Author: Lauren Redniss
Through eclectic primary sources, insatiable curiosity, and inventive illustrations, Lauren Redniss exquisitely captures the riveting experiences and consequences of her subjects’ lives in her biographies.
Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Dorothy Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies looks at the existence of a dancer, actress, teacher and general enthusiast who toured the world and met everyone from Charles Lindbergh to Caribbean dictators without missing a beat. The book’s ingenious scrapbooking renders Eaton both more familiar and monumental, perfectly grounding her spirited life within the context of a dizzying century.
Marie Curie’s improbable trajectory—which is the stuff of some potent Brontë-Alger cocktail—is brought to life in the stunning Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout. Born Maria Skłodowska in Poland, Curie was first a governess shunned by her motherland’s aristocrats, then the Sorbonne’s first female professor, and later the first person to win multiple Nobel Prizes. She worked (and bicycled!) happily alongside Pierre until his tragic carriage accident, then became the victim of a xenophobic witch-hunt.
Redniss really digs into the Curies’ far-reaching accomplishments. Yes, their discoveries brought about great advances in medicine, but also laid the foundation for the atomic bomb. The book’s cyanotypes have a haunting, dreamy vivacity that beautifully captures the Curies’ feverish, indomitable minds. Plus, they actually glow.
I highly recommend Redniss’s books to anyone looking for an intimate, inspired take on other people’s lives.
Author: David Graeber
David Graeber is a former professor of Anthropology at Yale and he currently works in the Social Anthropology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London; he is also an outspoken Anarchist. He has most recently been in the news because of his participation in the General Assemblies of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Graeber’s anarchism is not an antagonistic rebellion, but one that fits in a certain tradition of Anthropology: a fundamental critique of capitalism. That capitalism sprung from a society based on barter and that its monetary system has only made life easier is the basic assumption of modern economics. Graeber denies that any society was ever based on barter and traces the development of both trade and coinage throughout history. He covers ancient Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and Greece through to the global recession of 2008. Moving from one geographical location to another, Graeber reveals commonalities such as the use of debt as currency, periodic forgiveness of debt, and the links between empire and coinage. Some of his claims may be radical, but he presents a well organized and lengthy base for his arguments.
With so many books being published about the current economic situation, Graeber’s is unique in its scope. It’s worth the read for a fresh perspective on the challenges of our modern economy.
Author: Ernest Cline
Ernest Cline, best known for his acclaimed film Fanboys, packs the same joy of all things geeky, intergalactic, and (surprisingly) sentimental in his debut novel, Ready Player One. Set in 2044, a future where the virtual reality program OASIS is an all-encompassing, 24/7 lifestyle for avatars in escape from the dreadful world of oil shortage and overpopulation, young Wade Watts is swept into a frenzied search for the creator’s hidden egg: billions of dollars and total control of the hundreds of universes in OASIS. Like the beloved video games of the creator’s childhood, the egg can only be found by solving a number of increasingly difficult puzzles based on 80’s pop culture. Whether reciting movie dialogues or solving baffling riddles, Wade will have to fight to find the egg before the Sixers, an evil empire with their own plans to turn OASIS into a giant, money-making machine.
Despite the recent over saturated trend towards nostalgia, the ultimate key in appreciating Ready Player One is finding the humor in Cline’s earnest devotion to Devo, Monty Python, and Dungeons & Dragons: everything fabulous and geeky pre-1990. With a fast-paced style reminiscent of role playing games and a heavy dose of vintage television shows (spoiler alert! There are robots), Cline’s tribute to the intellect of pop culture obsession never overshadows the very real narratives of isolation, the dangers of escape, and the ever-persistent threat of giant corporations. Funny, entertaining, and yes, nostalgic, Cline’s take on good versus evil provides the perfect backdrop for this virtual egg hunt.
Author: Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
Reviewer: Acorn Patrons
Want to be healthy for the rest of your life? Want to weigh the same as you did in 9th grade (provided you were not obese then)? Want to avoid disease?
Granted, most people do not want the above, but for the few, who do yearn for health and an ideal weight, get thee to the library and take out Super Immunity, by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Dr. Fuhrman is also the author of Eat to Live, which was updated in 2011. Both are worthy of your time.
Patients come to Dr. Fuhrman’s New Jersey office with allergies, viruses, cancer, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, well, every disease of modern America. And his advice is always the same: heath=nutrition/calories. Open his Eat to Live book and find the page with the picture of three stomachs. One has 400 calories of oil; the next has 400 calories of meat; the third has 400 calories of greens. The first stomach is about 1/50th filled. The second stomach is about 1/8th filled. The final stomach is completely filled.
You might get the point now. Filling our stomachs with greens, onions, mushrooms, berries, beans, and seeds, not only fills the stomach with low calories foods and satiates us, it supplies our bodies with the nutrients it needs to fight every disease under the sun.
