The Diamond Age or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Recently read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, a novel set in a futuristic society (maybe ~100 years from now) in China. Whether this book presents a dystopian or utopian vision is unclear, maybe it shows both, although the dystopian aspects (callous brutality, pervasive misogyny) are more salient.

Background (no spoilers):

In this society, nanotechnology has become the dominant means of production. (Many buildings are built out of man-made diamond because it is hard and durable, hence the title). Stephenson's novel is Marxist in that he posits a world in which the social structure arises from the means of production. Matter Compilers, or MCs, create food, clothes, etc. using molecular blueprints downloaded from a central government server. This top-down means of production makes poor people dependent on the government for their existence.

Most people are divided into phyles (aka claves) which are essentially tribes which live together in different parts of the city. One prominent phyle is that of the "Vickys" - neo-Victorians who have consciously adopted Victorian dress, mannerisms and social codes, believing that this is preferable to the amoral degeneracy of prior centuries (i.e. our time). The poor are the exception to this structure; they have no phyles, and lead lives that are nasty, brutish and short.

Nanotechnology has also become a means of ugly warfare and supports a bizarre justice system which combines Confucian principles with nanotech-based methods of execution. Rogue nanotech experts develop their own micromachines in defiance of the government's prohibition, and use them to spy, track, and kill.

My take on it:

I really, really enjoyed the first half of this book. Stephenson's vision is brilliant: complex, detailed, strikingly creative and novel, and powerful. It is also very pleasurable to read. However, I found the second half of the book chaotic and the ending unrealistic and anticlimactic. I was also troubled by the book's at times graphic misogyny, which does not seem to serve any purpose beyond reinforcing the brutality of the world. However, I highly recommend it because it is truly novel and gripping and introduces many fascinating ideas.

Stephenson's Novels

• The Big U (1984)
• Zodiac (1988)
• Snow Crash (1992)
• Interface (1994) 
• The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995)
• The Cobweb (1996) 
• Cryptonomicon (1999)
• The Baroque Cycle
• Quicksilver (2003), volume I
• The Confusion (2004), volume II
• The System of the World (2004), volume III
• Anathem (2008)
• The Mongoliad (2010–2012)
• Reamde + Colin's review (2011)

Rumpole of the Bailey

I recently finished reading Sir John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey. The witty and poetry-quoting protagonist of this book is Rumpole, a 68-year-old barrister who is a defense attorney for England's petty criminals. The novel is broken down into short stories about different cases that he has been involved in. This book is totally hilarious. The language is also quite pleasing - the book is full of nicely turned phrases. It reminds me a bit of Mr. Sammler's Planet, but is comic rather than existential. I highly recommend it!

Apolo Ohno-- ZERO REGRETS!!!

AW YEAH WHAT AN INSPIRING TITLE!!!

The rest of the book is OK. The problem with it is that Apolo didn't have to overcome any super-tough and challenging obstacles in his familial and emotional life to achieve his dreams. Sure, he grew up without a mom, but he never makes this out to be a super big deal. There are only really two events that try and fit the "monumental challenge" criteria:

One, he ran away from home, once, because his dad wanted him to go to a speed-skating training camp and he wanted to party.

Two, he had crappy committment, and his dad dropped him off at a cabin for nine days, where he called his dad and decided he wanted to stop being an idiot and get down to work.

Sadly, these things just make him look like kind of a crybaby, rather than a story to inspire millions. I would recommend people find more inspirational books instead of reading this. Nonetheless, the story was quite an interesting read if you want to find out about Ohno's life and accomplishments.

P.S. Apolo is indeed quite arrogant. I thought it was funny, but it really annoyed my mom, so if you're against that kind of thing, you may have trouble with this book.

