Rob's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 13 Apr 2025 10:10:05 -0700 60 Rob's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals About America Today]]> 214152284 A compelling work of investigative journalism that explores the surprising origins and hidden ramifications of an epic late 1960s hoax, perpetrated by cultural luminaries, including Victor Navasky and E.L. Doctorow. For readers curious about the surprising connections between John F. Kennedy, Oliver Stone, Timothy McVeigh, Alex Jones, and Donald Trump.

Delve into the labyrinth of America’s conspiracy culture with this investigative masterpiece that unearths the roots of our era’s most potent myths.

In 1966, amid unrest over the Vietnam War and the alarming growth of the military-industrial complex, unknown writer Leonard Lewin was approached by a group of ingenious satirists on the Left to concoct a document that would pretend to ratify everyone’s fears that the government was deceiving the public. Devoting more than a year to the project, Lewin constructed a fiction (passed off as the honest truth) that a government-run Study Group had been charged with examining the “cost of peace,� setting its first meetings in the very real Iron Mountain nuclear bunker in upstate New York (which lent the resulting book, Report from Iron Mountain, its name). In Lewin’s telling, this gathering of the nation’s academic elite concluded that suspending war would be disastrous, forcing all sorts of bizarre measures to compensate.

Lewin didn’t realize it at the time, but he’d created a narrative that fed the interests of both ends of the political spectrum—by promoting the idea that the government uses centralized power for evil.

What fascinates about Phil Tinline’s revelation-filled recreation of that ingenious hoax is seeing how it explodes into America’s consciousness, dominates media reports, and sends government officials scrambling. And then, subsequently, how Lewin’s fabrication is adopted by a seemingly endless string of extremist organizations which view it as supporting their ideology.

In this riveting—and, at times, chilling—tale of a deception that refuses to die is an unsettling warning about how, in contemporary times, a hoax may no longer be a hoax if it can be used to recruit followers to a cause.]]> 352 Phil Tinline 1668050498 Rob 4 4.02 Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals About America Today
author: Phil Tinline
name: Rob
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
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Compelling history of several conspiracy theory threads, and an entertaining (if dispiriting) read. I was skeptical of the thesis -- how could a hoax unfamiliar to me be so influential? But Tinline made a strong case that this stands alongside other undying fake texts as a deep well for paranoia. (It also reminded me that conspiracy theory adherents are afraid of FEMA, a through line to contemporary politics I had missed.)
]]> <![CDATA[Math Mind: The Simple Path to Loving Math]]> 201752174 288 Shalinee Sharma 0593543505 Rob 3 4.15 Math Mind: The Simple Path to Loving Math
author: Shalinee Sharma
name: Rob
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
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Well argued and an enjoyable enough read, but it absolutely could have been edited down into a pamphlet or magazine article. Still, grateful to see more numeracy books getting press.
]]> The Memory Police 49098059 A compelling speculative mystery by one of Japan's greatest writers.

Hat, ribbon, bird, rose. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough, the island forgets it ever existed.

When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wants to save him. For some reason, he doesn’t forget, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for him to hide his memories. Who knows what will vanish next?

The Memory Police is a beautiful, haunting and provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, from one of Japan’s greatest writers.]]> 288 Yōko Ogawa 1784700444 Rob 5 3.72 1994 The Memory Police
author: Yōko Ogawa
name: Rob
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/08/25
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Strong concept well told with more than enough space to hang metaphors. There's no relief from the world Ogawa has created, a straight through-line from Kafka and without no softening or clear resolution.
]]> <![CDATA[Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth-Century London]]> 181544887 Dickensian London is brought to real and vivid life in this innovative, accessible social history, revealing the true character of this place and time through the stories of its street denizens� shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2023


London, 1857: A pair of teenage girls holding a sign that says “Fugitive Slaves� ask for money on the corner of Blackman Street. After a constable accosts them and charges them with begging, they end up in court, where national newspapers pick up their story. Are the girls truly escaped slaves from Kentucky? Or will the city’s dystopian Mendicity Society catch them in a lie, exposing them as born-and-raised Londoners and endangering their safety?


With its many accounts of people like these who lived and made their living on the streets,ղDzԻforms a moving picture of London’s most compelling period (1780�1870). Piecing together contemporary sources such as newspaper articles, letters, and journal entries, historian Oskar Jensen follows the harrowing, hopeful journeys of the city’s poor: children, immigrants, street performers, thieves, and sex workers, all diverse in gender, ethnicity, ability, and origin. For the first time, their own voices give us a radical new perspective on this moment in history, with its deep inequality that bears an astonishing resemblance to our own era’s divides.

]]> 336 Oskar Jensen 1891011421 Rob 3 3.64 Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth-Century London
author: Oskar Jensen
name: Rob
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/08/25
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A unique history book that helped me better imagine the life of 19th-century Londoners -- lost professions and a better understanding of how different stages of life existed on the street. The organization around stages of life was particularly clever, and it was particularly fascinating to read about life on the streets for infants and the elderly and how ineffective and judgmental some charitable efforts were. At the same time, I think I would have preferred a telling with a stronger thesis beyond popping into stories.
]]> <![CDATA[The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children]]> 26114148 The Parent Paradoxes, the pioneering developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar twenty-first-century picture of parents and children is profoundly wrong--it's not just based on bad science, it's bad for kids and parents, too.

Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn, Gopnik shows that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way. Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and to be very different both from their parents and from each other. The variability and flexibility of childhood lets them innovate, create, and survive in an unpredictable world. "Parenting" won't make children learn--but caring parents let children learn by creating a secure, loving environment.]]> 320 Alison Gopnik 0374229708 Rob 4 3.89 2016 The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children
author: Alison Gopnik
name: Rob
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/25
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Really solid review of theories of child development, touching on evolutionary theories and experimental evidence. I left convinced that exploratory and experiential learning is particularly effective, and questioning the extent to which the US educational system accommodates different learning styles. But I was left wondering what (if any) dissent there might be, and since the text is written for a general audience the citations were less clear than I would have preferred.
]]> <![CDATA[What Are Children For?: On Ambivalence and Choice]]> 195790632
Becoming a parent, once the expected outcome of adulthood, is increasingly viewed as a potential threat to the most basic goals and aspirations of modern life. We seek self-fulfillment; we want to liberate women to find meaning and self-worth outside the home; and we wish to protect the planet from the ravages of climate change. Weighing the pros and cons of having children, the Millennial and Gen Z generations are finding it increasingly hard to judge in its favor. What Are Children For? seeks to loosen the grip of the shallow narratives that either lament growing childlessness as a mark of cultural decline, or celebrate it as unambiguous evidence of social progress. Berg and Wiseman explore philosophical and cultural examples of this debate, whether from modernist writers like Virginia Woolf, second-wave feminists in the 1970s, or the current trend of dystopian novels and stories.

In the tradition of Jenny Odell and Amia Srinivasan, Berg and Wiseman write with clear logic and passionate prose to offer those struggling the guidance necessary to move beyond their uncertainty. What Are Children For? concludes that we must embrace the fundamental goodness of human life―not only in theory, but in our everyday lives, and having children can be at the core of that choice.]]> 336 Anastasia Berg 1250276136 Rob 0 3.45 What Are Children For?: On Ambivalence and Choice
author: Anastasia Berg
name: Rob
average rating: 3.45
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/18
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]]> The Suicide Museum 64623149
Dorfman takes us along a spectacular journey, from Washington, DC and New York City, to Santiago and Valparaíso, and finally to London. Along the way, we witness a midnight gravedigging scene, are tracked by stealthy stalkers, and interview sources of varying credibility to discover what transpired at La Moneda. Through this gripping investigation, Joseph and Ariel attempt to redeem themselves, as they are both plagued by guilt. While Joseph grapples with how he has made his fortune unwittingly destroying his beloved planet, Ariel is haunted by the fact that his absence at the coup led to the disappearance of his friend. What begins as a puzzling quest unwinds into a fabulous saga about our duties to the world, one another, and ourselves.]]> 688 Ariel Dorfman 1635423899 Rob 4 e.g. Angelica's Freudian critique of Hortha's story and the narrator's self-justification of his investigative challenges. And just like Ariel, I, too, felt closer to Allende by the end of the story. But I'm not sure I understand, just yet, how the Suicide Museum fits into it all -- it's a little hard to imagine Hortha believing in it, and hard to deliver on the buildup, though he is a strange man. I absolutely shed a tear when Ariel took his son to visit Allende's tomb, and another (metaphorical) tear when the narrator celebrated Chile's now-rejected constitution in the epilogue.]]> 3.54 2023 The Suicide Museum
author: Ariel Dorfman
name: Rob
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/27
date added: 2024/01/27
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review:
A highly enjoyable read, I particularly appreciated the text's self-awareness, e.g. Angelica's Freudian critique of Hortha's story and the narrator's self-justification of his investigative challenges. And just like Ariel, I, too, felt closer to Allende by the end of the story. But I'm not sure I understand, just yet, how the Suicide Museum fits into it all -- it's a little hard to imagine Hortha believing in it, and hard to deliver on the buildup, though he is a strange man. I absolutely shed a tear when Ariel took his son to visit Allende's tomb, and another (metaphorical) tear when the narrator celebrated Chile's now-rejected constitution in the epilogue.
]]> <![CDATA[Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism]]> 2236344
In contrast to the dramatic economic transformations, the social repercussions of tourism are subtle and often recognized only by the indigenous peoples themselves and by the anthropologists who have studied them before and after the introduction of tourism. The case studies in Hosts and Guests examine the five types of tourism—historical, cultural, ethnic, environmental, and recreational—and their impact on diverse societies over a broad geographical range]]> 352 Valene L. Smith 0812212800 Rob 3 4.15 1989 Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism
author: Valene L. Smith
name: Rob
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/01/27
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Clearly foundational to the sub-field, but I found the chapters to be highly variable in quality. I particularly enjoyed the introductory chapters about why humans tour, but felt like it would have benefited from a counterpoint or alternative perspective. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Inuit cultural tourism and the inter-Inuit dynamics, and seeing how rapidly tourism harmed Toraja as a model for other places that experience a rapid growth in visitors. But the chapter on the Polynesian Cultural Center felt hagiographic (especially having been referenced elsewhere in the book) and other chapters seemed so specific as to be unhelpful, but I am no anthropologist.
]]> <![CDATA[Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) (The University Center for Human Values Series)]]> 41795463
One in four American workers says their workplace is a “dictatorship.� Yet that number almost certainly would be higher if we recognized employers for what they are―private governments with sweeping authoritarian power over our lives. Many employers minutely regulate workers� speech, clothing, and manners on the job, and employers often extend their authority to the off-duty lives of workers, who can be fired for their political speech, recreational activities, diet, and almost anything else employers care to govern. In this compelling book, Elizabeth Anderson examines why, despite all this, we continue to talk as if free markets make workers free, and she proposes a better way to think about the workplace, opening up space for discovering how workers can enjoy real freedom.]]> 224 Elizabeth S. Anderson 0691192243 Rob 4 3.91 2017 Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) (The University Center for Human Values Series)
author: Elizabeth S. Anderson
name: Rob
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2024/01/27
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Lay reader here--and reviewing several months after reading--but one of the chapters criticizing the lecture talked about not being sure what to take away from the text, and I have to agree. Anderson convinced me that political philosophy has to consider 'private government,' and certainly reframed how I think about early economics, but it had the unsettling air of communicating a problem without any reasonable solution and not convincing me of the urgency. I agree that workers need more rights, but feel like I need to read the next book to begin to build a framework to think about what rights employers have and their basis.
]]> <![CDATA[Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance]]> 60564512
Long-haul truckers are the backbone of the American economy, transporting goods under grueling conditions and immense economic pressure. Truckers have long valued the day-to-day independence of their work, sharing a strong occupational identity rooted in a tradition of autonomy. Yet these workers increasingly find themselves under many watchful eyes. Data Driven examines how digital surveillance is upending life and work on the open road, and raises crucial questions about the role of data collection in broader systems of social control.

