Monday, December 31, 2018

What If? by Randall Munroe *****

What If? by Randall Munroe is the ultimate bathroom book for MythBusters fans. This is a collection of unreasonable questions given rigorous scientific answers. For example: What happens if the earth stops spinning, but the atmosphere does not? As with most such investigations, mayhem ensues.

This book is full of interesting observations:

“They say there are no stupid questions. This is obviously wrong.”

Hurricanes: “It’s not that the wind is blowing, it’s what the wind is blowing.”

In the question about swimming in the spent fuel pool of an atomic reactor. The author questioned a scientist. The answer was, “In our reactor? You’d die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds.”

Some sample questions:

What would happen is the sun suddenly switched off?

What is the farthest one human being has been from every other living person?

If you like science, this book by the author of the webcomic XKCD is a fun read. Knowledge of advanced physics is not required. Highly recommended for nerds, geeks, and young scientists.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Friday, December 28, 2018

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom ****

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is a memoir of the author’s visits with his favorite college professor, Morris Schwartz, during the professor’s last year of life. Morris Schwartz had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). 
“ALS is like a lit candle: it melts your nerves and leaves your body of pile of wax…imprisoned inside a limp husk…the man frozen inside his own flesh.”
“Yet he refused to be depressed. Instead, Morrie had become a lightning rod of ideas. …He wrote bite-sized philosophies (aphorisms) about living with death’s shadow.”
 Mitch visits on Tuesdays and records these ideas.

The book contains some biographical glimpses of Morrie’s life. During the Vietnam war, he convinced the Sociology faculty at Brandeis University, where he taught, to give all male students As, so they would not lose their draft deferments. He regularly went to a church dance, mostly attended by much younger students, and danced solo as the spirit moved him.

Most of the book was aphorisms.
“Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.” 
The lesson here is to make peace and forgive today, to treat each day and person as precious.
“Whenever people ask me about having children or not having children, I never tell them what to do. I simply say, ‘There is no experience like having children.’”
 “It is impossible for the old not to envy the young. But the issue is to accept who you are…now is my time to be seventy-eight.”
 “Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness.”
 “As his body rotted, his character shone even more brightly.”
 “Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”
 “Morrie borrowed freely from all religions.”
 This is a book of love and release and death and aphorisms. A short book of wisdom.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes *****

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes received the Hugo Award (1959 short story) and Nebula Award (1966 novel). This is a science fiction classic on the subject of disabilities. The protagonist, Charlie Gordon, has an IQ of 68. Even after sixty years, this story raises important and interesting questions about attitudes towards disabilities and the value of intelligence at either end of the bell curve.

The story is about Charlie who starts with an IQ in the lowest 2% and receives an operation which puts him in the upper .001%. The first thing you might wonder is why these two points are not symmetrical? What does this say about our views of intelligence?

If you haven’t been exposed to this story (there is an Academy-Award-Winning movie Charly, and other adaptations), you might wonder whether you should read the short story or the novel.

The novel makes one improvement over the short story. In the short story, Charlie works in a factory with 840 people. In the novel, this is changed to a much smaller bakery where his relationship with the workers makes more sense.

However, the novelization required many additions which distract from the impact and clarity of the short story. The change that I found most disturbing is the addition of many social/psychological subplots. The short story is primarily about intelligence, while the novel raises the questions about the interactions between intelligence and autism spectrum disorder, and intelligence and the response to abusive parenting. Certainly, there is no correlation between ASD and intelligence… I found the novel confusing and distracting.

What does the novel add? In the novel, Charlie has an abusive mother and poor bowel control. The novel also adds two problematic sexual relationships. The novel implies that these issues are partially caused by low intelligence and cured by increased intelligence.

If you haven’t read this classic, I highly recommend the short story. It was widely anthologized (I found it on my bookshelf) and is available on the Internet (The Internet copy I found is not the original).

Publication history from Wikipedia
The short story was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (April 1959). It was reprinted in The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, 9th series (1960), the Fifth Annual of the Year’s Best Science Fiction (1960), The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964 (1970), among others.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen ***

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen is the story of Nora Nolan, a New Yorker. “Some people immediately fell in love with New York [City], and other people said they could never live there.” Nora is in the former group. This book is about “the City,” as New Yorkers refer to Manhattan. The author alternately worships New York City and chronicles the sad lives of characters who share her passion.