Personal Impressions

This book consists of portraits of people whom Isaiah Berlin, in almost every case, knew personally. Some, such as Chaim Weizmann, Felix Frankfurter, and Aldous Huxley, are very well known. The portraits focus on personal characteristics rather than achievements and each is written in vivid, highly engaging language that conveys thoughtful impressions of the characteristics that make people interesting or compelling as friends, or statesmen, or contributors to the worlds of learning or the arts. Berlin has keen insights and a very appreciative view of others' personalities, whether they be congenial or prickly. His comments on Pasternak and other Russian writers of the 30's through the 50's show many individuals acting with tact and courage in the face of official intimidation up to and including liquidation. For me, his portraits of Churchill and Roosevelt (he knew neither personally) shed new and very interesting light on how these allies so powerfully affected events in Western society and World War II. (Berlin does not say this directly, but his portraits define Churchill and Roosevelt as quintessential hedgehog and fox, respectively). Just a couple delightful excerpts: Of the historian L.B. Namier:

Hence those who met him were divided into some who looked on him as a man of genius and a dazzling talker and others who fled from him as an appalling bore. He was, in fact, both.

Berlin judges Boris Pasternak to be a genius and explains his criteria:

I can only say this: the dancer Nijinski was once asked how he managed to jump so high. He is reported to have answered that he saw no great problem in this. Most people when they leapt in the air came down at once. "Why should you come down immediately? Stay in the air a little before you return, why not?" he is reported to have said. One of the criteria of genius seems to me to be the power to do something perfectly simple and visable which ordinary people cannot, and know that they cannot do - nor do they know how it is done, or why they cannot begin to do it. Pasternak at times spoke in great leaps; his use of words was the most imaginative I have ever known; it was wild and very moving.

Uno cosi cosi, One Great

Read two mysteries recently. One was The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri, recommended by our Italian tutor. This was set in Sicily and was a light, enjoyable crime story, introducing Inspector Montalbano, versus the criminal results of a mixture of passion and ambition. Short, quick and fun, but not particularly special. The other was another of Upfield's Bony mysteries, Death of a Swagman. These are invariably delightful and absorbing. To be perfectly honest, I could level a couple small complaints; for example, sometimes they wrap up a little too quickly to be convincing or fully satisfying. But for fascinating sketches of Australian outback and warm, interesting and, in this case, highly comic, human interactions, they're unbeatable. I will be very sad when I've read the last of them!

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy

Wow! Many thanks to Colin for recommending this fascinating, compelling science fiction novel (the first of a trilogy) describing the colonization of Mars.
Many significant Earth-bound themes are thrown into sharp relief, accentuated by the open possibilities for establishing a new (?) world order on Mars. Some of these issues are represented by key members of the First Hundred to settle on the planet: Idealism (John Boone) versus political manipulation (Frank Chalmers), eco-preservation (Ann Clayborne) versus aggressive terraforming (Sax Russell), and revolutionary democratic forms of government (Arkady Bogdanov) vs. control by transnational corporations (Phylis Boyle). The characters are interesting individuals and Mars is depicted in astonishing and deeply-researched detail as hostile, extraordinarily strange, and awe-inspiringly beautiful.

Wings Above the Diamantina and Bony Buys a Woman

Wonderful descriptions of life in the Australian outback + especially intriguing puzzles + the delightful character of Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (aka Bony) + warm interactions between people = two more very enjoyable Upfield mysteries!

The Hedgehog and the Fox

"The fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." This fragment from a Greek poet is the starting point for Isaiah Berlin's essay on Tolstoy's view of history, as it is presented in War and Peace. Berlin offers an intriguing interpretation of these characterizations, suggesting that they

mark one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers, and, it may be, human beings in general. For there exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who who relate everything to a single central vision.......and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory.

He further suggests that

The first kind of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the second to the foxes; and without insisting on a rigid classification, we may, without too much fear of contradiction, say that, in this sense, Dante belongs to the first category, Shakespeare to the second; Plato, Lucretius, Pascal, Hegel, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Ibsen and Proust are, in varying degrees, hedgehogs; Herodotus, Aristotle, Montaigne, Erasmus, Moliere, Goethe, Pushkin, Balzac, Joyce are foxes.

Because it is amusing to classify authors, colleagues or friends according to this rubric, this part of Berlin's essay is fairly well-known. I started reading this (lengthy) essay many years ago, enjoyed the "game" but then found the following discussion of Tolstoy's view of history to be inpenetrable and put it down. But I had not then read War and Peace!

