It was a good month for books...
"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It chronicles the life and times of Abraham Lincoln and the country as a whole during the 1800s. Reads like a novel, deeply researched with many direct quotes from the key players, numerous hopeless turns of the screw, brilliant man, illustrates quite elegantly the power of words and need for leaders that are both humble and sure. The primary focus is on Lincoln's selection of his rivals to fill his first cabinet (even though they thought of him as a country bumpkin who got lucky) because they were the best for the job. He showed what sort of devotion you can inspire in men (most of them loved and respected him before they died) by turning the other cheek, taking responsibility and persevering in the face of countless disasters. You learn that Lincoln was far from naive but used the fact that people thought of him as a backwoodsman to his advantage. His assassination was lamented in the confederate presses of the south for good reason when he died. It is clear that without him there would be no United States today. This book is essential reading.
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, of "Kite Runner" fame, is set in Afghanistan before during and after the taliban. A tale of the lives of 2 women who struggle for safety and dignity in a truly screwed up country. I wasn't as blown away by this one as the kite thing, maybe because this time I knew what to expect. I still ate it up and enjoyed the meal, just not as tasty. Maybe because this one is completely set in Afghanistan and the last one split its time between there and the USA (and all the cultural clashes that that entails). Maybe because I think I've read just about enough for a while about extremists with guns and women with less rights than dogs. If you like to read and need a distraction its recommended. If you have precious little time to read, read the "Kite Runner." Oddly they made the book cover look exactly like the previous book so I suspect many are just passing it by thinking its the same one.
"How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman is a chilling dissection of how doctors think and how that thinking leads naturally to a number of different kinds of cognitive error. Diagnosis momentum, attribution error, and availability error to name a few. They all point to problems that essentially stem from the doctor's inability to keep an open mind. The book is full of stories of diagnostics gone wrong as well but also has some examples and insights into when things go right. To some extent it is also a book about how you as a patient can make a difference. One example? if your doctor likes you and you have a friendship he may not want to subject you to some grueling tests. In this case its worth reminding him that "we know you care deeply about my health but if you have to prescribe a drug or test that will be terribly uncomfortable, know that its more important for me to get better than it is to protect me from short term pain"... or something like that. You get the idea. Some of the statistics in the book are sobering. Close to half of the doctors in one study didn't tell their patients how much or how long to take a medication for example. And over 10% of xrays and ct scans and the like are misdiagnosed because radiologists look at some hundreds of thousands of scans a year and their eyes sometimes don't even see things because they've been told what to look for ahead of time. In fact the same radiologist will often come up with a different diagnosis if asked to view the same scan 3 months later. An interesting study in how people make decisions so worth reading even if you're not in any need of doctoring (like if you're a robot for instance or not from this planet, or a plant of some sort). Not a hard read, pretty quick and light.
"The Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon (of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" which is on my list of all time favorites) is just a fun book to read. He's got a way with words that makes them dance on the page like John Travolta in a Bee Gee's scored fever dream. It's a murder mystery, a rumination on running off a cliff and not realizing it until you're half way to the other side, an alternate history of the creation of a Jewish homeland (and a limbo zone in the largest coldest state of our union replete with inuit sidekicks and fanatical espionage agents) or just an experiment in creating a world out of whole cloth. He made me ashamed to ever even try to create images with words. This one made me sad when it ended. Now I'm seriously contemplating digging back up the Kavalier and Clay adventures just for the satisfaction of gaining a few more days savoring this sort of talent.
"Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of Superpower" by Zbigiew Brzezinski was a bit heavier as a read. Zbig (he let's his friends call him Zbig, we're close) was Carter's national security adviser. He analyzes the history, opportunities, and decisions of the last three "global leaders." This was his term for the last three presidents of the US since effectively the cold war was over and the other superpower of the era (the USSR) was vanquished during Bush the first's term. The book is full of insights, chilling insider observations, lost opportunities and cautionary predictions. Bottom line? Bush 1 was the best, Clinton got a B and the current Bush gets an F. America will have a long and hard struggle back from the brink and although not impossible it won't be easy. I think I'd recommend it if you're a history or policy junkie, its a fast and short read that gives a much needed perspective on the complexities facing the world.
Other goodness?
"The Flight of the Conchords" is the best new show on TV (HBO). You can watch it online, and download the lyrics (they sing at least 2 new songs each episode). I think the simplest way to describe the show would be to say that its the illegitimate love child of Barry Gibbs, Tenacious D, Bosom Buddies, and the Monkees by way of The Office. I'm probably bringing too much to this interpretation-wise but when they did the second take (during the closing credits) on life on the planet after the robots kill us all in their authentic aluminum painted cardboard costumes (including a binary solo "011101010100....") I was hooked.
