tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86821728302808517032024-02-20T08:42:46.074-08:00Book SoloOne man tries to read everythingChancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.comBlogger348125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-14371105042494382492018-01-12T13:05:00.000-08:002018-05-29T18:19:53.451-07:00Gang Leader For a Day<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes
to the Streets</span></i><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
(2008)</span><style>)</style><br />
<style> </style><br />
by<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Sudhir
Venkatesh</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The author describes himself
as a "rogue sociologist," a bold bit of branding that's more than
just posturing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tired of the stilted
questionnaires and lack of human feeling in poverty research, Venkatesh one day
takes it upon himself to walk straight up to a high-rise in Chicago and talk to
the drug dealers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He's accosted roughly
and initially mistaken for a Hispanic, but one charismatic middle-level dealer,
JT, is impressed with Venkatesh's bravado and allows him to see the day to day
life of the people in the projects as well as some of the seedier aspects of
gang life in the Black Kings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For ten
years, Venkatesh remained a somewhat trusted figure, an outsider for sure,
albeit one with privileges as a sympathetic observer, and every once in a while
getting his hands dirty (or his feet – at one point he joins in the beatdown of
a woman-abusing junkie).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually
Venkatesh is even allowed to make the rounds of the South Side and even suggest
ways to iron out squabbles and problems that JT deals with.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are problems with this sort of rogue
ethnography, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Venkatesh is for
better or worse an ally of the Black Kings, and thus may not be allowed to see
the toll their protection racket may take on civilians, small business owners,
and others trying to get by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
it's fascinating to hear how the gangs act as de facto police in the area,
dispensing favors and settling disputes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The real police, like EMTs, rarely come to the projects, so certainly
the Kings are providing a needed service, but are they filling a need left by a
racist system or, through violence, creating a reason for their interference
and growing power?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's more likely
closer to the latter; JT isn't stupid, and uses Venkatesh for his own ends, as
when he takes economic data recorded by the sociologist to extract more
tribute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all, this is an eye-opening
and enthralling look at a too-often hidden side of poverty in America, although
since it's through the lens of a crack dealer in a high-rise in the '90s, it's
a bit skewed.</span><br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:1;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
-->
</style>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-64936957840315540262018-01-05T13:04:00.000-08:002018-05-29T18:20:13.863-07:00Why Good Things Happen to Good People<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why Good Things Happen to Good People:
The Exciting New Research That proves the Link Between Doing Good and Living a
Longer, Healthier, Happier Life</i> (2007)</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by Stephen Post and Jill Neimark</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The (main) author, Stephen Post, is a professor of bioethics at Case Western,
and the president and founder of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love
(IRUL), located at the school. In this book, he makes the claim that
possessing and acting on loving traits such as generosity, courage, listening,
respect, creativity, humor, compassion, and so on help improve one's outlook,
health, and lifespan. Citing dozens of studies commissioned and funded by
his own IRUL institute, and with some dubious phrases such as "compassion
may be oxytocin, the feel-good hormone" and "drumming in groups can
boost the immune system" (these statements probably not approved by the
FDA), he does show some evidence that altruism is linked to health. Of
course there is also a lot of reliance on correlation as well: veterans who
performed acts of bravery were found to score high on maturity and emotional
stability; those who volunteer to help others tend to live longer. But
does volunteering make you live longer, or do healthier, positive, stress-free
people volunteer? The passages on forgiveness and listening are the
strongest, in my view. With practical advice including how to use Tonglen
breathing, a Tibetan Buddhist technique for sending compassion into the universe,
and great quotes such as "you can't hear with your heart until you silence
the noise of the ego," these chapters give readers ways to improve their
daily life by reducing stress. I also enjoyed some of the advice on
conflict: while listening to others, accept what they say, check how your body
is reacting, and instead of replying, ask yourself, how can I meet this with
kindness? In all, Post's "proofs" of the benefits of living
with love fall somewhere between dubious science and cultish zealotry, but
shouldn't we all act like it is true anyway? After all, "compassion
is the basis of morality." Until we have more rigorous proof, that's
good enough.</span></div>
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:1;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
-->
</style>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-66229531695502342912013-11-12T11:30:00.000-08:002014-02-01T11:31:26.574-08:00The House Of the Scorpionby Nancy Farmer<br />
<br />
