What's the matter, not rich enough?

From The Daily Mail:

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has strongly hinted for the first time that she could write an eighth book in the series.

Rowling, 42, admits she has 'weak moments' when she feels she will pen another novel about the boy wizard.

All kidding aside there are millions of Potter fans out there who would love more books set in the Harry Potter universe. One thing she might consider doing is opening the Potterverse to other authors of proven ability.

HWT Christmas Gift Guide

Chickenbone Church Reunion
by Wendy Daughdrill & Anita Havens

Elderly men are being murdered in rural Calhoun County, Mississippi. Not just murdered but brutally murdered by close range shotgun blasts to the face. Sheriff's deputies Scott Griffin and Angela Woodard only have one real lead to pursue, a 68-year-old photograph, well that and Scott's 85-year-old grandmother whose memories of a murder committed under color of law in depression ravaged prohibition era Mississippi could hold the key to catching the killer.

I have to say that I really liked this book. It is well written with believable characters, realistic dialogue and a story which never bogs down. The mother/daughter writing team describe the South and southerners as only natives can and base their novel on real events (but change the names, as they explain, to protect the guilty).

The book tells two stories one taking place in 1999 and the other in 1931. In 1931 a group of men, most really only boys, fight the crushing poverty of the Great Depression by producing moonshine whiskey, which they sell to a fellow in Chicago named Mr. Capone. One night the loading of the jugs of whiskey onto the northbound train goes horribly wrong as Revenue agents catch one of the moonshiners alone and murder him when he will not reveal the names of his fellows or the location of their still. The crime is witnessed by his younger brother and his brother's girlfriend.

This murder sets a chain of events going which change lives and culminate nearly 70 years in the future when people find that the past cannot always be left in the past.

This book bills itself as a "hilarious murder mystery" and there is humor aplenty. For example we find out how far some women will go to get even with a cheating boyfriend (boxer shorts + poison ivy = well you can imagine) and we get to see what happens when firecrackers are dropped into the cesspit under an outhouse (hint, methane explodes). Yet to me the best part of the story was the story.

During the Great Depression people actually starved to death. Tens of thousands of men were driven to leave their homes and families and walk the roads and rails looking for whatever work they could find. Some chose armed robbery and their names became household words like Bonny and Clyde and Ma Barker. Others found that making corn whiskey would put food on the table and keep the bank from foreclosing on the farm.

This book reminds us that hard times force hard choices and that bad laws are often enforced by bad men. It would make a fine gift for anyone who likes to read or has a particular interest in the Prohibition era.

HWT Christmas Gift Guide

Freedomomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half Baked Theories Don't is Dr. John Lott's response to a book called Freakonomics which is a leftward leaning screed purporting to show that in virtually every area of life ordinary people are lied to, cheated and swindled by everyone from their doctor to their real estate agent (who is like the Ku Klux Klan). In other words their view of the world is the leftists version of Utopia - everyone is a victim.

In five well written chapters Dr. Lott not only refutes the assertions of Freakonomics he sings a paean of praise to the free market and demonstrates why it is uniquely suited to not only provide any nation which embraces it with the greatest abundance, but how it also polices itself and keeps fraud and predation to a minimum.

In what is probably the best and most needed chapter Dr. Lott explains the value of reputations and how misunderstanding their importance leads to harmful consequences. Consequences as severe as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform (translation: incumbent protection act) which has the unintended side effect of reducing voter turnout.

Another chapter called "Government as Nirvana?" takes on the deeply entrenched idea that the common problems of life are amenable to government solutions. In fact government meddling distorts the market and more often than not prevents the efficient solving of problems.

My favorite chapter is the last, called "Voting Right and Voting Wrongs". Here Dr. Lott shows an almost Coulter-like courage and willingness to face, and speak, unpopular truth. For example the principle blame for the growth of the US government into the freedom destroying, money devouring leviathan it is today is the enfranchisement of women.

Along the way we learn many other useful and often counter-intuitive facts. Such as the liberalized abortion policy imposed by the Supreme Court has actually increased the number of out-of-wedlock births.

I recommend Freedomnomics to anyone who wants an insight into how the world really works and I especially recommend that it be given to any college freshman or even high school senior. Those who are entering the intellectual meat grinder of the modern university are in desperate need of an anchor to keep them moored to reality. Freedomnomics should not be the only component of that anchor, but can definitely be an important part of it.

Reading list

To all my regular readers I apologize for my light posting for the past few days. My work schedule has been heavy and I have been engrossed in reading a few of the books that I've been meaning to get to.

First is Mark Steyn's America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Steyn writes with clarity and humor and lays out the case for why the world order as we have known it is dead and gone. He explains why Islam is rising and why the Western European nations are in terminal decline. One cannot read this book and not come to the conclusion that we are living in the most interesting of all possible times - in the Chinese curse sense.

The next book I have been reading is Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom. Cornwell is probably best known as the author of the "Sharpe" series of novels which follow the adventures of Richard Sharpe, a non-commissioned officer raised to the rank of ensign by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, for saving his life during The Battle of Assaye . The series follows Sharp's participation int he Napoleonic Wars as he rises to the rank of Colonel at the Battle of Waterloo.

The Last Kingdom follows the adventures of Uthred, a fictional ealdorman (earl) of Northumbria (master of Bebbanberg - later Bamberg Castle) in the wars which saved the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from conquest by the Danes (Vikings). Uthred is captured by the Danes as a small boy and raised by a great warlord named Ragnar. He leaves the Danes after Ragnar's murder by a rival Dane and enters the service of King Alfred The Great (the only King in English history to have earned the title "The Great") who preserved Anglo-Saxon culture from destruction at the hands of the Northmen invaders (so that it could be conquered a couple hundred years later by the Normans, but that's another story).

This is the first of a new series. The second book, The Pale Horseman and the third, Lords of the North are already out (I just ordered The Pale Horseman)

Finally I am currently reading Yellow Eyes by John Ringo and Tom Kratman. Yellow Eyes is the latest in the "Legacy of the Aldenata" series (or the "Posleen Invasion" series, or the "Posleen carnography" as Ringo calls it). In short the series is about how the human race copes with an invasion of several hundred million centaurs with crocodile heads, highly advanced military technology and a taste for human flesh. The short answer is a whole lot better than might be expected considering that we are hampered by the machinations of corrupt politicians of two races.

The thing is that I'm either reading or writing, but not both. Doing both well at the same time is beyond my limited capabilities. I will be finished with Yellow Eyes by Saturday and be back to my usual pattern of posting. Until then I beg your indulgence and I urge you to consider the books that I've mentioned here. They would be well worth your while.