Booksprice

Booksprice is book (and other entertainment media) search tool and price aggregator. You search for a book and it will list availability and prices. The website selection is deep, with the obvious big names (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell), but also smaller specialty sites, like ecampus. That will make cash strapped students happy, as they can evade insane college bookstore prices.

For my needs, the most interesting sites are the Amazon marketplace, Ebay, Alibris and the foreign Amazons. With these sites included you should be much more able to get your hands on a hard to find book. I searched for the hard to find Rules of the Game: Jutland and the British Naval Command and I found quite a few reasonable prices. As many of the sites are overseas, there is shipping to consider, but the overall price is still reasonable.

It has some other useful features as well. If you just want to look at a few sites when you search , you can exclude those you don't want to see. Once you find some books you can like, you can set up an RSS feed for the book, to allow you to easily check up on the prices. This would be helpful with new books that you suspect will hit remainder pricing in the coming weeks or months.

Nor the nails of the cross, nor the blood of Christ can bring you hope this eve

Colossus: the Forbin Project is sits with one foot in 60s science fiction movies and another in grim early 70s thrillers. On the one hand you have bright sets, crew cuts and swinging high ball parties. On the surface this is another low budget Cold War science fiction film. The heart of the movie is, on the other hand, much darker. This is a bleak story with an A+ ending.

The movie requires a jaw-dropping suspension of disbelief. An untested super-computer is given complete control of the nation's military and then sealed to prevent any way of disabling it. One you put this aside, you can enjoy the attempts by the scientists, the military and the CIA to prevent the computer from taking over the planet. As you can guess, the computer is a wily and rather dangerous foe.

The efforts to stop the machine are led by Dr. Charles Forbin, who is played like a smarmy, cocky Dr. Clayton Forrester. I recognized the actor, but couldn't place him until I realized I had seen his face in the checkout line. Actor Eric Braeden has earned his keep on the Young and the Restless since 1980. His Shatner-esque cheesiness in Colossus must have impressed the soap opera execs.

Pop culture aficionados will like this movie. There are familiar faces all over the place. Not only do we get Mrs. Cunningham and Webster's mom on Team Science, but we also get the Chief as the leader of the military effort to take back control of the nation's missiles.

I suppose this movie is about hubris with Forbin as Icarus. It can also be read as a critique of technological optimism, which was near its peak at the time of the movie's launch. As such, I think the movie is a legitimate science fiction film, if dated and a bit garish.

Best scifi

Internet entrepreneur Marc Andreessen lists his top science fiction novelists of the decade. Like I do, he puts a lot of emphasis on the British writers. Canadian Peter Watts makes the list, thanks to Blindsight. Chris Moriarty, the only woman on the list, is one I have been meaning to read. I have her Spin State around here somewhere. He has very high praise for the newest Vernor Vinge, which I had put in a future maybe state, but now he has me thinking again.

One commenter notes that Robert Charles Wilson is missing. I like his books, but I often feel let down by the endings. I have Spin, which everyone says is crazy good.

The Moz

Like most people of my generation, get a few beers in me, and I will break into a Morrissey impression. Judge your own against the real thing in a video for Last of the Famous International Playboys. This is the full kickin' Morrissey.

Morrissey has apparently selected his grave. When the dread day comes, the Hollywood Cemetary will no doubt need guards to shush away middle-aged mourners singing this one.

Friday fun

You know, while I remain skeptical that Hollywood can pull off a film version of I am Legend (and yes I am counting Omega Man) , I must congratulate the trailer team for making it all set-up. This is what a trailer should be. We get a very scary opener and then an empty Manhattan. If they can sack up and use the book's ending, then more power to them. The new Invasion of the Body Snatchers looks pretty good as well.

One of my least favorite historians, Howard Zinn, now has a book for teens. Walter Kirn has unkind words for it. (via Reason) Have a look at a severe critique of Zinn's book from the left. I'm rather taken with this line, "But to make sense of a nation's entire history, an author has to explain the weight and meaning of worldviews that are not his own and that, as an engaged citizen, he does not favor. Zinn has no taste for such disagreeable tasks." If you are seeking a left of center history of the US, I recommend you try American Colonies.

Why check the calendar, it's Corpus Christi, time for the Devil to jump over some babies!

The NY Times Book Review has a blog now. Check it out.

Here is an interesting example of how the current perspective can differ greatly from the historical perspective. Airminded reviews press clippings from the time of the Battle of Britain and compares them to our current understanding. It's worth considering as we read the current press. I am by no means claiming for example, that Iraq is going well. Rather it may be that what is really driving the Iraq war will become more clear to the general public some years hence.

Here is an interview with the editor of the New York Review of Books Classics series.

The humor in the lolcats craze has largely eluded me. Somehow this one clicked. There must be something wrong with me as this one is making jokes about a potentially disastrous event.

I've been walking these streets tonight

The 33 1/3 project is a fun, if occasionally frustrating, reading experience. Each slim volume relates to a specific, seminal album. In Let it Be, Colin Meloy of the Decembrists writes about the intense joy and excitement that music brings in the teen years. For Meloy, one of the most important bands was the Replacements. If you want to learn about the making of the album or anything much about the band, look elsewhere. I really liked it, but I can see how people might feel misled. The volume on Exile on Main Street is much more about the making of the record itself.

Eric Weisbard's book on Use Your Illusion I & II is about GNR's place in the rock world. He notes that the Illusion records were among the last of the blockbuster records. Rarely today do you see people lining up for a new record release, and rarely do you see giant sales either. When Weisbard debates the relative impact and import of the early 90s alternative scene with that of GNR, the book really sings. I enjoyed the cultural analysis of populist vs. elitist rock, as indie eventually became. A good portion of the book is a study of Axl Rose, which I found less interesting. I quite enjoyed the song by song analysis of the record which came at the end. This one is really for fans of the band, but that is true of the entire 33 1/3 series.

As to the GNR albums themselves, I bought them in the first month of my junior year abroad in London. For quite some time they were the only recorded music I had. In listening, I experienced a bit of the Phantom Menace syndrome. I wanted so much to like it, that I did. I didn't come full circle as I did on Phantom Menace, but as Clash fans did with Sandinista!, I ended up making a mix tape of my favorite songs from both albums. I would be hard pressed to fill up a mix tape these days. I still like the more over the top numbers like Coma, but a lot of it leaves me cold today.

Blumesday!

If you live in Portland, you should block out Saturday night for Blumesday. Yes, I know I can barely spell, but this is not a celebration of the Irish exile, rather a celebration of children's author Judy Blume. A number of local writers, led by Heather Larimer and Joanna Miller, will read from the Blume oeuvre and share their own experiences with growing up with Judy. As it is being held at the Bagdad, you can have a pint while you enjoy the show.

You can make a day of it by visiting the Judy Blume map at the Hollywood library and by reading some of Blume's books next to the Ramona, Henry Huggins and Ribsy statues at Grant Park.

Update: Thanks to Joanna for politely reminding me that Ramona and friends are Beverly Cleary characters. It's the lack of coffee, I swear.

Odds and ends

Sorry for the lack of posting, work has been really cutting back on my reading time. BLAST. Anyway, I started the very first Aurelio Zen novel, Ratking. It was a tad slow to start and it nearly made a premature visit to the goodbye pile, but I stuck with it and I am now quite entertained.

Did you know that Oregon=Israel and Virginia=Austria? In GDP terms at least. Check this awesome map posted on the Foreign Policy blog. It's part of their regular Tuesday Map feature, which is a treat for cartophiles.

