The Confessions Of Max Tivoli

Having long been an enormous Indiana Jones fan, I was surprised that it took me so long to see the new movie. But, I was even more surprised by one of the trailers that preceded it.

The trailer I saw did not give the movie a title, but it is certainly based on the book The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer (which I first wrote about here). I am totally trilled that this book is being made in to a movie (with Brad Pitt!). Greer is an amazing creative genius. If the script is faithful to the book, I am certain the movie will be terrific.

Next up, I will have to read The Story of a Marriage (also by Greer).

The Enchantress Of Florence Will Have To Wait

When I heard Salman Rushdie talk about his book Shalimar the Clown on NPR I bought it immediately. I mean right away (that day). In hardcover. In 2005. What do I have to say about it? Nothing. I still have not read it.

So, having just had a similar experience (again, NPR is the culprit) with The Enchantress of Florence, I have decided to wait for the paperback version. The thing is that I have never read any of Rushdie's books. Ever. I don't even know if I would like them.

As a result, I'll definitely buy it, but will wait until it is 20% off and in paperback.

A Fictional Companion?

Since I believe that napping should be taken as seriously as an Olympic sport, when I saw The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer on display at Magers & Quinn I immediately picked it up. I mean, Ten Years! Yikes. That would take commitment.

The book isn't about napping (which, arguably, would not make compelling fiction), but I think it might be a fictional companion to The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennets (which I wrote about here and here). Maybe not in terms of a straight line connection, but a circular dotted one (I have not read it yet, so I might be reading too much in to the book jacket).

I ended up buying Wolitzer's book, because it is described as a comedy with excellent timing. Though, I do have a disproportionate affinity for low brow humor (Ant Farm by Simon Rich, for example, that I wrote about here) so I am not sure this is going to work.

Anyway, funny is good. I hope this book is too.

Of Course The Main Character Is 29

I have always thought that being 29 made people a little crazy and, even, a little bit distasteful. The nicest 28 year old and the coolest 30 year old was probably a pain in the butt at 29.

Anyway, I heard about The Book of Dahlia by Elisa Albert on NPR this morning. I am interested because it is supposed to be funny (not as funny as Ant Farm by Simon Rich that I wrote about here), but I am not really buying what the write up is selling.

I would normally avoid any and all entertainment that involves someone suffering from cancer, but could be persuaded if it was done in such a way that was funny (which is, apparently, what this book does).

But, I just don't believe it can be truly funny and not annoying (mostly because the main character is 29).

What Do The Cigarette Girl, Shopgirl And A Random Diary From Ebay Have In Common?

Despite a variety of good reviews, I avoided Shopgirl by Steve Martin for a long time. I avoided it not because I thought Steve Martin couldn’t write a novella, but because it seemed a little unfair that he was a great comedian and a great serious writer.

But, eventually, I picked it up and it is a terrific read (short, to the point and observational). What I liked best about it was the way that Los Angeles is evoked. In that sense, it was super similar to The Cigarette Girl by Carol Wolper, which was also excellent.

What about the diary? Well, on eBay there is a brisk trade in other people’s diaries (true story) and I bought one once. It was written by a woman living in LA in the 30s and I have to say that the LA she describes produces some of the same images (albeit 30s style) as both Martin and Wolper.

I Never Really Liked Audio Books (even on an ipod)

I never really liked audio books, but now I have changed my mind. I recently went on a long haul road trip and listened to Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman on CD.

I loved it. Chuck is a brilliant satirist and listening to it in audio form (during a long haul road trip) was better than reading it, because I consumed it in a single “sitting”.

Interesting Snippet

So, as it turns out, my home state (Minnesota) has lots of readers. Of the top 5 most literate cities, Minneapolis is #1 and Saint Paul is #3.

What Would Machiavelli Do?

Stanley Bing is the second reason that I buy Fortune magazine at the airport (the first depends on what is on the cover). Bing writes a column on the last page and (even if the entire magazine sucks that month) his column makes it worth the price of a latte that you have to pay for it.

What Would Machiavelli Do? by Stanley Bing, like the column, is super funny (100 Bullshit Jobs and How to Get Them is also funny). And, while Bing makes it clear (even insists) that you shouldn’t have to bother with reading the actual Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, I started to give it a try (owned it for years).

Before I even got to the text itself, I took a detour. In the foreword to the version published by “Everyman’s Library” the author writes:

The aim is to extract from observed events those recurrent features that provide a basis for practical action. If, as Machiavelli claims, politics can be a science comparable to medicine, then history is its pathology. The decline and fall of the Roman state has always had an obsessive interest for commentators; it could be called the shaping myth of western political thought. (xiii)

Of course, after reading that, I got distracted by Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America by Cullen Murphy. The Prince will wait, I think, a few more years (back to the shelf with Sun Tzu and The Art of War).

This Just In From Oprah

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the newest Oprah’s Book Club selection. Set in the Caribbean coast of South America, spanning multiple years, filled with a type of romance and beautifully written. And, yet, I have never been able to finish it. Ever.

