How to Become a Famous Writer...a review

How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights by Ariel Gore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I’ve always wanted to be a writer. But Dave…you are a writer! Yeah…but I’m not a famous writer. I have to admit, the sheer brazen nature of this book appealed to me. The act of self-promotion requires an incredible amount of confidence--or at least the great ability to fake it. In this book, author Ariel Gore advocates all manner of self-promotion and creativity in the attempt to make a name for yourself. In many ways, this could serve as a companion piece to my other favorite book about writing, No Plot, No Problem, by the founder of National Novel Writing Month, Chris Baty, which also advocates plowing ahead beyond self-doubt to do the wonderfully ridiculous act of writing a 50 thousand word novel in 30 days. The best advice any writer can ever get is simply to write. Write every day. Write even when you don’t feel like it.

Ariel Gore starts the book with a powerful hook: a letter from a friend, who wants her help in the quest to become a famous writer. Gore says she will help her, that they should meet and have coffee and talk about how she can help her become a literary superstar. But of course, life gets in the way, and before they can ever get together to talk, her friend has a seizure and dies, at age 23. All the advice in this book is what she would have said to her if they had ever had that meeting.

The book itself is a rollicking run through the craft of writing and self-promoting, and is an inspirational tribute to her friend, the writer. It is less of a step by step/how to manual and more of a motivational piece--though, to be sure, there is a lot of solid advice here, and many things I might have never thought of--such as why a large advance is not necessarily a good thing or why you shouldn’t change your name or why you should be nice to interns.

I recommend this to any writer who needs a kick in the butt, or anyone who just needs to be reminded that all art is worth the struggle.


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My Gentle Plug for Others to Join Me on Next Month’s Quest.

I always introduce myself as a writer and sort-of musician, and now I add to that, a ramp agent. And as a writer, sort of musician, and ramp agent who writes about being a ramp agent, I am going to use my little forum to invite anyone interested to do something that I have been doing for the last 2 years.

The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an event that is now in its 12th year. It is a fun exercise in what founder Chris Baty calls “exuberant imperfection,” or in other words, writing a 50 thousand word novel in only 30 days--during the month of November. More info here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

It’s hard, it’s messy, it seems impossible. But it is possible, and what’s more, it is so much fun that I can’t possibly imagine ever going a year without doing it.

November is already my favorite month of the year, with my birthday (the 19th!), football season, the leaves changing, Thanksgiving (along with the Fourth of July, my favorite holiday), and add to that the 30 day sprint to 50 thousand words. And I’m especially excited for this year, because my new job has introduced me to so many people and so many new situations (as my lovely wife said it would when she encouraged me to take this job!) that I think I have a whole new well of inspiration to draw from.

The first year I did it, I came up with the book I called The Best of Thunder Johnson, a story about a cable access employee who accidentally broadcasts a porno movie over the air and then becomes the focus of a disturbed mental patient’s rage. It was fun, it was inspired, and overall I am happy with the final result. It is a story that would never have been possible had I not put forth the effort to write so much in so little time, even if the original product was a complete mess.

I encourage anyone out there to try this with me. You say you don’t have time, that no one can possibly do a good job on a novel in such a short time? That’s half the point! It’s actually more fun to do things like this when you have less time. Because that way, the time you spend writing becomes sacred, and more meaningful, and dare I say, more meditative. It creates a break from the busy world you inhabit. And besides, sleep is overrated.
So do this with me: write a novel. Be my writing buddy! Writing starts November 1!

Books: With Garlic and Victory

WIth Garlic and Victory by J. M. I. Kagan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Disclosure: Author is a long-time friend of mine, and I am familiar with many of the real-life characters upon which his material is drawn.

With Garlic and Victory is (to my knowledge) Josh’s second book, and it’s work would appear to have been written/collected in the last 8-10 years. It is an enjoyable read, with a mixture of stories and blank verse poems which read like stories, reminiscent of the work of Charles Bukowski. Josh is painfully honest about himself in his writing, and his depictions of his life as a poor, beer-drinking, coffee-swilling artist who has made a career out of working in kitchens, are tremendously entertaining and truthful.

