On My Radar (Monday Edition)

Shockaholic
by Carrie Fisher

Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

REVIEW FORTHCOMING

From the publisher website:

Bad news . . .
 
. . . for anyone who thought Carrie Fisher had finally stopped talking about herself: Sorry, but after all of her seemingly endless blathering on about her nose-bleedhigh- class problems, it appears she has yet another brand-new problem to overshare about (though don't expect to relate to it). This time, the electro-convulsive shock therapy she's been regularly undergoing is threatening to wipe out (what's left of) her memory.

But get ready for a shock of your own. Not only doesn't she mind paying the second electric bill, but she loves the high-voltage treatments. In fact, she gets a real charge out of them. She can't get enough. In fact, this might even be a brand-new addiction for her. But before she can truly commit herself to it in the long term, she'd better get some of those more nagging memories of hers on paper.

It's been a roller coaster of a few years for Carrie since her Tony- and Emmy-nominated, one-woman Broadway show and New York Times bestselling book Wishful Drinking. She not only lost her beloved father, but also her once-upon-a-very-brief-time stepmother, Elizabeth Taylor. And as if all that weren't enough, she also managed to lose over forty pounds of unwanted flesh—not by sawing off a leg (though that did cross her zapped mind) but by doing what might be termed "wishful shrinking," all the while staying sober and sane-ish. And she wants to tell you, dear reader, all about it . . . and more.

Why? Because she wants you to someday be able to remind her about how Elizabeth Taylor settles a score and the scatological wonders of shoe tycoons. She doesn't want to forget about how she and Michael Jackson became friends or how she ended up sparring with none other than Ted Kennedy on a dinner date. And she especially wants to preserve her memories of Eddie Fisher—what their relationship really was and the beautiful story it turned out to be in the end.

Yes, of course, Shockaholic is laugh-out-loud funny, acerbic, and witty as hell. But it also reveals a new side of Carrie Fisher that may even bring a pleasant shock your way: it is contemplative, vulnerable, and ultimately quite tender.

On My Radar (Friday Edition)

Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy
by Ken Sharp

MTV Books / Simon & Schuster
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

The murder of John Lennon on December 8, 1980, sent shockwaves around the world. The most acclaimed singer/songwriter of his generation, first a Beatle and then a boundary-pushing solo artist, was senselessly silenced forever at age forty; immediately, his final musical statement, an intimate, pop-infused collection called Double Fantasy, released only weeks before his death, skyrocketed to #1 worldwide, as did its poignantly titled single, "(Just Like) Starting Over."

His first studio recording since 1975's Rock 'n' Roll—and his first musical endeavor of any kind since taking a much-needed hiatus to raise Sean, his son with Yoko Ono—Double Fantasy represents more than a comeback album to Lennon fans and music critics alike. It captures a cultural icon at the pinnacle of his creative success and personal fulfillment; thirty years later it remains a musical touchstone and an affecting reminder of what could have been.

Starting Over is an oral history of the making of Double Fantasy and the definitive account of John Lennon's last days. From early demos to sessions at New York City's The Hit Factory, from the electrifying chemistry of the studio band to keeping the project under wraps to the album's release and critical reception, here is fascinating, insightful commentary from all of the key players involved in its extraordinary creation: Yoko Ono, David Geffen, producer Jack Douglas, engineers, arrangers, session musicians, music journalists, and even Lennon himself via archival interviews.


Featuring never-before-seen photos of John and Yoko in the studio, candid images taken by David M. Spindel and Roger Farrington, Starting Over is the essential portrait for anyone who hears both a beginning and ending in the tracks of Double Fantasy.

Thursday Review: A MISCELLANY OF MURDER by The Monday Murder Club

Do you hold a special place in your heart for the macabre?  Is it your idea of fun to scour lists of scary facts -- the creepier the better? 
 
Just in time for Halloween, Adams Media has A MISCELLANY OF MURDER: From History and Literature to True Crime and Television, A Killer Selection of Trivia....in stores now!


Easily designed to partake in snippets, if you're not careful this book can easily be read in one sitting once you get started.  It's that addictive!


