My Favorite Stuff in 2024

I spent the last 18 months in Singapore, where my wife is originally from, and where her parents and siblings live.  Now that I think about it, in a meta way, my best thing of 2024 would have to be living in Singapore for the whole year.  It was incredible (and I highly recommended) living in a different city / country for a while so you can look back at your usual life with fresh & broader perspectives.  Of course, the food was amazing, and the traveling to other SE Asian countries was fantastic.  Working remote on U.S. hours meant I was usually working from 9pm-4am (plus some other odd hours), which allowed me to have some more free time during the middle of the day while kids were still at school.  I got in a great rhythm of picking up my youngest from her kindergarten class at noon each day by talking a long walk in the hot sun / tropical rain while I listened to podcasts, sat and read, or caught Phoenix Suns games.  Anyways, I managed to consume / experience a lot of great stuff throughout the year, and I thought I'd share my favorites.  

(This is not an official list of the best new releases in the calendar year, but mostly things that I enjoyed during the year.)

Best Music

• Fleet Foxes - I went on a big kick at some point early in the year after getting one of their old familiar song stuck in my head.  Then the rabbit hole went deeper and deeper and I listened to all their stuff over and over, and also got inspired to do some guitar and singing of their songs, though I became painfully aware of how not high my voice is able to go.  The album, 'Shore' (2020) is a masterpiece, and it has a great hour-long YouTube movie thing to go along with it.  I enjoyed watching some of their live material on YouTube which also led me to their 'Live on Boston Harbor' (2024) performance and accompanying album.  Transcendent stuff.  I've really taken to live performances lately as there's something about the human achievement aspect that I love witnessing. 
• Alan Sparhawk - 'White Roses, My God' (2024) - With the tragic passing of his wife and musical partner, Mimi, Alan Sparhawk was able to put out an excellent solo project. Very stylistic album with a lot of muffled, voice-filtered vocals
• Bob Dylan - 'Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series' (1980-1985) - I discovered a clip on YouTube of Bob Dylan singing "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight" with Mark Knopfler on guitar ,and the veteran ease of their skillful jamming really drew me in.  Then I checked out the Bootleg album and really dug it, listening on repeat for a while.  
• The Smile - 'Cutouts' (2024) - Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood continue to put out incredible music, adding to their percussive and guitar complexity with each new project.  The song, "Eyes & Mouth" is an amazing specimen of what modern, understated guitar solos can be.  It makes me a little less grumpy about the disappearance of rock-out solos in today's music.  
• Sufjan Stevens - 'Come on Feel the Illinoise!' (2005) - After not listening at all for maybe 15 years, I had an excellent experience putting on the headphones and enjoying the album from start to finish in one sitting.  I hope to have the experience again in 15 more years.  
• Taylor Swift - 'THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT' (2024) - It's super mainstream to like Taylor Swift, but I have to acknowledge the skill in her music.  This album and her last one, 'Midnights', really appeal to me.  Great beats, perfect sound-mixing, and her skillful songwriting and confident singing all combine to make quality music.  

Best Tweet

Best Books

I'm proud to say that I supper upped my reading game in 2024.  I'm surrounded by a bunch of readers in my family, so that helps.  But also, as I mentioned earlier, I had time everyday to sit on the playground while my daughter played with her classmates.  And I found physical books to be a great way to force myself to get away from my phone, and to give my eyes a chance to rest from the bright screen.

• Earthsea Series - Ursula Le Guin - Wow.  I'm so glad my wife hipped me to this series.  A different kind of wizards and dragons saga.  I love the sacredness of language throughout the books.  The characters have so much wisdom and courage.  I hope to read the books again.  
• Exhalation - Ted Chiang - Super cool sci-fi short stories.  There was one fascinating story about a middle-aged father and his college graduate daughter and how the dad misremembers things that are so fundamental to their relationship that it had me feeling floored about how my own relationships might be skewed in my version of events. He spliced this story with a tribal story about people that don’t write words (don't even have a word for “word”) and allow their truth to shift based on what feels right. 
• Dune Series (Books 2-4) - Frank Herbert - I decided to properly read Dune Messiah--I had previously only audiobooked it--and it opened up some new views on the book to me.  Then I got to discussing the book with my cousin which I so thoroughly enjoyed that I decided to keep going in the series and to do a bit of a long-distance book club with my cousin.  The series got me thinking about the difference between villains and heroes, the difficulty of knowing the past ("The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you."), and the different strengths of men vs. women.  And I generally love a good hero's journey story. 
• Underland - Robert Macfarlane - I had audibooked this before, but the allure and mythos of the world beneath our feet drew me back in.  His writing is amazing and his accounts transport me out into the great outdoors.  

Best TV

• Shogun - Episodes 1-6 or so were riveting and fresh.  It started to drag a bit toward the end for Val and me, but it was overall a great show.
• 3-Body Problem - Good SciFi show.
• Better Call Saul - I rewatched this whole show.  It's a masterpiece.  It works for me like a great literary classic, like a Dostoevsky novel where I'm seeing the raging conflict in the characters and how the law is imposing its will.
• Lost - Now that the show has run its course I thought I'd try revisiting it.  Season 1 especially, and 2 to a slightly lesser extent, are incredible TV.  Emotional, philosophically fascinating, and revolutionary for the genre.  Seasons 3 through 4 (where I am now) slow down a bit but there are some real gems in there too.  I have the benefit of seeing which episodes are worth skipping.  I'm interested to see if I can make sense of the finale when it comes to that.   

Best Movies

• Dune - A lot of Dune in my lists, but this movie was awesome.  The cliche term of "visual storytelling" is right on the nose for what Denis Villenuve is doing with this project.  Coupling the reading of the books with the watching of these movies has been a thrill for me.  I love the complicated hero arc we get with Paul Atreides.  
• The Taste of Things - This was one of those rare experiences where I was really glad we watched a non-blockbuster movie in the theater.  Val and I were transported as soon as there was a 20-minute or so wordless opening scene of a small cooking team preparing a decadent meal for a fancy 19th century feast.  
• Furiosa - I saw this on the airplane.  I loved the Dementis character.  For having the appearance of a sand-dune gear-head movie about violence and fast cars, there was actually a lot of plot depth about being trapped into your harsh circumstances.  

