Patrick S. and Patricia Mesmer. Pirates and Smugglers of the Treasure Coast. History Press, 2019.

Pirates and Smugglers of the Treasure Coast is an entertaining book to people interested in piracy and lawbreaking at sea and to those living on the Treasure Coast of the state of Florida, roughly the stretch of seaside land between Fort Pierce and Palm Beach.

The authors begin a little with the aboriginal inhabitants of the region and early European explorations, which included some acts of piracy or privateering among the French, English, Spanish, and Dutch.

Soon they take us to that period of 1670-1720, the so-called Golden Age of Piracy. We have reviewed one good history of this period, The Pirates. Pirates and Smugglers of the Treasure Coast reminds us that pirates in the Western Hemisphere were more or less headquartered in the Bahamas, just seventy miles east of this part of Florida. So we read about men like Blackbeard and Sam Bellamy who were known to operate in this area. The sparsely populated marshy shoreline back then made for good places to hide and to operate with impunity. It also happened to be where a significant Spanish gold fleet sank in a storm in 1715.

Like the book on The Whydah, it notes that most pirate organizations at the time were fairer and treated its sailors better than the ships of the national navies. Each sailor got an equal share, and there were even provisions like insurance for men wounded in action who could no longer sail.

There is more. Because of the long shoreline and lack of population in this region, it continued to be a place for seafaring lawbreakers through the time of the Civil War. A notorious crew headed by Spaniard Pedro Gibert (or Gilbert) used this area as a base for piracy and smuggling. After 1808 when the United States outlawed the slave trade, slave smugglers would often bring African captives to the islands and rivers of this region to escape detection from the authorities. We also read about the Seminole War and the Civil War as they affected this region.

Lest we think this is all in the past, we are reminded that this was one of the four busiest locations for smuggling alcohol during Prohibition. Detroit was easiest because it was just across a river from Canada. The Treasure Coast was also a fairly easy place to smuggle liquor into because it was not far from the British Bahamas and had many remote locations. Here we meet some pretty successful rumrunners of the time. Even Al Capone made a visit to this region.

Today this area is still affected by waterborne smuggling, mostly of drugs. We are told that in the 1970s and 1980s the DEA just assumed that most fishermen in the area also had a side business of offloading drugs to bring ashore. Fishermen and residents on the beaches would sometimes find “square groupers,” that is bales of marijuana, washed ashore or floating nearby.

Tourists and residents to this area might be familiar with a number of local fairs and reenactments that have a pirate theme. So we are also introduced to a number of men and women who serve as pirate reenactors. The authors note that in many cases modern concepts of pirates come from Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Sabatini’s Captain Blood, and the film interpretations of those works. Blackbeard may have never said “Arrrgh!” but we can tell that the authors are proud of the local reenactors that keep the tradition alive in a legal and lighthearted way.

Alexander McCall Smith. The Joy and Light Bus Company. Pantheon, 2021. No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

Like cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
                                                                   —Proverbs 25:25

Yes, that is our reaction to many of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books including this new one, The Joy and Light Bus Company. This tale from the distant country of Botswana brings joy to readers and leaves them with an afterglow.

Readers of the series already know the main characters. There are Precious Ramotswe, the founder of the detective agency; her husband, Mr. J. L. B. Maketoni; her partner, Grace Makutsi; and her best friend and matron of the orphanage, Mma Potokwane.

Mr. J. L. B. Maketoni has generally been a man of steady habits. He provides a certain security and foundation for Mma Ramotswe. So when his habits seem to change, that upsets Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. Is there a midlife crisis? Is something else going on?

The story begins with the two detective ladies discussing the differences between men and women. The story perhaps exemplifies one of those differences. Female friends get together often. They remember one another’s birthdays. Men are not usually like that. But that does not mean they do not have friends.

Rra Maketoni attends a business forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. One of the speakers turns out to be an old friend from middle school. They were good friends back then but went their separate ways. Still, they trust and respect each other, so when they meet at the forum, it is as if the thirty years between did not matter.

T. K. Molefi has become a successful businessman. He has a business proposal for his old friend. He is looking to start a bus company. He believes there is a underserved population that will take advantage of low cost transportation. Would Rra Maketoni like to invest? There is a great opportunity to see the investment grow and grow.