Via Sarah Weinman, news that Stephen King is publishing a novella in Esquire.

Well I should have known that Christopher Hitchens would have something interesting to say. In this Powell's interview about his new book on religion the talk gets around to archetypes, which compels him to say "I wouldn't fuck Elizabeth Taylor with your dick." I of course have selected the most outrageous and least representative quote from this fascinating interview, which is really about religion and its place in society.

World War 2 books

If you are an Atlantic subscriber (or have access to Academic Search Premeir) , be sure to read Stalin's Gift in the May 2007 issue. In it Benjamin Schwarz's review of a few World War 2 books, in particular Norman Davies' Europe At War 1939-1945 and Stalin's Wars by Geoffrey Roberts. Both books point out that World War 2 was won by the Red Army and both argue that Stalin did not hold back his generals, but truly became a master strategist over the years. The great irony that the authors and Schwarz point out is that Stalin's gift was making the world safe for democracy.

In the same review he calls out Thunder in the East as the new standard history for the Eastern front. Looks like I need that one. He also tips his hat to the insanely prolific David Glantz.

On the World War 2 side, I am reading the wonderful Fire in the Sky by Eric Bergerud. It is a history of the air war in the South Pacific from 1942 to 1944. Unlike other military histories, which tend to narrate progress and focus on individual battles, Bergerud is interesting in analyzing why the war turned out like he did. So he starts by talking about the geography and how both sides chose and developed bases. He then talks about how they operated and how they designed their planes. Then he goes into the analysis of the planes themselves. It's so dense, but in a very good way.

This sort of thing is not for those who want a diverting narrative, but for those looking to understand the underlying causes for the direction of the war, this is flat out excellent.

I'm tired

So I started reading the Italian Letter, but I have grown weary and I stopped reading. I must be suffering some degree of Bush/Iraq fatigue. I mean if Cobra 2 , the One Percent Doctrine and Fiasco weren't enough to give me pause, I really shouldn't bother reading. I think the Italian Letter story is part of the overall theme of Hubris, which I plan to read at some point.

Anyway, after such serious Bush critiquing I was dismayed to see this headline from a Q&A with author Pete Hammill: "[Bush and Cheney] didn't grow up in Brooklyn, where you know if you punch a guy in the mouth, he's going to come back with three other guys and punch you back." He goes on to say that because Bush and Cheney grew up rich, they just don't get such things.

Amazingly, I wager that thousands of people read this and thought this was an intelligent thing to say. I'm not sure which is worse, the casually made link between background and foreign policy or the annoying trait of New Yorkers to think that we all care about Brooklyn.

The Decline of Western Civilization

Is captured here.

Well I know it might sound strange

Scholars of REM-iania continue to debate the relative merits of early and late period IRS, but the cognoscenti all agree on this point: Rockville is the best REM song. Few REM lines have ever come close to this one: "But everybody else in town only wants to bring you down and that's not how it ought to be."

What may be less known is that Mike Mills is the key lyricist of this song. While you ponder this, and wish for more Mike Mills penned songs, watch this video with a blond Michael Stipe.

Bits

Ok, this story isn't all that interesting. It even states that it isn't. I'm just glad there is a Civil War blog to take note that the National Archives issued a press release about Henry Halleck.

For the parents out there, Harry Potter theme park on the way.

OK again, not all that interesting, but the propaganda picture in this post is 1000% awesome. Also the subtitle of the blog is Airpower and British Society 1908-1941 (mostly) which is also probably the most awesome thing you will see all day.

Check out this Amazon post on under-promoted books getting new life from special imprints.

Bulls on a sad parade

Either you like police procedurals or you don't. These sorts of mysteries put as much emphasis on the lives and jobs of the cops as they do on whatever crimes or sets of crimes define the plot. For my money Peter Robinson writes some of the best. His Alan Banks novels follow the rise and fall of Yorkshire police careers and the (generally negative) impact on family life. I just read his Aftermath and quite liked it.

The book starts where many a novel would end, with the capture of a serial killer. Two cops investigating a domestic disturbance report run into a killing chamber and in the process capture a serial killer. From this a number of question arise, did the arresting officers apply too much force? What was the role of the serial killer's wife? The woman who reported the disturbance causes problems for the investigation by intervening with the media and the wife.

The storyline progressions are excellent, with good surprises. Long time readers will appreciate the waxing and waning fortunes of the police officers. Robinson has created a realistic, evolving set of characters that rarely see a happy day. Throw in a plot about dead teenagers and you don't have a terribly uplifting book.

As I said, if you tend to look askance at the mystery section, you will not like this book. If you have been trying to find a good series, this is it.

Noise rock alert

Pitchfork doesn't really like the new Shellac (that's right. . . THE NEW SHELLAC,) but as they cheekily note:

You're not even really reading this. Why would you? I could rate this album a 12 divided by Q or say it's on par with seven ham-and-cheese Hot Pockets and it wouldn't matter. Anyone who cares has already marched to their nearest independent retailer and purchased Excellent Italian Greyhound, laughed aloud at the dog picture, shook the unmarked CD from the gatefold cover (because Steve Albini hates digital recordings-- and you), and spun the vinyl with warm, grating satisfaction. The reviews are irrelevant, and one from Pitchfork probably means even less to Shellac listeners than most.

Note the subtle hint of general Pitchfork irrelevancy. Touching.

By the way, as a nod to the band, I was going to call this blog The Blog Against Itself. My wife that was stupid and didn't mean anything. So instead I picked a name that makes me look like a loser jackass. Truth in advertising, I suppose.

Update: I just listened to the new version of Spoke. It lacks the visceral madness of the Peel Session version, but the goofy intro is excellent.

I'm watching my back, I'm awaiting my visitation

I know a movie Alan Furst certainly watched, probably many times. The late 60s French film, Army of Shadows, is a bleak realist look at life in an underground movement, in this case the French Resistance. Like Furst, it creates a feeling of great tension of against the cruelest regime in history. A number of Resistance team members are captured, some escape, some don't. At one point, the Germans line some prisoners up in a long hall. At one end is a machine gun. They are told if they can make it to the other end, they can live another day. They will just get shot later.

Unlike Furst, the movie takes a bleaker view of the undercover life. In one scene a traitor is executed. In another, a beloved comrade is shot because the Germans finally found a weakness. And none of the overall fates is good. Some of the best parts involve characters feeling out other Frenchman to see where their sympathies lie. When speaking to the wrong person can mean death, it pays to be cautious.

The movie is understated, with only a few scenes qualifying as action scenes. Most of the action is spent avoiding police or trying to find just the right moment to act. There are lots of meaningful glances and stares. At one point, a resistance officer visits London and is clearly unable to take in the difference in the cities. While he fights a quiet war of shadows, the hot war sailors and soldiers enjoy active R&R.

According to the Ebert review, the movie was unpopular upon release because the prevailing leftist viewpoint found the film pro-DeGaulle and hence rightist. From the American 2007 viewpoint, it is difficult to pin any political stance on the film. The ideology appears to be resist Germans (despite fleeting chance for success) and the film has communists and royalists contributing and dying for the cause.

Read this one

In 84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff noted that she only read non-fiction. She could get all the drama, comedy and tragedy she needed out it, with the added satisfaction that it truly happened. There are a number of authors, like Hampton Sides and Sebastian Junger, who can make a historical event far more exciting than any thriller. Working in nonfiction allows you to tell an exciting story, but to also connect it to larger issues. James Swanson's Manhunt is an excellent example of this.

