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Law enforcement agencies are challenged on many fronts in their efforts to protect online users from all manner of cyber-related threats. Through constant innovation, cybercriminals across the world are developing increasingly sophisticated malware, rogue mobile apps and more resilient botnets. With little or no technical knowledge, criminals now occupy parts of the Internet to carry out their illegal activities within the notorious Dark Web.

The post Infiltrating the Dark Web appeared first on OUPblog.

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I can't let the year end without a shout out to Sheila Turnage's Mo and Dale.  Her latest Mo and Dale Mystery is The Odds of Getting Even (Penguin, 2015).  The Mo and Dale Mystery series is my favorite middle grade series. Each new book is as good as the last.  Each is filled with insightful humor, Southern-style hospitality, and all the eccentricities of small town living. The characters in Sheila Turnage's fictional town of Tupelo Landing, NC, will leave you begging for another chance to visit.

In The Odds of Getting Even, Mo and Dale, a.k.a. The Desperado Detectives, have another case on their hands.  Dale's no-good dad is on the lam and the whole town is on edge.

As usual, the café run by Mo and her "family of choice," the Colonel and Miss Lana, takes current events in stride,

I turned back to the Azalea Women. "Welcome and thank you in advance for your generous tips."  Generous tips equals a flat-out lie, but like Miss Lana says, you don't stop pitching just because nobody's swinging.  I draped a paper napkin over my arm. "Today, our Get Out of Jail Free Delight feature Free-Range Eggs, Potatoes at Large, and Bacon a la Parole.  We also got the Colonel's famous Tofu Incognito--a vegan delight featuring tofu scrambled up to look like somebody else.  A Special runs six dollars and includes a basket of All Rise Biscuits.  May I take your order?"

"Get Out of Jail and coffee," they chorused.  "How's Dale holding up?"

Once again, Sheila Turnage has written a book that deals with a serious topic (a father who is frequently on the wrong side of the law) in a humorous way. As narrator, Mo LoBeau offers up witty, often hilarious dialogue and commentary. There is much homespun wisdom in the the little town of Tupelo Landing.  Here are just a few examples from The Odds of Getting Even:

Mo (on the perceived indignity of wearing hand-me-down clothes):

"Dale's a musician.  He enjoys vintage outfits," ... "Besides, Miss Lana says most everything in life worth having is handed down."

Dale (voicing his opinion to a news reporter):

Your articles make it seem that way.  But a lot of people thinking flat don't change round.

Mo (her take on beauty):

Attila's face would be pretty if she didn't live behind it.

Dale (on "getting even"):

The only even you ever get is inside yourself--when you don't need to get even anymore.

If you haven't read them yet, don't miss the first two Mo and Dale Mystery novels.

Book 1

Three Times Lucky - a link to my review of the audiobook read by Michal Friedman
[http://shelf-employed.blogspot.com/2013/08/three-times-lucky-audiobook-review.html]

Book 2
The Ghost of Tupelo Landing - a link to my review for AudioFile Magazine
[http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/88494/]

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$50 Gift Certificate Holiday Giveaway Enter here:   Mudpuppy Holiday Giveaway  . The Barking Family Christmas Written by Edward Beedham Austin Macauley    10/30/2015 978-1-7855-4793-5 422 pages   Ages 8—12 “The Lake District was peaceful—then there was the Barking family . . . Dad Barking is an inventor taking any opportunity to disappear into his …

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Pizzoli, Greg. 2015. Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. New York: Viking.

In 1890, the man who would one day be known by forty-five different aliases was born to the Miller family, in what is now the Czech Republic.  His parents named him Robert.

Working both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Robert Miller was a con man of legendary proportions, becoming most famous for his "sales" of Paris' iconic Eiffel Tower. In addition to selling the Eiffel Tower (numerous times), Miller was a counterfeiter and a card sharp.

Yes, Robert Miller was a criminal of the worst order, but it will be hard for readers to remain unimpressed by the sheer chutzpah of the man.  It's a book that readers won't put down until they learn the fate of the legendary man who came to be known as Tricky Vic!

Not content with merely an intriguing story, Greg Pizzoli has enveloped Tricky Vic in outstanding artwork. The back matter includes an explanatory note about the unique combination of methods (including halftone photographs, silkscreen and Zipatone) used to achieve the book's dated, contextual feel.  Appropriately, the face of the elusive Tricky Vic is represented by a fingerprint stamp.

Back matter includes a Glossary, Selected Sources, Author's Note, Acknowledgments, and the aforementioned "Note about the Art in this Book."

Advance Reader Copy provided by the publisher. Coming to a shelf near you on March 10, 2015.



Two reminders for this first Monday in March:

March is Women's History Month! Please visit KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month!  We've got a great month planned.  Today features author and librarian, Penny Peck.



Today is Nonfiction Monday.  Check out all of today's posts at the Nonfiction Monday Blog.

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Title: Too Hot To Handle Author: Aleah Barley Publisher:  Entangled

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

When I read the blurb for Too Hot To Handle, I was intrigued.  The heroine is a car thief.  That was new for me, and I was eager to see how events played out in the story.  Honey’s love interest is a cop, and I didn’t think I could be convinced that they could put her past indiscretions behind her.  I was wrong.  This is a very fun read, perfect for vacation reading or lounging by the pool.  I hate to keep saying that lately, but during the summer, I do adjust my reading habits to include fluffier fare, because I enjoy escapist reading so much.  While I enjoyed Too Hot To Handle quite a bit, I did have to check my skepticism at the door.