What scares the ladies is that J. L. B. is looking to mortgage the building that contains their office and his Speedy Motors garage. What if he cannot meet the payments? What if the bank takes possession?

Of course, there is some detective work going on as well. A well-known businessman asks for the detective agency’s help. His father, who started the business, is getting old and has been cared for by a live-in nurse. He understands that his father has recently revised his will to include the nurse. The businessman calls the nurse wicked and believes she has taken advantage of the old man. He would like them to find evidence to show either that his father is no longer in his right mind or the nurse has had undue influence over her patient.

When Mma Ramotswe visits Mma Potokwane at the Orphan Farm for advice on this case and her husband, she meets a new charge there. This orphan girl is about thirteen years old and has escaped from the home of a very wealthy family where she had been held as a domestic slave. Now, like most countries, Botswana has outlawed slavery, but poor families will sometimes sell their children into slavery or prostitution or use their children to settle a debt. Such trafficking happens to some degree in all countries.

Grace Makutsi knows of the family,too. She calls them the Pula-Pulas. Readers may recall that the Pula is the Botswanan currency. It would be like an American naming them the MegaBucks. This could be a serious situation. It is not as if the family cannot afford to pay for the girl’s domestic help, but they are exploiting people and, no doubt, scaring and scarring them into submission.

Precious Ramotswe manages to make some things more complicated. But at the same time, we know she cares. She discovers that the client’s father’s nurse is really quite lovely and caring. Whose side should she take? After all, she was not hired by the nurse. She would like to do something about the alleged slave owners, but she would not have much of a leg to stand on in a court of law. Why, too, is she having problems trusting her husband, whom she loves and usually respects?

Even though these may seem like hard situations, and to a degree they are, there is an undercurrent of good humor in this story as in all of Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency tales. For example, Grace and Precious meet a secretary who was a year behind Grace at the Botswana Secretarial College. While they did not know each other, they start reminiscing about some of the teachers and the reputations of some of the students. Grace learns that this secretary also has had some bad experience with the notorious Violet Sephuto. From that point, they are friends…

Violet has a way of appearing in some form in most of these stories. While not on the same scale—she is no “Napoleon of crime,” just a petty thief and swindler—she lurks in the background just as Professor Moriarty did in some of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

As always, the cases are settled. Not necessarily at all the way Mma Ramotswe or Mma Makutsi would have thought, but they are. And through it all, we get a sense that while people have a tendency towards sin, and some do exploit others terribly, all persons are, as Mma Potokwane reminds us, made in the image of God and have potential for great good as well.

Baroness Emmuska Orczy. The Laughing Cavalier. 1914 Edited by Brenda Lewis et al, Project Gutenberg, 14 May 2012.
———. The First Sir Percy. 1920. Project Gutenberg Australia, May 2020.
———. El Dorado: An Adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel. 1913. Edited by David Widger et al. Project Gutenberg, 15 Feb. 2018.

Lately it seems we have been reading a number of serious books. Even the recent fiction book we reviewed dealt with serious issues in a literary manner. It was time to just have some fun. We decided to read some more Scarlet Pimpernel stories. They are clever, swashbuckling, and escapist—escapist in more than one sense.

Some readers may recognize the title of The Laughing Cavalier. It comes from a famous painting by Dutch Master Frans Hals. Baroness Orczy found the character in the painting attractive and imagines him as an ancestor of her Scarlet Pimpernel. So, yes, he is fun-loving and sees the joy even in difficult circumstances. He is also a skillful swordsman and a “soldier of fortune.”

There are certainly echoes of The Three Musketeers with the intrigue and almost humorous tone—not to mention the names. Our cavalier, a personal friend of the painter Hals, hangs around with two other men. All three appear lower class but have certain military skills. They call themselves the philosophers: Socrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes. The laughing cavalier is Diogenes and is clearly the ringleader.

Students of American history may recall that the Plymouth Pilgrims wanted to emigrate from Holland where they had been living because a twelve-year truce with Spain was coming to an end in 1621, and they feared war and perhaps conquest. We know from history that the Netherlands had become independent of Spain in the early 1600s but the Spanish began an attempt to reconquer the various city-states in 1621 when the truce expired. This invasion is the backdrop to this story and the next one.