In a future where a wide swath between Mexico and the US is a recognized fiefdom known as Opium ruled by opium warlords and cultivated by lobotomized “eedjit” zombies, a young boy named Matt lives on the compound of a feared drug lord named El Patron. Early on, he learns that he is a clone of the ancient, decrepit kingpin himself. Aside from a friendly bodyguard and the woman who raised him, he’s treated with scorn and disgust by most of the family and employees, although El Patron orders everyone to act normally around him. Gradually, Matt realized why El Patron needs a clone, and it’s not because he wants an heir. Making his escape, he spends some time in a pseudo-socialist Mexican orphanage workhouse before finding his childhood friend, and some measure of meaning in his life.<br /><br />This is an interesting and original book; Matt’s slow realization as he learns what the reader already assumed gives it a chilling suspense, and the pacing is good. I thought the quality fell a bit in the Mexico section; Farmer seems to have been intent on critiquing the hypocrisy of an Orwellian socialism, which is not only attacking a strawman, but is rather out of place compared to the overall tone of the book. Worse, the main resolution of the book happens off-scene, and Matt is simply told of the fate of everyone he knew at the hacienda in Drugland. It’s a bit of dramatic let-down, though it sets things up nicely for a sequel. <br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-17159392133864723402013-11-06T09:31:00.000-08:002015-03-15T23:09:33.197-07:00Inkheartby Cornelia Funke<br />
translated by Althea Bell<br />
<br />
Meggie and her bookbinder father live alone in a house crammed with books and the joy of reading. When a mysterious visitor named Dustfinger arrives, calling Meggie’s father “Silvertongue,” Mo acts secretive and alarmed. They take a trip to the house of a relative, Elinor, who is just as book mad as they are. There, however, they are set upon by kidnappers who want a specific book, and Mo himself. When they’re captured, Mo reveals his terrible secret. When he reads aloud from books, he brings the characters to life, literally. Ten years previously, he read so lyrically from the book Inkheart that a pair of the book’s villains appeared in our world, while his wife was spirited into the book! With some help from Dustfinger, who is by no means an ally but wholly self-interested, the three try desperately to work out a plan that will end the villain Capricorn’s reign of terror as well as get his wife back – a plan that depends on help from Inkheart’s own author.<br />
<br />
I was not bowled over by this book. It’s an interesting premise, even if it has been done before, but the book is overlong at 540 pages or so. The characters are flat (the villains uninterestingly and thoroughly villainous; Meggie and her father are selfless and beatific), as well as obtuse, which I found irksome. It’s absurd to think after you’ve been kidnapped from your own home by a mad, violent, powerful man who wants something from you, and then escaped, that you can simply meander back to that home with your ordeal over. It’s downright stupid to think that situation can be resolved by talking. Some of the conceits of the plot are also a bit ridiculous: a normal, illiterate man from a magical but medieval world appearing here with nothing but the clothes on his back, somehow rising to become a crime lord? And even established as he is in the story, Capricorn is the sort of tyrant who could be dealt with by two men with handguns; hardly an indefatigable enemy. Finally, once the main conflict has been established, the book drags; the plot repeats itself and Funke takes a dreadfully long time to get to the real point of Capricorn’s plan, to unleash a murderous magical creature on this world. For all that it is a love letter to classic children’s literature (Tinkerbell is appropriated as a minor character, as is a figure from The Thousand and One Nights), I found it more boring than engrossing. I’d rather reread E. Nesbitt.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-2152600678053233842013-10-30T17:48:00.000-07:002014-01-28T18:13:39.589-08:00 Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chefby Gabrielle Hamilton<br />
<br />
The author recounts her life, both personal and professional, from growing up in a large tight-knit family with a French mother who taught her kids about real food, crusty bread, creamy cheeses, and the like, through the parents’ divorce and Hamilton’s rise from thirteen-year-old waitress to line cook to chef. She also discusses her marriage of convenience to an Italian man and her trips to Italy, which grow more bittersweet with every year.<br /><br />I have mixed feelings about this book, because as a reader I take the narrator’s tone very personally; other readers might not. At first, I enjoyed the book with unalloyed pleasure. I got the title from a list of food writing Anthony Bourdain recommended, and it’s easy to see why the book appeals to him. Hamilton is an unflinchingly honest narrator, and a brilliant writer. She matches Bourdain's opinionated partisanship, visceral attitude, and past replete with scofflaw delinquency, and, I dare say, her writing is more fluid and expansive. Her commentary on the value of hard work, making one’s own way, and dealing with hardships is admirable. Her opinion of the perennial hand-wringing over “where are women in cooking” question has a steely practicality and impatience for attention seekers (“cook, ladies, cook!” – and the rest will follow). But it’s her section on her marriage that marred the book for me. Just as I couldn’t stand the fictional Jane Eyre’s dithering and self-pity, I can’t stand the real-life Hamilton’s dithering and solemnity about her unhappy marriage. She knew she was marrying him “as performance art,” as she puts it several times (to get him his Green Card actually). She’s unhappy, yet she won’t leave him. Only a complete ignorant fool – which she is not – would think that marrying a doctor means that you’re marrying a good husband, or that an Italian man is somehow a good or exciting man. So it may be because of my own life, which this book hits too close to the bone, but I just soured on Hamilton as a person and narrator after that. Too bad really; she writes vividly and has a good story to tell. I just want to hear the professional part. <br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-15346711533820969682013-10-24T17:46:00.000-07:002014-01-28T17:47:33.573-08:00 The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain<br />
<br />
Just what it says on the cover, a collection of previously published pieces of food, chefs, travel, and cultural commentary (plus one fiction piece). I’m a Bourdain fan, but most of these essays are simply too short to have any real impact. That’s not to say they’re not bad; they have his trademark snide remarks, the New York swagger tempered by open-minded desire to learn more about others. In a magazine I’m sure they’re fine. But, for example, a mere three printed pages on Bourdain’s first taste of Szechuan food is nearly pointless; he barely begins to describe the taste before the essay is over. A lengthy examination of Brazilian food and culture demonstrates how much more powerful his travel writing can be when he has room (on the page) to explore. This edition had some commentary by Bourdain on his own pieces since their publication; some of his opinions have changed, and it’s fun to read him mocking his old self as briskly as he used to mock TV chefs.<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-58629779697272262632013-10-18T17:35:00.000-07:002014-01-28T17:36:25.683-08:00Genius Files: Mission Unstoppableby Dan Gutman<br />
