In the interview, Wareham talks about the music that he listened to while writing the book:
I generally wrote in silence, but if I did allow myself to listen to music it was instrumental stuff (so as not to be distracted by lyrics)…Beethoven, Vince Guaraldi, George Delerue, Ennio Morricone…
Ragdoll has been asking her readers for recommendations for music to listen to while writing. What do you listen to that helps your creativity? I’ve been trying to sell Ragdoll on Wareham’s band Luna, so I’ll add this for your listening pleasure:
Better, by Atul Gawande, sounded like a fascinating read. On the front cover of the edition I bought, Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink (a book everybody but me liked), calls Better “a masterpiece, a series of stories set inside the four walls of a hospital that end up telling us something unforgettable about the world outside.” Truth be told, though, the real reason I picked up this book was because of the subheading under its title: “A surgeon’s notes on performance”. As a professional constantly faced with differing philosophies as to how performance should be measured and rewarded, I thought the idea of reading a “masterpiece” on the subject from someone whose performance can literally mean life or death would be worthwhile.
Let me preface this post (unless it’s too late at this point for a preface) by saying that this book didn’t really meet with my expectations; however, once again, that was because my expectations might have been a bit skewed. And although the book didn’t really talk to me about performance metrics as much as I expected, it was still a nice read.
What Gawande does in the book is break down what he believes to be three core requirements for success in a field that involves risk and responsibility (such as medicine): diligence, doing right, and ingenuity. He then builds the case for each of these through the use of anecdotes. None of these anecdotes really stands on its own as the basis for any world-changing proposition, but each of them is effectively representative of an approach or philosophy that Gawande cites it for. And I will absolutely vouch for the fact that Gawande has a very easy-to-read writing style. I doubt that he took a whole lot of writing classes while in medical school, but you wouldn’t know it from reading this work. His approach is one to challenge your thinking, not to challenge your reading ability.
Will this book change your life? Probably not. Will you regret spending the time to read it? I strongly doubt it. Will you learn a lot about some things you probably didn’t know much detail about (eradicating polio, the treatment of wounded soldiers, the Apgar score)? Absolutely.
We’ve been kicking around the idea of having a BGB Reading Series event in Brooklyn. No, really. For one thing, a kindly bookstore suggested the idea. Secondly, that’s where are all of the writers that matter live, right? Most importantly, good friends of the Family Got Books, the Journo Pals, recently moved there. Mr. Journo Pal sent this map of literary Brooklyn from The New York Observer to get the ball rolling:
I read a lot of Jewish lit and most of it revolves around Ashkenazi Jews (those who immigrated from Eastern Europe). I haven’t read many stories or even know many Sephardic Jews - those from Spain and the Middle East. The Man in the Sharkskin Suit is the story of a prestigious, Jewish family in Cairo in the 1940’s and 50’s who eventually flees to Brooklyn under the Nasser regime.
Lucette Lagnado, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal retells her father’s (Leon aka “Le Capitain”) life which is the opposite of the American dream. Throughout most of his life, he is a dashing, cosmopolitan entrepeneur who lives life to the fullest. He begins his day in synagogue, then goes on to wheel and deal (Lagnado never really knew how her father earned a living - just that he seemed to be some kind of high-end peddler) and then socializes with Cairo’s glitterati late into the evening. Leon is portrayed as a dashing figure, the title of the book stems from the fact that he always wore white sharkskin suits, and he is idolized by the author who becomes her father’s companion throughout most of his life.
Lagnado is the youngest of four and her father dotes on her and gives her all of the affection that he does not give towards his wife and other children. While Lagnado sees her father through rose colored glasses, she does a good job of also showing the dark side of Leon. Her parent’s had a very unhappy marriage and her other siblings had a much more strained relationship with their father. Lagnado’s mother is the least likable character in the memoir. She is a weak woman who realizes that her marriage was a mistake in the first few months and spends the next 50 years as the miserable, underdog.
