The Education of Gregory McDonald – Writings about America 1966-1973 by Gregory McDonald

Originally, it was my desire to read everything Gregory McDonald has written. He was written a lot of fun books, such as the Fletch series, the Flynn series and his attempt at being Charles Dickens, Safekeeping¹. But I’ve been burned a few times by his stuff. The Skylar and Son of Fletch books are sort of bland. I couldn’t even tell you why. I picked up the completely unreadable Merely Players, which as far as I can tell was intended to be “literature”, but read more like a soap opera that takes itself seriously.

I’m not particularly interested in the era that McDonald writes in this book. Apparently, he was a reporter covering this and that during the time… interviewing Warhol, Baez, Kerouac and other famous people, along with the less famous.

While it was somewhat interesting, he often went into Opaque Mode, where I simply didn’t understand what the heck he was saying. I made a mental note of one particular paragraph to include here, but like most mental notes I make, I lost it somewhere between my mother’s birthday and instructions to take out the garbage.

Flynn’s World has been out for four years. I should get a copy.

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¹ While he failed to be Dickens, he wrote a fine book nonetheless.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

No Comment.

I ain’t no spoiler-monkey.

Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren’t as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out. Stories by Nick Hornby, Neil Gaiman, Jon Scieszka, Jonathan Safran Foer, and more.

I didn’t realize this was a children’s book when I ordered it from McSweeney’s, but that’s quite all right. I’m glad to have read it. It may or may not be a children’s book, but I think it should be.

There was a more simply titled book that my grandmother gave me when I was growing up, Wonders: Writings & Drawings for the Child in Us All that was a larger collection, though with similarly eccentric storytelling by an impressive roster of writers. Noisy Outlaws appears to be a shorter, smaller, modern version of Wonders.

I love the now out-of-print Wonders to this day. I still have my copy, sitting waiting on my son’s bookcase, on a shelf somewhat higher than he can reach yet. In the days before Amazon’s used book service, I searched far and wide and with much effort and some expense procured a copy for my niece and nephew, who may or may not have lost it, since I’ve never seen it on their bookshelves since. After the advent of half.com, I bought a copy for $0.50 plus shipping for my wife’s best friend’s kids, who reportedly loved it.

So, I guess I know who’s getting a copy of Noisy Outlaws at next available opportunity.

The Best American Essays 1996

I read this while in the emergency room between midnight and 6:30am. I wasn’t drawn in by any of the essays… I can’t remember a single one. It may have been the conditions in which I was reading, or it may have just been an off year.

So, eh.

Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds, and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly Edited by Jane Espenson

The second fan book I read in a row. A series of essays by random people (including one by the Kaylee actress), written before the movie came out.

There was a funny parody of how Fox decided to cancel the series, told through a fictional series of memos sent to Joss.

There was a somewhat interesting history of westerns and sci-fi, and how Gene Roddenberry, while doing great things, also ruined it for everyone else.

Jewel Staite just wrote a piece about her favorite bits from the episodes. Bleh.

A little bit about the story behind Firefly creation and production.

All in all, I’m just going to stop reading books about TV series. I’m not a hardcore fanboy at heart.

Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7? by Ben Schoen, Emerson Spartz, Andy Gordon, Gretchen Stull & Jamie Lawrence

Emerson Spartz was a bored 12 year old homeschooler in 1999 when he started MuggleNet.Com, which apparently exploded along with the popularity of the books. One assumes he’s not one of the Ultra Religious Homeschooler crowd like we have here in Georgia who were trying to get Harry Potter banned from school libraries.

The web popularity even enabled him to do a personal interview with J.K. Rowling. So, huzzah for him.

The book, which I borrowed from my brother’s girlfriend, is a somewhat tedious read. It is highly repetitive and written without elegance. But, then again, I am reading a fan book, so none of this is surprising.

What I was really hoping for was a cliff notes to the series, with all the likely important plot points listed. If they were trying to fill space by repetitiveness, I think they might have considered doing a plot and key info breakdown of each book. That would’ve padded the tome out nicely.