“So why do you want to work here?” he stretched out on the seat, arms folded, his face betrayed the countenance of a man suffering with hot grease on his balls and a spatula broken off in his ass…
“Well, I’m new in town and times are hard, so…”
“Well, as an employer, it’s hard to hear I was your last resort…listen, I can take one look at you and see you won’t fit in here…”
“THAT’S IT? You called me all the way out here for a two minute interview hoping I’d tell you my dream in life, my true aspiration was to flip burgers? What kind of asshole are you?”
I walked out.

In many ways I consider Josh’s work a throwback--his work would be perfectly at home in Depression era fiction: the story of a factotum just trying to survive. The opening story about trying to get a job in a restaurant in Portland, only to fail because the boss didn’t think he would be a proper ass-kisser, and the story about donating plasma for money are sad reminders of a rough time for the both of us (something we both did when we lived in Portland) but it is very in-line with the rest of the themes running through With Garlic and Victory: Everything is bullshit--and work is just a means to an end to put food on the table and beer in the fridge while keeping your soul intact. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is a goddamn liar.

At 85 pages, this book that breezes right along. I’d have read the whole thing in one sitting if I could have. Great job!

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Books: Why Darwin Matters

Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design by Michael Shermer


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A breezy read through all the arguments you will ever need to argue with any proponent of Intelligent Design. This book, written by the head of the National Skeptics Society, pretty much lays bare all the arguments used against evolution in the name of equal time or “teaching the controversy” of (essentially) creationism vs. evolution. Science has a process: Intelligent Design has an agenda. As Shermer concludes, “Darwin Matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the pre-eminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from and where we are going.” (P. 161) ‘Nuff said.

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3 Quick book reviews

The last several books I’ve read have been kind of similar so I’m going to throw them into one blog post here.

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m probably short-changing this fairly brilliant book by simply saying that it is an excellent follow-up to Freakonomics, applying the same off-beat approach to human behavior based upon incentives. I would say that I’m a little annoyed that they opened the book with the whole bit about prostitutes, as it really prevents me from being able to recommend it to, say, somebody’s smart but uptight dad, because it is otherwise a hugely entertaining read and a great way to start thinking about the world around us.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
After reading both the Freakonomics books, Gladwell was an obvious follow-up. This is a brilliant examination of the forces at work which cause an idea to become an epidemic (like the Macarena or Hush Puppies or maybe Bill Clinton). For examples, he uses Paul Revere’s Ride, NYC Subway vigilante Bernard Getz, and a fascinating correlation between suicide and smoking. My only thought about this book is that it could very well be used in a cynical way in some evil marketing plan by say, the vile food of KFC or something.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a brilliant book about the power of “thin slicing,” or the ability to make decisions based upon a person’s reactions in the first few moments of any situation. It explores this phenomenon in the world of art, music, politics, and crime. I was a big fan of Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear, and this book would probably make a great companion piece for that.

All three of these books are worth checking out for their off-beat thinking and fast-paced writing.



SF= 4 stars
TTP= 5 stars
Blink= 4 and a half stars


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Books: Freakonomics

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In Freakonomics, an economist asks questions you might not think to ask, and gets many surprising answers. It is billed as the “hidden side of everything,” and while it doesn’t exactly cover “everything” (a point they will make in the introduction to the sequel) it gets as much of it as it can. Economics, according to the authors, is all about incentives: what people are willing to do to get what they want, whether that means cheating, controlling the flow of information, or breaking the law to make a living.
Sometimes the sheer audacity of the questions is shocking (does giving a child a super-black sounding name give him/her a great disadvantage in life?) Sometimes, just the answers are shocking. (Q: why did the crime rate go down so much in the 1990’s, in spite of all the predictions to the contrary? A: in a word, abortion.) According to the authors, the legalization of abortion did more to affect the crime rate than any policing or law-making or gun owning ever could have. Sound crazy? Just read it!
These are the sort of questions probed and answered, or at least an interesting suggestion is offered. Every question challenges our assumptions (for example: children are 100 times more likely to die in a house with a swimming pool than in a house with a gun) and every question causes the reader to look at interesting correlations (how the KKK and realtors are both affected by the control of information, for one).

