My husband and I saw David Sedaris speak Tuesday night at The Kauffman Center. He was fantastic as usual. He read some previously published essays, some essays from his upcoming new book, and also an essay that he’s still working on. Then he took a few questions from the audience. One person asked him what his favorite film is and he said when he was younger it was Planet of the Apes (me too!) but that now it was the second Lord of the Rings movie. He added that he doesn’t like to see movies in the United States because people talk through the whole movie. He prefers to watch them in France or Japan where people take the experience more seriously.
If you’ve seen David before, you know that he loves to chat with his fans while signing books and that no matter how long the line is he will chat with each person for at least a minute. Vivian, the owner of Rainy Day Books, told us that one time he did a book signing at her store that lasted until 2:30am. People were napping on the floor while waiting their turn! Even though this was my third time seeing David speak, it was the first time that we had a babysitter who could stay late enough for us to wait in line to meet him. I was so nervous – what was I going to chat with him about? I get so star-struck and tongue tied when I meet a famous person it’s ridiculous. (I almost passed out when I ran into Jessica Simpson at the mall and I’m not even really a fan of hers.)
After waiting in line an hour and forty-five minutes, it was finally our turn. I told David that it was our first time getting a babysitter long enough to wait in line and he asked me how much babysitters cost these days. I told him ours cost $17 an hour and he calculated our time spent waiting in line:
Then he asked Travis what he did for a living:
Then I told him that when we lived in New York City, we went to see one of the Lord of the Rings movies at the movie theater. There was a man sitting a few seats away who was whisper explaining the entire movie to the woman he was with. I leaned over and asked them nicely to please stop talking. The woman glared at me and said in a very thick New York accent (which I imitated), “What are we supposed to do, talk mentally?” David thought that was great and he pulled out his little notebook and wrote it down! I kept my cool until we were out of ear shot and then I squealed like a little fangirl.
My friend’s brother has seen David Sedaris several times and he said that David has a super good memory and always remembers him when he goes through the line to meet him. He said that he remembers most people. I wonder if he’ll remember me next time?
If you ever have the chance to see David Sedaris live, you MUST do it. I always laugh so hard my cheeks hurt.
After I saw Samuel Arbesman speak at Tedx Kansas City a few weeks ago, I knew I had to read his book. The premise of his talk and his book is that facts are not really information set in stone, the way we usually think about them. The world is constantly changing and nothing is for certain forever. I was floored by the notion that what my kids are learning in school may contradict what I learned in school. For some reason, that notion had never occurred to me!
The Half-Life of Facts is easily understood by a lay person. I found it very readable and I don’t have a head for science at all. Each chapter outlines a different reason why facts may either change or be found to be untrue. Arbesman uses examples throughout, all of which I found fascinating. I would love to read even more stories about which facts have changed over time and why.
I was surprised by some of the facts that are no longer true. For instance, did you know that there really isn’t a dinosaur called a Brontosaurus? I had no idea and both of my boys have been through dinosaur obsessions within the past few years. The Brontosaurus was found to be a type of Apatosaurus over a hundred years ago. However, once something is out in the ether, it’s really hard to circulate information modifying or correcting the original assertion.
I appreciated that not only does Arbesman discuss the various ways in which untruths persist and facts change over time, he also offers suggestions of how to keep current without getting information overload.
I love that in keeping with the spirit of The Half-Life of Facts, Arbesman’s website has a Errata and Updates section for the book. There is already one case listed in which Arbesman unknowingly perpetuated a myth about how spinach became known to have a high iron content.
It’s very rare that I read a non-fiction book that I have a hard time putting down. The Half-Life of Facts is one of those rare riveting works of non-fiction. I highly recommend it to all.
Check out Samuel Arbesman’s Tedx Kansas City talk:
1950 Tennessee, a time and place that straddles the past and present. Ivorie Walker is considered an old maid by the town (though she’s only in her early thirties) and she takes that label with good humor and a grain of salt. Ever since her parents passed away, she has hidden her loneliness behind a fierce independence and a claim of not needing anyone. But her mother’s death hit her harder than anyone suspects and Ivorie wonders if she will be alone forever.
When she realizes that someone has been stealing vegetables from her garden—a feral, dirty-faced boy who disappears into the hills—something about him haunts Ivorie. She can’t imagine what would make him desperate enough to steal and eat from her garden. But what she truly can’t imagine is what the boy faces, each day and night, in the filthy lean-to hut miles up in the hills. Who is he? How did he come to live in the hills? Where did he come from? And, more importantly, can she save him? As Ivorie steps out of her comfort zone to uncover the answers, she unleashes a firestorm in the town—a community that would rather let secrets stay secret.
I just love Southern fiction and The Good Dream is Southern fiction done well. Ivorie is a wonderful character – a strong and caring woman who refuses to bend to society’s will. She lives in a small town with a big cast of characters; it reminded me of a Fannie Flagg novel in that way. The author uses wonderfully descriptive metaphors filled with Southern charm. Some of my favorite examples:
“As useful as a back pocket on a shirt”
“Slower than a turtle after Thanksgiving dinner”
“Helpful as teats on a bull”
There is a darker side in this book however. Some very bad things happen to the boy in the first part of the novel that might be hard for the fainthearted to read. I didn’t find any of it gratuitous though.