Nora has a career, first as a museum director, and later as a foundation director. Her husband works in finance. Her daughter Rachel went to Williams, and her son Oliver went to MIT. They are twins. They live in a single-family Victorian on a dead-end block. The people who own homes on the street form a closed community. They share a December party and May barbeque. They meet each other when they walk their dogs. They each have their own nannies and housekeepers, but they share a handyman.

Aside from their superficial interactions, they all have very private lives. When a neighbor attacks the handyman, the polite façade crumbles. The handyman is hospitalized and sues. This injustice makes it impossible for everyone to continue to pretend that they all belong together as they divide in favor of the neighbor or the handyman. This event stresses both the marriages and the community. As a non-New Yorker, I find this story very sad.

If you are a proud New Yorker, I imagine you’ll love this book. If you are not a New Yorker, this book might make you feel good about your choice.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell *****

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell is a historical novel of a native girl, Karana, stranded on a Channel Island 1835-1853. This is read by fourth graders in California. The book includes death and disasters, native American crafts, and friendly animals. Throughout this, Karana has a peaceful and optimistic attitude.

Death and disasters

The story opens with otter hunters visiting the island and killing Karana’s father and most of the able men. The tribe emigrates to the mainland, but Karana and her brother are left behind.  Her brother is killed by wild dogs. Her island is hit by an earthquake and tsunami.

Native American crafts

Karana builds several canoes, a shelter using whale bones, spears using sea elephant teeth, bows and arrows, a skirt of cormorant feathers, baskets, cooking pots, and candles from small fish. She eats seeds, fish, roots, and abalone.

Friendly Animals

She tames two wild dogs, four birds, a fox, and an otter. Her pattern is to first treat animals as resources or threats and later to befriend them. By the end, all the mammals and birds are considered friends.

Gender Roles

Karana was very clear about gender roles (“The laws of Ghalas-at forbade the making of weapons by women”), but she broke all these taboos in order to survive. However, she remains feminine to the end. When she is rescued (18 years later), she prepares…
“I…bathed in the spring and put on my otter cape and my cormorant skirt. I put on my necklace of black stones and the black earrings…Below the mark of our tribe (on my face) I carefully made the sign which meant I was unmarried.”
 She was very clever. “I heard a shout…The men he left…did not answer, nor did the men on the ship, so I was sure that he was calling me.”

If you are interested in a pleasant history of Californian natives, this the perfect read.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Friday, December 14, 2018

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles *****

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is set in 1938 Manhattan. The narrator, Katherine Kontent, comes from a blue-collar family in New Jersey. Her friend Evelyn Ross comes from an upper-middle-class family in Indiana. Why is that important? This is a story about class and mobility. The third main character: Tinker Grey, as disclosed in the Preface, is well-off in 1938, and destitute in 1939.

One of the central themes of this book is class mobility. Do you have to be born in the upper class to belong? Can people from modest roots enter to upper class through luck or talent? Tinker personifies luck and Katey is talent. Neither makes the jump.

Even though class mobility seems beyond the grasp of our characters—no one enters or leaves the upper social strata—Katey moves up financially. However, lest the reader might take this an optimistic view of possibilities, Katey is absolutely brilliant…so brilliant that everyone recognizes her talent. Others who less talent (Tinker’s artist brother, and Evelyn Ross) do not fare as well.

On an egalitarian note, most characters lived their life happily, even Wallace who died in the fighting Franco, Dickey who made paper airplanes, and Eve who moved to Los Angeles.

The book includes much clever writing. The kind of writing that is so clever, it takes the reader out of the story.

“[The rich had] dogs that were better bred than I.”
“The indistinguishable…were satisfied to express their individuality through which Rogers they preferred…Ginger or Roy or Buck.”
“[He took care of me after the auto accident because] You break it, you’ve bought it? Right?”

If you’d like a delightful book of life among the very rich and those that enter their circle, this is the book for you. The style and dialogue are optimistic and everyone, rich and poor, are allowed to pursue happiness in their own way.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser *****

Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser or how the best and worst of America inspired school children and funded right-wing conservatives. So many stories in one volume. One: the true story behind the Little House literary empire. Two: how said empire funded isolationist, small government, libertarian causes. Three: one hundred years of Midwest history and how the people most needing government came to hate it. Four: how people came the believe the myth of the American farm.

