#BookReview: The Jailer’s Reckoning by Kevin B. Smith

Is Michelle Alexander Wrong? Not even that arguably, one of the most cited texts in the field of mass incarceration examinations is Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, which alleges that the rise of mass incarceration is *solely* due to racism. Here, Smith puts that claim – and many others, including competing theories alleging racism has nothing to do with it at all – to the test, and, well, as he notes early in the text… pretty well *no* partisan is going to be happy with what he finds. He proclaims – and throughout the text shows – that almost no matter what you think causes mass incarceration… you’re probably at least partially wrong.

I’m not going to get into his actual conclusions here, you need to read this book for yourself to see them.

I will say that the text is reasonably well documented, clocking in at 23% of the text I read and with Smith claiming to have an even more extensive online appendix (which I have not examined at review time) detailing his methodologies used throughout the text.

Ultimately this is a short ish (sub 200 page) yet dense read, accessible to the non-scholar (in that the methodology discussion *is* left to said online appendix) yet still with a *lot* of at least discussion of the mathematical results (if a bit of hand waving about *precisely* how he got there, likely more detailed in that appendix). Still, if you’re interested in the causes of mass incarceration, what mass incarceration is costing the US, and at least a few potential suggestions on what might be looked into for potential solutions… this is actually a remarkable text, one that *should* supplant Alexander’s as among the most cited in the field. We’ll see if that happens. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of The Jailer’s Reckoning by Kevin B. Smith was originally written on August 10, 2024.

#BookReview: Hello Little Girl by Kay Bratt

Orange Is The New Black Meets Deliverance. With this series in particular, Bratt has been making it a point of spinning a fictional world around all-too-real cases… and in this case, we get a version of the book form of Orange Is The New Black (ie, a far more serious take than the dark comedy that was the Netflix show) along with a harrowing tale of wilderness survival somewhat akin to Deliverance, but with Bratt’s own wilderness survival style she developed with Dancing With The Sun. Both parts of the tale are well done, though it does seem that perhaps the Orange Is The New Black part was perhaps a bit rushed in the ending, perhaps because of the zinger Bratt wanted to leave in the epilogue?

Yet again, another solid story in this world, and yet again another one that will leave the reader breathless for the next.

Very much recommended.

This review of Hello Little Girl by Kay Bratt was originally written on July 31, 2024.

#BookReview: For The Love Of Summer by Susan Mallery

Solid Susan Mallery Tale Of Finding Friends Even In Difficult Situations. I admit, I’m a bit weird here due to how my own family was as I was growing up, and even how my wife’s family is to this day. You see, my grandparents divorced well before I was ever born. I never knew them married. And yet, my grandmother and step-grandfather lived on my grandfather’s property, at times even inside his own house, at a few different points of my childhood. Similarly, my wife’s mom’s best friend… is the ex-wife of her husband (my wife’s stepdad).

Thus, when I find myself reading a tale such as the one here, where a new wife suddenly finds that her only real chance at moving forward is the generosity of her husband’s ex-wife (prodded on by their daughter)… it actually isn’t that far out of the realm of “normal” for me. 😀

So maybe I had an easier time accepting this plotline than some, but for me it absolutely worked quite well. Yes, it could get a touch repetitive at times as Mallery was driving home her major thematic elements, but… that is kinda part of Mallery’s style, at least of late. Yes, her books – including this one – could easily be 20 or more pages shorter without all of the repetition, but I honestly think that many of Mallery’s bigger fans appreciate this to some level.

Ultimately, this is a tale of hope and found family/ found friendship and how these can make life bearable even under difficult and somewhat unusual circumstances. This is a tale of women bonding even in situations that would likely tear many female bonds apart, and it is a tale of the power of friendship. I for one thoroughly enjoyed it, even if, yes, it did run perhaps a touch too long. But again, that is just something one comes to expect from Mallery, who I’m beginning to think has some kind of deep seated aversion to publishing a book with less than 400 pages in it.

Very much recommended.

This review of For The Love Of Summer by Susan Mallery was originally written on June 5, 2024.

