War of the Whales: A True Story
Joshua Horowitz, 2014
Simon & Schuster
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451645019
Summary
Two men face off against an all-powerful navy—and the fate of the ocean’s most majestic creatures hangs in the balance.
War of the Whales is the gripping tale of a crusading attorney who stumbles on one of the US Navy’s best-kept secrets: a submarine detection system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound—and drives whales onto beaches.
As Joel Reynolds launches a legal fight to expose and challenge the Navy program, marine biologist Ken Balcomb witnesses a mysterious mass stranding of whales near his research station in the Bahamas. Investigating this calamity, Balcomb is forced to choose between his conscience and an oath of secrecy he swore to the Navy in his youth.
When Balcomb and Reynolds team up to expose the truth behind an epidemic of mass strandings, the stage is set for an epic battle that pits admirals against activists, rogue submarines against weaponized dolphins, and national security against the need to safeguard the ocean environment.
Waged in secret military labs and the nation’s highest court, War of the Whales is a real-life thriller that combines the best of legal drama, natural history, and military intrigue. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Joshua Horwitz is the Founder and Publisher of Living Planet Books, which specializes in works by thought leaders in science, medicine and psychology.
In addition to War of the Whales (2014), Horwitz is the co-author of two books of non-fiction: Wrestling with Angels (with Naomi Rosenblatt, 1995), and If I Get to Five (with Fred Epstein, MD, 2003), which won the Christopher Award for Adult Nonfiction in 2004. He has also written a young adult novel and several children’s books.b
In 1990 Horwitz co-founded Living Planet Press, an environmental press that published books with leading environmental, conservation and humane organizations, including the National Resources Defence Council (NRDC), Wilderness Society, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Wilderness Society, American Forests, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASCPA).
In 1995, he launched Living Planet Books, a front-list non-fiction packaging firm specializing in books by thought leaders in science, medicine, and psychology such as the bestselling Raising Cain: the Emotional Lives of Boys (1998) and The Promise of Sleep (1998).
b
In 2000, Horwitz co-founded AuthorsOnline, a website featuring the homepages of award-winning and best-selling authors. In 2003, he founded Waterford Life Sciences, which publishes health and medical books for physicians and patients.
Whales
Horowitz knew virtually nothing about whales or submarines seven years ago, when the newspaper headline: "Navy v. Whales" first caught his attention. The article recounted an environmental attorney’s long-running lawsuit to limit navy sonar exercises that caused whales to mass strand. It wasn’t until he dug deeper into the background of the story that Josh discovered the 50-year relationship between the Navy and whales that stretched from the beginning of the Cold War to the present. The Navy v. Whales courtroom drama, which was heading for the Supreme Court, was the final divorce proceedings in long and complicated marriage.
After visiting environmental lawyer Joel Reynolds at a Baja, Mexico gray whale lagoon he’d help save from industrial development, Joshua then caught up with the book’s other protagonist, Ken Balcomb at a humpback whale sanctuary in Hawaii. He realized that this unlikely pair of activists, faced off against the world’s most powerful navy, had all the ingredients of a remarkable—and untold—tale of conscience and environmental justice, in the tradition of A Civil Action and Erin Brockovich. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
As War of the Whales…makes convincingly clear, the connection between naval sonar and deadly mass strandings of whales is scientifically undeniable…. By telling the sonar-and-the-whales story in such detail and breadth, the author may provoke a more substantial debate about what human advances and priorities are doing to the rest of the planet.
Marc Kaufman - Washington Post
Intimate and urgent storytelling…. Horwitz's years of research and observation lend genuine drama to this save-the-whales tale. The author paints rich portraits of his subjects, much fuller than the rote physical descriptions and caricatures that might pass for characterization in a breezier work of nonfiction.
Chicago Tribune
The story is so artfully constructed that you are drawn in and forget that you are not reading a novel…. [A] story that is fascinating even if you have no interest in whales or navy sonar…. [H]is masterfully crafted book is guaranteed to bring the issues to a larger audience.
Seattle Post Intelligencer
In a riveting and groundbreaking new book, War of the Whales, Joshua Horwitz, chronicles the true story of the 20-year battle led by scientists and environmental activists against military sonar. It reads like the best investigative journalism, with cinematic scenes of strandings and dramatic David-and-Goliath courtroom dramas as activists diligently hold the Navy accountable. A page-turning detective story, War of the Whales…chillingly tracks the US Navy’s culture of secrecy as it collides with environmental groups and grassroots’ demand for transparency.