The book subtitled the 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer and it really is about the day of the assassination, the twelve day chase and the aftermath for those touched by the chase. While it starts off a bit slow as it introduces us to John Wilkes Booth, as soon as Lincoln arrives at Ford's Theater, the book becomes intensely gripping. Swanson makes a point that Booth was an actor, and that he acted theatrically whenever possible, even to his great detriment in his attempted escape. After one Virginian doctor refused to give him shelter, he took the time to pen a flowery letter condemning the doctor for his treachery. He did this with the cavalry hot on his trail.

The dramatic theme extends to the book's structure which switches from Booth and his naive crony David Herrold, to Secretary of War Stanton who led the chase, to the various seekers, to the conspirators and to the people Booth met along the way. Swanson highlights the near misses and the dramatic details. We see how Booth talked his way past the guards of the bridge out of Washington, how he hid in the woods and how he got lost on the Potomac River.

Those who helped Booth didn't turn out so well. One who helped him was Maryland Southern sympathizer Dr. Samuel Mudd. Mudd vacillated between helping someone with whom he supported and the protection of his family. He was eventually jailed on a isolated fort in what is now the Dry Tortugas National Park. Swanson notes that Mudd's family began a propaganda effort to say he really didn't help Booth at all and was mistreated. As I recall, the Park presented the Mudd family view. Swanson argues that Mudd actually tried to help Booth, but then realized this would cost him so concocted a story to clear his name.

This is the most entertaining book I have read in a long time.

Nerd power

Sorry, I have been crazy busy these few days. What little social time I possess has been spent on board games. Yes, it is nerdy, but it is better than sitting along and reading a fantasy novel (which I probably would have been doing otherwise). And drinking a few beers while playing games looks a lot better than drinking a few beers while reading a fantasy novel. Anyway, here are a few winners;

Twilight Struggle: Oh my goodness, is this good. You get to fight the whole Cold War in about three hours. There is little actual fighting just the spreading of influence through diplomacy and covert action. There is a fair amount of luck, as all the action depends on the cards you hold, but it is a wild ride. If you were an international relations major, you really need this one. After you play you will spend hours thinking of ways to keep the US or the USSR out of the Middle East.

Puerto Rico: If direct conflict isn't your bag, you might like the economic conflict in Puerto Rico. Each player is a Spanish colonial magnate trying to develop land and then ship products back to Spain. There are multiple strategies to win and you can learn the game in about 15 minutes. Super fun.

Ticket to Ride: Marklin edition: Ticket to Ride is about connecting train routes on the United States. You can learn in minutes and even play with your kids. The Marklin edition is set in Germany and adds an additional challenge, getting passengers to the big cities. This small change makes for much more decision-making. Like the other two games, there is a wonderful tension throughout.

Closed sign swinging in the window of the liquor store

There is a new band with the name Suburban Kids with Biblical Names. Those wise in the ways of music will recognize the name from a Silver Jews song. If I had my way, all band names would come from Silver Jews songs.

The morose emo bands could take names like "Chalk Lines Around My Body." Country bands could take "Sometimes I dream of Texas." Daft-Punk technocore types could use "Windex tears flow down the robot's face." Seriously, there is no need to go anywhere else for inspiration.

On the subject of music, if you like the Strokes you will like this solo song from band member Albert Hammond Jr.

Another book sale windfall

I considered not attending this weekend's Friends of the Multnomah County Library Book Sale. This is the small Spring event to help clear inventory ahead of the big event in the Fall. I'm glad I went as I quickly hit my more-books-than-I-can-uncomfortably-carry limit. Among this weekend's finds (all either new or in close to new shape) and for $24.

Lee's Lieutenants. To be fair, this is a book that I want to own, on the very off chance that I will ever read it. I picked up Stephen Sears's abridgement of Douglas Southall Freeman's epic three volume monster on Confederate Army officers. Since I probably won't read it, you might ask why I didn't look for the three volume edition. I'd rather have a book I probably won't read over one I most surely won't.

The First Crusade by Thomas Asbridge. I've been eyeballing this one for some time. I believe he ties this into the overall Christendom vs. Islam story without being a 21st century finger-wagger.

Running Blind by Lee Child. I loved the first two Child books, but put the third one down. I like to give a man another chance.

Losing Nelson by Barry Unsworth. Unsworth is one of my favorite contemporary British writers (and I like a lot of them.) Tie that into my love of naval history and I think we have a winner.

Strip Jack by Ian Rankin. I like to read mystery novels in order, and I decided to skip ahead on Rankin. I figure his later ones are better anyway.

Son of the Morningstar by Evan S Connell. This is a history covering Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn. Connell is an excellent writer so I can't wait to see how he handles this one.

The White Lioness by Henning Mankell. A nice brooding mystery author. When I took my stack up to the cashier the sale volunteer wailed that he wished he had seen this one. The volunteers get the first look and descend on all the choice books I take it.

UPDATE: As all know, I love both Multnomah Public Library and the Friends of the Library, so I did not mean to disparage, merely to kid. Sorry!

What the people paid to write are reading

The New York Times has a long piece asking well known authors about what they have been reading lately. Slow review season I guess. Gary Wills, author of a Pulitizer Prize winning book on Lincoln's speechwriting, deserves credit for describing another author thusly: "The master of Lincoln’s mastery over the word."

But then I got to Edwidge Danticat. Now Ms. Danticat may be the best author on Earth, an author who could lead me to openly weep in public places, but I will never, ever, know. You see, I have this friend who manages to tell his Edwidge Danticat story almost every time I see him. Apparently, said friend went to see Ms. Danticat speak. The author, who is Haitian, said that she was writing books for all the little Haitian girls who couldn't look up to an author like themselves. The first few times I heard this story, I thought how very nice. As the cascade of repitition continued I began to quite dislike hearing her name. At this point I have to avert my eyes at the bookstore. The only thing worse than being recommended the same book, over and over again, is being told the same story about an author, over and over again.

People dressing up in bags, directing traffic, some kind of fashion

I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 94-97 and at that time the historically Italian North Beach didn't seem very Italian. At best, it was a strip of Italian restaurants and a few churches surrounded by an expanding Chinatown. Domenic Stansberry's Last Days of Il Duce is set in mid-80s San Francisco when North Beach was in its last gasps as a ethnic Italian neighborhood.

The main character Niccolo Abruzzi Jones represents the neighborhood. He was once a successful lawyer, but is now a bag man for a local Chinese power broker/gangster. His is only part Italian and has mostly given up any ties to things Italian. The only Italian elements left are the old people, many of whom long for the rigorous days of Il Duce. As it turns out, we later learn the older Chinese take the same view of the younger Chinese.

Nick's brother is killed and he wants to find out why. He also feels guilty that he can now have a relationship with his brother's ex-wife who has he loved since childhood. There are a few other complications as well, including the return of a man Nick suspects of having an affair with his mother.

The mystery itself isn't all that mysterious. The emphasis here is on doomed characters in a doomed community. San Francisco itself is portrayed not unlike the 1970s NYC of the Stones Shattered. Sex, drugs and violence appear to be the only activities of choice in Nick's town. So if you are looking for big surprises look elsewhere, but if you want some San Francisco noir, this would be a good choice.

Random

Oh my, oh my. So funny. Be sure to watch the Tea Partay.

Speaking of New England blue bloods, Mark Mills, author of the New England set Amagansett, has a new one called the Savage Garden. He moves the action to Tuscany and throws in some medieval intrigue. I loved the first book, which reminded me of the wistful literary thrillers of Robert Goddard, the writer, not the rocket guy.