The most effective leader of the Dutch independence movement was Maurice of Nassau of the House of Orange. In the novel, a noble family of Haarlem (Hals’ hometown) are the Beresteyns. Lord Beresteyn supports Maurice but his son Nicolaes secretly sides with the Spanish, locally led by an ambitious young noble named Stoutenburg.

Nicolaes, Stoutenburg, and a few other young men meet at night in a quiet church to discuss their plans. They are unaware that Nicolaes’ sister Gilda is in the church quietly praying until they are ready to leave and realize that she has overheard their plans. Should she tell her father to warn Prince Maurice or keep quiet to shield her brother? It is further complicated because the beautiful Gilda had been engaged to Stoutenburg until he broke the engagement to marry the daughter of a wealthier lord.

Stoutenburg, the ringleader, has a plan to take care of this problem. As he and his young allies are gathering an army together, they will hire some mercenaries to temporarily kidnap Gilda to keep her away from her father or Statholder Maurice and to keep her from getting into trouble. They hire the three philosophers who are happy to be hired because they are running low of money. They only know that they are to take Gilda to Rotterdam where a business associate will take her into temporary custody. One reason they are running low on funds is that Diogenes is generous to those worse off than he is.

Lots of money, power, and a fair young maiden make for an amusing read. We meet a few historical characters along the way including Frans Hals. We are even told that he has painted a portrait of young Gilda. There is a painting of an Emerantia van Beresteyn from 1634 that used to be attributed to Hals. There also was a Haarlem painter named Nicolaes Beresteyn. Even though we do not know the name of the Laughing Cavalier, we can picture him smiling in the studio and laughing all the way to Rotterdam and back.

Diogenes becomes the main character in the sequel, The First Sir Percy. It is not giving too much away by saying that though Diogenes considers himself Dutch, his father was actually an English mercenary who married and then abandoned his mother. His birth name, then, is Percy Blakeney, which readers may recognize as the real name of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Of course, the Pimpernel is alive a hundred and seventy years later, so this is his ancestor. And the political situation is a little different here. Holland is fighting against Spain for its continued independence.

It turns out that Lord Beresteyn has met Diogenes’ father on business trips to England, and approves of Gilda’s marriage to the first Sir Percy. But in typical novelistic and swashbuckling fashion, the double wedding of Diogenes to Gilda and Nicolaes to his fiancée are interrupted. It is not as complicated as Manzoni’s The Betrothed (a.k.a. I Promessi Sposi) or Longfellow’s Evangeline, but treachery and a Spanish invasion are involved.

Here we see Diogenes’ talent for creating a misleading scenario, one that his descendant will make famous. We cannot say that Baroness Orczy is recycling a plot here, but we can say that the apple does not fall far from the family tree. Alas, the same cannot be said for Nicolaes who continues to be tempted by Stoutenburg’s promise of wealth and power.

In both novels, how do we reconcile Gilda’s love for her only brother with the respect she has for her father and Prince Maurice? Let us just say that Diogenes is not only clever, but wise, like a true philosopher.

El Dorado is another tale of the actual Scarlet Pimpernel, not an ancestor. At this point in January 1794, the Reign of Terror seems like a permanent institution. The King and Queen have been beheaded, and now both royalists and republicans are concerned about the young prince. He has been imprisoned for two years and is still not even ten years old. Can he be rescued? Should the Republic simply execute him to get rid of a potential problem? Will the Scarlet Pimpernel have his say in this matter?

It gets very complicated.

First of all, one of the leaders of the Committee on General Security, Chauvelin, used to be ambassador to England. He has figured out that the Scarlet Pimpernel is Sir Percy. Since Sir Percy is not a Frenchman, he has to be slightly more careful about accusing him without evidence. Sir Percy is married to the former Marguerite St. Just.

Even someone with just a cursory knowledge of that family name knows that St. Just was the name of one of the leaders of the Terror. Marguerite is, in fact, a cousin of the Jacobin Antoine St. Just. Now her brother Armand is still in France and has generally been left alone because of his name. However, he has fallen for an actress at the Comédie Française, and Chauvelin and the brutal Heron see an opportunity to trap the Scarlet Pimpernel since Armand St. Just is his brother-in-law.