Dr. Fuhrman’s prescription is to work up to a pound of raw vegetables, a pound of cooked vegetables, and a cup of beans daily. He calls the prescriptions of most other doctors “permission slips,” the better to keep doing what we have always done: live a disease prone lifestyle.
Today we learned that Senator Mark Kirk, a supposedly health-conscious person, suffered a stroke. Please do not end up as he has. Get Dr. Fuhrman’s books, go to his website, and live a healthy, disease-free life.
Author: Edward Espe Brown
The idea of baking bread from scratch had long fallen into the same category as Beyoncé’s abs circa 2004: enviable but intimidating. But The Tassajara Bread Book has gently eased me into the art of breadmaking, revealing its ease and joy.
Tassajara is a Zen monastery in central California, and this book was developed with simplicity in mind. The ingredients lists for most breads feature four to six basic items, and the directions are straightforward and sweetly whimsical. Does this sound a little austere, perhaps a tad precious? Worry not, as there are also recipes for unabashed delights like Butter Kuchen, Turkish Coffee Cake Cookie Bars, and Coffee Liquor Butter.
This book focuses on enjoying the process as it unfolds before you. Contrary to popular belief, bread is quite independent—it does not require full-time nurturing so much as a roll and a jab a few times throughout the day. And in the end, creating something so aromatic and delicious from nearly nothing is hugely satisfying. I’ll leave it to Mr. Brown to explain:
“Bread makes itself, by your kindness, with your help, with imagination streaming through you, with dough under hand, you are breadmaking itself, which is why breadmaking is so fulfilling and rewarding.”
Author: Muriel Barbery
Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog explores the inner lives of Renée, an outwardly inert concierge in a fancy Parisian apartment building, and 12-year-old Paloma, a precocious resident. At work, Renée lives up to the (apparent) stereotype of the philistine concierge, indulging in the French equivalents of Cheez Whiz-covered Doritos and In Touch Weekly. At home, Renée is an entirely different beast, one who devours opera and masticates on long passages of Husserl.
Paloma also has a double-life of the mind. Outwardly, she is the docile daughter of two well-meaning but superficial socialites. Inwardly, she is a cauldron of societal dissection, caustic barbs, and–yes, dear reader–suicide ideation. Much of the novel involves Renée and Paloma wittily discussing their ideas of the world and their isolated places in it until the lovely Kakuro moves into the building and unites the building’s misfits.
This novel succeeds in being philosophically rigorous, inspiring, and genuinely sweet. Highly recommended.
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Addie Downs and Valerie Adler grew up across the street from each other in the Chicago faux-suburb of Pleasant Ridge, and were, indeed, BFFs until differing high school fates pulled them apart. Whereas Val turned her latchkey childhood into vivacious cheerleaderdom, Addie was surviving her brother’s brain-damaging car accident, the death of both parents, and compulsive overeating.
Ten years later, Addie’s got it together, if not quite got it going on. She’s a successful greeting card illustrator, avid swimmer, and is generally happy. But she’s lonely. So lonely. Imagine Addie’s surprise when Val–now a weather girl/local celebrity–shows up on her doorstep covered in blood after a mishap at the high school reunion. Imagine your surprise when Addie decides to help her former friend conceal her crime by fleecing the hunky, brooding detective and going on a road trip to Florida.
The two reconnect rather seamlessly and with little drama, quickly resolving misunderstandings and bonding over man problems.The weird vigilante subplot then takes over, and you better believe that the detective’s interest in the case is not entirely professional. In fact, he’s so smitten with Addie that he chants her name (“Addie…Addie…Addie…”) throughout. Can you handle it? (I could not.)
I listened to this on audiobook, which generally doesn’t work for me in between being cut off by large trucks, avoiding potholes, and berating humanity; but the combination of Weiner’s earnest style and soapy plot made for a good time. Recommended.
Author: Julian Fellowes
This is British drama at its best — witty and refined, but never uptight or stodgy. The series takes place at the country home of the fictional Earl of Grantham during the run-up to World War I. Significant time is spent both with the Earl’s aristocratic family and their crew of below-the-stairs servants. Much of the series is devoted to the romantic intrigue and familial squabbles, but the series does sometimes delve into more serious issues such as the women’s suffrage movement or the impending Great War. While there are various plots that run throughout the entire first season, each of the seven episodes can also be viewed discretely. Downton Abbey is recommended for those who like their British period pieces with just enough modern sheen to keep things interesting (but not enough to detract from the genre’s essential coziness).
Author: Seamus Campbell and Robin Goldstein
Most of this book is devoted to reviews of 250 different beers, using the results from semi-scientific blind-tasting panels. This book is something of a sequel to Goldstein’s The Wine Trials, and the fact that beer is now seen as worthy of the same treatment as wine is an interesting sign of how much perceptions of beer have changed in the past, say, ten years.
