Review: It's your turn, Snoopy : selected cartoons from Your̓e the guest of honor Charlie Brown, vol. 1

It's your turn, Snoopy : selected cartoons from Your̓e the guest of honor Charlie Brown, vol. 1 by Charles M. Schulz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It seems I ore often hear Schulz & Peanuts disaparaged then praised. And, with the publication of [b:Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography|195218|Schulz and Peanuts A Biography|David Michaelis|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348078577s/195218.jpg|188791], there is documentation to support artistic and personal disparagement. Still there is proof out there of innovation and success. Regardless of all that, I enjoyed breezing through this slim compendium in about 40 minutes and retrieving some grins I haven't had since my youth. All the faves are here: Linus, Marcie, Lucy, Pigpen (his blanket gets recalled!) and, of course, Charlie, Woodstock, and Snoopy. Many of these strips make for a series: Woodstock and Snoopy in a tiff over a New Year's Even gala, an ill-conceived "testimonial dinner" to Charlier from his baseball team members, along with the refrains of Lucy's adoration for Linus, Charlie's hyper insecurity and evidence that Snoopy was the first slacker.



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Review: Books

Books by McMurty, Larry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It's funny that I took this in as an audiobook, as it is a format McMurtry (not "McMurty") largely declaims in the final, whistful portion of this book. During this part, he also questions if reading itself will exist in the future while consigning second-hand book sales to the dust heap. He doesn't talk much about his own writing which is fine with me, as I was never drawn to it and found his one non-fiction title that I have read rather meh: [b:Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West: 1846--1890|54809|Oh What a Slaughter Massacres in the American West 1846--1890|Larry McMurtry|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347414087s/54809.jpg|1861689]. However, while we may also disagree with the value of his son's songwriting, McMurtry and I are both book lovers and in these over one hundred brief vignettes and thoughts I revel with him in descriptions of private collections, ultra-rare editions, bookstores, book careers like book scout, and more.



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Review: Winter's Tales

Winter's Tales by Karen Blixen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Karen von Blixen-Finecke, here using the pen name Isak Dinesen, has the pen names and is best known for [b:Out of Africa|781787|Out of Africa|Isak Dinesen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1178296503s/781787.jpg|1189079]. Here she produced a collection of short stories with a faint hint of ghost stories about them. Mildly fantastic and otherworldly, they make for cozy winter time reading. Inevitably, the tales are of life-changing moments observer or experienced. These crucial moments can overtly magical ("The Sailor-Boy's Tale") or merely inexplicable like the strange meetings in "The Young Man with the Carnation". The life-long and life-affecting love of a wife figure into "The Pearls" and "Peter and Rosa". A mother taking the punishment her child cannot endure is the striking "Sorrow-Acre".

Largely set in the late 19th Century, the foreboding winds of European war cast a pall over many of the nearly dozen stories.



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Review: Winter's Tales

Winter's Tales by Karen Blixen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Karen von Blixen-Finecke, here using the pen name Isak Dinesen, has the pen names and is best known for [b:Out of Africa|781787|Out of Africa|Isak Dinesen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1178296503s/781787.jpg|1189079]. Here she produced a collection of short stories with a faint hint of ghost stories about them. Mildly fantastic and otherworldly, they make for cozy winter time reading. Inevitably, the tales are of life-changing moments observer or experienced. These crucial moments can overtly magical ("The Sailor-Boy's Tale") or merely inexplicable like the strange meetings in "The Young Man with the Carnation". The life-long and life-affecting love of a wife figure into "The Pearls" and "Peter and Rosa". A mother taking the punishment her child cannot endure is the striking "Sorrow-Acre".



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Review: The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art

The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art by Linda Dalrymple Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This revised edition of a work first published in 1983 details the impact and spread of non-Euclidean geometry and the idea of a fourth dimension into, mainly, early Twentieth Century art and thought. Henderson covers the gamut from philosophy topainting, literature to the plastic arts, and beyond. Along with a new index, there is an extensive hundred-page “Reintroduction” serving as the author’s reappraisal, history, and synopsis of this impressive work. Looking back on the three decades since publishing, Henderson considers the further impact of these concepts on art and culture in the late Twentieth Century. The work is well illustrated and it would have been nice had at least some of the numerous black and white plates been upgraded to color ones. This work is strongly persuasive that interpreting the fourth dimension theories and related topics was fundamental to the development of modern art...