Just as Chauvelin is very loosely based on a real historical figure, so is Armond’s love. “Mademoiselle Lange” was indeed a very beautiful actress from the time period. The author tells us that the Carnavalet Museum has a dozen of sketches of her by David. Well, the Musée Carnavalet does have twelve sketches of her: eleven are anonymous portraits, and one is a sketch for a painting. That painting was done by A. Louis Girodet-Troison, who apparently had done two or three paintings of her, two nudes from the classics as Danae and Venus and one straightforward portrait that is said by some to be of her. Girodet often worked at Jacques-Louis David’s studio, so the paintings may have been wrongly attributed to him by Baroness Orczy.

It so happens that the historical Mlle. Lange was briefly arrested by French authorities because they objected to a play she was starring in. She was released after some time in jail. That little episode may have inspired Orcczy as well. Coincidentally, her name in French (L’Ange) means “angel.”

The pièce de résistance of El Dorado is the daring escape of Louis XVII, the nine-year-old heir to the throne. Again, Orczy has done her historical research along with some speculation. A couple by the name of Simon had been custodians of the prince in his jail cell until January 1794. That is when he is alleged to have escaped. Historically, he was moved to a different prison where he would die a year later. There were many rumors that he had escaped and a homeless boy of the same age and similar looks replaced him. As with Tsarina Anastasia in the twentieth century, there were a number of men in the nineteenth century who claimed to be the Dauphin.¹

We also meet a Baron de Batz, another historic figure who did help a few French aristocrats escape to Austria. El Dorado presents him as a foil to the Scarlet Pimpernel, the “genuine article” compared to the relative dilettantism of De Batz.

Now that we have all that out of the way, the story itself is pretty tense. Much of it centers around Armand St. Just, Lady Blakeney’s brother. Have you every watched a film or television show where you know one of the characters is getting himself or herself into trouble? That is Armand. He is in love. He thinks he is helping Mlle. Lange. But Chauvelin and Heron are using her to lure him to catch Sir Percy and as many of his League as possible.

It gets quite complicated. It seems impossible that Sir Percy, Lady Percy, Armand, and the Dauphin can possibly extricate themselves, but that “d__d elusive Pimpernel” manages it. This is another entertaining read. Because it involves a later century and escapes, there is less swashbuckling than with the Pimpernel’s ancestor Diogenes, but this is still quite a yarn. In all three we see noble, clever men accompanied by loving and strong women in the middle of adventurous action. That is still a selling point today.

¹ For what it is worth, the matter may be settled now. As was customary with the French royalty, when the Dauphin died, his heart was removed and placed in a reliquary. That reliquary was smuggled out of France. When examined later, it did indeed contain the heart of a pre-teen. DNA testing done in 1999 did identify it as from a male member of the French royal family, but that was not known in 1920 when the book was written and many suspected that there was some kind of cover-up.

² The novel calls her Jeanne though her name was Anne, but the museum art collections seem to just call her Mademoiselle Lange, so Orczy may have been guessing at her name.

Peter Desberg and Jeffrey Davis. Pitch Like Hollywood. McGraw-Hill, 2022.

Pitch Like Hollywood comes out of a match made in heaven. One co-author (Desberg) is a clinical psychologist and author of numerous books. The other (Davis) is an experienced Hollywood writer and producer. Each works from his own area of experience and expertise to give their readers some real direction.

This book is written specifically for business professionals, whether in or out of the entertainment industry, who have to make pitches. These can be sales pitches, promotions, pitches for a screenplay, or many other kinds of pitches. Frankly, most of the information in this book provides great direction for job interviews and other situations where you may be selling a product, and idea, or, in some manner, selling yourself.

Much of what Pitch Like Hollywood shares would be useful for other types of persuasion especially persuasive writing. Why do people accept some things and reject others? What can you do to show empathy with an audience? This is often a matter of psychology. Ultimately, whether trying to sell something, present a project, and share an idea, people have to change their minds.

