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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2007 > August
August 2007
knock three times on the floor if you want me…
We have a strange tradition in this country; people who are involved in scandals don’t always fade quietly into the night. While we would expect someone like OJ Simpson to attempt to vanish and make a graceful exit from our collective radar screens—it just isn’t so. His book about how he might have theoretically killed his wife, is soon to be published.
There’s Floyd Landis, winner of the Tour De France a couple of years ago who had his crown and title stripped away after he was implicated in a blood doping scandal. He recently published a book, Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France. Apparently, Floyd is living in a state of denial. This book was an attempt to clear his name.
This tradition of books written by people involved in scandals goes back a long way. 85 years ago we had the Teapot Dome Scandal during the administration of Ohioan Warren Gamaliel Harding. A lesser known Harding scandal involved a woman named Nan Britton. Some results of their clandestine union included a child and a tell-all memoir, The President’s Daughter. I treasure my copy. It’s a classic.
Here’s a Wikipedia reference that places her book in context: “The President’s Daughter (1928) is a book written by Nan Britton, a native of Marion County, Ohio, who claimed in the book that during a six year relationship, she and then Senator Warren G. Harding (later the 29th President of the United States) conceived a child together in 1919. The book is considered the first popular best-selling kiss-and-tell American political autobiography published in the United States and caused a sensation when it was released.”
Harding became President in 1920. He died in 1923, of food poisoning as his administration wallowed in scandal. He was the last Ohioan ever elected to our highest office. Ohio’s sons have sought to attain that high office again-Cox, another Taft, Glenn, Kucinich, it hasn’t happened since.
We have another juicy political scandal unraveling in Washington D.C.— Senator Larry Craig, a powerful Republican from Idaho is facing calls for his resignation after it was revealed that he was arrested in June at the Twin Cities airport for attempting to solicit sex from an undercover police officer in a restroom.
An audiotape of the Senator’s conversation with the arresting officer is all over the Internet. Craig has denied that he is gay but many of his Republican colleagues are demanding that he resign.
This situation obliges this observer to make a comparison. A few months ago the Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana was revealed to have been a client of a notorious brothel. While he suffered some acute embarrassment, he seems to have weathered that storm. Nobody called for him to resign. I guess it was OK with his fellow senators for Vitter to be unfaithful to his wife because Vitter’s indiscretions were with WOMEN.Now that’s a DOUBLE STANDARD.
Perhaps the best reason why Vitter’s sin was so easy for Republicans to ignore; Louisiana’s governor is a Democrat. If Vitter was forced out he would be replaced by a Democrat. Craig’s Idaho seat is a moot point, Idaho’s governor is Republican so Craig’s replacement will be too. No loss of a Senate seat for the Republicans there and the opportunistic bottom line for their DOUBLE STANDARDS.
Craig is married but he allegedly sought out gay sex. His fellow Republicans have been literally foaming at the mouth in their outrage. Craig was involved in Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Romney couldn’t distance himself fast enough from Larry Craig.
Senator Craig will probably resign from the US Senate in a matter of hours.
My question; will there be a book about it? I doubt if Senator Craig will write it but who knows? When James McGreevey, the former Governor of New Jersey was implicated in a sex scandal a few years ago he ended up writing a book about it after he was forced out of office.
Here’s a Wikipedia Blurb: James Edward “Jim” McGreevey (born August 6, 1957) is an American Democratic politician. He served as the 52nd Governor of New Jersey from January 15, 2002, until November 15, 2004, when he left office three months after admitting that he had had an extramarital affair with a male employee. Upon publicly revealing his homosexuality on August 12, 2004, McGreevey became the first and, to date, the only openly gay state governor in United States history.
The arresting officer in the Craig case claims that the Senator tapped his feet in the restroom stall in some sort of code that indicated he was interested in sexual activity with the undercover cop.
Craig denies it even though he pleaded guilty at the time of his arrest.
If I had to bet on an author for a book about this scandal I would put my money on the policeman writing one.
Senator Craig’s alleged bathroom stall foot tapping display was apparently meant as an act of seduction that backfired. Now he is trying to tap dance his way out of this messy lavatory exhibition.
I do have a perfect title for that book, no matter who writes it: KNOCK THREE TIMES ON THE FLOOR IF YOU WANT ME.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: secret passions
ten thousand page views
Before I started blogging about books for the Dayton Daily News I had a private blog where I blogged about books and other stuff. I still do!
Back in 2004 I reviewed a book called SHANTARAM by Gregory David Roberts. It is the first book in what Roberts has planned to be a trilogy. Johnny Depp has acquired the movie rights and he plans to play Shantaram in the film version of the book. I predict that the movie is HUGE.
Then the book will start selling again. Here is the piece that I wrote about my favorite work of fiction from 2004:
The most dazzling fiction is often taken from elements of our real lives. We have such a novel in SHANTARAM,by Gregory David Roberts. The author has used his own amazing life story as the foundation for his book. Roberts was an Australian criminal known as “the Gentleman Bandit.” In a vain effort to support his heroin habit, he committed a series of armed robberies while wearing a three piece suit and brandishing a toy pistol. Captured, and sentenced to 19 years in prison, Roberts escaped and lived a fugitive existence for over a decade, on 4 continents. During that period he survived as a gunrunner, counterfeiter, forger, slum doctor, rock singer, stunt man, and movie actor. SHANTARAM is a distillation of the writer’s incredible life on the run. Recaptured in Germany, Roberts was returned to jail, where he began to write this book. 3 years and 300 pages later, the manuscript was flushed down the toilet by a sadistic guard. 3 more years passed while Roberts rewrote the book, only to have another guard destroy all of his work.
Greg Roberts is a patient man These cruel acts forced him to become a real writer. Set in Bombay, SHANTARAM is the sprawling tale of a man very much like the author. A fugitive vanishes into the slums, a man named Lin. He becomes involved with an Indian crime syndicate. Over the course of almost 1000 pages the reader discovers many exotic worlds. Part thriller, part romance, SHANTARAM is about life. Roberts has a rare gift in his ability to shift from horror to humor, and we get a serious dose of philosophy as Lin finds a mentor and father figure in the person of his Bombay crime boss. The best books take us to places that we never knew existed. Gregory David Roberts takes readers on a tour of a dark and lonely place; his soul.
Greg Roberts has fallen in love with India and the Indian people. He shares that passion with his readers. Lin heals the sick in the teeming Bombay slums. He falls in love with a mysterious and unattainable woman. Recaptured, he endures ghastly tortures in an Indian prison. Bailed out by his criminal brethren, he immerses himself in a world of false passports, gold smuggling, and black market currency trading . The novel is set in the 1980’s and the action shifts to Afganistan where the roots of the Taliban are sprouting in the guerrilla war that set the stage for the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Panoramic in conception,already an international bestseller, SHANTARAM is my favorite book so far, this year.It was just announced that Johnny Depp will star as SHANTARAM in the film version of the book!
It took 3 years but 10,000 people have now read that review.
I love books!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: secret passions
confessions of a galley slave (vol. VIII)
As we approach another 9/11 anniversary we are finally getting enough distance from those tragic events to attempt to analyze the larger picture of our post 9/11 world. Two new books address some of these issues:
THE TERROR DREAM—Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America (Metropolitan Books) by Susan Faludi examines what we were thinking after the attacks and what transpired after we got over our initial shock. Faludi asserts that Americans are haunted by a “terror dream” that began long before the 9/11 attacks.
THE TERROR DREAM will be published in October. According to the press release Faludi inquires “did our culture respond to an assault against American global dominance with a frenzied summons to restore ‘traditional values?’ Why did we react as if the hijackers had not hit office towers and military headquarters but our white picket fences and the American home front?”
The press release goes on to state that “America is now synonymous with invincibility, and yet for two centuries colonists and early settlers lived in fear of attack and destruction. We are, she writes, a country haunted by a centuries-long drama of assault on its home soil and the ‘terror dream’ that lurks beneath it; the sense of shame and humiliation.”
