The Craving Mind, From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits

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Mindfulness and associate professor in Medicine and Psychiatry at UMass Medical School. Last year, he published, The Craving Mind, From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits. The forward to the book is by the founder of mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn. Thus, we have two of the world’s heavyweights in mind research teaming up to share their ideas. According to the website for the publisher, Yale University Press, “We are all vulnerable to addiction. Whether it’s a compulsion to constantly check social medical, binge eating, smoking, excessive drinking, or any other behaviors, we may find ourselves uncontrollably repeating. Why are bad habits so hard to overcome? Is there a key to conquering the cravings we know are unhealthy for us?”

Brewer explained reward-based learning, otherwise known as operant condition (positive and negative reinforcement) and how that applied not only to substance misuse, but also various forms of obsessional thinking. For 20 years, Brewer has been using mindfulness meditation as a means of helping his patients overcome various forms of addiction. With the use of fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging), he explained the changes in brain chemistry that occurs with substances, thoughts, and meditation. His research and clinical data is very impressive. There is now ample evidence that meditation is an important element in behavioral change, but I’ll let Brewer convince you about that. If you’d rather watch rather than read, you can search for him in TED Talks. This is impressive data with regard to a very specific way that anyone can heal malfunctioning cognitions. Have a look!

Field of Valor

I can't possibly read all the books that are forwarded to me, so I passed this one to my friend who I'll title "GregGolf of Whispering Palms." He enjoyed the book and gave me a one-sentence review: "If you are into military small arms and the people who use them, this is your book."

East Coast Don has previously reviewed three of Betley's books, and his comments were essentially raves about the quality of his stories.

Firestorm by Solange Ritchie

This is #2. The opener was The Burning Man that I haven’t read. Apparently, a fire nut named Eric was being pursued by Dr. Catherine (Cat) Powers, an FBI forensic pathologist. Based on slivers of clues, Eric had something to with Cat’s husband’s death and the abduction of Joey, her young son. Appears that Eric was never caught and not heard from since.

Firestorm begins roughly a year or so later. Cat and Joey are trying to get on with life. At least until Cat receives an envelope containing photos of when Joey was held captive by Eric. The delivery trail is traced back to Southern California’s Orange County. Cat heads west from DC and rejoins her local cop contact from a year earlier, Jim McGregor, to track down Eric.

Eric’s been busy on a couple fronts. First, he’s had a bit of a makeover courtesy of a cosmetic surgeon, so Cat won't recognize him if she sees him. More importantly, he’s met someone. An Orange County fireman, David, who also has a bit of a thing for fire, occupationally and recreationally. Together they are a formidable team.

Eric’s MO had been to meet up with his victim and after getting the kill, carve the corpse into something nearly unrecognizable. Then set a fire. David likes to set wildfires that start off as property crimes, but eventually graduate to murder.

Cat and McGregor track down one corpse after another, but catch a break (they think) and find Eric standing over his latest victim. Was it good police work or did Eric lead them to him for a suicide by cop?

In a rage, David starts setting a number of fires in the national forests that surround Orange County housing areas. Property losses and deaths mount. His twisted mind starts to take on Eric’s personality and starts killing women, only David doesn’t carve up the victim, he carves Eric’s name into the skin so that Cat knows there is a connection to her past. She thought she was done with Eric.

Thanks to Page-Turner Publicity for a pre-release copy. The author is a Florida attorney. The story is well plotted and paced. But I think it would’ve flowed better (for me) had I read The Burning Man first. Eric’s not in this book for all that long and he seemed to be a more interesting character than David. Only other thing that bugged me was the ending after Cat and her Orange County Police Chief confront David. Thought Cat’s consoling of the Chief seemed contrived. To me, at least. Otherwise, this was decent.

ECD

Motherland by GD Abson

Modern day St. Petersburg, Russia. A Swedish student, Zena, is reported missing after a night of drinking. The case goes to police Captain Natalya Ivanova, an honest cop caught in the middle of a society ripe with bribes. Normally, she gets domestic cases so this one has the potential to be big. Both for her and for her police colonel husband who is in line to be head of the force.

The investigation goes slowly until they learn her Swedish father’s identity. He is a rich industrialist. And as might be expected, he has a few secrets he is not terribly excited to divulge about himself, Zena, their history, and a connection with Russian organized crime.

When the FSB enters the game, political pressures enter the arena that attempt to protect the city’s economic impact if the whole story becomes public. Despite external pressures, all Captain Ivanova wants is to do right by Zena, politics be damned.

This is the first in a series following Captain Ivnaova and it is a series to be reckoned with. Anyone who loves those dark mysteries set in Scandinavia will be quite taken by Abson’s heroine. The pacing is excellent and the mood is elegantly nuanced. Only bad thing is the wait for the next episode.

One of my favorite procedurals with a female lead set overseas was the Saudi trilogy by Zoe Ferraris. If the next two are as unique and satisfying as this, Abson place beside Ferraris will be well earned.

The Consultant by TJ O'Connor

Businesses are outsourcing all kinds of tasks these days. So why not the CIA? They’ve had Jonathan Hunter (or is it Jonathon Mallory?) under contract for maybe 15 years. He and his older brother Kevin had to make do as high schoolers when their parents died in a car wreck. But after a year in college, Jonathon dropped out and joined the Marines, much to Kevin’s objections. After a few tours in the middle east, Jonathon got recruited to join the Agency, but after one assignment went bad and the press was all over it, he was let go. But almost as soon as he was dumped, he was hauled back to consult for the Agency.

