Tides by Jonathan White ****

Tides by Jonathan White is a combination of travelogue, anthropology, and science. Each of the nine chapters starts with a topic and/or a place and presents the science, history, sociology etc. with an emphasis on tides. The book opens with the Bay of Fundy,  and moves to Mont Saint-Michel and China. After a digression for Sir Isaac Newton, it proceeds to surfing, geophysics, and resonance. The book closes with energy and climate change.

When the author marveled at the "clean plate" regime of his Chinese guide...

"She [told him] that when she was a child and didn't finish all her food..her mother threatened to make her eat American food for a week."

"The oldest [Ming Dynasty 1368-1644] dike still serving its purpose is the fish-scale dike...of hewn stone bonded together with a mixture of sand, lime, and boiled rice...Mortar did not replace boiled rice as a bonding agent until 1940."

I found the explanation for lunar tides excellent. The moon does not cause high tides by raising the water under the moon. Rather, the moon attracts the water that flows horizontally across the earth's surface toward the moon. This mass of water rolling toward the moon causes water to pile up under the moon resulting in high tides.

An interesting anthropological observation: in a community where the people were served by both traditional healers and western medical doctors, the author met a lady convinced that her illness was caused by voodoo. The author questioned her as to why she still took the western medications. She replied (through a translator), "Honey, are you incapable of complexity?" [rim shot]

Some edit/design issues of this book from Trinity University Press.

The maps used a grey background for water and white for land. I found this confusing, mixing up the land and the water. Just to compound the confusion, most maps had an inset where the convention was reversed, making the land dark and the water light.

In a tutorial paragraph on frequency, Radio and TV frequencies were off by three orders-of-magnitude, middle C was off by 3%, hummingbirds and earthquakes off by a factor of 2-4, and the tutorial was concluded with this non-sequitur: "All these are high-frequency vibrations."

Whether your interest is world travel, physics, or anthropology, you'll find this book interesting, though depending on your interests, you might find yourself skimming over some sections.

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon ****

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon: Linus Steinman is a Jewish orphan who has been placed in a British village with the vicar Mr. Panicker. Linus doesn’t speak, but his pet African grey parrot named Bruno recites poems of Goethe and Schiller. Most strange, he repeats sequences of numbers and everything in German. When a Mr. Shane is murdered while stealing Bruno, all agree that Bruno is the key to solving the crime.

Mrs. Panicker runs a boardinghouse and Mr. Panicker is jealous of Mr. Shane. Their son Reggie is an insolent teenager who thought of also stealing Bruno to sell for enough money to run away from home. Both are early suspects.

Mr. Shane was a recent arrival to the guesthouse. Mr. Parkins, a traveling salesman for milking equipment, is a longtime resident. Nearby is a dairy research center, which is revealed to be a British espionage center with any interest in Bruno.

DI Bellows is assigned to the murder case. He has an assistant DC Quint. These two think the other to be incompetent. The old man recalls working with DI Bellows’ grandfather before the old man retired during World War I. The old man ultimately solved the case.

Kr. Kalb from London runs a refugee organization that places orphans in the UK. He placed Linus.

Aside from the African grey being a valuable bird, several suspects were interested in the German numbers. If they can be decoded, they could yield valuable German intelligence. They could be Swiss bank accounts hiding Jewish treasure.

In keeping with the light tone of this mystery, the penultimate chapter is from the point of view of Bruno, the parrot. Flowery writing also reinforces this tone.

“[The Panicker vehicle’s] tiny windscreen and broken left headlamp lent it a squinting, groping aspect, like that of a drowning sinner asking an allegorical lifeline. Its steering mechanism, as was perhaps fitting, relied to a large degree on the steady application of prayer. Its brakes, though it was blasphemy to say, may have lain beyond help even of divine intercession.”

To spite the setting of World War II England, this cozy-style mystery is more about small-town boardinghouse gossip than the atrocities of the war. The people are aware of the events in Germany, but not directly involved or impacted. An enjoyable mystery.

Clownfish Blues by Tim Dorsey ****

It feels like “crazy Florida comedies” is its own genre. In addition to Tim Dorsey, Carl Hiaasen also writes in this genre. Tim’s home is The Tampa Tribune while Carl hails from The Miami Herald. Key to this genre is the serious issues presented within the hilarity. The current book deals with asset forfeiture, elder fraud, and unscrupulous landlords.

Other targets include psychopaths, as in CEOs are often psychopaths, lotteries, and reality TV.

The main characters are:

• Two lawyers: Brook Campanella – a high-power lawyer who has decided to give away her services to the underserved, and Jacklyn Lopez ­– a self-defense instructor, who is also a lawyer.
• Reevis Tom – A dedicate news reports who is forced to work with reality TV producers at FCN, Florida Cable Network.
• Serge and Coleman – crazy and stoned.