One: the true story behind the Little House (LH) literary empire.

In her late fifties Laura Ingalls Wilder (LIW), an avid reader, but barely educated, wanted to record the story of and stories by her father. To her aid came her daughter Rose Wilder Lane (RWL), a writer of fictionalized “true stories” and a libertarian. The RWL and LIW were opposites, spend and save, dramatic and thoughtful, privileged and poor, world-traveler and stay at home, lost and found. Together they crafted an enduring American myth from LIW’s life of deprivation and RWL’s flair for sensational fiction. Fraser researches the true story behind the LH. The bulk of this book is LIW’s biography prior to writing the LH books starting her late 50s. LIW’s story is one of hope, deprivation, a failure. Growing up, her family searches for the impossible dream—a self-sufficient small farm. The LH books celebrate this dream…myth…nightmare.

Two: how said empire funded isolationist, small government, libertarian causes.

When LIW died she wanted her legacy to support her daughter and then pass to her favorite library. Her daughter used the resources to support her libertarian philosophy. Over her lifetime, RWL “adopted” a number of young men. The last was Roger McBride, forty years her junior, who ended up owning the LH books, authorized the TV shows, and ran for president as a Libertarian candidate. His heirs still own the books.

Three: one hundred years of Midwest history and how the people most needing government came to hate it.

In the Midwest frontier, pioneers had a love-hate relationship with government. When the government supported them against the native Americans, they loved it. On the other hand, even when they were starving, they hated government assistance and regulation. These ideas opposed to taxes and bureaucracy began in the 19th century and continued today. These ethics fought the New Deal and accepting Jewish refugees. Throughout this history, self-sufficiency trumped self-interest and even survival. The LH myth of the small farm has supported these ideas for over 150 years.

Four: how people came the believe the myth of the American farm.

The various Homestead Acts,  the railroads, and the LH books celebrated the small farmer, while LIW’s family tried time and time again to achieve this dream, but always failed. Why? Statistics reveal that the average income of an American family farm is negative. Growing up, LIW’s family alternated between working in town to save money, and homesteading until they were starving. Regardless of this reality, with the help of the LH books, the myth survives.

P.S. for writers: Since these LH books were the collaboration of two distant authors and before computers, multiple versions of the books, plus the correspondence has been preserved. LIW wrote without thought of literary conventions, from memory. She was responsible for the vivid descriptions and sympathetic characterizations. RWL acted as editor (chapters, paragraphs), but also contributed (fabricated) dramatic scenes as she thought appropriate. LIW wrote with fond personal nostalgia, while RWL thought of the reader and the market.

P.S. for scientists: Much of the suffering of homesteaders was “self-inflicted,” climate change caused by human activity. In the latter part of the 19th-century scientists knew about the problem, but the railroads promoted settling the land calling the scientists elite intellectuals.

P.S. for feminist historians: Libertarians owe much of their popularity to “three weird sisters” who published philosophic books during World War II: RWL (The Discovery of Freedom), Isabel May Paterson (The God of the Machine), and Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead). Fraser calls these “an antifeminist trifecta.”

Do you love the Little House books? If so, you might not want to read this American tragedy.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Dreaming Spies by Laurie R King ****

Dreaming Spies by Laurie R King is a Sherlock Holmes mystery featuring his wife Mary Russell. Mary explains the story like this: “The entire case was about books…I reflected. Bashō’s poems, the Bard’s plays, a countess’s empty Bible.” While the mystery ends with a Watson-like explanation of the complex plot, much of the story is a 1924 travelogue of a steamer trip Bombay to Kobe and a visit to Japan. Well over half the book is gone before the mystery is revealed.

Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes’ wife, takes the place of Watson as narrator, but also plays a very active role in the narrative, doing her own independent investigations. The third detective is Haruki Sato. She is a member of an ancient family of shinobi (ninja) dedicated to the protection of the emperor. In addition to her ninja training, she went to school at NYU.

The antagonists are Lord James Darley, his younger second wife Lady Charlotte Darley, and his reprobate son Viscount Tommy Darley. All the Darleys have questionable reputations, but nothing specific has been proven.

Much of the plot revolves around an illustrated book of Matsuo Bashō’s haiku—Bashō being the master and inventor of haiku.