#BookReview: Free by Lauren Kessler

Interesting Yet Documentation Is Substandard. This is a work of narrative nonfiction where the author uses case studies of six people she has followed for some period of time as they fight to get released from prison and come back into the non-correctional life. As such, it is quite well done, though readers who struggle to follow multiple characters in a fiction book will likely struggle to follow along here, as the author herself is largely the only commonality among the six (though two of them knew each other on the inside, their stories are largely separate and told separately). Indeed, the only real negative is that the author makes a lot of claims… that the scant 10% bibliography (at least in the advance edition I read) fails to really document. And thus the star deduction. Still, a solid work and one worthy of consideration. Very much recommended.

This review of Free by Lauren Kessler was originally written on April 19, 2022.

#BookReview: Coal Cages Crisis by Judah Schept

Avowed Anti-Capitalist Screed Still Highlights All Too Real Issues. And these issues absolutely need to be more openly discussed. If you dismiss the blinders to anything other than the set premise and worldview the author comes to this research with and look at the points he raises instead, this is a solid examination of at least some of the ways the central Appalachia region of (primarily) Kentucky / (some) West Virginia / (some) Virginia has transformed from being driven by a coal economy to now being driven by a prison economy – largely on much of the exact same land. With a bibliography clocking in at 38% of the ARC I read *even with* the author conducting much of the research and interviews himself, the scholarship within his worldview is largely beyond contestation. This truly is one of the most well documented ARCs I’ve come across in nearly 800 books (across all genres, fiction and nonfiction). Ultimately the star deduction here was because the author never leaves his particular biases to even make strawmen of opposing views, much less actually examine whether they may explain the issues at hand better than his own views do. Still, for what it is, this truly is a remarkable text that covers a particular topic that few others do. Very much recommended.

This review of Coal Cages Crisis by Judah Schept was originally written on April 16, 2022.

#BookReview: Pleading Out by Dan Canon

Scant Documentation Makes A Weaker Case. First, I generally agree with the author’s overall points here, even while disagreeing with his more leftist slants on a lot of his recommendations – unionizing prison inmates among them. But even in cases such as here where I generally agree, I have a history of judging a book based on the actual merits of the actual arguments and verifications therein, and this book simply doesn’t hold up. Its Bibliography (at least in the Advance Review Copy form) is barely 15% of the text, which is about half the norm and maybe 1/3 the length of the Bibliography of truly well documented treatises. And while the author’s career experience as a litigating attorney can account for some of it, even here – provide at least some documentation for your claims, so that those who *don’t* have that background can verify them. But the lack of documentation is the primary argument here for overall lack of persuasiveness. Furthermore, another star was deducted for ultimately not satisfying the overall premise as laid out in the description – which admittedly is a combined effort of both author and publisher, and not always in the author’s hands. Still, the description here proposes that the book argues that plea bargaining “produces a massive underclass of people who are restricted from voting, working, and otherwise participating in society”… and while Canon occassionally makes reference to this, he never really establishes that particular line of reasoning here. Indeed, for *that* side of the criminal justice system there really are a few other vastly superior texts that have released over the last few years. Instead, Canon more takes these as a given – again, with little documentation – and argues – with little documentation – that plea bargaining is the chief cause of this. As stated at the beginning of this review, while I *generally* agree with this line of reasoning, I simply expect a better documented (and ultimately more evenly argued) presentation of this, particularly in a book released to a wide audience, including those who may be predisposed to *not* agreeing with the argument for any number of reasons. Still, ultimately a worthy read that at least adds yet another voice to the conversation, and for that reason it is very much recommended.

This review of Pleading Out by Dan Canon was originally written on February 28, 2022.

#TwelveDaysOfRomance #BlogTour: New Year Kiss With His Cinderella by Annie O’Neil

For this New Year’s Eve entry into the Twelve Days of Romance blog tour series, we’re looking at book I specifically chose to run on this day due to its setting at New Year’s Eve and which is actually much better than the description indicates. For this entry, we’re looking at New Year Kiss With His Cinderella by Annie O’Neil.

Better Than Described. The actual second meeting of our lead couple is actually much better than described here – they meet on New Year’s Eve night randomly at a mechanical bull ride, share a magical moment there as the clock winds down on the year, then the next day, the narrative focus is on her at work when a bunch of newbies are introduced… including the man she kissed at midnight and thought she’d never see again. Yes, this is a dual narrative tale, and it absolutely works here. Both of our leads are caring medical professionals with deeply troubling (and very real) issues outside of the hospital, and the drama here is fairly tight. As is typical with much of the genre, this does include a few sex scenes, so the clean/ sweet crowd… eh, this probably won’t be for you. For everyone else… those scenes are fairly well done. Enough to get the pulse racing without being *too* problematic if someone sees/ hears what you’re reading. 😉 Overall a solid romance featuring great, Hallmarkie type characters. Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, and social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#TwelveDaysOfRomance #BlogTour: New Year Kiss With His Cinderella by Annie O’Neil”

#BlogTour: The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard

For this blog tour we’re looking at an interesting story of love, forgiveness, repentance, restorative justice, prison reform, and penance that could perhaps have used a better storytelling approach. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard.