Michiko HATES the new Ian McEwan. "After two big, ambitious novels — “Atonement” and “Saturday” — Ian McEwan has inexplicably produced a small, sullen, unsatisfying story that possesses none of those earlier books’ emotional wisdom, narrative scope or lovely specificity of detail." Got-dam, that is some heavy hating.

Update: Jonathan Yardley LOVES it.

Alien fun

I rewatched Alien (in Director's Cut form) last evening. With its unfortunate franchise, I expected to be unimpressed by the original, which I have not seen in years. It remains as excellent as my memory told me. It takes the slow paced claustrophobic 2001 approach as opposed to the frenetic Star Wars approach. This was an excellent choice. The slow moving Nostromo appears all the more huge, the slow approach to the planet is all the more forbidding and the alien ship is particularly odd. Had there been all sorts of distractions, the power of these images would have waned.

The cast is also excellent. I like that the crew of the Nostromo are battered working class types, the kind you would expect that would sign up for a long haul cargo trip to the edge of space. It also makes sense that they are completely unprepared for the coming of the alien, which makes their attempts to stop it all the more compelling.

Having rewatched Aliens recently, I still enjoyed the Hudson dialogue, but found the emphasis on special effects dated the film quite a bit. Having more people die also limits the impact as we spend little time with each of them. I still enjoyed it, but I don't think it holds up as well.

I appreciate the fact that the franchise took an entirely new direction with Alien 3, but in the end I found it far too somber for my taste. The shift of Ripley to a symbiotic relationship with the Alien which didn't really work for me. And with the exception of the swimming aliens, Alien 4 was pretty weak.

Still, if you are able to put the follow-ons aside, the first is worth a visit again. If only to see Bilbo Baggins as a young mysterious science officer.

Another list

If you find yourself staring aimlessly at the bookstore or library racks, you should read New York magazine's Best Books you've Never Read feature. I've read only a few of them, including A Debt To Pleasure and the Amalgamation Polka. Most though are totally new to me.

Arthur and George

I've not had much luck with Julian Barnes. I tried England, England and another volume with out much success. In this case, the third one was in fact the charm. I just devoured Arthur and George. Now, I must admit I am a fool for the setting, late Victorian to Edwardian England. The twin stories are what convince.

George is George Edjali, a man who just wants to live a quiet life as a Birmingham solicitor. No luck on that front, he ends up accused of animal slaughter. Arthur is a rather famous fellow, who deep in a funk, rallies to George's cause. Of the two, Arthur's is the weaker story. The details of his affair are well written, but certainly nothing we haven't read before. That said, they end up being of great import to the story. Be sure to read the author's note at the end about this. There is an unfortunate, but unsurprising sidebar.

In some ways, the two men are similar. Both are non-Englishmen who seek to be English. Society embraces one, but disdains the other. They both also have difficulty attaining their goals, a normal life for one, and literary stature for the other.

I found the critique of the English society well-balanced. While the coarser elements have their way, the better part of England pushes back and eventually makes right. To a degree at least. In the final resolution we see that perception rather than reality is more important for all sides. George ends up being the lonely voice for due process and reason, which I suppose is another level of Barnes's critique.

Themes aside, it is a well written story and portrait of the age. The parlor debate between Arthur and George's oppressor is excellent as are the descriptions of country life vs. Birmingham. This one was short listed for the Booker in 2005. That one went to the Sea, so it is fair to say Julian Barnes was robbed. If the Booker is true to form, his next novel will win to make up for this oversight.

Those days are gone forever

Yesterday was the non-official first of day of summer. What could be more appropriate than a pensive, reflective song to kick it off? Here is Don Henley's Boys of Summer.

Weapons of Choice

If your willing suspension of disbelief has been waning, you are going to need a booster shot for Weapons of Choice. The book starts in 2021 with a multinational force attempting to prevent the new Indonesian Caliphate from invading East Timor. A new high tech weapon goes haywire and tosses the fleet back to 1942. About half the ships survive the transition, after either being destroyed in transit or scrapping with the locals. Unlike the similar Final Countdown, the future people change the past from the get go, and they have no way back.

A weaker book would have posited superweapons in a World War 2 with a similar timeline. This one complicates matters by having ships and more importantly, knowledge of technology and history, fall into all hands. After Midway, the timeline diverges mightily from our own as the actors make very different choices.

Alternative history usually avoids sociological questions. When future people interact with past people they rarely differ in viewpoints. The 1942 Americans are shocked to see black and Asian senior American military personnel and the the future Americans don't take to well to the treatment of their shipmates.

A subtler difference arises over the time. The future Americans have been at war with Islamic terror for 20 years and the book hints at nuclear strikes, air crashes and multiple brush wars. The future Americans strike the past Americans as cruel, violent and emotionless. Certainly, 2021 Navy SEALS are the wrong people for 1942 sailors to pick on in a bar brawl.

Some will scoff that the lead ship is the Hilary Clinton ( her namesake is called the most uncompromising war President in history - and apparently assassinated to boot.) Those who find this implausible should consider that Gerald Ford is getting a carrier. So pretty much you just need to be President to get one.

Delicious goodness

I've had great luck with the victuals of late. Today, I visted Elephant's Deli as my parents are great fans. I was sent to find a tasty beverage for my dad. Thinking the best I could manage would be a micro cola, I was shocked to see Elephant's is now offering milk shakes based on Ruby Jewels Ice Cream. Yes, the makers of the world's best ice cream sandwiches offer milkshakes. It's a delight, so get over to NW PDX. Or come to Portland at the very least.

Having enjoyed the day, I thought we needed to savor some tasty beer. My normal stop is the Beaumont Market, and I was surprised to see the Dog Fish Head Red & White. It has a nice fruitiness to it, which makes sense as it contains Pinot Noir juice and orange. Its not overly sweet, but I can see people feeling that way. At 10% ABV, it has the standard Dog Fish high test masquerading as light beer effect. Beware, but enjoy it.

On the same visit to Beaumont, a representative from Chimes Gourmet was promoting their ginger chews. I doubted that a peppermint ginger chew or a peanut butter ginger would be tasty. I wasn't too keen on the peanut butter, but the cool mint played nicely against the spice of the ginger.

Amazingly the taste delights continued. Last night I tried the Lemon Shaker Pie with Meyer Lemons. The basic pie recipe calls for sliced lemons macerated in sugar. The bitterness of the lemon rind can be a turn off, but the sweet rind Meyer Lemon makes for a knock out pie. If I didn't have a Perry's Chocolate Chip pie waiting for tomorrow night, I would have wrecked that lemon pie. I really need a bike ride.

Is Fletch bad?

No, its not, although Reihan Salam of the American Scene argues that it is a case of liberal angst at the rise of Reagan. This is the base of his argument, that Fletch is a boor and a liberal one at that. He is not blinkered, as his favorite 80s comedy is an explicitly liberal attack on the military industrial complex. Still I didn't find his anti-Fletch attack convincing. Although perhaps we can blame it, along with SNL, for the rise of catchphrase comedy.

Literary vs. genre

Thinking about the Yiddish Policeman's Union, I was trying to understand why I considerate it a literary novel that uses the detective form, as opposed to a literary detective novel. While the distinction may seem subtle to the point of triviality, it does make a difference.

In the latter case, if someone tells you the ending, it may not be worth reading the book. In the case of the Chabon book, you would certainly lose the pleasure of guessing, but the main point is the characters and their reactions. For straight up mystery novels, keeping the plot a secret is essential. As an example, Rennie Airth's River of Darkness has some of the greatest surprises I have ever read. Few books elicit actual outbursts of surprise, but this one certainly did. But if someone were to describe the plot of the book to you, I wouldn't recommend reading it.