The publicity for the books states:

   * The worst villains of all time -- from Hannibal Lecter to Charles         Manson
   *  The bloody truth about forensics
   *  Weaponry to die for
   *  Private dicks, dangerous dames, and dubious characters
   *  The most puzzling unsolved mysteries
   *  Who's really gotten away with murder


Some of my favorite repeating categories include "first lines,"  delightful opening lines from murder mysteries and "The Quotable P.I.,"  humorous and insightful quips from our favorite detectives.  But the true fun of this little gem is that there are plenty of surprise delights on nearly every page.  I fully expect readers of this collection to discover new and interesting titles to explore.  



You won't believe how much fun information is gathered in the pages of this collection. Separated into convenient chapters like Lust, Greed, Wrath and Envy, this book is perfect for a dark and scary night.  Grab it for yourself and all the mystery fans in your life. 

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A Miscellany of Murder: From History and Literature to True Crime and Television, A Killer Selection of Trivia
Executed by The Monday Murder Club
Adams Media
Trade Paperback

On My Radar (Tuesday Edition)

A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness -- and a Trove of Letters -- Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression
by Ted Gup
Penguin
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

"A wonderful reminder that economic hardship can bring suffering but can also foster compassion and community." -The Boston Globe
 
In hard economic times like these, readers will find bestselling author Ted Gup's unique book uplifting as well as captivating. Inside a suitcase kept in his mother's attic, Gup discovered letters written to his grandfather in response to an ad placed in a Canton, Ohio, newspaper in 1933 that offered cash to seventy-five families facing a devastating Christmas. The author travels coast to coast to unveil the lives behind the letters, describing a range of hardships and recreating in his research the hopes and suffering of Depression-era Americans, even as he uncovers the secret life led by the grandfather he thought he knew.

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
by Craig Marks & Rob Tannenbaum

Dutton Adult / Penguin
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

Remember the first time you saw Michael Jackson dance with zombies in "Thriller"? Diamond Dave karate kick with Van Halen in "Jump"? Tawny Kitaen turning cartwheels on a Jaguar to Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again"? The Beastie Boys spray beer in "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)"? Axl Rose step off the bus in "Welcome to the Jungle"?

Remember When All You Wanted Was Your MTV?

It was a pretty radical idea-a channel for teenagers, showing nothing but music videos. It was such a radical idea that almost no one thought it would actually succeed, much less become a force in the worlds of music, television, film, fashion, sports, and even politics. But it did work. MTV became more than anyone had ever imagined.

I Want My MTV tells the story of the first decade of MTV, the golden era when MTV's programming was all videos, all the time, and kids watched religiously to see their favorite bands, learn about new music, and have something to talk about at parties. From its start in 1981 with a small cache of videos by mostly unknown British new wave acts to the launch of the reality-television craze with The Real World in 1992, MTV grew into a tastemaker, a career maker, and a mammoth business.

Featuring interviews with nearly four hundred artists, directors, VJs, and television and music executives, I Want My MTV is a testament to the channel that changed popular culture forever.

On My Radar (Friday Edition)

Weed Man: The Remarkable Journey of Jimmy Divine
by John McCaslin
Thomas Nelson
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Weed Man – The Remarkable Journey of Jimmy Divine - is John McCaslin’s account of the unbelievable exploits of a Jimmy Moree – a law-abiding citizen turned million-dollar drug trafficker, who, amidst sometimes unbelievable, hilarious and escalating circumstances, risked life and limb to both make – and give away - a fortune.

• Shiploads of Colombian weed
• Sack loads of cash
• Island huts made of marijuana bales
• Trafficking drugs while directing the neighborhood crime watch
• Crooked cops and politicians and CIA operatives

Weed Man details exploits of one of the biggest drug traffickers to infiltrate the United States. 

D.C. political columnist John McCaslin’s account of a law-abiding citizen turned swashbuckling Caribbean Robin Hood is an unbelievable, entertaining – and true – story of crime, high jinx on the high seas.

