Some Books I've Noticed

Now that Thanksgiving weekend has finally come to a close, I have a bit of time to let you know about one or two odd and interesting books I've noticed lately. I happen to think that Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the more enjoyable books I've ever read, and I also loved reading about Kesey in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (which, by the way is fantastic if read back to back with Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels since the books tell essentially the same story but with different points of view and writing styles). So, I was rather intrigued when I came across Kesey's Jail Journal. It's a colorful amalgamation of collages, drawings, and text that he created during various stints behind bars over the course of thirty years.

Another interesting looking book is Six Feet Under: Better Living Through Death which is a companion book to the HBO series. I'm not a big fan of TV show companion books. They are nearly always hastily produced assemblages of screen captures and mind-numbingly idiotic text, but this one appears to break the mold a bit. The book isn't an episode guide; instead it meanders through various backstories in an appropriately eerie sort of way, with lots of odd photos and ephmera related to the show. In that sense it's interesting for what it is, but it's also a triumph in book design. The book slides into this odd, plastic, vertical slip cover that is faintly reminiscent of a coffin, and the book itself lacks a traditional spine, and instead appears to be a series of booklets artfully woven together.

Finally, I'm sure all the Mcsweeney's watchers have seen this item, which for me falls into the annoying "weird for the sake of being weird" category. Projects like William T. Vollman's Rising Up and Rising Down keep me interested, but it bugs me to see McSweeney's squandering the advantages they have over other independent publishers with so much forced silliness and ironic posturing.

- C. Max Magee @ 8:48 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Another Good List

Ms. Millions and myself are expecting a number of house guests for Thanksgiving, so there probably won't be much posting on the old blog for a few days. Luckily for you guys, though, I've brewed up a post chock-full of fascinating info for all of you. First off, Time Magazine columnist, Andrew Arnold put together a list of 25 best graphic novels of all time as part 2 of a series commemorating the 25th anniversary of the birth of the graphic novel, which, according to him (and many others), was the publication of Will Eisner's A Contract With God: And Other Testament Stories. I haven't read it but it's supposed to be incredible. At any rate, Arnold has put together a great list that includes a couple of my favorite books of all time. Here are the ones from the list that I have read.

• From Hell by Alan Moore was lent to me, forced on me really, by a friend of mine who is really into comic books. I was skeptical, but this one turned out to be pretty riveting. The art, especially, is magnificent: noirish fields of black create an ominous mood that permeates the story.
• Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware: This is one that really transcends the genre. When I read this, it made me wonder why people aren't making graphic novels out of everything all the time. There are so many stories out there that can be made fascinating by the artists' pen. Everyone should read this book.
• Maus Vols. 1 & 2 by Art Spiegelman: It's hard to put into words how incredible these books are. If anyone requires proof that the graphic novel medium, when wielded expertly, can bring more to the table than the plain old written word, then these books provide it. Reading Maus is an emotional experience, and I think a lot of that emotion comes from reading a tragic story rendered in a format that seems so innocent. Everyone should read these two books, too.
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud: I've talked about this book before. There is something about comics, about the format of comics, that makes them enchanting and that makes them peculiarly well-suited for telling stories. I had always just accepted this as fact, but McCloud decided to find out why, and the result is a phenomenal book -- itself a comic -- that is both illuminating and entertaining. I should also thank Scott for pointing me in the direction of this list via his blog.

More Mutis Mania

This is good. This is really good. I open my email today to find this email from friend and fellow Alvaro Mutis & Maqroll the Gaviero obssesive, Brian:

Man, oh, man, do I have some info for you! I was just casually glancing
through a copy of Video Store magazine, when you wouldn't believe what movie
I came across.... "Ilona Arrives with the Rain." Yep, apparently, it's a
Columbian film from 1996 that's billed as "A dangerous romance full of
international intrigue.... Based on the novel by award-winning Columbian
author Alvaro Mutis." Not sure if its really any good, but am still very
curious to see it. A DVD is being released by Facets, and Amazon has a
release date of December 16. Here's the link: Ilona Arrives With the Rain

I'll definitely be checking that one out.