At first I thought this would just be a disjointed collection of anecdotes, but in spite of what the authors state in the intro about there being a lack of unifying theme, there does seem to be a contrarian and counter-intuitive theme building throughout the book. Once you get the hang of it, you start to understand how the conclusions will be reached.
This book is so much fun, I burned right through it. I would recommend it to anyone who is not down with the party line and is willing to embrace unconventional thinking.

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Books: A Working Stiff's Manifesto

A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember by Iain Levison


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the story of how Levison, armed with a nearly-useless degree in English, worked 42 jobs in 10 years, quit 30, was fired by 9, and can’t remember the other 3. Throughout this endless journey (one that hits very close to home for many) he works as a cook, a fish cutter, a crab fisherman, and a truck driver, to name just a few. In every case he finds the absurdity of the job, and in a larger sense, he spots the absurdity of what passes for “work” in this country. He comes to notice that applying for jobs he’s not capable of doing is not his worst problem. Much worse is the way in which most employers are very much out for themselves, stepping on whomever doesn’t fit in with their plan. In every case he moves toward the inevitable conclusion that working for a living is nothing more than a way to keep a lot of people busy while making a very few at the top very rich.
Other than a bit of a downer ending and some less than stellar behavior in the middle, and a few dated observations of the internet (understandable as many of these events happened before things like e-mail became somewhat universal) this book is a hoot. I enjoyed every page. It’s like Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed meets Charles Bukowski’s Factotum, only for me this book was much more relatable and funnier than either of those two.
I can see where Levison’s fiction comes from, with all his characters who are trying to break free from monotonous and unbearable existences, albeit in a hilarious way. It was hard to find much about this book I didn’t like. I would highly recommend anyone interested in Levison’s work to start with this one before getting into the fiction. It is all pretty great and I count myself a fan.

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Books: Bait and Switch

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For fans of Barbara Ehrenreich, this book is essentially a continuation of what she did in Nickel and Dimed. This time, instead of investigating the lower rungs of the minimum wage worker, she explores the world of the middle-class white- collar unemployed. As it turns out, the educated middle-class is increasingly being pushed downward to “survival jobs,” as outlined in Nickel and Dimed. People were “baited” into the idea that if you went to college you’d get a good job: you’re “set.” The “switch” comes into play when you are downsized and you realize that it was all for naught.
Ehrenreich takes the same tactic she took in that earlier book--developing an alter-ego of sorts, and she attempts to get a job in Corporate America, where she soon finds the difficulty in getting a job when there are “gaps” in your resume, creating the catch-22 of how do you get a job when the fact that you don’t already have a job works against you? She employs all the weapons in the arsenal for the middle aged middle class job-seeker: seminars, job boards, career coaches, positive thinking, a “winning attitude,” and finds them all quite lacking in their ability to help her (or anyone else, for that matter) land a job.
Corporate America is a beast. It demands an adherence to the bottom line which often means laying off employees to increase that bottom line. This is not news. But the shocking part of this investigation is the apparent reliance it has on unscientific and irrational notions of “likability” and “positivity” in hiring decisions, often without regard for actual skills.
No question, this is a depressing topic. People who are driven to tears by their feelings of uselessness after a layoff are the casualties in an increasingly cold-blooded and cold-hearted economy. It is also short-sighted to adhere so strictly to the profit-based bottom line, effectively making it so that no one can afford to buy or use whatever service the company may be offering. Henry Ford knew that he had to pay his people a good wage or else they wouldn’t be able to buy his product. It’s a lesson that would seem to have been forgotten amongst the culture of layoffs.
This is a well-done book about a topic that deserves to be addressed, and like Ehrenreich’s other books, it is funny.
I had more to say about my general antipathy toward capitalism, but I’m going to leave it at that. Read Nickel and Dimed, and then read Bait and Switch as both can say more than I ever could about it.