With the rising tide of anti-semitism after the formation of Israel and Nasser’s rise to power in Egypt, life becomes more and more difficult for the Jews of Cairo. Finally in 1963, Leon realizes that he has no choice but to leave Cairo. The rules were very stringent about emigration and families were not allowed to leave with any money - only clothing and personal items. Jewish Services agencies around the world took responsibility for emigration of these Egyptian Jews and most settled in either Israel or America. Lagnado’s family ends up in Brooklyn via Paris penniless and with no prospects for a viable future. The remainder of the book details the hardships that they encountered including the author’s serious illness and the eventual estrangement between the other siblings and their parents.
This book is a heart-felt, personal account of a family’s tumultous life which started in the Old World and ends in the New World. What does not change throughout the memoir is Leon’s unwavering adherence to Judaism and his deep love for his daughter. I really enjoyed this book and was most fascinated by the description of Cairo in the 1940’s. I had no idea that it rivaled Paris with its nightlife and was a booming melting pot of Christian’s, Muslims, Jews, Egyptians and British who were stationed there during the war. Leon represented a time and place in history that his daughter beautifully recreated with this memoir.
It was brought to my attention by keen-eyed readers Russ and David that you recently posted this shirt on your web site in a post titled Baby Got Books:
O! the copyright infringement-larity! While you were on questionable legal ground with that post, you then sought to proceed further into additional infringing activities by posting lyrics to a fictional song in your post Sir Mix-A-Lot Remixed.
As it should be clear to any reasonable party, this blog has a long established use of Sir Mix-A-Lot derivative work that clearly pre-dates your offending work. My lawyers have begun to calculate just how much your activities will cost you. Please have your checkbook out and ready when they call in order to avoid any unnecessary, expensive, and potentially protracted legal actions through the courts. Thanks.
Tim
P.S. Or you could just send us one of those shirts.
Friday: “My eyes slammed themselves capital O open…” Morning had come too soon. The previous evening, Thursday, Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts, read at Wordsmiths as part of the Baby Got Books Reading Series. The result: an incredible day an an evening that went fairly late for a school night, which resulted in at least one sleepy blogger who spent his Friday figuring out how to sneak in a nap. Here’s how it all went down:
Wordsmiths’ Russ and I picked up the author at the airport and immediately whisked him off to Little Five Points for burgers at The Vortex and a lap around Criminal Records. From L5P, we took it on down to Wordsmiths. Steven Hall and I had discussed these blog posts (1 and 2) from the Omnivoarcious blog in which authors discuss what beers best go with their books. He instantly replied “Amstel, of course”, because that’s what the characters in his book drink. However, we decided to collect additional data by ducking into the Brick Store Pub. If you’re keeping score at home, I spent most of Thursday going to my favorite places in Atlanta with one of my favorite authors and drinking beer. I’m still having a hard time believing that any of that actually happened - even after processing it all over the weekend. Eventually I had to take off to get ready for the evening and pick up Mrs. Got Books, etc.
Go time: Back at the store, Steven Hall began his reading with a selection from “Stories from a Phone Book”. Originally published as a short story in New Writing 13 , the piece will be included in a collection of stories that the author is working on now. The author then read several selections from The Raw Shark Texts, including part of this section that you can listen to Academy Award-winner Tilda Swinton read here. Following the reading, the author answered questions from the audience.
Steven Hall reads from Stories for a Phone Book
The evening’s Raw Shark moment: Just as the reading finished, a group of about 10-15 people walked through the front door all dressed in white shirts/blouses. They stood quietly and listened to the Q&A, then they filed out before the band started - without a word. Thanks for coming!
Following that bit of weirdness, Blue Screen Love Scene took to the stage while Steven Hall signed books and talked with the crowd. They opened with I Am a Scientist, my favorite BSLS tune, and finished strong with a cover of Siouxsie and The Banshees’ Hong Kong Garden (for you youngsters out there - that’s awesome).
Blue Screen Love Scene performs
While the band was playing and the author was signing books/chatting with the crowd, we continued the multi-tasking by celebrating BGB contributor Shaft’s 40th birthday. To mark the occasion, as well as the awesomeness of having Steven Hall in the house, Mrs. Got Books cooked up an amazing shark cake. I wish that I had had the presence of mind to get a picture of it when it was whole, but this is what it looked like after people had begun to dig in.