More

My friend Edan, who loves cookbooks, wants everyone to know that Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World is a great new book by globe-trotting husband and wife team Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. And since we're talking about cooking, here's a quote from the book I'm reading right now:

"'Restaurants make lousy hobbies. You have to be obsessed and driven and completely out of your mind to own one.'
'But you had--'
'Two, yes. But Alice,' Pete said almost tenderly, 'I've been totally nuts my entire fucking life.'"

- C. Max Magee @ 6:33 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Sociable Histories

Mark Kurlansky is one of the primary practitioners of an interesting type of history book in which he takes a specific type of object or group of people and uses it as a lens through which he views history. Kurlansky has recently gained notoriety with three books that followed this sort of historical exploration: Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Salt: A World History, and The Basque History of the World, all of which are clever and very readable and which, with their success, have spawned a sort of cottage industry (see: The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World by Larry Zuckerman, Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization by Iain Gately, How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It by Arthur Herman, and many, many others.) Kurlansky, meanwhile, has a new book coming out that is a new twist on the one subject history book. It's called 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, and it's thesis is that 1968 was the year when the world grew up, so to speak. A book like this will probably be pretty fun for a couple of reasons: Kurlansky is a skilled writer and historian, who is sure to produce the sort of engaging history that is always a thrill to read; at the same time, it is always fun to take sides along the way when a writer decides to choose a such a specific thesis, one that will undoubtedly prove difficult to defend against claims of selective inclusion and omission of events in order to prove the point. I'm curious to see if he is able to pull it off.

- C. Max Magee @ 1:31 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Bubba Loves Books

As a fun little tie in with the opening of his presidential library in Little Rock, Bill Clinton released a list of his 21 favorite books. First off, I wonder if he would have gotten in trouble if he hadn't put Hillary's book on the list. And I suspect he included Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings because they are friends. Other interesting picks: He includes a presidential biography, Lincoln by David Herbert Donald, perhaps hoping that he, too, will someday be the subject of such a biography. Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study of Ethics and Politics by Reinhold Niebuhr seems like a pretty bold choice considering certain of Clinton's own, shall we say, indiscretions. But, alas, the book is about social justice more than anything else. Right up Clinton's alley. For the most part, though, it's a pretty good batch of books, and I must commend him for including one of my favorite books of all time, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Here's the full article and list.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:10 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

The Results Are In

Last night the winners of this year's National Book Awards were announced:

• Fiction: The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (I've got this book lying around somewhere, and I've been somewhat interested in reading it... and I'm still somewhat interested in reading it.)
• Non-Fiction: Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire (I was hoping that Gulag by Anne Applebaum would win. Of course, in these situations, I always want the book that I've read to win. It's more fun that way.)
• Poetry: The Singing by C.K. Williams (This is exciting. C.K. Williams has been one of my favorite poets for a very long time. Here's an anti-war poem of his called "The Hearth.")
• Young People's Literature: The Canning Season by Polly Horvath (I'm no expert on kid's books, but I'm actually pretty familiar with Horvath. A few years back I worked at an agency that repped the film and TV rights for a huge catalog of books. Polly Horvath's books were among them, and they were favorites around the office.)

Additional info: Past National Book Award Winners

Dexter Speaks

I found this great mini-profile of author Pete Dexter yesterday. It helps illuminate the qualities of his character that I was unable to quite describe in a post a while back about seeing him read. He is a very old-fashioned hard-nosed guy, a newspaper man. He's got a great sense of humor too. They sort of gloss over it in the article, but I think it's pretty remarkable that he's driving himself around the country for this book tour. He clearly enjoys doing that sort of thing. I do, however, happen to disagree with the remarks he makes about Stephen King and the American reading public. King himself admits that he has written several clunkers along the way, but he has also written some astoundingly good books that, given a little perspective years from now, will be thought of as some of the best books of our era. I know it's a bold statement, but think about how good The Stand, It, and The Shining are (just to pick a few of the many good books he's written). Just because he sells as many or more books than Tom Clancy or John Grisham doesn't mean he writes at their level. I also disagree with this: "The winner of a National Book Award argued that the reason John Grisham and James Patterson novels are so popular 'has something to do with our lack of attention span.'" Dexter mentioned this at the reading I attended with unironic and grave concern. It's true that millions of people read books by those authors, but I don't think that it's due to a lack of attention span. My theory is that people read the same types of formulaic books over and over again because it is comfortable. The vast majority of the people out there lead busy, stressful lives and they read for fun and for an escape. They don't have time to browse endlessly at bookstores seeking out a hidden gem. They don't want to risk buying a book that is unknown to them and that might not serve their needs, when there is a shelf full of books that they know with certainty will give them what they need. A lot of these same people would gladly be more adventurous readers if their lives permitted it, they just don't have the time or the money to support it. This is why all those polemical right-wing and left-wing books do so well even though they bring no new discussions to the table. This is why Jerry Bruckheimer movies do so well. It is an unfortunate fact that our modern lives do not typically leave room for the adventurous consumption of creativity, and to say that people consume all this stuff that is "bad" because they are deficient in some way misses the point entirely. (I know I made essentially the same point in a post last week, but I've had this idea on my mind a lot lately).