WINNING THE RIGHT WAR—the Path to Security for America and the World (Times Books) by Philip H. Gordon looks at the “war on terror” and analyzes whether this war in Iraq is the “right war” to be fighting.
Gordon suggests that perhaps it is not.
Send me an e-mail! vick@vickmickunas.com
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
scribbles and scraps-chapter 17
She’s gorgeous-a big TV star-but can she write?: Well, I didn’t recognize the name, Courtney Thorne-Smith. I did recognize her photograph. Let’s see, she was in Melrose Place, and Ally McBeal. And she is in According to Jim. OK, I’ll admit that I saw her a few times in Ally McBeal. That’s how I knew her. But can she write? Her novel, OUTSIDE IN (Broadway Books), comes out in September.
Other actors who have turned to writing books: Alan Alda for one. He has another memoir coming out. Robby Benson? The teen heartthrob? His novel, WHO STOLE THE FUNNY? comes out this week. I never would have recognized him from the photo. But can he write?
Title of the week: TALES OF GRACEFUL AGING FROM THE PLANET DENIAL (Broadway Books) by Nicole Hollander. Wasn’t she the Happy Hooker? No, that was Xaviera Hollander. Nicole is the creator of the SYLVIA comic strip. This book deserves a closer look. Funny, it’s very funny.
Reissue of the week: Dashiell Hammett’s THE DAIN CURSE, THE GLASS KEY, and Selected Stories (Everyman’s Library). He was one of the first great detective novelists. This reissue is a gorgeous thing.
Worst title of the week: The new book by David Harsanyi is called NANNY STATE—How Food Fascists, Tee-Totaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and Boneheaded Bureacrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children (Broadway Books). The cover pictures a cutout of the United States in the form of a baby buggy. Why read it? The title gives it all away.
Call it my obsession: For many years I have been a SCRABBLE nut. It was never out of control because I knew to limit myself to “manual” forms of the game. No computer stuff. I kept hearing about how addictive the on-line version can be. Last week, in a weak moment, I succumbed. Now, I’m hooked. I’ve got it bad. The other day I found myself playing 3 games at the same time with opponents in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto), and in London, England. One game at a time just wasn’t enough. My opponents weren’t playing fast enough for my taste so I kept adding more games. It’s madness. Faster!
Buddy break:My little feline pal is starting to remind me of one of the most sociable guys I know: Dave. While Dave loves to hang out in downtown YS with some of our local intelligentsia, Buddy likes nothing better than doing the hang with his furry pals out in the front yard. Where Dave craves coffee and a smoke as he does his rounds, Buddy does just fine on butterflies and kibble.
Bookish beverage: Barrelhouse Oktoberfest Lager—the Pride of Cincinnati. And it is still only August.
Remember, blogs are for YOUR comments: If you peruse the comments that have been made on this post you will see one from local author Bill DeShurko, asking me to take a look at his new book. Blogs are interactive. I went over to Amazon.com and took a look at the info on their site. Here is the cover of Bill’s book:
Please send e-mail to vick@vickmickunas.com
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: scribbles and scraps
the Vampires of Antioch
The saga of the undead Antioch College expands and glows in the dark:
According to an article by Stephanie Gottschlich that was published today in the Dayton Daily News there has been another astonishing reversal in the fortunes of Antioch College.
Readers of this blog will remember that I have facetiously mused upon Antioch College’s vampiric tendencies in the past. It seems that whenever somebody tries to kill it, the College rises up again, as if from the dead. That’s the undead Antioch. I also took the frivolous approach by suggesting that since books about vampires are huge right now that vampirian Antioch could make a ghastly good subject for a book.
Apparently, it is attempting to rise from the dead once again. According to the article: “The Antioch University board of trustees announced Monday it is in negotiations with Antioch College alumni to find a way to keep the college open, instead of closing it at the end of the academic year as originally planned.”
Wow! Antioch College is a VAMPIRE!
The Antioch University Board of Trustees met this past weekend. They have insisted that they would not even consider the subject of keeping Antioch College open. So, what happened? If I was one of the Antioch University administrators who has been adamantly stating that closing Antioch College was simply not negotiable I would be searching for the telltale fang marks on the necks of some of these trustees who are now reversing themselves.
Do you see what I mean? Antioch College is a VAMPIRE!
But seriously, if this whole thing is going to work there are lots of questions that must be answered.
Here are some burning questions that haunt this correspondent:
Who talked the Board of Trustees into closing Antioch College in the first place?
What was the rationale? The reasons remain murky. Will the individuals who pushed to shutter Antioch College be identified and possibly removed from any authority over Antioch College?
After all, they tried to kill it once. What would stop them from doing it again? Creating a separate governance system for Antioch College would seem to be an important first step.
Foxes shouldn’t be guarding the henhouse.
So, where’s the money? Can we follow that old money trail? Will it serve to illuminate the circumstances that led Antioch University into this mind-boggling muddle?
One more thought; I do believe that this whole Antioch adventure should be made into a book. It doesn’t have to have any vampires. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be fiction.
Truth is stranger than fiction, after all. Perhaps the rationale for closing Antioch College was really an elaborate fiction in the end?
Inquiring minds wish to know….
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: booms and busts
bullet points
Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me (Harmony) by Pattie Boyd. This rock and roll memoir should do well. Boyd knows the dirt on two of the biggest music stars of the 60’s and 70’s, Eric Clapton and the late George Harrison. She married Harrison then left him to marry Clapton. (Currently #4 in sales at Amazon.com).
Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light—the Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta (Doubleday). Quite a different audience for this one. While the guitar god Eric Clapton once inspired London street graffiti that proclaimed that CLAPTON IS GOD, Mother Teresa is that rarity, a modern day saint. (Currently #3 in sales at Amazon.com).
During my days as a radio station music director I often heard the term: “entering the chart with a bullet.” When a record album was entering the sales chart with rapidity, it earned that distinction.
That’s where I got the title for this blog entry. Mother Teresa and Pattie Boyd have gotten some powerful bullet points in the sales chart over at Amazon.
Send me an e-mail! vick@vickmickunas.com
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: in the Amazone
I’ll read you in September
September is my favorite month. Here are some of my reasons: the baseball season has had time to develop and is often feverish with teams battling for slim leads in the standings. The weather is always splendid!
September sweet corn is the sweetest. The home-grown September tomato almost melts in your mouth.
The publishing industry begins to stir from it’s summer slumber. Lots of books come out in September. Here are a few that I’m looking forward to reading:
SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON (Random House) by Larry Watson. He has written classic novels like Dark Time…Montana 1948…Justice…White Crosses…and Laura. For my money, there aren’t too many American writers who can write with the mastery of Larry Watson. He remains obscure. He shouldn’t be.
THE STILLBORN GOD—Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (Knopf) by Mark Lilla. We are seeing global politics being driven by religion, even in our country, where the separation of church and state was formerly an enshrined value. This book offers up some serious brain food for our consideration.
A MAGNIFICENT CATASTROPHE—the Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign (The Free Press) by Edward J. Larson. I am a sucker for a good history book.
THE VIEW FROM MOUNT JOY (Ballantine) by Lorna Landvik. I loved her book Patty Jane’s Book of Curl. She writes with sly humor about women. She is best known for Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons.
THE SHOTGUN RULE (Ballantine) by Charlie Huston. A stand-alone thriller from a bright young talent.
Read on!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: looks good on paper
The Portable Obituary
Back in the early ‘80’s the singer/poet Jim Carroll recorded a song called PEOPLE WHO DIED. Carroll knew a few. He was a heroin addict for many years and that seems to be a high risk occupation. Your friends vanish.
This modern society of ours has an appalling fascination with death. Exhibit A: all the forensic pathology shows airing in our prime time television wasteland. Perhaps human beings have always been intrigued with the end of life?
Many of us are thoroughly enthralled when our celebrities die. Exhibit B: The excitement last week to pass a numerically interesting anniversary of the death of THE KING,Elvis Presley. They even made special greeting cards for it. Bizarre!