Best Games

• Crew - A card game that draws on principles of trick-taking games like bridge, but makes it collaborative and gives you 50 different missions that build up in difficulty, and adds other interesting curveballs like "broken communications".  4 of us tracked our score on completing all 50 missions over the course of a few months and had a great time doing it.
• Dune - My brother-in-law bought this 1960's game for us to play as a group of 6.  It is INTENSE.  You become one of 6 factions (Atreides, Bene Gesserit, Harkonnen, etc.) and you can form alliances and bargain while you try to get a majority of the 5 strongholds on the board while avoiding the great sandstorms and harvesting spice and on-worlding enough troops to engage in battles.  We played twice and it took us like 5 or 6 hours each time.  
• Tetris (Game Boy) - 2024 was a great year for me as my brother and I reached new heights of accomplishments, particularly in B-type play.

In Defense of Audiobooks - Part V

The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot (Laura Paton) (4 stars)

This one came as a “favorite all-time book” recommendation from my most trusted book recommender, Val.  It’s a British author from the 1800’s, and it’s written in a very British tone/perspective, and it references very British landscapes, vocabulary, and culture.  (And the narration was spot-on.)  The name George Eliot is actually a male alias for a female writer whose real name now escapes me.  When I learned that about a quarter of the way through it came as a bigger shock to me than it probably should have.  I didn't think more or less of the story; it just made me see things differently, right or wrong.

It’s my kind of writing – a simple, but high-stakes plot, the right dose of creative writing and similes, and a nice element of human observation that comes from the brightest minds from the best writers of each era.  Some of the scenes are still vividly present with me, and will probably recur with me as a real-life scene or experience jogs my memory every now and again.

Book 2: School-Time; Chapter 2: The Christmas Holidays

"Fine old Christmas, with the snowy hair and ruddy face, had done his duty that year in the noblest fashion, and had set off his rich gifts of warmth and color with all the heightening contrast of frost and snow.

Snow lay on the croft and river-bank in undulations softer than the limbs of infancy; it lay with the neatliest finished border on every sloping roof, making the dark-red gables stand out with a new depth of color; it weighed heavily on the laurels and fir-trees, till it fell from them with a shuddering sound; it clothed the rough turnip-field with whiteness, and made the sheep look like dark blotches; the gates were all blocked up with the sloping drifts, and here and there a disregarded four-footed beast stood as if petrified “in unrecumbent sadness”; there was no gleam, no shadow, for the heavens, too, were one still, pale cloud; no sound or motion in anything but the dark river that flowed and moaned like an unresting sorrow. But old Christmas smiled as he laid this cruel-seeming spell on the outdoor world, for he meant to light up home with new brightness, to deepen all the richness of indoor color, and give a keener edge of delight to the warm fragrance of food; he meant to prepare a sweet imprisonment that would strengthen the primitive fellowship of kindred, and make the sunshine of familiar human faces as welcome as the hidden day-star. His kindness fell but hardly on the homeless,—fell but hardly on the homes where the hearth was not very warm, and where the food had little fragrance; where the human faces had had no sunshine in them, but rather the leaden, blank-eyed gaze of unexpectant want. But the fine old season meant well; and if he has not learned the secret how to bless men impartially, it is because his father Time, with ever-unrelenting unrelenting purpose, still hides that secret in his own mighty, slow-beating heart."

The story revolves around the Tulliver family, primarily on the children, Maggie and Tom, and somewhat on the parents, as well as on their family relations, who inject some humor into the story as well as serve for a platform for societal commentary. Maggie is a fascinating character, genuinely desiring to do what is right, but somehow unable to gratify all those she loves that surround her because of their various competing interests.

My only real complaint with it was that for being a subdued British novel with a simple plot, sometimes the drama was actually too overt for me.  With its slow buildup and fantastic character development I would become really invested in the characters and their struggles, but then Stephen Guest or Philip Wachum, or her brother Tom would do things that just seemed too dramatic and inconceivable to me.  I would actually get angry at the characters for being so rash/inconsiderate/etc -- perhaps that's actually the mark of a good book.  But this anger was more irritation, whereas in, for example, 'Angle of Repose', my anger was more sadness and compassion.

Book 1: Boy and Girl; Chapter 3: Mr. Riley Gives His Advice Concerning a School for Tom

"The entrance of supper opportunely adjourned this difficulty, and relieved Mr. Riley from the labor of suggesting some solution or compromise,–a labor which he would otherwise doubtless have undertaken; for, as you perceive, he was a man of very obliging manners. And he had really given himself the trouble of recommending Mr. Stelling to his friend Tulliver without any positive expectation of a solid, definite advantage resulting to himself, notwithstanding the subtle indications to the contrary which might have misled a too-sagacious observer. For there is nothing more widely misleading than sagacity if it happens to get on a wrong scent; and sagacity, persuaded that men usually act and speak from distinct motives, with a consciously proposed end in view, is certain to waste its energies on imaginary game.

Plotting covetousness and deliberate contrivance, in order to compass a selfish end, are nowhere abundant but in the world of the dramatist: they demand too intense a mental action for many of our fellow-parishioners to be guilty of them. It is easy enough to spoil the lives of our neighbors without taking so much trouble; we can do it by lazy acquiescence and lazy omission, by trivial falsities for which we hardly know a reason, by small frauds neutralized by small extravagances, by maladroit flatteries, and clumsily improvised insinuations. We live from hand to mouth, most of us, with a small family of immediate desires; we do little else than snatch a morsel to satisfy the hungry brood, rarely thinking of seed-corn or the next year's crop."

Macbeth (Smartpass Audio) – William Shakespeare (Joan Walker et al) (5 stars)
Hamlet (Smartpass Audio) – William Shakespeare (Joan Walker et al) (4 stars)


For whatever reason I’m experiencing a Shakespeare awakening at this stage of my life.  I’ve recently very much enjoyed seeing plays like ‘Henry IV’ at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre (with a virtuoso Falstaff performance by Stacy Keach), or watching the modern interpretation black-and-white film of ‘Much Ado About Nothin’ by Joss Whedon (‘Avengers’)).  And, in addition to all that, discovering these Smartpass Audio audiobook performances has really upped my appreciation a few notches.

