28 January 2010

The Book Brahmins Speak Wisely

The free daily newsletter Shelf Awareness is fun to read and stuffed with news and gossip about the book biz. One of their most popular – they call it “wildly popular” – features is the occasional interview with a “Book Brahmin,” who answers nine itchy questions concerning their personal taste in books.

In the dictionary a Brahmin might be “a person who is intellectually or socially aloof” among other definitions.

When I sent out the same questions to Words on Books subscribers, I quickly heard back from no fewer than 15 readers, all Book Brahmins in their way, none of whom could be described as intellectually aloof. Quite the opposite.

So far I have responses from Todd Walton, Hank Lewis, Betty Barber, Elizabeth Morrison, Paul Takushi, Matty Goldberg, Raven Deerwater, Johanna Wildoak, Mark Hannon, Katy Tahja, John Fremont, Jill Hannum, Russ Harvey, Joel Crockett, and Paul McHugh, whose new book “Deadlines” was favorably reviewed here last week.

The first question is “On your nightstand now?” and the best way to share the response, I think, is to list everything that everyone said, along with a few comments.

So, deep breath, here’s what your neighbors have stacked up to read:

“The Dream of Scipio” by Iain Pears, “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, “Deadlines” by Paul McHugh, “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder & “The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver; Graham Greene, “The End of the Affair,” John Varley, “Red Thunder;” Richard Preston, “The Wild Trees;” Guy Kuttner, “Tales of the Dolly Llama;” Alexandra Horowitz, “Inside of a Dog,” “Lose Your Mother, by Saidiya; “Blind Descent,” about people who climb the deepest caves on earth... like a MILE deep... and live to talk about it; “1491" by Charles C. Mann (excellent), “The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver (first book by her that disappointed me); “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes, “The Bill Simmons Book of Basketball,” “Soccer in Sun and Shadow” by Eduardo Galeano, Michael Chabon's “Maps & Legends” and “I.O.U.” by John Lanchester; “What The Dog Saw,” “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” “Al Capone Shines My Shoes,” “Prince of Persia,” “The Man Who Loved Books Too Much,” “Benjamin Franklin” by Edmund Morgan and about 50 others; “Endless Forms Most Beautiful,” Sean Carroll; Dr. Don Hahn's “Change and A Good Laugh;” George Lakoff's “Political Mind,” the New Yorker; “Die Blechtrommel” (The Tin Drum); and “Brazil,” a fabulous anthology of Brazilian short stories from Whereabouts Press.

Russ Harvey mentioned “‘The Frozen Rabbi,’ plus ‘A Truth Universally Acknowledged,’ because I want to know why everyone else reads Jane Austen, and an as yet un-started mass market thriller from the $.50 pile at work. I'm not even sure which one. I just need some popcorn.”

The remaining eight questions are:

Favorite book when you were a child?
Your top five authors?
Book you've faked reading?
Book you're an evangelist for?
Book you've bought for the cover?
Book that changed your life?
Favorite line from a book?
What is the book you most want to read again for the first time?

Finally, some of your favorite first lines:

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.” (Conan Doyle, from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”).

“As the egg from the fish, as the fish from the water, as the water from the cloud, as the cloud from the thick air, so put forth, so leaped out, so drew away, so fumed up the Soul of Teshoo Lama from the Great Soul.” (Kipling, “Kim”).

“Whether I will be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will fall on someone else, these pages will tell.” from Dickens’ “David Copperfield” AND John Irving’s “The Cider House Rules.”

I have to end with Jill Hannum’s favorite line, because it’s mine, too: “Once upon a time there was a ...”

NOTES:

The trade newsletter Shelf Awareness has been publishing a daily email for five years.

21 January 2010

Horse Kicks Lady, Dog Bites Man, Three Star Edition at 11

Paul McHugh’s new mystery/ thriller/ outdoor adventure/ travelogue/ dialog/ diatribe/ ecological morality play/ whatever, is titled “Deadlines.” It kicks off fast with a whinny and a gallop. A big white horse tramples to death a little old lady, and the hunt for justice begins.