Brenda Peterson - Huffington Post
In this gripping detective tale,science writer Horwitz recreates a day-by-day account of the quest to find thereasons for the mass strandings; the Navy’s resistance and cover-up of theiruse of sonar in the area; and the drawn out struggles between Balcomb, Joel Reynolds, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Navy…. Riveting.
Publishers Weekly
Author Joshua Horwitz structures this account like an eco-legal thriller, layering his research so that film of a Navy ship seen in the water near the site of the beachings hangs there like damning evidence…. As humans encroach ever further into wild spaces, the impact on the creatures living there must be minimized or mitigated. War of the Whales tells one story among many of its type, but it speaks to the need for improved stewardship with urgency.
BookPage
(Starred review.) [A]n ongoing collision of epic proportions between the U.S. Navy, intent on protecting its submarine warfare program, and environmental activists, who fight to save whales from extinction…. Horwitz delivers a powerful, engrossing narrative that raises serious questions about the unchecked use of secrecy by the military to advance its institutional power.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
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The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War
A.J. Baime, 2014
Houghton Mifflin
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780547719283
Summary
A dramatic, intimate narrative of how Ford Motor Company went from making automobiles to producing the airplanes that would mean the difference between winning and losing World War II.
In 1941, as Hitler’s threat loomed ever larger, President Roosevelt realized he needed weaponry to fight the Nazis—most important, airplanes—and he needed them fast. So he turned to Detroit and the auto industry for help.
The Arsenal of Democracy tells the incredible story of how Detroit answered the call, centering on Henry Ford and his tortured son Edsel, who, when asked if they could deliver 50,000 airplanes, made an outrageous claim: Ford Motor Company would erect a plant that could yield a "bomber an hour." Critics scoffed: Ford didn’t make planes; they made simple, affordable cars.
But bucking his father’s resistance, Edsel charged ahead. Ford would apply assembly-line production to the American military’s largest, fastest, most destructive bomber; they would build a plant vast in size and ambition on a plot of farmland and call it Willow Run; they would bring in tens of thousands of workers from across the country, transforming Detroit, almost overnight, from Motor City to the "great arsenal of democracy." And eventually they would help the Allies win the war.
Drawing on exhaustive research from the Ford Archives, the National Archives, and the FDR Library, A. J. Baime has crafted an enthralling, character-driven narrative of American innovation that has never been fully told, leaving readers with a vivid new portrait of America—and Detroit—during the war. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Raised—Caldwell, New Jersey
• Education—University of New Hampshire; M.A., New York University
• Currently—Chicago, Illinois
A.J. Baime is the author of Big Shots: The Men Behind the Booze (2003); Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans (2010) and The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War (2014). A magazine editor, Baime has written for numerous publications, including New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Popular Science, and Maxim. (Adapated from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
In A. J. Baime’s fast-paced book, The Arsenal of Democracy, the Ford Motor Company and its production of the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber take center stage. To be sure, this was one of many planes produced for the war, and Ford was neither the only car company to manufacture planes nor the largest military contractor. But as Baime points out, “Americans believed that no single Detroit industrialist was contributing more to the war effort than Henry Ford.... The book’s intent is not to be useful to contemporary policy debates but to tell a good story. However, ignoring some of the more challenging complexities of its subject makes The Arsenal of Democracy less rewarding than it might have been.
Charles N. Edel = New York Times Book Review
If anyone remembers Edsel Ford today, it is because of the Ford Edsel, the car created in 1957, 14 years after its namesake's death. It was one of the biggest flops in car-industry history. The only son of automotive wizard Henry Ford has deserved a better legacy, and A.J. Baime has given it to him. Although billed as a history of how the Detroit auto industry geared up to arm the United States, The Arsenal of Democracy is a touching and absorbing portrait of one the forgotten heroes of World War II.
Arthur Herman - Wall Street Journal
This accessible, surprising history is a welcome addition to the inexhaustible list of WWII studies, as Baime (Go Like Hell) claims that perhaps the most important battle was fought far from the battlefield—in the monolithic warehouses of Ford Motor Company in Detroit.... [A] forthright and absorbing look at "the biggest job in all history."
Publishers Weekly
At the core [is] an epic battle between father and son, the cantankerous industrialist Henry Ford, who despised war, and his sensitive son, Edsel, who could never emerge from his father’s shadow.... Baime details [the massive war effort] with great care and empathy for his principal subjects. —David Siegfried
Booklist
The Ford Motor Company goes to war...[is the] latest examination of the transition of American industry to wartime production.... Written in a hyperbolic tabloid style...the book falls well short of the standards set by similar recent works. See Arthur Herman's Freedom's Forge instead. A complex and worthy story reduced to a beach read.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
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Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves
Laurel Braitman, 2014
Simon & Schuster
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451627008
Summary
For the first time, a historian of science draws evidence from across the world to show how humans and other animals are astonishingly similar when it comes to their feelings and the ways in which they lose their minds.