<br />
Twin 12-year-olds Coke and Pepsi McDonald, on a cross-county vacation with their professor father and writer mother, uncover a secret government plot to use “YAGs,” or Young American Geniuses, to solve the complex problems of the nation, and find that they are on the list. When they learn that a shadowy group is preparing a terrorist attack at (one of) the country’s biggest ball(s) of twine, their road trip becomes a race against time, made all the more desperate by the fact that their parents know nothing about their mission and by the fact that dangerous “dudes with bowler hats,” as well as their old health teacher, are trying to kill them.<br />
<br />
It’s a very light, silly book, crammed with gimmicks like codes presented within the book and a suggestion that readers follow the trip via Google Maps. With lots of actual spots of Americana oddities mentioned, such as the Donner Party Memorial, the PEZ museum, a Yo-yo museum, and the House on the Rock, the book is at times more gimmick than plot. Some parents might find it troubling that the preteens are instructed by a stranger to keep secrets from their parents, but it’s all in fun, with no real violence. It’s a simplistic kid’s book with some humor, such as when the kids gets their spy bags with Frisbees, cards, and fruit, which the kids are disappointed to learn are not laser Frisbees, spy camera cards, and bomb fruit, but actually just plastic toys and food.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-72452330689983519732013-10-12T17:33:00.000-07:002015-03-15T23:11:26.185-07:00Boomsdayby Christopher Buckley<br />
<br />
In the not-so-distant future, America teeters on the brink of economic disaster as the baby boomers start retiring. Enter beautiful young ex-Army-turned PR flak, coulda-gone-to-Harvard-but-Daddy-spent-the-tuition-money crusading blogger Cassandra, who on her blog suggests that Baby Boomers voluntarily kill themselves for tax breaks, saving Social Security costs. When young people take to the streets, the ineffectual president (who happens to be in cahoots with her father, who is now a software tycoon and party patron) makes her an enemy, as does a TV preacher. But the cause is taken up by a young congressman who shares an eyebrow-raising past with Cassandra, and soon people are starting to talk about actually passing the “Transition” bill into law.<br />
<br />
I wasn’t too impressed with the previous Buckley I read, <a href="http://booksolo.blogspot.com/2013/10/supreme-courtship.html">Supreme Courtship</a>, and this book is of about the same weight. Buckley’s satire, as I said about that book, is the toothless satire of the contented conservative shooting blanks at straw men. The fact that his heroine must be “hot” and blonde “with liquid, playful eyes and lips” shows how concerned he is with serious ideas. In over 300 pages, none of the characters seem very interesting, and the dialogue at times is positively ridiculous; his ideas about software are equally out of touch. His scenarios are mildly amusing but not actually comic, and he has no real point to make about Washington, just a modern modest proposal. Light, frothy, somewhat arch, but it lacks punch.<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-19608693093733312102013-10-06T19:03:00.000-07:002013-12-01T19:06:10.273-08:00The Zeroby Jess Walter<br />
2006<br />
<br />
In the days after 9/11, New York police officer Brian Remy tries to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head, but succeeds only in causing a sort of temporal brain damage, in which he flits in and out of awareness of his own life as though through staccato, disconnected snippets of film. Apparently recruited for some black ops anti-terrorist unit, he sporadically comes to his senses to find that he has gotten involved in some unpleasant and untenable situations – taking mysterious packages, going through citizens’ correspondence, beating and intimidating Arabic suspects, sleeping with women he doesn’t know whether he loves or is just using for information. He has no idea what the reason for it all is – his genuinely confused question about what he’s doing inevitable taken as kidding or rhetorical musing – and as the black ops sting heads toward an insane, disastrous conclusion, he is helpless to stop it.<br />
<br />
It’s written with more of a satirical black humor than this plot summary implies, a sort of modern Catch-22 as written by Don Delillo, with the typical distant lens he views humanity through to make it seem foreign and alien. There are, indeed, a couple of scenes that pay almost direct homage to Joseph Heller’s masterwork, such as when Remy’s high school son pretends that Remy is dead, and he, his wife, and son have a straight-faced, absurd conversation about honoring grief and having respect for the son’s wishes. Or another scene where some intelligence officers looking at some evidence, including a photo of a man eating in a restaurant, begin an earnest, utterly irrelevant discussion of how to properly cook it, and what wine might go best with it. But the mordant humor gives way to a spooky noir feel in the second half of the book, and although the botched terrorist sting is clearly political satire, it lacks the deadpan absurdity of the earlier half, and comes to a comparatively predictable ending. Altogether, this a tense, readable, original political satire, the work of a major modern talent.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-90345239957168484972013-09-30T19:02:00.000-07:002013-12-01T19:02:44.974-08:00Stink: Solar System Superheroby Megan McDonald<br />
<br />
The irascible and short second grader, Stink Moody, is outraged when he
learns that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. Friend of all
things small (like James Madison, the shortest and best president),
Stink takes up the cause for Pluto. Stink gets into a feud over this
issue with a classroom rival, Riley, who has been to space camp and so
comes off as a know-it-all, until his teacher suggests a debate. Stink
wins the debate but learns a bit about not judging people until you get
to know them, and sees Riley in a new light. This book contains the
usual cheerful silliness of the series, and I enjoyed the real-life
moral of looking to other people’s motives. There isn’t exactly a
healthy respect for scientific opinion, though, which is a minus. It
doesn’t matter how Stink and his pals feel about Pluto. The teacher
should have given them the facts of how Pluto no longer fits the