Of course literary books have plot points you would rather not know. In the case of Atonement, there are some real shockers that are best experienced by reading. That said, even if you know the surprises, there are chapters that are well worth reading. The Dunkirk retreat was astounding and could be read as a standalone story.

I am not defending spoilers, as spoilers are evil, but noting that certain books, once spoiled, are truly not worth the time, while others provide value despite the revelation. I think this is one dimension of a literary book. One fellow who certainly agrees is Anthony Trollope, who in the midst of one of his books asks the reader if he or she thinks so and so will marry so and so. And he tells you yes they will so stop worrying and just enjoy the story. That is someone confident in his writing.

Chabon

The Yiddish Policeman's Union is another great book from Michael Chabon. It works very well as a literary novel, and reasonably well as a mystery.

Like other literary mysteries, the story is not the main point. Instead it is about a person, Detective Landsman, who acts despite apparent futility of action. He works in the Yiddish District of Sitka, an autonomous region of Alaska given to European Jews in the 40s, which is now reverting to Alaska. And the locals are looking forward to the Jews leaving. Landsman pursues a case, despite being told to drop it. His friends and family's experiences nicely tell the story of an people out of place, trying and occasionally succeeding in making a home.

My main complaint is that it suffers from some of the problems of the mystery genre. In more mysteries than not, good ones included, once you learn what is happening, it all seems pedestrian. Once the plot behind the murder is revealed, it does feel a bit like a let down. It also feels a bit tacked on. You can argue it makes sense in the political context established in the book, but I thought it was dissatisfying.

Like the great mystery writers of the 50s, Chabon is taking a much more stronger political stance than I have seen in his other books. I thought this worked well and made perfect sense. The fate of the minority in an alien society is front and center in this book. Middle Eastern and by extension American politics creeps in slowly over time. He has a jaundiced view of it, which he makes clear in the end, particularly in the closing paragraphs.

It used to be Espana Nuevo, it used to be Navajo

This brief review isn't strong, but you have to give a book points for having a title like A Cow is Too Much Trouble in Los Angeles. From, Reading California Fiction, another pleasing theme blog.

Here is a MP3 of John Hodgman describing Powell's in 30 seconds. I still turn to Areas of My Expertise whenever I need a laugh. His site links to Bruce Campbell singing a fave early 80s song for Old Spice. Awesome.

Click here to determine which historical lunatic you are. I am Charles VI, also known as the Mad, of France.

Here is a new candidate for GOP nomination that I can get behind.

Orion has caused a stir by producing edited versions of classic texts. Those wags at the NY Times asked a number of writers which books they want edited. My love of Christopher Buckley reaches new heights as he chooses Ayn Rand. Ann Patchett says that the famous Orwell books suck.

Oil, the national turmoil

If you need inspiration to conserve, or better yet, to become more educated about energy, then you should probably watch A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash. Like nearly every documentary, this one has a strong point of view. The thesis is that global economic and population growth has been fueled by oil and now the oil is running out. The range of interviewees is impressive. We go from a political scientists, to an oil minister in Azerbaijan to a Bush energy adviser. While Americans dominate, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela and Britain are also represented. As the new super-consumers, India and China are missing, as are viewpoints that argue against the thesis.

Despite that, the movie is not alarmist. The tone is very calm, with the exception of the survivalist guy. The most effective interviews came from Matthew Simmons, the former Bush energy adviser and investment banker. He explains the concept of peak oil and describes the global decline in production lucidly and persuasively. I was less taken with the political scientist who took a reductionist approach to oil and foreign policy. This may be driven by the films editing, as context appears have to been dropped in a few cases.

On the subject of oil, I am reading the End of Oil. It's a very readable summary of the major issues in the energy economy including alternatives, legislation and global warming. After watching Matthew Simmons, I would like to read his book Twilight in the Desert, which I had seen as being overly technical.

For a look at the possible geopolitical effects, take a look at Michael Klare's Resource Wars. One of the classic, if a bit dated, studies of the oil industry is the Prize.

I always come back to you, I'm just a bad penny

My rock movie and book kick continues apace. The most recent item is DiG!, a documentary about seeking success in rock music. While this sounds like a Behind the Music episode with swear words, it is quite a bit more.

For one, the documentary follows two frenemy bands, the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols. The band members are like siblings from a broken family. They can't stand each other, but can't seem to stay away either. They play pranks on each other and torment one another. With the first burst of success, the Dandies go to the BJM flophouse early in the morning for a surprise photo shoot. The crazed leader of BJM, Anton Newcomber, responds by penning an anti-Dandy song and then mailing the group with shotgun shells with their names literally on them. The period covered is nearly ten years and the back and forth continues over the same period.

Anton Newcombe is too crazed (and too little known) for a Behind the Music episode. He proclaims his revolutionary character and his hit making prowess, but squanders it in drug use and abuse of his bandmates and the audience. Documentaries can lie through selective use of footage, but at the very least Anton had some career limiting behavior. Getting in fights with bandmates when the labels come to see you is not the wisest of courses.

While those interviews talk about making music and incredible live performances, the focus is much more on the process of music making. We see touring, recording, writing and excessive behavior including the consumption of much cocaine. What we don't hear is a lot of music. A failing of the movie is that we are told that BJM is one of the greatest bands you have never heard, but none of what we hear or see validates this claim. As one of the movies theses is that success is as much about luck and not being a jackass, I think this is OK.

The DVD has commentary from both bands and it is well worth listening for context.

Smart people, please breed faster

After watching Idiocracy and reading How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World, I thought it the tides of ignorance may well be rising. Now, learning that three of the leading Republican candidates for President don't believe in evolution and then seeing this, I fear the levees may soon break.

Thematic blogs

Well here is something fun. This fellow is reading all the Hugo and Nebula award winners and blogging about it. He's just gotten started, but it looks like it will be worth watching. I quite like these theme blogs. One of the best is the Criterion Contraption, which provides lengthy reviews of Criterion Collection DVDs. Another great one is Pop Songs 07 which is a review of REM songs. Did you know "Hyena" is about US foreign policy? Neither did I. Lots of good comments on that blog as well.

I suppose I could write about all the Bookers, as I have already read quite a few. And it is fun to have a reading list. I just went through one of my ritual library books purges. My standard behavior is to keep checking out books until I see I have far too many. Then I take them all back.

Three cheers for Charlie

I'm in the definite minority as a non-Charlie-hating Lost watcher. I even kinda like him. So I really liked this week's episode. And one of the finest Lost commentators, who blogs for the Houston Chronicle, has a truly excellent review of the episode and the thematic issues.

Faerie stories

Ask a reasonably open person about the music they like and they probably say "Oh I listen to everything. Except country." The country music of books is fantasy. While the haters will occasionally dip into the the more literary scifi like Jonathan Lethem, Philip K Dick or Kurt Vonnegut, fantasy is the undiscovered country.

Raymond Feist's Faerie Tale is one the haters should consider. Feist is best known for his never-ending Riftwar books, but Faerie Tale is blissfully standalone. The plot involves a modern American family moving to a rural house in upstate New York. Unfortunately for them, the nearby wood is connected to a Celtic tinged faerie land. The family children are slowly drawn into a not so friendly and oh so alien world.

I suspect that part of the appeal is the compact nature of the story and the connection to the modern world. If there is a gateway book to fantasy, this one could well be it.

