GREAT LINES:
But how did these ordinary people get these piles of money? Then it dawns on you.
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If one of your life goals is to make a few investments and enjoy a secure retirement, this may be the best book on investing you’ll ever find. The author compares Wall Street to two casinos. The red casino has fashions, fads, exciting people, exotic formulas, mathematical wizards, magnificent fee structures, 24/7 news cycles, day traders, trend extrapolators, and is crowded with people being relieved of their life savings. The other casino, the green one, is rather drab, almost empty, with just a few ordinary people following common-sense guidelines year in and year out, but who over the long haul are making plenty of money. The secret to investing is not that the guidelines are so complicated – most anyone has the smarts to follow them – but that it is so emotionally easy to get drawn into Wall Street’s exotic high-fee fads. Dreman, a veteran professional investor, tells you how to avoid most of the traps, why his simple common-sense guidelines should work, and (what makes this great book) he shows you exactly how following his guidelines would have rewarded you in the past.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: Contrarian Investment Strategies
OPENING LINE:
They had discovered a lost world above California, and it was unexplored.
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Richard Preston is an exciting writer. He wrote the terrifying true account of an Ebola virus outbreak in his 1994 book The Hot Zone. The Wild Trees is just as powerful. It is a love story between Steve Sillett and Marie Antoine, two scientists who come together and discover the incredible secrets hiding in the tops of the ancient coastal redwoods. Before their work, arborists didn’t think there was much to be found in these canopies. This new breed of scientists, however, discover creatures who spend their whole lives without ever touching the ground. The giant redwoods that these explorers and their colleagues learn to climb and study are so massive that they literally have other trees of different species growing out of their limbs. Thirty stories above the earth there is another forest rising from the tops of the Sequoia sempervirens. Some of these trees are almost 2,000 years old. They survive periodic fires that can leave charred caves at their bases large enough for cars to drive through. The tallest of these trees was cut down in 1886 and was reported to be 424 feet. And of course the greatest threat to this glorious species is us: an estimated 95% of the ancient redwood forests have been cut down since the 1850s. Preston learned to climb these trees so he could follow the scientists into the hearts of the giants. He has written a book that takes the reader with him.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: The Wild Trees
GREAT LINES:
At 4:00, maybe 4:30, in the morning, they were standing in our room: Rolf Isaakson, another Jewish snatcher, and two SS men. They had come in through the bathroom window of the ground floor apartment, and their weapons were pointing at us.
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Gad Beck was born in 1923 to a Jewish father and Christian mother in Austria and as he grew so, too, did fascism, the Nazi Party, and the persecution of the Jews. His sexual awakening came without hang-ups, he says. One afternoon he rushed home to his mother and giddily announced that he’d hugged his gym teacher. “’Aha, I thought so,’ she answered dryly.” That Gad Beck came of age in a peculiarly frightening time, doesn’t mean he doesn’t also remember fights with the parents, first love, and looking for a way to fit in, the sorts of things we all go through. On the other hand, most of us aren’t growing up in a war zone, with friends and family among both victims and perpetrators. Beck’s voice is personal and lively and it’s easy to get the feeling he’s telling you about something that’s just happened. He disguises himself in a Hitler Youth uniform (“It was at least four sizes too big … As makeshift alterations I tucked the sleeves and legs up on the inside.”); he makes arrangements with a smuggler (“Strunck was hardened and venal. It didn’t mean anything to him that he was saving Jews. He wanted thousands of marks per person.”); he laments the capture of a colleague bearing a list of people in hiding (“When I was in charge, there never even was a list; I always had all the names and addresses in my head. But of course, no one was really in charge anymore.”). A gay Jew in Nazi Berlin? A leader in the resistance? It is not a long book, but it gets intense. There were times I had to look again at the author photograph to reassure myself that he had survived.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: An Underground Life
OPENING LINE:
There’s a photo on my wall of a woman I’ve never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape.
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Rebecca Skloot almost failed her high school biology class. But her teacher told her about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells and then and there she planned one day to write a book about the subject. After getting a BS in biology and a Masters in journalism she became a science writer, and wrote this book. Henreitta Lacks was a poor Africian American woman, the daughter of a tobacco grower from small town Virginia. She was raised mostly by her grandfather, married her cousin and had five children. In 1951 she died at Johns Hopkins Hospital of cervical cancer. What makes her famous, though is the fact that some of the cells taken from her tumor became the first human cells to survive and grow in a culture medium. As such they helped make the polio vacine and have been involved in countless medical studies. These remarkable cells are known as HeLa cells. In the 1970′s her family found out that Henrietta’s cells had been used in this way, though they did not understand and no one explained to them. This book is about Henietta’s decendents learning of the importance of the cells and beginnig to pull themselves out of poverty. It is written with an even-hand and positive tone. Read it if you are interested in science, social justice, or family histories.
OPENING LINES:
Every life is different from any that has gone before it, and so is every death. The uniqueness of each of us extends even to the way we die.