The basic idea is that the lead narrator, Joan Walker, opens up the play with 20 minutes or so of historical context, the play’s significance, the different versions and styles the play has taken on over the years, etc.  Then we listed to a prerecorded performance of a troupe of actors performing the play with the lead narrator pausing the production every 30 seconds or so to both clarify what is being said as well as to guide you along with clues and things to focus on / look out for.  As an example, in Hamlet when King Claudius so lengthily introduces Gertrude she explains that this is called a ‘euphuism’ and is typical of Claudius’ way of speaking so ornately, burying the content of his speech at the end of what he has to say.  Another example is how she clues the listener in to the instances when Claudius refers to Hamlet as ‘our’ son (royal we), or ‘our’ son (jointly with Gertrude), or ‘my’ son, or ‘your’ son as the message suits his purposes.  One final example I’ll share is how she points out Hamlet’s different modes of speech like rhyme or prose or freeform to point out 1) the distinction in the various circumstances, but more importantly, 2) how he’s symbolically losing control of his life as his speech degrades at times and he can’t always summon his princely speech when circumstances dictate he ought to.

It was also interesting to learn the historical context of these two plays, and some of the new methods that Shakespeare was introducing to the world of plays.  I believe in the case of both of these plays that they were partially true stories of heretical kingly succession with some of the side characters (e.g. Banquo) given more prominent roles or other various facts twisted to flatter the then-current ruling king or queen and/or suit a story that Shakespeare preferred to tell.  Additionally, to stage a play such that the scenes didn’t all take place in the same location and true to the measure of time as we know it in the real world was apparently revolutionary (or, as the Smartpass audio guide would say, “revolution-ry”), and would have stretched the audience’s minds a considerable amount.  This is not, however, to say that they were a less intellectual bunch back then as far as plays and stories go.  According to the Smartpass folks, the audiences back then had a keen and facile understanding of oral stories and would have likely more easily understood Shakespeare’s plots and references, and even his jokes.

Not a lot needs to be said that hasn’t been said already about the stories themselves.  The speeches and the lines and the character development are all excellent.


Note that this recent Shakespeare fanaticism also led me to Netflick the 1996 Kenneth Branaugh version of ‘Hamlet’, which was kind of a disappointment.  Even though some scenes just didn’t feel right I was still trying to be positive about it throughout the 4-hour movie, but then when Billy Crystal played the role of ‘First Gravedigger’ in a British/unintentional-New York accent my disappointment was too much to overcome.  2 stars for that one.

Green Hills of Africa - Ernest Hemingway (Josh Lucas) (4 stars)

An autobiographical novel about Hemingway's excursion to Africa to hunt the greater kudu bull (among other big game), I was turned onto this book because of i) my general affinity for Hemingway literature, and ii) a desire to extend and enhance a recent, more peaceable trip of my own to Africa for game drives in Kenya.

I enjoyed the romantic writing approach regarding the animals his party was after, their interactions with the local tribes, and the landscape in general; though that can get a little tiresome if you, like me, aren't so fanatical about the thrill of hunting.  Fortunately, there is a dash of side stories & observations (though not many) in this book that keep it interesting.  Most notably for me was the account of the Austrian that he runs into on one of his all-day hunts.  They sit down to eat -- meat and alcohol probably -- and the Austrian quizzes him on international poetry and asks searching questions on what it takes to be a good writer.  Hemingway is irritated, but obliges.  You get the sense it's kind of like asking a concert pianist to play a bit of Schubert -- it's not something that 'masters' can lightly step in and out of, and requires psychological exercise.  Anyway, to the casual reader like myself, he offers some very interesting commentary on who were the good writers and who were crap, and what made the distinction.  To literary circles back home, and academia in general, I'm sure this ruffled some feathers.

"Writers should work alone. They should see each other only after their work is done, and not too often then. Otherwise they become like writers in New York. All angleworms in a bottle, trying to derive knowledge and nourishment from their own contact and from the bottle."

But then he gets back to the hunting and the beautiful nature that surrounded him.  There were some great passages about man, animals, nature, etc.  In some degree it brought me back to those Kenyan sunset jeep-drives where it felt like we were gliding along the grass and earth, with the wind-resistance rushing against you as you stand up--much like the sensation of driving the boat back to camp after the day's last waterski run--with our necks craned back in awe of the enormous sky with its billowing clouds forming a ring that looked like it could turn the universe in on itself.

Here he remarks about one of his kills in a way only he could:

"It was a huge, beautiful kudu bull, stone-dead, on his side, his horns in great dark spirals, wide-spread and unbelievable as he lay dead…. I looked at him, big, long-legged, a smooth gray with the white stripes and the great, curling, sweeping horns, brown as walnut meats, and ivory pointed, at the big ears and the great, lovely heavy-maned neck the white chevron between his eyes…. He was lying on the side where the bullet had gone in and there was not a mark on him and he smelled sweet and lovely like the breath of cattle and the odor of thyme after rain."

Note: This 1935 NYT book review is some great writing in and of itself.  He makes some fair criticisms of the book.

In Defense of Audiobooks - Part IV

Link to Part I
Link to Part II
Link to Part III

The Agony and the Ecstasy – Irving Stone (Arthur Morey) (5 stars)

A masterpiece story about a masterpiece artist.  The story of a man who wanted to do one thing his whole life more than just about any person has ever wanted to do any one thing.  Had I not read this story I might not have known that Michelangelo’s true love was never painting, but sculpting.   That’s not to say, however, that whenever he found himself with a commission to paint he didn’t commit his whole soul and energy into it.

If you’re interested in finding a good self-help book on career advice, I think this story has a lot of it implicit in the approach and dedication of Michelangelo.  When, due to political circumstances, he was tempted by others to walk away from the black-hole project that was the painting of the Sisteen Chapel, he explained to his friend, Sangallo, that he couldn’t walk away because he would despise himself.  “I need my complete self-respect...  Once let me know that I can be content with inferior work, and as an artist I’m through.”

I enjoyed gaining insight into the minds of artists and tradesmen.  It was enjoyable to hear the recurring debate over the superiority of painting or sculpture, and what the artist is able to express through the different mediums.  Michelangelo always preferred sculpture but he couldn’t always put it into words except by waxing poetic about it, and this frustrated him when people like Da Vinci presented a more compelling case for the superiority of painting. 