As my review of War and Peace suggests, I found Tolstoy's views of history interesting, but presented at such length and so argumentatively, that they quickly became an annoying distraction from the narrative - but Berlin is another story! He presents Tolstoy's views in an engaging, fascinating light and offers his own analysis of why it is so difficult to classify Tolstoy as either a fox or a hedgehog.

My recommendation: Read the first three pages of the essay for insight into the intriguing "game" - or read all of War and Peace first, and then enjoy the meat of Berlin's essay!

Awaken the Giant Within

LOVED IT. While Tony Robbins DOES do infomercials, he apparently has some good stuff to say. Go figure.

The book is basically a breakdown of Robbins' system for taking control of your life and making your dreams come true. It gives you tons of tools for managing every aspect of your life, such as "transformation vocabulary", "global metaphors", the "Neuro-Assosociative-Conditioning model" (a mouthful) and many more.

I think an even better way of describing this book is this: it's the exact opposite of "The Power of Now", which I reviewed in an earlier post. This book is longer, more complex, and advocates a system polar to "The Power of Now". Instead of eliminating pain, as "The Power of Now" suggests, Robbins tells you to use your pain as a motivator to change your life.

I'd highly recommend the book to anyone who eats up self-improvement texts, no matter the size, shape, or form. For anyone not in love with the genre, if I were you, I don't even know if I could get motivated enough to get to the part of the book where Robbins teaches you how to get properly motivated.

Anthony Bourdain

So I'd never watched Anthony Bourdain and had never read Anthony Bourdain, but this spring ran across an interview he did with the DCist in Washington where he compares Alice Waters to the Khmer Rouge. I thought "well THAT'S a little extreme" but wasn't ready to form an opinion until (a)I had read some Anthony Bourdain, and (b) had learned more about Alice Waters and had eaten at Chez Panisse.

Both A and B have been accomplished. Ironically, I chose the Bourdain book where he attends a dinner party of vegetarians in Berkeley which is a HILARIOUS chapter. From his perspective, the Berkeley-ites come off as virtuous, hypocritic Alice Waters-disciples who tout a lifestyle completely out of reach and disconnected from the average US citizen. I see his point. Then again, I imagine that one of those dinner party attendees would say that 'Tony' is a chain-smoking and offensive vagrant who behaves badly for fame and a paycheck. Neither party is innocent.

But what he really criticizes at that dinner party is the vegetarian cooking. If vegetarian food is cooked poorly, it's not going to taste good. Period. However, Bourdain didn't actually eat at Chez Panisse. If he had, he would have had the best vegetarian meal of his life. Last month in Berkeley, Eric and I made a pilgrimage to the CP Cafe. The ambiance was relaxed, the service was attentive but not intrusive, and my vegetarian meal was divine. And no where did I see signs of communism or other subversive powers at work.

And I picked up Alice's "In the Green Kitchen". It turns out to be a compilation book of techniques by her favorite chefs, but the foreword is passionately written by her and illustrates that her philosophy is not meant to be virtuous, its meant to drive a return to local, homegrown and sustainable food. I see how that might be out of reach for some, but for many communities (including the impoverished SW corner of DC that just received its first Yes! Organic Grocery store) Alice's movement IS coming and it IS going to provide access to pesticide-free, responsibly grown food. How is that bad, Bourdain?

Bourdain backsteps on his Waters-hating by saying that he appreciates what she did for local producers. I found it ironic that he went on from Berkeley to eat a 16 course, 4 hour, over-the-top meal at French Laundry and couldn't find anything to criticize about that. If you want to talk about something completely out of reach for the average American, lets talk about THAT!

Regardless of the philosophies, I enjoyed Bourdain's travels (especially his time in Russia) and found myself laughing out loud at his inner-dialogue. The man is funny, and I don't think anyone can argue with that.

War and Peace

For me, a major delight in reading War and Peace was Tolstoy's extraordinary ability to describe all facets of human interactions in vivid, convincing and engaging terms. The playfulness of children, the passion of love, the vice-like grip of impending doom, the exhilaration of triumph, fill the pages of War and Peace. It's very long and it's not a page turner in the way of some adventure stories or mysteries, but I wanted to pick it up again immediately whenever I had a few free moments. And some scenes are incandescent in their depiction of human joy.