A partially devoured Raw Shark birthday cake
After BSLS wrapped up their set, the remaining crowd departed en masse for celebratory post event pints at the Brick Store. The mob quickly took over a large portion of the upstairs Belgian bar where everyone chatted with the author and enjoyed the company of other Raw Shark fans. A good time was had by all.
My hope is that our efforts will ensure that Mr. Hall will put Atlanta atop his list of cities to visit on his future book tours. Either way, it will surely be an event that those in attendance will be talking about for a long time. I know that I won’t be able to shut up about my day with Steven Hall for a long time.
It’s Raw Shark Eve. We’re practically bouncing off the walls with anticipation of tomorrow’s festivities. Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts. Blue Screen Love Scene providers of ethereal dance pop. Refreshments. Free. @ Wordsmiths. 8PM. Be there.
So maybe you’re on the fence. You’re thinking about coming out, but you haven’t bought into the Thursday is the new Friday bit. OK. Here’s a roundup of links for you to explore the novel even further…
On one of the first warm days in New York last week, I decided to go on a walk and join the hordes milling around the city, finally seizing an opportunity to emerge from the hibernation necessitated by the merciless winters of the east.I found myself wandering through Union Square, so I made my way to The Strand, an institution in the city and one of the bookstores I visit often.
Its location is primo, E. 12th and Broadway, in the heart of Greenwich Village.The Strand is one of those bookstores that seem to emanate a love of all things literary.It supposedly houses 18 miles of books – a claim that seems entirely plausible once you’ve combed the aisles.Shelves are floor to ceiling – I’ve actually pulled the muscles in my neck trying to read titles.The aisles wrap around each other, meeting at odd angles, changing directions.Losing track of time entirely is unavoidable if you find your way to the more secluded sections of the store.
What may be The Strand’s most notable characteristic is its sense of history.Benjamin Bass opened the store in its original location on Fourth Avenue in 1927.In 1956, his son took over and moved the store to its current location, and it has been owned and operated by the Bass family ever since.The family’s longstanding and continuing commitment to literature and quality writing is still felt there. The smell of old paper hits you when you walk in. The Bass family also has a history of employing local artists, including Patti Smith, who worked at the store as a clerk in the ‘60’s.
The Strand boasts an enormous collection of rare, used, and out of print books.I found a copy of I Have Tried to Tell The Truth, a collection of Orwell’s letters and essays, which is surprisingly difficult to get your hands on, given the author.It’s nowhere to be found in Borders or Barnes & Noble, and even the other independent bookstores I’ve been to lately haven’t carried it.The last time I checked Amazon, only hardcover copies were available, starting at $70.At the Strand, though, I finally found a used paperback copy for $8.95.
Even New York fashion has been influenced by The Strand.The store carries canvas shoulder bags with its logo in bold red and white.The bags are available in different styles and colors and are practically a wardrobe staple among young New Yorkers.I’ve seen women wearing Chanel and toting Strand bags.It’s heartening to think that our ideas of what’s trendy don’t have to come from beauty magazines.
The Strand is among the world’s largest used bookstores. Its primary competitor is Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.Since I’ll be moving to the west coast soon, and I have a friend in grad school near Portland, I’ve added Powell’s to my bucket list. As for anyone visiting or living in New York, I highly recommend a stop at The Strand. You’ll find whatever you’re looking for and even if you don’t buy anything, it’s worth the trip to soak up the ambiance.
As excited as we are to be welcoming Steven Hall to Atlanta on Thursday night, I also can’t wait to see our musical guest Blue Screen Love Scene perform. BSLS plays an ethereal dream pop that you can dance to. When we were planning the event, the moment that Wordmsiths’ Russ shot me a link to BSLS, I knew that they were the perfect match for Steven Hall’s novel.
If you haven’t heard the band yet, check out their song I’m A Scientist.
(Subscribers: you’ll have to click over to the blog to get your groove on.)
I’m partial to this one, because - well - I’m a scientist. What’s better than busting a move to a song with lyrics about cosmology, electrons, relativity, and radiation? Check out more of Blue Screen Love Scene’s music on their MySpace page.