It was on a secluded cay in the Bahamas one otherwise ordinary morning that Jimmy Moree went for his usual jog on the beach—one that changed his life forever. After all, how many people stumble upon several million dollars while exercising? Soon, millions more would fall into his lap. And with every million, Jimmy spins an amazing yarn, each more incredible than the last—like when he tried to poison a mean neighbor with a deadly barracuda; how ungodly deception caused him to steal the holy garments and identity of his Catholic school priest and principal; why several thousand pounds of particularly potent marijuana came to be stored in the crawl space of a church during its Easter services; his extreme generosity shown to the poor farmers and fishermen who helped care for his ailing mother; and his unlikely view as of one of the world's biggest drug smugglers from his pew at the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

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Assholes Finish First
by Tucker Max
Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

What do you do after you write a #1 bestselling book about your drunken, sexual misadventures that makes you rich and famous? Celebrate by getting more drunk and having insane amounts of sex, obviously. And pretty soon you've got another bestselling book on your hands.

Stuffed full of ridiculous stories of bad decisions, debauchery, and sexual recklessness, Assholes Finish First starts where I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell left off, then proceeds to "some next-level shit."

You already know how women react to confidence, game, and vodka, but what happens when you add money and fame to the mix? You get answers to the hard questions you've never thought of asking:

• What's it like to have sex with a midget? What about two midgets?

• What does it do to a man to watch a 19-year-old do wind sprints to sober up, so that she can have sex with you before her twin sister does?

• At what number of virgins does deflowering them stop being fun and start feeling like a job?

• When a girl you met three hours ago decides to tattoo your name on her body, what is the appropriate reaction?

The answers are inside, they are absurd and hilarious, and they are the product of one man's experiences:

His name is Tucker Max, and he is still an asshole.

On My Radar (Thursday Edition)

The Ponds of Kalambayi: A Peace Corps Memoir
by Mike Tidwell
Lyons Press

Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

Lovers of fine travel- and adventure-writing will savor Mike Tidwell’s richly acclaimed narrative of his days as a Peace Corps volunteer. His task was to help people in the remote corners of Zaire raise tilapia in ponds they would dig themselves, with muscle-power alone. By turns hilarious and gut-wrenching, this book—whose new edition includes a new introduction by the author—is a masterful account of culture clash, generosity of spirit, and true grit. It is a must-read for anyone with aspirations to “change the world.”

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life
by Jerry West & Jonathan Coleman
Little, Brown & Company
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

He is one of basketball's towering figures: "Mr. Clutch," who mesmerized his opponents and fans. The coach who began the Lakers' resurgence in the 1970s. The general manager who helped bring "Showtime" to Los Angeles, creating a championship-winning force that continues to this day.

Now, for the first time, the legendary Jerry West tells his story-from his tough childhood in West Virginia, to his unbelievable college success at West Virginia University, his 40-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and his relationships with NBA legends like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant. Unsparing in its self-assessment and honesty, WEST BY WEST is far more than a sports memoir: it is a profound confession and a magnificent inspiration.

Please note this video is over 30 minutes long:

On My Radar (Tuesday Edition)

My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir
by Mark Whitaker
Simon & Schuster

Hardcover

From the publisher website:

In a dramatic, moving work of historical reporting and personal discovery, Mark Whitaker, award-winning journalist, sets out to trace the story of what happened to his parents, a fascinating but star-crossed interracial couple, and arrives at a new understanding of the family dramas that shaped their lives—and his own.
 
His father, "Syl" Whitaker, was the charismatic grandson of slaves who grew up the child of black undertakers from Pittsburgh and went on to become a groundbreaking scholar of Africa. His mother, Jeanne Theis, was a shy World War II refugee from France whose father, a Huguenot pastor, helped hide thousands of Jews from the Nazis and Vichy police. They met in the mid-1950s, when he was a college student and she was his professor, and they carried on a secret romance for more than a year before marrying and having two boys. Eventually they split in a bitter divorce that was followed by decades of unhappiness as his mother coped with self-recrimination and depression while trying to raise her sons by herself, and his father spiraled into an alcoholic descent that destroyed his once meteoric career. 

Based on extensive interviews and documentary research as well as his own personal recollections and insights, My Long Trip Home is a reporter's search for the factual and emotional truth about a complicated and compelling family, a successful adult's exploration of how he rose from a turbulent childhood to a groundbreaking career, and, ultimately, a son's haunting meditation on the nature of love, loss, identity, and forgiveness.