Pitch Like Hollywood is eminently practical. There are numerous stories and illustrations from both successful and unsuccessful film pitches. There are also many examples from psychological experiments which illustrate how people actually do react in certain situations. There are, for example, at least four experiments which showed how different perspectives affect how students do on standardized tests. We are going to highlight those in a separate entry since we occasionally write about entrance exams and Advanced Placement tests.

The psychology involves both how an audience reacts as well as how presenters react. For example, in preparing for a pitch or presentation of any kind, ask yourself two questions: How well do I think I will do? What will happen if they reject my idea? These two questions often hinder us if we think about them too much.

There is an interesting discussion of perfectionism. I never thought about this before, but professional musicians in a classical music group or orchestra expect to be perfect. Many people in the audience already know what the composition sounds like. They will notice if there are any mistakes. Over half of the musicians in symphony orchestras surveyed take beta blockers—drugs that lower blood pressure and have a calming effect—before a performance. If stage actors miss or muff a line, they can at least stay in character and keep on going. Classical musicians have to keep on going, too, if they goof up, but they are more likely to be criticized for it.

Actors often say, and from experience I believe it to be true, that some nervousness before a performance is essential. Nerves provide energy. Positive excitement can be contagious. There is no sense of “phoning it in” in such a circumstance.

Besides the psychology of a presentation, you have to consider its content. Will what you are presenting really help your audience? In the case of Hollywood, of course, that means will the proposal succeed and make money? Does the plot have a problem to be solved? Will your presentation solve a problem?

Writers are often told that publishers are looking for something new and different. They do not want something that has already been done, but if it is too different, they reject it as well. Desberg and Davis explain it this way:

Everybody wants to be in on the next new thing, but be wary because too much originality scares some investors. Words like “revolutinary,” “unique,” “unprecedented,” “breaking new ground,” and “completely original” are sometimes code for “So far, projects like this have never been successful.” (227)

Behold, the Catch-22 of publishing.

One negative example that stood out in this book was about a startup company that was looking for an aerospace contract from Boeing. (Yes, Pitch Like Hollywood is not just about Hollywood.) The Boeing officer had a difficult time seeing how they could benefit from the proposal. In fact, he could not see that the engineering would even work. He asked them what their goal was. He was told that if Boeing could guarantee 50 million dollars, they could probably get 500 million from the U. S. government. Their proposal was not so much an engineering innovation as an attempt to boondoggle the government.

Practice also helps. Often people you are presenting to will get distracted: someone may enter the room with an announcement, a cell phone may buzz with an urgent message, some people may arrive distracted. If you have a good idea of the outline of your presentation, you are more likely to stay on target and not get distracted yourself.

Staying on target means finding a balance. You have to present clearly and directly. At the same time, especially when speaking, you do not want to get bogged down in details. As Thoreau would say, don’t let yourself get distracted by every little fly wing.

Know what your audience already knows or can relate to. One interesting psychology test presented a chessboard with the chess pieces placed on the board in certain spots. The subjects of the test were chess novices and chess masters. Like Kim’s game, each subject was given a certain amount of time to look at the chess board. The board was taken away, and they had to then tell from their memory where the pieces had been placed.

The novices and masters both scored about the same in memorizing the positions when the pieces were placed randomly on the board. But when the pieces were placed in a position from an actual chess game, the masters’ memories were much higher than the novices. There was recognition there. In some cases they might have recognized the actual game, but even in other cases when the positions were realistic, they could relate to how the game would be played more than the novices.

Think about that when planning a presentation to a certain audience.

A good presentation, like a good film, has three acts: the introduction, the problem, and the solution. First impressions and empathy are critical. Chapters are devoted to both. If you can relate directly to your audience because of your similar age or experience, that helps. But often that is not the case. Pitch Like Hollywood suggests things you can do relate better. It might be a simple as bringing along a colleague who is the same age or who has a similar background as those you are pitching to. How do you deal with stereotyping anyway, especially if you are the one being stereotyped?

Pitch Like Hollywood is an eye-opening book. While it is especially written for sales and artistic pitches, it has a lot for anyone who speaks publicly or anyone who speaks or writes persuasively. Your cause may not have millions of dollars in the balance—it may be something as simple as a good grade on a piece of schoolwork—but this book can help show you the way.