A greenhorn journalist newly arrived in San Francisco gets involved with the story. He suspects foul play, but can’t yet prove it.

An older reporter with a drinking problem and a tragically dead girl friend gets on the case. The greenhorn reporter gets beat up, bad, and only the drunken lout can help. First he has to rally up, drop the sauce, dust off his reporting skills, save his job, fight his editor, and figure out the Who What When Where and Why of the whole thing.

The bad guys are horrible, the good guys heroic. On the embattled California coast justice may triumph, but it’s never a sure thing.

“Deadlines” is a cheerful romp through quite serious territory. The title is meant to invoke the heady atmosphere of a major daily newspaper, with its feuds and infighting, dedicated writers and corporate maneuvers.

I’ve long followed Paul McHugh’s career because once, much time ago, he lived in Mendocino. Paul seemed just another happy, hapless hippie, with a special appreciation for this gorgeous place.

He turned up later as a successful beat writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He covered outdoor sports and environmental issues, and worked on a number of investigative series.

McHugh is only too well aware that newspapers are having a hard time of it. Readers who don’t already appreciate what they stand to lose if newspapers shut down will be reminded in “Deadlines.”

In answer to some questions I posed about how he came to write this book at this particular moment, Paul wrote:

“When I took the buy-out from the SF Chronicle in the summer of 2007, I also took it as a chance to change my life. As Yogi Berra says, ‘When you come to a fork in the road, take it!’

“... I had spent 30 years assiduously applying the rubric and values of non-fiction in my prose. I felt I achieved a fair amount that way, but it made the far more imaginative dimension and creativity of fiction seem like the Promised Land. I'd written some short fiction and one novel before: "The Search For Goodbye-To-Rains." That was a young man's first-person narrative, basically an intellectual and spiritual memoir of a cross-country motorcycle trip. The primary way fiction entered that picture was through exaggeration of my personal story.

“In truth, I did not pursue fiction further at that time of my life (30 years ago) because I did not feel that I understood other people, or life itself, well enough to create believable characters who were not me, or fictional situations that were not my own. However, after 30 years of research and writing, 22 of them in a big city newsroom, I had begun to feel that these deficits were cured, and that I could now apply creativity to my working capital of understanding.

“So, I took a deep breath, and plunged in! My first goal -- as it should be for any fiction writer, I think -- was to focus on creating a rattling good yarn. The story itself must be strong enough to carry any other purposes a writer may have. A secondary goal was to portray a newsroom in full uproar as it charges toward putting out an important, investigative article. I wanted to clearly present and celebrate journalism, with all its warts and flaws, certainly, but also with that tattered, inkstained nobility of purpose which also -- in its best moments -- it can display.

“... I wanted people - especially any young people who happen to read my book -- to understand that it is a valuable trade, and one worth pursuing, despite all or any difficulties. And a craft crucial to preservation of democracy.”

“Deadlines” is newly published in paperback by the esteemed Fort Bragg house Lost Coast Press. Later this year you yourself can meet and greet Paul McHugh when he returns to Mendocino for a book signing and celebration.

NOTES:

“Deadlines, A Novel of Murder, Conspiracy, and the Media” by Paul McHugh. Lost Coast Press paperback $16.95. ISBN 9781935448044.

Author Biography

Other source material on various pages here... and background on the book.  

Lost Coast Press is an imprint of Cypress House. Cindy Frank and staff have helped any number of worthy authors find their way into print.More information.

14 January 2010

We're recalling that wiring manual you recycled in about 1981

It’s been a very long new year already, have you noticed?

For me, the long new year in books began on January 8 with an announced recall of titles that contain dangerous do-it-yourself advice: 951,000 home improvement books recalled by the Feds for instructions that could lead to dangerously bad wiring and fire hazard.