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Since the Layoffs, by Iain Levison

Since the Layoffs by Iain Levison


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the second Levison book I’ve read (this is his first novel). Another thoroughly enjoyable book with some themes that I recognize as ones that will be recurring (in “How to Rob an Armored Car.”). These themes are: marginalized characters working crap jobs in dead end towns, just trying to get by, who get enlisted into doing some completely outrageous criminal scheme that winds up being completely sensible within the context of the story. This one is aptly titled. Every action taken by its main character, and all the people who inhabit this story, is propelled by a huge factory downsizing, leading many who were once having comfortable middle class existences to try to make ends meet however they can. In the case of the narrator, the profession he falls into in this economy is as a hired assassin.

It’s a hoot. A brief hoot at 177 pages, but a hoot nonetheless. If you take it to jury duty or something, maybe take along another of Levison’s books, in case it’s a long day and you are spending a lot of time sitting. That way, you won’t worry about running out of reading material.
For me, it’s on to the next book by my current favorite author. This book is funny in a laugh-out-loud sort of way, absurd without being annoyingly so. It’s kind of like Clerks 2 meets Goodfellas (although I have to admit, I’ve never actually seen Goodfellas), as ultimately our hero just wants to get out of the killing business to open a convenience store.
Without spoiling the ending--let’s just say that the tone remains gleeful and fun, making light of the serious business of unemployment. Great fun!




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Books: The End is Now

The End Is Now by Rob Stennett


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was sold on this book from the comparison to Tom Perrotta, who is one of my favorite authors, and for the most part, this book lives up to that comparison. It takes the modern domestic situation and adds a theological spin: what if the rapture had a “test market,” say, in Goodland Kansas?

This story is about a boy, Will Henderson, who gets lost in a cornfield and then has a vision/dream/hallucination--it is never really clear which--that a face in the cornfield appears and tells him the three signs of the impending pre-rapture, which will take place in his town. When he relays his experience to the town, and the first of his prophecies comes true (that his school will be destroyed) the people begin to lose it. The town is already the home to a “Rapture Museum,” and all people really seem to need is a good push toward hysteria, dividing themselves into various camps of believers, doubters, and those who just want to be ready, just in case. The fact that it is Kansas and the school being destroyed by a tornado is not an unusual occurrence has no rational effect on the true believers. Caught in the middle of all this is Will’s family: Jeff, his father, who was obligated to marry his mother via shotgun wedding and now is doing his best to protect his family; Amy, his mother, for whom Will’s prophecies are no doubt the Word of God; and Emily, his sister, who wants nothing more than to become Homecoming Queen, and just wishes Will’s Prophecies would just go away.

The End is Now is thoroughly enjoyable. It takes fantastical leaps that are never quite explained, which would usually be a big detriment to me, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. It is a novel rooted in the ordinary, everyday domestic situation of a family held together by the reality of an early unplanned pregnancy, then strengthened by the bonds of responsibility and love, who are tested by supernatural circumstances. Seeing how Jeff struggles to save his family feels as real as anything, and Emily’s simple desire to be Homecoming Queen getting sidetracked by her brother, the Prophet, is believable within this context.
All in all, a great read that comes to close to being perfect, except for a minor disappointment of an ending: an epilogue that was somewhat confounding. Unofficially I’d give this 4 and a half but go ahead and call it a 5 star book.