I really want to read this book and, I swear, one day I will persevere, but I never make it past page 20 or so. I have started it so many times that I have basically memorized the opening sentence (which, I think, is one of the best lines ever written):

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” (3)

It is the same story with 100 Years of Solitude by the same author (Oprah’s 2004 selection). But, worse, in the case of 100 Years of Solitude I have started it twice as many times!

The First Draft Of The Reincarnationist

The honest truth is that, while I appreciate literature, my literary standards are not that high when it comes to an interesting plot or theme. And, as far as great plot devises go, it is hard to get better than reincarnation (deals with identity and spirituality with a bit of inherent time travel – hard to get better than that).

The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose (which I was fully expecting to be a great read) might possibly be the worst book that I have ever read. Truly. The plot devise is good, but the characters are flat and make no sense, the storyline is interesting, but doesn’t hang together and the book should be edited in a big way. It really should be about half as long as it is.

At best, The Reincarnationist is a first draft!

How Much Do I Love The Economist?

While I was an international relations student in the early 90s, the saying used to be that if you wanted to be a Foreign Service Officer, you had to read The Economist magazine or the New York Times every week for a year (every single printed word). If you did that, the conventional wisdom went, you were sure to have an FSO business card.

Since the New York Times has fallen on hard times, I suspect students today have dropped it from the list, but I am certain the belief in The Economist still persists.

Anyway, I never became an FSO (the Internet boom intervened), but I did start reading it every week and have never stopped. It is simply the best magazine published today. I could wax on and on about how great it is and why, but I will give one reason here:

The book review section is totally awesome. For example, the review of Alan Greenspan’s new book The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World in the most recent issue (here) is perfect.

Plus, how much do I want to read Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy by Eric D. Weitz? A lot. Not because the review (here) is glowing, but because it is a perfect review.

Alan Greenspan Is Super Cool

The sage of our former times has been on the circuit hawking his new book The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.

He was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart a couple nights ago (video clip here). His interview reminded me a little bit of what Albert Einstein said about understanding politics. Einstein said (paraphrasing) that math was much easier to understand than people.

Anyway, Greenspan said just about the same thing. He said (paraphrasing) that we rely on giant reams of data, because people make no sense.

Also, from what I understand, in Greenspan’s book he describes wooing his wife with an essay on the Sherman Antitrust Act. That is pretty funny.

Anyway, I’ve got to get the book!

“Sex In The City” Saudi Arabian Style

I first became alerted to the book The Girls of Riyadh written by Rajaa Alsanea in a review written up in the Economist. Suitably intrigued I bought and read it.

The cross-cultural communications researcher in me loved it and so did the social media consultant.

I think this book is a “must read” for all Western women, but especially those women who get pissed off every time they see someone covering their hair. Even though the book’s story is frivolous in many ways, it gives the reader clear insight into a world that is completely misunderstood.

The narrative is delivered via the context of social media (arguably, old social media – a Yahoo group – but, still social media). It is an interesting construct (like The Last Messages which is told completely through text messages). Over time it will be interesting to see what fiction includes narrative or other elements that revolve around social media trends and technology.

Anyway, this book is well worth the price of purchase

The Uncertain Hour

The Hours by Michael Cunningham and Being Dead by Jim Crace are two of my all time favorite books. When I saw that both Cunningham and Crace endorsed a new book, I bought it immediately.

The Uncertain Hour by Jesse Browner is a masterpiece and it is impossible to put down. Based on the basic description (a “vivid portrait of life in Rome” and “a gripping entrée into the mind of a great man during his final hours”), I thought there might be parts of it that would be like Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (not in terms of the narrative, but in the sense that the main character in both books are confronting their own death).

It is not. In general, I liked Never Let Me Go (I wrote about it here), but the narrator in The Uncertain Hour is far more philosophical and his anguish more palpable and so the book forces the reader more fully into the story.

I generally require narrative first and writing second (I learned that from Only Revolutions which I wrote about here), but in this book the reader gets both. Plus, it is filled with numerous excellent quotes so these are just a few of my favorites.

On living and death:

We owe so little time to life, and all eternity to death, so let’s pay off our small debts first, Petronius. (32)

On reputation:

A man’s reputation is a delicate vase, vulnerable in equal measure to the malice of enemies, the prurience of strangers, and the clumsiness of friends. (44)

On civilization:

“When it comes down to it, he thought, isn’t all civilization just an exercise in measuring time, in pacing off the foundations on which to build a model of the universe of oneself?” (138)

On love and empire:

“I believe in love just as I believe in empire. They’re both transactions between partners of unequal strength, dressed up in heroic rhetoric.” (170)

It is not often that I read a book and have no complaints, but, in this case, I am unable to think of even one.

The Republicans Have To Write Too

Along with the Democrats, the Republican candidates for President of the United States have been busy scribbling out some books too.