For me, the climax of the story is shortly following the completion of the radical sculpture project, ‘The David’.  Yes, his life was marked by agony and ecstasy, but each project he undertook was also a microcosm of the competing emotions, and even the marble itself underwent the former to achieve the latter.  And the contest of these two emotions was eminently noticeable in the undertaking of ‘The David’.  It was reviled by many, mostly for being nude, but also for being outsized and ostentatious.  At one point the completed statue was even felled by rock hurlers such that one of the original arms broke off.  When the statue was finally given a permanent place in Florence it was almost exhilarating to see Michelangelo find it the next morning with handwritten notes about it, uncertain as to the tone of the notes, but eventually relieved and emotional to find that they were notes of praise.  “You have given us back our self-respect.”  “How magnificent is man.”  “Never can they tell me man is vile – he is the proudest creature on earth.”

The writing by Irving Stone is also very good.  To write history in such an imaginative and descriptive way is quite a feat, and it makes the reader the better for being able to remember the details in this way.  Some examples of his near-poetic writing: “…No, because he felt that each new piece he carved had to break through the existing conventions – achieve something fresh and different.  Bregno moved his jaws in a chewing movement as through trying to pulverize this concept with his teeth.”  And elsewhere, “She laughed the soft musical tone that dissipated the last of the day’s humiliation.”

One of the reinforcing lessons to me personally from this book is that I love art.  I’m so glad at its existence, and for the variety it adds to life, and the difference of perspective it provides.  I was inspired by Michelangelo to see that even at the end of his life, with all the hardships and poverty he had endured, he wanted to extend his life, or even live it a second time.  And that his body of work remained genuine and impressive throughout his entire life.  “The forces of destruction never overcame creativity.”

At Home: A Short History of Private Life – Bill Bryson (Bill Bryson) (4 stars)

If you want to know about the progression from cave dwellings to mud huts to halls to two-story homes to basically Downton Abbey this is a great book.  Oh, and if you also want to learn everything about everything while you’re at it, this is the book for you. 

Bill Bryson takes the reader on a guided tour of a proper English-style home and stops at each room, nook, and appliance to expound on the origin and purpose of each component.  It’s actually very fascinating, and a lot more entertaining than one might think from the sounds of it.  You’ll be learning about the introduction of light into homes and that will take you on a series of expositions ranging from what life was like when people lived in the dark (did they go to bed when the lights went out?  Answer: not really), to how difficult it was to clean out kerosene lamps, to how main sources of power were kerosene, then whale oil, then natural gas, then electricity (I may have missed some parts of the succession.  Did bat guano belong in that list, or was that an altogether different chapter?), to a discussion of Benjamin Franklin’s misunderstood contributions to various inventions as well as his personality.  If you can keep up it’s a fascinating ride.

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (John Lee) (4 stars)

This is an intense read.  You had better keep your Buendia family tree handy as well as bookmark the link to the book’s “sparknotes” on your iPhone.  The creative and disjointed writing style reminded me a lot of Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’.  I suppose one reason why I probably preferred this book to that is that the Latin American culture/history is more accessible to me than is that of India, so when he writes about the firing squads and the massacres it somehow resonates a bit more. 

This is the kind of book that I wouldn’t have had much luck with without the help of sparknotes.com.  For example, I learned things like the following through reading the notes in step with my progression in the book:

García Márquez’s style of writing is commonly referred to as magical realism, which describes, among other things, the way historical events are colored by subjectivity and memory is given the same weight as history. One easily identifiable trait of magical realism is the way in which mundane, everyday things are mingled with extraordinarily wonderful, or even supernatural, things. In Chapter 2, as José Arcadio is seduced by Pilar Ternera, we learn that “he could no longer resist the glacial rumbling of his kidneys and the air of his intestines, and the bewildered anxiety to flee and at the same time stay forever in that exasperated silence and that fearful solitude.” Here, García Márquez describes very specific physical events side by side with huge, abstract emotions. This is typical of magical realism: just as the distinctions between different times are muddled up, the distinction between the real and the magical, or between the ordinary and the sublime, become confused.”

The book is an undertaking, but it’s fun and it’s brain-stretching.

Moby-Dick – Herman Melville (Frank Muller) (5 stars)

I once explained to Val that boring isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  If you can be convinced of that concept then I think there may be something in this book for you.

There’s something to be said about a thorough exploration about any subject, for in the thoroughness of the exploration new discoveries are borne of necessity.  This is a simple tale of Ishmael getting on board the Pequod to help Capt. Ahab hunt down the sperm whale, dubbed Moby Dick.  But in the telling of the story we’re introduced to various exploits (the comical, Huck Finn-esque account of Ishmael bunking with Queequeg), geographies (the exposition on the preeminence of Nantucket), religious histories (the introduction to Ahab and his puritan contemporaries), revenge, and of course, whales.  After reading this book, I now feel like I have a special kinship with all whales, and I perk up whenever anyone mentions the prodigious sperm whale.  It’s fascinating to think about whales and their behavior (e.g. sperm whales apparently come up to spout air with precise rhythmic duration, and each particular whale has its own particular spouting and diving durations), and to consider their mass, and the fact that they have eyes separated by a massive (I mean, really massive) block of head.  Perhaps the most interesting thing about whales is what we don’t know about them.  (From the ‘At Home’ book,  it is believed that sperm whales perhaps have spermaceti in their heads to cushion their brains from sparring blows that they might incur with other sperm whales at underwater depths that surpass man’s ability to descend, so of course no one can confirm this.)

Some chapters are certainly a drag, but others are just so good.  Probably the best of all is chapter 1 which touches on man’s primal attraction to water.  That intro is almost scriptural or Shakespearean in the sense of importance and truth it conveys – I have almost considered memorizing it (but don’t count on it).   

Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see?- Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster- tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?

But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling And there they stand- miles of them- leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets avenues- north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?

In Defense of Audiobooks - Part III

Link to Part I
Link to Part II

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jake Gyllenhaal) (2 stars)

My disappointment in re-reading the book was only slightly less severe than my disappointment in watching the recent movie remake, starring Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio.  All the excesses, the petulance, the infidelity, and the east coast snobbishness are just a tad too much for me to handle.  As a period piece, and as a sample of good, early American writing, it has value.  But beyond that, the plot is not all that interesting, and the characters are either unrelatable (e.g. Gatsby) or don't manage to evoke sympathy (e.g. Daisy, and even Nick to some extent).