[See my full review at MAA Reviews]



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Review: The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story

The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story by Matt Bondurant

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I was drawn to this book by the movie, which I liked very much. Inevitably, I compare the two. The book flashes back and forth between and early and mid-30s. I am glad they didn't do that in the movie and confused why this Boudrant scion chose to do it in his admittedly imagined history. The author romanticized for him this family history over the impossible to find [b:The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial Of 1935|1731466|The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial Of 1935|T. Keister Greer|/assets/nocover/60x80.png|1728947] and other obscure histories. Some of the drama I am surprised did not make it to the film: like the bone-crunching long-rolling contest. The humanizing, figural whittling of Forrest Bondurant seems like another missed opprtunity. I liked discovering from the book the investigatory [a:Sherwood Anderson|45645|Sherwood Anderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1206470009p2/45645.jpg] raised to the level of a main character. I found many of his short story collections are available at the moment for free for the Kindle, so I look forward to reading those, now.



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Review: The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower

The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower by Robert Baer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is book is a bit dated in that it tackles the question of U.S. withdraw from Iraq, but it is very valuable for the years of experience Baer gained on Iran from his years in the middle east. The title of this work is loaded and layers of meaning are not fully clear until the audacious (enlightened? visionary?) epilogue. Baer builds up a tale of a misunderstood Iran with astute geo-political machinations bearing success at positioning it as a regional hegemon and leader of a Shia-dominant, oil-rich Muslim (not Arab) world. It is easy to take this as subtle coloring of a wily adversary, but in the conclusion Baer boldly advises getting the jump on Russia and China and the U.S. directly allying with and cooperating transparently with Iran



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Review: Leadership in the New Normal: A Short Course

Leadership in the New Normal: A Short Course by Russel L Honore

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



There is a lot of wisdom in Honore's little leadership work, but the retired general has not much more than scant if intriguing anecdotes about his four decades of military leadership and before that coming of age in rural Louisiana. someone should of looked out for him on the fact front: Galileo was deemed heretical for believing the world moved, not that it was flat, and idealizing portraits meant to mythologize are not a sound basis for analysis of Washington's field generalship. This man's life and wisdom has at least one good book in it, but this ain't it.

Here's my paraphrasing of the author's excellent leadership ideals:

1) execute the routine expertly
2) face what seems impossible bravely
3) be able to act in the face of criticism

The lack of fact-checking really hurts my enjoyment of this book and respect of the author. I like the insight of the world traveler: a world of cell phones gives the have-nots a window into the haves. But, on facts, can I trust? Honore claims there were no snipers in the post-Katrina Crescent City, that it was all mis-interpreted noise. But, if he gets Galileo wrong?



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Review: The Ultimate Lark: In Search of Epicurean Adventure

The Ultimate Lark: In Search of Epicurean Adventure by Jim Lark

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a fascinating journey with Jim & Mary Lark: globetrotting and haute cuisine. Vignettes of hunting trips in Ireland, United Kingdom, Texas, South America, etc. are interspersed with recipies and advice on how to be a world-class restranteur. Herein Jim reveals his secrets to the success of his Michigan restaurant The Lark, which I have enjoyed many times. This includes only good seating, a can't-go-wrong wine list, excellent service as well as food, theme dinners and a newsletter.



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Review: Street Player: My Chicago Story

Street Player: My Chicago Story by Danny Seraphine

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Danny really delivers in this autobiography: The tale of his rise from Chicago gang thug to accomplished professional drummer makes a fascinating first act that leads to the globe-trotting, arena-filling years of Chicago's rule (alongside but over Blood, Sweat & Tears) of rock band with horns and a jazz bent. The tragedies and excess and eventual ousting lead to the most personal third act: Seraphine alone and struggling to find himself personally and professionally, which he does.