The reviews cover beers of all types, from the cheapest mass-produced lager to the most intense craft-brewed India Pale Ale, including brands from Belgium, Britain, Germany, Japan, and more. Each entry is generally concise, informative and witty. While they certainly can’t cover every beer out there, and while they try to stick to nationally distributed beers (thus meaning you won’t find local favorites like Old Style or Alpha King), they still do a good job at covering all the bases.
There’s also about fifty pages of introductory material on beer styles and flavors. All in all, this is an immensely rewarding book for anyone interested in the world of beer.
Author: Judy Dutton
Lately, news regarding the state of American education has been decidedly less than rosy. While much of the rest of the world has adjusted to the realities of the twenty-first century with determination and brio, the United States has generally responded with what seems like bewildered complacency. As Bill Gates said, “When I compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I’m terrified for our workplace of tomorrow.”
Refreshingly, this book explores the stories behind the wildly impressive entries at the Intel Science Talent Search, a sort of American Idol for high school scientists. The entrants come from disparate backgrounds–small-town Texas, the Navajo Indian Reservation, affluent Connecticut, and a juvenile detention center. The projects are just as varied, and include a solar water heater fashioned from the radiator of a 1967 Pontiac, a nanotechnology discovery that led to even smaller and more powerful microchips, a methodology for predicting water tables on Mars which was later proven by NASA, training cockroaches to do the work of drug-sniffing dogs, and pioneering work on the worldwide collapse of bee colonies.
While some of the entrants were science fair veterans, most of them just encountered an interesting problem and then had supportive teachers to foster their curiosity and dedication. Dutton does a great job with the scientific and humanistic aspects of each story. I highly recommend this book to any adult or teen reader looking for an inspiring read.
Author: Alex Gibney and Charles Ferguson
The erstwhile “Love Gov” has a new gig: movie star! Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but Spitzer has been featured prominently in two recent documentaries.
First up is Client 9, which briefly covers Spitzer’s meteoric rise in New York politics, then drones on an on about his fall. As attorney general, Spitzer earned the nickname “The Sheriff of Wall Street” as he actually managed to fine, imprison, and otherwise unsettle captains of industry for their misdeeds. His work earned him both popular support and powerful enemies; the former electing him governor in 2006 with nearly seventy per cent of the vote, and the latter–the film alleges–leading to his undoing. Spitzer is an incisive, candid interview subject, but he is used sparingly here. The film focuses on the tawdriest elements of the escort scandal and most ridiculous peripheral players instead. Why? I have no idea.
Next is Inside Job, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in February. Here, director Charles Ferguson’s surveys the logistics of the global financial near-collapse. The film has a definite, fire-breathing perspective, as Ferguson, Spitzer, and a coterie of others squarely pin the crisis on the shoulders of the world’s financial elite and their governmental enablers.
Inside Job admirably distills the mechanics of the derivatives market, and the revolving door between big banks, the plushest business schools, and government. Ferguson is a fearless interviewer, and most of his interactions end with disdainful glares, embarrassed laughter, or I-wish-I-were-kidding ingenuousness. The result is a suspenseful, darkly comic ride through a subject that people used to think was boring.
Author: Edited by C. Max Magee and Jeff Martin
Magee and Martin have assembled a talented bunch of young, happening authors (including Joe Meno, Benjamin Kunkel, Victor Lavalle, Emily St. John Mandel, Deb Olin Unferth and Reif Larson), along with a few seasoned veterans (David Gates and Jonathan Lethem), to ponder the question of how the book will be affected, in the coming years, by changes in technology and society. The quality of the work here varies quite a bit, as you might expect from this type of anthology – some pieces are affecting and/or exhilarating, some are bland, and there a couple of pieces that are sub-McSweeney’s throw-aways. Overall, however, this collection is extremely interesting and offers a broad view of what some future literary stars think might happen in their future.
One of the more interesting aspects on this book is the confusion displayed as to what it is, exactly, that they are supposed to be writing about. The main divide seems to be between those who focus on the death of the physical book (even if the book lives on in some sort of digital capacity) and those who are focus the death of reading itself. But even within the latter camp, there are many divisions – are we talking about the eradication of all sustained reading? Or just of the “right” kind of reading (i.e. “literature”). Also, many of the authors here seem to conflate the death of the book with the death of the novel, which I suppose is somewhat understandable since most of these pieces are written by novelists.
Each author here seems to be writing about a different thing entirely, as they ponder the future of the book, and some of the individual pieces are filled with all manner of contradictions and ambiguities in themselves. But perhaps this muddle is appropriate when talking about an unknown future, and most likely it is exactly what the editors had in mind – since this confusion is contained right there in the book’s title and subtitle.
