May 2023 MBR Reviewer's Choice

Reviewer's Choice

The Book Lover's Joke Book
Alex Johnson
British Library Publishing
c/o Independent Publishers Group
www.ipgbook.com
9780712354516, $16.95, HC, 288pp

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-book-lovers-joke-book-alex-johnson/1141915584

Synopsis: Joke books have a long publishing history dating back to the 'Philogelos' from ancient Greece and 'Facetiae' of the 15th century. But while there are themed joke books on everything from cats to lawyers, there have surprisingly been few with a literary theme. "The Book Lover's Joke Book" compiled by Alex Johnson includes a huge range of comic material concentrating exclusively on the themes of books, reading, libraries, bookshops, and the literary life.

As well as one-liners, puns, knock-knock jokes, and shaggy dog stories, "The Book Lover's Joke Book" features sections including gravestones, book titles, jokes in acknowledgements/ copyright/index pages, literary hoaxes, literary snark, and authors' in-jokes in novels, as well as sections such as Charles Dickens's humorous fake book decorations. It also features the favorite jokes of well-known writers, and a selection of literary cartoons.

Critique: Simply stated, "The Book Lover's Joke Book" compiled by Alex Johnson is a bibliophile's delight from first page to last with the jokes ranging from a gentle smile of recognition to a laugh out loud trying to keep from falling off your chair belly buster of a guffaw! Of particular relevance to dedicated bibliophiles, writers, publishers, and anyone else that likes a good laugh, "The Book Lover's Joke Book" is wonderfully entertaining compendium of puns, wordplay, jokes, and riddles, a very special and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Language & Literary Humor collections.

Editorial Note: Alex Johnson is a journalist and author. Previous books for The British Library include Famous Writers and Their Pets ("the perfect stocking filler for people who love books and trivia", Interesting Literature, 2019), The Book of Book Lists ("every list reveals another way of thinking, another way of figuring things out", The TLS, 2017) and Shelf Life ("a lovely anthology... a perfect Christmas present for book lovers", The Idler, 2018). His book How To Give Your Children A Lifelong Love Of Reading was published by the British Library in 2019. (https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/17798114.Alex_Johnson)

Strategic Risk and Crisis Management
David Rubens
Kogan Page Inc.
8 W 38th Street, Ste 902, New York, NY 10018
www.koganpage.com
9781398609778, $168.00, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Risk-Crisis-Management-Modelling/dp/1398609773

Synopsis: From natural disasters to cyber-attacks to major project failures, all senior risk and crisis managers face a similar challenge: maximizing their organization's ability to prepare for a potential high-impact event.

With the publication of "Strategic Risk and Crisis Management: A Handbook for Modelling and Managing Complex Risk", co-authors David Rubens, Simon Ruegger, and Dr. Jorg Greulich collaborate to show how implementing the right frameworks and capabilities means businesses will not only survive but respond and recover at a time of maximum chaos and confusion.

"Strategic Risk and Crisis Management" covers the integration of multiple stakeholders and the importance of information exchange and critical decision-making under pressure at strategic, tactical and operational levels. "Strategic Risk and Crisis Management" also includes case studies with detailed analysis of organizational failures and the lessons learned, including COVID-19, the WannaCry Attack, the Texas Snowstorm, and the Gatwick Airport Drone Incident.

Blending rigorous research with practice, "Strategic Risk and Crisis Management" offers a range of realistic solutions for any operational environment. Authored by a recognized global authority on the strategic management of complex events,

Critique: "Strategic Risk and Crisis Management: A Handbook for Modelling and Managing Complex Risks" must be considered an essential read for professionals working in risk, security and crisis management and emergency response. It is also ideal as a core textbook for university students taking modules on risk, security, emergency and crisis management. While a critically important and timely addition to professional, corporate, college, and university library Strategic Business Planning and Risk Management collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Strategic Risk and Crisis Management: A Handbook for Modelling and Managing Complex Risks" is also available in a paperback edition (9781398609754, $54.57, www.amazon.com) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $38.39).

Editorial Note: David Rubens (https://www.the-ior.org/management-team) is Executive Director of The Institute of Strategic Risk Management and the CEO of Deltar Training Solutions Ltd, based in London, UK. He is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and a Visiting Lecturer on Strategic Leadership at Cranfield University. He is a recognised authority on the strategic management of complex events. He is a member of the UK Critical Infrastructure Resilience Executive Steering Committee and has served twice as a Main Board Director of the UK Security Institute.

