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?