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

[sic]: A Memoir
by Joshua Cody
W.W. Norton & Company
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

A searing memoir about devastating illness, creativity, sex and drugs, and thirty-something life in New York.

Joshua Cody, a brilliant young composer, was about to receive his PhD when he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Facing a bone-marrow transplant and full radiation, he charts his struggle: the fury, the tendency to self-destruction, and the ruthless grasping for life and sensation; the encounter with a strange woman on Canal Street that leads to sex at his apartment; the detailed morphine fantasy complete with a bride called Valentina while, in reality, hospital staff are pinning him to his bed. Moving effortlessly between references to Don Giovanni and the Rolling Stones, Ezra Pound and Buffalo Bill, and facsimiles of his own diaries and hospital notebooks, [sic] is a cross between Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor and Jay McInerny's Bright Lights, Big City: a mesmerizing, hallucinatory glimpse into a young man's battle against disease and a celebration of art, language, music, and life.

Southern Festival of Books

The book I had originally planned to preview today has been delayed by the publisher, so no book news today :(

However, I am attending the Southern Festival of Books this weekend here in Nashville.

Nothing makes me happier than to be surrounded by a bunch of book people.

Book Review: DRAMA by John Lithgow

Drama: An Actor's Education
by John Lithgow
Harper Books

Hardcover


A lot of people assume acting is easy.  All you do is pretend to be someone else and recite some words written by someone else, right?  I mean, it's not usually backbreaking work.  Simple.

Wrong.  If you've ever watched a really bad actor, you know just how good you have to be to even be average at the craft.

Someone who is not average is John Lithgow.  I have always enjoyed his performances, whether on television or in movies.  Also equally adept on the stage, he is a Tony Award winning actor.  Raised by a nomadic actor/producer father and supportive mother, Lithgow never intended to be an actor.  His vague goal for himself was to be an artist, even while spending most of his time being a thespian, set builder, curtain puller, etc.

But life has a way of making decisions for us and, after a fairly disastrous attempt at forming a vagabond actor's troupe of his own, Lithgow decided to act while still planning his bigger goal of an art career.

Along the way, he was Harvard-educated and spent time in England studying Shakespeare at the source.  Returning from England, he got work on and off Broadway, before starting to get work in Hollywood. 

This memoir is full of fantastic anecdotes from an actor's life.  He artfully spins a tale of how he got to be the respected, beloved actor he is today.    He tells with candor about his shortcomings in his first marriage and with complete devotion about his current one. 

If you like John Lithgow or are interested in how an actor is developed, this book is for you.  It is a good, smooth read, filled with humor and honesty.  An excellent gift for the actor in your family.

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion
by James Marcus Bach
Scribner / Simon & Schuster
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

This unique and insightful book challenges our prevailing and often fallacious attitudes about schooling. In today's volatile job market, ideas are more important than training, innovation is more important than credentials; traditional schooling may no longer be necessary or even useful. The ability to educate oneself—to learn how to learn—is crucial. In Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar, James Bach demonstrates how to nurture one's natural curiosities and passions through the whimsical learning process he calls "buccaneering"—demonstrating that those who understand this fundamental principle will come to dominate this new world.

On My Radar (Tuesday Edition)

Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President
by Eli Saslow

Doubleday
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

Every day, President Obama reads ten representative letters among the thousands he receives from citizens across the land. The letters come from people of all ages, walks of life, and political points of view. Some are heart­breaking, some angry, some hopeful. Indeed, Obama reads as many letters addressed “Dear Jackass” as “Dear Mr. President.” Eli Saslow, a young and rising star at the Washington Post, became fascinated by the power of these letters and set out to find the stories behind them.

Through the lens of ten letters to which Obama responded personally, this exceptionally relevant and poignant book explores those individual stories, taking an in-depth look at the misfortunes, needs, opinions, and, yes, anger over the current state of the country that inspired ten people to put pen to paper. Surprisingly, what also emerges from these affecting personal narratives is a story about the astounding endurance and optimism of the American people.

Ten Letters is an inspiring and important book about ordi­nary people and the issues they face every day—the very issues that are shaping America’s future. This is not an insider Washington book by any means, but a book for the times that tells the real American stories of today.