- C. Max Magee @ 1:36 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

It Begins

It's that time of year. "Best books of 2003" lists have begun to appear. So let's dive in: the editors over at Amazon have released their Best Books of 2003: Top 50 Editors' Picks list. According to them, the best book of the year is James Frey's addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces. I know a lot of people who read this book and really enjoyed it, but I personally am not a huge fan of addiction memoirs or messed-up-childhood memoirs. I think I find them to be too internal and personal, and I'm not usual that interested in getting up close and personal with someone I've never met. So, does it deserve to be named best book of the year? Maybe top 25, but not number 1. Some books that I actually did read and enjoyed that appear on this list: Moneyball by Michael Lewis, which my friend Patrick anointed "book of the year" months ago, comes in at #4. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem is #6, and Positively Fifth Street by James McManus is #9. Publisher's Weekly has a very interesting interview with one of Amazon's editors, who explains how this list was created, justifies the inclusion of certain titles, and comments on how relevant this list is to the prevailing tastes of the reading public. It's a good read.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:47 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Interesting Award

The Guardian has a story on an interesting literary award. The International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award starts out with nominations from 162 libraries all over the world, which makes for a huge and eclectic longlist. The list of nominations includes everything under the sun. Or you can check out which libraries in which countries like which books. It's sort of like a lesson in literary geography. Baudolino by Umberto Eco is apparently favored to win. Out of the three or four books on the list that I've read my favorite was probably The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster.

- C. Max Magee @ 1:18 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Bookspotting

When: Afternoon 11/16/03

Where: The Pig, a Bar B Q joint on La Brea Ave. In Los Angeles
Who: The woman behind the counter
What: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Description: "A comic, tragic masterpiece of an American family breaking down in an age of easy fixes, Franzen's third novel brings an old-time America into wild collision with the era of home surveillance and New Economy speculation. Winner of the National Book Award."

A Lingering Question
As much as I loved Crime and Punishment, it is refreshing to step away from Raskolnikov's paranoid world; however, I still have one unresolved question about the book... Towards the beginning, Raskolnikov has an encounter with a very drunk girl wandering in the street. At first he is protecting her from a predatory man lurking in the shadows, then a police officer shows up and Raskolnikov begins to antagonize him. It's a very odd scene that I assumed would have some significance later in the book, but as far as I could tell, the three characters never appear again and the incident is forgotten. Has anyone read the book recently? Does anyone remember this scene? Can anyone shed some light on why it is in the book and what it means... if I manage to figure it out on my own. I'll let you know.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:16 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Finally Finished

