Author Archives: bookdwarf

Weekly Globe roundup

I’m going to try and be a bit more brief this week, if only because I have a lot of work to do today. But I think it’s important to keep examining the Books section to showcase what’s good and what’s not so good. Unfortunately this week, there is a lot of not so good. I hate to say it, but I find the Globe book review fairly boring. They only covered 4 fiction books this week and 2 of them were only short reviews. They try to vary things by having different columnists each week, but this week they were unable to generate much interest in any of the books they reviewed.

The first page always contains a column on the left and a large review on the right with a giant picture taking up valuable review space (there’s enough room for another review there). This week the first page featured Bill Littlefield’s ‘On Sports’ column and Kathleen Dalton review of Patricia O’Toole’s When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House. Not being a sports nut, I can’t say much about Littlefield’s column, only to say that there were no transitions between paragraphs in his reviews of the 4 books. It was all abrupt new paragraphs. Maybe I am being picky, but if your going to cover several books in a column you should try to connect them if possible. Dalton’s review on the other hand is one of the high points of this week’s review section. The author of another biography of Teddy Roosevelt, she does not agree with all of the conclusions from O’Toole’s book. But she also still makes sure to tell the reader to check out this book anyway: “Though I stand by my own biography’s more flattering portrayal of the truly progressive development of Theodore Roosevelt, I see O’Toole’s marvelous study as a must read for anyone who loves or hates TR.” It’s a well-written review and I repect the fact that she tries to remain objective throughout even if she refers to Theodore Roosevelt enthusiasts as “Tedheads”.
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More Da Vinci Blows

Scrolling through the deals from Publisher’s Lunch and I see this:

Stephen Lanzalotta’s THE BAKER’S CODE: Weight Loss Secrets of DaVinci’s Golden Proportion, blending science and Renaissance lore with the mathematical principles that govern life and beauty in a book that presents the benefits of a healthful Mediterranean diet that honors carbs, to Diana Baroni at Warner for their new Wellness imprint, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (world English).

I can’t tell if he’s trying to cash in on the whole Da Vinci Code steamroller or what.

Scraping the boots of history

If you don’t know already, Powell’s puts a new review each day from a magazines and online sites. It’s great because they put up Atlantic pieces, which generally aren’t available to non-subscribers. Today’s review is especially worth reading. Charles Taylor reviews Deborah Lipstadt’s History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving. Irving is the “historian” who brought a libel suit against Lipstadt when she published a book accusing him of falsifying his work to favor his thesis, mainly that the Holocaust never happened. Taylor provides an insightful review not only of the book, but of the dangers of dismissing the whole story as a case of a disagreement of two historians. The story is larger than that and more important. Anti-semitism should never be dismissed lightly and that Lipstadt’s charges weren’t taken seriously by other prominent historians says something about how far we’ve come (which is not far enough). Giving Irving credit as a good “researcher” says that he has a valid point in his crackpot argument. It validates his point of view. Read Taylor’s article and you will see what I mean. Plus it has one of the best endings ever.

Look what’s arrived on my desk this week

The book fairies just keep dumping things on my desk this week. Some of it bad, but most of it good. As the backlist buyer, I don’t get all the interesting new books. I usually end up with maps of Albuquerque. So I don’t know what’s changed, but I am getting all this good stuff.

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devestating Plague of All Time by John Kelly (reviewed by Kakutani today and the WaPo last week).
The Rabbi’s Cat by Joann Sfar, which I know nothing about, but looks interesting. He’s a French artist apparently.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro—ooooh! is all I have to say.
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times ed. by Kevin Smokler. This is a collection of original essays on literature. Includes work by Tom Bissell, Meghan Daum, ELizabeth Spiers. Looks very interesting.
Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett. Now I haven’t read Burdett’s first book Bangkok 8, so I might have to read it first since Tattoo involves the same character from the first book.
Nice Big American Baby by Judy Budnitz. This is getting great reviews from good sources.
The Poet’s Guide to Life: The Wisdom of Rilke ed. and trans. by Ulrich Baer. Random House sent this to me and at first I thought it would be more of a gift book. But having flipped through it, there’s some meaty stuff in there.
Small Island by Andrea Levy. This was a Booker Nominees and Orange Prize winner for 2004.
The Position by Meg Wolitzer. I’ve been hearing good things about Wolitzer for a while. Probably should check her out.

There’s more, but this is the really good stuff. Where do I start? I’ve finished The Archivist and need to start something else.

Oh, Perseus sent me a galley of Whores: An Oral History of Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction by Brendan Mullen if anyone wants it.

Cuz I’ve never met a meme I didn’t like

Terry Teachout started this whole meme “Ten Things I’ve Done that You Probably Haven’t”. Well, here are my ten:

… met Madeline Albright in a bar.
… learned to drag race a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda.
… met Sgt. Slaughter while working at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
… had beers with David Mitchell.
… met several members of Radiohead.
… let a preacher and his wife try to “heal” me, which involved one of them speaking in tongues.
… jumped out of an airplane (okay, it was a tandem jump, but still).
… starred in a movie called “Sunwolf”, the story of of a guy who doesn’t heed the ‘Do no go out in the sun’ label on his prescription pills.
… wandered off when I was 4 on a Long Island beach in search of Big Bird. A cop brought me back 3 hours later to delight of my parents.
… had to help pry this strangers hands off my friends neck as he choked him (admitedly, my friend was a jerk and had made a comment to this guy, but still).

Today’s Random Link

I just think this is cool. Archaeologists found 3 coffins and a well-preserved mummy behind a secret door that’s been covered by a statue in Egypt. “‘The chest of the mummy is covered with beads. Most of the mummies of this period — about 500 B.C. — the beads are completely gone, but this mummy has them all,’ he said, standing over one of the mummies that was swathed in turquoise blue beads and bound in strips of black linen.” Check out the photos as well. There are some great pictures of the excavation and the mummy. I imagine the link will expire soon.