As fitting for a Sherlock Holmes novel featuring rare books, the famous Bodleian Library at Oxford University is prominently featured.

If you imagine you’d like both a historical visit to rural Japan and a Sherlock Holmes mystery, I’d recommend this book, as both parts are well written and interesting.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Two books about long hikes *****

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and Wild by Cheryl Strayed are both books of long hikes. Bryson hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Strayed hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Both trails are arduous and over 2,000 miles (3,000 km) long. On one level both hikers had similar experiences of feeling ill-prepared, satisfaction from getting in shape, isolation, obsession with hunger, especially junk food, giving up on the most difficult sections, obsession with soft beds, clean clothes, and showers, and a sense of pride at their personal accomplishments.

There were also notable differences. Cheryl was a single woman in her 20s and broke, while Bryson had support and was in his 40s and a best-selling author. The PCT is more of a wilderness trail, while the AT is rarely far from civilization. His book was written as a travel book, while hers was a quest to grow beyond her mother’s death, her divorce, and heroin addiction.

The prelude for a long hike includes guidebooks and extensive preparation. Virtually everything from food and water, to sleeping bags and tents, to shoes, clothes, and packs, is available in a multitude of expensive and high-tech variations. Advice is available from people and books. Both authors agree that all the preparation is insufficient to prepare for the actual hike.

Bryson’s experience was more upbeat for three reasons:
  1. The AT goes through the relatively populous each coast (13 colonies). He was never far from basic necessities or comforts such as motel and restaurants.
  2. As a family man and an established author, he had plenty of cash, credit cards, and people to show up in a car.
  3. Bryson tells the story of the Appalachian Trail with plenty of comic relief and history.


Strayed on the other hand:
  1. The PCT passes through the wilderness where even the established towns were often just a general store and a post office. No motels. No restaurants. What is proof of wilderness in the 21st century? No overnight delivery. Only regular USPS service.
  2. As a broke single woman, she was on her own.
  3. Strayed tells her personal story of challenge and discovery while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

 Highlights from Cheryl Strayed’s story:

Since the PCT went through the wilderness (and Cheryl was broke), she prepared resupply boxes that were mailed to general delivery post offices along the trail. Resupply boxes included new clothes, food, and cash. She was often broke and out of food, so the resupply schedule provided strong motivation to stick to a schedule determined months earlier.

As a single female hiker (who signed each of the many logs along the PCT), she became a minor celebrity. The other hikers (predominantly in groups, and male) treated her well, but she did have a few encounters with creepy and predatory men.

The weather along the PCT, even in Summer, included significant snow and chilling rain. Many decisions and detours were determined by the weather. Regardless of the risk, she mostly chose to hike on her own. Her resupply boxes always included a book, which she burned after reading to avoid carrying extra weight.

She proved herself to be brave and resourceful. While pack weight was a constant issue, she never discarded her roll of duct tape and used it often in creative and life-saving ways.

Highlights from Bill Bryson’s story:

Bryson and his hiking companion both smoked cigarettes (1995)!

Regardless whether the AT goes through National Parks, National Forests, or National Trails, development pressures are evident in visitor centers, parking lots, and other tourist facilities. As a result, hardcore backpackers (like Bryson) regularly interacted with casual hikers and plain tourists. While the backpackers claimed the moral high ground, the tourists had numeric and financial superiority.

Historically Pennsylvania was an energy powerhouse (oil and coal), today it suffers from its legacy, including a deserted town that is above a burning coal mine that might not burn out for a thousand years.

Risks on the AT includes death from hypothermia (theoretically avoidable) and homicide (not avoidable). Because of the proximity to population centers, there are unlimited stories like:
“They were able to report their [GPS] position…but unfortunately didn’t have the faintest idea what that meant, as they hadn’t brought maps or compasses or, evidently brains.”
If you plan to hike either trail, pick the book that matches your destination. If you’d like some light reading with comic relief and no real jeopardy, Bryson is for you. If you are looking for struggle and victory, go with Strayed. Oprah chose Strayed.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Friday, November 9, 2018

Tomorrow by Damian Dibben ***

Tomorrow by Damian Dibben is told in the first-person point of view by a dog. If you’re looking at this book, I imagine that, like me, you’ve read and enjoyed other books written from a dog’s point of view. This one is darker, much darker.

