|
Sway
by lz in Reading Archive on 03Dec2008
I should just adopt a policy of not reading any book that includes multiple pages of "Advance Praise" for itself. Not sure how I got this one in the queue, but it arrived quickly, and was quickly read. The usual fare of social psychology-- loss aversion (we continue to bid...
|
|
Collection of essays from the defunct but missed Baffler, a magazine that aimed and fired right into the heart of our advertising-based age. Ads use rebellion against us-- rebellion is cool, buy our product to rebel, taking the wind out of the sails of true rebellion. The essays are filled...
|
|
Kafka was the Rage
by lz in Reading Archive on 28Nov2008
Although not able to digest much more than food on Thanksgiving, I devoured and gorged on this book. Broyard shares his intimate life in Greenwich Village during the 1946 post-war timeframe, when everyone was still figuring out sex, philosophy, psychoanalysis. The writerly types were caught up in their words, some...
|
|
Lying on the Couch
by lz in Reading Archive on 28Nov2008
There's something weird about reading a signed copy of the book from the Mission branch library. Psychoanalysis drama - Ernest with his patients Justin (who leaves wife Carol, who revenges herself on Justin by going to Ernest with the intent to discredit him), Marshal as Ernest's mentor but a shrink...
|
|
As I was reading this crap, I cried out, "Why do I subject myself to these books?" The Max sagely pointed out that I was seeking an answer, and leaving no stone unturned. Well, consider this book crossed off the list, with zero actionable bits. Filled with common sense items...
|
|
Know Can Do!
by lz in Reading Archive on 17Nov2008
What prevents us from taking all of our knowledge and acting upon it? * Information Overload - the key is in repetition; read a few books over and over, take copious notes. We retain only a small fraction of what we read and hear. Focus on a few key concepts...
|
|
Nudge
by lz in Reading Archive on 17Nov2008
The basic idea of this book is that to have a positive impact on "the world", make the default choice the best choice. This includes automatic enrollment in 401ks, stocking cafeterias with healthy food, etc. That way, the path of least resistance is the one that leads to a longer,...
|
|
On Writing
by lz in Reading Archive on 12Nov2008
Delightful and inspiring book from a prolific writer; King starts with his humble beginnings, his spike filled with rejection letters, the progression of more and more personal notes on the rejection letters like "2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%", a formula he took to heart and allowed his own...
|
|
Bad Money
by lz in Reading Archive on 09Nov2008
It seems that Kevin Phillips is getting his wish-- the US public is learning more about the complexities of 21st century finance than ever before, via This American Life podcasts (1 and 2), Bill Moyers' show, the daily newspaper, even beauty parlor talk. Seeing Mr. Phillips on Bill Moyer's Journal,...
|
|
Deep breaths, that's what I keep taking to try and keep my rage under control. Rage at actions the Bush administration took 3 years ago to release the fake letter tying Iraq to Mohammad Atta under the direct order of Bush to George Tenet to his CIA underlings. Rage at...
|
|
1491
by lz in Reading Archive on 26Oct2008
What do we really know about life in the "New World" before the "Old World" invaded it? In American history textbooks, life pre-Columbus is shortened to a page or a few paragraphs. This book seeks to remedy that, to shine a spotlight on the tremendous civilizations that populated North and...
|
|
Vagabonding
by lz in Reading Archive on 22Oct2008
I don't feel quite right about crediting Mr. Potts as the author of this work, since 85% of the book was quotes from other writers (Walt Whitman, Joseph Conrad, Ed Buryn, Thoreau, etc. etc. etc.) and "in their own voices" type stuff from regular travelers. The overall gist of the...
|
|
Traffic
by lz in Reading Archive on 11Oct2008
One of my dream jobs is to be a traffic engineer. Reading this book feeds some of that desire, with explanations as to why merging at the last minute is a good thing (uses more of the available roadway), how traffic calming devices work in London and the Netherlands (make...
|
|
The Writing Class
by lz in Reading Archive on 05Oct2008
I first fell in love with her writing with Jenny and the Jaws of Life, an amazing book of short stories. If I'm not mistaken, this is Willett's first novel, and it's a good one. The premise for the story is a writing class, one of those adult-extension classes where...
