truth or what is percieved to be the truth. Gandhi, the youngest of three sons was born and brought up in Porbandar, India. His love for truth and respect for all humanity was put in him by his father who was a lover of his clan, truthful, brave and generous…” His mother too left him with an outstanding impression of saintliness” as “she was deeply religious”, a woman devoted to prayer and fasting. It’s on this background that Mr. Gandhi built his life of Experiments on.
REVIEW:
Gandhi makes it clear at the beginning of the book that this is the only way to gain truth. Not to be strongly influenced by others. His agreements and fondness of other theologians really only comes after his experiments. They have to agree with him first. As you begin to read this book, you are on a journey. It’s like being a Martian or being from another planet simply because Gandhi will simply not take anything as truth unless he has experimented with it himself. He was very much the spiritual scientist. This book is also very easy reading. The chapters are short enough to stop and come back to as well. And it is journey which nearly killed himself SMOKING! Gandhi makes clear that anybody can follow. You can’t really follow this man’s experiments. He wants you to do your own experiments. So this book is really quite an adventure. Gandhi’s politics, as he makes clear in this book, really stem from his experiments in truth. You can begin yourself. Wake up, tell your wife she is fat, and see what happens! Gandhi came to the conclusion of always practicing “ahimsa”. He would practice it over and over again to see if it worked. And he came to the conclusion that it did. As he once said, “Ahimsa is heaven”. Ahimsa means non-violence in thought, word, and deed. One can still defend oneself while loving one’s enemy. He saw “satya”, or truth as synonymous with non-violance. This man stole at one point, eat meat, was far from celibacy. Buy and read this fabulous scientific inquiry into “How to Live”. Then start experimenting for yourself. Good luck on your journey. And please be careful with your duty and remember Gandhi’s word for ever.

Business Book Review- The New Game Of Business

The New Game Of Business
By Bonnie Jo Davis

Bonnie Jo Davis is a Virtual Assistant, author of the e-book Articles “That Sell”and Webmaster of the Articles “That Sell Center.”

The NEW Game of Business brings new distinctions and a fresh perspective to the world of business.

Mitchell Axelrod is a consultant, professional speaker, talk show radio host and frequently published author on the topics of marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, life skills and playing the new game. For over twenty-five years Mitch has been consulting with Fortune 500 companies, banks, insurance companies, small businesses and individuals on how to boost income, increase sales and profits while deriving more fun, fulfillment and satisfaction from work.

The quote in Chapter Five quite nicely summarizes the topic of this book. Mitchell Axelrod says this “I help you get from where you are, to where you want to be.” The new game in town is that of reciprocity.

Consumers are tired of turning on the television every day to hear more bad news about winding up of businesses. Corruption and scandal seem to rule the day and all this negativity takes a toll on the economy. Mitchell Axelrod advises that thinking outside the box is so outdated that businesses need to throw away the box entirely and begin playing “The NEW Game of Business.” This game is inclusive rather than exclusive and it is based upon service. This book throws out the old rules of business and creates a new script for a new game.

The chapters of this book include: Play by the New Rules… “Caveat Vendidor!” Design a New Strategy… It’s NOT just Business; It’s Personal!, Practice New Economics… Good Deals are Good Business!, Seek a New Mission… Put People Ahead of Products and Profits!, Send a New Message… What Business Are YOU In?, Chant a New Mantra… “Serve, Deliver, Serve Some More!”, Find New Solutions… Don’t Fall in Love with Products or Services!, Acquire New Skills… Master the Tools of the Game!, Build A New Model… Integrate or Disintegrate! and Generate New Money… Profit is EVERYBODY’S Business! The material covers everything a reader needs to know about generating a profit while gaining lifelong customers and keeping loyal and happy employees. Apply these proven principles used by companies such as Nordstrom and Starbucks and you will find your business growing.

.

Kiss Theory Goodbye
By Bob Prosen

Prosen, head of a business training center affiliated with the University of Texas in Dallas, begins his book with six pages of endorsements from an assortment of CEOs, professionals and nonprofit managers and another six pages of self-praise.
Prosen offers equally prosaic advice for achieving them. For example, the secrets of “superior leadership” include hiring smart people, fostering a healthy corporate culture and communicating clearly-no breakthroughs there. Because the book attempts to cover the entire range of management skills in less than 200 pages, the discussions offer information that practically any business person should already know. Prosen would have served his readers better by choosing one management skill at which he truly excels and providing in-depth, original insights into that topic

Perhaps the most popular professor at the Edgewood College MBA program is Joe Hahn, who teaches a Strategic Management course, and is also the VP of a $13 billion company. Students love Joe because he’s a no-nonsense kind of guy who focuses on making decisions, getting results, and not pondering theories and possibilities until the end of time. Well, Kiss Theory Goodbye is a book that Joe would love! Here’s why:
Bob Prosen has managed to put together an action-oriented how-to manual that will make anyone a better decision maker. It’s a surprisingly compelling, readable volume with specific ideas and real-world examples of how a business leader can obtain results in virtually every area of an organization!
Prosen’s direct, disarmingly straightforward style addresses such key issues as the “victim mentality” or the office politics that can slow down an organization and keep it from moving forward. He emphasizes in no uncertain terms the critical need to measure customer satisfaction (and, indeed, anything that a company values) and focus on forging ahead rather than perpetually having ineffective, time-wasting meetings that focus on talk instead of solutions. What’s the alternative to taking home countless pages of essential financial reports that ultimately never get read? How should compensation issues be addressed effectively? These are just some of the important issues this book covers.