A Child of the Indian Race: A Story of Return
Sandy White Hawk
Minnesota Historical Society Press
www.mnhs.org/mhspress
9781681342412, $18.95, PB, 232pp

https://www.amazon.com/Child-Indian-Race-Story-Return/dp/1681342413

Synopsis: In the 1950s, when Sandy White Hawk was a toddler, she was taken from her Lakota family on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Her adoption papers identify her as "a child of the Indian race," and her adoptive mother never let her forget it, telling her she was unwanted and shaming her for being "Indian."

White Hawk medicated her traumas with drugs and alcohol. At age twenty-eight, she gained sobriety and reconnected with her birth relatives. As she learned what it means to be Lakota, she also learned that thousands of Native adoptees shared her experience as they were left to navigate racial and cultural complexities as children, with no way to understand what was happening to them.

Mentored by a respected elder, White Hawk began to work with relatives who also had been separated by adoption and foster care, taken away from their families and communities. Fighting through her feelings of inadequacy, she accepted that she could use her voice to advocate. Ultimately, White Hawk founded the First Nations Repatriation Institute, an organization that addresses the post-adoption issues of Native American individuals, families, and communities.

White Hawk lectures and presents widely on the issues around adoption. She exposes the myth that adoption is a path to protecting "unwanted children" from "unfit mothers", offering a child a "better chance at life". Rather, adoption, particularly transracial adoption, is layered in complexities.

"A Child of the Indian Race" is Sandy White Hawk's intensely personal story. It is also the story of her life work helping other adoptees and tribal communities to reconcile the enormous harms caused by widespread removals.

Critique: Exceptionally well written and deeply personal, "A Child of the Indian Race: A Story of Return", now published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, is informatively enhanced for the reader with an impressively informative Introduction by Terry Cross and an insightful Foreword by Gene Thin Elk. An impressive and welcome addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Native American Biography/Memoir collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "A Child of the Indian Race: A Story of Return" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

Editorial Note #1: Sandy White Hawk is a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. She is the founder and director of First Nations Repatriation Institute, which offers resources for First Nations people impacted by foster care or adoption to return home, reconnect, and reclaim their identity. White Hawk is Director of Healing Programs at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and was elder-in-residence at the Indian Child Welfare Law Office in Minneapolis. She is the subject of several documentaries, including Blood Memory: A Story of Removal and Return.

Editorial Note #2: Gene Thin Elk (Sicangu Nation) is an internationally known consultant in the area of Indigenous healing methods.

Editorial Note #3: Terry Cross (Seneca Nation) is the founding executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association. He is the author of the Heritage and Helping and Positive Indian Parenting curriculum, as well as Cross-Cultural Skills in Indian Child Welfare.

Gauntlet in the Gulf
Claude Clayton Smith, editor
Shanti Arts
https://shantiarts.co
9781956056730, $18.95, HC, 160pp

https://www.amazon.com/Gauntlet-Gulf-Mexican-Journal-William/dp/1956056734

Synopsis: Lorenz Hall at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, is named for William F. Lorenz, the man who first observed, in 1916, that chemistry could treat the mentally ill. Professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Lorenz developed the fledgling Psychiatry Department while engaged in his ground-breaking research.

In 1925, seeking a much-needed respite, he signed on with the Ruth, a fishing smack out of Pensacola, Florida, for a working vacation in the Gulf of Mexico. The Ruth struck a reef, the ship was abandoned, and the crew was rescued from perilous seas by a Mexican Navy vessel, only to be imprisoned as spies, smugglers, gun-runners, and for fishing in illegal waters. Dr. Lorenz's diary details their ordeal.

Critique: Deftly edited by Claude Clayton Smith (who also provides an informative Foreword), "Gauntlet in the Gulf: The 1925 Marine Log and Mexican Prison Journal of William F. Lorenz, MD" will prove to be of immense appeal to readers with an interest in maritime histories and memoirs. A fascinating account, "Gauntlet in the Gulf" is a very highly recommended pick for community and academic library 19th Century American History/Biography collections and personal reading lists.