I had been unaware of one unusual feature of War and Peace: The story embodies Tolstoy's views of history and, surprisingly, the narrative is interrupted at intervals by brief essays on history and historians. Some of this is interesting, but some becomes tedious. I have to admit, though, that Tolstoy used this mechanism to solve a common problem with great books: when you near the end of a book that is wonderful, you often wish that the book would never end. By concluding War and Peace with a lengthy disquisition on free will and history, you do indeed feel that the book will never end.

Scott Pilgrim

I've recently gotten interested in the Scott Pilgrim comic book series. Scott, a 23-year-old bassist for his band Sex Bob-omb has a smooth life. He lives with his hilarious gay roommate Wallace Wells, and is dating a 17-year old chinese girl named Knives Chau. That is, until a roller-blading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers shows up. Scott falls for her right away, but the road to her love is not covered in petals. Turns out Scott Pilgrim has to fight her 7 evil ex-boyfriends to earn the right to her love. The series then turns into a laugh-out-loud, retro-game styled, battle for Scott to keep his band in line, his own life under control, and defeat the League of Evil Exes!

Yellow Rose From Amherst

A couple months ago, I heard an engaging NPR interview with Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate, about Emily Dickinson's Poetry. He had very interesting things to say and read a couple of his favorite poems. All I could remember of Dickinson from high school was "Because I could not stop for Death...." and "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died..." so I got The Essential Emily Dickinson, edited and with a very interesting introduction by Joyce Carol Oates. Although some were quite challenging for me, I really enjoyed many of the poems. Here's one:

690

Victory comes late -
And is held low to freezing lips -
Too rapt with frost
To take it -
How sweet it would have tasted -
Just a Drop -
Was God so economical?
His Table's spread too high for Us -
Unless We dine on tiptoe -
Crumbs - fit such little mouths -
Cherries - suit Robins -
The Eagle's Golden Breakfast strangles - Them -
God keep his Oath to Sparrows -
Who of little Love - know how to starve -

Collins related something apparently well-known to those who are more familiar with Dicksinon, but I think that to enjoy her poetry, it's best to forget: "Emily Dickinson seems rather tame because she pretty much uses the same meter every time. It's called 'common meter.' It's a line of four beats that's followed by a line of three beats. So a typical one would be: 'Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me.' And there's actually a kind of pause at the end of the first line, a kind of fifth beat. This is the meter of a lot of ballads. It's the meter of Protestant hymns. It's the rhythm of many nursery rhymes. So you have a very conventional cadence in most of these poems. It's widely known that almost every one of her poems can be sung whether you like it or not to the tune of 'A Yellow Rose From Texas.' "

New Land Speed Record!

Finished the combined 1200+ pages between Thursday night and Saturday night. Bet you can't read just one!

America in the King Years

Just finished the final volume of Taylor Branch's magisterial biography of Martin Luther King and his effect on America. King's astonishing oratory is on full display, but the books also reveal his extraordinary vision, humility, empathy, vitality and patience.

Although focusing on King, Branch details other powerful currents in American history: violent Southern racism and the revelation of equally vicious racism in the North; J. Edgar Hoover's paranoia, lawlessness, and relentless efforts to destroy King; the triumphs of Lyndon's Johnson's civil rights and anti-poverty initiatives and his ultimate inability to escape the pressures to escalate in Vietnam.

The final volume is tragic and overwhelmingly sad, telling the unfortunate story of how white backlash, black power and the Vietnam War combined to efface the power of nonviolence in America, and concluding with King's assassination.

A tremendous achievement and a rewarding read.

Arthur Upfield!