Luckily, the new Bernard Cornwell paperback novel I was reading as the new year dawned had absolutely no wiring diagrams in it.

Oxmoor House and the federal Consumer Products Safety Commission announced the recall of six Do It Yourself books. Just six books. But there are almost a million copies of these in print, and one was published as far back as 1975.

In the Cornwell novel there are several maps of the French countryside, but these have not been recalled by anyone, yet. Longbow instructions, check. How to don your armor (don’t forget to grease your jerkin), sure. The book is “Agincourt” or in the British edition “Azincourt” and it’s one of Cornwell’s best, and he’s already published a great pile of historical novels.

Why did it take American bureaucrats and publishers 35 years to figure out there were errors in published technical diagrams and wiring instructions? Couldn’t anyone figure that out in, say, 1976? 1977?

If you have a copy of one of the suspect books, for example “Sunset Basic Home Repairs” or maybe a copy of "Lowe's Complete Home Improvement and Repair" or similar titles, you can call  866-696-7602 for further instructions and a possible refund of the purchase price. It’s a free call.

According to one report Dawn Bridges, senior vice president of corporate communications for Time, which now is Sunset's parent company, said there may have been slight changes in wording or diagrams over the years from book to book. And the advice could crop up on different pages in different books.

There remain some mysteries around this entire event. Who first alerted the Consumer Product Safety Commission that there was a problem? Why hasn’t the Commission or the publisher told us exactly which diagrams on which pages contain misleading or harmful information? Would not that be useful information to share if you are trying to prevent harm to readers?

Since only an expert with the time and motivation to look closely could be certain which pages contain bad information, readers are going to have to be extra cautious and extra careful when using information in these books, or in similar books that may be flagged later.

This is the same federal commission that this month voted to postpone for another full year requiring third-party testing of toys for lead content. Lead has been discovered in some brightly colored children’s books.

This is the same commission that could not stop lead and cadmium from being imported in the first place. That allowed dangerous solvents to remain on store shelves months after another recall, allowed import of laptops that can burn their users, and only two years ago testified to Congress that no additional money or staffing would be required, thank you.

It was all so much simpler back in Henry II’s day. You believed you had a claim to France, you borrowed some money from the Jews and the Italians, you gathered 1500 ships and landed near Harfleur, which you proceeded to lay siege to.

Then, your horde hungry and exhausted and suffering from dysentery, you marched toward Calais, thumbing a metaphorical nose at the much more powerful French and their much more powerful army.

At the Somme River the French blocked the crossings, and King Henry found himself trapped in a forested area near the little-known castle of Agincourt.

Next day it was 60,000 arrows versus knights in shining armor, and let’s just say it did not turn out well for the knights. King Henry did not live long enough to become King of France, but he did make a powerful show of it, inspire Shakespeare, and add to Britain’s military glory.

“Agincourt” by Bernard Cornwell is quite a story, and an excellent way to forget about wiring diagrams, earthquakes, and how fast the new year has become just another heartbreak.


NOTES:

The recalled books:  "AmeriSpec Home Repair Handbook," "Lowe's Complete Home Improvement and Repair," "Lowe's Complete Home Wiring," "Sunset Basic Home Repairs," "Sunset Complete Home Wiring," "Sunset Complete Patio Book," "Sunset Home Repair Handbook," "Sunset Water Gardens" and "Sunset You Can Build - Wiring."

One of many articles reporting the DIY books recall, this from the NY Times

The botched Stand ‘n Seal recall as reported in the NY Times:

A study shows many toys contain phthalates...

Consumer Product Safety Commission votes to delay requiring third-part testing for lead:

“Agincourt” by Bernard Cornwell. Harper paperback $14.99. ISBN 9780061578908.
random thoughts on two earthquakes...


We had a small temblor up Eureka way. Then Haiti exploded in what Pat Roberts called retribution for sin and sane people called a horrible, prolonged, intense shaking of the earth. All the cement buildings came down immediately. Uncountable lives lost or disrupted.