Master travels to the Arabian lands and learns the secret of eternal life. The treatment is successful for himself, his dog, Champion, and his eventual nemesis Vilder. The novel spans the 17th, 18th, and beginning of the 19th centuries. These main characters live over 200 years, travel throughout Europe and meet many famous people. They also participate in war from the 30-years war to the Napoleonic.

Much of the narrative happens in Venice. In 1688, after telling Champion, “If we lose one another, my champion, wait for me on the steps,” Master disappears. Loyal Champion waits by the cathedral steps for 127 years.  After 127 years, Champion senses the scent of Master. With his canine friend Sporco, he sets off the find Master. The quest is full of danger and privation.

While Champion, and Sporco, are positive and happy regardless of any setbacks, both Master and Vilder suffer and question the value of eternal life.

If you are looking for a historical novel about the philosophical questionability of eternal life, this could be the book for you. Conclusion: dogs are more suited to eternal life than people.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi ****

You might first think of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi as a pleasant fantasy. After all, it is a quest to restore magic and defeat an evil king in the kingdom of Orïsha. However, in the acknowledgments, Adeyemi’s true intentions are disclosed.
If you cried for Zulaikha and Salim, cry for the innocent children like Jordan Edwards, Tamir Rice, and Aiyana Stanley Jones. They were fifteen, twelve, and seven when they were shot and killed by the police.”
This is an allegory about the contemporary black experience in the United States.

Prince Inan and Princess Amari question whether King Saran has to destroy all magic and divîners (people capable of magic). Zélie and her brother Tzain belong the oppressed caste. The plot is complicated because Inan and Zélie and both divîners. Star-crossed relationships form between Inan and Zélie, and between Tzain and Amari.

The four join forces to retrieve the three magical artifacts (scroll, bone knife, and sunstone) to perform the necessary ritual on an island that appears once every hundred years.

The quest includes a trek through a jungle to an ancient temple, a gladiatorial fight in a colosseum that fills with water, the discovery of a lost city, romances, betrayal, and torture.

Just as the real events which inspired this book, the story includes brutal violence and hatred.  

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte *****

What do you think of men who coerce teenage girls into subservient relationships with luxuries or bible verses? Would you like to read about a girl who is strong enough to repel these attacks? Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is just such a teenager (as described by Joyce Carole Oates) “unprotected by social position, family, or independent wealth…without material or social power.” In one word, she is FIERCE. She is also from the 19th century.

Speaks her mind

Jane Eyre was not bashful or accommodating.

When her sole guardian tells her children, “[Jane] is not worthy of notice,” Jane replies, “They are not fit to associate with me.” When this guardian calls her, “a naughty child addicted to falsehood and deceit,” Jane replies, “I am not deceitful; if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you.”

When the master of the charity school for orphans (Lowood) lectures her on her behavior and closes with the rhetorical, “What must you do to avoid [hell]?” she replies, “I must keep in good health and not die.”

Recognizes the patriarchy

Jane Eyre grows up surrounded by men who take their power for granted.

Her step-brother: “I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder: he had closed with a desperate thing. I really saw in him a tyrant; a murderer.”

The master of the charity school for orphans (Lowood) starves and abuses her for his personal profit.

When her fiancé, offers fancy dresses and jewelry, Jane replies, “I shall furnish my own wardrobe…you shall give me nothing.”

When another man urges her to marry him with, “God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife,” she steadfastly refused with “I scorn your idea of love…and I scorn you when you offer it.”

The wrath of Charlotte Bronte

In this world constructed by Charlotte Bronte, everyone who crosses Jane gets punished in the end with death or misery or both, and everyone who is nice does well.

If you like strong, female leads—women taking on the patriarchy, resisting power, and rebutting mansplaining—and happy endings, this is the book. Hope for the 21st century from the 19th.

Note about eReaders: The conventions of the 19th century did not expect the translation of foreign languages. This book included (untranslated) French, German, and Latin. Fortunately for me, my eReader conveniently provides translations which were often useful to full understanding. This book also contained many English words which belonged to the 19th century. Again, my eReader conveniently provided definitions.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness ****

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness is a 579-page epic with witches, vampires, romance, and ageless battles—something for everyone. Some of my favorite parts were the explanations of witches and vampires through DNA sequencing and the research of ancient manuscripts. I also liked the vampire cuisine: nuts, raw meats, and wine…especially wine. On the negative side, I felt that the pervasiveness of paranormal abilities and events, left the characters as victims, rather than in control of their fate—I found it hard to celebrate a success that happened by magic.