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (Campbell Scott) (4 stars)
A marvelous book, and one that, I suspect, could be pored over for symbolism and depth of language for semesters on semesters by any literary student with sufficient time and interest.  I appreciate that even now, months after having first read the book, there are images (e.g. the lady with the wine-stained rag about her head after the big wine-spill in a street in Paris) that are still vividly called to mind by Dickens' impressive fluidity and precision with words.  I also appreciate the struggles of the various characters, and a general theme of redemption that touches most all of them.  And any book that drives home the scripture, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." is OK by me.  Interestingly, this same scripture was central to another book I'll be reviewing, Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'.

The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a nightcap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—BLOOD.  The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there.

A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway (John Slattery) (3 stars)

Oddly enough, I enjoyed the book well enough as I read it, but now, thinking back on it, I find it only mediocre.  It's enjoyable Hemingway material, but I think it was a little too similar to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', and for my money, 'FWTBT' is a full notch above in almost every respect (love story, sympathy for the code hero, historical context, action, writing).

1776 - David McCullough (David McCullough) (4 stars)

Probably the finest historical biographer of any of the generations now living, David McCullough excels in this telling of the events surrounding and central to America's battle for independence.  I gained a deep appreciation for the stakes involved in each battle, for General Washington's majesty (almost pompousness), for the not unreasonable clash of ideals between Parliament and Congress, for the clash of military styles, and for the faith and sacrifice of those ragtag American battalions (e.g. fighting with only the promise of future pay, and exposed to the sicknesses and wintry conditions).

The Spectator Bird - Wallace Stegner (Edward Herrmann) (3 stars)
First of all, R.I.P., Edward Herrmann.  He has to be one of the best-known narrators of all time.  His rendition of 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a few years ago was such a virtuoso performance that it almost inspired me to wish I had pursued a career in narration.

Back to the topic at hand.  This book was fine, but it didn't connect with me the way other Stegner books have.  It has a lot to do with the realities (both ups and downs) of growing old with a spouse.  It may be that this book will be filed deep within my brain, and then 30/40 years from now it will call out to me, and possibly be some treasure of sympathy and understanding.  But for now it just doesn't interest me all that much.  There are other themes as well, having to do with fidelity, maintaining a connection with our ancestry, and others, but I could never got entirely wrapped up in the story.

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (George Guidall) (5 stars)
This work is two great things in one: a great philosophical study and a great story as a backdrop.

The philosophy part deals with, among other things, the nature of consequences, and the concept of superiority between individuals and the rights & privileges that follow therefrom.  The logic and arguments presented throughout were compelling enough to cause me to question my understanding of morality, and of justice.

The story, despite (or because of?) its being presented in such a logical, thorough, and emotionally-detached progression somehow managed to hold me deeply focused on Raskolnikov's fate and well-being.  And both the buildup and the event itself of the crime is so good that it had me wincing and worrying as the events unfolded.

Similar to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' I really enjoyed the technique of basically holding the story to a timeframe of a mere few days.  As simple as it seems, the thoroughness and descriptiveness that come with that kind of storytelling somehow made me feel (in both cases) that the events are somehow part of my memory.

In Defense of Audiobooks - Part II

Link to Part I

Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner (Richard Poe) (4 stars)

A great story about a foursome of couple-friends and how careers, children, age, etc. impact their relationships. It made me realize how nice/important it is to have a good pair of couple-friends.  The 2 on 2 dynamic just opens up so many new behaviors, interests, conversations, etc.  It got a little dusty (i.e. nearly made me cry) towards the end.

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (Lyndam Gregory) (3 stars)

With this book my favorite part was this version's preface, detailing the history of the writing of the book and its cultural and political significance in India, and also the intro page.  There were a lot of neat sub-stories throughout the book, and I imagine the experience of reading this book for an Indian would be similar to that of a Spaniard reading Don Quixote in the 1600's -- enthralling and hilarious.  But, while I certainly found the stories amusing, it was just long enough to start to test my patience.  

That being said, much of the writing is masterful, and the depth of the plot along with his ability to maintain consistency between characters and plot and time is a most impressive feat.  In other words, this book is probably deserving of its awards and praise; it just won't get a whole lot from me.

Opening Paragraph:

"I was born in the city of Bombay... Once upon a time. No, that won't do, there's no getting away from the date: I was born in Doctor Narlikar's Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. And the time? The time matters, too. Well then: at night. No, it's important to be more... On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came. Oh, spell it out, spell it out: at the precise instant of India's arrival at independence, I tumbled forth into the world. There were gasps. And, outside the window, fireworks and crowds. A few seconds later, my father broke his big toe; but his accident was a mere trifle when set beside what had befallen me in that benighted moment, because thanks to the occult tyrannies of those blandly saluting clocks I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country. For the next three decades, there was to be no escape. Soothsayers had prophesied me, newspapers celebrated my arrival, politicos ratified my authenticity. I was left entirely without a say in the matter...."

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (Dylan Baker) (5 stars)

Talk about great writing, great characters, great setting, and great story all rolled into one, so long as you've got the patience for it.  (And great narrating, to boot.)  There's too much to say about the plot and the symbolism of the book.  For me, one excerpt (from chapter 17) from where the family was making its way West and had to take shelter in make-shift camps along the way, encapsulates the whole story.

"The cars of the migrant people crawled out of the side roads onto the great cross-country highway, and they took the migrant way to the West. In the daylight they scuttled like bugs to the westward; and as the dark caught them, they clustered like bugs near to shelter and to water. And because they were lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat, and because they were all going to a new mysterious place, they huddled together; they talked together; they shared their lives, their food, and the things they hoped for in the new country. Thus it might be that one family camped near a spring, and another camped for the spring and for company, and a third because two families had pioneered the place and found it good. And when the sun went down, perhaps twenty families and twenty cars were there.

