A remarkable memoir. Now I have to read her newest one, about her marriage, an equally remarkable and affecting excerpt if which just appeared in The A remarkable memoir. Now I have to read her newest one, about her marriage, an equally remarkable and affecting excerpt if which just appeared in The Atlantic and which I read between two chapters of WAIT. What a thing to hear a voice at so many different ages and in so many ages at once. ...more
Total banger. The WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS for the whole Confederacy. And sadly many attitudes haven't changed even with the end of slavery. Total banger. The WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS for the whole Confederacy. And sadly many attitudes haven't changed even with the end of slavery. ...more
I read this book because, well, I've read nearly all of Preston (and Child's) books since JENNIE, but I was specifically interested in this novel becaI read this book because, well, I've read nearly all of Preston (and Child's) books since JENNIE, but I was specifically interested in this novel because he wrote in his newsletter that, in reading the book REGENESIS, he found a great idea for it. So I read that book to see if I could figure it out. I was very wrong--in a good way.
This is a wildly exciting novel about a newlywed and newly pregnant couple, one of them daughter of a tech billionaire who go to a vast and remote park in Colorado where a team of scientists, funded by another billionaire, has used DNA to de-extinct wooly mammoths and other American megafauna. Let's say that their trip doesn't end well, which brings in an FBI agent working on her first case as agent in charge and a local sheriff to figure out what happened. Meanwhile a movie crew is shooting a film in a ghost town on the property. Let's also say they should've wrapped early. The investigation bumps along a bit as our heroes try to figure out what's going on, but pretty soon--and the author knows the reader is expecting this--everything in the park goes south very quickly and ends way more weirdly than I was expecting--and I loved the bonkers ending of CRIMSON SHORE.
Agent Cash isn't as well-developed as P&C's Corrie Swanson, but Swanson's had several books to develop. It'll be interesting to see what Preston does with her, a very different character too. The book's also wonderfully self-aware, making the obvious pop culture references (plus a fun one for fans). And I enjoyed the epilogue that talked about all the research behind the book, including Preston's case that what happens in the book, including the secret of what's really going on, really could come to pass in some fashion.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early look....more
We're a long way from "What's the Matter with Kansas," Toto. Schaller and Waldman do a fantastic job pulling together a huge a amount of information--We're a long way from "What's the Matter with Kansas," Toto. Schaller and Waldman do a fantastic job pulling together a huge a amount of information--some previously reported, much new--to show that the greatest threat to America is rural white Christians.
Despite the citizens of rural areas being treated as the only "real Americans," despite the government and society putting the thumb on the scale for them in every way since the founding, their parts of America haven't really been American culturally, economically and socially for more than a century. Rural areas are instead decaying, impoverished, drug-addled, violent, and dependent on government charity--everything the Rural White likes to project on "cities," that is, in his mind, Black ghettos--and full of workers like himself who aren't educated, who can't compete for what good jobs are left locally, and won't compete for the lousy jobs immigrants are willing to do because these are beneath him. In other words, rural areas are the Old Country, the place anyone with a brain, a will or a chance flees to find opportunity, become who they want to be, escape bigotry and oppression, and achieve the American Dream. And all this grinds the Rural White, who thinks he should be treated as a pillar of society, a proper Babbitt, because he's a rural, white and Christian (and certainly because he's male), when in fact he's just rubble in an antique land.
The trouble is, the electoral college and gerrymandering have given the Rural White tremendous power, power that's been cynically cultivated by the Republican Party in exchange for nothing that will improve his life except a way to vent his rage at being irrelevant. This is why he loves Trump. As the authors point out, Trump knows he's just a schnook from Queens who'll never be accepted by the swells in the city. Similarly, the Rural White is a schnook from the sticks and who, despite raging that the city looks down him, can't accept the fact that the city would rather not look at him at all. Thus, he is happy to follow Trump's lead in wanting to burn it all down if he can't be the only "real American" anymore. Remember: the Rural White is the same person who, when courts ordered his public pools to be integrated, closed the pools instead. He is a child who, if a game goes against him, takes the ball and leaves--and it's not even his ball.
I have just two complaints about the book.
One, the authors' solution to the problems of the Rural White, helping the Rural White, won't work because any help he gets he thinks of, in my opinion, as his due. Of course help should flow to him. It always has. It's what America does, help him. It's why he pays what taxes he's grudgingly willing to pay. What he hates is help flowing to non-rural non-white people too, as the authors point out when citing DYING OF WHITENESS. This is why direct Democratic appeals and actual programs don't change his mind. It remains to be seen, for instance, whether Biden walking with striking auto workers will actually help him even with those auto workers, let alone other unionized workers or lower class workers in general. They expect that. They are happy to take the help (just as Republicans happily take credit for Democratic programs they voted against), but, of course, getting any help only reminds the Rural White of his desperation, reminds him that he's a minority in every way now, and, because no REAL American needs or takes help from the government, that makes him bite the hand that feeds, especially if it's a Democratic hand.