The book unfolds in stages. It is told by Dr. Diana Bishop, a historian of alchemy. She is a witch related to Bridget Bishop of Salem fame (1692).  It begins with her discovery of an ancient manuscript, Ashmole 782, which has been lost for 150 years. Next is her forbidden romance with Matthew Clairmont, a vampire over 1,500 years old. He does research into the DNA of witches, vampires, and daemons.

This romance put them afoul of the Covenant that forbids such interspecies relationships. The battle starts in Oxford, but quickly moves to Matthew’s home in France, and finally to Diana’s home in upstate New York. The home in New York is haunted and introduces some comic relief when the house makes editorial comments by slamming doors and hiding and revealing things such as important documents and serving dishes. It also foresees visitors, and if they are favored, the house creates new rooms for them. Many of Diana’s relatives occupy the house as ghosts. The house and the ghosts have the most agency of the characters.

This is my first vampire book, so I can’t compare these vampires to others. The vampires have superhuman physical strengths and abilities, like speed of movement. I liked that this extended to speed reading. Now when I meet someone who reads quickly, I’ll wonder whether they are part-vampire.

Diana is often seen as strong, but in spite of this everyone feels the need to protect her. She has many witch powers but is unable to use them to her benefit. She was my favorite character and I kept expecting her to learn how to use her power. This is book one of a trilogy, so maybe that breakthrough comes later.

If you like the supernatural romance, and epic struggles, this is the book for you. If you expect characters to surmount their challenges through intelligence and perseverance, not so much.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Quiet: The Power of Introverts… by Susan Cain ****

Quiet by Susan Cain seems to be required reading for the one-out-of-three people who are introverts, and anyone who is a parent, teacher, partner, or friend of an introvert-yes, everyone. Cain opens with: contemporary society worships an Extrovert Ideal. A Culture of Character has been forsaken for one of Personality (a twentieth-century invention). Education, employment, and success are for extroverts. There is a whole industry, tracing back to Dale Carnegie, to convert introverts into extroverts. This book alternately praises introverts as they are or teaches them how to become pseudo-extroverts.

You might wonder: What is an introvert? One good definition is that introverts are energized by solitary activities and extroverts are energized by group activities.

This book has two messages for introverts. One, you are perfect the way you are. Two, you can pass as a pseudo-extrovert. This is a mixed message, but it might explain the book’s popularity. However, I wonder if this will change over time. It is hard to imagine a book today espousing that blacks become pseudo-whites, gays become pseudo-straights, or women become pseudo-men. A follow-on book is called Quiet Power and might represent a step beyond pseudo-extrovert.

Introvert Advantages

Introverts will appreciate the many lists and anecdotes of the advantages of being an introvert.
“…have mighty powers of concentration. They’re relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame.”
“…high productivity is one biological basis of introversion.”
“By sticking to her own gentle way of doing things, Laura had reeled in new business for her firm and a job offer for herself.”
“College students who study alone learn more over time than those that work in groups.”
Extrovert Disadvantages

Introverts will also appreciate, schadenfreude, examples where the Extrovert Ideal backfires.
“The HBS teaching method implicitly comes down on the side of certainty. The CEO may not know the best way forward, but she has to act that way.”
“…being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity.”
“…produced more ideas when they worked on their own than when they worked as a group.”
“It’s so easy to confuse schmoozing ability with talent.”
Personal Stories

Introverts will see themselves in many of the anecdotes.
“[Introverts] think in an unusually complex fashion.”
“…highly empathetic.”
“…if you were a nice person, you’d get crushed. I refused to live a life where people could do that to me… If I wanted to be a nice person, I needed to run [the organization]”
“I could literally go years without having any friends except my wife and kids.”

Cupertino

The book spends significant time on Cupertino’s Monta Vista High School, 77% Asian-American. I lived and raised my children within 100 meters of this school. My experience was diametrically opposite to the authors. I expect this is partially confirmation bias and partially her few outsider interviews versus my day-to-day lived experience.