Items

Here we have ten books that, if seen in a rider's hands, would make you change trains. I've never seen anything truly disturbing on Max train in Portland, just a few novels. The Metro in DC was all programming books and policy books. (via lgm)

One of my top reads of 2006 was Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea. That book was about Irish and English people fleeing the Irish Famine of 47-48. His new book concerns Irish Americans in the US Civil War. The Scotsman has a profile on O'Connor here.

If you like food writing, this book looks like a must.

Robert Kurson had a hit with Shadow Divers, the story of the discovery and exploration via extreme diving of a Nazi U-boat. His new book is also about pushing physical limits. In this case, the book concerns an experimental surgery to bring eyesight back to the blind. The book is about learning to see again.

It's hamburger month. Portland is about to get Mark Lindsay's Rock and Roll Cafe which is to feature Yaw's burgers, a popular burger from the baby boomer days. The Hollywood burger bar owners across the street probably won't be too psyched.

The triumph of evil

No, I'm not talking about Alberto Gonzalez, but books in which evil wins. I just finished Empire, a graphic novel in which a Doctor Doom-like character called Golgoth, rules the world (except Greenland and a few other spots.) It is a good graphic novel, but I wish it had it explored the process by which the destroyer becomes the manager and the defender of the new status quo. Or, using Qin vs. Han dynasties, or Caesar vs. Augustus, as a template, showing how he violent usurper is followed by the pragmatic reformer who creates an empire which can be maintained.

In the end, it is a book about a world ruled by evil. There aren't a lot of books like this around. Most books describe how an evil force is defeated as opposed to life under evil. William Barton's When Heaven Fell explores the moral compromises of living under totalitarian (alien) rule. The Devil's Day is another one. I suppose people would prefer more uplifting material.

Chabon

I am about 1/4 of the way into the new book and it is great. There are lots of nods to mystery plots, the main one is that the detective can't leave well enough alone and is investigating a crime no one want investigated.

The book is also an exploration of different sorts of Jewishness. I think Chabon is arguing the classic loose cannon detective is similar to a certain kind of secular Jew. In particular his character notes that his people (although he is speaking particularly of himself) can't leave well enough alone and act out spite more times than not. That is a good description of a detective in a mystery novel at least.

The Post had an online chat with him yesterday, the transcript is here. There are lots of interesting bits about his writing, but I was also pleased to learn about a fourth His Dark Materials book and to learn about writers Chabon considers under-recognized. Of the six, I had only read two (Furst and Elmore Leonard's Western novels,) so I am happy for new books to seek.

We don't need another hero

Now I like 24 as much as the next action show junkie. The first and third seasons were fantastic and I am enjoying the fourth as well. However, I am well aware that this is a TV program and not a thoughtful source of policy guidance. This is apparently lost on the Republican Presidential field. Reason has a disturbing piece on the apparent confusion. Key line:

"What's it say about the GOP field that they're more comfortable answering hypothetical questions about a terrorist plot on a TV show than answering questions about the Iraq War - which, you know, actually exists? Nothing good."

Greg Djerejian discusses the whole-hearted candidate enthusiam for Gitmo. I suppose the US global position isn't tarnished enough for these people.

They've got me feeling deluxe, for just a couple of bucks

I take immense pleasure at finding books at out of the way used bookstores. Since you can get most items via abebooks or Amazon used books, you don't even need to go digging. Still the pleasure of the hunt and the discovery are hard to replace.

I stopped at one recently and found a few great treats. The first is Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry. McCarry was long out of print, although he is finally back on the new shelves. This one looks at the Kennedy assassination. Yes, its been done too many times, but I suspect that in McCarry's capable hands it will be a winner.

I also found John Dickson Carr's the Burning Court, which came highly recommended on one of Michael Dirda's chats. This one is riskier as the prose is dated, and I don't always deal well with that.

Then there was Fire in the Sky and Risen Empire, which weren't all that exciting since you can probably get them just about anywhere. I suppose there is something hideously pathetic about taking such pleasure in finding cheap books. It's better than having a smack habit.

The world begins to disappear

Pakistan is looking more and more troubling. To be fair, Pakistan always looks troubling. Pakistan and Israel are the only countries founded on an idea. In Pakistan's case, it is the idea that South Asian Muslims need a country of their own. And maybe the idea is not enough to hold the country together. The only strong institutions are the Army and the intelligence service, and right now they are battling nascent civil society movements as well as specific ethnic groups. This matters of course as Pakistan has a number of nuclear weapons.

The frightening possibilities in the future make John Robb's book, Brave New War, The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization seem all the more important to read. While globalization appears to be unstoppable today, it also did in 1913.

Are we not men? We are Devo

Mike Judge had great success with the cult hit Office Space in the 90s, so it is a little surprising that Fox gave zero promotion to his recent Idiocracy. It could be that he hits too many targets (including Fox News) a little too closely.

This is a nasty satire of modern life in the form of a sci-fi comedy. Luke Wilson plays Joe, a shiftless Army private, chosen to participate in a one year test of suspended animation. Things go wrong and he is frozen for 500 years. When he wakes up, he finds that humanity has devolved, growing more and more stupid with each passing year. By the year 2505, Joe is now the world's smartest man, and his test-mate, the world's smartest woman.

Judge attacks the cultural fixation with base humor, mindless violence, the creeping commercialism of daily life and the replacement of thought with entertainment. In do so doing he uses the crass humor he attacks, but I do think he is asking us to laugh at it, rather than with it. For example, in the future, the most popular TV is called Ow! My Balls! and is nothing but an endless stream of shots to the sack. This of course is similar to America's Funniest Home Videos. The most popular movie is called Ass, and is 90 minutes of an ass that occasionally farts.

Judge hits Fox News with an idiotic correspondent who seems like a mildly less intelligent Nancy Grace. My favorite moment involves Joe trying to convince his eventual colleagues of a solution to a national problem. Unfortunately, this conflicts with an ad slogan, and the cognitive dissonance is too much too bear. It's quite funny to see their confusion, but I swear I am going to do my best to forget ad slogans.

I loved this movie and wish it got more play. If you don't mind the crass humor (imagine the devolution of burger joint Fuddrucker's name) you should actually find it stimulating.

It doesn't mean they're not after you

Thomas H Cook's The Chatham School Affair is one of my all time favorite mysteries. Yes, the plot is excellent, but unlike so many other mystery stories, it is emotionally resonant as well. I saw good notices for his newest, the Cloud of Unknowing, so I gave it a shot. In the book, a mentally ill boy drowns and the mother suspects the father. Complicating matters is that grandfather was a paranoid schizophrenic and the mother's brother suspects she is becoming unhinged as well.

I liked rather than loved this one. Cook provides all kinds of tension with a two track narrative. Long flashbacks are broken up by an conversation, which may be an interrogation, of the brother by the local police detective. This provides the dual tension as we follow the original death and the subsequent tragedies.

Cook is interested in how families can bend and break under pressure and this book is no exception. The inter-relationships of the family members provide a few very good emotional wallops. They don't have the gut punch that the Chatham School Affair's do, but they are still terribly sad.

I've heard that Cook's Red Leaves is an equal to the Chatham School Affair, so I plan to give that one a try.

When I was just a lad

Jim the Boy by Tony Earley is a brief, lyrical look at growing up in a Depression era North Carolina town. Each chapter shows Jim learning how to make friends, dealing with fights, understanding his family and the people around him. In other words, the pedestrian things that make up growing up. Earley does a good job of showing how adolescents wrestle with learning to see thing other people's way and dealing with shame.