After more than a month of intense reading I've finally finished Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. As some of you may remember from a post a while back, this was my first serious excursion into the golden era of 19th century Russian fiction. After seeking the advice of several trusted fellow readers (aside: see how well it works! Make sure to Ask a Book Question if you ever find yourself in a similar predicament. We're here to help!) We collectively decided that C & P was the best place to start. I reacted to the book in a couple of different ways. My first reaction, from almost the very beginning, was that the book felt like a Dickens novel to me. I saw similarities in both the gothic overwrought characters and the lurking shady characters who alternately seemed for or against young Raskolnikov. The friendship between Raskolnikov and Razumikhin, in particular, reminded me of the friendship between Pip and Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations. Other similarities, I think, are structural. Both books were written serially, and as with Dickens, I looked forward to the cliffhanger at the end of each chapter which would ensure that readers would look forward to the next installment. When I read a book like this, it always occurs to me that it's too bad books aren't written that way any more. It seems like it would be a really fun way to read a book. (Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that Stephen King has experimented with this in recent years). My other reaction was how psychological and modern the book seemed. I never read this or any other Russian novels in school (not sure how that happened) so I had neither expectations nor preconceptions when I began. The book was, in its own verbose way, a very profound discussion of morality and power. More specifically, I was interested in the relationship between the power of murder and the power of wealth and social class. These themes were buried beneath layers of prose. The book seemed to be divided almost equally between action and Raskolnikov's internal monologue. It was very readable, but occasionally overwhelming. A final observation: the book is filled with events and real people drawn from real life in 1860s St. Petersburg. In the present day, as an established classic, it gives the book a historical context, but I couldn't help but think about how it must have appeared at the time of its publication. In this day and age, writers are often derided for relying too much on current events and pop culture. Critics claim the these books will lose their cultural significance as they become quickly dated. Yet, in C&P, Dostoyevsky's practice of referring to specific scandals and amusements that were the hot topics of conversation at the time serves to cement the book very specifically in a time and place and it manages to make the story feel real and complete. I should also mention that I really enjoyed the particular edition that I read. A multitude of informative notes augment the text, and the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky felt inventive and engaging. But now I am done, and I am looking forward to a change of pace. I've already embarked upon Jamesland by LA author Michele Huneven. The book club that I help run is reading it, and Huneven herself is planning to make an appearance at the end of our meeting so that she can answer our questions. Should be lots of fun.

- C. Max Magee @ 7:36 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

What People are Reading

In case you haven't been to your local drugstore and noticed that they removed all of the useful items to make way for Christmas decorations, the holidays are here. Here at The Millions headquarters we've got our turkey pan ready for a Thanksgiving feast. In fact, I see a lot of good food in my future... and of course the cruel flipside to all that eating is the horror of holiday shopping. There are articles coming out everywhere saying that this year's holiday season will be big, which must make retailers happy, but there probably won't be any rejoicing until they have the cash in hand. From my own limited observations, people already seem to be shopping for books this year, and with no clear "hot book gift" out there folks seem to be spreading the joy around, at least so far. So here's what I've spotted lately in the hands of eager book buyers:

In fiction Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code continues to sell at an ever-increasing rate. This sort of thing happens every couple of years, and it is pretty interesting to watch a new super-seller burst onto the scene backed by savvy marketing and a steamroller of word of mouth. Brown has now assuredly joined the ranks of John Grisham, Tom Clancy and the rest, and true to form his once forgotten backlist (Angels & Demons, for example, originally released in 2000 to no acclaim) has now hit bestseller lists. Almost like hitting the lottery. People also continue to buy some of the more bookish titles out there. I've already mentioned DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little which continues to sell well on the strength of its Booker Prize win, and Train an LA noir novel by Pete Dexter (which I really dug) is doing quite well also. The big newcomer, to my eyes, is Tobias Wolff whose first novel Old School (no relation) has hit shelves. There was an excerpt of this in the New Yorker way back a few months ago which I enjoyed, and people who have read a lot of his other work (the memoir and short stories) seem excited to read this new book. What is astonishing to me, though, is how big a literary name Wolff has become without, until now, having written a novel (in a day and age when readers supposedly only care about novels). I suppose this is a testament to the quality of his PEN/Faulkner Award-winning memoir This Boy's Life and his various short story collections (Back in the World for example).

Fiction is all well and good, but when people buy books as gifts, four times out of five they buy non-fiction. The reason: you don't have to have read the book to know what you're getting; Madeleine Albright's memoir is Madeleine Albright's memoir, but who knows what sordid scenes lurk in the middle of The World According to Garp. Of course one of the current big sellers, The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1970-1980, is full of sordid middle parts, but I think the folks giving and receiving that one know what they're getting into. Meanwhile, in less sordid waters, the ranting Left continues to redouble its efforts against the ranting Right with Michael Moore's sure-fire bestseller Dude, Where's My Country?. Another big seller right now is a book that I can't wait to read, Living to Tell the Tale the first volume of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' memoirs. Once I get to it, I'm sure I'll talk about it a lot here. Artist David Hockney's new book Hockney's People is also selling well. It's a collection of his portraits, both of himself and of his various friends and lovers. I'm not a huge fan of Hockney, but I like his portraits; they tend to be warm and interesting.