Regardless, there were some interesting theories suggested, with supporting data from the books and interviews with J.K. Rowling.

Not spoilers, since it’s just rehashing known information, but…

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

To me, the appeal of Douglas Adams was not so much the concepts of the universe he invented, but rather the way he described the universe he invented, like a ship hanging in the sky “in much the same way that a brick doesn’t.” P.G. Wodehouse, who served as inspiration to Adams and many other writers, was much the same way.

Christopher Moore does it now and again, and while his books are kind of silly with endings you can see coming a mile away, they are an enjoyable, addictive ride. A Dirty Job is another whimsical journey into the world of anthropomorphic Death. I say another, because it’s more or less been done similarly in Terry Pratchett’s Mort and other Death-themed DiscWorld novels. I’m sure there are others. Plot summary: Reluctant Pseudo-Death struggles to figure out How “It” All Works while trying not to Screw “It” Up.

While the subject matter may be well-trodden, it is still an enjoyable read. I wish I could find some of the choice turns-of-phrase, but they’re lost in the depths of the book. I really need to read with a pencil on hand to make notes in margins for these Book Logs.

The Best American Essays 2006 Edited by Lauren Slater, Series Editor: Robert Atwan

A great collection… to start with.

Highlights:

Kinsey and Me by Laurie Abraham, about her visit to (and testing at) the Kinsey Institute prior to the release of the recent biopic¹.

501 Minutes to Christ by Poe Pallantine, about a man’s search for a place in life.

Death of a Fish by Adam Gopnik, about the unintentionally philosophical backlash resulting from the death of a pet goldfish that is actually a betta.

Grammar Lessons by Michele Morano, an essay about grammar that has very little to do with grammar, and more the dissolution of a relationship. Very David Ivesish.

Lost Dog by Susan Orlean², about the amazing search for a lost dog that actually happened here in Atlanta.

These are all in the first half of the book. The second half of the book has a much more melancholic feel to it… mostly about grief, loss, and illness. Perhaps Lauren Slater’s intention was to draw you in and then leave you wanting to slit your wrists. Hard to say. If so, I beat her, as I skimmed the last few essays.

¹The most boring movie about sex ever made.
²I have read and recommend her book of essays, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 Edited by Dave Eggers

This was probably the best of the series thus far.

It included the “best American first sentences of novels in 2005”, excerpts from that Chuck Norris website, a very funny piece from Kurt Vonnegut on writing, Julia Sweeney’s “Letting Go of God” piece, comics and many other funny and poignant bits from everywhere.

I don’t have it with me, lest I’d make more notes, but… if you’re ever going to read anything from this series, make this one the first.

The Best American Science Writing 2001 Edited by Timothy Ferris

I touched on this lightly in a previous post, which I’ll reproduce here:

I also read a couple essays from The Best American Science Writing 2001, one about the effects of testosterone and the other about how the catholic church and the inventor of the pill really screwed women over by insisting on the “natural” 28 day cycle, which turns out to be not-so-natural after all. Apparently, pre-industrial women have an average of 100 periods during their lifetime (due to repeated pregnancy and extended breast-feeding), compared to the modern woman’s average of around 400. The increased number of cycles is the catalyst for diseases(such as cervical cancer) that happen very rarely to women in non-industrialized cultures. Had the inventor of the pill not been so all-fired driven to appease the catholic church’s desire for a”natural” cycle, many women might have had access to the types of birth controls that are just now coming into vogue where they’re on the drug for 3 months or more without break, reducing the total lifetime ovulations and accompanying risks. Interesting stuff.

Also of note:

– Decoding the human genome and the story behind the public sector vs. private sector companies involved.

– The use of DNA in trials

– The attitudes of South African government that are hurting the battle against the AIDS epidemic

– An unsettling piece about SV40, a simian virus, a possible culprit in some cancers, that has made its way into the human population, possibly because of the polio vaccine many years ago.

– How and why the Roswell UFO legend got started

Ironically, one of my favorite authors, the late Stephen Jay Gould, wrote a piece about Syphillus that I got bored with and skipped. They can’t all be gems.