Raw Shark Week continues here at BGB as we celebrate this Thursday’s star-studded reading event. Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts, will be making his only Southeastern appearance at Volume 3 of the Baby Got Books Reading Series with musical guest Blue Screen Love Scene. The evening begins at 8PM at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur. All of the particulars can be found here. Join us.
We’ve written extensively about Steven Hall and The Raw Shark Texts here at BGB. For your convenience, I’ve collected some of the highlights together for your surfing pleasure.
I review The Raw Shark Texts: “First things first. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall will knock your socks off. Look at me. I’m totally sockless.”
BGB’s Weezie attends the author’s reading in San Francisco and files this report: “…I found it to be one of the most original, gripping, masterfully constructed, beautifully written books I’ve read in quite a long time. Hall has a gift for understanding and translating into words what it feels like to think and remember and dream and love and imagine.”
I complain about the New York Times’ half-assed review.
Steven Hall has made a special offer for attendees of Thursday night’s event. If you can crack the password on this site, you’ll be granted access to an extra 16 pages of the novel (The Prologue, which runs from pages -21 to -6). The pages are already typeset, so you can print them out, cut to them to size, and stick them in the front of your book. Hall has offered to sign copies on Thursday night for anyone who brings them in, and he notes that signed copies of this additional material is extremely rare.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention this:
By official proclamation I have declared this week Raw Shark Week as we count down to Thursday’s big event: Baby Got Books Reading Series, Vol. 3, featuring Steven Hall author of The Raw Shark Texts with musical guests Blue Screen Love Scene. I can not describe how excited I am about this reading, and I hope that you’ll come down and join us if you’re in the area. Hell, you should travel down here if you’re not in the area. It’s going to be excellent.
To kick off the week, I thought that it would be fitting to share some of the back story between Steven Hall and BGB. It all began with this post in which I wrote:
…Steven Hall, the author of The Raw Shark Texts is guest blogging at Powells this week. The book has been getting good reviews, and the author is being compared to Mark Z. Danielewski (MZD is one of the Hall’s friends on his MySpace page). “Moby Dick meets the Matrix” is what they’re saying. Which is all very nice, however, the author begins his first guest post with this:
“Ahhh blogging, that fantastic digital mash-up of random thoughts, half-baked product placement, free stuff and alcohol-induced slander.”
I’m four beers into my evening, so I should point out that I have it on good authority The Raw Shark Texts was written with the blood of kittens that the author strangled in his back yard - with his bare hands - in his underpants - on the dope. Free books. I once had to change a flat in the rain.
Zing. I was young. Naive, even. Never did I think that the author would read my post, much less comment upon it. But he did. The very next day on the Powells blog, Steven Hall replied:
— I was talking about how I approach my own blog writing (or, more accurately, how my own blogs always seem to turn out!), I was speaking about myself, not passing judgement on anyone else! …
So sorry for any confusion, and a special sorry to the nice folks at babygotbooks.com who despite taking those comments to heart a little bit, still gave my book a very decent plug. Thanks guys, I have a kitten blood special edition here on my desk waiting for you if you want it. Give me a shout
Oops. If you’re going to take umbrage, you should have your facts straight. I took the author up on his offer, and a few weeks later a package arrived from England with a “kitten blood special edition”, which was the UK edition with this title page:
The author had also arranged for the US publisher to send me a copy. Somewhere in there, the Canadian publisher also sent me a copy that was famously almost stolen from my front porch. My bookshelf looked like this:
That’s awesome time three. It worked out great. I read the Canadian edition, and Mrs. Got Books read the US edition at the same time. We were able to talk about the book while we both reading it. Definitely buy two copies if you haven’t read it yet and hand one off to a friend.
In addition to all of that coolness, the book is simply amazing. After reading the book, I contacted the author, and he agreed to be the very first author interviewed here. When this book tour was announced, Steven Hall actively lobbied his publisher to come to Atlanta to read for us. We were not on the original tour schedule. Here’s the relevant text from the author’s MySpace page:
The exact dates and locations aren’t set yet (I’ll post them up here as soon as I have them) but it’ll looking like it’ll be the second or third week in April with possible events in - Long Beach, CA., San Diego, CA, Sacramento CA, Boston and Portland, Maine. And Atlanta hopefully (I’m really pushing for this one BGB folks, I really am!).