Editorial Note: Professor Emeritus of English, Ohio Northern University and the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four, Claude Clayton Smith's own work has been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese. Gauntlet in the Gulf, his third book with Shanti Arts, is his first solo editing adventure. He holds a DA from Carnegie-Mellon, an MFA from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, an MAT from Yale, and a BA from Wesleyan. (www.claudeclaytonsmith.wordpress.com)

A Brave and Lovely Woman
Mark Borthwick
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299342906, $34.95, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Brave-Lovely-Woman-Borthwick-Wright/dp/0299342905

Synopsis: Mamah Borthwick (June 19, 1869 - August 15, 1914) was an energetic, intelligent, and charismatic woman who earned a master's degree at a time when few women even attended college, translated writings by a key figure of the early feminist movement, and taught at one of Germany's best schools for boys.

She is best known, however, as the mistress of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and for her shocking murder at the renowned Wisconsin home he had built for her and called Taliesin.

"A Brave and Lovely Woman: Mamah Borthwick and Frank Lloyd Wright" by Mark Borthwick offers an important corrective to the narrative of Wright and Borthwick. It is a love story as American in character as it is Shakespearean in conclusion.

Little of Wright's life and work has been left untouched by his many admirers, critics, and biographers. And yet the woman who stood at the center of his emotional life, Mamah Borthwick, has fallen into near obscurity. With the publication of "A Brave and Lovely Woman, Mark Borthwick (himself a distant relative) recenters Mamah Borthwick in her own life, presenting a detailed portrait of a truly fascinating woman, a complicated figure who was at once a dedicated mother and a faithless spouse, a feminist and a member of a conservative sorority, a vivacious extrovert and a social pariah.

Careful research and engaging prose at last give Borthwick, an obscure but crucial character in one of America's most famous tragedies, center stage.

Critique: A compelling read from first page to last, "A Brave and Lovely Woman: Mamah Borthwick and Frank Lloyd Wright" will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in 19th Century Feminism, Frank Lloyd Wright's life and career, and the dramatic impact his mistress had on his emotions and creativity. Fascinating, informative, sensational, memorable, and enhanced with black/white historical photos and illustrations, "A Brave and Lovely Woman: Mamah Borthwick and Frank Lloyd Wright" is unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library American Biography collections and supplemental curriculum Frank Lloyd Wright studies lists.

Editorial Note: Mark Borthwick (https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/6116.htm) served as the director of the U.S. Asia Pacific Council at the East-West Center. He is also the author of "Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia".

Cobra Pose
Susan Rogers and John Roosen
G-EMS PTY LTD and PS LLC
9780645413625, $6.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Pose-Mysteries-suspense-adventure-ebook/dp/B0BTJV4V1H

Cobra Pose, the second book in the Yoga Mat Mysteries series, benefits from but requires no prior introduction to its predecessor in order to prove accessible and inviting to mystery readers.

Elaina Williams is a yoga instructor who uses Cobra Pose to boost her energy. Ironically, adversaries and hackers The Cobra and The Wolf, who may be involved in her father's disappearance, hold their own special abilities as they reach out to embroil Australia in an international scam that threatens the global economy.

Readers move from the microcosm of Elaina and her new love (photojournalist Ric Peters) and their relationship and latest mission to the bigger picture of the worldwide threat posed by adversaries whose skills are well beyond amateur sleuth and yoga instructor Elaina's abilities ... and maybe even Ric's special hidden skills.

It's rare to see a yoga milieu incorporated into a thriller that evolves on international playgrounds, but the two subjects dovetail nicely in a story replete with nuances and insights into both worlds.

It's also rare to observe the blends of philosophical, political, and thriller influences that so neatly create an exceptionally vivid atmosphere in which intrigue evolves in satisfyingly unexpected ways. As the story evolves, thriller readers will relish the twists of plot which bring Elaine and Ric ever closer to an astonishing truth and test of each individual's abilities, while those interested in yoga will find added value in the emotional and physical connections created by the yoga interludes and lessons.

The attention to atmospheric detail is not lost in the fast pace of the unfolding mystery, which is also a notable feature of a plot which takes the time to create delicious scenes: "They sat down to chicken parmesan, roasted vegetables and pasta stuffed with spinach. In the refrigerator, the chocolate mousse was chilling next to whipped cream 'at the ready' to serve as a topping. The Italian rolls were from the local bakery."

Australia's foreign, financial, and national interests come to life, requiring no prior familiarity with the country from readers. Those interested in a gripping story of intrigue will find Cobra Pose tests the relationships and personal mettle of characters who often seem both capable and in unlikely positions to solve a mystery of international importance.

