Category Archives: Review

Beautiful Bastard

Beautiful Bastard is not a book I ran out and bought… rather I was wandering the hall at San Diego’s Comic-Con International and someone asked if I’d like to get a free autographed book.

I devour books.  I love discovering authors I’ve never read before.  There are so many out there, so many I know I should have already read, according to my friends who also devour books, that I just love setting aside a night or two — a portion of my weekend, and getting lost in the pages of a book.

I honestly did not know what to expect from this novel.  The genre is listed as erotic romance, and I quickly figured out why.  That aspect alone is never enough to keep me reading for countless hours, to keep me from setting the book aside and returning to my own life after a few chapters.  There needs to be more content, more story, and something interesting going on.

What I found interesting in this book was two main characters who worked together as a productive team in the workplace, and yet pushed one another’s ‘I Hate You’ buttons constantly.  There was an antagonism between the characters that appeared to have been there from the moment they met, and set off a chain reaction of encounters that left them unable to say a civil word to one another.

Had they not been so good at their jobs their workplace relationship would also have been a disaster.

The character who gave the book it’s title, Bennett Ryan, is great looking, the kind of guy who fuels the dreams of the girls in the proverbial secretarial pool, and yet he can be so demanding, a perfectionist with a temper, that no one understands how Chloe Mills puts up with him.  It helps she demands just as much of herself.

From the outside looking in they seem like two people who ought to be able to respect one another, and find a way to get along — and yet he particularly is always antagonizing her and purposely trying to force her, emotionally, ten feet away, as if he is afraid she will burn him if she gets too close.  And that was where my interest came from.

I had worked with people that for the life of me I could never understand why they were always bickering.  Why they were always picking fights with one another.  They had no relationship beyond what we could see, and it was as if they were purposely trying to guarantee the other person would never get close enough to truly see and know them.

Hidden beneath the snipping and anger, are fears and complexities of emotion.  In a book that is a fast enjoyable read, two characters explore what it is to risk their heart, after avoiding it in every way imaginable, and a few most consider unimaginable.

This may not be the great American novel, but it is several good hours of light entertainment.  Two million people read it BEFORE it went into print for a reason… because there have been times when we have seen irrational behavior among perfectly rational adults and had no idea what was going on under the surface, and behind the scenes.   This novel offers one possibility.

No, I regret nothing 
Neither the good I have done, nor the bad 

ABC Family – Chasing Life

If it’s been years since you last watched a show on ABC Family, you don’t know what you’ve been missing.  Gone are the days of light fluff shows, and frivolous plots.  Over the past several years they’ve been dealing with more and more issues in their story lines.  Their characters have faced challenges head on — in Melissa and Joey not only did Melissa’s nephew have a pot incident on a school trip, but he ended up having to be home schooled, a situation that lasted beyond the end of the episode.  Imagine that, a sitcom that embraced the concept of not only a serious issue in the life of a teen, but went another step further, and embraced the concept of consequences.

On The Fosters a lot of more adult issues are being presented, enough that the show deserves a full discussion unto itself.  Teens going through the juvenile detention system, and the consequences that introduces into their life, is just one of many story-arcs The Fosters has explored.

ABC Family has definitely grown up since the days when the Olsen Twins were tweens on the network, and it was attempting to find it’s footing.

Chasing Life is a drama about a twenty-something, April Carver,  just starting her adult career, just getting out into the world, about to open her wings and start flying, only to accidentally discover she has Cancer in the form of Leukemia.  Consider people can live for YEARS with Leukemia when diagnosed as adults, but it requires treatment, and can impact the quality of life — reducing energy levels being on of the most obvious symptoms.

Another character in the show, Leo, has a brain tumor, his prognosis, as one might imagine, is not being offered in terms of years, but months.

Chasing Life balances the urge to yank on the viewers heart strings as it shows the very real trials and tribulations of being diagnosed with a disease that will change how life is lived from now on, with lighter moments, with finding new love and realizing April has to figure out how to tell this new love she has Cancer.  Some of the most honest and entertaining conversations take place in the scenes in a Cancer support group.

Far from being a sad or depressing show, Chasing Life is about fighting to live, chasing dreams and the future and living life to it’s fullest.  About understanding that we are only here for a finite amount of time, and being diagnosed with something like Leukemia drives home that point in a way a twenty-four year old, or truly no young person, should ever have that point driven home.  The diagnosis is a wake up call of sorts, April wants to build for her future, but she is also at a phase in life where every minute counts.

