In The President's Secret Service by Ronald Kessler

In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect by Ronald Kessler pretty much says it all in its title. One of the things that I liked best about this book was the short chapters. Especially recently I've found that if a book has rather long chapters, it is a big turn off for me. That was what drove me up the wall when I read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway in high school: it's a novella that was basically one long chapter. I hated it, and I hated the story. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was basically three really long chapters. Hated it. And I had to read it twice in college and write a paper on it both times. The first paper, for my introduction to literary criticism class, was about how I got nothing out of it and why I got nothing out of it. To be honest, the story itself is not one that I would choose to read on my own, so that didn't help it at all. But I digress. Back to the book at hand.

In alternating chapters Kessler relates the history and training of the U.S. Secret Service and the experiences agents have had while protecting the president and other protectees. Candid quotes reveal disturbing details of past presidents' behavior and personalities behind closed doors. These range from philandering, adultery, hypocrisy, and drunken spouses to more positive tales relating the consideration and warmth with which other presidents have treated their protective detail. Kessler also relates agents' encounters with various classes of threats to the president, such as individuals who have mailed, emailed, or telephoned a threat on the president's life, and how these threats are investigated and neutralized.

Kessler also relates how agents are receiving less training, how the management culture drives out promising and talented agents, and how agents are pressured to cut corners when it comes to their protection details. The disturbing consensus is that due to these factors, it is only a matter of time before an assassination attempt on a protectee is successful. The author also portrays earlier presidents in a negative light regarding their behavior away from the public's eyes, while more recent presidents seem to be portrayed in a more positive light.

The stories related about the presidents' and other protectees' behavior and attitude toward the agents on their detail were interesting. However, the discrepancy between the portrayal of certain presidents as compared with others made me slightly skeptical regarding their veracity. Most of the presidents portrayed in a negative light along with most of their families are dead and no one remains to confirm or refute what is related in the book. Why does Kessler relate this kind of 'dirt' on dead presidents but not on those still alive? By far the most interesting (and sometimes most disturbing and outrageous) parts of the book were the chapters that related the history, training, and practices of the Secret Service.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

District 9

District 9 is up against nine other films in the best picture categoy at this Sunday's Oscars. I've seen two or three of the other nominees and have plans to see some of the others when they come out on DVD; there's no telling who will get the Oscar for best picture this year although it seems like the two frontrunners are The Hurt Locker and Avatar.

I recently watched District 9 starring Sharlto Copley. For some reason I was under the impression that the protagonist, Wikus van de Merwe, was a soldier who gets caught up in events in the alien ghetto. However, this was a false impression.

Twenty years ago an alien ship came to earth; it came to rest over the South African capital of Johannesburg and there it hovered for months with nary a word or movement from it alien passengers. Finally a detail of humans were dispatched to breech the ship to reveal its secrets: mysterious alien technology and extremely malnourished aliens. The aliens were evacuated from the ship and resettled in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg where the humans began a massive relief effort to feed, shelter and heal the aliens. However, it quickly became clear that humans and aliens couldn't peacefully co-exist, and so the aliens were restricted within the confines of the refugee camp where conditions quickly deteriorated to poverty level where crime rates skyrocketed and Nigerian crime bosses exploited the aliens and hooked them on cat food (crack for aliens, apparently, who knew?). This all smacks of apartheid except in this case its segregation of species rather than skin colors.

Now a decision's been made to relocate the aliens to another camp set up hundreds of miles from the city so that humans will be safe from aliens and aliens will be safe from humans. Wikus is the bumbling, pencil pusher office manager promoted to spear head the eviction notification efforts within the alien refugee camp. A camera team is dispatched with him to document the historical efforts. But Wikus and his team get more than they bargain for when they serve a notice on the alien, Chris Johnson, who has spearheaded his own efforts to collect the necessary elements to facilitate a return to the alien mothership and take his people home. In a search of Johnson's shack, Wikus confiscates a mysterious silver cylinder and is then accidentally exposed to its contents. Things careen from bad to worse when Wikus's arm is broken in the violent confrontation. As the day progresses Wikus becomes ill and it is clear that if he doesn't get help soon, his life will never be the same nor will he have a life to live.

First, Wikus must escape from his own corporation that is determined to exploit his condition, experiment on him for their own gains, and mine his body parts and DNA to further advance their alien technology and weapons research. Wikus then embarks upon a journey that will test his humanity, his own prejudices and beliefs regarding the aliens and humanity's treatment and exploitation of the aliens. It all eventually leads to a bittersweet and heart breaking conclusion.

This is not your average science fiction aliens take over the world movie. Instead the movie offers a fresh take on humanity's first encounter with aliens and it is bleak. The movie raises questions regarding issues of oppression, exploitation and prejudice, and the humans do not necessarily come out smelling like roses. A sequel is in the works called District 10 and I'm interested to see how it adds to the story of Wikus and Chris Johnson.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

Fortunately, good girls don't die either in Katie Alender's debut novel Bad Girls Don't Die. Once the story in this absorbing, page turning, heart pounding, wicked, creepy, suspenseful thriller gets cranked up, you won't want to put it down until you've reached the end. Alender creates the creepy atmosphere of a possessed, haunted house and sister like nobody's business--the best part is that it is subtle rather than obvious supernatural elements. The creepiness can just as easily be explained away as a manifestation of a mental breakdown as the main character tells herself over and over again before finally realizing that she is not crazy and yes, her sister is possessed by one crazy, evil ghost.

Alender realistically portrays the outcast, teen outsider who doesn't fit in at her school --she doesn't want to and she doesn't care who knows it. She cuts class, speaks her mind, stands up to the popular in-crowd, and regards with scorn the misfit crowd that she also holds herself apart from. She is on the fringes--at school and at home--she's isolated and alone and has built herself a reputation as a troublemaker whether that reputation is rightly or wrongly deserved. She is just as disconnected from her dysfunctional parents and in many ways from her sister.

Alexis is a loner and an outcast and that's the way she likes it ever since her only best friend was run out of town by the popular cheerleader crowd at school. But she finds solace in photography--Alexis uses black and white film and develops her own photos in a makeshift dark room in the guest bathroom. Her younger sister, Kasey, is thirteen and for the most part the girls get along. But then Kasey starts blacking out, showing up with green eyes instead of her natural blue ones, talking in archaic phrases, behaving bizarrely and committing dangerous acts that verge on criminal. Alexis wonders first if she's going crazy and then if her sister has multiple personalities before realizing this is a far more dangerous problem that doctors and drugs won't fix--or believe. Soon Alexis finds out that the only person who can help her sister before its too late is the one person that Alexis hates. However, she has no choice if she wants to save her sister from herself and save her family from the chilling evil entity that possesses her sister.

With her newfound ally Alexis begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together of the events that occurred in her house ten years ago and over a century ago that have stained it and destroyed nearly every occupant since. Before long the evil spirit's plans for the girls who did her wrong--as well as their daughters and granddaughters-- becomes apparent to Alexis, and she realizes that it is up to her to stop it before its too late. The action steadily picks up speed and barrels to its explosive conclusion when the girls receive help from a surprising ally.

By the end of the story both Alexis and the reader learn that even the popular kids are misunderstood and in the end the only thing that can defeat a vengeful evil spirit hell bent on spilling blood is kindred friendship and the unconditional love a parent has for her child. The heart pounding thrill ride of the story will outweigh the awkwardness of some of the dialog and exposition.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good ghost story/mystery.

--reviewed by Ms. Angie