|
|
America America
by lz in Reading Archive on 01Oct2008
This one came highly recommended to me, but I disagree; it's simply average writing telling a somewhat interesting tale. Our narrator (Corey Sifter) is the editor of a local newspaper, present day, mentoring a young college-bound highly intelligent girl of bohemian parents. Sifter weaves the current day plot (caring for...
|
|
Sacred Hunger
by lz in Reading Archive on 16Sep2008
The life of a slave ship, from construction through abandonment on the Florida coast, underpins the story set in the 1700s. William Kemp builds the ship, then ends up hanging himself under the pressure of mounting debts. His son, Erasmus Kemp, jettisons his attempt at marriage with a local merchant's...
|
|
Not even close to as thrilling and engaging as The Informant (the ADM price fixing scheme), this book is touted as the granddaddy of all business books, giving an inside look into the leveraged buyout (LBO) of RJR Nabisco in 1988. Ross Johnson is portrayed as the smarmy, greedy CEO...
|
|
Bosnian writer Brik lives in Chicago and is being kept by his brain-surgeon wife, Mary. He chafes under his inability to earn a living, and somehow secures a grant to write about Lazarus, a Russian Jew killed in the early 1900s by the Chicago Chief of Police after Lazarus went...
|
|
Slumberland
by lz in Reading Archive on 29Aug2008
This book ensnared me in its whirlwind tempo and spit me out at the end, spent and spinning. DJ Darky finds himself en route to Berlin, on a quest to find Schwa, this illusive musician whose work is unparalleled in the modern world. After sending a mix tape to the...
|
|
Kafka on the Shore
by lz in Reading Archive on 17Aug2008
Murakami is the only writer alive who can snap his fingers and make me go all technicolor dreamy. His ability to create realistic otherworldly civilizations that capture my imagination is unparalleled. He also knows his audience, pandering to readers with the characters' literary discussions and using the private library as...
|
|
Eat This, Not That
by lz in Reading Archive on 16Aug2008
The book begins with the usual list of Foods To Eat Everyday-- spinach, yogurt, tomatoes, carrots, blueberries, black beans, walnuts, oats. So if you're eating those everyday, you probably don't need the rest of the book, which is a guide to what to order at fast food restaurants. A coupla...
|
|
Utterly delightful book until halfway through when the maudlin crept in and tore the plot into bits of paper. Basic story that Christopher lives with his parents in Shanghai until they are kidnapped, and he is shipped off to his aunt's custody in England. Christopher graduates from school, becomes a...
|
|
The Goal
by lz in Reading Archive on 09Aug2008
A fictionalized account of a manufacturing plant manager who faces extinction since his plant is losing money quickly. He turns things around with the help of a Socratic mentor, Jonah, his old physics professor who has common sense ideas about how to turn businesses around. By identifying bottlenecks in his...
|
|
Belgian King Leopold II had a well-tuned business mind. He looked at the Congo region and decided to backhandedly colonize it through deals that created and tapped the rubber plantations. Through his arguably blatant neglect, atrocities were committed in the region-- hands chopped from living people as evidence of corpses...
|
|
The Informant
by lz in Reading Archive on 31Jul2008
Over the past week, I've been lugging this 600+ page book around the city, sneaking glimpses at it whenever I could, in waiting rooms and during lunch breaks, wishing that this week's busy social calendar didn't get in the way of my devouring this book. Last night, I stayed up...
|
|
Resource Wars
by lz in Reading Archive on 23Jul2008
It all boils down to oil and water. Although the two elements don't mix well, they do combine as necessary but limited resources which the 21st century needs for physical and economic survival. This was a fantastic, pre-9/11 look at the global situation, which accurately predicts the US invasion of...
|
|
Essay collection curated by City Lights detailing the history of San Francisco's growth and political bent. Filled with good stuff, from articles on the horrible "weeding" done at the SF public library to fit into the new building with fancy computer equipment that quickly went out of date, to an...