Paperbacks, meanwhile, are not big sellers during the holidays, which is why I don't have much to report on this front. The only serious paperback that has been selling really well of late is Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays, which is probably piggy-backing the success of her recent memoir/family history Where I Was From. The other big selling paperbacks are destined for stocking stuffer status, which I'm sure is just what their authors hoped for. Try Russ Kick's 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know for your paranoid relatives and Michael Flocker's The Metrosexual Guide to Style for the trendy, sexually ambiguous ones.

Extravagant Gift Alert: Have you seen this!?!?! How can something so silly be so expensive and.... huge (it weighs 20 lbs.!). Now if that isn't nearly expensive or heavy enough, try this one... Still not enough? Try the "Champion's Edition". These heavyweights weigh in at 75lbs, by the way.

- C. Max Magee @ 1:13 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Ask A Book Question: The Tenth in a Series: (Me no habla espanol)

Brian needs our help:

max - the new Gabriel Garcia Marquez [Living to Tell the Tale] and Alvaro Mutis [The Mansion & Other Stories] books have gotten me interested in Spanish-speaking writers... throw the question up on your blog re: which is the best mario vargas llosa novel, which is the best one to start with, etc... also, julio cortazar... any
recommendations?

So, my experience with Spanish speaking writers is pretty much limited to Garcia Marquez, Mutis, and Borges. My question that I would add to Brian's question is: are there any other literary masters that come from the Latin American or Spanish tradition. For myself, I am just glad that I have saved a couple of Garcia Marquez's books to read so that I can forestall the inevitable sense of loss that I will feel once I have read everything he has written. As a side note, until now, I hadn't ever really thought about just how bittersweet it is reading everything by a beloved author. But anyway, folks, anyone out there who can help on this... please chime in and give us some advice by using the comments below.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:25 AM ~ comments: 2 ~ Links to this post

 

Bookspotting (Airports of America Edition)

Airports and airplanes are a great place to go bookspotting. They are also a great place to confirm that the bestseller lists aren't lying. In fact, it sort of made me realize that there should be two different categories of bestseller lists: one for people who buy less than fifteen books a year and one for people who buy more. The vast majority of people fall into that first category, and when you realize this, you realize why the publishing industry isn't very different from other entertainment industries. If people have a certain finite number of movies that they will be able to see in a given year given constraints on time and money, I think they will be less likely to take a risk on an unproven independent instead of a known quantity like one of the Matrix movies (maybe this is why sequels do so well.) The same is true of video games and any other form of entertainment that can be consumed as a unit. Therefore it makes sense that authors like John Grisham and Stephen King and many bestselling authors of lesser talent have such a strong repeat business. Readers who don't have the time or inclination to seek out risky books will therefore prefer to purchase books that they ALREADY know that they will enjoy. (This theory, by the way, also explains why political rant books do so well, no matter how absurd they seem to some people). So, I like to test this theory of book consumption when I travel, because airports and airplanes are the one place where people who do not have the time or inclination to read regularly read for lack of any better way to pass the time. Here's what I spotted:

Buffalo Niagara International Airport:

• Hide & Seek by James Patterson: "Maggie Bradford is one of the most beloved singer/songwriters anywhere. She's also the devoted mother of two children. She seems to have it all. And so, how could she have murdered not just one, but two of her husbands? With unrelenting suspense, James Patterson answers that question."
• The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank: "As it explores the life lessons of Jane, the contemporary American Everywoman--who combines the charm of Bridget Jones, the vulnerability of Ally McBeal, and the wit of Lorrie Moore--The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing offers wise, poignant, and laugh-out-loud insight."
• Q Is for Quarry by Sue Grafton: "The #1 "New York Times" bestseller, based on an unsolved homicide that occurred in 1969, is now available in paperback. Revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer."
• A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry: "With the compassionate realism of Dickens and a narrative sweep worthy of Balzac, this internationally acclaimed novel draws an unforgettable portrait of the cruelty and corruption, kindness and heroism of India. Set in 1975, A Fine Balance follows the destinies of four strangers who are forced to share a cramped apartment in an unnamed city by the sea."
• Krakatoa by Simon Winchester: "From the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World comes an examination of the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the world's most dangerous volcano--Krakatoa."