Don’t forget! Tomorrow is Record Store Day. Events will be held nation wide, so plan to visit your neighborhood’s independent record store. My neighborhood record store, Criminal Records, is one of the event’s organizers and got a shout out in the New York Times (see Page 2). Way to go, Eric.
I was visiting my Swedish friends over at Bokhora, and I came across this post that mentioned authors Lionel Shriver and Jonathan Safran Foer. Intrigued, I dumped the text into my favorite Swedish-English translator (if anyone knows of a better one, please let me know). The translation offered:
Over a dish Italian buttocks spits Lionel Shriver the death in the face. It is when she faces herself me and says “Jonathan Safran Foer is the world’s most overestimated authors”. Of course knows Shriver not to Bokhoras eroticism (at least face) to him, she replies only hugely spontaneously on our question about the world’s most overestimated authors.
- I have may consult that “Everything ice illuminated” will last very better than “Extremely Loud wild duck Incredibly Close”, but I do not cope with actually of the child in the book. Everything is so cute.
Oscar are not easy loved, as lillgamla children in the literature seldom is. I love however other things in the book, for example the puzzle pieces with the grandfather’s visits in the paper trade, for it book inaugurated. And I find it very captivating that someone that I likes to sow a lot that I likes Shriver, does not like my favourite book.
Hursomhelst: my reaction? I nodded formally and mumbled “How occupying travel things!”.
I abandoned Shriver’s last book, The Post-Birthday World, 50 pages in. So there.
I’ve written about the Faulkner House bookstore before in passing, but it certainly deserves the full Bookstores We Love treatment. (One day, Bookstores We Love will have its own page. A promise from me to you.) I was in New Orleans for about 14 hours last week for work, and I was able to squeeze in another visit. This time I brought my camera.
The entrance to Faulkner House Books on Pirate Alley
William Faulkner lived in the building housing the store when he wrote his first novel, hence the name. The store is located in Pirates Alley, a little cut through between the St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo (now a State museum) that connects Jackson Square and Chartres Street. If you’re a student of John Grisham films, you’d recognize the building facing the Faulkner House bookstore across the Cathedral’s garden as the apartment building of Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief. But I digress. If you’re a tourist in New Orleans, you will find yourself near this bookstore during your visit. Seek it out.
The view from Pirate Alley towards Jackson Square - that’s part of the oldest apartment building in the United States in the background - note that live music was happening at 10 AM on a Thursday
I’ve mentioned before that the store is tiny. I know people who have larger kitchens. It means that Faulkner House is only able to carry the very best books. There’s just no room for crappy books. Most of their stock is comprised of fiction/literature, poetry, and short story collections with a handful of non-fiction titles (mostly of local interest) thrown in. While I was there browsing the stacks, an employee and the owner were discussing the advance copies that they had read and the books that they thought that might want to order. It was all I could do not to pull up a stool and join the conversation. The store is so small, that there is rarely more than one of any given title displayed. It’s small. Observe:
This is the fiction/literature wall - I’m standing in the front door and you can see the back wall - it’s small is what I’m saying
The poetry/short story collection shelf is a little smaller
Faulkner House is a wonderful book store experience. You owe it to yourself to check it out next time you’re in New Orleans.
Author James Meek has a new book coming out in May (more on that one in a future post). Everything that I’ve read about the upcoming book mentions that Meek’s first novel, The People’s Act of Love, is a masterpiece. Somehow, I missed it when it first came out. I decided it would be prudent to maybe begin my reading of Meek’s work with the masterpiece. I’m glad that I did. I love everything about this book.