I come out of each episode wanting to challenge myself to balance the two urges — wanting to both make each hour of my day count more, while making sure I am indeed building for my future and towards my future, and in that respect also making my time count.

Chasing Life inspires on a multitude of levels, in part because even as the viewer knows these characters are not real people, it is so easy to believe they are true representations of Cancer patients.  They so beautifully convey the frustrations, the struggles, the desires and hopes of those not only with Cancer, but with many both terminal, and simply life altering diseases that the show is easy to relate to on a fundamental level.

I tune in each week, knowing that while Chasing Life, on it’s surface, seems like it could be a somber and depressing show, I will come out uplifted, inspired, and ready to conquer the world, along with the characters I’ve just spent an hour cheering on.

Chasing Life is adapted from a successful Televisa Spanish-language Mexican television series.  Fans of the show may recognize Steven Weber (Uncle George) from Wings, Murder in the First, or one of his numerous other projects, or Mary Page Keller from NYPD Blue or any one of her 60+ acting credits.

Chasing Life airs TUESDAYS AT 9:00PM ET/PT ON ABC FAMILY, catch up with episodes online.

Klingon Art of War

Klingon Art of WarThe moment I saw The Klingon Art of War at San Diego’s Comic-Con International at the Simon and Schuster booth I knew this was a hard back book I wanted to add to my small library of Star Trek books.  While I have only had a passing interest in the variety of encyclopedias and tech books that are available, there was something about this book that instantly attracted my eye, and my mind.

The concept of a book exploring the Klingon Art of War delighted me… I found myself instantly wondering ‘how has this book not been written sooner?’  The fact that it is a quality hard back book shows it is given the respect such a book would have been given by the Klingons.

Before each precept is a beautiful piece of Star Trek / Klingon Art, and at the beginning of each “chapter” is a quote from Kahless that captures the character and spirit of the Klingons.

It is a book I look forward to delving into.  My first pass through shows that Keith R.A. DeCandido has explored the Klingon culture, and it’s warrior ways in a compelling manner, and presented it in a fun and accessible manner to fans of Klingons, and Star Trek.

The Last Ship – TNT

The Last Ship on TNT, Summer 2014

The Last Ship, on TNT, Summer 2014

The Last Ship on TNT is one of those shows where I watched the trailer and thought, hmm, this could be interesting… if they get the Navy part right.  I’m the child of a Naval officer, and while there are a lot of things that a show about the Navy can get wrong and I won’t notice it, there are many things that I want them to get right.  Some I might even go so far as to say I need for them to get right.  And that’s as someone who did not serve in the military.

After watching the first episode I reached out to a retired officer who had served for more than a decade as a Public Affairs Officer and casually asked, “are you or any of your retired Navy buddies watching The Last Ship?”  I got a shake of the head and a basic, “haven’t heard much.”    I’ll admit I was disappointed.  I had hoped it would be the beginning of a conversation about a show that had intrigued me.  I let the topic drop, for the moment, but not die.

The Last Ship - William Brinkley NovelInstead, I found the wikipedia page for William Brinkley who wrote the novel the show is based on (perhaps more accurately said inspired by given the novel was written in 1988 and much has changed in the way of both technology and politics since then) and again brought up the topic when I saw the same retired officer days later.  This time by handing him a print-out of the wikipedia page and saying point blank, “I thought the Naval Service section might catch your eye.”  It turns out William Brinkley had served in the Navy in World War II, as a Public Affairs Officer.

For those with no Navy ties, perhaps I should note that the duties of a Public Affairs Officer range from dealing with the press, helping with the making of training videos, to reading scripts from television shows and movies and deciding if the Navy will cooperate with the filming.

Ever noticed that tag line in the end credits, we’d like to Thank The US Navy, or we would like to thank specific officers?  Or wondered how movies were able to get active duty military personnel to be extras on camera?  A Public Affairs Officer was contacted, read the script, and after a protocol was followed and approval was granted it all made it to the screen, but had that PAO (Public Affairs Officer) said “No,” extras would have been hired instead of active duty personnel.

Now, what answer did I get to the Wikipedia page about William Brinkley?  Turns out he was a bit of a legend among the PAOs when this officer was a PAO in the late 60s and throughout the 70s.  In fact, he recalls reading one of Brinkley’s books, Don’t Go Near The Water when he was in ROTC in College preparing to become an Officer in the Navy.

It felt as though I was seeing a very real attitude shift before my very eyes.  From doubt that the Navy was being portrayed as accurately as possible, to disappointment that he hadn’t known sooner he might have enjoyed tuning in.  He remarked that from the first time he had seen a commercial for The Last Ship he had been reminded of On The Beach, a book, and movie he fondly recalled from his youth, which from his Navy days felt particularly well titled.