Charles Darwin developed his evolutionary theories by looking at physical differences in Galapagos finches and fancy pigeons. Alfred Russell Wallace investigated a range of creatures in the Malay Archipelago. Laurel Braitman got her lessons closer to home—by watching her dog.
Oliver snapped at flies that only he could see, ate Ziploc bags, towels, and cartons of eggs. He suffered debilitating separation anxiety, was prone to aggression, and may even have attempted suicide. Her experience with Oliver forced Laurel to acknowledge a form of continuity between humans and other animals that, first as a biology major and later as a PhD student at MIT, she’d never been taught in school. Nonhuman animals can lose their minds. And when they do, it often looks a lot like human mental illness.
Thankfully, all of us can heal. As Laurel spent three years traveling the world in search of emotionally disturbed animals and the people who care for them, she discovered numerous stories of recovery: parrots that learn how to stop plucking their feathers, dogs that cease licking their tails raw, polar bears that stop swimming in compulsive circles, and great apes that benefit from the help of human psychiatrists. How do these animals recover? The same way we do: with love, with medicine, and above all, with the knowledge that someone understands why we suffer and what can make us feel better.
After all of the digging in the archives of museums and zoos, the years synthesizing scientific literature, and the hours observing dog parks, wildlife encounters, and amusement parks, Laurel found that understanding the emotional distress of animals can help us better understand ourselves. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Ventura, California, USA
• Education— B.A. Cornell University; Ph.D., MIT
• Awards—TED fellowship
• Currently—lives in San Francisco, California
Laurel Braitman is a science historian, writer, and a TED Fellow. She was born and raised on a citrus ranch in Southern California where she was surrounded, as she says on her website, by "a small herd of donkeys, two parrots, a series of sickly hamsters, three dogs, a bunch of barn cats that didn’t like me, a rabbit named Violetta, an armored catfish named Harold, and a tarantula."
Braitman received her B.A. from Cornell University in biology and writing. She earned her Ph.D. in the history of science from MIT. In addition to her TED fellowship, she is an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts and frequently collaborates with musicians and visual artists.
Her book Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves was published in 2014. She has also written for Pop Up Magazine, The New Inquiry, Salon, and a variety of other publications. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/19/2014.)
Book Reviews
In this illuminating contribution to the burgeoning field of animal studies, senior TED fellow Braitman suggests that the key to understanding mental illness might lie in our pets..... [A[nalytical scrutiny would not be the way to approach this book, whose continuous dose of hope should prove medicinal for humans and animals alike.
Publishers Weekly
Eschewing statistics and experimental data in favor of her own stories and historical anecdotes, Braitman, a trained historian of science, appeals directly to her readers' emotions with tales of anguished elephants and heartsick gorillas.... [E]ngaging, compassionate read... but is unlikely to convert skeptics. Readers...may be put off by Braitman's inclusion of details from her personal life a. —Kate Horowitz, Washington, DC
Library Journal
Humans aren’t the only animals that suffer from emotional thunderstorms, and author Braitman came to the ...conclusion...that nonhuman animals can suffer from mental illnesses that mirror those that humans endure.... Acknowledging mental illness in other animals, and helping them recover, obviously can be a comforting experience. —Nancy Bent
Booklist
[Braitman] is thankfully willing to allow..."that other animals have many special abilities that we don't have and this may extend to emotional states." Braitman's gradual accretion of reasons to believe in animal emotional states that we can relate to, including the loopy ones, gives pause and sparks curiosity.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
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Traveling at the Speed of Life
David Hale Sylvester, 2012
Contributor 2
376 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780983710011
Summary
After his friend was killed on 9/11, David Sylvester wanted to do something to make the world a better place.
He adopted a life-mission to enhance the world one interaction, one hug and one high5 at a time and, to that end, bicycled across Africa, Asia and North America making stops at local charities.
David never imagined his becoming a cross continental bicyclist-author-filmmaker . . . Now, he can’t imagine ever stopping.
Traveling at the Speed of Life is a powerfully inspiring book because it clearly shows what one can do on, off and beyond the bike. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 18, 1965
• Where—Philadelpha, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—Temple University
• Awards—
• Currently—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Growing up, David Sylvester always had a willingness to participate in any activity that came his way, “…just for the experience of it all.”
