Eyes of the Emperor

Eddy lives near Pearl Harbor during World War II. His family is Japanese. As soon as Pearl Harbor is bombed, many white people are leery about the "Japs. His father had been working on constructing an expensive boat for a client. It was a long project with heavy material costs. When the boat is completed, and before his dad can turn over the boat, it is burned. Everyone suspects arson.

Eddy and his friends decided to enlist in the army to do their patriotic duty. This would be the first time Eddy leaves the island. They take a ship ride to the mainland. Everyone gets seasick. They take a train ride up North to attend boot camp. Then they are flown out to their destination.

They all are part of a secret program. They live on some island. A civilian picks them up in a boat and takes them to their work daily. The program is to train dogs to be part of the army fight against the Japanese. Eddy and pals are going to be the bait. They are forced to beat the dogs to make them adversaries. Then they participate in hiding and have the dogs search them out and attack them.

The government comes to witness the ability of the dogs and the worthiness of the program. Three white guys and and Eddy go out and hide. The idea is that the dogs would be able to seek out the Jap. Turns out they went straight for a white guy. The program gets cancelled. Eddy and the boys are reassigned to front line battle.

User Interface Design for Programmers

 

Normally I document books of fiction I have read. However, I also read a bunch of tech books. Here is one example by Joel Spolsky. He is a guy who became famous for his web site on software development. I recently read that he wrote this book on UI for programmers. Just finished it.

I was surprised that Joel starts out with general usability. Not computer programs or even using computers. He educates us on general principles of usability. Then he applies those principles to computer programs or web pages that we interact with.

He is big on usability tests. But he cautions that having a lot of people participate does not give you gains. You can do almost as well with informal queries in the hall. He has a lot of other detailed ideas. It would be hard to communicate those here.

Biggest Fake in the Universe

Mo is a nerd in middle school. When hanging out with friends, he spies a girl he likes. She is a great skateboarder. He comes up with a plan to learn how to skate in order to get close to the girl. One day, when everybody is skating down some parking garage, he lands a gnarly grind. It is caught on video. All of a sudden, he becomes a celebrity.

Unfortunately, some TV show arranges to do a story on him. They have a huge skate ramp constructed. And Mo is not ready to drop in from it. He is not able to cancel the episode. He climbs up the ramp. But he is able to drop in. He is afraid he is going to die. He has to climb back down and explain to skate girl that he is a fraud.

He talks the TV show into filming his excellent baking skills. He makes a pizza. While it is cooking, he allows his sister to show off her new juggling skills. The skate girl ends up going on the huge ramp, dropping in, and catching some air. She might be Mo's new girlfriend.

Under the Blood-Red Sun

 

Tomi lives in Pearl Harbor with his family. He was born here. But his parents and grandfather are from Japan. Pearl Harbor is bombed. Grandpa waves a Japanese flag until they restrain him. Tomi's dad is shot in the leg and jailed. Dad's ship is sunk Tomi swim around the barbed wire surrounding the prison to see his dad.

Dad's young deck hand was killed. The military comes and makes Tomi and his grandfather kill their pigeons. They are suspected in use sending message to the enemy. Tomi's mom is temporarily laid off. Grandpa must sell eggs to make money. But they eventually come and lock up grandpa too.

Tomi is in charge of the family Katana, which is hid deep in the woods. The landlord's son Keet discovers the sword and threatens to tell his father. Kerosene is rationed. Tomi's family shares. School eventually reopens. And Tomi's mom goes back to work for a sympathetic wife of the landlord.