Detroit Wayne County:

• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: "In her most highly acclaimed book to date, Kingsolver presents a compelling exploration of religion, conscience, imperialist arrogance, and the many paths to redemption, telling the story of an American missionary and his family in the Congo in 1959."
• The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle: "According to Tolle, accessing the deepest self, the true self, can be learned by freeing ourselves from the conflicting, unreasonable demands of the mind and living 'present, fully and intensely, in the Now.'"

Los Angeles International

• The Testament by John Grisham: "This 'compulsory page-turner' journeys deep into the halls of justice--and the rain forests of Brazil. An eccentric billionaire leaves his fortune to his illegitimate daughter, a Christian missionary in Brazil. Rachel stands to inherit $11 billion, but only if attorney Nate O'Reilly can find her."
• Four Blind Mice by James Patterson: "Alex Cross is plunged into a case where military codes of honor conceal dark currents of revenge and ambition, and the men controlling the moves have the best weapons and training the world can offer."
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling: "In the richest installment yet of J. K. Rowling's seven-part story, Harry Potter confronts the unreliability of the very government of the magical world, and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts. Despite this (or perhaps because of it) Harry finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty and unbearable sacrifice. Though thick runs the plot (as well as the spine), readers will race through these pages, and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next train back."

So, there you have it, a small, but interesting cross-section of what the American casual reader is reading right now. Some is good and some is bad, but it's nice to see so many people reading in one place.

- C. Max Magee @ 1:07 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Shuffling off

I'm going to Buffalo for a wedding this weekend, so you may not hear from me for a couple of days. But if you are in dire need of something to read in the intervening time, allow me to make a suggestion, or two. Most people have read one or two books by Kurt Vonnegut, and most people enjoy them. Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Cat's Cradle are probably the most widely read Vonnegut books. Most folks enjoy those books, and then never read any Vonnegut again. This is a big mistake! There are number of other amazing Vonnegut books, so allow me to present to you the best of the rest (along with brief descriptions): The Sirens of Titan ("The richest and most depraved man on Earth takes a wild space journey to distant worlds, learning about the purpose of human life along the way."); Galapagos ("A small group of apocalypse survivors stranded on the Galapagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave new human race."); Hocus Pocus ("A small, exclusive college in upstate New York is nestled along the frozen shores of Lake Mohiga... and directly across from a maximum-security prison. The two institutions manage to coexist peacefully, until 10,000 prisoners break out and head directly for the college."); Welcome to the Monkey House ("This collection of Vonnegut's short masterpieces share his audacious sense of humor and extraordinary creative vision."); and finally God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater ("Eliot Rosewater, drunk, volunteer fireman, and president of the fabulously rich Rosewater foundation, is about to attempt a noble experiment with human nature... with a little help from writer Kilgore Trout.")

- C. Max Magee @ 1:43 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Ask A Book Question: The ninth in a Series: (A Classic of Self-discovery)

Hey folks, another question, which made me recall one of my favorite books. Maybe I should reread this one some time soon. Here ya go:

Salvatore Nicholas Mastropaolo writes:
What is the "story Line" of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha?

I THANK YOU-

Well, I thank you for writing in Sal. Herman Hesse wrote Siddhartha in 1922, and it was not considered one of his best books at the time. Hesse went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946, and then sometime after World War II, coinciding perhaps with the rise in popularity of Beat literature, people began to appreciate Siddhartha's message of self-discovery. By the 1970s Siddhartha had been fully resurrected from obscurity has since been considered an essential as both a book about mysticism and a coming of age story. Though Siddhartha was originally taught in schools as a fictional window into Eastern religions and philosophies, it is now used as an example of the Western view of those traditions. Aside from all that though, it is a terrific little book about a spiritual journey. The story line? How about this: "A young Indian mystic, a contemporary of Buddha, sacrifices everything to search for the true meaning of life." But don't take my word for it! It's a fantastic book and a quick and unchallenging read that's worth far more than the time it takes to read it. Most folks out there have read Siddhartha. Any thoughts? Use the comment button below.