As to the shame, it is quite basic. He feels he let down his uncles by not working effectively enough on his first day in the fields. Most writers would have him tormented/conflicted sexually. Walter Kirn in the NYT notes that " his year-in-the-life story of a rural boyhood unmarked by parental abuse, erotic turmoil or domestic dysfunction seems strangely brave and new." How many books/movies about country people involve some terrible event in the past that haunts them to this day? Part of this is the urban disdain of the rural I suspect. On a similar note, Earley doesn't talk down to his characters. Rural people are often shown as stupid or with exaggerated accents. Here they are treated fairly.

Kirn also points out that the novel makes use of the magical negro, in the form of a farm hand named Abraham. It's not an egregious case, but it falls a little flat. Abraham speaks words of wisdom and actually gets Jim out of a tight scrape at one point. Its not a fatal flaw, as he remains a tertiary character.

By making the story basic and simple, Earley has made it real. Most people will be able to recall their own first encounters with friends, the first toys that really mattered to them, when they started understanding their parents and relatives as people rather than as icons.

More science fiction books

Orbit, a science fiction imprint from the UK, is coming to the US. They list the books they are planning to publish in late 2007/early 2008. Some of them look quite good. It mentions a new book called Matter. Cheekily, the acting title for his last non-sf book was also Matter, apparently he like to play some jokes. The Orbit site also says that it plans to republish Consider Phlebas and Player of Games, both of which are must read science fiction novels that have been long out of print in the US.

Episodes 3.3 and 3.67

George Lucas says there will be two more Star Wars movies. Before you get excited (or roll your eyes) you need to know that each one will be one hour, appear on a TV network, and have none of the Skywalker family. I think that might actually be a good idea. Do we need to see a little Luke who will only remind us of Episode 1 Anakin? No.

We could get Admiral (Ensign?)Piett, the early years. Or perhaps they could just let the people who make the Knights of the Old Republic games make the movies. They tell a better story than Lucas anyway.

Who let all this riff raff into the room?

So reviews of the Yiddish Policeman's Union can be boiled down to "I guess the writing is good, but...it's a detective story." The most blatant and bizarre case I've yet seen is on Slate where Ruth Franklin claims "Michael Chabon has spent considerable energy trying to drag the decaying corpse of genre fiction out of the shallow grave where writers of serious literature abandoned it."

Hmmm, right, serious literary writers have no truck with genre fiction. I suppose we'll have to overlook Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning The Road, which is a science fiction novel about the apocalypse. And shoot, I guess we have to lay aside Jim Crace's new one. Crace's, read exclusively by literary enthusiasts, newest book is, well, a science fiction novel about the end of the world. Does Margaret Atwood count as literary? That Oryx and Crake book smelled rather heavily of speculative fiction.

And, oh bother, what to make of John Banville? If Banville doesn't count as a writer of serious literature, then the Earth is bereft of writers of serious literature. Here, under a thin pseudonym, Banville has written a crime novel. And this isn't some lark or bet, or a joke on the rubes, Banville is planning to make it a series! Thanks to the pseudonym you might think Banville is embarrassed by his descent into the genres. If so, he probably wouldn't publish an essay on the Attraction of Crime Novels.

He closes his exploration of the subject with appropriate words for Ms. Franklin "And is it art? That is not for me to say. But if it is art, then it is so by accident. And anyway, what does it matter, art or otherwise? For oh, dear, what fun I am having."

Rockin was nowhere in sight

After reading Rip It Up and Start Again, I decided I needed to read more books about music. Instead of asking friends or finding good reviews to create a potential reading list, I just picked some possibilities up at the library. With a reasonable frequency, I find decent books this. That didn't happen this time.

I first picked up Nirvana, the Stories Behind Every Song, hoping to learn things like Come As You Are, is about Cobain's My Pretty Pony or something surprising of that nature. No luck. I should have been warned by the back cover which posed the idiotic question "Who is the Floyd in Floyd the Barber." Fine, maybe you don't remember him from the show, but when the lyric "Opie, Aunt Bea I presume, comes up," you don't have much of an excuse. The book presents a basic and all tool adulatory account of the band's history with the songs serving as milestones. Yes, there is something to be learned, but skimming reviews will get you all you can get here.

I then took a chance on Fool the World, and lost once more. Following the success of Please Kill Me, the authors took the oral history approach. Unfortunately it reads like a bunch of unedited notes. There may be some genius here, but I wasn't willing to swim through a bunch of mush to get to it.

I suppose what I was really looking for was a dispassionate, analytical account of these two bands. I want someone to do the thinking and then present a thesis they can back up. And tell a good story while at it.

Some new books on the way

Here are a few books that have my eye at the moment.

Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy. I am generally predisposed to comparing the American state of dominance to the British Empire, but that is primarily in foreign policy terms. It appears that Murphy does blends both domestic and foreign concerns in his book. There is an summary article in the June Vanity Fair, if you are interested.

In the Ruins of Empire by Ronald Spector. I know quite a bit about World War 2 and the Korean War, but I don't know all that much about what happened in between the conflicts. This book covers that era with attention paid to the Chinese Civil War, Malaya, Korea and Vietnam. It looks rather good.

Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World 1940-1941 by Ian Kershaw. This looks like it could be one of those books that argues if Hitler had preferred sausages to spinach, we would all be speaking Serbo-Croatian now. Based on Tony Judt's comments, it is more of a study of how states make decisions and the consequences of decision making styles.

Encyclopedia Prehistorica Megafauna by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. Sure, this is basically more of the same from these two, but who cares? These books are awesome.

Chabon in PDX

I went to see Michael Chabon read from his new book. I stood in line to get my book signed. Make a note if you visit Powells for a book signing I find these encounters a bit strange as I don't know what to say to the writers. I managed a random question about the Escapist.

He read for about 20 minutes. Part of the reading including a list of the places the hero had sex with his ex-wife. This elicited a loud "Oh my goodness!" from one older audience member. He took a number of questions including one about an article about Yiddish. The questioner asked if it influenced Chabon. He responded that he actually wrote it.

Anyway, the whole event got me excited for the book.

Strong words in the staff room, the accusations fly

Oh man, I so wish I was still at the SSP at Georgetown. Then I could witness some academic fighting even more entertaining than in Russo's Straight Man. Douglas Feith and George Tenet are both teaching at Georgetown and are telling very different stories. It is part the battle between policy and intelligence but it also about assigning blame to the war that may well cripple American influence in the 21st century.

What I had not seen is this review of Tenet's book by Feith. You can summarize it as "Fuck you and the book you rode in on." Don't believe me? Read this:

Fairness, evidently, was not Mr. Tenet's motivating impulse as an author. His book is defensive. It aims low--to settle scores. The prose is humdrum. Mr. Tenet includes no citations that would let the reader check the accuracy of his account. He offers no explanation of why we went to war in Iraq. So, is the book useless? No.

What it does offer is insight into Mr. Tenet. It allows you to hear the way he talked--fast, loose, blustery, emotional, imprecise, from the "gut." Mr. Tenet proudly refers to the guidance of his "gut" several times in the book--a strange boast from someone whose stock-in-trade should be accuracy and precision. "At the Center of the Storm" also allows you to see the way he reasoned--unimaginatively and inconsistently. And it gives a glimpse of how he operated: He picked sides; he played favorites. The people he liked got his attention and understanding, their judgments his approval; the people he disliked he treated harshly and smeared. His loyalty is to tribe rather than truth.

Oh, I cannot wait to see the riposte when Feith's book comes out!

