Monthly Archives: July 2008
Personal Days by Ed Park
Personal Days is a clever satire of office politics in the New York office of a company that’s shrinking under the influence of “The Californians” that bought the company and now run the show. The erratic and sometimes cruel path … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles
Dear American Airlines starts like a rant against the airlines but is, in fact, a no-longer-young man’s regrets about losing his daugher (and more) to drinking too much. Bennie Ford sits at O’Hare when he should be flying to his … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
The Pixar Touch by David Price
The Pixar Touch describes the rise of Pixar as a leader in the world of animated movies, ending with the Disney purchase of the company. The book is at its best at the beginning, when Pixar emerges as a company making… … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
Home by Julie Andrews
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years is the story of Julie Andrews’ childhood and young adulthood — until she becomes famous. Born to an unstable mom who soon divorces her wonderful dad (or perhaps not-dad, but wonderful anyway), Julie … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander Mccall Smith
The Miracle at Speedy Motors is the ninth installment in the series of the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agencyand Mma Ramotswe is back for more mystery-solving, although we all know by now that solving mysteries is not the point of … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
The Crowd Sounds Happy by David Dawidoff
The Crowd Sounds Happy is a memoir of a happy childhood, albeit with a mentally-ill father and a financially struggling mother. The author describes how his mother sends him to a posh, good private school where he feels he doesn’t … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
Buying In by Rob Walker
Buying In talks about Marketing 2.0: what happens when marketeers no longer can or want to use standard advertizing and promotion techniques and instead highjack consumers’ counter-brand ideology to push their brands. Yes, big business can cleverly exploit the very … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
The Middle Place is a memoir by a Bay Area woman who got breast cancer at age 36, and whose beloved father got bladder cancer about the same time. Talk about rotten luck. But the book is not about that, … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey
Bright Shiny Morning is an official piece of fiction, unlike A Million Little Pieces by the same author that started out as a memoir and turned out to be fiction after all… and a great piece of fiction in my … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
Final Salute by Jim Sheeler
Prepare for an emotional experience when you read Final Salute, a carefully crafted description of a very tough job, that of the Marines who notify the families of deaths in combat, and who take care of those families through funerals and … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