The narration is first person when Ivorie and her brother are each telling their story. Parts of the story are also told from the boy’s point of view and I absolutely loved the device the author used for his narration. (I don’t want to give too much away so I won’t get more detailed about that part.)
When I saw that the author was the narrator of the audio book, I was apprehensive. That doesn’t always go so well. After listening, I was pleasantly surprised – she did a great job. She used a light Southern accent for the prose and then varied the thickness of the accent for the dialogue depending on who was speaking. I surprised when I listened to the author interview at the end of the book to hear that she doesn’t actually have a Southern accent at all because it sounded so authentic when she was narrating. She even did a really good snobby Southern accent for the banker.
After I listened to this book, I learned that the author is considered a Christian fiction author. I don’t know if this book is considered Christian fiction; I didn’t feel like it was while I listening to it. It is inspirational but it doesn’t have a lot of religious talk or preaching in it. I would highly recommend The Good Dream to anyone.
Click here to listen to an audio clip of The Good Dream.
As a writer for Chick Habit, an increasingly popular women’s website, Alex Lyons gets paid to be a bitch. She’s churning out several posts a day, and she saves her juiciest ones for blog prime time, when working women eat their sad desk salads in their offices. Alex tells herself she’s fulfilling her dream of being a professional writer; so what if it means being glued to her couch and her laptop from six a.m. to six p.m., scouring the web in search of the next big celebrity scandal? Since Chick Habit’s parent company keeps close tabs on page views, Alex knows her job is always at risk.
So when an anonymous tipster sends her the year’s most salacious story—a politico’s squeaky-clean Ivy League daughter caught in a very R-rated activity—it’s a no-brainer. But is Alex really willing to ruin the girl’s life by igniting the next Internet feeding frenzy? And what she doesn’t yet realize is how this big scoop is about to send her own life spiraling out of control.
I think that anyone who blogs will appreciate Alex’s story for sure, especially those who blog professionally. Internet and blogging ethics are still evolving and this book is a great commentary on the nebulous state of them today. Also, the author worked at both Slate and Jezebel so I assume that Alex’s story is fairly realistic as far as what it’s like working as an online writer.
Alex has to keep up on pop culture as part of her job and this book is full of pop culture references which was fun if you are an entertainment junkie like me. I love reading dirt about celebrities even though I know I shouldn’t. Alex feels twinges of guilt about her snarky posts just like I sometimes do when I read that kind of snark.
The author did a great job of making the stress that Alex feels palpable to the reader. I spent most of the book wishing Alex would take a shower! She wears the same ugly dress most every day and doesn’t have time for much personal grooming because she must be in front of her computer at her editor’s beck and call.
In addition to the ethics storyline, there is also a mystery element as someone is trying to sabotage Alex’s career. I already found the book fun to read and the mystery made it that much harder to put down.
If you spend a lot of time online (and who doesn’t these days?) and are looking for something quick and fun to read, then this would be a great book for you.
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book. Check out the other tour stops:
The Copakens are a well-to-do family that summers in the small Maine town where the Tetherlys are year-round townies. The Copaken and Tetherly families expected that their lives would be forever intertwined when Becca Copaken and John Tetherly got married. However, when Becca and John are killed in a car accident on the way to their wedding reception, the two families find themselves bound by tragedy rather than joy.
This novel is written in four parts – the summer Becca and John get married and the following three summers. I thought this was an interesting technique, to jump ahead to see how everyone is dealing with their loss. Obviously, the first summer, the grief is intense. It’s interesting to see how each character evolves over the next few summers. This novel is a character study. Not much happens in the way of plot (except for an out-of-place action adventure sequence at the end) but the characters are well-developed.
I liked that the reader could play arm chair psychologist with the characters while they remained mostly unaware of the coping mechanisms they were employing to deal with losing Becca and John. That was so authentic to me. We often think we are fine when our actions prove otherwise and we can’t even see it. I also appreciated how well the author showed the contrast of how the loved ones of the victims grieve for a lot longer and more deeply than their friends and acquaintances realize and how the grievers can end up alienating the people around them for this reason without realizing it.
This is obviously not a happy book but I enjoyed it. I thought the writing was wonderful and that the characters were all layered and well-drawn. Even though they did a lot of things I either didn’t agree with or didn’t think was very smart, there was always an organic motivation behind their actions that rang true.
Last November I gaveStupid Fast by Geoff Herbach a five-star review. I was so excited to see that it’s the Kindle deal of the day today and only $1.99 – I’m definitely cashing in on that deal!
Mad Women is a tell-all account of life in the New York advertising world by Jane Maas, a copywriter who succeeded in the primarily male jungle depicted in the hit show Mad Men.