Just saw "Children of Men." Watch it.
Heavy Rotation?
Ok, they're derivative and poppy but I'm digging some of the songs on The Bravery's new album.
"The Future Is Unwritten" a new documentary about Joe Strummer's life (the lead singer from the Clash) has a pretty solid soundtrack that includes the Clash, Elvis, Joe Strummer on his own (he had some great albums with the Mescaleros) , Nina Simone, and Woodie Guthrie.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Books 'n' stuff May 07
I've been reading some really good books lately from very different authors and genres.
I'll admit it I like to read.
Top hits?
Jonathan Carroll's "Land of Laughs" is a tight little novel about a writer who visits a town where his hero (a legendary fantasy writer who has long since passed away) used to live. He meets people in the town including his hero's daughter who seem to be oddly reminiscent of characters in his favorite books. Dogs who talk, people who can predict their own demise and a train that hasn't stopped at the town for decades but suddenly does, make this mystery from a slightly different dimension. I like his writing, I've never read his work before. But I'll just point out that I just bought another one of his books. A really good writer with a little bit of Lewis Carroll in him somewhere.
Chuck Palahniuk's "Rant" is, like all of Chuck's work (I'm a big fan), minimalist, brutal, funny, and twisted, but mostly not what it seems. Touted as an oral biography made up of interviews of friends and associates of Buster Casey, the patient zero of a new epidemic of human to human transmitted rabies, it turns out to be a quite different story by the end. Much like his "Fight Club" which turned 180 degrees by its climax Rant is a page turner with a nice twist. It is not for the squeamish. My favorite character is a car salesman who uses his chance to talk to teach the reader a bit about salesmanship.
Douglas Hofstadter recently came out with a new book (you'll probably remember him from his mind bending debut called "Godel, Escher, Bach" from when you were young.) "I Am a Strange Loop" is a sequel of sorts, though I found it much easier to read (is it him or me?) His book takes on "I-ness" and what it is where it comes from and how much you or I have of it versus a bug or a newborn or a hitler or a schweitzer. He relates Godel's creation of a strange self referential loop built out of mathematical theories, along with is own experiments with video feedback loops, to our own looping feedback belief (or hallucination) of consciousness. Its a stimulating ride though sometimes pedantic and a bit goofy (I only mean that in that he sometimes has paragraphs that take three times to read just to comprehend and other times tells page long stories of absurdity in parallel worlds that you come away thinking that you could have gotten in a sentence or two). Bottom line? Is there some magical force that is a soul or is it just something we get for free as an emergent property of the many many feedback loops swirling around in our head as we react and categorize and look for symbols and abstract out all the sensory perceptions that bubble through out brains? Best parts? he reaches into a box of envelopes only to feel a marble somewhere inside the box, maybe in one of the envelopes, he can feel it, sense its spherical nature, but when he takes out all of the individual envelopes there is no marble. When he has others reach in they all feel it but it isn't there. Its really just an illusion that emerges from all the folded over and glued parts of each envelope. Second best part? He posits a thought experiment in that you and I are both video cameras pointing at our own screen so that we are seeing a deep corridor-like feedback loop to infinity, now your screen is over there in the corner of mine, I can just see your feedback loop in mine (though at a far lower resolution), your loop is fed into mine a bit so that my own changes, and visa versa. This is how the mind works. We are emergent patterns of feedback, but strange in that we shift from level to level of abstraction. So when his wife dies is she really gone? If her "I" was a pattern and he had been partially reflecting it and looping it for lo these many years, isn't she still sometimes alive in him? Read the book if you like to read because its a nice aperitif for the soul.
Others that I've consumed while reading these?
"Grave Peril" and "Summer Knight" more dresden files (book three and four, yes I've read four of them now... yikes) by Jim Butcher. Light fluffy wizard living in Chicago stuff, I think I'll refrain from reviewing any more of his books because they are basically all the same book. I'm not a fan of fantasy but he's a good pulp fiction writer and sometimes I need roughage. If you like this sort of thing (sam spade meets the ghost of Bela Lugosi?) you'll enjoy all of his books. I think you'll like them better than the drivel that is called a series on TV (of the same name and from the same creator).
Other stuff?
Just heard William Gibson has a book coming in a few months called "Spook Country" and I've just started "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by the author of "The Kite Runner" seems good so far.