|
|
A beautiful and quick read; condenses the 3 year siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s into a month of fiction. True stories inspire main plot points, like the cellist who watches 22 of his friends and neighbors die when a shell lands on them whilst waiting in a line for...
|
|
"Just be different," Athena tells us. This spiritual character loses herself in dance and calligraphy, filling up her blank spaces with activity, and eventually discovering the Mother spirit, then teaching people how they could find the Mother as well. An orphan adopted in Lebanon, daughter of gypsies, brought up in...
|
|
Three Cups of Tea
by lz in Reading Archive on 29Jun2008
Climber fails to climb K-2, gets lost on his way down the mountain and wanders into a remote village where the people treat him well. Climber vows to return and build a school for the village, returns to US, raises money through various letters and phone calls, discovers that computers...
|
|
Breathtakingly beautiful, simply amazing, read it, read it, read it! I am exhausted right now and will likely not do it justice, but this is the best book I've read in months. Story is of an ancient languages (Greek, Latin) teacher who simply gets up and walks out of his...
|
|
Drown
by lz in Reading Archive on 18Jun2008
Autobiographical stories from the author's youth growing up in the Dominican Republic, migrating to the US at age 9. The complexity of his father's abandonment and eventual return (and eventual re-abandonment). The stories show a real side of immigration, never a false note ringing. Good writing, evocative. Diaz won a...
|
|
The Rider
by lz in Reading Archive on 17Jun2008
I'm becoming a bit of an armchair bicycle racer, soaking up the Tours, ogling the speedy and sleek riders. This book feeds right into that desire to get up close and personal with the racers, without having to expend any sweat or feel the cracking pain. Krabbe does a fantastic...
|
|
Not Buying It
by lz in Reading Archive on 13Jun2008
I'm overdosing on these "giving up material things" books; a recent post in one of my favorite financial blogs pointed me in this direction, and Levine's book was a welcome addition, more serious than the woman who gave up stuff for a month, then moved on. Basic premise was that...
|
|
After Dark
by lz in Reading Archive on 10Jun2008
I'm not sure why I haven't burned through the Murakami canon yet, considering how much I loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. After Dark is a collection of stories all occurring between midnight and dawn. Quick snippets of life, fragments, and they move on to the next character. Nothing is wrapped...
|
|
Give It Up
by lz in Reading Archive on 10Jun2008
Interesting concept- the author gives up one of her essentials for a month, picking a different item to eliminate each month of the year. Obvious ones like alcohol, coffee, chocolate, television, dining out and cellphones. Not so obvious choices like elevators, shopping, newspapers, taxis, cursing, and multitasking. By the end...
|
|
I, Claudius
by lz in Reading Archive on 09Jun2008
Everywhere you turn, people are comparing what's happening in the US with the fall of the Roman Empire. And that got me thinking about a book I read long ago, which gave a portrait of those decadent times in an extremely readable format. I decided to read this one again,...
|
|
Crisp and brilliant short stories by Raymond Carver. What remains unsaid brims below the surface, creating tensions and setting the mood. The title comes from the final story, where a man finds that his perfect marriage is marred by his wife's infidelity one night four years ago. The book is...
|
|
"Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world," so said Napolean, and so true it remains hundreds of years since. The allure of 1.5 billion consumers driving companies in to sell their products, only to find that other local merchants have already arrived to sell to...
|
|
Are circus books preternaturally good? I'm thinking of Geek Love, and this one, but I'm sure there are others. So yeah, this book that everyone has been buzzing in my ear to read, it's a quality story. Jacob is a 93 year old man reliving his glory days when a...
|
|
As an indication of how desperately parched my reading throat was, I consumed this book in a few hours last night. I just couldn't stop myself, reading and whirling in the characters' Ocean Beach fog, tensely waiting to see what Holland would do-- would he choose his old lover over...
|
|
Housekeeping
by lz in Reading Archive on 12May2008
Delightful novel filled with unique female characters: Ruthie the narrator, her little sister Lucille who starts to care what other people think of her, Aunt Sylvie who swoops in to become their guardian after their grandmother passes. Their mother Helen dropped them on the grandmother's porch eons ago before suiciding...