For those 15 years, he and Kevin had no contact. A letter from Kevin arrives from out of the blue asking him to come home so he abandons his current assignment, grabs a half dozen passports and money on his way home.

Home is the hunt country of western Virginia. Winchester to be specific. He gets a text from Kevin with a location to meet. He arrives only to be in the middle of a shootout. Kevin gets shot just as Jonathon arrives and dies in his arms. In his police uniform.

A whole bunch of surprises await Jonathon. After 15 years on no contact, even to the point that most of Winchester had no idea of his existence, Jonathon has a lot to catch up on. Like Kevin’s Iranian wife. An adopted Iranian boy. A decrepit outlying town nicknamed Sand Town. A growing population of middle east immigrants. Some wanting to fit in. Others? Not so much. And they are being helped by a Russian and their own Consultant. All Jonathon wants to know is why Kevin was killed. But circumstances swirl around Jonathon forcing multiple stumbles.

The day after Kevin's death, a shopping mall is attacked. Next day, a school. Next day, Union Station in Washington, DC. Jonathon latches on to a clue each day and ends up in the middle of a slaughter. The cops are curious about Jonathon’s motives. Those attacks are just a distraction for the big assault coming. An attack so heinous that the American public will rise up to take out their vengeance on anyone who appears to be from the Middle East.

Hop on O’Connor’s back and enjoy this ride. Helluva fun tale full of action, layers, deceptions, twists, and surprises. Well worth finding this one, folks. Put the publication date on your calendar. It rocks.

Available 15 May 2018.

ECD

Hangman by Jack Heath

Timothy Blake didn’t have the best childhood. Orphaned as an infant. In and out of foster and group homes until he aged out. Lived on the streets. Survived by his wits. Has an online business where he solves puzzles and makes a little money at it, but not even enough for his rent. Now in his mid 30s, he consults with the Houston field office of the FBI mostly on kidnapping cases. Doesn’t get paid per se, but he does get a reward.

Blake has an almost supernatural ability to take seemingly minor clues and piece together the who, the what, and the why of a kidnapping. The local SAC knows Blake from way back and makes good use of Blake’s skill and then arranges the reward. Agent Reese Thistle, like most agents, is skeptical of Blake, but as she watches him at work, starts to gain some respect. And interest.

Cameron Hall has been kidnapped. Lives with his mom in a gated community. Money. Communication with the bad guy is strangely mechanical. Almost pre-recorded. When Blake finally finds the kid, he’s had a kidney removed. A few days later, Blake sees a ‘Have you seen this boy’ poster and the kid looks nearly identical to Hall. Is there a serial kidnapper in Houston?

Here’s the deal. Blake has a secret only he and the SAC know about. Almost all of Blake's actions are connected to keeping his secret. Has to do with his reward for finding the abducted kid alive. Imagine a character who is one part Dexter and one part Hannibal Lector. Yuck.

I have to say that when his particular affliction became apparent, I considered closing the book. But I stuck with it. Yes, there were some graphic passages that I skimmed, but the investigation into the multiple kidnappings was fascinating and worth staying focused on the developments of the case. As a procedural, this is first rate, but it is one creepy psychological study.

Publication date 12 Jan 2018.

ECD

Bandwidth

Bandwidth takes place in the near future at a time when the Internet has become even more integrated into the lives of all humans, and as a result, the corporations that control the digital feed control much of the world. Commonwealth is the company that has become the dominate provider of the feed and as a result has become the most powerful of companies. The company guarantees it’s feed to be totally secure. In order to maintain order as Commonwealth sees fit, they hired Apex which is the premier Washington lobbying firm. Apex sells it’s nearly always successful lobbying activities to the highest bidder, and their best agent is Dag Calhoun, a talented, athletic, charismatic man who has a combination of talents akin to such characters as James Bond, Dirk Pitt, Harry Bosch, and perhaps Jack Taylor.

In the course of doing his work for Apex, Calhoun has assisted powerful corporations to achieve their own selfish profit-motivated goals even if it is clearly to the detriment of the environment where severe weather conditions have dramatically increased. And what if the “feed” is not really so secure, so that the information that is provided to individuals is really manipulated by people with hidden agendas. So, there is a clear dystopian quality to this story – there are very clear good guys and bad guys, and I think you’ll enjoy the resolution.

Mostly, I want to comment about the quality of Peper’s writing – which is brilliant. Emily Kim was the character who challenged Dag to consider the negative impact his work was having on the world, and in a conversation with Emily, Dag says, “’Everything we do, everything we believe, everything we are, we think it’s ours to choose.’ His voice quickened, words rushing to get out. ‘But even something as inconsequential as wanting a lawn in front of our homes isn’t a true choice. It’s the product of a never-ending series of historical accidents. We take the world we’re bon into for granted. We imagine that we control our thoughts and dreams. We think we’re free to be who we want to be. But there’s this vast hidden architecture that shapes us, and we don’t even know it. It’s like we’re actors in a play who don’t realize we’re working off a script.’”

I don’t know anyone else who writes like this. Peper fills out his story with a great cast of characters who are believable. This is an intense and captivating story. Eliot Peper is my newest favorite author, so I invite you to check out his other five novels, a well as Bandwidth.