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Books: Buffalo Lockjaw

Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the best book I’ve read all year. I kind of wish I’d read this in December so that this statement would carry more weight. Alas, it is only January, but I really think that this statement will hold up for the rest of the year. Yes, it’s that good.
There is such an obvious love for the hometown that comes out in the writing, coupled with the cold reality of facing a parent’s dementia. It is so well-done and observant (without being too cute or too clever) that it is a pleasure to read.
Buffalo Lockjaw’s main character and narrator is James Fitzroy, a near-30 year old who writes verses for a greeting card company in New York. His life, as it is, is probably not the success which all parent’s hope for, or sacrifice their own lives for. He is spending his Thanksgiving break visiting his parents in Buffalo.

His mother, Ellen, is 56 years old and is suffering from a crippling dementia: she does not even know who James is anymore. His father is Rodney, who is stern and strong while dealing with his wife’s mental disintegration, but James knows that it is killing him inside. This is a story that for many may hit close to home. James’ love of his hometown, the obvious love that the author has for it, struck a chord with me. I understand what it is like to love something even when it is completely fucked up and in many ways, hard to defend. The fact that James/Ames can find the beauty in Buffalo and its people is one of the most endearing qualities of this book. His parents are unavailable, and for James, seeing his mother, the woman he loves and respects who spent years helping people now in such a helpless position, fuels his desire to try to seek a way out for her.

None of this feels phony. Every step of this journey toward middle age, and adulthood feels real, and that is what makes this such a satisfying read. I think any adult with living parents could identify with the perils of trying to relate to them on an mature level, especially the children of this generation (28-35). There is no World War 2 or Great Depression to define what this generation is, but Buffalo Lockjaw seems to suggest that it is more defined by a sort of slouching response to everything. Our occupations are meaningless (Greeting Card writing being a wonderful metaphor and foil for the more serious work of nursing that James’ mother had done), and no one is counting on us to save the world. And if anyone is, God help them.
Buffalo Lockjaw is a love story for a hometown and I loved reading it. I look forward to whatever Greg Ames writes next.

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Books: Pygmy, by Chuck Palahniuk

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk


My rating: 1 of 5 stars
One of the good things about reading for pleasure (instead of, say, reading for school or because someone has a gun to your head and says “read it or die!”) is that when I don’t like something, I can put it down without finishing it.
Thus ends my experience with the second Chuck Palahniuk book to disappoint me(the last one being Snuff). I’m sure this book is brilliant on some level, but after 2 chapters of this 1st person perspective story told in some kind of broken Pidgin English, about a terrorist sleeper embedded with an American family in some terrorist plot, I’m just getting a headache. Plus I’m troubled with this thought: why did Palahniuk decide to tell the story this way--why would Pygmy be reporting back to his people in broken English and not his own language? I’m sure it’s all part of the satire of American culture and this is so unlike me to crap on something without even getting through it, but it is this stylistic decision that has turned me off from trying to get through the rest of it.
Chuck, Chuck…you’re killing me! Snuff was the first book of yours I ever put down and said “This book sucks.” (I just didn’t like the premise and tried to stick with it but found that I couldn’t--this is what unlikable characters and unlikable situations do for me.) But I didn’t feel the need to pan it. But now it’s two in a row, and I’m starting to worry that either I’m not cool enough to get it, or maybe you’re just not the writer I thought you were. While I’m sure this is clever and amusing and has the elements that made Fight Club and Choke and Survivor so damn good, I am not going to stick around to find out. I am so sorry, you have no idea.

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Books: The Great Derangement

The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire by Matt Taibbi


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The basic premise of The Great Derangement is that as Americans, we have no real leadership. We are so used to being lied to and screwed over that in essence, we are forced to create our own reality to deal with it. Matt Taibbi hilariously explores this world of derangement.
After he explains just how mind-numbingly pointless most sessions of Congress are--one bill “debated” is over whether or not to name a post office after Ava Gardner--he gets into how the Government is really run. The real business of politics, we are depressingly and shockingly reminded, is to reward donors, and is mostly run behind closed doors, far away from the floor of the House or Senate. Taibbi explores the world of the Religious Right and the 9-11 Truth Movement, and shows just how similar they really are in terms of their unwillingness to deal with reality.
I was moved by his depiction of the U.S soldiers in Iraq--Taibbi seems like he grew to genuinely care about these people in a way that transcended his feelings about the war.
There were parts of this book where I laughed out loud--his discomfort with being a zombie-like Christian in his secret infiltration of a Fundamentalist Church: looking forward to church, with the fellowship and off-key singing and speaking in tongues, all the while feeling remorse at his role in deceiving them for the sake of writing a book.
This guy can really write. Thoroughly enjoyable.