The novel takes place in a small Siberian town during the Russian Revolution. A garrison of Czech soldiers has commandeered enough of the town’s buildings and supplies to remain indefinitely. When the soldiers left their homes five years earlier, they were part of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire. Their homes are now in a new country that they’ve never been a part of, and the country that they’ve been fighting in and against is changing political fortunes almost daily. Isolated as they are, they’re not sure who they’re supposed to be fighting for, which way the Russian political winds are blowing, and if and when they might be able to return home. The Czech commander, giving a pep talk tyo his troops, says:
Comrades. Friends. We have fought together for five years. We have fought for the Emperor of the Austrians against the Emperor of the Russians. We have fought for the Emperor of the Russians against the Emperor of the Austrians. We have fought for the White Terror of the monarchists against the Red Terror of the Bolsheviks. We have fought with Social Revolutionaries and Cossacks against Cossacks and Social Revolutionaries. I can say to you, with pride, that not once have we compromised our ideals.
Exactly.
The townspeople coexist with their Czech occupiers in a quiet subservience. The natives have a deep and dark secret that they are trying to hide from the world at large. If you tried for a million years, you would never guess their secret. I promise. The fascinating part is that the basic scenario - trapped Czech soldiers, town with a crazy secret - are based on actual events.
This is a fantastic novel - and I’m not just saying that because I like virtually all books either written by Russians or set in Russia. The themes that Meek tackles are certainly relevant to our time: moral ambiguity vs moral certainty, extremism, citizenship vs identity, the fog of war. James Meek is a journalist for The Guardian. He was stationed in Russia for several years, which I’d assume is where he found the seeds of this book. His journalist’s eye for detail and his beautiful writing style are a winning combination. Do yourself a favor and spend some time in this wonderful book.
Submarine by Joe Dunthorne is not a book that I was likely to find and read on my own. It was pressed into my hands by someone who thought that I might like it. It’s a first novel by a Welsh writer that is geared towards a teen audience. I finished this book a few weeks ago, and I’m still trying to decide what I think of it.
The narrator of the book is Oliver, a 15-year old boy in Swansea, Wales. Oliver initially comes across as a completely unlikable teen. His approach to high school is based on Darwin’s survival of the fittest. He has an I will pick on you because you are weaker than me and I need to maintain my own standing so I suggest you toughen up mindset. At the beginning of the book, Oliver sets out to see a therapist (that turns out to be the wrong kind of therapist) purely to get a reaction from his father. His relationship with his girlfriend Jordana begins when she blackmails him and seems to be based upon the fact that she would be willing to be in a relationship with him as something to do rather than mutual attraction or affection. It’s tough to care about these kids as a couple.
Eventually, Oliver begins to become a sympathetic character. To be honest, I almost bailed on the book before he became remotely likable. Oliver has his first encounters with adult situations - e.g., his first sexual experiences, his first brush with the serious illness of someone close to him, his parent’s fracturing marriage, a too close encounter with his mother’s infidelity, etc. Oliver’s reaction to these real life dramas is usually on the continuum of poor to very poor.
It slowly began to dawn on me that 15 year-olds are unlikable in general. They think that they are adults, but they behave unpredictably on the whims of emotion. Dunthorne’s novel is almost sadistically true to the stereotypical adolescent experience. There are some passages in this book that make for tough reading. Since I’m so conflicted about whether I’m glad that I read this book or not, I have a hard time offering it a recommendation to anyone else. I hope that someone else reads it though so that we can compare notes.
Second Opinion: The LA Times reviews the book today (very positively) as well.
Sadly, this political dream ticket will never come to pass.
The blog Elegant Variation pointed the way to this sweet, sweet bumper sticker. If you’re scratching your head, Aubrey and Maturin are the heroes of Patrick O’Brian’s series of seafaring adventures set during the Napoleonic War. The series features British Navy Captain Jack Aubrey and his “particular friend” naturalist/surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin.
I was introduced to the series by my brother-in-law a few years back, and I went on a tear through the first 16 books before I had to take a break. There are 21 books all together, and I don’t want to get to the end. If you need a well-written adventure fix, start with first book Master and Commander. And don’t forget to vote. (In the movie, Russell Crowe pulled off an amazing Capt. Aubrey and Paul Bettany was Dr. Maturin.)
Friday: “My eyes slammed themselves capital O open…” Morning had come too soon. The previous evening, Thursday, Steven Hall, author of 