- C. Max Magee @ 11:33 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Book Clubbin'

Last night myself and my friend Edan were the facilitators for the first installment of a new book club at the book store where I work. It was the first time either of us had ever been in a book club, and I think we both had a good time. Last night we discussed The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem. After a few minutes of polite discussion, it came out that half the people in attendance strongly disliked the book, which made for some excellent debate. As best as I could tell, the dislike for the book is a part of the backlash against the "virtuoso perfomances" of young writers of late, who, according to certain readers, are over-writing in order to produce a novel that is "big" and masterful. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen are two examples of this trend that came up during our discussion. I, on the other hand, am relatively lenient in my feelings about this book at least in part because I have always rather enjoyed the over-written modern novel, John Irving (see The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, and A Prayer for Owen Meany) and T. C. Boyle (see The Tortilla Curtain, World's End, and Water Music) being among my favorite practitioners. The question now is: what do we read for next month?

- C. Max Magee @ 11:32 AM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post

 

Ask A Book Question: The eighth in a Series: (Books for Li'l Einsteins)

I hope everyone had a good Halloween. Here in Southern California, it decided to rain for the first time in about six months, bad for outdoor costume parties (like the one I attended), but good for quelling forest fires. Now the rain is gone and the sun is back and I'm pleased to announce the return of Ask a Book Question. Ms. Frizzle has written in with a challenging and interesting question:

I like reading popular science books like Genome by Matt Ridley, Best Science Writing of..., The Botany of Desire, Red-Tails in Love, etc. I teach middle school students who read on a much lower level than I do and have far less science background. I'd like to find books like the ones above, but written for 10-15 year olds. Suggestions? I already know about science
picture books by Seymour Simon,Gail Gibbons, and others... I'm looking for something in between.

After reading Ms. Frizzle's question, I stepped into my wayback machine to see if I was reading anything interesting about science when I was eleven. Aside from reminding me how dorky my glasses looked, my eleven-year-old self, while very interested in science, appeared to read only Hardy Boys books and would turn to his set of Golden Books encyclopedias when looking to read about something scientific. Not very helpful. Sadly, it appears that things haven't changed much since I was in middle school, and there remains a huge void somewhere in the middle of the wealth of popular science books for adults, the wealth of science-related picture books, and the wealth of science textbooks of which I'm sure Ms. Frizzle is well acquainted. Nonetheless, I did my best to come up with some makeshift recommendations (in three parts). First: As I scanned through various titles, I noticed that there are tons of picture books about science for little kids, but I also noticed that some of them are complex enough and advanced enough to hold the interest of older kids. By far the best one that I came across is a brand new book called The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by author and illustrator Peter Sis. Sis uses Darwin's copious journals as a jumping off point for a multi layered narrative full of exquisitely rendered maps and charts and illustrations. Sis does a good job of keeping the text at a challenging but not impossible level, and the book is so densely packed with informative eye-candy that it probably would keep an eleven or twelve year old interested. Second: I thought that maybe some of those really good, really engaging science books for adults might work for younger teenagers. They probably couldn't handle the books on their own, but perhaps taking some excerpts from these books would be useful. My pick in this category would be Longitude by Dava Sobel because it has a good narrative that sticks to solving a single problem (how to calculate longitude) and it includes a fair amount of drama on the high seas. I also thought that the books of Gerald Malcolm Durrell might also serve this purpose well. Both My Family and Other Animals and A Zoo in My Luggage are about growing up fascinated by the flora and fauna around him. Maybe some of these kids will see themselves in the young Durrell. Third: Sadly, I was only able to find one measly book written for this age group about a scientific subject, but at least it's a pretty good one. I think kids will always be fascinated by Jane Goodall and the idea of living with chimps. Luckily she wrote a book for all those kids called My Life with the Chimpanzees. Finally, I should also mention the really cool Way Things Work series by David Macaulay. There are lots of entertaining illustrations that show the inner-workings of household objects from can openers to computers, a must for future inventors. The most recent installment is called The New Way Things Work.

Ms. Frizzle: I hope this helped. Everyone else: hurry up and write some good science books for kids; they need them, and also, make sure you check out Ms. Frizzle's blog about being a middle-school teacher in the Bronx.

More Grossman

Brian, who loves getting mentioned on The Millions, sent me a link to the New York Times' glowing review of Edith Grossman's translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote.

- C. Max Magee @ 9:48 PM ~ comments: 0 ~ Links to this post