P.S. As noted above, we are going to be using some examples from Pitch Like Hollywood in our next posting because it has significant examples of how people taking standardized tests can improve their scores and how simple psychological tricks can make a difference.

Anne Farris. That One Person. Crosslink, 2020.

That One Person is a type of book that has gone out of style somewhat: the personal testimony. Back in the 1970s such books were big sellers. A few have remained in print such as The Hiding Place, Nine O’Clock in the Morning, God’s Smuggler, or Born Again. Most would be hard to find today. It seems as if publishers and readers have been “testimonied out.”

Some of those books sold well because they dealt with extraordinary circumstances such as The Hiding Place, which focuses on the author’s time in German concentration camps, or Born Again, by a high ranking official in the Nixon administration brought down by the Watergate scandal.

Compared to either of those books, That One Person tells of less spectacular events, but may well bring hope to some readers. The author was born in the 1930s to a strikingly beautiful alcoholic mother in Memphis, Tennessee. Her father was out of the picture pretty much until near her teen years. Her mother attracted a series of men into her life, and her mother’s parents, whom Anne lived with on and off, were also alcoholics. Unstable, but, sadly, there are families all over the world in similar circumstances.

Anne Farris’s “one person” changed her life. After Anne’s parents divorced—it was a short marriage—her mother became engaged to a man who joined the Army Air Corps shortly after the United States entered World War II. The man’s mother offered to take Anne in until her son and Anne’s mother could get together and marry. She lived in western New York state, quite far from Memphis, but no one else seemed to really want Anne, so she moved there where spent much of her elementary school years.

Mrs. Thompson (“Mrs. T”) treated her like a daughter. She also gave her many life lessons. As a preschooler, Anne and her older sister were often left alone to fend for themselves. Now someone actually cared about her and encouraged her. For the first time she belonged.

The central part of the book focuses on how Mrs. T taught Anne to live and to cope. At junior high age, Anne lived for about three years with her birth father. He had remarried, gone on the wagon, and was living a stable life back in Memphis. While things went well, Anne really wanted to spend high school back in upstate New York. Mrs. T seemed happy to take her back, even though by then the war was over and her son had married someone else.

Anne thrived socially in high school. She was a cheerleader and had many friends. Some of her birth mother rubbed off; Anne appears to have some trouble in judging men. After one “close call” she writes, “…some people are a part of your history but not a part of your destiny” (166).

She did eventually get married, and they had many happy years but eventually divorced. Sadly, one of her daughters fell into the same pattern.

That One Person does not gloss over the hard things in life. Through it all, though, Anne had a role model and understood that she did not have to see herself as a victim. Her story is positive, encouraging, and may speak to readers who have themselves come from unstable family situations.

Years later, Anne would write Mrs. T thanking her, but Mrs. T recognized that Anne had to internalize the lessons she was teaching her. Mrs. T would write back:

Much of your success is because of your own hard work. I always knew, if given a chance, you’d do well.” (171)

As I read this book, I was reminded of a book I read about an owl—no kidding. I reviewed Wesley the Owl for another publication before I started this blog. Wesley was a barn owl that had been adopted by the author and lived with her for many years. Both books have similar things in their story’s backgrounds.

Stacey O’Brien, the author of Wesley the Owl, was from southern California and had worked some as a child actress before she embarked on a career in a university biology laboratory. A number of her relatives were actors and musicians. An uncle was one of the better-known original Disney Mouseketeers. Her best friend married a popular recording artist.

Similarly, in the background of That One Person are some interesting figures. At one point young Anne lived in the same Memphis housing project as the Presley family and was acquainted with Elvis, who was a few years older. Her birth father would end up owning a music store where Elvis bought most of his guitars and instruments when he was older.

As an adult, Anne moved to southern California, where she would ultimately meet both of her husbands. Like Wesley the Owl, there is show business in the background. She had two musically inclined daughters who worked as child singers and actresses. A well-known singer and actor became acquainted with her and apparently encouraged her to tell her story.

There is a spiritual undercurrent. We never know what Mrs. T believed about God, but after moving to California, Anne would encounter born again Christians and eventually became a Christian herself. Looking back, then, she gives the Lord credit for many things in her life that helped her come out of her circumstances in spite of her rough start. She especially credits the hand of God in matching her with Mrs. T, a woman who had no reason to care for her other than the kindness of her heart.