Michael Largo has just published a book that could have a broad appeal for our celebrity-obsessed, morbidity transfixed culture. THE PORTABLE OBITUARY—How the Famous, Rich, and Powerful Really Died (Harper Collins) will be published in September (just in time for Halloween!).
My copy of the book came with a breathless press release. Here’s an excerpt:
“Organized alphabetically, THE PORTABLE OBITUARY is filled with captivating miscellany about the causes of death of everyone from famous philosophers, to religious martyrs, to the sorted lives of Lottery winners, and provides the ultimate demise of heroes and icons, politicians and celebrities, inventors and explorers, business leaders and sports figures, as well as the unlikely endings of radicals, murderers, feminists, Nobel Prize winners, and others.”
(pant—-wheeze—gasp!)
That sentence would seem to represent the “ultimate demise” of the English language as I know it. Let’s perform a little autopsy on that sentence. Doesn’t that seem like the right thing to do?
OK, “Lottery” and “Nobel Prize” seem to be of equal repute to the publicist who penned this deadly drivel. We can learn about “the sorted lives of Lottery winners.” Wow, they are alphabetical AND sorted! Do you think they meant SORDID LIVES?? Even a spell check won’t help with that style of writing. I also enjoyed the rundown that had “murderers” followed by “feminists.” Subtle.
OK, our sentence is up. You are probably wondering who some of these “icons” are? The book includes Nicolas Conte’. What? Inventor of the lead pencil. Died of blood poisoning.
Who else? Philo Farnsworth. Who? He invented television. He drank himself to death. His doctors had urged him to drink to tone down his highly inventive impulses. It worked!
Edwin Perkins. Huh?! Invented Kool -Aid. Drank raspberry Kool-Aid his entire life. Diabetic. Died from liver failure.
Alright, there are lots of famous folks, too. Former Yellow Springs resident Rod Serling made the cut. So did the heaviest president in history, Ohioan William Howard Taft.
And so it goes. This paperback is bound with one of those lovely durable book jackets that allows death ghoulies to take it anywhere—thus, the PORT-ability. Use it as a drink coaster. Clutch it while you snorkel. Haul it along on those road trips across rural Kansas. Slip it into the coffin…
Ah, sweet celebrity death—-“and others.”
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: we remember
another Amazon oddity
Every day I check out the list of best-selling books at Amazon.com. It’s a barometer to gauge how certain books are selling.
Once in a while a book will chart that just doesn’t seem to belong. Here’s the latest: the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (Paperback) has been holding steady at #5 on the chart all day long.
Huh? I don’t get it? Is it new? No, it was published in July, 2001. Is it a back to school thing? Perhaps?
Can anybody offer some insight into why this book is suddenly selling?
Your thoughts on this matter would be appreciated. Who is buying this book??
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: in the Amazone
confessions of a galley slave (vol. VII)
Bill Clinton’s new book: The former president’s latest book just landed on my desk. It’s called GIVING. Whoaa..wait one Arkansas minute, shouldn’t it be called GETTING?? (sorry, I cannot help myself…..I did not have literature with that publication!) Actually, the full title of William Jefferson Clinton’s latest tome is: GIVING—How Each of Us Can Change the World.(Knopf) (I know, it was a cheap shot). This book seems like a noble gesture from a man who has already given so very much. (September)
Speaking of two-term el Presidentes The new Ronald Reagan Graphic Biography (Hill and Wang) is a comic masterpiece.”Actor—governor—president”. Not that ha ha funny but they did get his hair down perfectly. For readers who still need their comic books. (September)
Maybe they are on to something here?: What is it about music? How does it do what it does to us? This is Your Brain on Music—the Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume) attempts to explain how our brains make their musical connections. (September)
Where the books are above average—but avoid the bridges! Folks were wondering where Garrison Keillor was when that tragic bridge collapse happened recently in Minnesota. Actually, he was standing in line waiting to order a bagel in Manhattan when that span came a-tumbling down. Gary (as he is still known in Anoka) continues to plumb the bottomless depths of Lake Wobegon with yet another novel that will float across that lovely lake like a PONTOON (Viking). Don’t ask. I have interviewed that Keilloresque curmudgeon on a number of occasions. It will be just so funny. He always plays to his audience. (September)
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
Vick to cockfighting to Amazon.com
The NFL star Michael Vick has been earning many unwanted headlines for his involvement with dogfighting. He could be sentenced to prison for this unsavory behavior. The attention that has been brought to bear on Vick has helped to bring some animal cruelty issues into sharper focus.
One related matter could have an adverse impact on the mega-bookseller Amazon.com. According to a press release from The Humane Society of the United States :
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) filed an amended complaint in federal court in the District of Columbia against Amazon.com, asserting that the online retailer’s sale of two cockfighting magazines — The Feathered Warrior and The Gamecock — violates a new federal law that strengthens the Animal Welfare Act by making certain animal fighting activities a felony.
The suit, which was filed in February, originally alleged that Amazon.com’s sale of the magazines, which are mail-order catalogs for illegal cockfighting weapons and fighting birds — violates state law and the misdemeanor provisions of the Animal Welfare Act, which is the nation’s core animal protection law. In response, Amazon.com has filed papers arguing it has a constitutional right to sell animal fighting paraphernalia.
“Amazon’s decision to peddle illegal animal fighting paraphernalia is bad enough, but its decision to disobey and attempt to nullify a key provision of the federal Animal Welfare Act is patently outrageous,” said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO. “There is no constitutional right to engage in criminal activity, and Amazon should stop being the exclusive online vendor for an industry that perpetrates such blatant animal cruelty.”
On May 3, President Bush signed the federal Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act of 2007, which makes it a felony to use “any interstate instrumentality for commercial speech for purposes of promoting or in any other manner furthering an animal fighting venture.” The law also makes it a felony to buy or sell cockfighting weapons such as gaffs and knives, which are widely advertised in the publications.
The Internet seller’s defiance of the federal animal protection law, and its defense of two trade publications that sell fighting birds, fighting dogs, blood-clotting drugs, and weapons designed exclusively for illegal cockfighting, has confounded consumers, animal protection advocates, and legal scholars nationwide.
If you go to Amazon.com you’ll find these magazines are still available for sale. What do you think? Should Amazon stop selling them? Would you consider a boycott of Amazon.com if they continue to sell these publications?
Is this a free speech issue?
(Frankly, I’m fairly disgusted each morning when I see yet another headline proclaiming that VICK IS A JERK! Enough already).
I have my first coffee and I realize yet again that they are talking about that other Vick—the dog abuser.
Then I give my dog Maisie a little scratch behind her ears. She likes that.
Send me an e-mail! vick@vickmickunas.com
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: in the Amazone
scribbles and scraps-chapter 16
It’s beginning to look a lot like August: Did you see the photo of all those people who were posing naked on a Swiss glacier the other day to accentuate our little problem with the global warming? Here’s a book for the doubters: COOL IT—The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Knopf) by Bjorn Lomborg. Been there, melted that.
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas..As long as we are on the subject of thawing relations, I just got a galley of a Christmas book. It’s August! Of course the Octoberfest beers have been out for weeks—what do I know? The Christmas Pearl(William Morrow) by Dorothea Benton Frank just landed on my desk like an unwelcome sno-cone. What’s with these people? I’m not reading a Christmas book in August, but I’ll try one of those Octoberfest beers? OK?
Elvis Lives!And he certainly inspires some great book titles like Elvis is Titanic—Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq (Knopf) by Ian Klaus is a bizarre and compelling look at what happened when a Rhodes scholar tried to teach American history in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Best title for a memoir: My Lobotomy—(Crown) by Howard Dully. And the author did get a lobotomy in 1960, when he was 12 years old. Oh my, I guess I had better read this one.