|
|
About the Author
by lz in Reading Archive on 08May2008
Ate it up. Then licked the spoon. And wondered where to get more. I like the four part format; each section not too long to plow through, each section with a definite ending. Great writing, engaging plot (which sometimes wandered into the unbelievable, but I'll suspend my disbelief for any...
|
|
North to the Night
by lz in Reading Archive on 01May2008
I love these kinds of adventure tales that turn me into an armchair traveler. And by "these kinds", I mean the ones that don't overplay the maudlin or overemphasize the dangers or weave meaningless strands of spirituality into the mix. Simon's tale kicks off in the tropical seas, promising his...
|
|
Revolutionary Road
by lz in Reading Archive on 27Apr2008
I finally re-read some Richard Yates after years away. Frank and April Wheeler, in their suburban hell, grinning and leering at each other as something above their neighbors, planning to escape to Europe with the 2 kids so Frank could find himself, then pregnancy rears its head again ("You've been...
|
|
Still Life
by lz in Reading Archive on 23Apr2008
It had a promising start- the murder victim ID'd in the opening sentence. Then, in poured the adjectives, describing everyone's clothes and personality and accents in painstaking, overwhelming detail. It became something shy of beach reading, lost some of its intellectual shimmer. In the end, seems like just the kind...
|
|
The Apprentice
by lz in Reading Archive on 13Apr2008
Jacques Pepin's charmed cooking life, in written form, poorly edited. As in, typos sprinkled throughout the pages. My inner editor wouldn't let that go. Besides that, a sweet story of his upbringing in the kitchen, from apprenticing out at age 13, through many French kitchens, Parisian kitchens, and escaping to...
|
|
Maximum City
by lz in Reading Archive on 04Apr2008
A terribly boring book about India, I'm afraid. Some parts are engaging, like the story of how this ex-pat comes home to India after 20 years, brings his family, gets settled in and learns how to deal with the country that says "No" instead of America. Once he veered off...
|
|
It started out as such a promising book, but I ended up disappointed by the shoddy overall impression; the mixup over how long the Iraq war had been going on, poor date editing, etc. Basic premise is that an obesity researcher applies economic models to the fat epidemic, we're getting...
|
|
Beautiful Children
by lz in Reading Archive on 16Mar2008
Not sure where I picked up this recommendation, but it seems to be the "book of the season", on every bookstore's lips as a suggestion. And as such, I'm wildly disappointed. I've been struggling to get into it for about a week, and finally devoted most of today to plowing...
|
|
Scratch Beginnings
by lz in Reading Archive on 29Feb2008
In an effort to disprove the construct of Nickel & Dimed, Adam Shepard shows us just how far you can get with the right attitude and worth ethic. Slipping off to Charleston, S.C. with $25 in his pocket, Adam gets into a homeless shelter the first night and takes us...
|
|
Three Junes
by lz in Reading Archive on 17Feb2008
Good book until the last ridiculous 100 pages. A story told from the perspective of the father, a son, and a girl the father met in Greece the summer after his wife died. Scottish family, proper and all that. The son a "poofter", and his complicated relationship with Mal. Setting...
|
|
On My Own Two Feet
by lz in Reading Archive on 16Feb2008
I admit it-- I'm addicted to personal finance books and blogs. This latest is nothing ground-breaking, but always a good refresher on the basics. Best thing I took from it: make sure you're spending money on areas of your life that bring the greatest joy. * Save 15% of your...
|
|
Women & Money
by lz in Reading Archive on 15Feb2008
Skimmed this last night. There were some interesting bits about Suze's early life, borrowing $50k from the patrons of a restaurant she worked in Berkeley, losing the money in an ill-advised investment, then going to work for that investment firm. Includes a great deal for people just getting started: TD...
|
|
A Spot of Bother
by lz in Reading Archive on 27Jan2008
A decidedly British novel, as you can tell from the title. A whirlwind of family troubles besets George Hall, who has just retired and finds a lesion on his thigh, spinning his thoughts to cancer and causing panic attacks. His daughter Katie has announced an upcoming marriage to Ray, of...
