Book review for Xingu, Wonder of the Amazon by Michael d’Agostino, published in November, 2025.

The book is written in English for 8-18 year olds. The book has 119 pages (digital media) and has no illustrations. 

The book describes adventures of Xingu, a male gorilla, whose shipping crate breaks open during shipping en route from Africa, and who finds himself in New York City. Follow Xingo as he steals food, fights off cops, hides out, cooks with Julia Child, admires an orchestra concert, catches a train car headed to Montana, faces a motorcycle gang, becomes a pet and unpaid laborer, specimen in a laboratory

and a few more roles, as the owners bemoan their loss.

The story is written as though a play. The narrative helps the story flow better. Additional narrative that would scenario descriptions, scenes, and environment is absent.

Two out of the twelve chapters do not involve Xingu. Some of the procedures and information could be more accurate. For example, the NYPD does not take fingerprints of animals. 

The antics seem to me to be the antics of any person who has not been taught what to expect from a given culture, who may not understand the language, who becomes fearful, becomes confused, or feels threatened, in an unfamiliar environment, while trying to learn as much as possible on a steep learning curve. As a traveler, having felt and sometimes behaved similarly, I do not find the story cute or humorous.

The story flows enough to create some sense of anticipation. By page 55 I am glad Xingu remains alive.

Five stars. Verdict: The story line is interesting enough. Definitely worth reading for the story line, plot elements, and the variety of roles in which Xingu is cast- from criminal, to laborer, to beloved pet, to slavery. The language is at an appropriate reading level.

© 2026 Pine Bluff Investments Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Scammed: how to spot online fraud, fake jobs, and AI scams before they catch you

Author: Edwin Mallin

Illustrator: None

Genre: Nonfiction

Reason for selecting the title: The singular and major factor related to selecting Scammed is a personal history of being scammed. Other factors include the provocative color of the book. The dark cover piqued my curiosity. It lends mystery and danger to the idea of scam. The colors poking through remind me of my own colorful emotions and thoughts during and after my own experience with scamming. 

Scamming has existed for centuries. Online scamming has been around as there has been an online. By definition, online scamming takes place on or through the internet, a relatively new public tool of convenience.

…so you have ever let a trial period pass or received an email or urgent call asking for money or entered personal and private information into a fake form on the internet or met a person on line who is too good to be true, then you know what horror, embarrassment, heartbreak, and sense of unclosure being scammed can cause.

In 25 chapters, the author describes the techniques scammers use to separate the scammed from their resources, while using the emotions of fear, urgency, shame, popularity and the desire to be desired.

Mallin takes us on several journeys to uncover techniques of scammers and how to spot a potential scam before it catches you.

The main characters of scammed folks are ordinary folks. Scammers, who are also ordinary folks, are ordinary folks who have skills and organized systems in place to separate ordinary citizens from their tangible and intangible resources over time by employing urgency, guilt, affection.

Scammers begin slowly by creating lists, making many calls, developing trust, collecting data/information. From call centers or small operations, scammers, for pay or under duress, work their scripts, which are specifically designed to manipulate the scammed to provide personal and private information-tangible and intangible (Think: hearts and emotions), which may be used to obtain credit cards, cash, homes, property, and to empty bank accounts. 

Embarrassment is not unusual. Usually the scammed are left with fewer to zero resources or provided access accounts or information to the scammers, that scammers can use to exploit. Many scammed are reduced to penury, become emotionally bereft, endure identity theft or worse. 

Healing comes with the information Mr. Mallin provides.

Star rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 

Millin’s book uses anecdotes, empathy, and dignity with an easy-to-read narrative to embrace and encourage people who have been affected (or those who have not yet been affected) by scamming to become proactive and face the future with improved awareness of the techniques scammers without shame 

 After reading Millin’s Scammed, I am relieved that I am not the only one who has been scammed. I am less embarrassed, and more prepared to handle potential scammers after learning how scammers scam, after learning how scammers identify folks to scam, and after learning how I can better respond (or not) to prevent myself from being scammed.