Ultimately, there is a tone similar to that of The Hiding Place. As Corrie ten Boom would say, “No matter how deep the pit, God’s love is deeper still.” That results in gratitude. As St. Paul wrote, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (I Thessalonians 5:18). That One Person brings those exhortations to life.

Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley. Simple Truths of Leadership. Berrett-Kohler, 2022.

Wow! The first book we’ve reviewed with a 2022 copyright date, and it’s not even quite 2022.

Author Ken Blanchard is well known for his bestselling The One Minute Manager and his business consulting. Reading Simple Truths of Leadership shows why his material has remained popular and why his consulting business has been successful.

I must say directly this is not the usual positive thinking type stuff that so many motivational works seem to take on. This is specifically about leadership. Yes, there is a focus on leadership, but it can apply to any type of organization, even the family.

I have prayed for our government leaders for forty years, regardless of their political affiliation. Recently I have felt I should specifically pray that those in power see themselves as serving the people, not as their lords or masters. As Jesus said, “Whoever will be great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20:26)

This is precisely the tone and message of Simple Truths of Leadership. Yes, leaders must have a vision and understanding. But leadership involves other people. The success of leaders depends so much on how they relate to the people they are leading. Indeed, the subtitle of this book reads 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust. Ah, a true leader gains the trust of his followers.

This is a very simple and direct read. Each of the fifty-two entries mentioned in the subtitle consists of a page with a simple proverb or saying. Usually it is a single sentence. Such adages include “You get what you expect” and “The best use of power is in service to others.”

On the facing page is a single page analyzing or explaining the saying. Often there are examples from experience. I could not help think of Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the originator of motivational writing. He wrote how he picked thirteen virtues to work on by focusing on one each week. After one year, he would have worked on each one for four weeks and, hopefully, had improved his character.

So Blanchard and Conley pick fifty-two ideas with the idea that the reader could focus on one a week for a year, and, hopefully, be a more successful leader. The progress in the fifty-two entries is interesting. Most of the early ones are things that most people would agree on and many people would affirm that they follow that rule pretty well. Pretty much everyone would at least attempt “Don’t work harder, work smarter,” for example.

But as the “weeks” go on, the observations get more challenging. One that stood out was “The opposite of trust is not distrust—it is control.” That can be hard. Yielding control to those to whom you’ve given responsibility shows that you trust them, but it also makes you vulnerable. But, above all, leaders must be trusted. That is the sign of a good leader. Indeed, trust is important in any relationship.

Some readers may look at the title and say to themselves, “That book sounds good, but it is not for me. I don’t lead anything.”

Yes, some of the entries orient the reader to business operations, but most are really practical advice for any relationship. Are you a parent or a grandparent? Well, then you are a leader of some kind. Are you a store clerk? You are leading the customers you are helping. That relationship is also based on trust.

When I worked at the book store, the store owner had posted a sign that said, “Two rules of this business: 1. The customer is always right. 2. When in doubt, see #1.” So Simple Truths of Leadership notes that not only does a good leader give responsibility to subordinates, but the true leaders of any business are its customers.

The toughest part may come at the end. There the book speaks of what we should do when we make mistakes or when others we trust make a mistake. To sum it up, confess and forgive. That is how trust is maintained.

True leaders serve. This book clearly, directly, and succinctly shows us how. No wonder Mr. Blanchard has been so successful. He is for real.

Nathaniel T. Jeanson. Replacing Darwin: The New Origin of Species. Master Books, 2017.

Replacing Darwin directly challenges certain aspects of Darwinism, but it is no hatchet job. Indeed, it assumes that the reader knows something of genetics and current evolutionary theory. It notes where Darwin was likely correct, but also where he took things too far.

Replacing Darwin notes that Darwin (and Wallace) were successful because they noted geographical variation which distinguished similar species. People could acknowledge that similar creatures, whether plants or animals, varied depending on their location. In many cases the environment was a little different or they were separated by some distance. It is not a stretch to hypothesize a common ancestor within those related species.