|
|
Sir Francis cobbles together his impressive tale of small craft circumnavigation of the globe in this book, relying on notes from his log and long ornery recollective tales that seemed to always follow this formula: "My leg hurts, yet I reset the sails 87 times today, repaired the self-steering mechanism,...
|
|
Wanderer
by lz in Reading Archive on 20Jan2008
A bit seasick after reading this one nonstop for seven hours; my couch became the deck chair with cherubs on each side. On borrowed money and against legal threats, Hayden takes his four children and a crew on board the schooner Wanderer from Sausalito to Tahiti. Great story while the...
|
|
Victory
by lz in Reading Archive on 16Jan2008
I was curious about the book Joan Didion claims to re-read everytime she begins a work of fiction, to remind herself of the possibilities. And my first exposure to Conrad was a good experience. The structure of the book was of interest - interweaving various time periods and points of...
|
|
After finishing this book, I've spent the last 30 minutes in stunned appreciative silence, sometimes clutching the book to my chest, sometimes re-reading the last page, letting a chill run through me again and again. I can't recall ever giving myself up so absolutely to a book. The History of...
|
|
Just In Case
by lz in Reading Archive on 03Jan2008
As I was finishing this on the bus ride home tonight, I began to wonder, "How exactly does one wrap-up a teen-lit story? Will she dare to kill off the main character, or is it a happy ending out of necessity?" And luckily, Rosoff strikes just the right balance of...
|
|
I really shouldn't claim to be a history major since my lack of basic historical knowledge is woefully inadequate. But finishing this gripping tale of exploration has added some fantastic tidbits of information, and I highly recommend it. Magellan was Portuguese, and rejected by his king several times when he...
|
|
Dishwasher
by lz in Reading Archive on 24Dec2007
Easily digestible and highly readable tale of Dishwasher Pete, who attempts to dish in all 50 states. San Francisco native who has no high aspirations for career path but who wants to get out of the city, he tries college but gets booted, and then embarks on an epic, decade-long...
|
|
Fantastic collection of interviews with authors in the Paris Review, exposing them in their native elements, comfortably ensconced on sofas amidst their library, papers piled everywhere, legs crossed and arms behind their heads. And thus relaxed they spill their secrets about how to write, to just pour it all out...
|
|
World War II veteran Tom Rath has killed 17 men. This is one of the most interesting things about himself that he considers putting into his one page autobiography the Broadcasting Corporation requests he submits as part of his job interview. He gets the job after blowing off the task,...
|
|
Enough with the books on writing already! This one, however, might be the end of the addiction for me. Brenda's kind words encourage you to just do it, just write wildly and freely, write from the heart about something you know, describe something, reveal the truth as you know it....
|
|
The weird quiet poignancy of Miranda July comes through in her first book of stories. I first stumbled onto the shakey wonder that is Ms. July in her film (written/directed/starred) Me And You And Everyone We Know, then to her marvelous website promoting the book. Her writing is clean, minimal,...
|
|
The Year of Yes
by lz in Reading Archive on 31Oct2007
Sadly, this was one of the better books I picked up at the book swap a few months ago. The swap was chaotic-- people lingering over category tables (fiction, history, philosophy, etc.) and pouncing on the new additions as soon as the staff dropped them off. I swapped a bag...
|
|
Orwell leads us deep into the cellars, basements, homeless shelters ("spikes") of his Paris and London, shoving us down into his misery of hunger, near slavery as a plongeur (dishwasher and more, working 18 hour days of backbreaking work in a dim-lit dirty kitchen), rushing to catch the last Metro...
|
|
The Continental Op
by lz in Reading Archive on 14Oct2007
On a recent Dashiell Hammett tour of San Francisco, the Continental Op came up as a serious recommendation, and we enjoyed the added bonus of a Whosis Kid segment to the tour. The Whosis Kid segment revolved around McAllister/Van Ness, where the Op lurked in wait to see the Whosis...
|