The northern California quake registered magnitude 6.5. The quake that rocked Port-au-Prince registered one half-step more: 7.0. Humboldt County, with its strict building codes and primarily wooden houses, reported 30 persons injured, 18 made homeless. In Haiti, at least 50,000 dead and badly injured, many thousands more made homeless, no effective building codes of any kind.

We are the lucky ones, indeed.

07 January 2010

Just in time for the new year, two books about gods and the afterlife. Both fiction. One short, one long. And I got them for free!

The publishers sent me reading copies, thank you very much. The short one is titled “Sum,” the long one “36 Arguments for the Existence of God.” Both are charming, even witty, but “Sum” is the one I actually read all the way through, because, well, it’s short. Perfect for my attenuated attention span.

“Sum” author David Eagleman is a neuroscientist who researches time perception, synesthesia and other exotica. “At night he writes fiction,” the publisher notes. He’s way brighter than you or me, probably owns second and third homes in Venice AND Aspen. He’s intimidating, is what David Eagleman is.

His book is fun to read: “In the afterlife you receive a clear answer about our purpose on the Earth: our mission is to collect data” begins one story.

The title story claims “In the afterlife you relive all your experiences, but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order; all the moments that share a quality are grouped together. You spend two months driving the street in front of your house, seven months having sex. You sleep for thirty years without opening your eyes. For five months straight you flip through magazines while sitting on a toilet.”

There is serious purpose behind the light-hearted speculation. Eagleman is a science-based skeptic and he likes to push you off-center a bit.

Some of his imaginings contain a certain poignancy. “When you die, you are grieved by all the atoms of which you were composed... they part ways, moving off in their separate directions, mourning the loss of a special time they shared together, haunted by the feeling that they were once playing parts in something larger than themselves, something that had its own life, something they can hardly put a finger on.”

In a publisher-supplied interview the author says his stories “are not serious proposals; they’re satirical and thought provoking lenses through which to see our lives at new angles... The aim of this book is to swing a flashlight around the possibility space.”

Those intrigued by “Sum” might enjoy the deeper dive into Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s new novel “36 Arguments for the Existence of God.”
The “36 Arguments” refers to a book within the book, “The Varieties of Religious Illusion” which in Goldstein’s tale has become a surprise best-seller.

Goldstein has her own set of impressive credentials, including a doctorate in philosophy and a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award. In trying to marry fiction to philosophy she runs the risk of coming off like a pontificator, a la the wooden Ayn Rand. So far it does appear the author manages to keep it light.

Still, the underlying mood in “36 Arguments for the Existence of God” is quite serious. Goldstein acknowledges that fundamentalists of all kinds are in the ascendant. “The world shifted, catching lots of smart people off guard,” she writes, “churning up issues you thought had settled forever beneath the earth’s crust. The more sophisticated you are, the more annotated your mental life, the more taken aback you’re likely to feel, seeing what the world’s lurch has brought to light, thrusting up beliefs and desires you had assumed belonged to an earlier stage of human development.”

“It’s a tiresome proposition, having to take up the work of the Enlightenment all over again, but it’s happened on your watch,” she says.

In an appendix after the novel each of those 36 arguments for the existence of god is spelled out and rationally critiqued. That section alone could keep you entertained while brooding by the fire during long winter nights.


NOTES:

“Sum, Forty Tales from the Afterlives” by David Eagleman. Vintage Books paperback $13. ISBN 9780307389930.

About the title, Eagleman notes in the interview: “First, it’s Latin for ‘I am,’ as in Cogito ergo sum. Second, it’s related to the Greek term for the highest, as in summa cum laude, or the English word summit. Third, the point of this book is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. As you read the stories, it becomes clear that they are mutually exclusive and that there’s something bigger emerging from adding them all together.”

“36 Arguments for the Existence of God, A Work of Fiction” by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. Pantheon Books hard cover $27.95. ISBN 9780307378187.

For Rebecca Goldstein take a look at this site, and for David Eagleman this one.