For example, there are three species of zebras. They are separated now by distance and environment. One is even called the Mountain Zebra, as opposed to zebras that live on plains. It is likely they had a common ancestor. Indeed, one could make a case that donkeys, horses, and zebras may have all had a common ancestor because they can still breed with one another. We also are aware that there are extinct equids, both fossil horses like the eohippus and ones that have become extinct in historical times like the quagga.

Yes, this is a kind of evolution, what is called microevolution. Darwin’s problem was that in noting differences in creatures with an apparent common ancestry, he hypothesized macroevolution, that unrelated species have common ancestors, too.

The weakness and false assumptions of Darwin had to with the fact that in 1859 no one knew anything about genetics and very little about the function of cells. Replacing Darwin gets the reader up to date on genetics and how the DNA of the cell nucleus (nDNA) and the distinctive DNA of the mitochondria (mtDNA) are passed on. He then shows how mutations and recombinations of DNA sequences alter genes over time. From known DNA sequences and historical observations, he then presents a mathematical model to illustrate how related species could evolve from an ancestral type.

Jeanson notes that Darwin accepted Lyell’s notion that the earth was quite old and that geologic time covered millions of years. Darwin’s idea, and the idea of evolutionists since, is that not only species but even life itself appeared millions, if not billions, of years ago and gradually populated the earth with the variety of plants, animals, and other living things we see today.

Jeanson also notes that in Darwin’s day people were familiar with many fewer species than today—even species of mammals, for example, let alone plants. The variety is stunning. And in some areas of study such as microbes and insects, we are probably still lacking in knowledge of many species.

Where Jeanson challenges Darwin and presents what the subtitle calls The New Origin of Species is that he shows that a young earth creationist (YEC) model works just as well. Indeed, it is much less speculative because there is no need hypothesize “missing links” or “hopeful monsters” because the changes take place within related types. There is no need to speculate on a “missing link” between birds and reptiles because they were separate creations.

To use the example of horse family, the horse ancestor could reasonably have evolved into the seven species of the equid family today over the course of four to six thousand years. While there are many genetic sequences that have not been coded yet, we have enough of both nDNA and mtDNA of a number of related species to illustrate how this is possible. Jeanson’s case is that if we start with certain types or kinds of creatures, many will develop separated types or species over time—and it is not taking eons.

The model also explains extinction more effectively as well. Clearly, some species failed to adapt to changes. Perhaps the extinctions were catastrophic. Evolutionists like to pose a large meteor or a chain of volcanic eruptions, for example. Historically, of course, most cultures in the world have a tradition of worldwide flood. Here is where Jeanson may upset some readers or cause others to roll their eyes.

Such a catastrophe best explains the laying down of fossils. To be fossilized, the burial had to be sudden. We have fossils of creatures giving birth or in the process of swallowing food as if they were photographically captured in a moment of time. The fact that some fossils of extinct creatures still have soft tissue tells us that they cannot be millions of years old. A laying down of even and nearly parallel sedimentary layers is also best explained by a sudden waterborne event. As Joseph Heller would say, something happened.

Replacing Darwin is a visually effective production. There are helpful charts and graphs, and many photos. There is a whole color section not only with photos but with charts illustrating many of the points the text makes on cells, chromosomes, genes, and DNA. I received a copy of this from a former biology teacher. It is worth sharing with those who are comfortable with biology and biological science. It is truly a different and updated Origin of Species.

Brian Thomas et al. Creatures by Design. ICR, 2021.

This short book (50 pages) very simply and directly asks questions that the theory of evolution cannot answer. There are thirteen short chapters, each with colorful photographs, which emphasize abilities or features unique to certain species. These abilities and features raise an obvious question: This just randomly happened?

We see the acute ability of the “dance of the bees” that indicate rather sophisticated knowledge of mathematics. We see the unique scales of the pangolin and engineered jawbone of horned beetle. Creatures by Design notes that hummingbird wings are set up completely differently from other birds.

Polar bears, monarch butterflies, bats, flying frogs all challenge basic evolutionary thinking. This book is a quick, colorful read. It may not answer every question, but it certainly raises them. The closer we look at distinct features of animals and certain symbiotic relationships, one has to at least consider the possibility of design.