While the author espoused the Asian-American stereotypes of studious and shy, I found the reality much different. In this majority-Asian school, there were studious and shy students, but they were not all Asian. There were also students interested in non-academic activities, or who didn’t do their homework, or with low grades. Some of those students were Asian. I felt this was an ideal environment to combat Asian stereotypes.

If you want to learn how an introvert can better live in an extrovert world, or just want support for living as an introvert, this book is perfect. If you are an introvert who feels isolated, this book (with so many stories of introverts) will be a comfort.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt ***

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt is a slightly fictionalized history of Savannah, Georgia. 
“Savannah’s resistance to change was its saving grace. …The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived.”
The book has two parts: a catalog of eccentrics and a murder that was tried four times.

By a quirk of geography, Savannah has been isolated from its surroundings. It avoided most of the consequences of the Civil War. It also avoided the growth and modernization of the latter half of the twentieth century. While big corporations moved to Atlanta GA and Charleston SC, Savannah stayed isolated. They even avoided prohibition.

Savannah had Jews, blacks, voodoo witches, gay hustlers, and drag queens. Several of these folks are showcased in their own chapters in part one. While fascinating, in a voyeuristic way, these people are on display as entertaining eccentrics, happy people forever locked out from power.

Part two is about a murder of a young gay hustler. With the life of a rich white guy at stake, most of the part-one eccentrics are ignored and the battle of the powerful is played out. Here it becomes clear who counts and who does not.

Savannah tolerated outsiders such as Gays, Blacks, Jews as long as they stayed in their place. The powerful had their own clubs and social events where these people were excluded

If you are interested in a history of southern privilege, rich white people, parties, and power, all packaged in a narrative strangely devoid of social issues, this is the book for you.

Note: I didn’t realize that this was non-fiction until the author’s note at the end. I liked it better as fiction.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Friday, September 28, 2018

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante ***

Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo are two exceptionally bright girls growing up in a poor section of Naples in the 1950s. Elena, our narrator, suffers from impostor syndrome—no amount of success is sufficient. In spite of her understanding everyone—peers, teachers, parents—she never can reconcile her place in the community. Elena (Lenù) is obsessed with herself and her smarter friend Lila. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is the first in a series. Book one ends with Lila’s marriage, a sad culmination to the coming-of-age of Elena and her peers.

In the beginning, Elena’s friend Lila inspires her. When Lila wants, she can be the smartest person in the class and win all the academic competitions. Even though Lila does not go to middle school, she learns the curriculum better than Elena from library books and tutors Elena.

Lila is strong and confident. She designs shoes for her father and brother to manufacture. When she is attacked by two brothers who drive around the neighborhood and pull girls into their car, she pulls out a knife and scares them off, even cutting one of them. She is a force to be reckoned with until she hits puberty when she changes.

All the girls changed when they reached puberty.
 “What had happened? On the street the men looked at all of us, pretty, less pretty, ugly, and not so much the youths as the grown men. If was like that in the neighborhood and outside of it, and Ada, Carmela, I myself—especially after the incident with the Solaras [the brothers above]—had learned instinctively to lower our eyes.”
Eventually, Elena went to high school. Very few students from her neighborhood attended, and she was still one of the best students. Her confidence from this accomplishment faded when she understood that she attended a poor school. As her experience expanded beyond her neighborhood, her understanding of her poverty and disadvantage increased and her sense of accomplishment and opportunity decreased.
 “I remembered what Pasquale had once said: that my high school, even if it was a classical high school, was surely not one of the best. I concluded he was right.”
This book, a fable of poverty vs intelligence and sensitivity where poverty wins, was not for me. Misogyny and patriarchy also win. The writing and characterization were excellent.

Echoes

Lila Cerullo teaches herself to read. Throughout the story Lila effortlessly (from Elena’s point of view) also learns math, formal Italian, writing, Greek, and Latin. Another book where someone independently learns how to read is Matilda by Roald Dahl. Both books feature strong support from the girl’s teacher against the parents. This talent helps Matilda, but not Lila, nor Elena.

The closing wedding scene (1960) is similar to the opening wedding scene (1900) in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. In both cases, there is a tension between to social demands of the occasion and the poverty of the celebrants. The guests cannot afford to participate but do their best.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.