Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures

#792
Title: Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures
Author: Garth Nix
Publisher: Nix Entertainment Pty Ltd
Year: 2011
96 pages

Ebook.

A cute little e-collection from Garth Nix, with a novella (the best of the set) and two short stories. Its strength is in the world-building and Nix's deft character development, particularly for Mister Fitz. However, this definitely has the feel of a work in progress; at the moment it's picaresque and the action, while entertaining and enjoyable, doesn't seem to advance the plot or maturation (though it's hinted that Mister Fitz becomes a darker character, and Sir Hereward more ambivalent about him and their mission over time). While not a young adult piece, I really fail to see why it needs a warning that it's intended for adults. Yes, there are some gooey deaths and references to sexual behavior, but it's pretty tame compared to something like Bella and Edward's pillow-snapping sex in Breaking Dawn.

Birds of the Fiji Bush

#791
Title: Birds of the Fiji Bush
Author: Fergus Clunie
Illustrator:Pauline Morse
Publisher: Fiji Museum
Year: 1984/2007
147 pages

A very attractive little guide to Fijian birds, with much helpful information about habits, breeding, and other behaviors. Beautiful, large, plentiful illustrations.

Unfortunately, the text is extremely garbled at times. My guess is that this edition was scanned from a previous one and not then proofread. A few examples:

bright yell edging
the short tail hidden by Ion) hairy feathering
and at bizarre when moulting
Foral between ground and canopy

These are all from one description, and aren't the only errors in it. This is one of the more intelligible descriptions; though not all are compromised, some are so rife with errors that a mental running start is necessary to understand them. It makes me want to volunteer to read proofs for the next edition. 

Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones

#790
Title: Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones
Author: Greg Campbell
Publisher: Basic
Year: 2004
280 pages

A bit on the hard-drinking, crazy journalist side for my taste, though the evidence of this style is more subdued than is often the case. As an explanatory text on blood diamonds (a.k.a. conflict diamonds), it does a very good job of following the money, exposing both corrupt and ineffective systems, and describing the trafficking/enslavement and mutilation or execution of disenfranchised and disempowered people. In this regard, it helps answer some questions about why some African countries have failed to thrive in the post-colonial period, instead becoming embroiled in civil strife.

Many gory parts--not for the faint of heart.

Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery

#789
Title: Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery
Author: Samuel Cotton
Publisher: Writers & Readers Publishing
Country: Mauritania
Year: 1999
192 pages

I'll need to do some more reading, but this looks like a book to teach with. Cotton, a journalist and graduate student, flew to Senegal and Mauritania to substantiate reports of ongoing chattel slavery of black Africans to Muslim/Arab Africans. I think Bales's Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy will be a good and more recent follow-up.

Shimmer

#788
Title: Shimmer
Author: Eric Barnes
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Year: 2009
288 pages

Ebook.

I confess that I covertly read this on my phone when I was supposed to be paying attention. It is also the first book I've read on a phone.

Shimmer has reasonably smooth writing and the plot progresses at a good pace. The tone is pleasant despite the protagonist's stress. It is essentially a black box novel in which the box is never opened for the reader; instead, a certain amount of deus ex machina resolves the conflict.

The Faith Sector and HIV/AIDS in Botswana: Responses and Challenges

#787
Title: The Faith Sector and HIV/AIDS in Botswana: Responses and Challenges
Editors: Lovemore Togarasei, Sana K. Mmolai, & Fidelis Nkomazana
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Year: 2011
260 pages

An uneven professional anthology, but the unevenness was fascinating in and of itself, since it illustrated both organizational and linguistic differences between academic cultures. Several chapters were excellent, including one on evangelical churches and another on traditional healers' responses to HIV.

Because the majority of religions in Botswana are Christian-based (or Christian-based syncretic), there is little variation in the espoused definitions of sin (even if what constitutes a sin varies slightly). One chapter is from a Muslim perspective, and while better written than some, seemed more dogmatic. It was one of only two chapters, I think, to mention homosexual transmission, and I'm not sure that any discussed IV drug use (though iatrogenic transmission was). The only reference to substances I recall was about disinhibition, not about routes of transmission. This provides a very interesting cognitive dissonance for the reader of US-produced popular press materials on HIV, which historically have focused on men who have sex with men and IV drug users.

I'm looking forward to learning about which faith-based prevention and intervention strategies have worked in this country.

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

   #786
Title: The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
Author: Leonard Mlodinow
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 2008
256 pages


Audiobook.

My bone to pick with this popular stats/probability text is that Mlodinow indulges in the same sloppy examples and logic that marred so many of my math and science classes. If you're going to talk probability, stick with dice. As a nerd from the early days of Dungeons and Dragons, I completely understand the difficulty of generating random numbers on your scientific calculator because the one guy who made polyhedral dice wasn't feeling well and there wasn't a dodecahedral die to be had in all the land. Believe me, nothing pleases me more than an extended discussion of the normal distribution. And I'm happy to hear about Bayesian analysis and its place in the science of probability. False positives in HIV testing? Bring it on. But please, don't confuse the issue with examples about humans and their behavior. To put it another way: Any example that you're going to have to keep qualifying by removing variables isn't a good example. All athletes don't have equal abilities. All of management isn't luck of the draw. The freewheeling omission of factors such as capacity, motivation, and personality doom these examples and muddy rather than clarify the concepts. Mlodinow further obscures his points with anecdotes about writing his child's paper and getting only a 93. What a shocker! In a move repeated throughout the book, Mlodinow confuses two variables. An instructor is not only making a judgement about the excellence of an essay in and of itself, if even at all. In my experience, it's more likely that the instructor is also, or entirely, evaluating whether the student followed instructions for presentation, content, and organization. That's not the same thing. By the way, if I ever catch Mr. Mlodnow's child turning in a paper written by his father for one of my classes, they will find that I regard this less as entertainment and more as a matter for the academic conduct office.