I recommend Mallin’s Scammed to all people who use modern technology, especially older people and teenagers, who may not be familiar with the dark side of slick new technology or whose brains may not be fully developed enough (or aging) to connect the dots. 

As a senior citizen, I can empathize with older citizens who are more familiar, and more comfortable, when banking was slower, convenience was measured in hours and days and not in microseconds of Internet speed, romance was experienced in person, and the procedural slowness required to get anything done had not yet been reduced by the speed of the internet and productivity tools, portals, and apps and carts, let alone the mimicry of artificial intelligence, chatbots and other, for example.

The gentle, sensitive and kind descriptions of scenarios of regular people responding in human ways to unexpected inquiries that seem to require prompt responses, which compromise safety and fraud protocols, we sort, of naturally possess, make learning about scammer ways (and means) and make navigating scammer-invested-waters of online life, make the book a must-read for the sorely scammed and the surely-not-yet-scammed.

Disclaimer: About two to three days into reading the book, the interface could not open the book’s PDF. The book report is based on the first 150 of 250 pages in the book.

©2025 Pine Bluff Investments Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Happy gut: the cleansing program to help you lose weight, gain energy, and eliminate pain
(Book)

Library Journal Review

Jensen's first book describes the often humorous, exasperating, and frustrating (though not in that order) travel adventures of the author and her husband, Rudy, recapping their many journeys taken from 1976 to 1994, in the days before cell phones and Internet maps. They are opposites in almost every aspect. Jensen is cautious and safety-loving, prepared to "expect the worst"; Rudy's rules of the road are much more spontaneous and include advice to "ride with locals, not tourists" and "relax, some kind stranger will appear." Their destinations include East Asia, Eastern Europe, Egypt, England, Mexico, New Zealand, and Russia. The author portrays the frustration, exasperation, and challenging emotions that accompany responses to what she sees as preventable situations, all without admonishing her husband with, "I told you so!" Verdict In the vein of the blog Universal Man by young Turkish adventurer Yigit Kurt, which describes the travel adventures of Kurt and his father, this humorous travelog is a delight. Armchair travelers and their active counterparts, spouses who have traveled or are thinking about traveling together, solo trekkers, women journeyers, and dysfunctional spouses will enjoy this work.

-Cheryl Branche, Brooklyn © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Full Moon Over Noah’s Ark: An Odyssey to Mount Ararat and Beyond

by Rick AntonsonSkyhorse. Apr. 2016. 384p. illus. maps. index. ISBN 9781510705654. $24.99. TRAVCOPY ISBN

This adventure story of Canadian tourism executive Antonson's (Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America's Main Street; To Timbuktu for a Haircut) trip to and up Mount Ararat and back is poignant and suspenseful. The author describes his journey from London to Istanbul, and from Istanbul to the little town of Tatvan via the Van Gulu Express to the base camp in Dogubeyazit, Turkey, his ascent to the top of Mount Ararat with fellow climbers and their aides, his experience with blindness on the descent, and the trip back to London. It is interspersed with stories about the Cyrus cylinder, cuneiform, local history and conflict, and ventures to locations of ark (as in the biblical Noah's) sightings. Intended for travelers, adventurers, extreme sports enthusiasts, and armchair travelers, this volume further includes illustrations that add meaningful perspective.

VERDICT This tasty, spicy feast of a book could have gone beyond its 350 pages. Once picked up, it is hard to put down; it would serve well any library's bookshelf.

Reviewed by Cheryl Branche, Brooklyn, NY , Apr 01, 2016

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life & Succeed on Your Own Terms

by Vishen Lakhiani Rodale Books. 2016. 288p. illus. index. ISBN 9781623367084  $18.99

A blueprint to a life better fulfilled, Lakhiani's Code to the Extraordinary Mind treats us to the ten laws on which the author basis his blueprint. Curating concepts "from computational thinking, integral theory, modern spirituality, evolutionary biology, and humor,  personal growth" and journaling he describes how the world we were born to and its rules ("Brules") shape us and how with reflection and awareness we can reprogram ourselves out of Brules into a paradigm that represents success on our own terms.