scientific consensus of the definition of planet. It’s just a kid’s
book, but it’s rather dangerous to venerate popular sentiment over
science. We’re all entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-11216214533252112312013-09-24T10:23:00.000-07:002013-10-19T10:26:25.340-07:00A Comrade Lost And Found: A Beijing Storyby Jan Wong<br />
<br />
A sequel of sorts to her maddening, fascinating, invaluable memoir <a href="http://booksolo.blogspot.com/2013/02/red-china-blues-my-long-march-from-mao.html">Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now</a>, this book chronicles Wong’s return to Beijing in 2008 to find the woman whom she denounced as a traitor at the height of the Cultural Revolution. This betrayal has gnawed at her over the decades, and she makes the trip despite her fears that she will either find out nothing in the face of intractable Communist bureaucracy, or that the woman was imprisoned, tortured, or killed. Bringing her family with her for support, she tracks down a lot of old friends and foes who seem happy enough to see her but aren’t exactly thrilled to talk about the bad old days, suffers through a banquet under the watchful eye of a humorless cadre, and marvels at the changes in Beijing since her college days. (This last despite the fact that Wong lived there as a reporter off and on into the 1990s and made a few visits even in the early 2000s – this shows the tremendous rate of growth the city has undergone.) Little by little, and despite some obfuscations and lies from her sources, she gets a few hints about the woman’s fate – but then it’s time to come face to face and hear her story.<br />
<br />
In my review of <u>Red China Blues</u>, I called Wong “deluded,” “naïve,” “blind,” “dangerously stupid,” and “an unrepentant spoiled fool,” which seems a bit harsh now that I write it all out like that. Nevertheless, that book did seem like a personal apologia for her actions, while this one is, as she says, “tantamount to a Maoist self-criticism.” This is a much more palatable book in terms of the narration – Wong shows a little more perspective about truth and consequences here – and equally fascinating in terms of the human stories it tells from China’s tragic 1960s and 70s. Wong’s own story is heartfelt and suspenseful, but what interested me the most was the historical whitewashing she encounters. No country likes to talk about its black marks – America still celebrates Columbus and the Pilgrims as heroes, the Japanese don’t mention war crimes or the Rape of Nanking, Germany outlaws swastikas but would rather not talk about the extent of Nazism’s prevalence – but the ability of the Chinese to switch gears so drastically and with such equanimity is intriguing. As Wong writes, “It makes me wonder why, in a nation as vast as China, so few people try to come to terms with their past.” Yes, it’s painful to revisit oppression, and no one wants to admit he was the oppressor, but the apparent wholehearted enthusiasm with which the Chinese have thrown their lot in with rampant capitalism and materialism is unsettling. It’s as if the moral compass isn’t fixed; the Cultural Revolution was correct because it happened that way, and now laissez-faire capitalism is correct because it’s what’s happening. It’s troubling to think in terms of such a collectivist mindset, but it’s hard to escape it as well.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-23462208123398303322013-09-18T09:44:00.000-07:002013-10-19T09:44:53.449-07:00The Get Rich Quick Clubby Dan Gutman<br />
<br />
A girl whose goal is to be rich forms a club with her friends to further that goal. Their idea is to create a fake UFO picture and shop it around to news outlets. Against all reasonable expectations, this actually succeeds, until one of them has a crisis of conscience. This is a silly, over-the-top, very kid-centric story, with the sympathy all on the side of the kids, who are materialistic, lying, and scheming, but not at all malicious. One of the characters speaks in an absurd faux-Australian which grates after a while, and there’s little consequence to the kids’ machinations, but it’s all in good fun.<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-73543147426753463902013-09-12T10:27:00.000-07:002013-10-19T10:28:06.459-07:00Guilt Tripby Ben Rehder<br />
<br />
The fourth Blanco County mystery. In this entry, game warden John Marlin helps the police to search for a missing SUV owner who may have drowned in a flash flood, while a local lowlife's house burns down in what seems to be a meth-related explosion. Marlin suspects that the two incidents are somehow connected, and they are – but in true Rehder fashion, the plot has dozens of disparate threads that intersect. The main story involves a state senator who has a rather embarrassing kink, being blackmailed with photos of his proclivities, to force him to ban the controversial high fences around properties which stop deer from migrating freely. There’s also a missing Corvette and charity money, a lowlife and a party girl on the lam, a would-be country star turned hit man, a pet psychic, a creepy stalker, and of course the loveable louts Red and Billy Don. Marlin’s problem is that his oldest friend, Phil, appears to be implicated in the blackmail; and then there’s his crush Nichole, putting herself in danger as well. I know that Rehder’s frequent, staccato character and setting changes, especially during action scenes, may irritate some readers, but I find his rapid-fire, red-herring style engaging. Well-paced and intricately plotted, with sly humor, goofy characters, and a few moments of suspense, this book is on a par with the other books in the series. Over the top mayhem makes for fast-paced, diverting fun.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-40262888713296716862013-09-06T10:36:00.000-07:002013-10-12T10:37:40.066-07:00How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Characterby Paul Tough<br />
<br />