In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream. And it might be that a sick child threw despair into the hearts of twenty families, of a hundred people; that a birth there in a tent kept a hundred people quiet and we struck through the night and filled a hundred people with the birth-joy in the morning. A family which the night before had been lost and fearful might search its goods to find a present for a new baby. In the evening, sitting about the fires, the twenty were one. They grew to be units of the camps, units of the evenings and the nights. A guitar unwrapped from a blanket and tuned, and the songs, which were all of the people, were sung in the nights. Men sang the words, and women hummed the tunes.

Every night a world created, complete with furniture, friends made and enemies established; a world complete with braggarts and with cowards, with quiet men, with humble men, with kindly men. Every night relationships that make a world, established; and every morning the world torn down like a circus."

Now that's good writing.  I was emotionally affected (not quite crying) when listening to that excerpt.

Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis (Nadia May) (3 stars)
Always good to check back in on C.S. Lewis now and again to keep those theological muscles in shape.  The story of an unattractive woman, Orual, and her younger, more attractive, half-sister, Psyche, who grow up under their father's rule and with the tutelage of their beloved servant-mentor, "the Fox".  The story is a retelling of the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche set in a fictional Scottish-ish setting.  A lot of the drama arises out of the ingredients of the father's inability to sire a son, the unattractiveness of Orual, and everyone's behavior in relation to the gods.  The concept was strong enough but I never found myself deeply invested in any of the characters, or fully up to speed with the plot -- perhaps it would have helped to have been more familiar with the myth on which the story is based.  Also, I found that, as fictions go, this book veered a little too far into the realm of fantastical for my liking -- some parts about the younger half-sister living out in the cold wilderness as a mistress to one of the gods.  There are probably layers of allegory and symbolism that flew over my head, but again, I was just never really entranced by the world it created.  Some more context would have definitely gone a long way with me on this one.  Perhaps I'll need to re-read it.

East of Eden - John Steinbeck (Richard Poe) (5 stars)
Steinbeck is great.  Between 'Of Mice and Men', 'The Grapes of Wrath', and now this, the books of his that I've read make up an impressive body of work that is consistent-yet-varied, historically illuminating, and philosophically enlightening.  Additionally, his books are packed with memorable and interesting characters.

3 of my favorite parts of this book.

1. In the prologue where he lays out his genealogical connection to the families in this plot (I also find it neat that in a few of the books I've read recently the protagonist's/narrator's relation to the characters in question is told through the mothers' side (e.g. 'Midnight's Children', 'Angle of Repose')), he describes the landscape of the California region and the uniqueness of all the different names of the nearby towns with their different language origins and meanings and what we can glean from that.
2. When we're introduced to Kathy Ames (I believe) through a "diversionary" chapter touching solely on monsters, and how they can be human.  (Steinbeck is a master at these interjectory "diversionary" chapters on tangential philosophical observations (see chapters in 'The Grapes of Wrath' on goggles, and on the tortoise.))
3. The "timshel" concept where the characters explore the meaning of the verse in Genesis, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him (sin)."  There is some debate on the meaning of the original Hebrew of "thou shalt" in this case.  Is God promising Cain that he will conquer sin?  Is he ordering Cain to conquer sin?  Or, as this book argues, is he blessing Cain with free will, leaving the choice to him (timshel, the original Hebrew word, may best translate to "thou mayest")?  "For if 'Thou mayest'—it is also true that 'Thou mayest not.' That makes a man great and that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win."  This is liberating to the protagonist, Adam, and allows him to be more deterministic in his troubled life.

Waging Heavy Peace - Neil Young (Keith Carradine) (3 stars)
I'm a HUGE fan of Neil Young.  Listen to, say a playlist of 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere' ('69), 'Southern Man' ('70), 'Comes a Time' ('77), 'Transformer Man' ('82), 'One of These Days' ('92), 'Old Laughing Lady' (Unplugged, '93), 'It's a Dream' ('05), and 'Angry World' ('10), and you get an understanding of what a varied and impressive career arc the man has put together.  Listening to these songs you can catch an abstract glimpse of the artist's soul traveling through time, progressing at times and decaying at times.  But it's nice to be able to hear him fill in the abstract guesswork with first-hand accounts and explanations.  And all this is to say nothing of various social/political causes he's championed (e.g. the Bridge School for Autism), or the many creative inventions he's committed so much energy to (e.g. sound recording instruments, antique electric cars, and his latest crusade: 'Pono', which is an attempt to put "lossless" mp3 files (capturing the original, superior sound from when the track was cut in studio) in the hands of the everyday consumer)).

I enjoyed hearing the details of his upbringing, band stories, his struggles to write good new music while staying "clean", and various anecdotes that help the reader better understand his views on human life.

It's a pretty enjoyable book if you're a fan.  Otherwise, it's not essential reading.

“A job is never truly finished. It just reaches a stage where it can be left on its own for a while.”

The Odyssey - Homer (Sir Ian McKellan) (2 stars)
I love the basic plot of this book and what it represents with its unique place in history as one of the first stories ever written, and for the influence it has had on the literary world (and on cinema: -- 'O Brother Where Art Thou').  But I guess my 21st century training made it too difficult for me to deal with the rhythm and the repetitiveness of the novel.  Odysseus's diversionary adventures seemed to me to be a few too many, and overdeveloped, as I continually found myself yearning for some true resolution.

The poetic prose and use of epithets (e.g. "When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more...") is fun, but just a little too intense for the more casual reader.  This book is probably best studied and discussed in a school setting.

"You yellow dogs, you thought I'd never make it home from the land of Troy. You took my house to plunder, twisted my maids to serve your beds. You dared bid for my wife while I was still alive. Contempt was all you had for the gods who rule wide heaven, contempt for what men say of you hereafter. Your last hour has come. You die in blood.” 

The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner (Mark Bramhall) (5 stars)
Yet another masterful work by Wallace Stegner.  This is a (semi autobiographical) story of the Masons (Bo and Elsa, and their two young sons, Bruce and Chester) and their attempt to make it in the West in the early 1900's.  The ability to give a snapshot of a life in the U.S. (this book takes place in North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and thereabouts), as well as to help the reader peer into the intimate (and familiar) details of this particular family: the festering grudges, the pure and simple joys, the regrettable disciplining, the childish bickering, the magnanimous stoicism, etc., is a skill that Stegner has to an impressive degree.  His philosophy, both on the transcendent importance of heritage/genealogy and his demonstrations of how inescapable those hereditary traits are in his characters is something that really resonates with me.