Even if we knew which way to head, but still, we probably wouldn't go

I just finished Zbigniew Brzezinski's Second Chance, which reviews the three post cold war presidents and grade their performance (grades, C, F and B, can you guess who got which?) I think his grading is spot on, and his states his reasoning well. At a high level, none of the post-cold war presidents did a good job of adjusting policy to reflect the new realities. They had their success (well, two of them did) but they also failed to set the US on the new course.

Those well read in international affairs will breeze through the background on the period, but will be interested in his take on the Presidents. For those less well versed, it provides a nice context for evaluating the Presidents as a group. He then has a discussion of the means of salvaging American global influence. I saw some overlap with Charles Kupchan's under-appreciated End of the American Era. He starts from the position that the US has a long uphill battle to become legitimate again, which is a position that needs to be discussed more frequently. And it is difficult to see anyone pulling this off well.

If you are interested in Brzezinski's prose style, have a look at this. What I like about his approach is the combination deep policy knowledge, strategic approach and a no fear of calling bullshit when he sees it. Unfortunately, pundits have a tendency to be either so polite as to avoid discussing the obvious or to be so polemical as to appear purely political. Like William Odom, Brzezinski presents a nice balance.

On the international relations front, be sure to read this interview Alastair Horne, author of A Savage War of Peace. The interview covers the book as well as comparisons to Iraq and thoughts on the Bush and Blair administrations.

They fight the law and they win

While it is certainly derivative of Tarantino, I found Lucky Number Slevin to be a quite fun crime picture. I expect there is a high correlation between liking pulpy crime novels and movies of this sort. Certain crime movies like Pulp Fiction and Usual Suspects manage to appeal to a broader audience that a movie like Lucky Number Slevin is designed to attract. So if you like Donald Westlake/Richard Stark, Jim Thompson or Chester Himes stories, you will be more likely to enjoy this one.

The plot is fairly simple. Josh Harnett, in smart mouth doofus mode, is mistaken for someone else and forced to do work for two rival crime bosses. To talk much more about plot would break the spoiler rule. Let it be said, I wager you will work most of the movies secrets by the half way point, but this won't bother you but so much. While the critics have been disdainful, I thought the dialogue was solid, the comedy/violence mix was appropriate to the genre and the acting, particularly on the bad guy side, quite good.

In happy crime movie news, one of my favorite Elmore Leonard books is getting the cinema treatment. Killshot is straightforward and simple, but it works, I think Mickey Rourke in his new bad guy mode will be excellent.

Goodkind

I can't decide if my dislike is greater for the books of Terry Goodkind or Robert Jordan. On the one hand, Jordan's started out quite well before the later books made me feel like I was wasting a lot of time. Goodkind's started out piss-poor, so I didn't get any further. I now have good reason to assign the greater dislike to Goodkind, he is a fan of Ayn Rand and his novels are designed to promote Objectivist philosophy.

Sandstorm reviews collects a series of parodies of Goodkind, many in the form of mashups with more capable writers. Having cleansed my brain of Goodkind as best as I could, it is really only the parodies of other authors that I found funny. This one on R Scott Bakker is great, as in this one on Robert Jordan.

Deep Storm

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have had great success in the thriller market. Starting with the quite good Relic, they co-wrote a number of stand-alone novels before fixating on the continuing adventures of their Special Agent Pendergast. Over time, I have become disenchanted with this character as he moved from quirky to bizarrely knowledgeable. His is simply too good at physical combat, psychological manipulation and deep knowledge of esoteric subjects.

While I am less enamored of their group work, their solo novels are picking up. Last year I read Preston's Tyrannosaur Canyon, which was quite fun. This weekend I finished Child's Deep Storm which is about as a good a mysterious artifact exploration thriller as you will find. This one succeeds where books like Black Monday fail because of its focus, its deception and its pace.

In thrillers like this one, all that matters is the characters interaction with each other and the chase after the secret/problem/whatever. If we get long asides about the character's past or families the novel loses its pace and our attention.

It is also helpful for the book to hold out its secret for as long as possible, for once we know what is going on, most of the interest is lost. Writers can salvage this with a surprise ending, but generally the last section of these thrillers includes the race against time element. This book has that too, but it also has a spooky ending and enough deception and red herrings to keep you guessing.

Obviously pace is key to prevent you from spotting plot holes and generally ridiculous behavior or ideas. This one keeps up the action with short chapters and lots of action. This doesn't approach literature, but it is great fun.

A few diversions

The Guardian has a roundup on recent Falklands War books. I wager this will be hard to find in the US.

Have you got a lady and you want her gone, but you ain't got the guts? Or maybe you just want to get those unwanted houseguest out a little earlier. Well just lay a few copies of the Big Coloring Book of Vaginas on the coffee table and you should be all alone in minutes.

Here is an older (2005) interview of Neal Stephenson at Reason. In it he explains the varying philosophies behind his novels and how he got to the titanic Baroque Cycle.

Here is a positive review of the new Richard Morgan.

The NYT has a negative take on the new Nirvana bio, although the review itself is worth reading for an interesting overview on the story. In the same paper, this history of smoking and American culture looks fascinating.

Done it before, probably do it again

Well, I picked up another weak thriller at the library. Black Monday has an interesting premise. Some nefarious force has released a plague which destroys oil products, so cars stop working, planes fall from the sky and so on. Like the incredibly silly Natural Selection before it, this one has annoying characters.

As often found in such works, the hero is all too powerful (these people need to look at the amateurs in peril in Alan Furst's books). He is smart, wise and capable of anything. He is also a great big sweetie who adopted kids from Sao Paulo slums and Sudan. And he and his wife play this game while having sex. Whoever achieves the petit mort (as the French say) first, makes dinner the next night. Something tells me brotherman cooks a lot of meals.

My principal complaint is that there is just not enough carnage. If the world is crashing down, we need more crashing and less focus on a wicked assassin sent to derail the government's attempts to save the day. This is less a complaint of the book then of the genre of save-the-world-books.

I much prefer end-of-the-world books to save-the-world ones. For one, we get lots more carnage. For another, we get less unrealistic characters. And in end of the world books the focus is on survival and/or facing Kobayashi Maru scenarios. Which is more interesting than reading about second rate Jack Bauers.

One of the older, but still excellent depictions of the end of the world is Lucifer's Hammer, which tells the tale of a comet crashing into the Earth with resultant destruction. Jack McDevitt normally writes Asimov-esque tales of future archaeology, but he also wrote Moonfall, in which a comet hits the Moon and some of the debris gives the Earth a bad time.

Anyway, I keep picking up trashy thrillers in case I find a really good one. Sometimes I actually do.

But if I only drink diet coke, why should I care?

Those who crave old school sugar soda may soon have their urge in the icebox. Mexican Coca-cola has been spotted in California Costcos. You see, in Mexico, as in other lands, Coke is still made by cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Michael Pollan argues that HFCS is one of the greatest evils of the day. This may be true, but it is also supposed to taste better, so it really is a win/win.

If you get your sugar in more solid form, and are spending any time in NYC, look out for the new gelato place described in this NYT piece. Its owned by successful gelato purveyors from Turin, and I must say they look like a jolly pair. I am keeping my gelato radar tuned to Vivoli, finest gelato ANYWHERE. Sadly, as the website says, you may only taste Vivoli in Firenze.

In further bad for you food news, I think my chocolate loyalties are shifting from Valrhona to Endangered Species. Not because I am a hippie or anything, but the bars with fruit pieces or essence are really quite amazing.