Just finished two more books by Arthur Upfield - see my earlier reviews of his Napolean Bonaparte stories set in Australia in the 30's and 40's. An Author Bites the Dust has Bony investigating the murder of a prominent Australian author, in a story centered around "literature" vs. "commercial writing". The other, Breakaway House, is the first I've read by Upfield that does not feature Bony, but instead, an extremely likable police inspector, Harry Tremayne - this was not only a good mystery, but also very humorous. These books are in fact more "commercial writing" than great "literature", but they're compelling reads, with very nice descriptive writing, great dialogue and delightful interactions among people. Wonderful summer reading!

Eckhart Tolle's Books

This review is one that combines "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth", two books by Eckhart Tolle that, while fantastic, were both fairly similar. Thus, my first recommendation is to read "The Power of Now" and only read "A New Earth" if you want some more emphasis on Tolle's concepts.

Tolle is a spiritual teacher that only came to prominence with these two books. Now, he is quite successful, teaching seminars as well as selling DVD's on meditation programs.

So I suppose an explanation is due. How does a self-proclaimed agnostic-bordering-on-atheist get into books about spirituality? Well, I got the recommendations from a site I stumbled upon with "StumbleUpon", and was drawn into them because the books actually appeal to atheists and agnostics, possibly even more than confirmed believers. You really have to read to understand...

The books are guides to attaining spiritual enlightenment. The books start out with Tolle's basic ideas: humans, from birth, engage in self-destructive behaviors, and are at their root, "insane" or "unconscious", to use Tolle's words. They are like this because they identify so heavily with the world of form and with their mind. So long as one is able to access "the power of the Now", they will be able to rid themselves of these basic delusions and attain inner peace.

There's a LOT more to it than that. Despite that, the books are both pretty short (less than 200 pages each) and really make each concept as simple as possible.

I would HIGHLY recommend the books. They were amazing. I, myself, am hopefully started on the journey to spiritual enlightenment... though that could take a while. For the moment, I've become more peaceful in my daily activities and have a greater appreciation for life.

Buffett: The Making of An American Capitalist

This one wasn't exactly my usual cup of tea-- I usually stay away from biographies in general. I was not, however, disappointed with it in the least.

The book is a VERY complete picture of Warren Buffett's life and his various investments over the years. In fact, the book may have too much detail if you're just a casual reader who was interested in Buffett as a person. There is a good deal about his personal life, but it also deals in great part with the various statistics about his companies, profit margins for Berkshire Hathaway, etc.

I thought it was a really great read, and gave some awesome insight into Buffett that none of us would probably expect. I would recommend it to anyone who was interested in either Buffett or the realms of investment.

By the way, did you know that Buffett's investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, originally made lining for men's suits?

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Fabulous beach-read, can't-put-it-down mystery/thriller. Instantly absorbing, interesting characters, and convincing dialog. Not totally lightweight, as suggested by the original Swedish title, "Men Who Hate Women". I think everybody would like this.

How To Build Your Own Spaceship

Guess I've been on the same wavelength as Colin, reading about space, fiction or non! This short book by Piers Bizony is very interesting. He discusses the basic science behind propulsion and orbits, some history of space travel, and a great deal about past and future commercial opportunities. Bizony has a dry sense of humor and overall the book is informative and entertaining. (Famous dancer Buzz Aldrin recommends it).

The World Jones Made

Recently read The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick. This novel is set in 2002 on a post-apocalyptic earth that has been nearly destroyed by radiation and is filled with bizarre and disturbing mutants. The populace is ruled by a Federal World Government, aka Fedgov, and has been bullied into adopting Relativism, a philosophy that has led to the legalization of hard drugs and public acts of perversion. The plot revolves around the messianic fervor aroused by the titular character, Jones, and explores the issues of liberty and free will.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz is Walter Miller's classic science fiction novel about post-apocalyptic Catholic monks in the desert of Utah, preserving what scraps of ancient writing they have managed to gather together through a post-nuclear dark ages in which all scientific knowledge is seen as evil. The novel is composed of three sections, roughly analogous to the dark ages, the renaissance, and a new technological age. The Catholic church provides what little cultural stability exists in the period, and the story follows the history of the abbey of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz, founded by a scientist after the war who became a martyr in his attempts to save books from being burned by the barbaric remnants of human civilization.