Karen Levy takes readers inside a world few ever see, painting a bracing portrait of one of the last great American frontiers. Federal regulations now require truckers to buy and install digital monitors that capture data about their locations and behaviors. Intended to address the pervasive problem of trucker fatigue by regulating the number of hours driven each day, these devices support additional surveillance by trucking firms and other companies. Traveling from industry trade shows to law offices and truck-stop bars, Levy reveals how these invasive technologies are reconfiguring industry relationships and providing new tools for managerial and legal control―and how truckers are challenging and resisting them.

Data Driven contributes to an emerging conversation about how technology affects our work, institutions, and personal lives, and helps to guide our thinking about how to protect public interests and safeguard human dignity in the digital age.]]> 240 Karen Levy 0691175306 Rob 4 3.93 Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance
author: Karen Levy
name: Rob
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/11
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review:
Majorly enjoyed the first chapters as a lay reader. Understanding the economics of trucking and the unintended consequences of workplace surveillance was illuminating -- it's such an important part of our economy that it seems like it's in the realm of 'things every informed citizen should know.' It absolutely caused me to helpfully reflect on information flows and controls in my workplace. But later chapters felt less valuable--introducing less new information, changing my perspective less--specially the robotruckers discussion where I felt I had more context to critically evaluate the claims.
]]> <![CDATA[Liberated Parents, Liberated Children: Your Guide to a Happier Family]]> 164276 The Companion Volume to How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

In this honest, illuminating book, internationally acclaimed parenting experts Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish bring to life the principles of famed child psychologist Dr. Haim Ginott, and show how his theories inspired the changes they made in their relationships with their own children.

By sharing their experiences, as well as those of other parents, Faber and Mazlish provide moving and convincing testimony to their new approach and lay the foundation for the parenting workshops they subsequently created that have been used by thousands of groups worldwide to bring out the best in both children and parents.

Wisdom, humor, and practical advice are the hallmarks of this indispensable book that demonstrates the kind of communication that builds self-esteem, inspires confidence, encourages responsibility, and makes a major contribution to the stability of today's family.

]]> 255 Adele Faber 0380711346 Rob 5 4.38 1973 Liberated Parents, Liberated Children: Your Guide to a Happier Family
author: Adele Faber
name: Rob
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/08/11
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review:
A helpful, narrative guide to building a relationship with your child with practices that honestly can extend to any relationship. I see echoes of (good) management trainings I've attended in this book, and wouldn't be surprised if this work was the genesis. I preferred this to the later _How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk_ for its narrative style, but I admit that the appeal lies in its common sense as opposed to laboratory testing. Still, it's the only parenting book I've read so far that I've recommended my spouse read.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk]]> 12131153 You can stop fighting with your children!

Here is the bestselling book that will give you the know-how you need to be more effective with your children - and more supportive of yourself. Enthusiastically praised by parents and professionals around the world, the down-to-earth, respectful approach of Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish makes relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding. Now, in this thirtieth-anniversary edition, these award-winning experts share their latest insights and suggestions based on feedback they've received over the years.
Their methods of communication - illustrated with delightful cartoons showing the skills in action - offer innovative ways to solve common problems. You'll learn how:

� Cope with your child's negative feelings - frustration, disappointment, anger, etc.

� Express your anger without being hurtful

� Engage your child's willing cooperation

� Set firm limits and still maintain goodwill

� Use alternatives to punishment

� Resolve family conflicts peacefully]]> 384 Adele Faber 1451663889 Rob 4 4.36 1980 How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
author: Adele Faber
name: Rob
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/11
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review:
Simple, powerful recommendations to build relationships, instill independence, and have accountability. I can see why these practices are healthy, I can imagine using them in my parenting and other relationships, and I see how they apply to my managerial practice at work. My only reservation is the workbook format, since I prefer a more narrative or theoretical style. (If you share this objection, the companion _Liberated Parents, Liberated Children takes this approach.) One could also criticize the book for not being grounded in research, but it's such a common-sense approach that I'm not going to get hung up on this.
]]> <![CDATA[Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans]]> 54304028
In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop—it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones.

Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes, threats, or chore charts, Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry, hit, or act out, Inuit parents respond with a calm, gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are world experts on raising confident, self-driven kids with a simple tool that protects children from stress and anxiety, so common now among American kids.

Not only does Doucleff live with families and observe their techniques firsthand, she also applies them with her own daughter, with striking results. She learns to discipline without yelling. She talks to psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and sociologists and explains how these strategies can impact children’s mental health and development. Filled with practical takeaways that parents can implement immediately, Hunt, Gather, Parent helps us rethink the ways we relate to our children, and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.]]> 352 Michaeleen Doucleff 1982149671 Rob 4 4.11 2021 Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans
author: Michaeleen Doucleff
name: Rob
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/04
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A really helpful parenting framework, I appreciate the encouragement to include children in responsibilities and understand the limitations of children's development. But it self-consciously straddles a cultural border in a way that's hard (impossible?) to get right and at time feels too much like an extreme case study as opposed to a repeatable pattern. Still, I enjoyed it and will absolutely employ some of these techniques.
]]> The Remains of the Day 274186 here.

The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman.� But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness� and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.]]> 245 Kazuo Ishiguro 0679731725 Rob 5 own The Saddest Music in the World is one of my favorites), and was surprised to learn that he'd written The Remains of the Day, a book I'd always imagined as a polite British drama with people who open and close doors and talk. It is a polite British drama that is carried again by a strong narrative voice; this seems to be a pattern in my reading lately (Your Face Tomorrow has an equally strong narrator). The tone and voice are incredible, this is a book to read for the writing.]]> 4.17 1989 The Remains of the Day
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Rob
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2011/10/15
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves: own
review:
I first met Kazuo Ishiguro through his screenplays (The Saddest Music in the World is one of my favorites), and was surprised to learn that he'd written The Remains of the Day, a book I'd always imagined as a polite British drama with people who open and close doors and talk. It is a polite British drama that is carried again by a strong narrative voice; this seems to be a pattern in my reading lately (Your Face Tomorrow has an equally strong narrator). The tone and voice are incredible, this is a book to read for the writing.
]]> <![CDATA[My Life as a Russian Novel: A Memoir]]> 7720135 288 Emmanuel Carrère 0805087559 Rob 4
Is it fair to give 4 of 5 stars for personal reasons? I think he could handle it, and it's not a bad mark. If he's been through getting a nasty review of his short story from Philippe Sollers, then surely this will have no sting.]]> 3.59 2007 My Life as a Russian Novel: A Memoir
author: Emmanuel Carrère
name: Rob
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/07
date added: 2022/09/07
shelves:
review:
A good read, a thoughtful bit of reporting and introspection. But how the author looks down on people below his station, even if he's honest about it--I'd find Carrère frustrating as a bit of fiction, let alone memoir. It wasn't quite what I hoped for, I wanted the story of Kotelnich and seeing ordinary Russia before the invasion of Ukraine. It has that, but not in the way I hoped.

Is it fair to give 4 of 5 stars for personal reasons? I think he could handle it, and it's not a bad mark. If he's been through getting a nasty review of his short story from Philippe Sollers, then surely this will have no sting.
]]> <![CDATA[The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition]]> 34082146 above the Mason-Dixon Line—its army of four-to-six-million members spanning the continent from New Jersey to Oregon, its ideology of intolerance shaping the course of mainstream national politics throughout the twentieth century.


As prize-winning historian Linda Gordon demonstrates, the second Klan’s enemies included Catholics and Jews as well as African Americans. Its bigotry differed in intensity but not in kind from that of millions of other WASP Americans. Its membership, limited to white Protestant native-born citizens, was entirely respectable, drawn from small businesspeople, farmers, craftsmen, and professionals, and including about 1.5 million women. For many Klanspeople, membership simultaneously reflected a protest against an increasingly urban society and provided an entrée into the new middle class.


Never secret, this Klan recruited openly, through newspaper ads, in churches, and through extravagant mass "Americanism" pageants, often held on Independence Day. These "Klonvocations" drew tens of thousands and featured fireworks, airplane stunts, children’s games, and women’s bake-offs—and, of course, cross-burnings. The Klan even controlled about one hundred and fifty newspapers, as well as the Cavalier Motion Picture Company, dedicated to countering Hollywood’s "immoral"—and Jewish—influence. The Klan became a major political force, electing thousands to state offices and over one hundred to national offices, while successfully lobbying for the anti-immigration Reed-Johnson Act of 1924.


As Gordon shows, the themes of 1920s Klan ideology were not aberrant, but an indelible part of American history: its "100% Americanism" and fake news, broadcast by charismatic speakers, preachers, and columnists, became part of the national fabric. Its spokespeople vilified big-city liberals, "money-grubbing Jews," "Pope-worshipping Irish," and intellectuals for promoting jazz, drinking, and cars (because they provided the young with sexual privacy).


The Klan’s collapse in 1926 was no less flamboyant, done in by its leaders� financial and sexual corruption, culminating in the conviction of Grand Dragon David Stephenson for raping and murdering his secretary, and chewing up parts of her body. Yet the Klan’s brilliant melding of Christian values with racial bigotry lasted long after the organization’s decline, intensifying a fear of diversity that has long been a dominant undercurrent of American history.


Documenting what became the largest social movement of the first half of the twentieth century, The Second Coming of the Ku Klux Klan exposes the ancestry and helps explain the dangerous appeal of today’s welter of intolerance.]]> 272 Linda Gordon 1631493698 Rob 3 3.80 2017 The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition
author: Linda Gordon
name: Rob
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/06
date added: 2022/08/06
shelves:
review:
An illuminating look at how the Second KKK parallels right-wing movements today, but it doesn't feel like an enduring work. It's written in response to the era of the Trump presidency, and draws heavily on secondary sources. I came away uncertain how much I was reading the story of the KKK versus a mirror on the present. It was fascinating to see threads from this movement continue to the present, and see how its pageantry compared to other far-left and far-right movements, but I can't say I came away with a new understanding of the movement or our current political moment.
]]> <![CDATA[The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America]]> 36217163 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the author of On Tyranny comes a stunning new chronicle of the rise of authoritarianism from Russia to Europe and America.

"A brilliant analysis of our time."--Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New Yorker

With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy seemed final. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. This faith was misplaced. Authoritarianism returned to Russia, as Putin found fascist ideas that could be used to justify rule by the wealthy. In the 2010s, it has spread from east to west, aided by Russian warfare in Ukraine and cyberwar in Europe and the United States.

Russia found allies among nationalists, oligarchs, and radicals everywhere, and its drive to dissolve Western institutions, states, and values found resonance within the West itself. The rise of populism, the British vote against the EU, and the election of Donald Trump were all Russian goals, but their achievement reveals the vulnerability of Western societies.

In this forceful and unsparing work of contemporary history, based on vast research as well as personal reporting, Snyder goes beyond the headlines to expose the true nature of the threat to democracy and law. To understand the challenge is to see, and perhaps renew, the fundamental political virtues offered by tradition and demanded by the future. By revealing the stark choices before us--between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood--Snyder restores our understanding of the basis of our way of life, offering a way forward in a time of terrible uncertainty.]]> 359 Timothy Snyder 0525574468 Rob 5 4.33 2018 The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Rob
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/01
date added: 2022/05/28
shelves:
review:
Significantly changed how I think about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and what policies are needed to contain Russian aggression. For years I've struggled to understand what motivates Russia and its citizenry, and this book was the best explanation I've found yet. If I had to pick nits, I would have appreciated a more serious take on Ivan Ilyin (Is his philosophy really that empty? Probably, as an early-20th-century fascist, but Snyder so clearly disdains him I wasn't sure he was well explained.), but I'm enthusiastically recommending this book to anyone who wants to understand Russia's current goals and how its domestic media came to be so thoroughly controlled and manipulative
]]> <![CDATA[Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain]]> 24611865 The founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative, Professor Dana Suskind, explains why the most important—and astoundingly simple—thing you can do for your child’s future success in life is to talk to him or her, reveals the recent science behind this truth, and outlines precisely how parents can best put it into practice.