Fans of the show are dying to know how accurate it is: was there really that much sex at the office? Were there really three-martini lunches? Were women really second-class citizens? Jane Maas says the answer to all three questions is unequivocally “yes.” Her book, based on her own experiences and countless interviews with her peers, gives the full stories, from the junior account man whose wife almost left him when she found the copy of Screw magazine he’d used to find “a date” for a client, to the Ogilvy & Mather’s annual Boat Ride, a sex-and-booze filled orgy, from which it was said no virgin ever returned intact… Mad Women also tackles some of the tougher issues of the era, such as unequal pay, rampant, jaw-dropping sexism, and the difficult choice many women faced between motherhood and their careers.
This book caught my eye because 1)my husband and I are huge Mad Men fans and 2)my husband is a creative partner at an advertising agency and I like learning more about the industry in which he works. I constantly pause Mad Men while we’re watching and ask him incredulously, “Did stuff like that really happen back then??” Ninety-nine percent of the time, his answer is yes. I was really interested to read a book from a woman’s point of view of the era and industry.
Jane Maas has some great stories. She writes in a very conversational style, almost stream of consciousness at times. One memory will remind her of another memory. At times, this works well and at times it makes the transitions and flow awkward. She is not afraid to drop names which is awesome – I don’t necessarily respect discretion in a memoir – I want specifics and dirt!
Jane was a high ranking advertising executive with a fairly progressive husband and a full-time live-in housekeeper/nanny to help her raise her two daughters. Therefore, her life was quite different from a secretary’s life during this era. Naturally this book is focused on what life was like for her and the handful of female executives like her. There is a little information on what it was like for the girls in the typing pool but not much.
Jane mentions the TV show Mad Men a few times, usually to point out an inaccuracy, which I appreciated. This book was published after the fourth season so only examples from the first four seasons are used.
This was a very quick read as it’s only a little over 200 pages long with fairly large font. Reading it was an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I liked learning more about the world of 1960s advertising.
Today, I am pleased to be able to offer two of my readers with a United States addresses a copy of Skyjack: The Hunt for D. B. Cooper. Just fill out the form below before the giveaway closes on October 10, 2012 at 11:59 pm CST. I haven’t read the book myself so I’ve included the information I received from the publicist below. Good luck!
Some conspiracy theories fly under the radar. Some explode in our faces, grabbing the attention of millions. Others calmly ask to speak to the airplane’s captain, extort the airline for $200,000, and then parachute to safety and anonymity somewhere over the Pacific Northwest.
In the forty-plus years since the infamous hijacking – during which no one has gotten even remotely close to figuring out the true identity or whereabouts of the man known only as DB Cooper – a lot of theories have been spun. Was the CIA involved in staging the hijacking as a means of putting pressure on legislators and airline companies to take drastic new airport security measures? What about groups like Air America or Evergreen International – alleged CIA cutouts with ties to Nixon and the White House Plumbers?
In the New York Times Bestselling account, Skyjack: The Hunt for D. B. Cooper, author Geoffrey Gray looks at the case from every possible angle. As the first journalist with access to the FBI’s confidential files on Cooper, Gray uncovers the extraordinary measures taken by the Federal government to find the hijacker (including multiple reconnaissance flights involving the SR-71 Blackbird, and extensive collaboration between the FBI and CIA on the case), and interviews hundreds of personnel involved in the original hunt. Skyjackis a book that raises just as many questions as it sets out to answer, and is a great read for any lover of cold-case crimes and cover-ups.
The year is 1878, the year a beautiful baby girl, Devi, is born. Her fate is intertwined with Devanna, a gifted young boy whose mother has died in tragic circumstances. The two quickly become inseparable, until Devi meets Machu the tiger killer, a hunter of great repute. It is the tangled relationship between the three that leads to a devastating tragedy—an event with unforeseen and far-reaching consequences for generations to come.
Tiger Hills is an epic novel that spans most of Devi’s lifetime. Devi, Devanna, and Machu are all layered, multi-dimensional characters. They are flawed but heartbreakingly sympathetic, each in their own way. Ms. Mandanna even spends quite a bit of time building out the secondary characters like Nanju and Appu as well. Even if I didn’t agree with an action one of the characters took, I knew exactly why they would do such a thing because the author paid so much attention to each character’s development. (I don’t want to get into specifics and spoil the story!) I especially loved Devi and her strength in a time period when it was hard for women in India to do much of anything on their own.
I also loved reading about the traditions of the time and region. I love reading Victorian novels with all of the strict etiquette that characters must operate within. I enjoyed this book for the same reason – life was very ritualized; it was just a different set of rules. Since Tiger Hills spans such a lengthy period of time, society evolves and changes. The author does a nice job of bringing in the real-life historical events that were happening and showing the reader how these events affected the families in this book and India as a whole.
I loved this book – it’s hard to believe that it’s Sarita’s Mandanna’s first novel. It was longlisted for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize, which is not hard to believe. I can’t wait to see what Mandanna comes out with next.
Last week, I reviewed The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli. Today, I am pleased to be able to offer a copy to one of my readers with a United States or Canadian address. Just fill out the form below before the giveaway closes on October 8, 2012 at 11:59 pm CST. Good luck!
. Just fill out the form below before the giveaway closes on October 10, 2012 at 11:59 pm CST. I haven’t read the book myself so I’ve included the information I received from the publicist below. Good luck!