Like the Democrats, some of the Republicans manage to pop out a book “all by themselves” while others work with another author.

Rudy Giuliani wrote Leadership.

John McCain wrote Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them and Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir. McCain has written a whole passel of books so I am not going to list them all here.

Mitt Romney wrote Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games.

Ron Paul wrote A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship.

Mike Huckabee wrote From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPS to Restoring America's Greatness.

Tom Tancredo wrote In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security.

Again, I am not positive this is a complete list (politicians write a lot). If I missed one, let me know.

Either way, I have not read any of their books (as it turns out, just like the Democrats, not a time travel thriller in the bunch).

Since I plan on working my way through the books by the Democratic candidates, I think I will work my way through these too, but, where to start?

Maybe I’ll ask the Quip.

Democrats On the Write

The Democrats running for President of the United States sure are busy at their keyboards (or, whatever they use to write) churning out the books. It is almost like writing a book is the price of entry.

Some of the candidates have been writing books “all by themselves” (apparently) while others work with another author.

Joe Biden wrote Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

Bill Richardson wrote Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life.

Chris Dodd wrote Letters from Nuremberg: My Father's Narrative of a Quest for Justice.

John Edwards co-edited Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream and wrote Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives.

Barack Obama wrote The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream and Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

Dennis Kucinich wrote The Courage to Believe and A Prayer for America.

Hillary Clinton re-published her famous 1996 book It Takes a Village with a new forward.

Last, even Mike Gravel has a book called Citizen Power: A People's Platform (it was published at some point in the 70s and is apparently out of print).

I am not positive this is a complete list (politicians write a lot). If I missed one, let me know.

Either way, I have not read any of their books (not a time travel thriller in the bunch). But, I think that I should. So, I’ll start with It Takes a Village (mostly because I already bought it and Citizen Power looks like it costs over $400).

Time Travel In The Biblical Sense

The Didymus Contingency: A Time Travel Thriller by Jeremy Robinson has a reasonably good set-up.

Basically, a couple of scientists working for a gigantic corporation invent time travel, decide to go back to witness the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (of course one of them speaks Aramaic) and get caught up in events while a bounty hunter from the big corporation tries to assassinate them to protect the time line (plus throw in some interesting twists from a pack of demons called Legion).

Anyway, pretty good set-up, right? Yeah, but it does not deliver. As time travel stories go, this one has a lot of dramatic potential none of which is realized. Suzanne Frank’s series of “time travelers adventuring through the Bible stories” (Reflections in the Nile, Shadows on the Aegean, Sunrise on the Mediterranean and Twilight in Babylon) is much better (though, I have not read the last book in the series).

Plus, one of the scientists in Robinson’s book makes an argument (for why the scientists should not save Jesus from his historical fate) that is so annoying and so absurd that I cannot bear to re-type it in this post.

Guy Kawasaki Reads Faster Than Me

(plus, he gets interviews sometimes.)

When it comes to non-fiction (and maybe fiction, but I am not sure), it seems that Guy Kawasaki is always out in front and cranking out the book reviews and author interviews.

Sometimes, I have already bought the book and am wondering when I am going to read it and “boom” Guy posts something about it on How to Change the World (his blog). Or, other times, I am reading as fast as I can, but he posts about it first so I never get to it (but, I plan to). But, mostly, I am wasting time discussing Lost with the Quip and not focusing on the books.

A couple examples (in order of his posting not preemption):

He interviewed Penelope Trunk who is the author of Brazen Careerists: The New Rules for Success on his blog here just when I was mulling over purchase. I did write about The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Phillip Zimbardo here, but Guy got the interview here while I was still waiting for the Amazon box to arrive. Again, he wrote a post here on Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston before I was even past page 30.

The list goes on and on.

Brett Ashley

Brett Ashley from The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is one of the coolest characters ever created.

Her first appearance in the book is pretty engaging.

A crowd of young men, some in jerseys and some in their shirt-sleeves, got out. I could see their hands and newly washed, wavy hair in the light from the door. The policeman standing by the door looked at me and smiled. They came in. As they went in, under the light I saw white hands, wavy hair, white faces, grimacing, gesturing, talking. With them was Brett. She looked very lovely and she was very much with them. (28)

I think that might be my favorite entrance in all fiction, but maybe I am forgetting something.

Cats Would Do Great

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (which I wrote about here) is a lot of things, but one part of the book details the slow elimination of human beings on Earth. While I was reading the book, I kept thinking: “would infrastructure really collapse that fast without people maintaining it” (about 6 months or less for some major pieces).

After learning about The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (a review is on the Washington Post site and he appeared on the Diane Rehm Show), I suppose I am convinced some things would disappear much faster.

Weisman’s book details what would happen to our planet without any people on it and it isn’t good for the Internet. For sure it is something that Web developers have known for a long time. Web sites not only don’t build themselves they also don’t keep themselves running!

From what I understand, cats and bronze statues come out great (dogs and cockroaches not so much). I have to read this book!