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Quick update on the new book/new excerpt

I've been doing a few pre-releases of my new book, The Best of Thunder Johnson, and in the coming weeks I am going to put up a web page with all the ordering info about the "official" release. Look for it later this month!

Here is another excerpt. It started as sort of a parody of the style of Chuck Palahniuk...

Asking questions and then not caring about the answers.
Moses watched the new guy in the days that he was here in the hospital. Maybe he could be his friend…
Moses, 38, fat, obnoxious, stumbled into conversations. He could stare intently at you and ask a question yet never hear an answer. In a bizarre way, he was the opposite of the narcissistic people around him, whose pathetic lives would consume them. The same stories, the same failures recounted in the same voices with only slight modifications in multiple re-telling. It was all good to him. They pretended to be interesting, he pretended to be interested.
Copacetic.
Symbiotic.
Parasitic.
Pathetic.
Places that were cold and impersonal became friendly to certain people. People avoided contact nowadays. But there were still people who needed it. Like Moses.
All around him, he saw people tuning out, with their I-pods, laptops, what have you. Whatever happened to people needing to talk? Why did people even bother going outside to be around other people if they weren’t going to even interact?
Moses didn’t like it so much. Out in the world. Which was why he came here so much as he did, to be with people who wanted to talk. Because he wanted to listen. Or at least pretend to listen.
Needy.
Oblivious.
Maddening.
Strange.
Moses tried to talk to women, but it never seemed to work out.
Too fat.
Obese.
Unlovable.
Alone.
He read books to try to learn what he was doing wrong. Books that would help him in conversation, books that would help him to talk to women. Listening. They liked a man who listened.
Self improvement section. He haunted this section of the bookstore, tried to find the right books for him, and while he was at it, he looked for women.
Still too fat.
Obese.
Wanting.
Needing.

So he learned to listen. Or at least to look like he was listening. He read books on listening.
Chapter 1: Smiling and nodding.
Chapter 2: Asking questions.
Chapter 3: “And how did that make you feel?”
And so on.
It was a gold mine. Moses ate it up. He couldn’t wait to try it out.

There was never a shortage of questions from Moses, the listener. But still he went home alone. It seemed that no one wanted to be around him, even when he listened to them. It made him very sad. Fat, alone, miserable inside but cheerful outside.
That was Moses.

Books: Cleaning Up--How I Gave Up Drinking and Lived

Cleaning Up: How I Gave Up Drinking and Lived by Tania Glyde


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is a memoir of a woman who drank for 23 years before finally giving it up on September 12, 2002. It is insightful, honest, at times opinionated and I really couldn’t put it down--I burned through it in 3 days. It challenges so many of the reasons people give for drinking and offers so many right-on quotes and observations that I just have to share some of them here.

“You have to do something about all the people who are living rent free in your head. A phrase I wish I could claim as my own.” --page 177.

“…there is nothing worse and more dishonest, than continuing a friendship that has run its course.” --page 204. (A-men.)

“your time is yours, and not other peoples. Take alcohol out of the equation and the reality hits you that not everyone you know is good for you.” --page 227. (Amen, Amen, Amen).