Investigating successful kids and programs at low-income schools and high-achieving prep schools, as well as interviewing psychologists and neuroscientists, Tough challenges some conventional wisdom on causes of failure (poverty, teacher quality) and contends that nurturing character in children and young adults is the key to success. He argues that the gap between poorer and wealthier kids’ success levels is caused not mostly through lack of cognitive stimulation, but through a chaotic environment where mothering attachment is lacking and childhood traumas are plentiful. Evidence for this abounds: there is a drop-off in performance among elite prep school kids who have had no lessons in determination and failure management; the ACE score, a measurement of childhood trauma, is a reliable indicator of future performance; and a student’s GPA is a better indicator of college completion than standardized tests, regardless of the quality of the school (which makes sense: a kid in a chaotic environment with a high GPA obviously had high determination, while a kid in the richest prep school with tutoring and enrichment opportunities abounding, with an average GPA, is clearly not working as hard as he could be. The good news is that according to some of his interview subjects, mothering skills can be taught and non-cognitive skills such as curiosity and grit are malleable traits and can be developed fairly late in life.<br /><br />I found this book to be inspiring and important. Written in an easy, engaging style, with great ideas and surprising revelations bursting forth from nearly every page. The broad studies and character interviews are extremely valuable, while a surprisingly long discursus on chess isn’t so much – and why Tough gives any page time to the “bell curve” idea, which is basically giving a little air time to Hitler, is beyond me. Of course, in a way it’s a depressing book, because it makes clear how totally the system has failed low-income kids, giving the most needy the least instruction – though Tough notes that some programs, such as the Knowledge Is Power Program, are trying to make a difference. In the end, Tough diplomatically addresses what few dare to, though I have advocated for years: we don’t need teacher reform or school reform quite as much as we need family reform. It’s a delicate thing for a well-off white person to criticize the parenting skills of poorer minority parents, but the fact is that with a few simple lessons to new parents after a child’s birth, many costly problems would be avoided before they began. They do it in Germany – it’s too bad so many policymakers in America are so short-sighted when it comes to helping others.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-55415772534713169952013-08-30T20:49:00.000-07:002013-09-28T20:50:33.991-07:00Crispin: The Cross Of Leadby Avi<br />
2002<br />
<br />
Winner of the 2003 Newbery, this historical novel is set in England, 1377. Crispin, an orphan peasant, is told by his village priest that there is a secret regarding his birth. But after stumbling upon the cruel village steward making a secret plan in the woods, Crispin is declared a “wolf’s head” – a non-person whom anyone may kill for a reward – and he is forced to flee. He comes upon Bear, a jester who secretly works to bring a worker’s revolution to England, and together they travel to the “big city” of Wexly, where to Crispin’s horror the steward has followed them, and both their lives are in danger.<br /><br />This is an interesting choice for the Newbery – Avi strives hard to recreate the historical milieu in which Crispin lives, so first and foremost, the prose is absolutely drenched in medieval Christian thought. Although Bear is an apostate, Crispin and many other characters are literally “God-fearing,” expecting swift and horrible punishments for their every transgression and believing utterly that a broken vow to Jesus (no matter how profane or involuntary) will result in immediate damnation. Then, just so everyone has something to be offended about, Avi has Crispin, if not explicitly reject this mindset, at least question it; he stops praying and pledges to make his own decisions, and later uses the binding power of an unwilling vow as a tool for his own ends. Finally, there’s the vocabulary: in addition to words like “trepidation” and “disconsolate,” Avi doesn’t shy away from the archaic terms: mazer, patten, kirtle, withal. It’s a terrific historical adventure story, I would think suitable for older teens and up; its value is not so much in the plot (which is fairly straightforward, hardly original, and rather far-fetched at the end) as it is in recreating the highly religious, hierarchical, nasty, sometimes brutish and short lives of the medieval European.<br />
<br /><b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-27931904376232233642013-08-24T20:52:00.000-07:002013-09-28T20:53:19.258-07:00Anna Kareninaby Leo Tolstoy<br />
1877<br />
translated by Louise & Aylmer Maude<br /><br />Stiva Oblonsky, an affable and slightly clueless aristocrat, has been caught cheating by his wife Dolly, and brings in his urbane married sister Anna to reconcile them. She does, but falls in love with Vronsky, a dashing roué of a military man who is courting Dolly’s younger sister Kitty. They begin a tumultuous affair, hindered by Anna’s somewhat cold, reputation-conscious husband, but the illegitimacy of their relationship causes unhappiness. Meanwhile, Levin, a socially awkward intellectual and landowner, who is a sort of angry young man with sympathy for the working class, is also courting Kitty; when rebuffed by her, he withdraws but never forgets her. That’s a very brief synopsis of the three main plotlines in this epic novel (nearly twice the length of Moby Dick).<br /><br />As the story of a troubled marriage caused by cheating, an unhappy affair, and a happy, devoted marriage, this novel is taken up by many as a moralistic cautionary tale. The polarization of the insecure but careful Levin, burning with intense but noble and innocent passion, with Anna, who is swayed by her passions without thinking of the obvious consequences, makes up the main characterization of the novel. But Tolstoy is more subtle than this simple dichotomy. There are no perfect beings in this book, there is no absolute right or wrong; it’s the practical (or impractical) decisions that people make which make them happy or unhappy, not their “inner characters.” At times, the reader sympathizes deeply with the unhappy Anna, despite the fact that her troubles are of her own making; and he continues to present Oblonsky as a sympathetic fellow, even as he puzzles over why his wife should be so upset over his philandering. Tolstoy shows that he understands human motive; whether you judge it right or wrong isn’t as important as that you know why they act as they do. This is also a novel of manners, in a way, though there are some truly profound passages in Anna Karenina that explore the fundamental questions of life. As the characters struggle with their own existentialist crises – the acceptance of society vs. following your heart, materialism vs. faith, raising up the working class vs. realizing that many of them don’t want to work hard or raise their station – how they handle those crises is what elevates them to happiness or bleak despair. Although it’s an engrossing and intelligent novel, I don’t rank it as one of my favorites. I was annoyed at times, as I can be with these stuffy characters from another era, at their infantile waffling or stubbornness. For example, Levin’s jealousy is adolescent and totally baseless, yet it consumes him at times. Anna’s insistence on going out in society, when Vronsky and all logic insist that this would be a very foolish thing to do, is baffling from a modern standpoint. And I was plain bored during some passages, such as a long tedious hunting excursion Levin goes on which doesn’t seem to have much to do with some of the grander questions he deals with. On the whole, this is a very fine novel, but to me not a Great Novel.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-35926767062988802582013-08-18T19:12:00.000-07:002013-09-28T20:51:40.842-07:00Jakeby Audrey Couloumbis<br />