I’m scared now —- With a book like SHATTERED TABLETS—Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril (Doubleday) by David Klinghoffer, what exactly, are we supposed to be doing? We can’t watch TV without violating the Ten Commandments. We can’t walk down the street. We can’t read a book? Oh, I get it!
Which brings us to another bookish beverage: Harpoon UFO raspberry hefe-weizen. It’s fruity and refreshing AND it’s from Boston!
Buddy’s beat: The rain was pouring down. Buddy stood at the back door and looked at the downpour. He turned to me and gave me that cattish look that means: nope.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: scribbles and scraps
he died and went to heaven…
I have been hearing from some folks who enjoyed my book review that appeared in the print version of the Sunday DDN. For those of you who didn’t see the “hardwood” version and were unable to locate my review on-line, here it is:
“Heaven is Real: Lessons on Earthly Joy — From the Man Who Spent 90 Minutes in Heaven,” by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey (Berkley Praise, 242 pages)
What happens when we die? Do our lives simply end in darkness? Do our spirits rise to heaven? Or plummet to that other place?
In 1989 Don Piper was “killed” in a terrible automobile accident. He was driving his car across a Texas bridge when a truck collided with his vehicle.
Piper described what happened that day: “I literally died. Two EMTs, and possibly as many as eight, examined my lifeless body and pronounced me dead after an 18-wheeler mangled my Ford Escort with me inside.”
Wait a minute. He died, how can he talk about it? Piper claims that “because I was killed instantly, my heart stopped beating, and therefore, it didn’t pump blood.” So the EMTs were unable to detect any signs of life. His body was pinned inside the car.
Piper first wrote about this experience in his 2004 book “90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life.” It has sold 1.8 million copies. His latest book, “Heaven is Real: Lessons on Earthly Joy — From the Man Who Spent 90 Minutes in Heaven,” attempts to clarify what it has meant to this Baptist minister to die and then come back to life again.
It is not this reviewer’s duty to judge the veracity of Piper’s story. I wasn’t there. Apparently, neither was Piper. He believes that he went to heaven for those 90 minutes when his body was dead.
“Heaven is Real” is an inspirational book and a meditation on the meaning of life and death. Piper and his co-author Cecil Murphey express his story in simple terms. Piper’s deeply Christian focus doesn’t obscure the common sense in his message.
These are ideas that might appeal to any rational individual, Christian or not. He repeatedly uses the metaphor of crossing a bridge as he was doing that day when his death changed his life forever.
Piper describes life changes as “the new normal.” He says we can’t return to the ways of our former lives. Health and our relationships are fragile. We must accept changed circumstances, and we can’t blame God.
He is frequently approached by people who want to share their heartbreaks and troubles. A woman asked him “why doesn’t God want me to be happy?” Piper thought to himself, “Why don’t you want to be happy?” He writes: “I think that’s the real question.”
“Heaven is Real” is strewn with pearls of wisdom. Here’s my favorite: “Although I’m put off by the phrase ‘Get over it!’ I have to admit there’s also something right about those three words. If we’re going to make the best of life, we have to get past the event that brought us the pain and grow with it.”
He continues: “Getting past doesn’t mean forgetting or never thinking about what happened. Moving beyond means we remember the events and we build on them. The trauma becomes part of the foundation that gives us the courage to move forward.”
What do you think of that??
Send me an e-mail! vick@vickmickunas.com
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: what do you think?
Harry Potter bumped from top spot at AMAZON.com
After several months of holding down the top spot for sales at Amazon.com, the final Harry Potter book, Deathly Hollows has just been dethroned. It has dropped down to #2.
I’m sure that you are dying to know what book dislodged JK Rowling from her lofty perch. Here it is: drumroll….The Abs Diet for Women: The Six-Week Plan to Flatten Your Belly and Firm Up Your Body for Life by David Zinczenko and Ted Spiker.
That’s right-a diet book did it. Most amazing to me; is that this book came out in May, way before the Potter. It was simply time for Potter to be toppled. #2 isn’t too shabby though. I’d expect Potter to pop back up to the top spot any time now. Amazon sales numbers are calculated hourly so there might have been a flurry of sales over the last hour for The Abs Diet that could have pushed it to the top briefly.
There are two other Abs Diet books in the top ten at Amazon right now.
Would anyone like to make a prediction of the next book that will hit the top spot in sales on Amazon?
(NOTE——at 11am on Sunday morning, Harry Potter has reclaimed the top spot over at Amazon.com).
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: in the Amazone
putting the full Monty in this Python
If I have the choice between reading a book OR, listening to the audiobook, will choose to read it 99% of the time. I will make exceptions to that rule however, when the occasion warrants it.
Here’s one: Micheal Palin, a key member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, kept a diary during those years, circa 1969-1979. He is publishing a book of those diaries.
In this instance, I would choose the audiobook version. Palin is the narrator and his narration is extraordinary!
As his colleague John Cleese puts it:
Michael Palin is not just one of Britain’s foremost comedy character actors, he also talks a lot. Yap, yap, yap he goes, all day long and through the night…then, some nights, when everyone else has gone to bed, he goes home and writes a diary.”
Palin has that incredible voice which lends so much to this book. Check it out.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: audiobook extra
happy birthday, Charles Bukowski
The poet and author Charles Bukowski was born on this date in 1920. Bukowski was a prolific writer. At the age of 49 he quit his job at the Post Office because his publisher, the Black Sparrow Press, had offered him a monthly stipend of 100 dollars “for life.” Bukowski died in 1994, he was 73.
I fell in love with poetry back in high school. Dylan Thomas was always my favorite but I did have a soft spot for Bukowski. Where Thomas flew off on flights of fancy, Bukowski was always right in your face. Both men were quite fond of inebriation.
I once made a pilgrimage to a tavern in Iowa City where Dylan Thomas had spent an evening during a 1950’s book tour. Thomas died in New York City at the age of 39. His last words were reputedly: 17 straight whiskys…I think that’s the record.” Then he blacked out and fell into a coma.
Like Thomas, Bukowski was also a favorite on the college lecture circuit. He would sit onstage and read his poetry with frequent breaks to reach into the omnipresent beer cooler located within arm’s reach to pop a top on another frothy one. Budget beer, for sure!
Here’s a poem by Charles Bukowski in honor of his birthday. It’s from his book THE DAYS RUN AWAY LIKE WILD HORSES OVER THE HILLS (Black Sparrow Press-1969):
MINE
She lays like a lump
I can feel the great empty mountain
of her head.
But she is alive. She yawns and
scratches her nose and
pulls up the cover.
Soon I will kiss her goodnight
and we will sleep.
And far away is Scotland
and under the ground the
gophers run.
I hear engines in the night
and through the sky a white
hand whirls:
good night, dear, goodnight.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: we remember
confessions of a galley slave (vol. VI)
Over the last dozen years I have obtained an intimate glimpse of the publishing industry. So, I have learned a few things. Here are some nuggets of wisdom I’ve gained:
Never call a publicist on a Friday afternoon between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They will already be gone for the weekend. The publishing industry putters along languidly during the summer.
When a publicist sends an e-mail with the phone number of an author that you need to interview one should always double check that number. Half the time a digit is transposed and you will waste a lot of time calling that wrong number.
Never commit to reviewing a book based on an advance galley. Reviewers are not allowed to take quotations from these uncorrected versions of the book. On those rare occasions when I agree to cover a book based on a galley I sometimes find that the publicist considers it a done deal already and they never bother to send along a finished version. So, I don’t review it. An unpleasant circumstance all around.
Speaking of galleys, they are a bit thin on the ground this week. The middle of August is the absolute doldrums in publishing. Any publicist actually working this week is either a workaholic or not popular enough to cadge an invitation to Fire Island.
Here are some galleys that straggled across my desk this week:
THE JEWISH AMERICANS—Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America (Doubleday) by Beth S. Wenger. This is a companion to the PBS series that will air in January. This lovely, coffee table-sized volume will be released in late October. Profusely illustrated, it will make a lovely gift item this holiday season.