Initially, David’s “experience hunting” nature drove him to become an accomplished athlete but later he used that learned will and discipline to bicycle across continents, write articles, make an award-winning documentary and give back by volunteering at charities.
Still very much a free spirit, you can always find Dave either in the gym with a personal training client, motivating university/conference audiences or simply in a café smiling, high5’ing and making friends. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
He’s big. He’s loud. He curses a lot and hugs strangers. And if you read his book, he might just be your new best friend.
Dan Cavalari - Drunk Cyclicst Book Review
Discussion Questions
1. How would you entitle your life story?
2. What would you do to directly impact the world? What’s stopping from doing it?
3. If you were going on a 5 month long trip AND had to carry all of your gear, what would you take?
4. After reading chapter entitled “What are you gonna do when you’re big. black and scary?” have you ever been the big, black and scary one? What did you do? How did it feel?
5. What’s your road trip playlist?
6. David has now volunteered at charities all over the planet, do you want him to give service with you at your favorite organization?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
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Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back
Jackie Speier, 2018
Amazon Publishing
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781503903593
Summary
An inspiring and powerful memoir of surviving the Jonestown massacre and becoming a fearless voice against injustice and inequality by California congresswoman Jackie Speier.
Jackie Speier was twenty-eight when she joined Congressman Leo Ryan’s delegation to rescue defectors from cult leader Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana.
Ryan was killed on the airstrip tarmac. Jackie was shot five times at point-blank range.
While recovering from what would become one of the most harrowing tragedies in recent history, Jackie had to choose: Would she become a victim or a fighter? The choice to survive against unfathomable odds empowered her with a resolve to become a vocal proponent for human rights.
From the formative nightmare that radically molded her perspective and instincts to the devastating personal and professional challenges that would follow, Undaunted reveals the perseverance of a determined force in American politics.
Deeply rooted in Jackie’s experiences as a widow, a mother, a congresswoman, and a fighter, hers is a story of true resilience, one that will inspire other women to draw strength from adversity in order to do what is right—no matter the challenges ahead. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 14, 1950
• Where—San Francisco, California, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California-Davis; J.D., University of California-Hastings
• Currently—lives in Washington, DC., and the San Francisco Bay Area
Jackie Speier (as in "spear") is a California congresswoman and author. She is a recognized champion of women’s rights, privacy, and consumer safety—as well as an avowed opponent of government inefficiency and waste.
She is co-author, along with Deborah Collins Stephens and others of the advice book, This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 60 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down (2007), and a memoir Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back (2018).
In 2012, she was named to Newsweek’s list of 150 “Fearless Women” in the world and is included in the 2018 “Politico 50” list of top influencers transforming American politics.
Jackie received a BA in political science from the University of California at Davis, and a JD from UC Hastings College of the Law.
Along with her husband, Barry Dennis; her children, Jackson and Stephanie; and Buddy, their yellow Lab, she is a proud fan of the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Visit the author's Congressional website.
Book Reviews
As of this posting, no mainstream reviews media exist for UNDAUNTED. See Amazon, and Barnes and Noble customer reviews, as well as Goodreads member reviews.
Jackie Speier embodies courage in every sense of the word. No matter the challenges that lay before her, she never stops putting her country and her constituents first. In Congress, I was proud to call Jackie my colleague—and I am even more proud to call her my friend. Jackie’s story of survival, hard work, and public service will be an inspiration for all who read it.
Garbiele Giffords, former U.S. Congresswoman
Jackie Speier’s life has been nothing short of harrowing and triumphant. Undaunted will move women to persist and have their voices heard in government. It will inspire young women to be our future leaders who serve with conviction and compassion.
Amy Tan, author
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
1. How would you describe Jackie Speier? Do you find her admirable, inspiring..."undaunted"?
2. How did the Jonestown shooting and consequent months of recovery affect Speier? How do you think you might have responded to those events?
3. How familiar were you before reading Speier's memoir with the Jonestown cult and subsequent massacre? What are your thoughts on cults, like that on Jim Jones.
4. How might Speier's childhood have prepared her, or at least given her the strength, to survive the Jonestown tragedy and to persevere in spite of it all? Talk, also, about her Catholic schooling and the influence it had on her life's direction.
5. Her high school years were fairly impressive: working part-time for the Red Cross and with then California Assemblyman Ryan.
6. Reader/reviewers describe Jackie Speier as a leader. How would you define "leadership" and what qualities does Speier possess that would make her a leader?
7. Speier wanted to break the feminine mold she grew up with (the 1950s-60s-70s). What was expected of young women during those years, what were the stereotypes she went up against? Talk about the steps Speier took to establish herself as both a feminist and champion of women's causes.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)