The part where the boys lost their rabbits down a well right as the family (with father absent) was about to make yet another move is a scene that is seared in my mind, even a year or so after reading it.

"...She did not look back, but she could see in her mind every bush and stump in the clearing, every stain on the canvas roof, every detail of the place that had been home for a year and a half, that had still been home even after Bo ran off to Canada, that she had been fiercely determined to make home.  But it was too much, she thought.  She couldn't have tried any harder.

Behind her she heard Bruce's crying, furious now because she had not comforted him, and she felt in Chester's silence his grief for the death they left behind them in the well.  She couldn't blame them any more than she could help them.  There was too much that lay dead behind her.  That well and clearing and abandoned tent-house neatly swept and locked against intrusion was a gravestone in her life.  There had been other gravestones, but this was the worst, because it was more than a hope or a home that lay dead there.  It was her marriage.  Though she had not admitted it before, she knew that one reason she had tried so hard to keep the cafe going and to hold to the clearing was the hope that some day Bo would come back.

She did not look behind her, but she knew exactly how Bruce and Chester felt when they knelt at the lip of the well and saw the white, furred-out shapes of their pets floating, lifting motionless to the motionless lifting of earthbound water in a dark, earth-smelling hole under the rain."

I also like the part later in the book, when Bruce is older, and a deeper thinker, where he shares his observation with his mother about people as lines, not points.

"People, he had said, were always being looked at as points, and they ought to be looked at as lines. There weren't any points, it was false to assume that a person ever was anything. He was always becoming something, always changing, always continuous and moving, like the wiggly line on a machine used to measure earthquake shocks. He was always what he was in the beginning, but never quite exactly what he was; he moved along a line dictated by his heritage and his environment, but he was subject to every sort of variation within the narrow limits of his capabilities.

She shut her mind on that too. There was danger in looking at people as lines. The past spread backward and you saw things in perspective that you hadn't seen then, and that made the future ominous, more ominous than if you just looked at the point, at the moment. There might be truth in what Bruce said, but there was not much comfort."

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway (Campbell Scott) (5 stars)
A simple story of an American, Robert Jordan, in Spain, helping an anti-fascist guerrila unit to explode a bridge, overlaid against the complexity of the Spanish Civil war in the late 1930's and all its accompanying philosophical struggles of right and wrong, and difference of perspective.  A key ingredient in all this is the American's infatuation with the war-ravaged Maria and the unsurpassed love that develops between them.

I loved everything about this book.  Its simplicity, Hemingway's touch with the prose (as well as his literal Spanish translation convention (e.g. "what passes with thee?")), the characters, the scenery, you name it.  I also have a soft spot for stories about Americans adapting to and adopting cultures different from theirs while still trying to be true their own (e.g. 'Dances with Wolves', 'Avatar').

From what I've read of Hemingway, Robert Jordan is his best example of a code hero.  He's resourceful, efficient, stoic, and intelligent.  And I like that he doesn't waste his life away smoking cigarettes, drinking absinthe, and getting into trouble with girls as some of Hemingway's more tragic protagonists sometimes have a knack for doing.

"There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life."

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (Elijah Wood) (4 stars)

Expertly narrated by Frodo, and costing only $1.99 if you first download the free kindle edition, this was a great surprise to stumble into this old high school-required reading and to find that I enjoyed it so much.  I was instantly taken in by the southern charm with Twain's depiction of the scenery and settings and awesome phrases like, "dis' dat' and t'other", "rapscallions", etc.

Twain's ability to extract so much ironic wisdom out of simple-minded folk like Huck and Jim, and others, and to employ and negotiate so many different perspectives and styles with all the different characters is a thing of beauty.  It's no wonder this book is held in such high regard as the modern era storytelling masterpiece.

This book is good humor.  The kind of humor that makes you laugh, but somehow always a little reservedly (even if raucous), since you can sense all the deeper emotions and issues at play with the cast of characters.  It helps the reader to not be so rigid for rigidity's sake about his or her belief system.  Now das' considable powful writin'.

This book does suffer, however, from some of the same dragging that 'The Odyssey' does, in that we get overly sidetracked with a few misadventures (e.g. the sometimes hilarious conmen, Duke and Dauphin, and the feuding Grangerfords and Shepherdsons) that don't sufficiently contribute to the story commensurate with their "screen time".

I recently watched '12 Years a Slave' on an international flight, and I didn't care for it one bit.  It beats you over the head with all the torture, rape, white villainy, guilt, etc.  Conversely, for my money, Mark Twain accomplishes more to evoke sympathy, compassion, and an understanding of the African-American plight in one page when he writes about the time Jim beat his daughter (end of chapter 23).  (Granted, the Huck Finn excerpt has little to do with slavery directly, but it's part of that broad category, and the scene is impactful on Huck's progressing comprehension of the humanity of these slaves.)

"Yo’ ole father doan’ know yit what he’s a-gwyne to do. Sometimes he spec he’ll go ’way, en den agin he spec he’ll stay. De bes’ way is to res’ easy en let de ole man take his own way. Dey’s two angels hoverin’ roun’ ’bout him. One uv ’em is white en shiny, en t’other one is black. De white one gits him to go right a little while, den de black one sail in en bust it all up. A body can’t tell yit which one gwyne to fetch him at de las’. But you is all right. You gwyne to have considable trouble in yo’ life, en considable joy. Sometimes you gwyne to git hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you’s gwyne to git well agin. Dey’s two gals flyin’ ’bout you in yo’ life. One uv ’em’s light en t’other one is dark. One is rich en t’other is po’. You’s gwyne to marry de po’ one fust en de rich one by en by. You wants to keep ’way fum de water as much as you kin, en don’t run no resk, ’kase it’s down in de bills dat you’s gwyne to git hung."

As I am now reading Hemingway's 'Green Hills of Africa', I was glad to see that he and I see eye to eye on this topic.  Said he, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. If you read it you must stop where the n***er Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. But it’s the best book we’ve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

In Defense of Audiobooks

"Go away.  Read some books." - Ignacio, Nacho Libre

After hearing the above inspired injunction from Nacho Libre in 2006, I waited about 3 years, then finally sat down to read a real live book, like humans used to do.  I really enjoyed it, but then I finished and I got busy doing all the really important stuff I'm always doing and didn't read anything else for a long time.