The better solution is to abolish the Electoral College (or outwit it through popular vote compacts), redraw district lines so they aren't gerrymandered (as just happened in Wisconsin) and, thus, strip the Rural White of his undeserved, unearned power. Let his one vote count the same as the vote of everyone else.
Two, the authors go right up to the line of saying what's happened to our country, but don't actually do so (much like their subtitle naming the rage, not the rageful, as the threat), so let me:
American is now an apartheid state run by the Rural White. Despite his being a minority, we are subject to his small-mindedness, his lawlessness, his obsolete and anti-democratic attitudes, his grievances, his need for revenge, his violence and bigotry, his perverted and cruel version of Christianity--that is, as I see it, his collapsing narcissism, another thing he has in common with Trump. Fortunately, his is also a rapidly shrinking minority, in part because his "values" are repellent to a majority of actual Americans, especially anyone under 35; in part because his approach to the world furthers the destruction of his own world like an arsonist in a house of straw, and in part because he's largely elderly and eschews pandemic precautions and what medical care is left to him. It's possible his own nature as well as Nature itself will solve the problem of the Rural White before he destroys the rest of the country.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early look....more
I grew up in the late-'70s, early-'80s on the Billy/Boss Meridian just north of the city--I remember DJ Carol Miller's attempt to make "Born to Run" tI grew up in the late-'70s, early-'80s on the Billy/Boss Meridian just north of the city--I remember DJ Carol Miller's attempt to make "Born to Run" the NJ anthem--so these two guys provided much of the soundtrack of my life. "The River," which I had on 8-track, I wore white in my car. "Songs in the Attic," which I had on cassette, I wore white on my gray brick of a Walkman. I finally saw Bruce a couple years ago at the Meadowlands--his longest North American show until the next one, and it was everything I could have hoped for--and I'd love to see Billy at the Garden, but I'm not made of money. I worked at Avon when we put out Bruce's SONGS, and his memoir isn't just the best rock memoir ever; it's arguably one of the greatest memoirs, period. Thus the book was recommended to me, and I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher giving me a look.
It's great fun, a dual bio of the two along with a running comparison/contrast of their music. Thus it's the perfect excuse to go back and, thanks to Spotify, relisten to all their albums in order while the author discusses them. Some of Cullen's commentary is a bit too academic in places, discussing the music in a way no fan would, but overall his readings of the songs in the context of their times and the songwriters' lives really refreshes them. I have to say, Billy's classical album is really good, and I'm stunned that the new songs Bruce threw onto his Greatest Hits album for marketing would themselves make for anyone else's own greatest hits albums. I also got a new appreciation for his more recent albums, which I have to dive back into more thoroughly, and now I'm even more looking forward to Billy releasing his first new song in decades this week.
While I'll admit I'm a very particular audience in terms of birth, there are lot of me, so I'll be recommending it to my friends....more
I'm one of those people whose whole family caught the F1 bug thanks to DRIVE TO SURVIVE, and now we watch every race, qualifying and most practices. II'm one of those people whose whole family caught the F1 bug thanks to DRIVE TO SURVIVE, and now we watch every race, qualifying and most practices. I'm also the type of person who, while interested in the drivers (#TeamLeClerc, #TeamAlonso, #TeamAnyoneButMax), is also a fascinated by the tech--Practice 1 is my favorite because that's often the subject--and the business behind F1. So THE FORMULA checked all the boxes for me. Indeed, it's a book that when I saw it on NetGalley I couldn't request it fast enough, so I"m glad the publisher gave me an early look. I was not disappointed.
The book ranges from the origins of F1 to the present, largely focusing on the cars and owners. It finally explained to me why Williams was so good for a while (they basically built the first computerized car, which made it handle better than any other), why Jenson Button won a championship (the double diffuser in his car gave him incredible grip), where Mercedes and Red Bull came from, and what it takes to win, whatever the tech in your car. The anecdote about why Christian Horner gave up racing himself might be the best explanation, especially when coupled with what makes Lewis so good; it might also be the only moment of humility in Christian's life. The explanation of why Ferrari has long struggled is very good, says the person who is wearing a Ferrari shirt at this moment. The chapter about Spygate was fascinating; I had no idea. And the book made me better appreciate speed through the flats versus handling in the corners. Overall THE FORMULA pairs up well with GAME OF EDGES and probably the authors' book on the Premier League, which I now have to read (#TeamLiverpool).
If the book has any problem it's that it's only an overview and a bit once over lightly in places, but given that the book's meant to be an overview for the millions of new American F1 fans, that's also kind of a plus. It does the job it's meant to do, and the writing's engaging. A solid performer....more
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