This is one of the masterpieces of American science fiction. I'm glad to have finally filled this particular hole in my knowledge of the genre, and I really can't recommend this book highly enough.

Where is Everybody?

This book presents a set of 50 possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox ("where is everybody," i.e. if the universe is so big why haven't we met any other technological civilizations?). The solutions come in three main categories: they're already here, they exist but haven't communicated, and they don't exist. The book is not at all rigorous but serves as a broad-ranging introduction that includes more speculative material than the textbook below. My only quibble with this book concerns his chapters on evolutionary biology, where I don't feel he's fully acquainted with the complexity of the issue, but in fairness there isn't space to even begin to address those questions here. Overall this was a entertaining and good broad overview to a wide selection of factors to consider on the subject, from the physics of interstellar travel to von-Neumann probes and Dyson spheres, although a lot of the science is glossed over and I found a couple of his mathematical models a bit suspicious (or at least poorly defended).

Rocannon's World

Rocannon's World is Ursula K. LeGuin's first novel, published in 1966 as a lengthening of the story "Dowry of the Angyar," which appeared in Astounding in 1964 and comprises the prologue to the novel as "Semley's Necklace". It's currently out of print, but I found it in a used book store in Seattle and there are some used on the internet as well. It is basically an epic fantasy set in a world of relativistic interstellar travel, in which an anthropologist studying quote highly intelligent life forms (a hilfer) from the galactic league of worlds is stranded on Fomalhaut II, an alien world with a heroic early age culture (think Homer) that involves living in castles and riding giant flying cats (see cover). Our boy Rocannon has to journey across the planet with a motley band of locals (think Tolkien), seeing the sights and getting into various problematic situations along the way. It's not her most mature work, but in particular the way in which she incorporates relativistic travel into the epic register is pretty impressive. Plus, giant flying cats are sweet.

An Introduction to Astrobiology

I am doing some readings about aliens this summer and this was one of the books on my list. It is basically an undergraduate level textbook with some fairly nontechnical chapters on the genesis of life, cell biology, the essential chemical reactions of life, extremophile terrestrial species, planetary geology, exoplanet astronomy, and SETI. It does a very good job of explaining what we know and how we know it. The book is about five years out of date (most relevant for the astronomy section, as exoplanet discoveries are starting to pour in) but gave me a good basis for further reading on the subject.

An Actor Prepares

First of all, this isn't what it looks like.

One would expect this to be an annoying non-fiction book about how to act in theater.

Au contraire. The book is set as a novel that illustrates the journey of one actor, and shows how one could similarly learn to act.

The reason I post this up here is because non-actors, if they are enlightened, will find deeper meaning in this book. This book teaches a way of life.
Anyway, the book's a great read, and if you're into that whole self-help/self-improvement shtick, you'll find this to be quite the interesting book.

Also, please tell me if you like shorter reviews. I feel like I use 5 words for every one word of my fellow bloggers, so I tried to shorten this one up.

Getting to know Silence Dogood, Alice Addertongue and others

K2 recommends....
THE FIRST AMERICAN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by H.W. Brands (a Pulitzer Prize finalist)

How well do you know Ben??? You might just be surprised…..

In truth, I was initially attracted to this book as a new Philadelphian, seeking a little more information about past events in my historic city. What I uncovered was an engaging, delightful biography that revealed a Ben Franklin I never knew!

Told where possible through letters, autobiographical pieces, and historical record, Ben’s thoughts and adventures unfold. Young Ben was quite a rascal, and his path to Philadelphia was by no means a simple one. In particular, I enjoyed Ben’s deft, recurring use of literary alter-egos (eg Silence Dogood, Alice Addertongue, Caelia Shortface, etc) as a means to sway public opinion, scold, or scandalize. Another manifestation of Ben’s wit (Polly Baker) proved to be an early advocate of women’s rights. Go Ben!!!

Of course, in the later “Founding Father” years, much of the information was not new to me, but I still I found it to be cleverly written and an excellent read. All said, I can strongly recommend this book.

Re-assess your chess

I figure this post won't be of much use to others, considering that chess seems to be mostly my own interest, but...

