Böcker av Joseph A Bonelli

"A comedy about good people and zanies: Chief Joseph (Town Council); Mayor Shorty; Sally Jones, barmaid and proprietress of the Dogpatch Saloon, aka Stupifyin Jones; and Prospector Mike and his burro Hillary (not that Hillary!)"--

Dr. Sigurd Bergman is a psychiatrist with twenty years of experience in various areas of psychiatric practice in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is also an amateur epidemiologist. As the Covid-19 pandemic rages, he keeps a diary of local events mixed with expert analysis of medical protocols for treating Covid. He compares Nevada and California death rates, predicts we will not see the end of Covid for several years, and suggests genetic testing of the fatally susceptible, in anticipation they will not respond to vaccines. Dr. Bergman discovers secrets neither the nation''s top doctors nor our presidents knew. He concludes that the pandemic is more than a medical problem with viruses; it is a mental health epidemic, a psychiatric emergency, of massive proportions due to widespread individual and systemic hysteria. The 10% positive rate for Covid testing means only one person in ten has the bug and nine out of ten are suffering from mild to severe hysteria, yet no one acknowledges this. He sees the national increase in insomnia as another indicator of his diagnosis. It seems like Hans Christian Andersen''s fairy tale of "The Emperor''s New Clothes." Just as no one noticed the Emperor was nude, so no one but Bergman notices that Covid-19 is cyclical, not seasonal, coming in predictable (and ever larger) waves of two or three months. He feels that encouraging everyone, even those with no symptoms, to get tested, slowed down discovery of positives and fueled the surge, the equivalent of shooting ourselves in the foot. His conclusion: hysteria caused political leaders to needlessly shut down the economy and close schools, ended the ascending career of at least one politician, and made a scapegoat of a president. He determines that next time we must have learned from these lessons.

In this speculative socio-political novel, a prestigious think tank-The Cassandra Group-led by a military historian general is aiding the president of the United States behind the scenes in sensitive negotiations with a foreign leader. As part of the plan, three brilliant young predictive historians in the Cassandra Group are assigned to devise a way to uncover the foreign nation's hidden ICBM launch sites. Cassandra has devised a way to locate these "missing" sites by supporting a spin-off group called The Searchers composed mostly of women with highly unusual talents and time-tested old fashioned strategies. But they work. Too well, perhaps. Then bad stuff happens and everything gets messy as each hidden launch site is located. Is The Cassandra Group helping or merely meddling with history? Does this information help with the president's negotiations? Or is it too late? Will both countries be hit hard?The Cassandra Group will tell you its truth-but you may not want to believe it. Shame on you.

Juan Duval (Juan Bellavista Xicart) was born in Barcelona, the heart of Catalonia, in 1897. He first made a career for himself in his native Spain and later in Paris and London he assumed the stage name “Juan Duval” retaining this for his career in Latin America and the Anglo world of the United States. He was a man of multiple talents: a dancer, (Spanish-Gypsy, French-Apache); a choreographer, and a director and producer of musical revues and movies. He was a poet, linguist, a businessman, and a soldier in two World Wars and the Foreign Legion. He was a musician and composer. He ran his own Spanish dance school on Hollywood Boulevard. A friend of bullfighters. A Hollywood character actor and screenwriter. A writer, amateur historian, and playwright. In short, he was a Renaissance man. In America he was a friend of famous ventriloquist Señor Wences; Jose and Amparo Iturbi, concert pianists of worldwide fame; Emilio Osta, child musical prodigy and concert pianist; Victor Granados (son of Enrique); actors John McIntyre, Warner Anderson, and many others who were part of that period of Hollywood. Geo-politically, Juan was born a Catalan and Spaniard, was made a temporary French citizen by the Great War, and became a U.S. citizen by serving in the U.S. Armed Forces at the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II. Juan used his talents as writer and poet in Spain in 1937—in support of the Republican cause, at constant risk of his life. He was a multi-talented artist who was not twisted or conflicted, but a decent human being and an old-fashioned Gentleman.