Abuse of Power

December 21, 2015
Naturopathic doctor Smith (Principles and Practices of Naturopathic Medicine) opens this useful book with a concise overview of how each part of the brain functions, possible causes of impaired brain function, and ways to "rebuild" the brain. The book features more than 150 brain exercises and puzzles, promising that "this rigorous but easy-to-follow program will help your brain stay sharp." The exercises concentrate on building and maintaining visual/spatial, language, sensory processing, and motor learning skills. Smith also suggests sports and recreational exercises. About half of the book includes background information about "brain-friendly" foods, a health and diet plan, and 125 recipes. Useful health tips discuss the positive effects of specific foods, such as ginger, which Smith says contains compounds that are anti-inflammatory and improve digestion and stomach health. He also includes a list of resourcesâwebsites, apps, and video gamesâand references. This easy-to-understand book should be of interest both to people who are experiencing memory loss and to those who wish to prevent it.

July 18, 2011
Conservative radio host Savage, the author of Trickle Up Poverty and other nonfiction bestsellers, makes his fiction debut with a thriller sure to score a bull's-eye with its target audience, the followers of his talk program, Savage Nation. Jack Hatfield, a freelance TV producer who lost his top-rated opinion show, Truth Tellers, thanks to a liberal media smear campaign, is filming a piece on the San Francisco PD's bomb squad when a call comes in about a bomb found at the site of an auto accident. The mayor and the FBI play down a possible Arab link, and an unlikely informer puts the blame on a homegrown fringe group. Smelling a coverup, the patriotic journalist single-mindedly pursues the truth as far as Israel, Paris, and London. Meanwhile, Imam Zuabi and his Hand of Allah agents prepare a major terrorist attack. Savage pulls off some neat twists as Hatfield and a handful of amateurs fight to prevent a disaster that certain officials choose to ignore or abet.

September 1, 2011
Routine thriller follows a journalist who elects to save the United States from terrorists—and from itself.

Plans to turn San Francisco into the next Ground Zero go awry when Jamal Thomas, a kid hoping to join a gang, hijacks a Prius. The driver gets away, but Jamal commandeers the vehicle, speeds into an intersection, collides with another car and suffers serious injury. Enter SFPD bomb-squad officer Tom Drabinsky, on a FAM trip with Jack Hatfield, who lost his gig as a right-wing radio commentator after the "liberal media elite" labeled him an "Islamaphobe." (Author Savage is a conservative talk-show host.) Drabinsnky is killed when a bomb in the car explodes, a bomb later determined to be of "military grade." Hatfield sniffs a cover-up—and a story that might put him back on top—when police arrest a group known as the "Constitutional Defense Brigade" and charge them with the bombing. Convinced an Islamic cell is up to something big, Hatfield appoints himself to uncover what's really at stake, a decision that comes as no surprise after several digressive editorial passages in which he makes clear he puts little or no trust in police, government and, to some extent, the church. (Frequently recalling Bible verses he finds reassuring, Hatfield makes clear he believes in some sort of divine wisdom.) After a group of men in dark suits take out Jamal, lest he describe the man driving the Prius, Hatfield obtains footage of their getaway car. Spotting a parking decal linked to Great Britain, Hatfield has no compunction about bribing a computer hacker to find out who the men are. Details in hand, he sprints to Israel and then to Great Britain to learn—and stop—what's afoot.

Ten years after 9/11, the tropes of terrorism thrillers wear thin. For fans of Fox News, Savage's right-wing POV (but little else) may lend some distinction.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)