When Genius Failed

Books like this are why I almost never read fiction, which seems contrived. What is better than unvarnished history and facts to make a book so enjoyable. I wish this book had been longer!

Subtitled "The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Management", this book by Roger Lowenstein was written in 2000 and is even richer because of the way it translates to the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis. Proving there is nothing new under the sun, one could lift entire paragraphs and seamlessly place them in a book written in 2011 about the previous decade.

Crazy for God

I was introduced to Frank Schaeffer via this segment on Rachel Maddow and decided I needed to read his memior, "Crazy for God". I'm glad I did. It's a helluva book. This guy has led a dynamic life and beyond his tell-all about the psychotic and hypocritical evangelists we all know, he mainly shows how living a faith is more important than touting a faith.

Most enlightening was the portrayal of his famous parents who were horrified by the political and hateful direction fundamentalism took after Roe v. Wade. All in all I'd recommend this book to anyone. It's one of those books that is hard to put down. His life is a roller coaster!

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

LOL funny...to the point I had to come in the house from reading this hilarious book in the back yard because I'm sure the neighbors thought I was a guffawing lunatic.

Will You Take Me As I Am?

Michelle Mercer's exposition of Joni Mitchell's Blue Period, defined as spanning the five albums Blue through Hejira, features some nice biographical details and lyrical insights. However, like the recent Wolff book about Rupert Murdoch, the author's unprecedented access to subject yields an unfocused and bloated book.

Do we really need 3 pages about Loudon Wainwright vacillating on the curative nature of songwriting? It's tangents like these that make the reader realize this short book would have been a much more interesting long magazine article, with the appropriate editor.

There is even a blatant factual error at one point (Tin Angel is not on Joni's first album).

Joni comes off as somewhat arrogant and misguided (e.g. rationalization of her life-long smoking addiction, laughable mentions of astrological crap) but Mercer appropriately counters this and delights us with a final section about the things Joni likes, culled from her hours of interviews and other sources. As such, both author and subject are rehabilitated at the end. Joni is obviously brilliant and talented but her concomitant ego dulls the shine. She reminds me of Michael Schermer's book, "Why People Believe Weird Things."

The most interesting revelation is a background story about the song "Court and Spark", something Larry Klein (Joni's ex-husband) divulged that Joni did not want exposed. Understandably, I think, she did not want the universal nature of the song delimited by a specific anecdote. However, now that the cat's out of the bag, the background provides an utterly fascinating view of Joni's songwriting process: the assimilation of an encounter with someone and its transformation to serve the song in an enigmatic and different way.

Finally, if one is covering the "blue period" of an artist, it follows that a clearer and more chronological review would serve the reader best. The author bounces around in time way too much, pays inordinate attention to "Blue" and virtually ignores "The Hissing of Summer Lawns".

I'd give this book a "C-" but any self-respecting Joni fan will gobble it up as I did and relish the positives over the negatives.

The Last Tycoons

Hats off to William Cohan for a wonderful book about the history of an investment bank. In almost 700 pages we learn the exhaustive history of Lazard and its Great Men.

The title is "The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co." The long subtitle is "A tale of unrestrained ambition, billion-dollar fortunes, byzantine power struggles, and hidden scandal." Indeed!

For 150+ years these bankers dispensed advice to businesses and earned enormous fees. It's all here--from the small dry goods store founded in New Orleans to Bruce Wasserstein commandeering the company in 2002 and taking it public shortly thereafter.

What might sound boring or exhausting is, for the most part, actually engaging. I think this is due to Cohan's ability to corral a million facts into highly readable and even action-packed prose. I'm downright envious of his writing ability.

My only nit to pick is the lack of photos. Given the depth of characterizations it would have been handy to see what the players look like.

Hopper

I loved this overview of Edward Hopper's career. Some of the text is overwrought but remains insightful for the most part. The reproductions are wonderful. Some captions go beyond the basics with added commentary. This title turned my Hopper fever up a degree or two, which is welcome.

The Man Who Owns the News

The new inside story of the Murdoch regime and its purchase of the Wall Street Journal is poorly written but full of insights into what makes multi-generational plutocrats tick. This includes not only the Murdoch organization which bought the paper, but the Bancrofts who sold it after a hundred years of hands-off ownership.

The subtitle is "Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch". Michael Wolff had unprecedented access to the man himself as well as family and associates. It's a pity he writes like a high school newspaper gossip columnist and tries to be cute at every turn. The stream of zen psychobabble is relentless. This 400 page book should have been half that.

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

David Lynch raises money for his education initiative by publishing this book about how transcendental meditation has influenced his life and art. It's an easy read and upbeat. The insights into his film career are especially interesting.

Like the Malcolm Gladwell book I just read, the writing style is direct and simple. Some chapters are just one sentence or one paragraph.

Chapter titles run the gamut from "Religion" and "Ideas" to "Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit" and "Bob's Big Boy".

Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell hits another home run with this book about how opportunities and legacy affect success. Outliers is packed with insights that seem both obvious and non-intuitive at the same time. I think that is the brilliance of his books, using data and research to both defy and reinforce common sense.

For example, we all know families are important but the introduction explains some amazing positive health data from a small immigrant community due apparently to three generations living and working together.

A perfect airplane book, Outliers is riveting from beginning to end. Nevertheless, I had to postpone one of the most mesmerizing chapters on a recent flight from New York. It was on plane crashes. Too close for comfort.

Courting Justice

David Boies came to my attention during the Bush v. Gore litigation in 2000. He was impressive and brilliant advocating for Gore. Courting Justice concludes with three chapters on this high profile case but first tackles several others including DOJ's antitrust fight against Microsoft. (Spoiler: Bill Gates comes off as a major asshole).

I am riveted whenever I hear Boies speak but this book was tedious. It felt like work to finish it. Nevertheless, the legal content is fascinating. The problem is in the unexplored avenues Boies frequently mentions and abandons. After 470 pages one would think we'd know more about Boies.

Alex and Me

Dr. Irene Pepperberg writes the book pet owners have anticipated since Alex, the brainy 30-year old African Grey parrot died last year. This book beautifully details Alex's achievements and Pepperberg's insights into animal intelligence. For example, Alex demonstrated an understanding of "zero" and could differentiate objects just to name two accomplishments never thought possible.

Here is the NYT review: The Caged Bird Speaks

The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog

If you are a bird owner this book confirms the joys of having an interactive species in your house and the concomitant sorrow when losing that member of the family. However, I did not have much sympathy for the owner who ignores warnings about letting a flighted bird outside. It's no surprise that does not end well. :(

Fermat's Enigma

The subtitle of this fine book says it all: "The epic quest to solve the world's greatest mathematical problem". Believe it or not, this book was hard to put down. It's well written and combines history, biography and the drama of the 300-year search for the solution to this riddle.