T is FOR TRESPASS(Putnam) by Sue Grafton (December 4). It’s a franchise. Sue Grafton continues her lucrative run through the alphabet. Sure, it’s formulaic. Yes, Kinsey Millhone is stuck in a 1980’s time warp. Gosh, it’s a fine line of mind candy, isn’t it? Whenever I interview Sue Grafton she mentions that her dad was a frustrated novelist and that she was inspired by another writer who was also a denizen of Santa Barbara, Ross McDonald. If you ever meet Sue Grafton you will be impressed. She is one of the nicest, most down to earth people, that you will ever meet.
WHAT WE SAY GOES—Conversations On U.S. Power in a Changing World —Noam Chomsky interviewed by David Barsamian. (Metropolitan Books)-October -Fans of Barsamian’s radio program Alternative Radio will recognize Chomsky as his most voluble guest. Chomsky is a linguist and a left wing firebrand. You might recall that when the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was seen brandishing one of Chomsky’s recent books during an inflammatory speech at the United Nations that the book then experienced a huge spike in sales. Americans are easily influenced, aren’t we? (example 2—Posh Spice, a proud non-reader, clutched a copy of SKINNY BITCH and sales went through the roof).
Speaking of Hugo Chavez; next week Random House is publishing what is being described as his “definitive biography.” I find Venezuela fascinating. By an odd coincidence, a guy who went to high school with me, Bill Brownfield, is currently serving as U.S. Ambassador there. I hear that Bill and Hugo don’t get along very well.
It’s a small world after all.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
that Undead Antioch plot thickens…
I was up late last night writing a book review. I was on deadline. Bleary-eyed, I realized that a new e-mail had just arrived. It contained the following press release.
The Antioch College saga gets more convoluted with each passing day. I’m intrigued. Perhaps there is an audience for the whole story whenever it sees the light of day? It could make a compelling book. I have to imagine that there are some writers already at work on a labyrinthine tale that has the promise of a reading stranger than fiction….
What do you think?
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday August 14. 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANTIOCH COLLEGE FACULTY MEMBERS FILE LAWSUIT TO KEEP HISTORIC 155-YEAR-OLD OHIO COLLEGE OPEN
Today members of the Antioch College Faculty filed for a permanent injunction against the Antioch University Board of Trustees in the Greene County Common Pleas Court. On June 9, 2007, the University Board decided to suspend Antioch College operations, terminating all faculty and staff as of June 30, 2008. The legal request for injunctive relief asks the court to enjoin Antioch University from suspending College operations, from terminating the College Faculty, and from disposing of any College assets.
The lawsuit alleges that the Board failed to govern the institution properly. First and foremost, the Board breached their contractual responsibilities by declaring a state of financial exigency and suspending College operations when less drastic measures were available. The Faculty complaint also alleges that the University Board of Trustees violated contractual obligations set forth in the Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures that require consultation with College Faculty, and that require minimal external publicity about internal College financial matters. The Faculty asserts that decisions made by the Board of Trustees in 2004 and 2005 seriously damaged College enrollment prospects, which led to a rapid decline in revenue, and that the June12, 2007 public suspension announcement further damaged the College.
Last week the College Faculty received support from the American Association of University Professors, the leading advocacy organization for higher education faculty and the defense of academic freedom. The AAUP issued a “statement of concern” to the University Board of Trustees, the University Chancellor, and the College President, citing problems with Antioch University governance policies and “a pattern of disregard for faculty’s legitimate role in institutional decision-making.”
Today’s injunction request asks that the University be prevented from liquidating or dispersing any College assets, including College buildings (three of which are historic landmarks), the College Endowment, its land holdings, Antioch Education Abroad, the recently-opened Coretta Scott King Center, and the Glen Helen Nature Preserve. Legal action by members of the Antioch College Faculty is one effort in a broad-based campaign by the College Alumni Board, twenty former members of the University Board of Trustees, and the many citizens of Yellow Springs who are working to keep the College open as a viable liberal arts institution. Given the University’s public refusal to reconsider their decision to suspend operations, members of the faculty found it necessary to initiate legal action to immediately prevent further damage to the nationally renowned College and the surrounding community.
Antioch faculty, alums and current students are determined to save their school. “Antioch College has offered a very distinctive, high-quality liberal arts education for the past one-hundred and fifty years, and we, the faculty, are committed to keeping it going,” says Anne Bohlen, Professor of Media Arts. “The College buildings and grounds, including Glen Helen, are justly famous Ohio landmarks and the College is a major employer in Yellow Springs—there are numerous jobs at stake here. “
Antioch College seems to be a story (and an institution) that simply refuses to go away.
Check out this leak!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: midnight confessions
a new chapter from Elizabeth Edwards
Last year Elizabeth Edwards published her memoir, SAVING GRACES—Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers.
Since her book was published she has experienced a recurrence of her cancer. With the presidential candidacy of her husband, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Elizabeth is still very much in the public eye.
She has written a new chapter for the paperback version of her memoir which comes out next week.
The additional chapter is titled: Home, from a New Angle. It is a postscript and this is how it begins:
“ This was meant to be a very different chapter. The beginning of our new lives, filled with pastures in which the dogs could chase deer before they reached the flower beds, packed with afternoons exploring the woods with the children, and filled with evenings together at our long kitchen table. There would be stories of the next campaign, of course, and of the friends with whom we have reconnected here and across the country. That was what I had hoped to write. And then I broke my rib, and somewhere a snowball fell on an embankment and rolled and rolled until an avalanche took away the thoughts of any truly carefree days for me or for those who love me. And so I write this chapter instead. You have to forgive me that, although so many have reached out to me: those with the most to lose from the most recent diagnosis that the breast cancer has spread to my bones and is now classified as incurable.”
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: politicked
George W. Bush wants Karl Rove to write book
Karl Rove announced today that he plans to resign at the end of August from his position as a key advisor to President Bush. The New York Times just published a transcript of a conversation that Karl Rove had today on Air Force One with members of the press. Rove plans to write a book about his experiences. Here is an excerpt:
Q So what are you going to do? I mean, you know campaigns, you know the game. What’s on the agenda?
MR. ROVE: I have no idea. I’d like to teach eventually, but in the meantime I need to make some money. I have an employment record that I think would be attractive to any employer: I’ve worked in an industrial kitchen in a hospital; I’ve waited tables; I’ve worked in convenience stores and have been robbed at the point of a gun twice; I’ve pumped gas; I’ve babysat; I’ve cut lawns; I’ve delivered newspapers.
Q — really going to do?
MR. ROVE: I have no idea.
Q You have no idea?
Q Are you talking to any universities?
Q There’s no deal that’s in the works, at all?
MR. ROVE: No. The President has encouraged me to write a book. I will do a book.
Q But you’ve not made any — there’s no deal going, right, that you’re going to be announcing soon?
MR. ROVE: Other than I’ve done what everybody does, and that is talk to Bob Barnett. (Laughter.)
Q A book about — you have talked to Barnett, by the way?
MR. ROVE: Yes.
Q A book about your experiences? A book about modern campaigning? A book about the historical —
MR. ROVE: It’s going to be about the most important and interesting thing that the American people want to know, which is my relationship with you. With you. (Laughter.)
Q What’s it going to be? What are the —
MR. ROVE: I don’t know.
Q Is it going to be about political theory, running campaigns? Or is it going to be more like your experiences in —
MR. ROVE: I think it’s going to — I’m a student of history, so I’d rather talk about the history of this President and get in there, stay in there and be in there.
Q Not a thriller? (Laughter.)
MR. ROVE: We know the outcome of the true critical moments. (Laughter.)
Q Any titles?
MR. ROVE: Come on, please!
Q Have you kept a diary throughout this time to help you?
MR. ROVE: No.
Q So you’re going to be doing this on your prodigious memory?
MR. ROVE: That’s your characterization of it, but I appreciate the kind word that you had for me.
Q Do you have your own characterization of any effect you’ve had on the modern election campaign and electioneering?