Libraries and readers seeking compelling stories firmly rooted in a sense of place, and characters who are each tested to operate beyond their intrinsic training and abilities, will find plenty to appreciate as Cobra Pose evolves its ultimate message about cyber-attacks, schemes, and decisions which lead to discovery, recovery, and uncommon courage and sacrifice.

Life is...: Remembering Forgotten Wisdom
Marcia L. Friedman
www.marciafriedman.com
Independently Published
9798385649518, $14.95, PB, 40pp

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Remembering-Forgotten-Wisdom/dp/B0BZF51PFM

Synopsis: We learn so much about life as we travel through it, but how much of that knowledge do we actually use to better our relationships, the world around us, and ourselves. Some of it we integrate into our being, but at other times it is lost or forgotten -- particularly at those instances when we need it most!

"Life is...: Remembering Forgotten Wisdom" by Marcia Friedman is a lovely illustrated volume to be used as a helpful reminder of some of the age-old concepts of wisdom we often forget. Each of these "Life is..." citations are the foundations of little wisdoms that enrich our life's experience.

Critique: "Life is remembering every day is a new beginning". A compact (4 x 0.1 x 6 inches, 2.72 ounces) and highly portable little volume showcasing succinct wisdom filled observations and assertions, "Life is...: Remembering Forgotten Wisdom" is a recovery of overlooked wisdom sayings that will be of special, life-enhancing value to readers with an interest in being happy, having a healthy self-esteem, and appreciating what life has to offer -- making it an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal and community library Self-Help/Life-Management collections.

Editorial Note: Marcia Friedman's creative work has been featured in close to 100 magazine and newspaper editorials and collected by numerous galleries, individuals, and corporate clients. Some of her noted clients for her art include Wynn Resorts/Las Vegas; Atlantis Resort/Bahamas, Princess Cruises, and McGraw Hill Publishers. (www.marciafriedman.com)

Banquet of Shadows
Lucas Pogrzebny
Independently Published
9789878864020, $12.99 Paper/$2.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Banquet-Shadows-Vampire-Bloodmoon-Castelain-ebook/dp/B0BGS1M7BC

Banquet of Shadows is the first book in the Bloodmoon Castelain series, opening with a vivid death scene designed to both set the atmosphere and create immediate intrigue: "The room was tinged red as the pendulum clock struck midnight, letting them know what time it was with twelve ominous chimes. Amid the noise and the blood, Craven squeezed Arthur's hand tightly, as if this might prevent their parting. The room was brightly lit - so bright, in fact, that the red nectar that sprang from the wallpaper flowers now seemed to have splashed everywhere, decorating everything. The vibrant colors now contrasted with the extreme pallor of Arthur's face. Jarring juxtaposition.

'I don't know... who killed me,' Arthur repeated over and over again." With this passage, the story takes off for uncharted territory, bringing readers into a powerful vampire tale that involves an 1887 backdrop, a macabre trap reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's best horror pieces, and a series of conversations that leads to the revelation of murder and danger. In barely five hours, would-be survivor Lester Craven finds himself confronted with a perhaps-predictable trap instigated by the invitation of Baron Darcrois to join a group in his bizarre Chateau.

Lucas Pogrzebny writes with the flair of Poe and the passion of a seasoned wielder of the pen of intrigue and supernatural influence. Think a blend of Bram Stoker's classic Dracula horror combined with the mystery and intrigue of Agatha Christie's story And Then There Were None for a flavor of the literary attractions replete in Pogrzebny's tale. As the saga evolves to consider banquet participant Lucien's deeper probe into the purposes surrounding this dire dinner, Pogrzebny creates vivid scenarios steeped in "you are here" moments that bring the macabre events to shuddering life.

It's hard to identify a contemporary horror work that is more old-school in its attention to atmospheric detail, yet more modern in its twists of plot. Pogrzebny's artistry lies as much in developing a mystery as it does in creating a supernatural world of vampires and men which simmers under an investigative process that changes its possibilities like the spots of a leopard.

Libraries seeking supernatural horror works that excel in both literary description and devices and a sense of mystery and discovery will find Banquet of Shadows a powerful addition. It's especially recommended for more literary readers who love Poe's works and look for contemporary writers able to emulate his prowess (albeit in a full-length production).

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