[Hear my interview with the author]



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Review: Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work

Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work by Michael R. Goldman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Mostly pictures, this small hardcover book comes with a DVD box set of 40 Eastwood movies. There are film stills, on-the-set photos, sets (The Black Emerald from "Mystic River", "Edgar" sets), and more. The bulk fo the text is from a Morgan Freeman introduction where he calls "The Outlaw Josey Wales" his favorite Western.



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Review: History Of The Comstock Patent Medicine Business And Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills

History Of The Comstock Patent Medicine Business And Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills by Robert B. Shaw

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This Smithsonia annals of big-time, organized quackery details familial and legal battles of the nostrum firm. Plenty of label illustrations and pictures of the water-side Comstock factory and hotel dress up the narrative. The whole arc is covered from Indian medicine man lies (apparently the old Medicine Man was intimately familiar with flora of the Far East), mail scams that sound like todays Spanish Prison e-mail scams, and an empty warehouse of the 1950s where shuffling septuagenarians fill the last reminaing orders of quackery that laster nearly a century.



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Review: If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young

If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young by Kurt Vonnegut

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



A brief, heartwarming collection of Vonnegut's college graduation speeches ably narrated by Scott Brick. Some repetition is, perhaps, inevitable, but I am surprised at how varied these brief speeches are. Vonnegut obviously felt it fun and important to tweak these newly minted minds before they headed out into the world. I thought it was interesting this curmudgeonly, dismissive, stoic humanist thought taking time to smell the roses and being part of a big, noisy family were so important to happiness. It was also generous of him to speak kindly of his son's memoir [b:The Eden Express|63716|The Eden Express|Mark Vonnegut|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1359525451s/63716.jpg|28720], which does not paint Vonnegut pere in a kind light.



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Review: La Traviata [With 2 CDs]

La Traviata [With 2 CDs] by Giuseppe Verdi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Probably the nicest part of this set is the 2-CD presentation of the opera, featuring Beverly Sills and all the arias occasionally cut in live performance. Also, there are biographies of Sills, Verdi, and others along with a synopsis and full, annotated libretto.



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Review: The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008

The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 by Sean Wilentz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Wilentz approaches his subject as historian; this is a work of analysis not hagiography. The conditions that brought Reagan to power and the echoes of his colleagues and fellow-travelers (Bushs, Rumsfeld, etc.) mark the gamut of the Age of this study. I was very young when Reagan ruled, but I wasn't too you to recall the hue and cry over his militarism (Granada, Libya), expenditure (SDI), etc. So, I was a bit suprised to his funeral handled like that of a passing saint. Wilentz helps to explain much of that and many other myseteris. Why did Reagan cling to "Star Wars" in spite of technological complexity, high cost, and the fact it irked the USSR? He felt it would bring peace to the whole world and protect America, says the author. How did Iran/Contra happen under his nose? Because Ronnie was in the driver's seat and narrowly avoided impeachement, says this author.

An interesting book, which gives context to the neo-con movement and gives examples of how the Republican party was not destroyed by its own radical right base.



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Review: The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



When I first read this, I was very young. I came away thinking of it as a coming of age story, even a youthful adventure somewhat like [b:The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|2956|The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Mark Twain|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1274410225s/2956.jpg|1835605]. Now, I see it as a dated tract seeking to instigate radical social reform, more like [b:The Jungle|41681|The Jungle|Upton Sinclair|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1332140681s/41681.jpg|1253187]. Both works and even more so this one thus become topical and have lost depth and impact for losing currency. Additionally, Steinbeck's Joads and their fellow travelers are one-dimensional, pious, saint-rubes as to be unbelievable. The family is so unbroken, unhampered by any character defect that they are perfect ideals requiring now transformation and thus Tom Joad's pronouncement from the bush is unbelievable and hollow since it comes from an impossible creature:

Then I'll be all aroun' in the dark. I'll be ever'where, wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. ...I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an', I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an live in the houses they build, why, I'll be there..."

Steinbeck's hand-waving for even armed social revolution may have seemed the needed reaction back in the socialist '30s, but falls flat, now, and history belied the author's prescription: WW II's economic boom swept up the Oakies who were replaced Mexican-American pickers culminating in the non-violent resistance of Cesar Chavez.




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