The research is in: Academic achievement begins on the first day of life with the first word said by a cooing mother just after delivery.

A study by researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley in 1995 found that some children heard thirty million fewer words by their fourth birthdays than others. The children who heard more words were better prepared when they entered school. These same kids, when followed into third grade, had bigger vocabularies, were stronger readers, and got higher test scores. This disparity in learning is referred to as the achievement gap.

Professor Dana Suskind, MD, learned of this thirty million word gap in the course of her work as a cochlear implant surgeon at University of Chicago Medical School and began a new research program along with her sister-in-law, Beth Suskind, to find the best ways to bridge that gap.The Thirty Million Word Initiative has developed programs for parents to show the kind of parent-child communication that enables optimal neural development and has tested the programs in and around Chicago across demographic groups.They boil down to getting parents to follow the three Ts: Tune in to what your child is doing; Talk more to your child using lots of descriptive words; and Take turns with your child as you engage in conversation.Parents are shown how to make the words they serve up more enriching. For example, instead of telling a child, “Put your shoes on,� one might say instead, “It is time to go out. What do we have to do?� The lab's new five-year longitudinal research program has just received funding so they can further corroborate their results.

The neuroscience of brain plasticity is some of the most valuable and revolutionary medical science being done today. It enables us to think and do better.It is making a difference in the lives of both the old and young. If you care for children, this landmark book is essential reading.]]> 320 Dana Suskind 0525954872 Rob 3 4.13 2015 Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain
author: Dana Suskind
name: Rob
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/01
date added: 2022/05/28
shelves:
review:
An interesting read, but it could have been a long pamphlet as opposed to a hardback -- the thesis is talk to your kid a lot in a way that's engaged with them. I didn't appreciate how this helped with spatial reasoning and numeracy, so that was new to me, but otherwise the message was familiar. I'd prefer either a shorter format or something that had deeper descriptions of current research.
]]> <![CDATA[Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life]]> 6950651
Exploring the experiences of New York City mothers whose children were enrolled in childcare centers, this book examines why a great deal of these mothers, after enrolling their children, dramatically expanded both the size and usefulness of their personal networks. Whether, how, and how much the mother's networks were altered--and how useful these networks were--depended on the apparently trivial, but remarkably consequential, practices and regulations of the centers. The structure of parent-teacher organizations, the frequency of fieldtrips, and the rules regarding drop-off and pick-up times all affected the mothers' networks. Relying on scores of in-depth interviews with mothers, quantitative data on both mothers and centers, and detailed case studies of other routine organizations, Small shows that how much people gain from their connections depends substantially on institutional conditions they often do not control, and through everyday processes they may not even be aware of.

Emphasizing not the connections that people make, but the context in which they are made, Unanticipated Gains presents a major new perspective on social capital and on the mechanisms producing social inequality.]]> 312 Mario Luis Small 0195384350 Rob 0 4.00 2009 Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life
author: Mario Luis Small
name: Rob
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2022/04/16
date added: 2022/04/16
shelves:
review:
I don't feel qualified to rate this, since I'm not in the field. But an interesting look about how institutions can (even unintentionally) create social capital via their design and service provision. And, as a parent about to send a child to daycare, it absolutely influences the value I see in parental participation in programming and services.
]]> <![CDATA[Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide—How to Introduce Solid Foods and Help Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater]]> 40591944 Baby-led weaning is the healthy, natural way to start your baby on solid foods—no stress, no fuss, no mush!

Ten years ago, Baby-Led Weaning ended the myth that babies need to be spoon-fed purées. In fact, at about six months, most babies are ready to discover solid food for themselves. Today, baby-led weaning (BLW) is a global phenomenon—and this tenth anniversary edition of the definitive guide explains all its benefits:
Baby participates in family meals right from the start, and learns to love a variety of foods.
Nutritious milk feedings continue while Baby transitions to solids at his or her own pace.
By self-feeding, Baby develops hand-eye coordination, chewing skills—and confidence!
Plus, this edition is updated with the latest research on allergy prevention and feeding Baby safely, a guide to using BLW at daycare, and much more. Here is everything you need to know about teaching your child healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.]]> 256 Tracey Murkett 1615195580 Rob 3 4.03 2008 Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide—How to Introduce Solid Foods and Help Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater
author: Tracey Murkett
name: Rob
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/13
date added: 2022/04/14
shelves:
review:
Practical, plausible advice generously padded with occasionally amusing anecdotes. I'd prefer something dryer and more research-focused, and I questioned some recommendations like avoiding soft cheeses for listeria risk (this seems like accepted wisdom more than something based on actual outbreaks). But it gave me confidence to give this approach an attempt.
]]> <![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women�, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]> 448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Rob 4 4.35 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Rob
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/04/14
shelves:
review:
I was expecting an interesting read, but not to find many things I hadn't already heard--I was pleasantly surprised to find some eye-opening (for me) thoughts on how taxation / subsidies and urban planning are sexist. A few claims raised my eyebrows--although Stage I clinical trials may have gender imbalanced compositions (and likely should not), given the focus on safety I'm not sure that they're significantly gating therapeutics for women. Ditto for a metaphor that if economics was a religion GDP would be its god, although the author is a trained economist and I'm not. But I completely had not considered how subsidies paid to households could exacerbate inequality, or how taxation of individual incomes would harm second wage earners. These seem like easy corrections to make on a technical basis -- and completely impossible in the current political climate.
]]> <![CDATA[When We Cease to Understand the World]]> 58191443
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature

A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining.

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction.

Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear.

At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.]]> 192 Benjamín Labatut 1681375664 Rob 5 4.25 2020 When We Cease to Understand the World
author: Benjamín Labatut
name: Rob
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Ways of Seeing 2784 John Berger’s Classic Text on Art

Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times a critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has.

"Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of the professional art critics . . . He is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation" —Peter Fuller, Arts Review

"The influence of the series and the book . . . was enormous . . . It opened up for general attention to areas of cultural study that are now commonplace" —Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling.]]> 176 John Berger 0140135154 Rob 5 3.93 1972 Ways of Seeing
author: John Berger
name: Rob
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1972
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/11/26
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review:
In 2021, I've heard these arguments and the concepts are broadly familiar. But how bold and inventive to introduce the concept of the gaze, to include visual essays, to expand art history to consider visual culture not preserved or not terribly worth preserving! At times the claims seem too ambitious or subjective, but it's easy to shrug off when the thrust of the argument seems right and the ambition is so large.
]]> The Dream Songs 150236 This edition combines The Dream Songs, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1965, and His Toy, His Dream, His Rest, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1969 and contains all 385 songs. Of The Dream Songs, A. Alvarez wrote in The Observer, "A major achievement. He has written an elegy on his brilliant generation and, in the process, he has also written an elegy on himself."

The Dream Songs are eighteen-line poems in three stanzas. Each individual poem is lyric and organized around an emotion provoked by an everyday event. The tone of the poems is less surreal than associational or intoxicated. The principal character of the song cycle is Henry, who is both the narrator of the poems and referred to by the narrator in the poems.

]]> 427 John Berryman 0374530661 Rob 0 4.19 1969 The Dream Songs
author: John Berryman
name: Rob
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?]]> 34068659 464 Beverly Daniel Tatum 0465060684 Rob 0 4.46 1997 Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
author: Beverly Daniel Tatum
name: Rob
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/05
shelves:
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]]> Girl, Woman, Other 52186796 Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women that paints a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary Britain and looks back to the legacy of Britain’s colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.

The twelve central characters of this multi-voiced novel lead vastly different lives: Amma is a newly acclaimed playwright whose work often explores her Black lesbian identity; her old friend Shirley is a teacher, jaded after decades of work in London’s funding-deprived schools; Carole, one of Shirley’s former students, is a successful investment banker; Carole’s mother Bummi works as a cleaner and worries about her daughter’s lack of rootedness despite her obvious achievements. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

Sparklingly witty and filled with emotion, centering voices we often see othered, and written in an innovative fast-moving form that borrows technique from poetry, Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that shows a side of Britain we rarely see, one that reminds us of all that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart.]]> 453 Bernardine Evaristo 0802156983 Rob 4 4.34 2019 Girl, Woman, Other
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: Rob
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/01
date added: 2021/03/06
shelves:
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I had so many reviews of this book. At first I found the characters (and maybe, by extension, the book) annoying if intriguing. But then as each narrator revised and questioned the chapter before, I was pulled in to an exploration of characters challenging one another, trying to understand, imagining the other -- it was a masterpiece. And then I set it aside for a while. A few weeks, maybe. And when I came back to Shirley and Megan/Morgan I felt like I had lost momentum and it wasn't so real. Surely Yazz would know enough to think she couldn't so easily try on being non-binary? Surely Shirley's conservatism would be tinged with just a little more curiosity? But then it's a wonderful novel and I think about my own ignorance in college years, about how much I ignore complications and I give them all the benefit of the doubt and admire the form and love how much each page complicates the page before.
]]> <![CDATA[Spirit Ambulance: Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand (California Series in Public Anthropology) (Volume 49)]]> 51921342 ]]> 203 Scott Stonington 0520343905 Rob 4 The Funeral Casino means nothing to me -- but I'll forgive since I don't expect to see this book for sale in an airport any time soon. A worthwhile read that will absolutely influence how I think about end-of-life practices and my place in the world.]]> 4.40 Spirit Ambulance: Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand (California Series in Public Anthropology) (Volume 49)
author: Scott Stonington
name: Rob
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/06
date added: 2021/03/06
shelves:
review:
A fascinating ethnography describing a norm of aggressive hospital-based medical care that ends with a rush to get the dying person home to pass in a more spiritual setting. The stories recounted are now a decade old, but I was fascinated to learn about such a different frame to approach illness and dying and how it was evolving due to spiritual, political, and global pressures. The prose is melodic and the stories gripping. I can easily imagine the introductory chapter adapted for a magazine. There were occasional moments that left the lay reader behind -- tossing out a one-sentence reference to gambling connected to spiritual merit in Klima's The Funeral Casino means nothing to me -- but I'll forgive since I don't expect to see this book for sale in an airport any time soon. A worthwhile read that will absolutely influence how I think about end-of-life practices and my place in the world.
]]> <![CDATA[The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?]]> 51321682 A world-famous political philosopher, and the bestselling author of Justice, reveals the driving force behind the resurgence of populism: the tyranny of the meritocracy and the resentments it produces.

Our politics are fraught with rancor and resentment. Decades of rising inequality and stalled mobility have fueled a populist revolt against elites. But while the pundits focus on wages and jobs, they are missing a big part of the story: social esteem, and the broader moral dimensions of our current crisis.

In recent decades, mainstream politicians across the aisle--from Reagan to Obama--have offered a rhetoric of rising: everyone should be given an equal chance to get ahead. But the relentless focus on "equal opportunity" ignores the morally corrosive attitudes that even a fair meritocracy generates. Among the winners, it generates hubris; among the losers, humiliation. Meritocratic hubris reflects the tendency of winners to inhale too deeply of their success, to forget the luck and good fortune that helped them on their way. It diminishes our capacity to see ourselves as sharing a common fate and leaves little room for the solidarity that can arise when we reflect on the contingency of our talents and fortunes. More than a protest against immigrants, outsourcing, and stagnant wages, the populist complaint is about the tyranny of merit. And the complaint is justified.