The ten laws, along with exercises and methods, retrain how you think, help you to grow at increased speed, describe skills required to bend reality, create blissipline, and develop the ability and desire to make your own quest.

Terms like consciousness engineering and reality bending are define and applied to the ten-law framework to help the reader realize the quest (or journey) that promises a life fulfilled. Through ideas, stories, conversations with great modern and contemporary minds and leaders, graphs, Lakhiani teaches us how to realize self-actualization applying the blueprint that challenges us to remove old ideas and concepts that limit our personal growth and lead us to a life filled with more happiness and self-actualization than the reader might expect! By helping readers question the world and its premises and their own responses to them, The Code to the Extraordinary Mind encourages the reader to create their own paths and includes a list of books to read for new perspectives. The book offers links to videos, guides, interviews, speeches through interactive links with MindValley.com.

VIshen Lakhiani is the founder of MindValley, a company that provides tools and teaches about mindfulness, meditation, contemplative practices,  nutrition, health, wellness, and about how to have better relationships.

VERDICT:

Vishen Lakhiani's The Code of the Extraordinary Mind 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life & Succeed on Your Own Terms is an excellent book. The ideas and concepts expand the mind. The book helps you, the reader, to apply the ideas and concepts to enhance your world. It helps you identify your own terms and directs you how to begin your quest to a life fulfilled. It is well-written, easy to read, humorous, and well worth the time to read.

Reviewed by Cheryl Branche Brooklyn, NY July 10, 2024.

©Copyright 2024 Pine Bluff Investments Corporation

THE WHITENESS OF WEALTH: : How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans — and How We Can Fix It

by   Dorothy A. Brown

In THE WHITENESS OF WEALTH: : How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans — and How We Can Fix It, Brown takes a multidisciplinary look at how the US tax structure favors White compared to Blacks in America. Using interviews, scenarios, research into IRS documents and reports, Brown makes examples of the White family with a stay-at-home wife and a fictitious Black family with two working adults to show that economic dictates that require two working adults to maintain a lifestyle lea to a relatively unfavorable tax burden compared to families where one person in the family brings home the bacon. Brown cites historical instances and describes changes in the tax "code" that resulted in the standards of taxation that we see today.

The Whiteness of Wealth is an interesting view into how Whites came to and  continue to benefit from being White in America, through tax policies. It explains how Blacks do not benefit as much and how, though, some may bring home more bacon collectively as  two working adult household, they pay more taxes that a White household with one working adult. A very interesting read for the reader who wants to know how it seems not to get better or who wants some historical context about how tax and race are related and why.

VERDICT: Brown's THE WHITENESS OF WEALTH: : How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans — and How We Can Fix It is worth the time to read not only from a matter of fact perspective-historical and political and economic perspectives as well. It helps you think more clearly about and plan for married life, tax wise. It is well written with deep cultural understanding (Think: nuance)  and awareness.

Reviewed by Cheryl Branche Brooklyn, NY July 26, 2024.

©Copyright 2024 Inmentis Holdings

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men who Became America's First Paramedics

by

Kevin Hazzard

In American Sirens, Kevin Hazzard chronicles the history of emergency transportation, the creation, development and disposition of Freedom House, an Pittsburgh organization that, in 1970, changed the face of emergency transport services. From zero emergency transportation services, Freedom House created the personnel with know-how from a few disadvantaged Black men, who through their commitment, dedication, and determination despite struggle and discrimination, become the first paramedics in the world and with it, Freedom House, to become the first paramedic staffed ambulance service as we know it today.

The author is a former paramedic.

VERDICT: Whether you are curious or interested in health, medicine or health relate topics, Hazard's American Sirens offers background to the emergency medical services many take for granted today. It is a reminder that the folks that we often consider unworthy and incapable have skills and talents to offer that make the world a better place for all of us. The books reports an aspect of Black history that need not be forgotten. 

Reviewed by Cheryl Branche Brooklyn, NY July 26, 2024.

©Copyright 2024 Inmentis Holdings