MR. ROVE: I think there’s the mistaken impression, and then there’s the reality. The mistaken impression — in fact, I talked with a colleague of yours not too long ago about this, the idea that this is all about playing to the base; that supposedly the success of the two campaigns have been that the President played to the base of the Republican Party. Completely inaccurate.
I hope that this idea holds currency in the high councils of the Democratic Party, because it absolutely misses the story of 2000 and 2004, let alone the President’s time in office. The base is something that’s by its very nature a small part of a greater thing.
Q So what’s your advice to the Republican front-runner coming up?
MR. ROVE: Well, I don’t have advice — my advice is for the Republicans, which I think, frankly, has become ingrained in the DNA of the Republican Party, which is that in order to win, the Republican Party needs to mobilize a vast army of volunteers to expand the electorate by emphasizing an agenda that is prospective in nature, that looks to the future and says, this is what we intend to do for America, and is bold and clear, but is focused on saying to people, we know you’re not enthusiastic about politics, but if you love your country, if you care about the future, here’s a message that hopefully will attract you to coming out and registering and voting.
That’s why President Bush in 2004 got 25 percent more votes than he got in 2000 and became the first presidential candidate since 1988 to get a majority of the popular vote. He won 81 percent of the counties in America; he increased his share of the vote in 87 percent of the counties in America. He got a record or historic number numbers among Latinos, Jews, Catholics, women — erased the gender gap. And it was because — not because he played to the base but because he played with a broad and bold message that was able to attract — think about it, one-quarter more people voted for him in 2004 than voted for him in 2000, and he did that in the midst of an unpopular war, with a united Democrat Party, and being outspent by $148 million, which is, if you add up what the DNC, the Democratic 527s who carried Edwards raised and spent, compared to Republican 527s, RNC and Bush-Cheney, we were outspent by $148 million.
Q What accounts for his unpopularity right now?
MR. ROVE: We’re in the midst of an unpopular war, and he’s been hammered by the Democrats. But I would point out to you, the Democrat Congress is less popular than the President, and they got there a heck of a lot quicker.
As the war in Iraq — as it’s clear to the American people that the surge is working, the President’s popularity will rise.
Q Karl, your legacy, in terms of the Latino vote, you raised the percentages from 2000, 2004. Are you worried about that legacy for the party that you built in the current climate, and do you have a message for your fellow Republicans on immigration?
MR. ROVE: I am worried about it, and you cannot ignore the aspirations of the fastest-growing minority in America. We did that once before, and that’s why we were able to increase our vote among African Americans by 40 percent between 2000 and 2004, going from an incredibly anemic 9 percent to a virtually anemic 13 percent. And we better not put ourselves in the place with a vital part of the electorate that fundamentally shares our values and views.
Q What do you think of this misconception there is about you among the American public?
MR. ROVE: I’m not good at answering that, because I don’t — I really don’t naval-gaze, and I really —
Q You don’t what?
MR. ROVE: I don’t naval gaze.
Q Do you think the public has a misconception of you?
MR. ROVE: I’m not certain I understand what’s — other than that I’m the evil genius, yes.
Q “Bush’s brain.”
MR. ROVE: Well, that is — that’s not me. That’s an attack on the President. That is the critics of the President trying to be cute. This guy is a Yale undergraduate and history major, a Harvard MBA, and one of the best-read, most thoughtful people I know. Now, I know he likes to play sort of the Midland/West Texas — but he is smart. And the “Bush’s brain” was, interestingly enough, a construct of two journalists as a way to diminish him by suggesting that he wasn’t capable of developing his philosophy or his approach or his ability to win elections; somebody had to do it for him, which is incredibly demeaning and really stupid. And I don’t mind saying that the two guys that coined it are stupid in their characterization.
Q Who’s winning your book-reading contest?
MR. ROVE: I am crushing him this year, second year in a row. He keeps using this pathetic excuse that he’s got the free world to run and that he’s leader of the free world, but I mean, that’s cheesy, I think.
Q There was a perception in the political world that you wanted to stay on, to maybe get the House back, and that that would kind of put the White House on a better footing if it’s a Republican. Is there any truth to that? Were you tempted at all to —
MR. ROVE: Look, I’m a competitive guy. I’m tempted to stick around when somebody sends a subpoena my way. I’m tempted to stick around for the next fight. I’m tempted to stay around for the battle over the budget. I’m tempted to stick around to see if we can get a standard health care insurance deduction through. I’m a competitive person.
But really —
Q So she said, “I’m going to leave you if you stay”?
MR. ROVE: No. But she did say, isn’t it time — do we really have to wait until January 2009 to begin — let me say this off the record, I mean, really say this off the record.
MS. PERINO: Let’s go back on the record.
Q Is there an empty nest factor?
MR. ROVE: We want to be — we want to be back in Texas, closer to our family.
Q Who do you see winning the Democratic nomination, and what advice do you have for that individual?
MR. ROVE: I have no advice for that individual.
MS. PERINO: Back on the record.
MR. ROVE: I think any rational observer would have to say that Hillary Clinton is a prohibitive favorite to win the nomination.
Q And you’d include yourself as a rational observer on this particular —
MS. PERINO: Let’s do one each, and then we’ll finish.
Q Any few accomplishments that you single out as some of the ones you’re most proud of?
MR. ROVE: I’ll think about that in September. This morning, though, at the senior staff meeting, I was very candid with my colleagues. I said that the true story was that I was resigning in protest over our failure to establish equidistance as the principle in the germination of seaward lateral boundaries in the latest version of the act overseeing offshore drilling. I am the leading expert within the administration on this. This actually goes back to Grotios, who was born in 1598, and he wrote this in one of his earliest works. You’re all familiar, of course, with Hugo Grotios?
Maybe Karl is looking for a ghost writer? Would that individual have to be an expert on Hugo Grotios?? Who the heck was Hugo Grotios??
If Karl Rove writes a book about his experiences, would you want to read it??
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: that's what they say
the baseball pennant races start to heat up
The dog days of August are upon us and we actually have some exciting baseball races unfolding. Teams that should have put it away by now (the Red Sox, the Brewers) have squandered big leads and are hanging on for dear life. The Red Sox made a monumental blunder by tampering with their peerless bullpen. Eric Gagne has completely disrupted the chemistry of their relief pitchers.
The Red Sox had a 14 and 1/2 game lead over the Yankees a while back. Now, their lead is down to 4 games. The Yankees are coming on like gangbusters, whacking the Cleveland Indians all over Jacobs Field this past weekend.
The Indians and the Tigers are staggering along, as are the Brewers. The Diamondbacks are putting a run together for the NL West. During times like this a baseball fan might want to have a book about some great pennant races from the past, to put things into some historical context.
A book like this: IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER—the Pennant Prospectus Pennant Race Book (Basic Books) takes a look back at all those great pennant battles of yesteryear: AL-1967…NL-1959…AL-1948 and 1949…NL-1908…NL-1964…NL-1951…and so on…
Such great races! Fine memories! OK, I missed some of these, so reading about them is as close as I’ll ever get to experiencing those dog days of long ago summers.
Barry Bonds just broke the career home run mark (yawn). Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run (sigh). Tom Glavine has finally won his 300th game…..these are all lovely individual records. Please, give us a race between well-matched TEAMS! Let’s just forget about all those gaudy individual statistics.
Give us some more close pennant races!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: secret passions
Attention -WWII history buffs
World War Two was a global conflict that continues to intrigue historians and history buffs. My dad fought in the Pacific theatre with the Marine Corps, Second Division. While I find that area of conflict to be quite interesting, it felt too personal somehow for me to study because my father was there.
I prefer the study of the other side of that war, the part that took place in Europe and the Soviet Union. Three excellent new books provide new information about this portion of the war.
LENIN, STALIN, and HITLER—the Age of Social Catastrophe (Knopf) by Robert Gellately examines the roles that these leaders played in creating social disasters for their people.
