Laton McCartney: The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country
I am fortunate to know the author of this book; he used to be my boss at InformationWEEK. He has written numerous first-rate works, including a swell book about the discovery of the South Pass on the Oregon Trail and the inside story of Bechtel. Here, he takes an obscure but extremely important scandal in American history and makes it come alive. Teapot Dome is hard to grasp for several reasons: it was complicated, it unwound slowly (over almost a decade) because of the nefarious delays in the congressional investigation, and it became less urgent after the death of Harding, the man in the middle. Astoundingly, the GOP, corrupt to the core in the 1920s, escaped unscathed, winning in 1924 and 1928 as Teapot Dome unfolded. McCartney's trademark "you are there" recreations, founded in the carefully researched historical record, make the whole thing squalid affair quite vivid, and his Wyoming roots (half the scandalous land involved was in Wyoming) clearly motivated him to tell the story. (*****)
Max Barry: Jennifer Government
I am not really a sucker for every book I read, which is why this is a four star, not a five star. It begins slowly, and the first half is a confusing, hard slog. But eventually this dystopian vision of corporations rampant and a vestigial government picks up speed, excitement and interest. In Barry's world, your last name is the company you work for, thus, government agent Jennifer Government and her nemesis John Nike. Absurd, rollicking, action-packed and scary. (****)
Dick Meyer: Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium
Vicki and I heard Dick Meyer on an NPR Podcast (from their excellent series on authors speaking at bookstores), describing this book, which explains why Americans are so angry about their culture and what can be done about it. A former CBS producer, he now works for NPR. He has noticed downward spiral of--well, nearly everything, but he does not believe it is inevitable or unstoppable. It is a refreshing book, full of pointed observations, with an abbreviated but still thoughtful "prescription" section at the end. Both the problem and the solution start with you. (*****)
David Sedaris: When You Are Engulfed in Flames
David Sedaris is an acquired taste, like smoking. He is a New Yorker essayist and "memoirist," whose life is recounted in essay form in a "heightened," and so more humorous, reality. I find his work laugh out loud funny, and can't recommend his new book too highly. He does not achieve his effects, like Perlman and Allen, with vocabulary, but with simple words and a nasty self-deprecation that never fails to amuse me. (*****)
Paul Auster: The Book of Illusions: A Novel
For anyone who likes every page of their novel soaked in the feeling of being a Hollywood insider, this piece of literary fiction should be like catnip. Auster has written the tale of a woebegone academic who stumbles across a silent film comedian. The comic made movies for a year and a half, then disappeared 60 years earlier. The academic writes the first and only book about the actor, and is then told his subject is still alive! The interweaving of the two narratives, the richly imagined life of the actor and the sadly lived life of the professor, is skillful in a way that makes me jealous as a writer. It's a great read. Sep. 08 (*****)
Christopher Buckley: Supreme Courtship
Consistently funny, Buckley walks a fine line between parody, satire and slapstick, and does so in a consistently amusing and entertaining way. Supreme Courtship is the story of a television judge elevated to the Supreme Court by a frustrated president. Buckley deftly skewers modern presidential campaigns and modern internal Supreme Court bickering at the same time, as well as taking a few well-aimed swipes at reality television. There are several characters who are recognizable burlesque version of real people (including Sen. Joe Biden), but unlike, say, Black and White and Dead All Over, such thinly disguised portraits are incidental, rather than central. Rollicking fun. Be sure to read it. Sep. 08 (*****)
John Darnton: Black and White and Dead All Over
You finish this book feeling as though you are covered with printer's ink. You'll have no trouble spotting Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., R.W. "Johnny" Apple, former executive editors Howell Raines and A.M. "Abe" Rosenthal. The novel features a detailed tour of the important parts of the building (including the hole where the presses used to be and the neglected morgue), as well as a seemingly accurate and well-sketched look at actual daily newspaper operations. Fantastic, engaging and well written. Aug. 08 (*****)
Christopher Buckley: Boomsday
Once again, Buckley shares his comedic genius with us. This time, he takes the fact that the simultaneous retirement of all the boomers is going to bankrupt the country, mixes it with presidential politics and a little polite sex, and creates gales of hysterical laughter. Smart, witty and clever, this book once again marks Buckley as a worthy successor to the greats of American narrative humor, and makes him one of my favorite living authors. Aug 08 (*****)
Keith Colquhoun: Beyond Reason
Well-written, fast-paced, entertaining, and, like his other works, endearingly eccentric. If you are interested in a good novel that doesn't read just like every other novel, and some thoughtful chatter about the state of religion, wrapped into an entertaining package, you'll like Beyond Reason. Jun 08 (****)
Sven Birkerts: The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
This collection of essays alternates between hopeful and depressing as it soberly considers the future propspects of the act of reading dead-tree media. In this re-issue, the author admits to succumbing to electronic creation, but clings to reading on paper. A reasonable compromise? I think so. Thoughtful and engaging. 1/07. (*****)
