Rick McBee's Writings
Explore the magic of new ideas and books to read as well as see what books I have written, my favorite photos, my opinions on may subjects, including Science, Africa, the Caribbean, the Civil War, my Book Reviews, and Much More!
Book Special: A Month of Free! From Me!
Rick’s 15 Day Book Sale for the coming Holidays!
As always this time of the year, I give a “Free” book deal to the world. This year it’s going to run for 15 Days of my Kindle books between Nov. 19, and Dec. 18 – 2017! The paperback book versions are also available at excellent prices but not for free. Enjoy!
Visit Amazon! http://www.amazon.com
Or look them up on Book Gorilla! http://www.bookgorilla.com/
Or visit and click My web site! http://www.richardhmcbeejr.com/
Rough Enough: ASIN: B00HCQNBB0 A unique personal history of the last months of the Civil War and the life of a young man as he then continues his military career and then moves on to the Deadwood Gold Rush. Free: Nov. 25, 27, Dec. 2, 10 and 16.
The Ghosts of Ukuthula: ASIN: B01GNGCKHK An historical fiction spy novel about the liberation movement behind the downfall of South African Apartheid. An African born CIA agent risks his life to come in from the “cold” and cause the downfall of a plot to take over the decaying South African government during the times of Nelson Mandela.
Free: Nov. 24, 19, 29, Dec. 3, and 5.
Beachcomber Seashells of the Caribbean: ASIN: B00IP954W2
A seashell key and guide to identify over 250 of the finest seashells you can find along the coast of the Caribbean from Florida right on down onto the northern coasts of Venezuela. Made especially for the e-reader and smart phone so you can take the key right onto the beach! Free: Nov. 22, 26, Dec.. 1, 9 and 18.
Enjoy the Reads! Have some wonderful vacation and holiday time leading to a
Happy New Year!
Book Review: Jury of Six by Matt Braun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Here’s an excellent fast read that both enhances and rehashes the fables and mystique surrounding the 1878 Lincoln County war in New Mexican Territory along with the colorful characters of William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett and fictitious characters surrounding Chisolm’s JingleBob Ranch. This is a second installment in the Luke Starbuck tales in which Matt Braun has created a Manhunter of excellence who will ride the shady edges of the the law with or without a badge in order to get his man. There weren’t a lot of nice clean-cut men out working the ranches in those days and Braun has excellent descriptive abilities to pull us into both the story and the hard scrabble lives of his characters. Starbuck becomes the dirty unshaven lone rider in some cases as he tracks his quarry, but is also backed by John Poe and four other LX cowhands as they search for the killers of rancher Ben Langham and the gang of rustlers surrounding Billy the Kid. Enjoy the read, it’s a model for those of us who are wannabe writers about the old west.
Book Review: Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance and the Future of Evolution by Jonathan B. Losos
Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution by Jonathan B. Losos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Professor Losos has done a very interesting job of trying to elucidate historical and modern convergent evolution studies and experiments in a manner that the layperson can understand based on some excellent examples, many of which have been known and available for study for a good p0rtion of the 19th and 20th centuries. As a Biologist and educator I found the entire book to be full of the kind of examples that would be extremely helpful to the professional teacher to bring variety and interest into the classroom when elaborating on sections of evolutionary biology at both the high school and college levels of study. Thus it is well worth buying and reading. I do have two criticisms of the author’s uses of terminology in his writing. First, I note that Losos does not from the get-go make it clear that his plethora of initial developmental similarities are more likely due to similar plastic materials (read, vertebrate DNA sequences) being similarly shaped or selected for by a common mold (read, similar environmental pressures) to arrive at similar endpoints (read, streamlining of water vertebrates, wing construction of flying vertebrates, camouflaged colors, etc.). Thus the non-biologist reader needs to be careful not to misinterpret Losos’ examples as evidences of Teleology, ie., evidences of some grand planned design in nature. A Theist could go halfway through the book reading his information as the indication of the directional guiding hand of God leading to big brain humans. This was not the author’s intention. Secondly, I would criticize Losos’ tendency to state some of his examples in the terms of Lamark’s theory of acquired characteristics (of dogs evolving longer legs or camouflaged colors to escape a predatory tiger population, rather than a population of dogs being selected naturally over time for longer legs or camouflaged colors due to a predator’s actions.). Again this does not destroy the whole nature of an excellent work of pulling together evidence and research for how convergent evolution works. With these two caveats in mind, I rate this book as an excellent read for both professionals and lay persons desiring to broaden their understanding of one of the mechanisms of evolution.