Reviews to come? Band of Rivals, Second Chance, and Against the Day (yes it will take me a full year to read that one).
Heavy Rotation?
Regina Spektor who I think someday is gonna make it big, she's got a playful virtuosity to her music.
Blonde Redhead's got something going too.
"Come on Feel the Illinoise" by Sufjan Stevens has some instant classics... (They Are Night Zombies is my favorite).
I'll admit it I like to read.
Top hits?
Jonathan Carroll's "Land of Laughs" is a tight little novel about a writer who visits a town where his hero (a legendary fantasy writer who has long since passed away) used to live. He meets people in the town including his hero's daughter who seem to be oddly reminiscent of characters in his favorite books. Dogs who talk, people who can predict their own demise and a train that hasn't stopped at the town for decades but suddenly does, make this mystery from a slightly different dimension. I like his writing, I've never read his work before. But I'll just point out that I just bought another one of his books. A really good writer with a little bit of Lewis Carroll in him somewhere.
Chuck Palahniuk's "Rant" is, like all of Chuck's work (I'm a big fan), minimalist, brutal, funny, and twisted, but mostly not what it seems. Touted as an oral biography made up of interviews of friends and associates of Buster Casey, the patient zero of a new epidemic of human to human transmitted rabies, it turns out to be a quite different story by the end. Much like his "Fight Club" which turned 180 degrees by its climax Rant is a page turner with a nice twist. It is not for the squeamish. My favorite character is a car salesman who uses his chance to talk to teach the reader a bit about salesmanship.
Douglas Hofstadter recently came out with a new book (you'll probably remember him from his mind bending debut called "Godel, Escher, Bach" from when you were young.) "I Am a Strange Loop" is a sequel of sorts, though I found it much easier to read (is it him or me?) His book takes on "I-ness" and what it is where it comes from and how much you or I have of it versus a bug or a newborn or a hitler or a schweitzer. He relates Godel's creation of a strange self referential loop built out of mathematical theories, along with is own experiments with video feedback loops, to our own looping feedback belief (or hallucination) of consciousness. Its a stimulating ride though sometimes pedantic and a bit goofy (I only mean that in that he sometimes has paragraphs that take three times to read just to comprehend and other times tells page long stories of absurdity in parallel worlds that you come away thinking that you could have gotten in a sentence or two). Bottom line? Is there some magical force that is a soul or is it just something we get for free as an emergent property of the many many feedback loops swirling around in our head as we react and categorize and look for symbols and abstract out all the sensory perceptions that bubble through out brains? Best parts? he reaches into a box of envelopes only to feel a marble somewhere inside the box, maybe in one of the envelopes, he can feel it, sense its spherical nature, but when he takes out all of the individual envelopes there is no marble. When he has others reach in they all feel it but it isn't there. Its really just an illusion that emerges from all the folded over and glued parts of each envelope. Second best part? He posits a thought experiment in that you and I are both video cameras pointing at our own screen so that we are seeing a deep corridor-like feedback loop to infinity, now your screen is over there in the corner of mine, I can just see your feedback loop in mine (though at a far lower resolution), your loop is fed into mine a bit so that my own changes, and visa versa. This is how the mind works. We are emergent patterns of feedback, but strange in that we shift from level to level of abstraction. So when his wife dies is she really gone? If her "I" was a pattern and he had been partially reflecting it and looping it for lo these many years, isn't she still sometimes alive in him? Read the book if you like to read because its a nice aperitif for the soul.
Others that I've consumed while reading these?
"Grave Peril" and "Summer Knight" more dresden files (book three and four, yes I've read four of them now... yikes) by Jim Butcher. Light fluffy wizard living in Chicago stuff, I think I'll refrain from reviewing any more of his books because they are basically all the same book. I'm not a fan of fantasy but he's a good pulp fiction writer and sometimes I need roughage. If you like this sort of thing (sam spade meets the ghost of Bela Lugosi?) you'll enjoy all of his books. I think you'll like them better than the drivel that is called a series on TV (of the same name and from the same creator).
Other stuff?
Just heard William Gibson has a book coming in a few months called "Spook Country" and I've just started "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by the author of "The Kite Runner" seems good so far.
Reviews to come? Band of Rivals, Second Chance, and Against the Day (yes it will take me a full year to read that one).
Heavy Rotation?
Regina Spektor who I think someday is gonna make it big, she's got a playful virtuosity to her music.
Blonde Redhead's got something going too.
"Come on Feel the Illinoise" by Sufjan Stevens has some instant classics... (They Are Night Zombies is my favorite).
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