2010<br />
<br />
A few days before Christmas, ten-year-old Jake’s single mother slips on the ice and breaks her leg badly, requiring an operation. A very kindly neighbor and Jake’s gruff, estranged grandfather (and his small “nightmare” dog), plus a few other relatives and family friends come together to take up the slack, and soon things are bustling along more richly than ever. Jake’s grandfather gently pushes him to get over his fear of swimming, the dog gets used to walking with strangers, chess games and movies are enjoyed, and hot meals and extra sandwiches are the order of the day. Indeed, each of the principals learns a bit from the other, and though the book’s action only lasts a few days, there are indications that Jake’s idea of what a family is might be expanding. There’s no melodrama or big crisis in this heartwarming, at times moving book, just an underlying message of caring for others, hope, and the supreme value of human connections. It’s a beautifully written, warm, charming book.<br />
<br />
<b>five stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-41940402118774876572013-08-12T11:51:00.000-07:002013-09-22T11:53:08.750-07:00Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losingby Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman<br />
<br />
The authors study the brain science behind competition – why some people thrive under stress and some don’t, the role of gender and hormone levels, the role of reward vs. risk, and so on – to uncover some findings that run counter to common belief. One of these is that stress can be a positive factor in some types of personalities, called “warriors” here and distinguished from “worriers”; the latter thrive better in situations that call for planning, memory, and organization. Another finding is that teams do not have to get along or be friends to succeed, rather dominating when players’ roles are known and unequal (think of Lincoln’s “team of rivals,” or the NBA, where rivalries run high but skill and pay levels are generally conceded as commensurate). Recalling studies I have read elsewhere about the science of top athletes “choking,” the book also explores how expectations and the presence of spectators can affect performance, and how the idea of “playing to win” rather than “playing not to lose” is much more appealing to us, and thus by its framing determines how the same physical action might succeed or fail. I found the information on the role hormones play to be fascinating: for example, testosterone does not increase aggression in competitors but rather increases determination, teamwork, fearlessness, tactical decision-making… indeed, any trait that will increase a player’s esteem in the eyes of others and determine a win. In the same vein, the authors show that oxytocin, widely known as the “love hormone,” does not merely increase a nurturing instinct but also sharpens the ability to determine threats vs. friends, and increases wariness and the protective urge, both of which help competitors win. In regards to gender roles, in what is probably one of the more controversial section of the book, the authors assert that men, blind to their shortcomings, are more likely to take on competition with very little chance of success, whereas women, “better judges of their own ability,” tend to compete only when there is a realistic chance for success, which helps in part explain why there are far fewer women than men candidates for public office at the high levels, and why women make much more accurate stock analysts. Finally, in one of the more counterintuitive findings, the book shows that positive thinking can actually hurt competitors: not taking the competition seriously, or assuming everything will go smoothly, does nothing to help one prepare. Instead, top competitors review their failures rationally and indulge in “subtractive counterfactuals” – that is, identifying what one should not have done, identifying obstacles to success and removing them, rather than saying “if only I had…”<br />
<br />
This is not a self-help book, but the science can, of course, be used to help improve competitors’ performance. For example, knowing that each person has an optimal level of stress, that controlled focused anger can boost performance, or that reviewing failures is more productive than fantasizing about victory, can help competitors adapt a winning mindset. The information is sometimes presented in a rather scattershot way within chapters, and there is almost no discussion of how environmental factors may influence competitions, but it is on the whole a lucid, thorough, illuminating, and useful work on one of humanity’s most basic urges – the impulse to win. <br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-24970414646345499782013-08-06T08:57:00.000-07:002013-09-22T08:59:15.416-07:00EllRay Jakes Is Not a Chicken!by Sally Warner<br />
<br />
EllRay (short for Lancelot Raymond), the smallest kid in his third grade
class, is being physically and verbally assaulted by a large bully and
his follower. Something of a cut-up, and with a short temper, normally
EllRay would react to this stress with verbal comebacks or acting out in
class, but he’s trying his hardest to avoid all trouble this week,
because if he can do that, his normally demanding father will take him
to Disneyland.<br />
<br />
This is an interesting book that tries to tackle a
rather important subject, and despite its humorous tone and slight word count, it manages to hit some points about what gives bullies
their power. The book’s message seems to be that parental and teacher
involvement is crucial to arriving at a resolution, and that a child’s
physical safety is dependent on other students changing their attitudes
toward bullying from standing by to directly intervening. Of course,
this is a bit of a cop-out, since parents and teachers often remain
unaware of silent, persistent bullying, and students almost never rise
up en masse to take the side of the weaker party, except in TV shows and
books.<br />
<br />
Aside from the bullying issue, I admired how Warner kept