In The Tyranny of Merit, a searing critique of contemporary public discourse, Michael J. Sandel, "the world's most relevant living philosopher" (Newsweek), diagnoses our political moment by seeking out its moral underpinnings. He highlights the hubris a meritocracy fosters among the winners and the indignities it inflicts on those left behind. And he offers an alternative way of thinking about success--more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility, and more hospitable to a politics of the common good.]]> 273 Michael J. Sandel 0374289980 Rob 4 own
A good read that raised important questions and helped me evaluate my own thoughts around meritocracy. I found myself largely in agreement with Sandel. But some knocks on the market economy and globalization seemed unearned early in the book (I haven't read Sandel's earlier book on markets). The last chapter outlined possible policy solutions, and the proposals didn't seem to deeply challenge these systems but only to suggest that they could be designed better--a claim that's hard to dispute. Ditto a dissection of politicians' claims around American exceptionalism, claims that I would take less seriously. But the bottom line, the argument that a meritocracy is not morally defensible lands and is important, even if the the alternatives mooted (random college admissions, wage subsidies) feel a bit like a 'soft' meritocracy.]]> 4.11 2020 The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?
author: Michael J. Sandel
name: Rob
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/19
date added: 2020/12/19
shelves: own
review:
I am very much on board with the project of questioning the morality of meritocracy, but am not sure I trust the project of using it to diagnose the political moment. It's a plausible explanation, and I have no doubt that we'd benefit from more humility and care for the commonweal. But explaining today is always a risk, and I preferred chapters that focused more on the morality of meritocracy and how it connects to historical ideas and ideals.

A good read that raised important questions and helped me evaluate my own thoughts around meritocracy. I found myself largely in agreement with Sandel. But some knocks on the market economy and globalization seemed unearned early in the book (I haven't read Sandel's earlier book on markets). The last chapter outlined possible policy solutions, and the proposals didn't seem to deeply challenge these systems but only to suggest that they could be designed better--a claim that's hard to dispute. Ditto a dissection of politicians' claims around American exceptionalism, claims that I would take less seriously. But the bottom line, the argument that a meritocracy is not morally defensible lands and is important, even if the the alternatives mooted (random college admissions, wage subsidies) feel a bit like a 'soft' meritocracy.
]]> City of Glass 89053 A graphic novel classic with a new introduction by Art Spiegelman

Quinn writes mysteries. The Washington Post has described him as a “post-existentialist private eye.� An unknown voice on the telephone is now begging for his help, drawing him into a world and a mystery far stranger than any he ever created in print.

Adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, with graphics by David Mazzucchelli, Paul Auster’s groundbreaking, Edgar Award-nominated masterwork has been astonishingly transformed into a new visual language.
]]> 138 Paul Karasik 0312423608 Rob 3 to-read 3.99 1994 City of Glass
author: Paul Karasik
name: Rob
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies]]> 1839 The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.]]> 518 Jared Diamond 0393061310 Rob 4
Possibly my favorite chapter was a new chapter on Japan included in this edition. It's a short section that posits that modern Japanese are descended from Korean immigrants, and it's fun to see today's politics in the context of the book's long view. It's still worth a read all of these years later.]]> 4.04 1997 Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
author: Jared Diamond
name: Rob
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2010/06/19
date added: 2014/06/04
shelves:
review:
Interesting and thorough, though a book like this should come with a college course or a set of dissenting essays. It wasn't completely enjoyable reading, since the author's thoroughness leads to a great deal of repetition, but the topic is worthy enough that I had no trouble reading to completion.

Possibly my favorite chapter was a new chapter on Japan included in this edition. It's a short section that posits that modern Japanese are descended from Korean immigrants, and it's fun to see today's politics in the context of the book's long view. It's still worth a read all of these years later.
]]> <![CDATA[Liberty's Dawn: A People's History of the Industrial Revolution]]> 16073191 320 Emma Griffin 0300151802 Rob 3 3.77 2013 Liberty's Dawn: A People's History of the Industrial Revolution
author: Emma Griffin
name: Rob
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/10/01
date added: 2013/12/29
shelves:
review:
I picked this up after reading a review who knows where, hoping I'd find some echos of globalization and today's crazy disruptions in Britain's Industrial Revolution. Griffin offers a perspective derived from workers' autobiographies and argues that the Industrial Revolution generally made things better. Pre-industrial Britain didn't have anything close to full employment and workers had few options; in post-industrial Britain they were more mobile, hard bargaining power, and were by their own admission happier. So I'm newly interested in liberal economists who argue that government policies should support full employment. But I still have no idea what happens when drivers, warehouse, and factory workers are replaced by automatons; we'll all have to wait a few years.
]]> The Island of Second Sight 9729017 The Island of Second Sight is a masterpiece of world literature. Set in the years leading up to World War II, it is the fictionalized account of the time spent in Mallorca by the author and his wife, who experience the most unpredictable and surreal adventures, pursued all the while by Nazis and Francoists. And just as the chaos comes to seem manageable, the Spanish Civil War erupts. Drawing comparisons to Don Quixote and The Man Without Qualities, The Island of Second Sight is a novel of astonishing and singular richness of language and purpose. At once ironic and humanistic, hilarious and profoundly serious, philosophical and grotesque, The Island of Second Sight is a literary tour de force.


Praise for The Island of Second Sight

"A masterpiece...Fabulous in all senses of the word."
—Iain Bamforth, Times Literary Supplement

"A genuine work of art."
—Paul Celan

"[The Island of Second Sight] is comparable in profundity as well as in complexity to Mann's own Magic Mountain. It is in a class with two other massive German masterpieces...: Hermann Broch's The Death of Virgil and Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities."
—Allen Guttmann, Amherst Magazine

"There is a widely held misconception that Germans have no sense of humor. Here is evidence to the contrary as Thelen, belatedly, through his translator, gets a chance to show the English speaking world."
—Anthea Bell, Literary Review]]> 816 Albert Vigoleis Thelen 1903385067 Rob 4 Henry James or Javier Marías. Read it for the great stories, but also read it for the narrator who self-consciously shifts from important to self-deprecating in a whirl of reference to German authors and philosophers largely lost on me.

If I had one criticism, it'd be that the book draws to a relatively abrupt conclusion compared to the leisurely first two-thirds of the memoir. It's almost like Thelen realized he had a few thousand manuscript pages and he'd probably better wrap things up.]]> 4.09 1953 The Island of Second Sight
author: Albert Vigoleis Thelen
name: Rob
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2013/05/24
date added: 2013/06/16
shelves:
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On the cover Thomas Mann promised me one of the greatest books of the Twentieth Century and I wasn't disappointed. Thelen has a fantastic voice, a storyteller's voice that moves from one unbelievable set piece to another with enough nuance that I can't help but think of Henry James or Javier Marías. Read it for the great stories, but also read it for the narrator who self-consciously shifts from important to self-deprecating in a whirl of reference to German authors and philosophers largely lost on me.

If I had one criticism, it'd be that the book draws to a relatively abrupt conclusion compared to the leisurely first two-thirds of the memoir. It's almost like Thelen realized he had a few thousand manuscript pages and he'd probably better wrap things up.
]]> <![CDATA[A Random Walk Down Wall Street]]> 1154024 464 Burton G. Malkiel 0393047814 Rob 2
However, I didn't enjoy this read as much as I expected to. The first half is interesting, but isn't as academic as I'd hoped. I was hoping the anecdotes would be peppered with specific academic studies. The second half with individualized investment advice was quite dry and my finances aren't interesting enough that it's worth my time to look beyond his most basic recommendations.

So, yes to the thesis, not so much to reading the whole thing.]]> 3.90 1973 A Random Walk Down Wall Street
author: Burton G. Malkiel
name: Rob
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1973
rating: 2
read at: 2013/02/19
date added: 2013/05/06
shelves:
review:
First, let me say that I agree with Malkiel's thesis, that the stock market is efficient and no public information can be used to predict the behavior of stocks. Therefore you should buy a mixed bundle of the entire market and minimize fees incurred by trading and active management.

However, I didn't enjoy this read as much as I expected to. The first half is interesting, but isn't as academic as I'd hoped. I was hoping the anecdotes would be peppered with specific academic studies. The second half with individualized investment advice was quite dry and my finances aren't interesting enough that it's worth my time to look beyond his most basic recommendations.

So, yes to the thesis, not so much to reading the whole thing.
]]> NW 13590844 NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.]]> 401 Zadie Smith 1594203970 Rob 4 3.45 2012 NW
author: Zadie Smith
name: Rob
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/01/03
shelves:
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]]> Legend of Pradeep Mathew 13166688
* Winner of the $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature *
* A Publishers Weekly "First Fiction" Pick for Spring 2012 *

"A crazy ambidextrous delight. A drunk and totally unreliable narrator runs alongside the reader insisting him or her into the great fictional possibilities of cricket."--Michael Ondaatje

Aging sportswriter W.G. Karunasena's liver is shot. Years of drinking have seen to that. As his health fades, he embarks with his friend Ari on a madcap search for legendary cricket bowler Pradeep Mathew. En route they discover a mysterious six-fingered coach, a Tamil Tiger warlord, and startling truths about their beloved sport and country. A prizewinner in Sri Lanka, and a sensation in India and Britain, The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka is a nimble and original debut that blends cricket and the history of modern Sri Lanka into a vivid and comedic swirl.]]> 414 Shehan Karunatilaka 1555976115 Rob 4
You'll hate me for the comparison, but it's maybe like a cheerful A Small Place? All the little injustices and instances of bad governance--except that Sri Lanka seems (and I think is) so much better than Antigua.]]> 3.96 2010 Legend of Pradeep Mathew
author: Shehan Karunatilaka
name: Rob
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2012/11/01
date added: 2012/12/03
shelves:
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A great voice and a great cast to tell the story of the greatest cricketer who never was. Of the books I've lately read to playfully straddle the line of truth and fiction, this one leaves me most satisfyingly uncertain. Great sports stories, great bar stories, comedy, pathos, everything you want--including a very necessary cricket education, since I didn't know the game.

You'll hate me for the comparison, but it's maybe like a cheerful A Small Place? All the little injustices and instances of bad governance--except that Sri Lanka seems (and I think is) so much better than Antigua.
]]> Cloud Atlas 7112495 Now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant, and directed byLanaand AndyWachowski and Tom Tykwer

A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles of genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction that reveals how disparate people connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

“[David] Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel’s every page.”�The New York Times Book Review

“One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is—and should be—read by any student of contemporary literature.”—Dave Eggers

“Wildly entertaining . . . a head rush, both action-packed and chillingly ruminative.”�People

“The novel as series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book, and yet—not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and I’m grateful to have lived, for a while, in all its many worlds.”—Michael Chabon]]> 443 David Mitchell 0307483045 Rob 4 number9dream a long time ago and all I remember about reading it was that I thought it was pretentious and not very good, so it took a major motion picture for me to finally bite the bullet and read Cloud Atlas. I found a lot of reading pleasure in these pages, but as much as I enjoy science fiction I'm tempted to throw this one into the genre ghetto and call it a "really good science-fiction novel."

This crystalized for me in Frobischer's second chapter when he mocks a Belgian family reminiscent of the Von Trapps. I realized how little nuance there is: there are the virtuous, the evil, and the indifferent, and the reader's riding along with the virtuous the whole way. It pissed me off that the Belgians were so far beyond salvation, and then I started to get annoyed when everyone loved the oh-so-meta Cloud Atlas Sextet, and I'm thinking, "Take it easy David Mitchell!"

Impressive style, great pacing, but accidentally heartless even as it tries so hard to care. I thought of Bono, and then I felt bad for thinking ill of him or Mr. Mitchell, Irishmen they are; they're trying so hard!]]> 3.92 2004 Cloud Atlas
author: David Mitchell
name: Rob
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2012/12/03
date added: 2012/12/03
shelves:
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I read number9dream a long time ago and all I remember about reading it was that I thought it was pretentious and not very good, so it took a major motion picture for me to finally bite the bullet and read Cloud Atlas. I found a lot of reading pleasure in these pages, but as much as I enjoy science fiction I'm tempted to throw this one into the genre ghetto and call it a "really good science-fiction novel."