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir
by Donna Johnson
Gotham Books / Penguin
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

A compassionate, humorous story of faith, betrayal, and coming of age on the evangelical sawdust trail. 
 
She was just three years old when her mother signed on as the organist of tent revivalist David Terrell, and before long, Donna Johnson was part of the hugely popular evangelical preacher's inner circle. At seventeen, she left the ministry for good, with a trove of stranger-than-fiction memories. A homecoming like no other, Holy Ghost Girl brings to life miracles, exorcisms, and faceoffs with the Ku Klux Klan. And that's just what went on under the tent.

As Terrell became known worldwide during the 1960s and '70s, the caravan of broken-down cars and trucks that made up his ministry evolved into fleets of Mercedes and airplanes. The glories of the Word mixed with betrayals of the flesh and Donna's mother bore Terrell's children in one of the several secret households he maintained. Thousands of followers, dubbed "Terrellites" by the press, left their homes to await the end of the world in cultlike communities. Jesus didn't show, but the IRS did, and the prophet/healer went to prison.

Recounted with deadpan observations and surreal detail, Holy Ghost Girl bypasses easy judgment to articulate a rich world in which the mystery of faith and human frailty share a surprising and humorous coexistence.

On My Radar (Friday Edition)

If It Was Easy, They'd Call the Whole Damn Thing a Honeymoon: Living With and Loving the TV-Addicted, Sex-Obsessed, Not So Handy Man You Married
by Jenna McCarthy

Berkley Trade / Penguin
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

"Hilarious, smart, and utterly addicting. Watch out, Nora Ephron." -Valerie Frankel 

Jenna McCarthy presents an uproarious but insightful peek behind the curtains at the unholy state of matrimony. With ballsy wit and bawdy humor, she explores everything from male domestic idiocy and the frustrating misfires in spousal communication to how to stay true to the peskiest of vows: forsaking all others. Part in-your-face guide, part brutal confession, this book is a must-read manifesto on surviving marriage in an age when everyone seems to live forever and getting a divorce is as easy as ordering a latte.

Author website

Jenna's twitter feed

I have had a twitter-crush on Jenna for a long time now.  Please don't tell her husband or he'll hit me over the head with the milk.  If he ever finds it.

On My Radar (Thursday Edition)

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress - And a Plan to Stop It

by Lawrence Lessig
Twelve Books
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government—driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission—trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature.

With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic—and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left—Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted—but redeemable—representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness. 

While America may be divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In REPUBLIC, LOST, he not only makes this need palpable and clear—he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

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Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life
by Thomas Geoghegan

New Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Tired of working ’til you drop and not going anywhere? Try to imagine your life in a full-blown European social democracy—especially the German version. In an idiosyncratic, entertaining travelogue written in a “chatty, anecdotal style [that’s] appealingly digressive and winning” (Publishers Weekly), Thomas Geoghegan explains the appeal of “boring” Germany, where workers sit as directors on the big corporate boards and ordinary people have six weeks off and retire with pensions like golden parachutes.

Free public goods, a bit of worker control, and whopping trade surpluses—the German version of “European socialism” doesn’t sound too bad. Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? explains where you might have been happier—or at least had time off to be unhappy properly. “Written with humor and candor, making for an easy, fun read” (AARP Bulletin), it is also a “timely, cogently argued, laugh-out-loud-funny book” (Katrina vanden Heuvel). And it tells us why Americans should pay attention to Germany, where ordinary people can work three hundred to four hundred hours less a year than we do and still have one of the most competitive economies in the world. 

Thomas Geoghegan is a practicing attorney and the author of several books, including the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Which Side Are You On?, In America’s Court, and See You in Court (all available from The New Press). He has written for The Nation, the New York Times, and Harper’s and lives in Chicago.

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Censored 2012: The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2010- 2011
by Mickey Huff and Project Censored

Seven Stories Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Every year since 1976, Project Censored, our nation's oldest news-monitoring group—a university-wide project at Sonoma State University founded by Carl Jensen, directed for many years by Peter Phillips, and now under the leadership of Mickey Huff—has produced a Top-25 list of underreported news stories and a book, Censored, dedicated to the stories that ought to be top features on the nightly news, but that are missing because of media bias and self-censorship.