her prose simple, and used EllRay’s narration to explain some
expressions that kids might not get such as “enlighten me” or “bad
vibes” which she has the adults employ. I was distracted by how many
times EllRay made flat pronouncements about what boys and girls do, such
as: “boys don’t skip,” “girls are neat,” “girls don’t tattle,” “girls
know how to spread their misery around,” and so on. I realize this is
an eight-year-old boy talking, but I’m not sure I approve of
perpetuating these stereotypes in kids’ books. I also wondered at
Warner’s depiction of the teacher, who while wise in the ways of her
kids’ behavior, must “check her notes” constantly while giving lessons
or defining unusual words. What might be Warner’s point there – that no
one has all the answers, teachers are too overworked to prepare
themselves for lessons, or what? In any case, I think kids will
identify with the funny, put-upon EllRay, who explains himself and his
world so well while dealing with pressure from parents and peers alike.<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-29529440878742185762013-07-30T20:49:00.000-07:002013-09-15T09:21:32.850-07:00 Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina<br />
<br />
The author, a lecturer, researcher, and molecular biologist, lists
twelve major principles that help explain how the brain works: though
processes are improved by physical exercise, we pay attention to
evolutionarily important things like sex and danger, we need sleep to
cogitate properly, repetition is crucial to long-term memory, we learn
more through a variety of sensory inputs, gender influences how our
brain process certain interactions, and so on. In most of the chapters,
he goes on to advocate for the integration of these findings into
education, thus revolutionizing the traditional classroom.<br />
<br />
This
book is widely praised for its clear, lucid prose, but I didn’t come
away all that impressed. I felt that Medina took up too much space
describing various sections of the brain to no real purpose. Does it
really help our understanding of how the brain works to visualize axons
and brain sections and cells and neurons as, variously, stomped eggs, a
scorpion with an egg on its back, or uprooted trees jammed together
horizontally? There’s no relation between its physical structure and
how it works, so what’s the point? (In the same vein, I was bemused by
his habit of describing nearly every scientist he refers to. I simply
don’t care whether a man looks youthful or his head is shaped like an
egg; indeed, such dwelling on looks turns me off an author.) I also
thought that Medina (using tricks based on principles of attention)
relied too much on cutesy and misleading attention-grabbers like “we’ll
learn that we each have a Jennifer Aniston neuron” (no, we don’t) or
“we’ll learn the difference between bicycles and Social Security
numbers” (overly playful and not at all accurate). I find deliberately
misleading teasers like that to be insulting rather than enticing.
Finally and most importantly, most of these principles are extremely
basic. (Is it really cutting-edge news that repetition is important
when learning, or that we need sleep, or that some people crumple under
stress while others rise to the challenge, or that people need to feel
safe in order to learn?) Despite that, Medina several times in the book
proposes sweeping, pie-in-the-sky “solutions” to education problems
based on this research, such as restructuring the school day into short
lessons, the same content repeated three times, and thus stretching the
school year into the summer to make room for all the information; or
offering an early work- or schoolday as well as a later one to
accommodate different sleep cycles; or mandating child care and parent
classes to everyone. Some of these aren’t bad ideas; it’s just that
they aren’t going to happen any time soon. Some reasonable,
easily-implemented changes that could provide some benefit would have
been better. It is an interesting, if basic, primer on the brain, and
it is told lucidly; I just didn’t feel there was much point to it, let
alone help for “surviving and thriving,” as the subtitle boasts.<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-44378272288088098522013-07-24T20:04:00.000-07:002013-09-12T20:11:28.355-07:00Gooney Bird Greeneby Lois Lowry<br />
2002<br />
<br />
An eccentrically-dressed and apparently over-imaginative second grade girl, Gooney Bird, comes to a new school and entrances the other students (and teacher) with her surprising, “absolutely true” stories. With her deliberate, exact way of speaking and unusual phrasing, she describes her stories before telling them in ways that make it seem as though they’ll be tall tales – but there is always a humorous, prosaic explanation. For example, “I was in jail when this happened” actually refers to Gooney Bird playing Monopoly and having landed on that square on the board; and getting a reward from “the prince” at “the palace” turns out to mean something quite different, though similar-sounding. The same goes for “driving from China” and “arriving on a flying carpet.”<br />
<br />
It’s a humorous, very brief book that also serves as instruction to children on how to formulate interesting stories, as well as to encourage them to believe that everyone has a story to tell. I enjoyed the clever twists of language that revealed what Gooney Bird’s stories were really about, as well as the demonstration of how well “write what you know” can go when served by expressive language. I did not at all like Gooney Bird’s personality, which is smug and self-satisfied, her too-adult speech patterns, or how she is portrayed as more clever and authoritative than the teacher of the class. I think that’s a terrible example for kids who already often think they know more than they do.<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-82421835431607881702013-07-18T11:06:00.000-07:002013-08-06T11:07:01.334-07:00The Matchlock Gunby Walter D. Edmonds<br />
1941<br />
<br />
Set during the French and Indian War, this 1942 Newbery winner tells of
an episode in a Dutch-American frontier family. When the father is gone
to track Indians, a scouting group of braves comes to the house, with
only the young mother, Gertrude, and her eldest child Edward, to fight
them off. Really no more than a short story, this slim book’s charm is
in its tossed-off details – the young couple getting married despite his
mother’s objections, the way another man rides his horse, the chores
that need to be done on the frontier, the loft which the children sleep
in heated by the day's fire – which give it some depth and make its
characters more relatable. The “plot,” which just boils down to one
brief and somewhat dubious action, is not particularly interesting.