This crystalized for me in Frobischer's second chapter when he mocks a Belgian family reminiscent of the Von Trapps. I realized how little nuance there is: there are the virtuous, the evil, and the indifferent, and the reader's riding along with the virtuous the whole way. It pissed me off that the Belgians were so far beyond salvation, and then I started to get annoyed when everyone loved the oh-so-meta Cloud Atlas Sextet, and I'm thinking, "Take it easy David Mitchell!"

Impressive style, great pacing, but accidentally heartless even as it tries so hard to care. I thought of Bono, and then I felt bad for thinking ill of him or Mr. Mitchell, Irishmen they are; they're trying so hard!
]]> Goodbye for Now 13155271 In the spirit of ONE DAY, comes a fresh and warmhearted love story for the 21st century. Sometimes the end is just the beginning . . .

Sam Elling works for an internet dating company, but he still can't get a date. So he creates an algorithm that will match you with your soul mate. Sam meets the love of his life, a coworker named Meredith, but he also gets fired when the company starts losing all their customers to Mr. and Ms. Right.

When Meredith's grandmother, Livvie, dies suddenly, Sam uses his ample free time to create a computer program that will allow Meredith to have one last conversation with her grandmother. Mining from all her correspondence—email, Facebook, Skype, texts—Sam constructs a computer simulation of Livvie who can respond to email or video chat just as if she were still alive. It's not supernatural, it's computer science.

Meredith loves it, and the couple begins to wonder if this is something that could help more people through their grief. And thus, the company RePose is born. The business takes off, but for every person who just wants to say good-bye, there is someone who can't let go.

In the meantime, Sam and Meredith's affection for one another deepens into the kind of love that once tasted, you can't live without. But what if one of them suddenly had to? This entertaining novel, delivers a charming and bittersweet romance as well as a lump in the throat exploration of the nature of love, loss, and life (both real and computer simulated). Maybe nothing was meant to last forever, but then again, sometimes love takes on a life of its own.]]> 289 Laurie Frankel 0385536186 Rob 2
I picked this up after reading The New York Times review and was hoping for something silly but literary. Maybe Michael Chabon in a sillier mood or a Children's Hospital. Instead I got a really, really too cute rom com that hopefully gets optioned for a movie. That's not to say it wasn't all my scene--I loved a line where a character's grandmother floats the idea of parachuting in Mariners' relief pitchers with silks that have holes punched in them equal to the player's ERA (silly Michael Chabon?)--but if this is the one thing that stayed with me then it doesn't exactly recommend the rest of the novel.]]> 3.57 2012 Goodbye for Now
author: Laurie Frankel
name: Rob
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2012/11/12
date added: 2012/11/13
shelves:
review:
So as an example set piece: A man comes home to his apartment. He finds the heat turned way up and his girlfriend doing hot yoga. The yoga studio is closed today for Take Your Daughter to Work Day. Guess what happens next?

I picked this up after reading The New York Times review and was hoping for something silly but literary. Maybe Michael Chabon in a sillier mood or a Children's Hospital. Instead I got a really, really too cute rom com that hopefully gets optioned for a movie. That's not to say it wasn't all my scene--I loved a line where a character's grandmother floats the idea of parachuting in Mariners' relief pitchers with silks that have holes punched in them equal to the player's ERA (silly Michael Chabon?)--but if this is the one thing that stayed with me then it doesn't exactly recommend the rest of the novel.
]]> No Place to Hide 841082 368 Robert O'Harrow Jr. 0743254805 Rob 3 3.55 2005 No Place to Hide
author: Robert O'Harrow Jr.
name: Rob
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2012/11/01
date added: 2012/11/13
shelves:
review:
A good story, but not as prescriptive as I hoped and somewhat dated. I was intrigued to learn that law enforcement is circumventing rules around data collection by sourcing data from third parties, but in a world where the NSA has access to AT&T's Internet backbone (Room 641A) and the FBI argues before the Supreme Court that they can place GPS devices on personal property without a warrant then there's nothing in this book to shock or surprise--only things to dismay.
]]> The Cyclist Conspiracy 11723752
Masterfully intertwining the threads of waking and dreams into the fabric of the present, the past, and the future, Svetislav Basara’s Pynchon-esque The Cyclist Conspiracy is a bold, funny, and imaginative romp.]]> 280 Svetislav Basara 1934824585 Rob 4 3.97 1987 The Cyclist Conspiracy
author: Svetislav Basara
name: Rob
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2012/10/01
date added: 2012/11/13
shelves:
review:
If you have a sense of humor and a weakness for conspiracy then this is the book for you. Witty histories, letters, and manifestos from an evangelical group of bicyclists who meet in dreams to shape the future. I can't say I approve of all of their theology (they consider the female soul--bicycle frame--weaker because it lacks a horizontal cross bar) and I did need Wikipedia to brush up on eschatology and the history of iconoclasm, but this is my favorite Open Letter publication yet.
]]> No Place to Hide 70078
Now with a new afterword that details the latest security breaches and the government's failing efforts to stop them, O'Harrow shows us that, in this new world of high-tech domestic intelligence, there is literally no place to hide.

As O'Harrow writes, "This book is all about you and your personal information -- and the story isn't pretty."]]> 368 Robert O'Harrow Jr. 0743287053 Rob 0 to-read 3.61 2005 No Place to Hide
author: Robert O'Harrow Jr.
name: Rob
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dance Dance Dance 334598 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and The Elephant Vanishes, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work in any language fuses science fiction, the hard-boiled thriller and white-hot satire into a new element of the literary periodic table.

As he searches for a mysteriously vanished girlfriend, Haruki Murakami's protagonist plunges into a wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread in which he collides with call girls; plays chaperone to a lovely teenaged psychic; and receives cryptic instructions from a shabby but oracular Sheep Man. Dance Dance Dance is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through the cultural Cuisinart that is contemporary Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs.]]> 393 Haruki Murakami 0679753796 Rob 4
I like Murakami for the way his writing makes me feel--like his characters, as a reader I'm unhinged from my routine by his books. I read his books and I walk around my neighborhood and see new features that I missed before, I'm motivated to explore. Other contemporary authors I admire dazzle me with form and structure (occasionally politics), but afterward when I reflect I reflect about the book. For me, Murakami spills over into everyday life and for a little while I feel like I'm fifteen and writing a LiveJournal and everything is imbued with significance. (I leave it to you to judge if this is good or bad.)

Dance Dance Dance isn't Murakami's opus, but it doesn't disappoint. And having read it I see reflections of 1Q84 in the structure, especially the conclusion of the work. Of the two, I think I prefer Dance Dance Dance]]> 4.02 1988 Dance Dance Dance
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Rob
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2012/09/30
date added: 2012/09/30
shelves:
review:
I wasn't expecting a first-person Murakami novel. I've read many now, and swear that they're all third-person omniscient. But now that I've read this one I understand that it's the fourth in a series and I just haven't read his early work.

I like Murakami for the way his writing makes me feel--like his characters, as a reader I'm unhinged from my routine by his books. I read his books and I walk around my neighborhood and see new features that I missed before, I'm motivated to explore. Other contemporary authors I admire dazzle me with form and structure (occasionally politics), but afterward when I reflect I reflect about the book. For me, Murakami spills over into everyday life and for a little while I feel like I'm fifteen and writing a LiveJournal and everything is imbued with significance. (I leave it to you to judge if this is good or bad.)

Dance Dance Dance isn't Murakami's opus, but it doesn't disappoint. And having read it I see reflections of 1Q84 in the structure, especially the conclusion of the work. Of the two, I think I prefer Dance Dance Dance
]]> <![CDATA[Jack Kirby's OMAC: One Man Army Corps]]> 2592108 176 Jack Kirby 1401217907 Rob 3 3.89 2007 Jack Kirby's OMAC: One Man Army Corps
author: Jack Kirby
name: Rob
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2012/09/29
date added: 2012/09/30
shelves:
review:
Jack Kirby's comic is so bad it's good. You'd almost think it was a joke except that I've seen scans of the original comics that include apparently serious essays about 'the world that is coming.' Pick it up to learn about 'hormone surgery from space' and Global Peace Agents who wear orange foam masks to obscure their nationality so that they can represent all of humankind.
]]> World Light 14264 As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf's ambition drives him onward-and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women-World Light demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing of environments, and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]> 624 Halldór Laxness 0375727574 Rob 3 Independent People when I read it, but it's taken firm root in my memory. I like that I read it, even if I didn't totally dig it while I was mid-page. Remembering Independent People fondly, I decided to try World Light. Time will tell, but my first impression is that Independent People is a stronger exploration of many of the same ideas. If Independent People is about politics and economics, then this is its political- and art-focused accompaniment. Our protagonist is sad and naive, he has a brief glimpse of freedom, he's once again bound, but then there's a chance for transcendence in the end, and only in the end. If you read only one Halldór Laxness novel, start with Independent People.]]> 4.10 1937 World Light
author: Halldór Laxness
name: Rob
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2012/09/05
date added: 2012/09/17
shelves:
review:
I didn't immensely enjoy Independent People when I read it, but it's taken firm root in my memory. I like that I read it, even if I didn't totally dig it while I was mid-page. Remembering Independent People fondly, I decided to try World Light. Time will tell, but my first impression is that Independent People is a stronger exploration of many of the same ideas. If Independent People is about politics and economics, then this is its political- and art-focused accompaniment. Our protagonist is sad and naive, he has a brief glimpse of freedom, he's once again bound, but then there's a chance for transcendence in the end, and only in the end. If you read only one Halldór Laxness novel, start with Independent People.
]]> Stranger in a Strange Land 403305 The Hugo Award-winning and controversial science fiction masterpiece from Robert A. Heinlein, the New York Times bestselling author of Starship Troopers.

Valentine Michael Smith is a man raised by Martians. Sent to Earth, he must learn what it is to be human. But his beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of man, and his arrival leads to a transformation that will alter Earth’s inhabitants forever...]]> 438 Robert A. Heinlein 0441790348 Rob 2 Stranger in a Strange Land got off to a fantastic start with snappy sexist dialog that reminded me of His Girl Friday. I was really grokking how this became a cult classic and cultural influence. But then the second half devolved into a campy free-love take on new religions and the book lost my sympathy. It seems like a powerful cultural document, it neatly straddles two periods of American mores as the 50s gave way to the 60s. That said, the snap of the 1950s left a much better impression than the languor of 1960s lovemaking--as they say, it starts with a bang and ends with a whimper.]]> 3.73 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Rob
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1961
rating: 2
read at: 2012/07/01
date added: 2012/09/17
shelves:
review:
Stranger in a Strange Land got off to a fantastic start with snappy sexist dialog that reminded me of His Girl Friday. I was really grokking how this became a cult classic and cultural influence. But then the second half devolved into a campy free-love take on new religions and the book lost my sympathy. It seems like a powerful cultural document, it neatly straddles two periods of American mores as the 50s gave way to the 60s. That said, the snap of the 1950s left a much better impression than the languor of 1960s lovemaking--as they say, it starts with a bang and ends with a whimper.
]]> 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) 10357575 The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.� A world that bears a question.� Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s � 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.]]> 944 Haruki Murakami 0307593312 Rob 4 3.94 2009 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Rob
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2012/07/20
date added: 2012/09/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life]]> 245273 Complex Adaptive Systems focuses on the key tools and ideas that have emerged in the field since the mid-1990s, as well as the techniques needed to investigate such systems. It provides a detailed introduction to concepts such as emergence, self-organized criticality, automata, networks, diversity, adaptation, and feedback. It also demonstrates how complex adaptive systems can be explored using methods ranging from mathematics to computational models of adaptive agents.