Honey Moore is a reformed car thief.  Kind of.  After serving eighteen months in jail for stealing Jack Ogden’s police car, she decided to turn over a new leaf.  Instead of stealing cars, she fixes them now.  Honey loves working on cars, but when the chance comes to score some easy money by recovering a stolen car, she agrees to find and retrieve billionaire Logan Burrow’s auto.  She quickly regrets the decision after her house is burned down to the ground.  Quickly realizing that someone wants her dead, Honey adds another crime to her portfolio – she breaks into Jack Ogden’s apartment.  She has had a crush on Jack since high school, but realizing that her shady family would ruin his political career, she denied her feelings for him.  Except that she couldn’t stop thinking about him, leading to harmless pranks and the not so harmless car theft that left her a convicted felon. 

When Jack finds Honey hiding out in his apartment, he isn’t amused, but he can’t deny the attraction that still simmers between them.  Another attempt on Honey’s life kicks him into protector mode, and soon they are both flirting with danger, as well as with each other.  If Jack doesn’t come clean with his involvement with Honey, he can ruin his career, which is already on shaky ground because of his temper.  Now that Honey is back in his life, he will do anything to keep her there.

I thought this was a humorous and fast-paced read.  I loved the tension between Jack and Honey.  Jack has no reason to trust her, given her long list of crimes, and he is still baffled by her sudden rejection when they were in high school.  I understood his confusion, and I even forgave him for jumping to the wrong conclusions about Honey’s actions.  She has never been straight up with him, and with her history, it’s easy to believe that Jack would have some reservations about trusting her.  Honey is so used to defe

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Al Capone...

...public enemy #1
...one of the most notorious criminals of all time
...humanitarian?

Al Capone has been portrayed throughout history as a bad man, however, there's good in all people.  Deirdre Marie Capone is the grand niece of this infamous man and has shared a different and detailed back story in, Uncle Al Capone.

From Al Capone's efforts to integrate baseball, to what really happened to him while he served time on Alcatraz, Uncle Al Capone is a detailed and poignant look at Al's background.  In this book Deirdre also shares memories of Uncle Al and what it was like growing with the stigma of the Capone name - it wasn't easy!

In addition, Deirdre also shares her grandmother's recipes for some of Al's favorite and traditional dishes.

Uncle Al Capone is an interesting and page-turning read.  I enjoyed the details and true story of Capone from someone who was there and the never seen before pics from her own family album.

Check out Uncle Al Capone at Deirdre's web site at; http://www.unclealcapone.com/

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Gerald Steinacher is the first person to uncover the full extent of the secret escape routes and hiding places 'ratlines' that smuggled Nazis out of Europe, through South Tyrol, across the Alps into Italy, and onward to Argentina and elsewhere. His ground-breaking research in the archives of the ICRC in Geneva brought to light the fact that the Red Cross supplied travel papers to war criminals - amongst them Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele.

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A Merciless Place is a story lost to history for over two hundred years; a dirty secret of failure, fatal misjudgement and desperate measures which the British Empire chose to forget almost as soon as it was over.

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I have recently been invited to join a book club in my home town and was pleased to receive the invitation. I respect and like the members of this group. I did have some trepidation about accepting since I don’t often have time to do all the reading I would like. And If I were obligated to have read a book in its entirety each month to speak intelligently about it, I would feel guilty about being unprepared for the critique and discussion about the assigned book.

It has been two months now since my induction into this group and I consider myself a complete failure so far. The first author who was chosen is a writer of thrillers, not my most favorite genre. I tried. However I found him to write in such a fashion that I never became interested in any of his characters. So how can I read a book about people for whom I don’t give a hoot? I voiced my opinion and sat silently listening to those who did enjoy the book. Sigh!

This month the chosen book is The Wizard of Lies the Madoff story. Again, I felt like I would be in above my head. I know nothing about stocks and bonds, converting convertible bonds into common stock, mergers, accuisitions, tax-write-off, etc., etc., etc. Never mind, I told myself, I will read this book to find out why Madoff became the criminal, thief, and robber that he is. You see, I am interested in people and what makes them become who they are. Is it some thing in their environment, in their upbringing, some experience they may have had, or what? Why did Bernie Madoff become the Bernie Madoff who destroyed hundreds of people’s lives and who now rots in prison? This will be interesting, I said to myself.

Wrong again! Sadly, it disappointed me. It was written more like a historical treatise about his family background, not unusual or pathologic, and then the steps he took in his career that led him to the ponzi scheme that we know as the mother of all ponzi schemes.

The book failed me in showing me Bernie Madoff as a person, someone who not only thinks and plots, but someone who also loves and hates and plays and feels. The book fails to do that and I shall attend the next book club meeting once again without having finished reading it.

Filed under: Books, Personalities Tagged: Book Clubs, books, Criminals, Personalities 2 Comments on Criminals, Thieves, and Robbers, last added: 7/30/2011