AFTER THE REICH—the Brutal History of the Allied Occupation (Basic Books) by Giles MacDonogh reveals the additional horrors that the German people endured AFTER the war ended. For example: over 2 million German civilians died as the result of violence AFTER the war was over. Over a million German prisoners of war died AFTER the war ended. The Nazi death camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau and many others were not closed down right away. Instead, they became prisons for German soldiers. Thousands more died there. Some American soldiers even tortured German prisoners to make them confess. This relatively obscure part of our history seems to share some grim parallels with our current occupation of Iraq.
IKE—an American Hero (Harper) by Michael Korda is the feel-good book of the three. Korda is a superb historian and this tribute to a great general who went on to become president is well worth the read.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: we remember
scribbles and scraps-chapter 15
The Library of America does it again: The non-profit LOA has just released another classic collection of American writing; THE ROAD NOVELS is a collection of Jack Kerouac’s most memorable work. It has On the Road, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Tristessa, Lonesome Traveler and selections from his journals. These are things he wrote while at the peak of his powers from 1957-1960, reissued to honor the 50th anniversary of ON THE ROAD.
Groucho in paperback: The Groucho Letters is a hilarious collection of letters written from and to Groucho Marx. The art of letter writing is in sad decline. This book demonstrates exactly what we are missing. Groucho wrote letters that showcased his sly wit. His friends were almost as funny as he was.
Look for: THE PIG DID IT by Joseph Caldwell. I just got the galley for this novel which will come out in January. A very funny pig steals the show in this story set in the west of Ireland. The Irish are born storytellers.
Did you say: UM…Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean by Michael Erard. Slipping along those slippery verbal pathways we make those Freudian slips, sometimes in languages that we don’t even know. This book is a word-lovers delight.
Buddy: Is grateful that this recent heat wave seems to be breaking. Even Buddy’s fleas have been suffering from heatstroke. We have been combing Buddy daily and he seems to appreciate our efforts. The fleas aren’t quite as enamored with the brushing and resultant crushing.
Bookish beverage: Bell’s Batch 8,000 ale. We waited a long time for this. Wheat and honey ale spiced with coriander, orange peel, and grains of paradise. Sinful!
Permalink | | Categories: scribbles and scraps
writing the book about Antioch College
Wherever I wander in Yellow Springs I hear folks talking about Antioch College. They are saying things like: Do you think it will close? Who did this? Why didn’t we know? The thing that is said most often to me is; WHY DON’T YOU WRITE A BOOK ABOUT IT?
That question seems to beg another question; What kind of book would that be?
Would it be a mystery? You bet!
Could it be a romance? Possibly.
Fantasy? For sure!
Would it be a thriller? Oh yeah.
One could take the Bernstein and Woodward approach I suppose; who knew it and when did they know it and why did they do what they did?
Or, the Garrison Keillor approach; “Yellow Springs, where the hippies are above average and they sold raw milk over at Young’s Dairy.
Based upon my baser instincts I would probably take the VAMPIRE APPROACH. Here’s why:
First off, vampire books are BIG! Perhaps, you hadn’t noticed but VAMPIRE BOOKS ARE BIG!! Take my word for it.
The whole Antioch College saga simply begs for the VAMPIRE TREATMENT.
Have you ever been to Antioch College? Walk the campus sometime during one of those misty mornings we used to have before global warming. SPOOKY. Ancient oak trees tremble their acorns. Decaying Gothic towers seem to sag beneath the weight of dark secrets. That person over there is speaking in a strange tongue— it sounds like TRANSYLVANIAN ?
Yellow Springs is a village. That is perfect. Are you hip to the political climate in Yellow Springs? You might call it VOLATILE. The concept of villagers swarming the Antioch campus with pitchforks and flaming torches isn’t really that far out of the realm of imagination.
So, you are wondering, what does Antioch College have to do with vampires?
Let me tell you. Since the announcement by Antioch University that Antioch College would be closing have you noticed what has happened? Sure, they said that Antioch College would re-open in 2012 with a new “state of the art campus” but have you read between the lines? They keep saying how Antioch College has risen from the dead before. That’s right! Antioch College has vampiric tendencies!
Even now, as the Antioch University Board of Trustees is trying to nail the coffin shut on Antioch College that little academic vampire keeps forcing the lid off. It won’t die. It would seem to be UNDEAD?
And, how do you kill a vampire? Is that trustee wearing a garlic necklace? That guy is an atheist, so why is he wearing a silver crucifix? That woman over there just put what looked like silver bullets in her Luger!
The latest development in this shadowy UNDEAD saga is the introduction of the STAKEHOLDERS. According to recent articles in the Xenia Daily Gazette and the Yellow Springs News, Antioch University has designated what they are calling STAKEHOLDERS.
These individuals have been asked to attend a special meeting in Cincinnati to address the problems that have arisen with that UNDEAD ANTIOCH COLLEGE. Have you ever been to Cincinnati? Vampire City, right?
There’s a kicker; this meeting with these holders of the stakes is completely off limits to the public and to the press. VERBOTEN! They apparently don’t want the public to be privy to the stakes techniques they are devising.
Hold your stake just so, place it right above that vampire’s heart—take this sledgehammer and well, we can’t give away the rest of the plot just yet.
Remember, it’s not that easy to kill a vampire, especially with stakes held so high.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: clearing the cobwebs
confessions of a galley slave (vol. V)
I loved HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby. That book really connected with my own experiences working in a record store circa 1978-1983. That’s right, when CD’s came in, I went out. Vinyl was (and still is) my thing. Stayin’ strong for my LP’s and 45’s.
A pleasant package arrived today in the mail. It contained a galley of the new book by Nick Hornby. SLAM will be published in October.
The cover squib says that it is a “funny and moving novel about falling hard for a girl, and other classic male mistakes.”
Right up my alley, again.
Been there, done that. Nick Hornby, a literary fountain of youth.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
the lovely bones—redux
Alice Sebold’s first novel, THE LOVELY BONES, was a publishing sensation. I was puzzled today to receive a copy of it in audiobook form. Surely, it was already available in audiobook?
So, I checked. And, it was. THE LOVELY BONES was published in 2002. An audiobook version was released with narration by Alyssa Bresnahan.
I wondered, what is different about this latest version? The first thing that I noticed is that the reader on this one is Alice Sebold herself. That might be enough to spur some more sales.
Still, there had to be some other reason for this new version? Then, I figured it out:
You see, Alice Sebold has her highly anticipated new book coming out soon. It is called THE ALMOST MOON. Here’s the hook: This new audiobook contains a preview chapter of her new book.
Bingo! That’s marketing. Maybe if they can get us to listen to the new audiobook of THE LOVELY BONES that will spark an interest in the new book as well ?
What do you think? Did you read THE LOVELY BONES? Would you buy her new book because you liked the last one?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: audiobook extra
have you voted on The Big Read yet?
Have you cast your ballot for The Big Read yet? The nomination process has gotten it narrowed down to three final books. Here they are:
Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
AND…
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.
To cast your vote click here.
Any one of these books will make for an excellent Big Read experience. What do you think of these final selections? Which title really stands out?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: what do you think?
knock three times on the ceiling…
Last night I went to a party in Yellow Springs. Every third guest seemed to be locked into the same mantra: “gee, Vick, I really miss your show on WYSO. I’ll never forget that interview you did with: Ted Nugent…”
Ted Nugent—Holy smokes—I know that was a notorious interview but I cannot believe how many people over the years have told me that they heard that interview. Oh well, I’m glad that you were paying attention.
And, you still are. Today is the third anniversary of my writing book reviews for the Dayton Daily News. I am delighted to be included in the mix. I’m also thrilled to have this blog as another platform for my passionate digressions about books.
I want to thank my editor, Ron Rollins, for having the instincts to ask me to write book reviews for the newspaper, and for asking me to write this blog.