Then Val got me a great birthday present by getting me a subscription to Amazon's "Audible" audiobook service.  (First book free, then 1 book credit per month at $15/mo.) The cheapskate in me had a hard time swallowing this recurring, monthly expense, but when I stop to think about how much it has done for my image (especially now that I wear glasses), the cost is easily worth it.

Before I provide some reviews of the books I've read, below are some points that are important to remember in the audiobook realm.

• When discussing these books with others, don't bother with specifying that you're technically listening to the book.  Say things like, "When I read 'Atlas Shrugged' I thought John Galt was too into himself," or, "I'm currently reading 'The Scarlet Letter'.  I can't believe how fanatical those people were."
• Narration is an art form.  You'll be amazed at how adept some of these narrators are at keeping dozens of voices consistent throughout the narration, and how influential their tone and inflection can be with respect to the text.  The good news is that by and large all of the narrators I've heard have been excellent.  I almost feel bad that I don't get a chance to applaud them on their performances when the book is over.  If you read books to your kids, you'll realize what a loser narrator you are.  
• Resist the urge to increase the playback speed.
• This may not be the case for everyone but I find that I can focus just as well or better on audiobooks (even while multitasking; e.g. dishes, commuting, house chores) as I can on the written word.

I'll be rating all these books on the Netflix rating scale as follows: 

1 star = hated it
2 stars = didn't like it
3 stars = liked it
4 stars = really liked it
5 stars = loved it

Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner (5 stars)

This one I actually read (as in, real reading), like a sucker.  This is one of those books that had a fairly profound impact on me.  It masterfully weaves two story threads together, allowing for, what I'm sure in its day was a very clever & elegant narration style.  

A common theme I notice with Stegner is his ability to create high stakes out of things that are seemingly inconsequential by deeply focusing on the details and helping you get to know the characters and what matters to them.  This is something I've been very into for the past few years -- the ability, in storytelling specifically, to put the mundane in a glorified light.  It's a concept that is just so "human", and I think it speaks to our souls a little more deeply than the more fantastical stories sometimes can.  As an example, a movie that spends 80% of its screen time showing the audience how a King worked to overcome a speech impediment and deliver a respectable speech.       

This book helped me appreciate good imagery in writing, the romance of the western frontier, the challenges of marriage, of career, of life in general, and the value of family history.

And, as I understand it, Stegner wrote at least part of this book while living in the house my great grandfather built in Salt Lake City, and which my parents still own.

The Guns of August - Barbara Tuchman (John Lee) (3 stars)

Opening paragraph:
"So GORGEOUS was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens—four dowager and three regnant—and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries.  Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again."

No doubt this book is a masterpiece.  An incredible feat of nonfiction storytelling about the first world war and the events that led up to it.  I learned a lot about the kaiser, Churchill, the German mentality, the French, various countries' military tactics, etc.  The only problem is that my base of WWI knowledge is probably insufficient to truly appreciate the absolute tome that is this book.    

Liars Poker - Michael Lewis (5 stars)
The Big Short - Michael Lewis (Jesse Boggs) (5 stars)
Boomerang - Michael Lewis (Dylan Baker) (4 stars)

It's hard not to like Michael Lewis.  After finishing his schooling he was hired to sell bonds for then top financial firm, Salomon Brothers.  He had some decent success there, and probably could have staked out a decent career by sticking around in that industry.  But he saw that the real story was the excesses and recklessness of his employer, and he left to write about it (Liars Poker), despite having no real background in journalism.

His fresh, everyday-guy perspective he applies to his subject matter is part of what makes his books so enjoyable to read.  His style is a bit like, "Hey, here's this thing that's happening right now that's crazy.  Here are some of the reasons this thing is just wacky.  Did you hear what I said? -- This is absolutely nuts."  One example I recall from 'Boomerang' was when he detailed how Greece's federally funded railway problem is so completely messed up (laden with costly machinery, strikes, pensions, etc.) that it would actually cost the government less to abandon the entire mass transit system and pay everyone cash for their cab fare.

'Liars Poker' (1989) is largely about the excesses of Wall Street in the 80's.  When the financial crisis truck in 2008, he was destined to be the voice of that calamity through writing, 'The Big Short' (2010).  And then, almost as a corollary to that book, he also wrote 'Boomerang' (2011) which tells the story, not just of failing companies, but of failing countries.

Coming Apart - Charles Murray (Traber Burns) (5 stars)

An excellent study on the growing chasm between the working class and the upper class that has slowly evolved in America over the last 50 years.  To isolate his sample data, and, ironically, to avoid the appearance of racism, he filters to look at just white Americans in 1960 (census year) and white Americans in 2010.  He brings to light some alarming trends that have evolved right under our noses in just the short span of one or two generations.

He writes (and convincingly cites) that part of what has made America so great/special/successful is how it allows for citizens of all classes to be respected and heard, and share ideas and capital one with another, helping to enable the American dream.  But he argues that this simply isn't true anymore, and it's becoming less true each year.

As a nice way of breaking up the dry, economics-heavy narrative, he administers a test in the book of 20-some questions for which the reader is awarded a certain amount of points depending on how he answers.  The test is designed to help you decide how big of an upper class bubble you're living in.  Questions like, when was the last time you ate at Ruby Tuesdays, Sizzler, or TGI Friday's, or, do you typically ache when you get home from work, or, when was the last time you went fishing.  I'll admit that I thought with my church experiences and my general openness to talking to people from all walks of life that I would score pretty well (i.e. not be in a bubble) in the test.  But I was squarely pegged as '2nd generation upper class.'

This book has helped to motivate me to think about steps I can actually take (where to live, how to be more open with all classes of people, how to not get caught up in the accumulation race, etc.) to improve the American situation as well as my own.

To Be Reviewed Later

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jake Gyllenhaal)
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (Simon Vance)
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway (John Slattery)
1776 - David McCullough (David McCullough)
The Spectator Bird - Wallace Stegner (Edward Herrmann)
Macbeth - William Shakespeare (Joan Walker)
Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (George Guidall)
Moby Dick - Herman Mellville (Frank Muller)
Green Hills of Africa - Ernest Hemingway (Josh Lucas)
A Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (John Lee)