John Miller and Scott Page show how to combine ideas from economics, political science, biology, physics, and computer science to illuminate topics in organization, adaptation, decentralization, and robustness. They also demonstrate how the usual extremes used in modeling can be fruitfully transcended.]]> 284 John H. Miller 0691127026 Rob 4 3.95 2007 Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life
author: John H. Miller
name: Rob
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2012/09/10
date added: 2012/09/17
shelves:
review:
My friend Jon loaned this to me as an academic read I might find interesting, and it lived up to the promise. Though it's written for an introductory course in complex systems, it reads like rigorous pop science for the first two-thirds with interesting examples of modeling systems with lots of agents (e.g. voting, biology, etc.). The last third gets harder to read at it shifts to proofs based on very simple systems, but by then you're so close to the end that you just have to finish.
]]> <![CDATA[What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets]]> 13221379
In What Money Can’t Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes on one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong? What are the moral limits of markets?

In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life—medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. Is this where we want to be?In his New York Times bestseller Justice, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can’t Buy, he provokes an essential discussion that we, in our market-driven age, need to have: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society—and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets don’t honor and that money can’t buy?]]> 256 Michael J. Sandel 0374203032 Rob 4 3.91 2012 What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
author: Michael J. Sandel
name: Rob
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2012/08/13
date added: 2012/08/13
shelves:
review:
An examination of how markets change the value of goods and services traded upon them. It was illuminating for me to see his point that the emergence of market-based systems is a phenomenon that's really taken hold during my lifetime, especially since I feel like I've taken this for granted. Ultimately the book's conclusion is that the morality of markets should enter our public debate; I was a little disappointed, as I hoped for a conclusion more prescriptive and controversial.
]]> <![CDATA[The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration]]> 8171378
Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration� within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is a modern classic.]]> 622 Isabel Wilkerson 0679444327 Rob 3 to-read 4.45 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Rob
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2012/07/07
date added: 2012/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Home 13531281 160 Toni Morrison 0307959872 Rob 3 4.05 2012 Home
author: Toni Morrison
name: Rob
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2012/07/04
date added: 2012/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> In the Penny Arcade 1540809 164 Steven Millhauser 0394546601 Rob 4 Steven Millhauser fan, so I can't claim to be impartial. In the Penny Arcade is a solid exploration of realism, of art, of mirrors, of perfection. If you're looking to get into Millhauser than start with Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer to dig into these same ideas. If you know you like Millhauser then In the Penny Arcade is full of stories not easily forgotten that explore a theme running throughout art.]]> 4.22 1985 In the Penny Arcade
author: Steven Millhauser
name: Rob
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2012/07/02
date added: 2012/07/02
shelves:
review:
I'm a big Steven Millhauser fan, so I can't claim to be impartial. In the Penny Arcade is a solid exploration of realism, of art, of mirrors, of perfection. If you're looking to get into Millhauser than start with Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer to dig into these same ideas. If you know you like Millhauser then In the Penny Arcade is full of stories not easily forgotten that explore a theme running throughout art.
]]> The Intuitionist 16271 Librarian note: Click here for alternate cover edition
Two warring factions in the Department of Elevator Inspectors in a bustling metropolis vie for dominance: the Empiricists, who go by the book and rigorously check every structural and mechanical detail, and the Intuitionists, whose observational methods involve meditation and instinct.

Lila Mae Watson, the city’s first black female inspector and a devout Intuitionist with the highest accuracy rate in the department, is at the center of the turmoil. An elevator in a new municipal building has crashed on Lila Mae’s watch, fanning the flames of the Empiticist-Intuitionist feud and compelling Lila Mae to go underground to investigate. As she endeavors to clear her name, she becomes entangled in a web of intrigue that leads her to a secret that will change her life forever.

A dead-serious and seriously funny feat of the imagination, The Intuitionist conjures a parallel universe in which latent ironies in matters of morality, politics, and race come to light, and stands as the celebrated debut of an important American writer.]]> 255 Colson Whitehead Rob 4 Colson Whitehead's first novel was about elevator inspectors until a few weeks ago--once I knew this, I picked it up at the library the next day. It was a slow pitch right down the middle for me--a great yarn, realistic but slightly fantastic, its own invented critical structure, race in America. I stumbled once or twice through the prose--Was there a verb in that sentence? No.--but that's part of the style.]]> 3.64 1999 The Intuitionist
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Rob
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/23
date added: 2012/06/23
shelves:
review:
I had no idea Colson Whitehead's first novel was about elevator inspectors until a few weeks ago--once I knew this, I picked it up at the library the next day. It was a slow pitch right down the middle for me--a great yarn, realistic but slightly fantastic, its own invented critical structure, race in America. I stumbled once or twice through the prose--Was there a verb in that sentence? No.--but that's part of the style.
]]> <![CDATA[Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]]> 432352 Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination.

Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin.]]> 356 Jonathan Safran Foer 0618329706 Rob 2 The Tin Drum (Jonathan Safran Foer asked for it with the old-world backstory and a kid named Oskar). The book is impressive, sweet, device-ridden, sad, but (for me) unfulfilling--I think I would have liked it better but so much was poured into it (9/11, creative book design, generational sadness) that it couldn't hit the expectations it set up for itself.]]> 4.00 2005 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: Rob
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2012/06/10
date added: 2012/06/23
shelves:
review:
I was torn between enjoyment and dislike. There's a great, sad, story in here, but on the whole it seemed like the Hollywood blockbuster adaptation of The Tin Drum (Jonathan Safran Foer asked for it with the old-world backstory and a kid named Oskar). The book is impressive, sweet, device-ridden, sad, but (for me) unfulfilling--I think I would have liked it better but so much was poured into it (9/11, creative book design, generational sadness) that it couldn't hit the expectations it set up for itself.
]]> Red Plenty 12206886
Strange as it may seem, the gray, oppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the twentieth-century magic called "the planned economy," which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working. Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away; about the brief era when, under the rash leadership of Khrushchev, the Soviet Union looked forward to a future of rich communists and envious capitalists, when Moscow would out-glitter Manhattan and every Lada would be better engineered than a Porsche. It's about the scientists who did their genuinely brilliant best to make the dream come true, to give the tyranny its happy ending.

Red Plenty is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as Sputnik , as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant, and as different from what you were expecting as a glass of Soviet champagne.]]> 448 Francis Spufford 1555976042 Rob 4 4.15 2010 Red Plenty
author: Francis Spufford
name: Rob
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/02
date added: 2012/06/02
shelves:
review:
If five stars means you win my Nobel Prize and join the canon, this book rates a solid four. One of the best books I've read in a while, it adds invention to history to tell an engaging story of the planned economy and cybernetics in the USSR. It might just be that the book speaks to my own interest in economics and efficiency, but there are amazing true stories about attempts to reconcile efficiency and ideology and baffling facepalm decisions by ministries attempting to reform but missing obvious organizational problems.
]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning]]> 11107324
Genre-busting author Maggie Nelson brilliantly navigates this contemporary predicament, with an eye to the question of whether or not focusing on representations of cruelty makes us cruel. In a journey through high and low culture (Kafka to reality TV), the visual to the verbal (Paul McCarthy to Brian Evenson), and the apolitical to the political (Francis Bacon to Kara Walker), Nelson offers a model of how one might balance strong ethical convictions with an equally strong appreciation for work that tests the limits of taste, taboo, and permissibility.]]> 304 Maggie Nelson 0393072150 Rob 3 4.22 2011 The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning
author: Maggie Nelson
name: Rob
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/03/06
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves:
review:
I didn't come away with an answer to how to manage violence in art, but was engaged by the discussion of violence in art and the exercise to decide what of this is good and what is bad.
]]> The Death of Artemio Cruz 12764 The Death of Artemio Cruz is Carlos Fuentes's haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico. Its acknowledged place in Latin American fiction and its appeal to a fresh generation of readers have warranted this new translation by Alfred Mac Adam, translator (with the author) of Fuentes's Christopher Unborn.

As in all his fiction, but perhaps most powerfully in this book, Fuentes is a passionate guide to the ironies of Mexican history, the burden of its past, and the anguish of its present.]]> 307 Carlos Fuentes 0374522839 Rob 2 3.88 1962 The Death of Artemio Cruz
author: Carlos Fuentes
name: Rob
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1962
rating: 2
read at: 2012/02/24
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves:
review:
I read this on an overnight flight and was probably too sleepy to really appreciate it. In my head it got a little bit mixed up with a magazine article about restaurant culture in Tijuana, which doesn't speak favorably about my state of mind.
]]> Cannery Row (Cannery Row, #1) 3114657 John Steinbeck 0553141570 Rob 1 Cannery Row, though, felt like reading back issues of Reader's Digest. It's so folksy and adorable and the characters are so impossibly naive that it's hard to imagine these stories ever having currency.]]> 3.00 1943 Cannery Row (Cannery Row, #1)
author: John Steinbeck
name: Rob
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1943
rating: 1
read at: 2012/02/10
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves:
review:
Everything I've read by Steinbeck so far feels dated, but I've nonetheless been impressed. Cannery Row, though, felt like reading back issues of Reader's Digest. It's so folksy and adorable and the characters are so impossibly naive that it's hard to imagine these stories ever having currency.
]]> <![CDATA[Montauk (English and German Edition)]]> 74185 143 Max Frisch 0156619903 Rob 2 Homo Faber in college and recalled it fondly, but found Montauk to be super self-indulgent. Still, a quick, well-styled read.]]> 3.45 1975 Montauk (English and German Edition)
author: Max Frisch
name: Rob
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1975
rating: 2
read at: 2012/02/05
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves:
review:
I read Homo Faber in college and recalled it fondly, but found Montauk to be super self-indulgent. Still, a quick, well-styled read.
]]> White Noise 6719051 310 Don DeLillo 0143105981 Rob 4 3.92 1985 White Noise
author: Don DeLillo
name: Rob
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2012/05/06
date added: 2012/05/06
shelves:
review:

]]> The Cat's Table 10335457
As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy’s adult years, it tells a spellbinding story—by turns poignant and electrifying—about the magical, often forbidden discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.]]> 269 Michael Ondaatje 0307700119 Rob 3 3.69 2011 The Cat's Table
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Rob
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/02/18
date added: 2012/01/25
shelves:
review:
A really pleasurable read, but not a new favorite. Still, no regrets and great atmosphere.
]]> Freedom 9307670
But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter's college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become "a very different kind of neighbor," an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.
(jacket)]]> 562 Jonathan Franzen 0312600844 Rob 3 Jonathan Franzen. First I read The Twenty-Seventh City and then I read this (and no, I haven't read The Corrections). I enjoyed this read, but like The Twenty-Seventh City it had this unacknowledged sense of fantasy about it. It comes off like it wants to be realistic fiction, but something isn't quite right about the happy ending, a deus ex machina that proceeds it, a friend's musical success, and a child's war profiteering. (It could just be that I was annoyed that Bright Eyes were tangentially featured in the novel, though I'll admit to having enjoyed their songs.) Add to this the fact that his books make me sad to be human (his poor characters, they suffer so! but you know there's some truth in it), and Franzen's not top of my list. He's an excellent writer, the theme and form are very well chosen and executed, but on a personal level it's just not for me.]]> 3.68 2010 Freedom
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Rob
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/12/24
date added: 2011/12/30
shelves:
review:
So I've read the wrong Jonathan Franzen. First I read The Twenty-Seventh City and then I read this (and no, I haven't read The Corrections). I enjoyed this read, but like The Twenty-Seventh City it had this unacknowledged sense of fantasy about it. It comes off like it wants to be realistic fiction, but something isn't quite right about the happy ending, a deus ex machina that proceeds it, a friend's musical success, and a child's war profiteering. (It could just be that I was annoyed that Bright Eyes were tangentially featured in the novel, though I'll admit to having enjoyed their songs.) Add to this the fact that his books make me sad to be human (his poor characters, they suffer so! but you know there's some truth in it), and Franzen's not top of my list. He's an excellent writer, the theme and form are very well chosen and executed, but on a personal level it's just not for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television]]> 228250 384 Jerry Mander 0688082742 Rob 2 4.13 1977 Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
author: Jerry Mander
name: Rob
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1977
rating: 2
read at: 2011/12/27
date added: 2011/12/30
shelves:
review:
I picked up this book because I'd seen it referenced a few places, but it hasn't aged well since it first hit the presses in 1978. Not too far into the book he questions the need for scientific research that yields 'obvious' results like 'cheese is the best bait for mice' and 'breast milk is better than formula,' and he kind of loses me from there. These results are pretty predictable, yes, but to close them off from inquiry is to embrace pseudoscience (and he does in his discussion of TV's effect on humans). He's most interesting when discussing media consolidation and the fact that money buys access to TV. The last section of the book discusses TV's technical limitations, an argument that gets repetitive and is less relevant today.
]]> Here Comes Trouble 9428981 429 Michael Moore 044653224X Rob 4 4.00 2011 Here Comes Trouble
author: Michael Moore
name: Rob
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/12/29
date added: 2011/12/30
shelves:
review:
This memoir reads like a plot-driven short story collection and it definitely left me with a newfound appreciation of Michael Moore. I've always enjoyed his movies, but figured that he must not be a very kind man to give it so good to Roger Smith et al. I was wrong, these stories reveal him as a generous, principled guy who metes out deserved justice. Worth reading to learn about his hell-raising at Boys State, his campaign for the school board at age 18, and the fact that his film mentor was a cousin of George W. Bush (but the author didn't realize it for a few years).
]]> Triplanetary 13078417 248 E.E. "Doc" Smith Rob 1 The New York Times review of Neal Stephenson's new book as having been the runner up for all-time best science fiction series at the Hugo Awards (after Foundation). After a bit more research I found out that it won this award in 1966, which limited the number of eligible series; still, I had it sent inter-library loan from Kalamazoo College.

The book had all of the charm of an immature D&D player. Tons of deus ex machinas, metaphors that made no sense, and impossible technology with no exploration of its implications. I'd watch the Star Trek episode with giant cats before I'd read book two.]]> 3.00 1934 Triplanetary
author: E.E. "Doc" Smith
name: Rob
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1934
rating: 1
read at: 2011/11/07
date added: 2011/12/28
shelves:
review:
I picked this up because it was mentioned in The New York Times review of Neal Stephenson's new book as having been the runner up for all-time best science fiction series at the Hugo Awards (after Foundation). After a bit more research I found out that it won this award in 1966, which limited the number of eligible series; still, I had it sent inter-library loan from Kalamazoo College.

The book had all of the charm of an immature D&D player. Tons of deus ex machinas, metaphors that made no sense, and impossible technology with no exploration of its implications. I'd watch the Star Trek episode with giant cats before I'd read book two.
]]> Kangaroo 1684393 278 Yuz Aleshkovsky 0374180687 Rob 2 own 3.94 1986 Kangaroo
author: Yuz Aleshkovsky
name: Rob
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1986
rating: 2
read at: 2008/09/27
date added: 2011/11/18
shelves: own
review:
Kangaroo caught my eye in Chicago's Myopic books because it was published in Russian in Ann Arbor before being translated and published by FSG. The book takes a really cruel satirical take on Stalinism that's pretty spot-on, except that I'm reading it many years too late. The prose is a first-person stream-of-consciousness monologue—not my favorite style—and it seems pretty dated. I enjoyed the ending much more than the beginning, but I'm not sure I'll return to Aleshkovsky.
]]> Beatrice and Virgil 7176578 213 Yann Martel 1400069262 Rob 2 3.16 2010 Beatrice and Virgil
author: Yann Martel
name: Rob
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2010/07/31
date added: 2011/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> The Imperfectionists 6834410
Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff’s personal dramas seem far more important than the daily headlines. Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage; Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy; Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. Out in the field, a veteran Paris freelancer goes to desperate lengths for his next byline, while the new Cairo stringer is mercilessly manipulated by an outrageous war correspondent with an outsize ego. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family’s quirky newspaper.

As the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper’s rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder’s intentions.

Spirited, moving, and highly original, The Imperfectionists will establish Tom Rachman as one of our most perceptive, assured literary talents.]]> 272 Tom Rachman 0385343663 Rob 1 3.55 2010 The Imperfectionists
author: Tom Rachman
name: Rob
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2010
rating: 1
read at: 2010/08/06
date added: 2011/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime]]> 6817054
At the heart of this book are incredible and often hilarious stories involving national heroes (like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) and notorious headhunters (like Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale) in a century-long series of confrontations over respect, honor, and the soul of the game. With The Baseball Codes , we see for the first time the game as it’s actually played, through the eyes of the players on the field.

With rollicking stories from the past and new perspectives on baseball’s informal rulebook, The Baseball Codes is a must for every fan.]]> 294 Jason Turbow 0375424695 Rob 1 3.79 2010 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime
author: Jason Turbow
name: Rob
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2010
rating: 1
read at: 2010/06/05
date added: 2011/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Married a Communist (The American Trilogy, #2)]]> 526834
On his way to political catastrophe, he marries the nation's reigning radio actress and beloved silent-film star, the exquisite Eve Frame (born Chava Fromkin). Their marriage evolves from a glamorous, romantic idyll in a tasteful Manhattan townhouse to a dispiriting soap opera of tears and treachery. And, with Eve's dramatic revelation to the gossip columnist Bryden Grant of her husband's life of "espionage" for the Soviet Union, the relationship enlarges from private drama into national scandal.

Set in the heart of the McCarthy era, the story of Iron Rinn's denunciation and disgrace is narrated years later by his brother, Murray Ringold, whose former student, the adolescent Nathan Zuckerman, was the radio actor's adoring protégé in the late forties. It is a story of cruelty, humiliation, betrayal, and revenge spilling over into the public arena from their origins in Ira's turbulent personal life.

In Roth's previous novel—the Pulitzer Prize winner American Pastoral—we heard the terrifying, heartrending story of Swede Levov, a decent American meeting his indecent destiny in an America torn apart in the sixties by the Vietnam War. The novel I Married a Communist continues Roth's brilliant fictional portrayal of a postwar history in which private needs and public acts are inextricably joined—and in which the consequences are as harrowing for the country as for the Levovs and the Ringolds of Roth's meticulously resurrected American ruin, Newark, New Jersey.

I Married a Communist is an American tragedy as only Philip Roth can conceive one—fierce and funny, eloquently rendered and politically accurate.
—from the front and back flaps of the cover]]> 325 Philip Roth 0395933463 Rob 3 Philip Roth, but much better than The Plot Against America which I thought was pretty awful and made me question why anyone would want to give this guy a Nobel. I still haven't ready any of his early work, but I'm far more curious now that I've read what seemed to me to be a pretty good bildungsroman-ish kind of thing.]]> 3.69 1998 I Married a Communist (The American Trilogy, #2)
author: Philip Roth
name: Rob
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2011/11/11
date added: 2011/11/18
shelves:
review:
Only my second Philip Roth, but much better than The Plot Against America which I thought was pretty awful and made me question why anyone would want to give this guy a Nobel. I still haven't ready any of his early work, but I'm far more curious now that I've read what seemed to me to be a pretty good bildungsroman-ish kind of thing.
]]> <![CDATA[Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico]]> 7258106 57 Javier Marías 0811218589 Rob 3 own Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear / Dance and Dream / Poison, Shadow, and Farewell (Three-book shrink-wrapped set).]]> 3.95 1996 Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico
author: Javier Marías
name: Rob
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2011/11/07
date added: 2011/11/18
shelves: own
review:
A quick Javier Marias primer to see if you like him or not. A clever book, but everything I've read of his was done better and developed more thoroughly in the amazing Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear / Dance and Dream / Poison, Shadow, and Farewell (Three-book shrink-wrapped set).
]]> The Yiddish Policemen's Union 16703
But homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life—and also his worst nightmare. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under Landsman's nose. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy. But when word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, Landsman soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, hopefulness, evil, and salvation that are his heritage—and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears.

At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
(front flap)]]> 414 Michael Chabon 0007149824 Rob 4 3.72 2007 The Yiddish Policemen's Union
author: Michael Chabon
name: Rob
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2011/11/06
date added: 2011/11/18
shelves:
review:
The best alternate history book, I've read in a long time but that sets the bar low.
]]> <![CDATA[The Rage of a Privileged Class]]> 7102172 192 Ellis Cose 0840079923 Rob 4 3.50 1993 The Rage of a Privileged Class
author: Ellis Cose
name: Rob
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2011/10/11
date added: 2011/10/28
shelves:
review:
I read a 20-year-old book to understand why Black Americans I considered well-off were hung up on racial issues; I've always thought that class is more important to life outcome than race. The answer is that racism still exists and it really sucks, which should have been obvious to me. The book dates itself, to be sure, but has excellent chapters about affirmative action (where are the organized political movements against legacy admission preferences?) and the myth of Black crime that still hit home today.
]]> <![CDATA[U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money]]> 261441 U.S.A.ٰDz�The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money—Dos Passos creates an unforgettable collective portrait of America, shot through with sardonic comedy and brilliant social observation. He interweaves the careers of his characters and the events of their time with a narrative verve and breathtaking technical skill that make U.S.A. among the most compulsively readable of modern classics.

A startling range of experimental devices captures the textures and background noises of 20th-century life: "Newsreels" with blaring headlines; autobiographical "Camera Eye" sections with poetic stream-of-consciousness; "biographies" evoking emblematic historical figures like J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, John Reed, Frank Lloyd Wright, Thorstein Veblen, and the Unknown Soldier. Holding everything together is sheer storytelling power, tracing dozens of characters from the Spanish-American War to the onset of the Depression.

The U.S.A. trilogy is filled with American speech: labor radicals and advertising executives, sailors and stenographers, interior decorators and movie stars. Their crisscrossing destinies take in wars and revolutions, desperate love affairs and harrowing family crises, corrupt public triumphs and private catastrophes, in settings that include the trenches of World War I, insurgent Mexico, Hollywood studios in the silent era, Wall Street boardrooms, and the tumultuous streets of Boston just before the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.]]> 1288 John Dos Passos 1883011140 Rob 5 U.S.A. trilogy is like a dream come true. A student could spend years writing about class and money in this book. What really made it sing for me was my own sadness about the America that could have been and the America that happened instead. Add to that Dos Passos's fantastic voices and it's well worth a read.]]> 4.11 1930 U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money
author: John Dos Passos
name: Rob
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1930
rating: 5
read at: 2011/10/09
date added: 2011/10/28
shelves:
review:
I had a habit of writing English papers about economics in literature, so the U.S.A. trilogy is like a dream come true. A student could spend years writing about class and money in this book. What really made it sing for me was my own sadness about the America that could have been and the America that happened instead. Add to that Dos Passos's fantastic voices and it's well worth a read.
]]> Independent People 77287 Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.

Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. But Bjartur's spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, elemental in its emotional intensity and intimate in its homely detail. Vast in scope and deeply rewarding, Independent People is simply a masterpiece]]> 482 Halldór Laxness 0679767924 Rob 3
In a few months time, I expect to remember this book being worth another star. Discussing it at one of the many cocktail parties I attend, I'm sure I'd endow it with another star still.

A quick note on the translation: I distrust it for converting traditional Icelandic verse into end-rhymed couplets, but then admire it for using occasionally obscure English words to give the novel a sense of place. I'd trust me less than the translation, considering my weak sense of Icelandic.]]> 4.13 1934 Independent People
author: Halldór Laxness
name: Rob
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1934
rating: 3
read at: 2010/07/24
date added: 2010/07/24
shelves:
review:
So heaped with praise that I wonder if it's (relative) obscurity has anything to do with its appeal. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate its craft, humor, and characters. There's so little in the life of a peasant farmer that every thing has such significance.

