Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: Written language is one of mankind's greatest inventions but became much more useful when our ancient ancestors figured out how to make it easily portable. Through a series of essays written by multiple experts, this compilation tells the history of "books" from the use of clay tablets through modern times. Review: I came across this book while looking for something to read at our local library. While it isn't something that would likely be appealing to a lot of people, I did think it was an interesting subject and decided to give the book a try. I wasn't disappointed. It's not something that gets thought about a lot, but the written language would be relatively useless if we hadn't found a way to make it easy to transport from one place to another. Today, that's relatively easy, especially with the World Wide Web but, in ancient times, the methods were much more limited. As a result, I enjoyed reading about how those ancient civilizations ...

Synopsis: An orphaned Tracy Marrow is sent to live with an aunt in gang-infested South Central Los Angeles and, like many people from that area, eventually lives a criminal lifestyle until a near-fatal car accident forces him to shift his focus and he becomes a successful rapper and actor.  Review: My wife and I are familiar with Ice-T from watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and, when I came across this book at our local library, I decided to check it out as a result. I was able to finish it before going to bed last night and, overall, I thought it was an interesting autobiography. I think the thing that really stood out for me when reading this book was the way Ice-T didn't shy away from talking about his past.  A lot of other writers might have omitted or only vaguely referenced criminal activity they might have been involved with. This book, however, goes into quite a bit of depth about what Ice-T was involved with before turning his life around. This includ...

Synopsis: Actor Alan Alda's autobiography discusses his growing up with a famous but not-so-rich father and a mother with mental health issues as well as his life as a struggling actor before landing his role on M*A*S*H and becoming a success. Review: I decided to change things up a bit the last time I was at the library and, in addition to my normal murder mystery, visited the biography/autobiography section. I'm a big fan of M*A*S*H (the TV show, the movie and the book ) and figured this book would be a good one to start with. As it turns out, the book was nothing like what I was expecting it to be. Given Alda's comedy background, I figured I'd be laughing out loud every few minutes. But, that didn't turn out to be the case. However, despite that, I found I had a hard time putting the book down. If you buy this book thinking Alda is going to give you a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the M*A*S*H TV series, you'll be very disappointed. He bare...