I enjoyed this book. The writer makes no bones about the way she feels about the role of alcohol, how it is never given the proper credit for actually being a “gateway drug,” as pot is allegedly supposed to be. As this woman is British, the perspective is somewhat different than we get in the U.S. The drinking, I am told, is much more aggressive over there. Plus, she devotes some space to talking about the state of their National Health Service, which as an American strikes me as odd (my take: I wish I could be complaining about the state of my free health care rather than complaining about something that costs me money and still kind of sucks.) The part where she talks about astrology vs. therapy kind of reminded me of a fallacy of logic (e.g. “this one thing sucks therefore this other thing must be better.”). But she comes by this opinion honestly, and that is the most compelling case for what is so good about this book: honesty. I loved her take on positive thinking: “Frankly, I have never heard more bollocks spoken on just about any other subject.” (page 181). She says this in the context of the recovery movement, which, she feels, kind of makes people “programmed” to never say anything negative about anything.

An enjoyable book for many reasons, this book is up there with Drinking, a Love Story by Caroline Knapp (which she lists at the end). Great stuff.

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Books: Hot, Flat and Crowded

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman

This book alternately scares the hell out of me and gives me hope for the possibilities in innovation and science that could one day stem the tide of carbon emissions that are hurting our planet and killing my friends the polar bears.

At the risk of giving it too much credit, this is a book that everyone should read. From the title, “hot” refers to global warming, which, Friedman suggests, is really more like “global weirding”, giving rise to droughts in some areas, floods in others, and just a general condition that the planet cannot maintain itself if we do not do something. By “crowded,” he means too many people living like Americans, with our over-consumption and generally wasteful lifestyle (BTW--my 10th grade English teacher tried to get us, as a class, to stop using the term “lifestyle,” as she felt it was somewhat dated and ‘80’s sounding. I think of this anytime I use this word. Any thoughts?). By “flat,” he is referring to the phenomenon of a great number of these people achieving a middle class existence all at the same time, thereby making a great demand on the planet’s resources, creating a need for energy that for the foreseeable future, will continue to be through “dirty” energy sources, like coal. Friedman argues that what we need, as a nation, to lead the world in a systemic change in our energy policy. He argues that we need to make the word “green” go away, only used when someone violates accepted “green” policies, much like the term “civil rights” is now a given, only brought up when violated. He argues that we are a great country with great potential to change the world, yet we lag well behind many of the other countries who have mad e great strides in “Clean” energies, such as solar, wind, etc.

A big strength of this book is Friedman’s ability to use understandable metaphors, to drive his point home. For example, the image that has stuck with me is how he explains C02 emissions: imagine that you are driving your car. For every mile you go, imagine that you are throwing a bag of trash out the window. That is your C02.
When you think of it that way, it does make you want to re-evaluate your habits.

This is an important book that urges change--hard, real change, not just some “205 easy ways to save the Earth” sort of change--to live our lives in what he terms to Energy Climate Era, or ECE. How will we supply the energy needs for a world that is becoming hot, flat, and crowded in such a way that we do not further damage a planet that is in many ways already irreparable? --think of the many animal extinctions and you will know what I mean by “irreparable.”

This is not just an environmental issue. Friedman is not some tree-hugging sissy about it. What he is saying is that whichever nation can take the lead on clean energy for the Energy Climate Era will become the most profitable nation in the world, and help to save the world as well. Isn’t that a win-win?
Read it, read it, read it!



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Books: Columbine

Columbine by Dave Cullen

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a thorough and well-written book that delves into the events, causes, and aftermath of the Columbine tragedy. It has been 10 years since the massacre inflicted by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, and answers as to why they did it are still murky. There are many misconceptions about that day, and this book does an excellent job of sorting out the truth, and debunking many of the rumors. 13 students died, many were wounded, and Cullen tells their stories. He explores the nature of psychotics and suggests that any thought that this was a revenge killing are completely false. He explores the journals and videos left behind by the killers and gets to an underlying truth, one that is perhaps unsatisfying to those who need a “why?”: they were disturbed, not motivated by the same desires that motivate normal people, and it is quite possible that nothing could have stopped this (save, of course, preventing the easy access to firearms that allowed it to take shape).