Like the Last Ship, On The Beach was about coming ashore to realize what you’ve left behind is gone, though for very different reasons.  On The Beach gained it’s title from the fact the men at sea are forever reminiscing about what is going on, in the real world, On The Beach.  Where The Last Ship gains it’s title from the feeling that, to their knowledge, they are the last ship, in the U.S. Navy, afloat with a full healthy compliment of officers still on mission.

With this new information in hand I hit the internet again, and found myself chuckling that according to the wikipedia page for the novel The Last Ship, the Wall Street Journal favorably compared the book, when it was first released, to On The Beach.   It would appear my former PAO knew what he was talking about.

After reading about William Brinkley, and fondly recalling his reputation among the PAOs, derived in large part because of his books published after his naval service, the PAO was now interested in talking about the show and deciding if he would like to, at some point, watch it.  He was not ready to commit, he was not sure he could set apart that portion of his brain that likes to see the chain of command properly represented, the uniforms properly costume designed etc… but he wanted to hear more.  (It can be hard, when you lived and breathed it for over 20 years, to overlook the details and accept the world being created as “close enough”.)

So I told him about the three episodes I had watched.  Part of what fascinates me is the casting of Eric Dane as Commander Thomas Chandler.   (Yes, since childhood I have loved that the Captain of the ship is a Commander, and most of the officers I knew were NOT Captaining a ship when they attained the rank of Captain.  I always found that funny as a kid.)   Fans of Grey’s Anatomy will remember Eric Dane as Dr. “McSteamy” Mark Sloane, with a wink for every woman, and a flirtatious moment for every episode, this man earned his McSteamy moniker.  But a Navy Captain can not be McSteamy.  It simply can not be.  Eric Dane as Commander Thomas Chandler

The Captain of a Navy ship does not hang out with the majority of his crew, he is not buddies with each and every individual, though he knows who is who on his ship.  He stands apart.  He makes the tough calls.  He is responsible for every life on that ship.  It is a tough position when everything goes wrong.  He is a man who knows he may have to give some very tough orders, but his crew respects him (if he is a good Captain) because he is the kind of man who would never give an order he himself would not take/obey.

The Captain has the respect of his crew, he needs to have earned the respect of his crew, and he needs to be someone who the crew wants to earn the respect of.  This is a tough role, and it is not a role for McSteamy.  It is however a role Eric Dane is excelling in.  With a more stoic approach, playing a character with a wife and kids at home, this character has his eye firmly on the mission, on the goal of saving humanity and taking each step forward as it comes.

Rhona Mitra - Dr ScottRhona Mitra is Doctor Rachel Scott, a virologist who may be one of the few people, perhaps the only person, who can figure out a cure for the plague ravaging humankind.  She has made mistakes since coming on board the Nathan James 6 months ago, and yet, because she alone has the skills needed to save us all, Captain Chandler at one point tells her in no uncertain terms “You have nothing to prove.”

This is a show with a lot of supporting characters, the pilot has some scene stealing moments by Frankie (Played by Kevin Phillips), who gives hints of just how emotional and deep these scripts have the potential to go, if they choose.

In the first three episodes they deal with the realities of life aboard ship.  They touch on the experience of living in a community of a thousand people, the importance of standing united in the face of trying times, and intrigued me enough to want to keep coming back for more.

As for how accurately and realistically they are portraying the Navy… when I gave the retired PAO an example of one scene that really caught my eye, that made me stop and smile with a yup, that would happen, he had the same reaction.  He nodded and while he did not promise to tune in to future episodes, when I offered to record them and he could watch some with me, he sounded interested.  I’m enjoying the show, I’m coming back week after week… and I’m not seeing anything that’s jarring my awareness and throwing me out of the experience, rather I’m caught up in the action, wanting to see how the story unfolds, wanting to see where the plot goes next, and hoping to find out more about these people and how they will survive in this new era.

Go Navy - circa 1970s

Go Navy – circa 1970s

Fans may recognize Rhona Mitra from Boston Legal, The Practice, The Gates, or the Life of David Gale and Eric Dane from Grey’s Anatomy.  The Last Ship also stars Adam Baldwin of Firelfy, Serenity, Daybreak and Chuck,

William Brinkley Wikipedia Page
The Last Ship (Novel) Wikipedia
 On  The Beach (Novel) – Wikipedia
Amazon.com The Last Ship Novel (eBook or Paperback) 2014 re-release