There are way too many of you to thank. You know who you are. Colleagues, readers, listeners, thank you! Keep those comments coming!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: looks good on paper
the skinny on “Skinny Bitch”
Celebrity sells books. Take SKINNY BITCH for example. The book came out in December of 2005. It has sold well. Recently, sales rocketed as Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice was spotted carrying a copy of the book. It doesn’t matter that Posh claims she has never read a book. The celebrity connection pushed sales into the stratosphere.
An article the other day in the New York Times attempts to analyze the celebrity book sales buzz for SKINNY BITCH:
“Ever since Running Press, an imprint of Perseus Books, first published the raucous, profanity-laced diet book “Skinny Bitch” in December 2005, it has sold steadily. From an initial print run of fewer than 10,000 copies, there are now more than 245,000 in print.
But it wasn’t until Victoria Beckham, also known as the pop star Posh Spice and wife of the soccer player David Beckham, was photographed carrying a copy of it in a Los Angeles boutique in May that the book started climbing the best-seller charts in Britain. When E! News picked up the story in June, the title took off in the United States. On Sunday it was No. 12 on the New York Times best-seller list of paperback advice, how-to and miscellaneous books. This Sunday it will be No. 3.
Defying conventional publishing wisdom, which says that a book must break into the best-seller lists in its first weeks on sale or risk sinking into oblivion, the book, which is a year and a half old, has also gathered steam despite not being sold in mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart, which can often account for a significant proportion of sales.
With a sassy cover featuring a drawing of a slender young woman wearing a tight-fitting body suit and hoop earrings, and holding a pair of oversize sunglasses, the book, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, promises a “no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls.” That brazen attitude has lured buyers looking for an alternative to the standard dieting tome.
“It’s definitely the most entertaining diet book I’ve ever read,” said Linda Marotta, the lead buyer at Shakespeare & Company, which has four stores in New York City. Ms. Marotta said “Skinny Bitch” had sold “extremely well” in the stores.
The cheeky tone and the authors’ runway pedigrees — Ms. Barnouin is a former model, and Ms. Freedman is a former modeling agent — belie the book’s message, which turns out to be hard-core vegan, with a good helping of animal rights rhetoric that might be more familiar to the Birkenstock brigade than your average diet-seeking book buyer.”
The blog The Huffington Post just threw in their two cents on
“ It is hardly news, of course, that celebrity sells. A survey last year by the global marketing giant WPP Group found that one in four ads now features a celebrity, compared with just one in eight a decade earlier.
Still, there is something wonderfully fantastic about having Posh Spice emerge as a champion of the written word. In what was surely the most stunning part of the Times story, the paper reported that Beckham confided in a 2005 interview that she had never read a book in her life.
Now, nobody would argue that Skinny Bitch has much in common with a well-crafted narrative or an erudite work of nonfiction. Yet there’s no reason the basic formula shouldn’t apply widely.”
Posh Spice was not available for comment.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: laughable
the history of castles
One of the greatest things about a book blog is that I can cover so many books that I would not be able to review for the print version of the DDN.
I have been enjoying just such a book lately. When I saw it I thought; gee whiz! I wish this book had been around when I was kid hanging out on Saturday mornings inside the Bookmobile.
THE HISTORY OF CASTLES by Christopher Gravett (Lyons Press) would have been right up my alley back in the 4th grade. OK, I’ll admit it—-it’s STILL right up my alley.
This profusely illustrated large-size, glossy paperback traces the history of these magnificent fortifications as they developed across Europe and Asia. A plethora of photos, maps, and diagrams illustrate the superb text which takes readers inside the walls and up on the battlements of castles all over the map. It’s quite a lovely read.
This is a revised and updated version. It even has a small section about forts in the USA.
There’s just one problem; these gorgeous photographs make me want to go back to Europe. A guy can dream, right ? And reading helps me to add some substance to my dreams.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: escapism
scribbles and scraps-chapter 14
The Book of General Ignorance—Everything You Think You Know is Wrong: at least, according to John Lloyd and John Mitchinson, the authors of this sweet little book. They pose questions like: “How many senses does a human being have?” Did you say; FIVE? That’s wrong. They say that we have nine senses. Try this one; “Who was the first American president?” Did you say; WASHINGTON? Wrong! It was Peyton Randolph. You get the idea.
Guilty little pleasures: Audiobooks. According to an article today in the New York Times audiobooks are a fast growing segment of the book biz but there are still readers (I mean listeners) who conceal the fact that they are “users” of audiobooks. Members of book clubs who confess to having “read” their club selections by listening to the audiobook versions have been subjected to humiliation and embarrassment. Don’t tell me you listen to those?! Why don’t you go for a drive and indulge your secret little vice alone in the car….not in front of the children!
Buddy—Has been immobile most of the day. This heat had him sprawled on the driveway, motionless. He’s starting to get active though as the day’s heat recedes. Right now he is chasing a moth.
Bookish beverage: Southern Tier Heavy Weizen—Imperial unfiltered wheat ale—yummmmm
New in paperback: For the hopeless romantic—That Summer in Paris by Abha Dawesar. A lovely summer fling.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: scribbles and scraps
counterfeiting Harry Potter
China has become a manufacturing behemoth. Along with legitimate products, China also cranks out millions of counterfeit products, from computer software to designer handbags. If they can make money on it, the Chinese seem to be able to produce it, even when it is bogus. It is amazing how much cheaper it is to produce knockoffs when you aren’t paying any licensing fees. Just inquire at any American film company, software maker, or music label about their thoughts on the Chinese “market.”
Harry Potter fever sweeps over China just like the rest of the world. According to an article today in the New York Times, the Chinese put their own unique spin on Pottermania, with piles of counterfeit books and even Potter titles that exist no place else, they wrote their own!
Check out some of these titles as reported by the New York Times: “These include “Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Relative Prince,” a creation whose name in Chinese closely resembles the title of the genuine sixth book by Ms. Rowling, as well as pure inventions that include “Harry Potter and the Hiking Dragon,” “Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire,” “Harry Potter and the Young Heroes,” “Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon,” and “Harry Potter and the Big Funnel.”
Some borrow little more than the names of Ms. Rowling’s characters, lifting plots from other well-known authors, like J. R. R. Tolkien, or placing the famously British protagonist in plots lifted from well-known kung-fu epics and introducing new characters from Chinese literary classics like “Journey to the West.”
Here, the global Harry Potter publishing phenomenon has mutated into something altogether Chinese: a combination of remarkable imagination and startling industriousness, all placed in the service of counterfeiting, literary fraud and copyright violation.
Wang Lili, editor of the China Braille Publishing House, which published “Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll” in 2002, one of the Chinese knockoffs, said: “We published the book out of a very common incentive. Harry Potter was so popular that we wanted to enjoy the fruits of its widely accepted publicity in China.”
The attitude reflected in Ms. Wang’s comment goes a long way toward explaining not only the explosion of unauthorized Harry Potter literature in China, but also the much larger problem of rampant piracy in China, where travelers can find six different knockoffs of Viagra, without prescription, on display at airport drugstores, and where bootleg DVDs, fake Picassos, and even near-identical copies of famous-brand automobiles are widely available.
China has recently stepped up efforts to rein in the production, and especially the export, of fraudulent and substandard goods in the wake of scandals concerning exports of contaminated food and a dangerous drug additive. Authors and editors say, though, that cleaning up the worlds of literature and publishing is, at best, an afterthought.
Wei Bin, editor of the Writers’ Publishing House, which investigates book piracy, said that his group’s last survey in 2001 showed that as many as 30 to 40 percent of the books for sale in China might be illegal.”
Imagine that? 30 to 40 percent of the Chinese book market is bogus! That represents a lot of loot. No wonder the US publishing industry is in such a pickle?
Do you know any Harry Potter collectors? Perhaps they think that they have every one of the Potter books? The article in the Times might shatter those illusions. Obsessive collectors will want it all, even the bootlegs.
People make collections of an incredible variety of stuff. I know someone who has every Beatle related item imaginable. Another guy collects beer cans. Another, baseball cards.
I collect honey jars.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: secret passions
