Marc Cooper writes a passionate critique of not only George Lakoff’s bestseller Don’t Think of an Elephant, but also of the troubled Democratic party for this month’s Atlantic. Luckily, Powell’s has the entire review online since the magazine is subscriber only.

This title leapt out at me among the deals in Publishers Marketplace: BUSH JUSTICE. Is it just me or does it not sound dirty? Here’s what the whole thing says: “NYT reporter Eric Lichtblau’s BUSH JUSTICE: The Remaking of the American Legal Landscape, about the unprecedented changes in the Justice Department since George Bush became president and their far reaching implications for the American legal system, to Hillel Black at Sourcebooks, in a very nice deal, by Ron Goldfarb at Goldfarb & Associates.”
Just a suggestion.

Kakutani scolds Peter Carey today about his book Wrong About Japan. She pretty much says that there is nothing redeeming about this book. Ouch. Seppuku anyone?

Ah, another Sunday, another Globe Books section to devour. Ideas section> WTF?! Slim pickings this week. There are only 3 full reviews and only 4 fiction book reviewed in the entire section (1 ‘full’ review [full actually means a quarter of the page since they feel the lead review needs a giant illustration always], 2 in a short column and one in the ‘Short Takes’ section). Are they following the NYT’s lead with multiple Chronicle type columns?
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Moby linked to this article about Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and his plan for the recently acquired 165,000 acres in West Texas. “Over the next 30 to 40 minutes, Simpson said Bezos told him the goal of his venture – known as Blue Origin – was to send a spaceship into orbit that launches and lands vertically, like a rocket.” Huh. Not sure what to make of this.

In unrelated news, did anyone else know that there’s a movie coming out this summer based on the television show The Honeymooners? It stars Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph Kramden and Mike Epps as Ed Norton.

Sorry, feeling punchy today, no pun intended. Alex Beam calls Joe Queenan on taking it like a man in his latest article in the Boston Globe. “Sod off, Joe, before someone starts printing your pathetic sales numbers — 6,124 copies of ”Country” sold, according to Bookscan.”

I am not sure if I agree with Jennifer Nix’s argument at Alternet or not. I don’t know why the various authors she mentioned went with those various publishers (my pessimistic assumption is that greed had something to do with it). But I like the passion she displays in the article. It’s nice to know everyone’s not publishing drones.

The NYT has several mystery reviews today. One is a full length review of George Pelecanos’ new book Drama City. I’ve heard excellent things about him and Maslin’s review makes me want to check him out. The second article is a rundown of 9 new mysteries. Some of the authors are familiar to me and some are new.

I just glanced at the Event schedule for April here at the Harvard Book Store. Man, do we have some good stuff coming up!

* Friday, April 1st, Ian McEwan
* Wednesday, April 6th, Jonathan Safran Foer (who has been getting lots of posts lately)
* Tuesday, April 12th, Camille Paglia
* Wednesday, April 13th, Jeanette Winterson
* Monday, April 25th, Ruth Reichl

I don’t know if I can make it to all of them. There’s a lot more too. Sorry if it seems like I am just plugging my store. I don’t write this blog for work. It’s just my own personal site, but I can’t help but mention this stuff.

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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