If you enjoy chess and you want a leg-up on your other family members, this is a key book for you. To plumb its secrets entirely will take quite a while, but by reading through at least the rudiments of it you'll have quite an head-start on most of America.

Silman's thinking technique and his list of imbalances are things of beauty. Their simplicity rivals that of Dale Carnegie, who I praised heavily for similar qualities in my last post.

This book is gonna get your game on-- I give it my blessing.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

After hearing both Lauren and one of my friends praise this book lavishly, I felt justified in taking a look at it myself.

Their praise is well-deserved: the book is a fairly quick read, very easy on the eyes, and, most importantly, VERY helpful in regards to the subject matter it addresses.

The excellent organization of the book is responsible for the first two approbations. The book is divided into several parts, with each part looking at different areas of dealing with people, namely, as a leader, as a friend, and as a casual acquaintance. Each part is further subdivided into chapters that are all very readable, and contain numerous/humorous anecdotes.

The advice itself is fantastic, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is very simple. Although every idea is expounded by a horde of the aforementioned anecdotes, each one can be distilled to a single phrase which Carnegie places at the end of each chapter. Secondly, the advice is tremendously practical. No matter if you're a businessperson or simply an interested reader, the ideas will be useful to you.

In short, I give this book my highest commendation and would suggest it to anyone and everyone. I would also suggest that everyone suggests to everyone else to read it. It would improve the world so much if we all did.

Touch and Go

Studs Terkel was a larger-than-life figure, who seems to have interviewed or known nearly everyone. I skipped around in this memoir, sometimes reading selected short passages and sometimes a few chapters in a row. Terkel was pretty liberal and describes many of the causes he was involved in - often as a performer. Not surprisingly, he ended up being blacklisted during the 1950's. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of his radio show and his 1949 TV show, Stud's Place - he describes several of the story lines, but I especially enjoyed his summary of the show's appeal:

Our themes were all about ordinary things, about daily life. Today some would say that's too dull, the lack of glamour. But the ordinariness is what made it unique, and people loved Stud's Place. The character I played was both good and bad, pointing up the frailties of human nature: I could be benevolent; I could be a faker and a phony, too.

I enjoyed it, but would probably recommend it only if you know and like Terkel.

Kill Bin Laden

Another book I picked off the "librarian's selections" at our local library. It's an account, by the commander of the elite Delta Force unit, of their mission to find and kill bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains during a few days in December of 2001. Not my usual reading fare, and filled with tough guy talk that didn't appeal to me, this nevertheless gives great insights into the capabilities, and personalities, of the most highly trained and extraordinarily impressive special forces units. According to this account, they nearly had him - thought they might have had him - and only found out much later that their mission had failed, in terms of its specific objective, although the author (the pseudonymous "Dalton Fury") argues persuasively that killing large numbers of al Qaeda soldiers and driving bin laden from Afghanistan were major successes. Interesting read.

How Doctors Think

by Jerome Groopman, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. A thoughtful guy! This book gives many anecdotes to illustrate some ideas about the kinds of errors physicians make when arriving at incorrect diagnoses. Things like settling quickly on an obvious (but incorrect) diagnosis for a patient who is extremely unpleasant, or the converse, a reluctance to order very uncomfortable tests for patients they like very much and feel sympathy for. And much more. Not earth shattering, by any means, but some very interesting stories. And, surprisingly, some take-home lessons about questions you can ask your own physician to make sure they do not miss any crucial possibilities. Recommended.

Life on the Color Line

By Greg Williams, the new UC President. What a remarkable, harrowing, touching, and inspiring life this guy has led! His improbable story: born to an Italian-American father and southern belle mom and raised in Virginia in a town fraught with racial tension, until his charming but alcoholic and abusive father ran his restaurant into the ground. After his mother left and the family touched bottom, his father moved Greg and his brother to live with relatives in Muncie, Indiana - BLACK relatives, because the father was an African American passing as white and the formerly white Greg was now a very white African American, scorned by both sides of his heritage. How he suffered, coped and ultimately triumphed is a lesson in American racial attitudes - and the role played by his "truly mother" Dora is deeply moving. VERY highly recommended.