Seven Stories Press has been publishing this yearbook since 1994, featuring the top stories listed democratically in order of importance according to students, faculty, and a national panel of judges. Each of the top stories is presented at length, alongside updates from the investigative reporters who broke the stories.

Beyond the Top-25 stories, additional chapters delve further into timely media topics: The Censored News and Media Analysis section provides annual updates on Junk Food News and News Abuse, Censored Déjà Vu, signs of hope in the alternative and news media, and the state of media bias and alternative coverage around the world. In the Truth Emergency section, scholars and journalists take a critical look at the US/NATO military-industrial-media empire. And in the Project Censored International section, the meaning of media democracy worldwide is explored in close association with Project Censored affiliates in universities and at media organizations all over the world.

A perennial favorite of booksellers, teachers, and readers everywhere, Censored is one of the strongest life signs of our current collective desire to get the news we citizens need—despite what Big Media tells us.

Project Censored is a proud supporter of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship. Celebrate the right to read!  www.bannedbooksweek.org

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

Today on BookSpin, two books we discussed when they were released in hardcover.  Both are now available in trade paperback:

At Home: A Short History of Private Life
by Bill Bryson*
Anchor
Trade Paperback

BookSpin review by KC Martin, originally published 10/4/10:

My friend, co-worker, and fellow book blogger KC Martin is kind enough to share her review of Bill Bryson's AT HOME:

One of the most appealing qualities a person can possess is curiosity, and Bill Bryson has it by the bucketful. Which of course, makes him one of the most delightful and insightful writers around. Not only is Mr. Bryson insatiably curious, but he draws us in through his enthusiasm, his wit, and the pure beauty of his writing. Not since discovering P.G. Wodehouse during my freshman year of high school have I just laughed out loud at the way a writer rubbed two words together.

In his latest outing, Mr. Bryson has given us the entire history of private life, without ever leaving the 150 year old rectory he calls home located in Norfolk, England. Moving from room to room in his house and discussing the contents, the development of its purpose, the architecture, the servants, the lighting, the furnishings, and the people who used the room, we learn about the development of the heart of a people: the homes of the people who live there.

One of the gifts of the book is its many small segues. One never knows where Bill Bryson will take you, but it’s always an amazing ride. One such example is the Nursery. The discussion of the nursery involves a look at infant mortality, child labor laws, domestic missionary work and the reforms of the Poor Laws, children’s place in society (even the wealthy ones), public schools and Charles Darwin.

And then there is the humor. In a typical passage describing Clergymen who made significant contributions to history, Bryson writes:

"In Dorset, the perkily named Octavius Pickard-Cambridge became the world’s

leading authority on spiders while his contemporary the Reverend William Shepherd wrote a history of dirty jokes. John Clayton of Yorkshire gave the first practical demonstration of gas lighting. The Reverend George Garrett, of Manchester, invented the submarine. Adam Buddle, a botanist vicar in Essex, was the eponymous inspiration for the flowering buddleia. The Revered John Mackenzie Bacon of Berkshire was a pioneering hot air balloonist and the father of aerial photography. Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the hymn “Onward, Christian Solders” and, more unexpectedly, the first novel to feature a werewolf. The Revered Robert Stephen Hawker of Cornwall wrote poetry of distinction and was much admired by Longfellow and Tennyson, though he slightly alarmed his parishioners by wearing a pink fez and passing much of his life under the powerfully serene influence of opium."

If The New York Review of Books had a Sexiest Man Alive issue, Bill Bryson would be on the cover every year.

Many readers are familiar with Bill Bryson through his earlier works: A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned Country, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. For them, a new book by Bryson is always a cause for celebration. A chance to spend a few hours in the company of this charming guide is an opportunity to be savored.

Publisher: Doubleday (October 5, 2010)

ISBN 978-0767919388

KC's blog can be found here.

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You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know
by Heather Sellers

Riverhead Books / Penguin
Trade Paperback

BookSpin Review by Book Dude, originally published 11/18/2010:

When you read as many books as most book bloggers do, it is a real pleasure when one exceeds expectations and knocks your socks off....