Always, in the background is Florida, as when the pizza delivery guy is interviewed by the police.

“Did you notice anything unusual?”
“Not really.”
“Do you recall what they were wearing?”
“The thin one had a beauty contest sash, the chubby guy was in a panda head, and the dude tied up in the chair wore an orange safety cone on his head.”
“And all this seemed normal to you?”
“You must be new in town,” said the driver.

If you would like to laugh at Florida and enjoy broad comedy with a side of muckraking, Clownfish Blues by Tim Dorsey is the book for you.

The Telomere Effect by Blackburn and Epel ***

Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize and went on to many other fields, notably promoting Vitamin C as a miracle drug. He demonstrated that excellent work in one field does not guarantee the same success in another. The Telomere Effect by Blackburn and Epel is another example of a Nobel Prize winner expanding beyond their field of expertise. I imagine this book will join Linus Pauling's Vitamin C books-distinguished author, undistinguished book.

Non-fiction science books tend to take two approaches. The first is to review the research in detail. This is the best science writing, but it is hard to write. The second is to review the research in passing, and otherwise write about anecdotes and opinions. The Telomere Effect is a book of the second type.

This book is a monument to correlation implies causation with statements like...

"Clinical depression and anxiety are linked to (correlated with) shorter telomeres."

Various alternative medicine approaches are recommended with statements like...

"The mind-body techniques and practices here have been shown in at least one study (emphasis added) to increase telomerase in immune cells or lengthen telomeres."

The anecdotes and single study results are augmented with questionnaires/assessments on stress, social support, physical activity, etc.

Much of the scientific literature is used to support the authors' opinions with using statements like...

"...in a small but exciting study. Their results hint that..."

"...may play some role..."

By the end of the book, the authors have made sweeping statements about stress, cancer, smoking, pregnancy, parenting, diabetes, exercise, income inequality, and many other topics.

If you collect self-help books, you might enjoy this rehash of familiar advice to eat healthy, exercise, and avoid stress.

Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan *****

Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan held a special attraction for me because it includes a grown daughter estranged from her biological father. I have an estranged daughter (Facebook: Find Heather Jasmine), and like the girl in the book, her mother does not want to see a reunion. Like all other relationships in this book, this one has a happy ending, and I hope for a similar resolution for my story.

Polly lives in a lighthouse and runs a bakery on a tidal island off the coast of Cornwall (southwest England). She lives with her fiancé Huckle and a pet puffin named Neil. What is a tidal island? It is an island at high tide and connected to the mainland at low tide.

If you imagine running a bakery on a small island, living in a lighthouse, and having a pet seabird, is just the cutest thing ever, you will not be disappointed with this book.

“…they were totally ridiculous, clinging to a rock in the middle of the sea and refusing to move to modern identical boxes on the mainland, all neat and tidy and squared away for the convenience of the NHS (National Health Service) and the local council and the postman and the people who picked up the bins (garbage cans).”

The book includes so many cute couples.

Awkward Jayden works in the bakery and wants to marry his shy girlfriend Flora. They are 23 and 20 respectively.

Bernard runs the nearly-bankrupt Puffin sanctuary and is sweet on Selina who makes jewelry and lives above the bakery.

Kerensa and Reuben are married. She was a charity student with Polly growing up. Reuben is unbelievably (literally) rich. She is pregnant.

When these couples are not being cute, there is time to find humor in the behavior of rich people (Reuben and his family).

The author is British, and the book includes a sprinkling a British terms and references. The most surprising term was mimsy, which from context the reader can infer means the same as the British slang fanny.

If you are looking for a happy Christmas story, I highly recommend this book.

A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith *****

A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith is #11 Isabel Dalhousie novel. She is still married to Jamie. Charlie is four. Magnus is an infant. This is a cozy, cozy mystery. One mystery comes from her friend Bea, matchmaker, who fears she's set up a dinner guest with a man who preys on rich women. The other mystery from Eddie who works at her cousin Cat's deli. He is concerned that Cat has taken a girlfriend.

Isabel Dalhousie owns/edits a journal on applied ethics, and spends most of her time considering philosophical questions.

For instance, she ponders "whether religion is compatible with honesty."

"Because they ask you to believe things that are patently impossible. And that's the same as asking people to believe in lies, to say that lies don't matter."

Other advice:

"It's important to pay one's bills immediately. ... If one's going to start a passionate affair with a window cleaner, pay him first."

"The Ethics of Fridge Magnets"

"Should you display a fridge magnet that perpetuates inequality, or intolerance, of selfishness... People did, of course."

"Settled"

"Isabel liked that expression. She knew that lawyers used it a technical sense... but it seemed to her that it was a word that could be used in many other contexts...with one's friends...with a neighbor after arguing...the weather."

If you enjoy a world where everyone is nice, and nothing bad ever happens, this is the author for you. Also, consider the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.