Book Review: The Blue Eyed Shan by Stephen Becker
The Blue-Eyed Shan by Stephen Becker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Here’s an amazing historical fiction adventure about some of the little known sections of “old” Burma. If you have visited modern Myanmar in the south of the country, don’t expect this to be a joy ride through the places you are familiar with. Our story is set in the north east of the country in 1949-50 when the world was very different from today. WWII historians of Burma will remember that Merrill’s Marauders jungle crashed for months on end to take the Japanese occupied town of Myitkyinia in Northern Burma. Then following the war, Mao Tse-Tung chased many of the Nationalist Chinese army under Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang, into the highlands of Burma. They fled with their weapons, south into the Golden Triangle of Burma ultimately taking over the opium trade. Against this background, our hero, Greenwood, an anthropologist, is pulled into WWII to work as an OSS because he speaks Shan and has lived in the hills as a Shan tribesman in Northern Burma. Following the war, Greenwood returns to America, becoming a Professor of anthropology in university life. Growing jaded with civilization, he decides to revisit his Burmese wife in the up-country village of Pawlu. Of course, in the intervening years, life in Burma has changed. The village has a new religious leader, a green skinned man, formerly a slave in the tin mines. The local wild head-hunting mountain tribes now have more modern weapons and are a threat to the village and to any strangers crossing their territory. The dwindling Kuomintang under a failed general and womanizing Russian are searching for a place to call home. Armed with his favorite weapon, a Thompson machine gun, Greenwood and his guide set off into the unknown to find his wife and daughter and alter forever the fate of the village of Pawlu.
Book review – Traitor’s Kiss – by Gerald Seymour
Traitor’s Kiss by Gerald Seymour
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Here’s a writer who has definitely found his groove in the modern spy, suspense world. A position that rivals John LeCarre’s original supreme level. You’ll want to dig out the world atlas and locate Kaliningrad, Russia to see why it’s both forgotten and at the same time one of the most strategic of Russian missile and troop sites on the North Sea! The tension within the book is palpable. A high ranking Russian military spy, living and working within this fortress of Russian defenses, with access to a General’s top secret papers. The play-off and intrigue between the spy and the old style Soviet KGB counterspy system is accurate and well written. The resurrection of the old British commando type unit with all it’s quirks constantly undercut by a modern Whitehall man who no longer believes in boots on the ground makes for a classic chess match of wits, bullying and countermoves in this race to pull out a spy who has been made but not yet put in chains. The side story of the Russian spy catcher and interrogator is absolutely amazing. It doesn’t take water boarding to break even the toughest of men, only patience, empathy and the one on one techniques of a master. This is my pick for the best spy novel I’ve read. Action to the very end!
Book Review: Condition Black by Gerald Seymour
Condition Black by Gerald Seymour
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Here’s a really well written book showing the flaws in Whitehall’s old boys methodology of handling an active shooter and spy suspect. A good insight into the differences in the way the US and Brits handle situations. The little angry underpaid government nuke scientist who gets passed over until he becomes a target for the Iraqi WMD program. Excellent characters, I love his hit-man, Colt. The kid from the British sticks who rebelled against Daddy, still loves Mommy and has sold his soul to a Colonel in Iraq. The side story of the scientist’s wife is well done including her pent up sexual frustrations, guilt and ability to clam up in the end. The semi-rogue FBI man is a bit of a bumbler and not as good a shot as I would want one of my “finest” to be. I guess sometimes we get our man and then… sometimes we don’t. Enjoy it, this writer is up there with LeCarre in understanding the psych, double-cross and intrigue of the spy world even today.
Oregon Burns Up while Texas Drowns
Fire Scene from Pixabay! See Coumbia Gorge pictures of wild-fire below!
Just when you think summer and fire danger should be ending, some teenagers apparently spent over 5 hours hiking in the ultra-dry woods of the Columbia Gorge witness report and trew fire crackers for several hours into the tinder like forest. The consequence – BOOM! A big wild-fire that will cost millions of $$ to stop if it can be stopped. Otherwise we will have to wait until winter!
Columbia Gorge Fire Watch the fire live!