It is tragedy, but there are tales of hope within. Patrick Ireland, the boy who was seen stumbling out the window, has a story that is downright inspiring. After he was shot, he was unable to walk or speak properly. It looked like he would have permanent brain damage and maybe, if he was lucky, he might be able to walk with a crutch, and the occasional support of a wheelchair. But months and months of hard work and a fierce determination led him to a remarkable recovery and today, he lives a life where his injuries do not define him. Now he walks on his own, and the wheelchair is gone.



Reading this, I found myself getting a little pissed at a lot of the people who blamed video games, violent movies, “liberals” and the like for this tragedy. I also got angry at the media for how they picked up and reported the myths, which spread and became like truth. Get past the bullshit. Read this and find out the truth.




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Books: The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta

The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have been reading all the Tom Perrotta books and I think this one might be the saddest, in terms of what it reveals about the nature of dreams and in this case, not knowing when to let them go. Many of the later books involve some middle aged person undergoing a crisis (with the exception of Joe College) but this one is about a somewhat younger character and has the funny yet depressing theme of growing up and getting over your adolescence. This is the story of Dave, guitarist in the wedding group the Wishbones, who somewhat impulsively decides to ask his girlfriend of fifteen years to marry him. The fact that he has been with the same girl...on and off...for so long indicates a serious problem, an inability to get over himself and commit to something other than his music. Additionally, there is his affair with a woman in the city, which tests and challenges his upcoming marriage and makes him wonder why he is going through with it. He is hanging on to his dream of being a rock star when the dream has long since moved past him. It is heartbreaking, but you spend more time laughing out loud at the way the story unfolds.

I enjoy Tom Perrotta's books so much I almost hate that I read them so fast. I also think that he has an excellent sense for writing about relationships, often nailing the many feelings we go through when we are in one. Soooo good! Bad Haircut next!


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Books: Inventing Niagara

Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies by Ginger Strand

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The central premise of this book is that the natural wonder we know as Niagara Falls is in fact an example of how nature is manipulated for man’s own purposes but still sold as “nature.” The author’s love of the subject is obvious--this is as much about her own voyage of discovery as it is about Niagara Falls. We follow her as she meets interesting people associated with the Falls. She describes her many visits to the region, the many people she meets, what she uncovers at the library, the local records, etc. It all comes across in a way that is interesting to read. What we learn in this book is how the power of Niagara was harnessed and then ultimately re-shaped for the benefit of tourism, making it more user-friendly rather than literally just letting it run its course. The history of industry in the area is explored; how manufacturing once thrived until it mostly left for places with cheaper power and lower taxes. The toxic history is presented, from the region’s unwitting role in the development of the atomic bomb to Love Canal and beyond. The last chapter is about the state of the American side of the falls, which has not fared as well as the Canadian side, partly due to the fact that the Canadians had casino gambling to draw people over to their side. Apparently now there is a casino on the American side, but is it really enough to save the region? And should a beautiful natural treasure like Niagara Falls ever need “saving?” The history of the American side reads like a horror story of something that has happened to a lot of once-great American cities.

Over all, this is a good read. It is more of an exploration of the author’s curiosity than it is a call to action for the environment, which is probably a good thing, cause, well, I’m pretty lazy.


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Books: Supreme Courtship

Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Supreme Courtship is about a President who, fed up with the Powerful Senate Judiciary Committee rejecting his Supreme Court nominees, decides to get back at them by nominating Pepper Cartwright, a popular TV judge, a choice that will surely trouble the Senate. Of course, there is an election underway with a President who doesn't really want to be re-elected but runs for spite, in the face of an amendment to limit Presidents to only one term--an amendment that was developed because of him. It will be up to the High Court and its newest judge to resolve this Constitutional Crisis.

I think Buckley is superior at what he does. Christopher Buckley is always an entertaining read. His latest, Supreme Courtship, is just one more in which he just makes political comedy look easy. It's not quite up there with Thank You For Smoking, but for my money (or in this case, my library card) give me any one of his books for the plane ride, bus ride, or jury duty, and let everyone wonder what the hell I am laughing at.




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