In a few months time, I expect to remember this book being worth another star. Discussing it at one of the many cocktail parties I attend, I'm sure I'd endow it with another star still.

A quick note on the translation: I distrust it for converting traditional Icelandic verse into end-rhymed couplets, but then admire it for using occasionally obscure English words to give the novel a sense of place. I'd trust me less than the translation, considering my weak sense of Icelandic.
]]> <![CDATA[The New York Trilogy (New York Trilogy, #1-3)]]> 431 The remarkable, acclaimed series of interconnected detective novels � from the author of 4 3 2 1: A Novel

The New York Review of Books has called Paul Auster’s work “one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature.� Moving at the breathless pace of a thriller, this uniquely stylized triology of detective novels begins with City of Glass, in which Quinn, a mystery writer, receives an ominous phone call in the middle of the night. He’s drawn into the streets of New York, onto an elusive case that’s more puzzling and more deeply-layered than anything he might have written himself. In Ghosts, Blue, a mentee of Brown, is hired by White to spy on Black from a window on Orange Street. Once Blue starts stalking Black, he finds his subject on a similar mission, as well. In The Locked Room, Fanshawe has disappeared, leaving behind his wife and baby and nothing but a cache of novels, plays, and poems.

This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition includes an introduction from author and professor Luc Sante, as well as a pulp novel-inspired cover from Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic artist of Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers.]]> 308 Paul Auster 0143039830 Rob 4
So this is to say that I liked it a lot and admired how like clockwork the novels are built, and how bite-sized and cinematic each experiment is.]]> 3.93 1987 The New York Trilogy (New York Trilogy, #1-3)
author: Paul Auster
name: Rob
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2010/06/20
date added: 2010/07/24
shelves:
review:
Three stories so artificial they seem more an exercise than a work of fiction. I think of skeletons, pegs from which other stories can be hung, a foundation freshly laid for critical essays, reflections, regrets, and LiveJournal posts.

So this is to say that I liked it a lot and admired how like clockwork the novels are built, and how bite-sized and cinematic each experiment is.
]]> Beowulf 52357 259 Unknown 0393320979 Rob 0 3.46 1000 Beowulf
author: Unknown
name: Rob
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1000
rating: 0
read at: 2010/06/06
date added: 2010/06/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Afterword: A Novel 410677 The Afterword is the afterword to a best-selling novel that doesn’t exist. It is a stunning, deliriously original work of fiction about the nature of faith in the modern world.]]> 208 Mike Bryan 0375422129 Rob 0 3.14 2003 The Afterword: A Novel
author: Mike Bryan
name: Rob
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2010/06/06
date added: 2010/06/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Tell No One 43933
Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.

Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn't. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.

But already Beck is being hunted down. He's headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret- and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.]]> 370 Harlan Coben 0440236703 Rob 2 4.06 2001 Tell No One
author: Harlan Coben
name: Rob
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 2008/10/07
date added: 2010/06/01
shelves:
review:
A solid thriller, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I have some books of the genre. The first-person narrator has an obnoxious, cliche-filled style, and the last paragraph of the book introduces a completely unbelievable twist that serves to undermine the whole plot of the book and what little credibility it had.
]]> <![CDATA[The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)]]> 6554891
In many ways, Museum is an "anti-novel." It opens with more than fifty prologues—including ones addressed "To My Authorial Persona," "To the Critics," and "To Readers Who Will Perish If They Don’t Know What the Novel Is About"—that are by turns philosophical, outrageous, ponderous, and cryptic. These pieces cover a range of topics from how the upcoming novel will be received to how to thwart "skip-around readers" (by writing a book that’s defies linearity!).

The second half of the book is the novel itself, a novel about a group of characters (some borrowed from other texts) who live on an estancia called "la novella" . . .

A hilarious and often quite moving book, The Museum of Eterna's Novelredefined the limits of the genre, and has had a lasting impact on Latin American literature. Authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Ricardo Piglia have all fallen under its charm and high-concepts, and, at long last, English-speaking readers can experience the book that helped build the reputation of Borges's mentor.]]> 238 Macedonio Fernández 1934824062 Rob 2 own The Museum of Eterna's Novel is much more fun to read about than it is to read. Macedonio wrote a novel that's half prologues (more than twenty of them!), half an attempt to make the reader feel their own character-ness.

The resulting novel is playful and it feels half-serious throughout--Macedonio is making a point but having fun doing it. Unfortunately, the text becomes a slog at times. Sometimes it takes the tone of a philosophy text or a dense piece of criticism, but it's deliberately nonsensical or obfuscated. As a reader (Macedonio is very conscious of the different types of readers), I don't have the patience to try to understand what might not be understandable, and what will certainly be discarded in the next few pages. Perhaps this is why the novel is dedicated to the skip-around reader, who will only read the fun bits and will therefore throw Eterna a few more stars.]]> 3.91 1967 The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)
author: Macedonio Fernández
name: Rob
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1967
rating: 2
read at: 2010/05/31
date added: 2010/06/01
shelves: own
review:
The Museum of Eterna's Novel is much more fun to read about than it is to read. Macedonio wrote a novel that's half prologues (more than twenty of them!), half an attempt to make the reader feel their own character-ness.

The resulting novel is playful and it feels half-serious throughout--Macedonio is making a point but having fun doing it. Unfortunately, the text becomes a slog at times. Sometimes it takes the tone of a philosophy text or a dense piece of criticism, but it's deliberately nonsensical or obfuscated. As a reader (Macedonio is very conscious of the different types of readers), I don't have the patience to try to understand what might not be understandable, and what will certainly be discarded in the next few pages. Perhaps this is why the novel is dedicated to the skip-around reader, who will only read the fun bits and will therefore throw Eterna a few more stars.
]]> The Leopard 1320341 230 Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa 0099512157 Rob 3
This book would be a fun read for a group or a class that could give it more context (my lack of knowledge of turn-of-the-century Italian politics made the backdrop less engaging). There's a lot to write about and discuss, but the reading itself was not as enjoyable as I'd hoped.]]> 3.93 1958 The Leopard
author: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
name: Rob
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at: 2010/05/08
date added: 2010/06/01
shelves:
review:
I feel like most every novel I read set in the 1800s is written by, for, and about the middle class. The few that are about nobility are about petty estates, so I was fascinated by a narrator that captures the fine details of politics so grounded in garb and protocol. For me, the real reward of this book is this unusual perspective, a perspective drawn out by the contrast of a chapter where the narrator follows a Jesuit of the noble household.

This book would be a fun read for a group or a class that could give it more context (my lack of knowledge of turn-of-the-century Italian politics made the backdrop less engaging). There's a lot to write about and discuss, but the reading itself was not as enjoyable as I'd hoped.
]]> <![CDATA[Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance]]> 6163289
In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama“guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race� ( The Washington Post Book World ).

“Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Praise for Dreams from My Father

“Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.� —Scott Turow

“Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.� � The New York Times Book Review

“Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.� —Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here

“One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.� —Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place

� Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.� —Marian Wright Edelman]]> 457 Barack Obama 1400082773 Rob 0 to-read 3.99 1995 Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
author: Barack Obama
name: Rob
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Angelology (Angelology, #1) 6691426 464 Danielle Trussoni 0670021474 Rob 2
I read it cover-to-cover in two days, so it has the thriller bit down pat. Unfortunately any credibility it has is killed by bizarre features like a love-at-first-sight story involving a sexy young Catholic nun and an academic researcher, and a group of underground crusaders so underground that they drive a Porsche 356 with the license plate "ANGEL1." It's part of a larger fleet that goes at least through "ANGEL11."

It's definitely more Brown than Eco, but thankfully more The Da Vinci Code than Angels & Demons.]]> 3.45 2010 Angelology (Angelology, #1)
author: Danielle Trussoni
name: Rob
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2010/04/25
date added: 2010/04/30
shelves:
review:
A little embarrassing, but it got a kind review from The New York Times that called it I do like a thriller, so I took a chance.

I read it cover-to-cover in two days, so it has the thriller bit down pat. Unfortunately any credibility it has is killed by bizarre features like a love-at-first-sight story involving a sexy young Catholic nun and an academic researcher, and a group of underground crusaders so underground that they drive a Porsche 356 with the license plate "ANGEL1." It's part of a larger fleet that goes at least through "ANGEL11."

It's definitely more Brown than Eco, but thankfully more The Da Vinci Code than Angels & Demons.
]]> The Savage Detectives 63033
The explosive first long work by “the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time� (Ilan Stavans, Los Angeles Times), The Savage Detectives follows Belano and Lima through the eyes of the people whose paths they cross in Central America, Europe, Israel, and West Africa. This chorus includes the muses of visceral realism, the beautiful Font sisters; their father, an architect interned in a Mexico City asylum; a sensitive young follower of Octavio Paz; a foul-mouthed American graduate student; a French girl with a taste for the Marquis de Sade; the great-granddaughter of Leon Trotsky; a Chilean stowaway with a mystical gift for numbers; the anorexic heiress to a Mexican underwear empire; an Argentinian photojournalist in Angola; and assorted hangers-on, detractors, critics, lovers, employers, vagabonds, real-life literary figures, and random acquaintances.

A polymathic descendant of Borges and Pynchon, Roberto Bolaño traces the hidden connection between literature and violence in a world where national boundaries are fluid and death lurks in the shadow of the avant-garde. The Savage Detectives is a dazzling original, the first great Latin American novel of the twenty-first century.]]> 577 Roberto Bolaño 0374191484 Rob 5 4.12 1998 The Savage Detectives
author: Roberto Bolaño
name: Rob
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2010/04/23
date added: 2010/04/30
shelves:
review:
A disappointing lack of detectives, but worthy of every last drop of praise it's received.
]]> <![CDATA[Violence: Six Sideways Reflections]]> 2638701 Philosopher, cultural critic, and agent provocateur Slavoj Žižek constructs a fascinating new framework to look at the forces of violence in our world.

Using history, philosophy, books, movies, Lacanian psychiatry, and jokes, Slavoj Žižek examines the ways we perceive and misperceive violence. Drawing from his unique cultural vision, Žižek brings new light to the Paris riots of 2005; he questions the permissiveness of violence in philanthropy; in daring terms, he reflects on the powerful image and determination of contemporary terrorists.

Violence, Žižek states, takes three forms--subjective (crime, terror), objective (racism, hate-speech, discrimination), and systemic (the catastrophic effects of economic and political systems)--and often one form of violence blunts our ability to see the others, raising complicated questions.

Does the advent of capitalism and, indeed, civilization cause more violence than it prevents? Is there violence in the simple idea of "the neighbour"? And could the appropriate form of action against violence today simply be to contemplate, to think?

Beginning with these and other equally contemplative questions, Žižek discusses the inherent violence of globalization, capitalism, fundamentalism, and language, in a work that will confirm his standing as one of our most erudite and incendiary modern thinkers.]]> 272 Slavoj Žižek 0312427182 Rob 4 own
I did feel like Zizek didn't really develop the idea that financial systems cause violence--I mean, I think he's right, but I felt that there was a gap in his book. He's also too offensive to receive five stars, but I really enjoyed reading him.]]> 3.90 2007 Violence: Six Sideways Reflections
author: Slavoj Žižek
name: Rob
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2008/09/30
date added: 2008/10/12
shelves: own
review:
I really enjoyed reading this book, and enjoy all of the mean things that Zizek has to say about violence and culture. I can't say that I agree with him to any great extent, but he has some lovely attacks on conventional liberalism.

I did feel like Zizek didn't really develop the idea that financial systems cause violence--I mean, I think he's right, but I felt that there was a gap in his book. He's also too offensive to receive five stars, but I really enjoyed reading him.
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