Multnoma Falls Lodge Saved! Eagle Creek Fire
Links plus Oregon Live information: Views of Town Hall meeting, the Fire and Maps
Recent fire activity in the Gorge is shown on this large Geomac map in red. (A screen grab from https://www.geomac.gov/viewer/viewer.shtml by Darryl Lloyd)
See this link for Oregon Smoke levels right now: http://oregonsmoke.blogspot.com/
With all the national/international news focused on the Hurricanes which will affect millions of people, the Western USA is largely ignored despite one of the worst fire seasons with poor air quality distributed from the Oregon Coast in the west to the continental divide in Montana in the east and from north central California in the south to the Canadian border and Northward up north. Jill and I have been living in smoke conditions that require a mask to be worn for the past 10 days (for the first 7 days in Bend, you could hardly find a facemask on any but the most hidden of construction or automobile stores.
Here are some sites other sites to check the fire in the Columbia gorge which jumped the mile wide Columbia river four days ago and headed off into the State of Washington:
Our Indian Creek and Eagle Creek combined fire. https://www.facebook.com/EagleCreekandIndianCreekFires2017/?hc_ref=ARRPuwNsOxFIP3rfd4A-_9rGFU6jGk3XlF0tJxKS2KlMcrrPzJu_kPrn4hnoOz1F2Lk&fref=nf
I went to a Hood River town meeting tonight after the fire marshal came by today to tell us that we were on Level !, (That means “Get Ready”) So Jill and I are packing stuff and planning to drop it off with friends. If we get the level 2 (“Get Set”) warning, then we will shut everything down, drop the dog a t the pet camp and go stay with our stuff with friends. We won’t wait for the “Go” since there ereally aren’t that many roads out of our area and we don’t want to get trapped. Luckily, this evening at the town meeting, the meteorologist said that the conditions that caused the big fire break-out two days ago have changed and the chances of a big fire run to the East and into Hood River are much less.
Keeping optimistic that the weather and winds will change and my home will be safe!
War Monuments: History – Who We Are and What We Believe
and look beyond the sign through the overgrown blackberries at the expanse of cotton fields that exist just beyond this nearly forgotten site where your great grandfather helped man a three gun outpost near the last days of the war and ponder the meaning of life and reflect on the individual sacrifices that welded a nation out of a bunch of hayseed farmers, businessmen and ruffians. 
Book Review: Bowdrie’s Law, by Louis L’Amour
Bowdrie’s Law by Louis L’Amour
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is probably one of L’Amour’s better books. At the beginning of each tale about Chick Bowdrie, L’Amour puts a historical note about the old west. Not all relate exactly to his 15 page story that picks another incident in Chick Bowdrie’s life as a Texas Ranger, but they do illustrate how varied the lives of those men could be, as well as the types of persons who made up the 1870 – 1890 western framework of time that most authors of this genre are dealing with. I like the endings of a number of these stand-alone short stories which kind of leave you to imagine what happened next when the last sentence is: “It was a long way to town.” You’ll enjoy the stories of the trickster who gets the Sheriff hanged instead of himself, the story of the young lady in distress,and the bad guys holed up in an isolated canyon with a secret cave. You’ll enjoy Chick Bowdrie’s slow but steady ability to track a man across the desert and in the end as all good Texas Rangers should, always get his man.
Book Review: Broken By Messines, by Dr. Mark Wardlaw
Broken by Messines in WW1 – The Grandparents I Never Knew by Mark Wardlaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A book that best fits into the category of genealogical memoir. In doing his research, Dr. Wardlaw has tried to open up the secrets behind the distant love affair of his grandfather and grandmother, who were engaged for over five years, living on different continents and able to only communicate by letters that often took several months to arrive. It is a story of love that nearly was unrequited and it ends as a tragedy in many ways. Many of the letters are unfortunately stilted in their writing. This is due to the period of history in which many of the things we talk about openly today were not discussed. In addition, Peter’s military service during the war and the rigid censorship of letters from battle field areas meant that often soldiers could only talk about the most mundane of circumstances. For me the very best part of the book is in very long letter from Kate to Peter which describes her trip to New Zealand’s tourist centers while fiance Peter is off on the Galipoli peninsula fighting the Turks. I believe the Dr. is right in saying that the eventual outcome of the marriage and some of the mysteries of his own father’s upbringing are still not completely resolved by this research. Those readers in the Wardlaw clan who read this will gain insight into the history and relationships which only letters can open for us in the realm of history.
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