It’s a nice story, but was it really the best children’s book of its
year? I can’t imagine it.<br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-70439203575188523632013-07-12T19:43:00.000-07:002013-08-05T19:44:28.468-07:00Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz<br />
<br />
The author, a marketing and sales CEO, lays out advice for getting ahead
in this new, flatter, faster economy: foster and maintain connections
with people. A cynic might, of course, take this as telling prospective
salesmen or corporate ladder climbers to flatter their superiors and
feign interest in activities that will get them closer to their goals,
while hoarding the contacts they gather until such time as these might
become useful to them personally. However, Ferrazzi, who worked his way
up into the corporate world very quickly from a working-class origin,
seems more or less genuinely zealous about promoting genuine human
contact, and not just for the utile benefits it might bring. He
counsels readers to join associations they have real interest in, to
listen for others’ problems for which they might offer solutions, to
mentor beginners and up-and-comers, to throw friendly dinner parties or
otherwise organize social activities, and so on.<br /><br />It is true that
some of Ferrazzi’s ideas – such as researching others’ interests before
you meet them and then “accidentally” bringing up shared connections, or
his notion of the “deep bump,” mastering the art of meaningful small
talk – are redolent of disingenuousness. And there’s more than a hint
of the self-serving in his message of constant self-promotion. However,
on the whole, he offers genial well-intentioned advice, useful not just
for the young salesman but, I think, for anyone who works with others.
Bring like-minded people together. Listen to others. Try to be
helpful to those whom you can help. Be vulnerable and open when you
talk. Don’t be afraid to ask for things. Favors and contacts aren’t
equity to be hoarded, but an infinite resource that expands with every
use. It’s hardly the typical sales advice, and Ferrazzi tells it with a
warm, at times self-deprecating style. <br />
<br />
<b>three stars</b>Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-51276669531809656002013-07-06T09:57:00.000-07:002013-07-21T09:58:08.752-07:00Coralineby Neil Gaiman<br />
2002<br />
<br />
The young girl of the title moves into a big new house with her kindly
but preoccupied parents. She meets some humorously daft neighbors, like
the two elderly ex-actresses steeped in nostalgia, and the old man
upstairs who says he is training mice to play oompah oompah songs.
There’s also a spooky door which seems to open onto a brick wall but
actually leads to another world, similar to our own, constructed just
for Coraline. There she meets her "other" family, with black buttons
for eyes, who want only to keep her forever in this world that has
better food, the colors she likes, and attentive parents, if only they
can make her just like them. With the help of a mysterious cat,
Coraline determines to rescue her real parents, and some additional
captives, from the evil force behind this other world.<br />
<br />
This is a
deliciously dark novel, sure to delight children with the chills it
sends down their backs. Gaiman’s descriptive prose and Dave McKean’s
illustrations work together to enforce the menacing tone and creepy air:
“Her other mother's hand scuttled off Coraline's shoulder like a
frightened spider;” the voice “made Coraline think of some kind of
enormous dead insect.” And just like a good horror movie, there’s a
false ending of eerie calm before the truly final showdown. Gaiman
offers a lesson in maturity here, as well, underneath the supernatural
thrills. Coraline realizes that getting whatever she wants, all the
time, which the other mother tempts her with, wouldn’t be fun or “mean
anything.” This ominous, funny, offbeat, scary, sweet modern fairy tale
is superb. I can’t imagine why it wasn’t at least nominated for the
Newbery.<br />
<br />
<b>five stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682172830280851703.post-12630257589503613972013-06-30T10:52:00.000-07:002013-07-19T10:52:49.021-07:00Street Freak: Money and Madness at Lehman Brothersby Jared Dillian<br />
<br />
An account of the author’s experiences as a trader and, to a lesser
degree, the bipolar disorder that got him hospitalized and, ultimately,
drove him to leave the industry to become a writer of market reports.
Fresh out of the Coast Guard, wearing the wrong clothes and a graduate
of the wrong school, Dillian was a fish out of water but soon started
getting the respect of his peers with his manic trading, even as his
fits of temper and rookie mistakes continue to draw unwanted attention.
His account is both brutally honest about his own faults and mental
health, as well as a scathing depiction of trader culture. From the
mountains of wasted takeout food to the flop sweat and flatulence on the
floor, Dillian brings it all to life: the extreme meritocracy where
employees are given free rein to do nearly anything to make money, which
leads to a shallow culture where dollar amounts are the only standard
by which to measure a person’s value, and those with the most money take
the least risk.<br /><br />Dillian has a way with a descriptive line and
wry wit: a chief trader is “a walking molecule of testosterone,” the
mass exodus to the Hamptons is a useless exercise in sitting through
traffic just to “hang around with the same douchebags that I saw at work
every day.” Still, to me, by far the most interesting part of the book
is Dillian’s account of his stay in a mental hospital after a mental
breakdown and attempted suicide. It is only here, taking a break from
the endless oceans of trader jargon (which, frustratingly, he never
explains), Dillian shows his true self: confused, craving something
real, becoming inspired. For most of the rest of the book, Dillian may
think he’s lampooning Wall Street, but to me, his misogynistic,
egotistical prose shows he’s part of the problem, no different from
those testosterone molecules looking down on everyone making less than
he does.<br />
<br />
<b>four stars</b> Chancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226145896576592193noreply@blogger.com0