Interesting Story, Perhaps Better Served By A Different Storytelling Technique. This is an interesting story of what happens after a person who has been accused of a heinous crime is released from prison and the toll wrought on the person and their family and friends – particularly in the face of continued harassment from the community. Readers who hate multi-perspective stories will enjoy the fact that we only really get one perspective here, but this is actually the weakest thing about the book to my own mind. For me, having a multi-perspective book with the prisoner’s mother (the perspective we get here), the prisoner, and maybe even the stranger and the victim’s mother, would have made this story quite a bit tighter and potentially, assuming it was done right, that much more interesting. The issues that the book does explore well – restorative justice, repentance, forgiveness, mother’s love, etc – could have been further strengthened by this other technique as well. Still, for what we do get here, it is fairly solid but not “edge of your seat” reading. If you go into this expecting a thrill-a-minute… you’re reading the wrong dang book. But if you look at this more as a character study / family drama with elements of suspense and thriller, you’re likely going to leave this book more satisfied. Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt followed by the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard”

#BookReview: Trejo by Danny Trejo

A Hell Of A Life. Danny Trejo didn’t start acting – professionally – until he was almost 40 years old. Mostly because a large part of the rest of that time, he was high and/ or in prison, including some of California’s most notorious. Today, Trejo is known as one of the more prolific and high profile actors out there, with over 400 acting credits to his name + his line of Trejo’s Tacos restaurants.

Here, we see at least pieces of pretty much all of his 70+ years, from his early childhood as the only male in a house full of women and girls to his first time using various substances to his first robbery and the time he was worried he was about to face capital charges after a prison riot. Much of the front half of the story in particular focuses on his times in and around prisons during the first 2-3 decades of his life, and we see how he gained his “tough guy” persona. He lived it. It was either be tough or be dead.

Which actually makes the discussions of his confrontations with none other than (then *recent*) Oscar nominee Edward James Olmos over the movie American Me even more epic.

And yes, the back quarter ish is primarily about Trejo’s life in Hollywood and how that impacted him and his family. It is here that we see some of the things that will cause many of us to go “I remember that movie!” and “Oh Trejo was [insert opinion here] in that one!”.

In between, we get to see what Trejo was doing in between – which aside from a lot of personal mistakes, was saving a lot of lives and helping a lot of people recover from drug addiction – a passion he pursues to this day.

Serious yet hilarious throughout, this book doesn’t pull any punches. Trejo, an ex-con, openly admits to many things in this book that many would probably try to hide, including things that weren’t known world wide before now (at least to casual observers). And yet we also get to see behind the scenes of just how much good Trejo has been able to accomplish throughout his life.

Truly a remarkable man, and a memoir well written and told. Very much recommended.

This review of Trejo by Danny Trejo was originally written on June 30, 2021.

PS: Special thank you to the publicist at Simon & Schuster – they know who they are – who sent me the *hardback* version of this book! First one of those I’ve read in at *least* 2-3 years!

#BookReview: Love Lockdown by Elizabeth Greenwood

Making The Case For A More Systematic Examination Of Its Topic. This book does a *tremendous* job in looking at as many facets of love and relationships involving the United States’ millions – literally -of prisoners via multi-year case studies of five particular couples. And therein also lies its chief weakness – while the original research for the case studies themselves was conducted directly by the author, the author states many facts beyond the people she is directly interviewing… and then the text doesn’t provide any form of bibliography to back up these (sometimes alarming, shocking, or even dubious) claims. But even with this weakness noted, the text’s strengths via its case studies are truly remarkable, and show the pressing need for a more systematic – and documented – examination of this particular topic. This is a book that will shock you. It will pull at your heart strings. It will make you cheer and cry and scream out at the people involved “WTF ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!”. And in these regards, it truly is a phenomenal book. Very much recommended.

This review of Love Lockdown by Elizabeth Greenwood was originally written on June 22, 2021.