I just finished Heather Sellers' book YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE ANYONE I KNOW: A True Story of Family, Face Blindness and Forgiveness (Riverhead Books/Penguin) and I am sockless. My expectation going in was that it would be a nice, informational memoir that would explain face blindness in a little more detail. What I got was an amazingly personal, honest and unforgettable story of a woman who has endured a lifetime of uncertainty.

Can you imagine not being able to recognize anyone by their face? Not even your own parents, husband or best friends? Heather Sellers has a rare neurological condition called prosopagnosia, or face blindness. Not even her doctors believed her at first when she claimed the affliction.

(Note to memoirists: If you want to know how to connect with your readers and move along a story with great pace and fullness, read this book.)

No fiction author could have made this story believable. If you think your family is strange, then you need to meet Heather Sellers' family. I do not want to ruin one page of this book for you by divulging any details about what transpires between the covers; suffice to say that I am amazed at what a sweet and amazing woman resulted from this turmoil. The real victory of this book is that you are pulling for Heather all through it, even when she misbehaves.

I haven't been moved by a book like this in a long time. If you enjoy memoirs, you are cheating yourself if you don't give this one a spin.

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*Bill Bryson is one of two patron saints of BookSpin.  The other being Rick Bragg.

On My Radar (Tuesday Edition)

The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time
by Jeff Deck & Benjamin D. Herson

Broadway/ Crown/ Random House
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

The signs of the times are missing apostrophes.

The world needed a hero, but how would an editor with no off-switch answer the call? For Jeff Deck, the writing was literally on the wall: “NO TRESSPASSING.” In that moment, his greater purpose became clear.  Dark hordes of typos had descended upon civilization… and only he could wield the marker to defeat them.

Recruiting his friend Benjamin and other valiant companions, he created the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). Armed with markers, chalk, and correction fluid, they circumnavigated America, righting the glaring errors displayed in grocery stores, museums, malls, restaurants, mini-golf courses, beaches, and even a national park. Jeff and Benjamin championed the cause of clear communication, blogging about their adventures transforming horor into horror, it’s into its, and coconunut into coconut.

But at the Grand Canyon, they took one correction too far: fixing the bad grammar in a fake Native American watchtower.  The government charged them with defacing federal property  and summoned them to court—with a typo-ridden complaint that claimed that they had violated “criminal statues.” Now the press turned these paragons of punctuation into “grammar vigilantes,” airing errors about their errant errand..

The radiant dream of TEAL would not fade, though.   Beneath all those misspelled words and mislaid apostrophes, Jeff and Benjamin unearthed deeper dilemmas about education, race, history, and how we communicate. Ultimately their typo-hunting journey tells a larger story not just of proper punctuation but of the power of language and literacy—and the importance of always taking a second look.

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

Dog Walks Man: A Six-Legged Odyssey
by John Zeaman
Lyons Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

 Zeaman takes us on a journey from a 'round-the-block fraternity of “dog-walking dupes”—suburban fathers who indulged their children’s wish for a dog—to a strange and forbidden wonderland at the edge of town, the New Jersey Meadowlands. Along the way, he rediscovers childhood’s forgotten “fringe places,” investigates the mysteries of the natural world, and experiences moments of inexplicable joy.

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Riding on the Edge: A Motorcycle Outlaw's Tale
by John Hall
Motorbooks

Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Ride with author John Hall into the turbulent world of 1960s bike club culture, from his beginnings at an upstart motorcycle club to his rise to the Long Island chapter president of the Pagans, a club that the FBI called “the most violent criminal organization in America.” Follow him into the Pagan heartland of Pennsylvania where he fell in love, got in a roadhouse brawl over a honky-tonk angel, and eventually went to jail for “takin’ care a club business.” Now after a career as a journalist and college professor, he returns to the violent days of his youth and smashes up stereotypes like he once smashed up bars, resurrecting long-dead brothers in a style reminiscent of Jack Kerouac and Mark Twain. Hall presents them as they really were: hard living, hard loving, hard drinking, hard fighting rebels, but also hardworking, patriotic, loyal, and lovable characters. Outlaws, yes, but outlaws as American as apple pie.