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“Oh, ugh- what do you want to read that for? How morbid,” is often the reaction I get when I read (and reread) this title. Is it morbid? I would say that in fact Nuland’s sensitive and beautifully written examination of a universal experience is life-affirming and comforting. Nuland was a physician for many years, and taught medicine at Yale. He must have been an excellent professor, for he knows how to communicate difficult, complex information in elegant, digestible servings. He examines the physiological, psychological, spiritual and ethical issues surrounding death, using different scenarios such as heart attack, murder, Alzheimer’s, AIDS, cancer and old age. Researching and analyzing near-death experiences, he presents a picture of death as an experience which seems to be at least neutral, and frequently positive, for the person experiencing it. Some of the scenarios he presents are wrenching and unforgettable, such as the 10 year old child whose mother watches helplessly as a mentally ill homeless person stabs her daughter to death right in front of her. The thorough research and even tone are balanced by Nuland’s compassion and empathy. Remarkably, he avoids sentimentality, a welcome respite from many books on death and dying. Look for the edition which includes Coda: 2010, where Nuland delivers an incisive and critical analysis of our health care system as we approach our ends. “Death belongs to the dying and those who love them,” states Nuland in an eloquent epilogue- and so this book belongs to all of us.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: How We Die
OPENING LINES:
“They’ve found the pilot.” Twelve hundred miles away in New York, Red Queen breathed out. “What do we know?” “More or less nothing…”
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Oh my…this was a juicy, nerdy, contemporary fiction read. Mathematicians, graduate students, operatives from the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable populate this fun, funny book about what happens when ordinary people get caught in the middle of very strange things happening. Why are all the cars on the freeway white? Why does the iPod play the same song over and over even though it is set on random? Why do you end up in the same motel as the person you are trying to find, only you don’t learn this until the next day? Are these things truly coincidental, or is there some mechanism driving the probabilities? And if there is, what is it, who created it, and what is its purpose? Two fictional (or are they?) government agencies are trying to answer these questions as they chase a young Brit across the southern United States on his quest to reach his girlfriend in San Francisco where he plans to propose marriage. It sounds zany…and that’s because it is. I knew a book that started with a vintage airplane that seemed to create itself out of tin cans in the middle of Alabama and then promptly exploded leaving behind a stripper dressed as a pilot was going to be good. But I didn’t bank on it being filled with dry British wit and characters so quirky I wanted to meet them at a cocktail party.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: The Coincidence Engine
GREAT LINES:
It’s unclear when we look at Detroit today whether we’re seeing the last spasms of America’s industrial past, or a harbinger of the nation’s urban future. But what is clear is that this is what the abject collapse of an industrial society looks like.
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Like many, I was surprised and saddened when the US Census Bureau announced in March 2011 that Detroit’s population had decreased by 25% since the 2000 census. I knew it was bad, but THAT bad? Thankfully, Scott Martelle has provided an in-depth and highly-readable history of the city and how it evolved from a swamp to a boom town to a ghost town, all in under 300 pages. Martelle tracks the birth of Detroit to a 1701 expedition to establish a hunting and trading outpost and follows its political and social history up through the present day. We get just enough historical context to give a clear understanding of how the city evolved without getting stalled in the details of a legitimately fascinating story. Because what I really want to know is how Detroit ended up as the city it is today; I don’t have time to learn about the War of 1812 or the nuances of the auto industry, as interesting as those may be. As a journalist, Martelle makes an early disclaimer that he didn’t set out to cover every angle of Detroit’s history, and thoughtfully provides an extensive bibliography for further reading. Music and sports are barely mentioned, and that’s ok. The auto industry and labor unions are featured as major players, but serve only as a backdrop for digging into the root of Detroit’s problems: class and race struggles.
Peppered in between chapters on the city’s history are mini-biographies of Detroiters, lending a personal context to the real-life effects of the decline. My favorite was about a guy who bought an old mansion and is fixing it up. Living in the Bay Area where there are small bungalows for sale for a million dollars, it’s dreamy to think about buying a mansion for the price of a new car. Until you understand how decidedly un-dreamy the reality of Detroit is. People work hard to eek out a living, and fight hard to keep their city from getting swept away (or bulldozed) by neglect and abandonment. With these people in mind, the trend of “ruins porn” in art photography – documenting the extreme decay and dilapidated scenes of former wealth and beauty – seems grotesque and intrusive, like making eye contact with survivors of a spectacular car wreck as you drive by. (see, for example, Detroit Disassembled) It’s fascinating and heartbreaking, just like Detroit.
What’s so different about Detroit that this could have happened? Turns out, not that much. A few bad choices and missteps over the years and Detroit became the poster child of urban decay. Martelle doesn’t set out to solve the problems, but simply lays out Detroit’s history for better understanding. With Detroit as an example, the hope is to prevent it from becoming the norm for post-industrial American cities.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: Detroit: A Biography
GREAT LINE:
For the general and the court in Petersburg the episode presented itself as a happy turn of events, but for Hadji Murat it was the greatest crisis of his life.
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In his youth Tolstoy went to the Caucasus to observe and then join the Russian army as it fought another of its interminable frontier wars against the mountain tribes. In old age Tolstoy wrote a fictional account of how one tribal leader, Hadji Murat, had attempted to switch sides and join the Russians. As word of the attempt spreads first through the general’s ballroom and then up the ranks as far as the Tsar himself, the story reveals the absurdity and corruption of war. This short novel has distilled much of the insight and force of Tolstoy’s longer works, without all the unnecessary commentary.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: Hadji Murat
GREAT LINE:
Make art not war.
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Some of the best kinds of documentaries are the ones that offer a snapshot of an ordinary life. Jimmy Mirikitani is an American painter who made his living on the streets of Manhattan. He’s one of those men that you pass day-after-day on your way to work – just another street artist, you think. But filmmaker Linda Hattendorf stopped and took notice, and persuaded him in 2001 to document his life. Over time she learned about his past including his experiences in an internment camp. The film spans more than a decade in Mirikitani’s life and takes a number of subtle twists and turns. We follow Jimmy through several life transitions such as when September 11, 2011 happens during the making of the film. Hattendorf presents a slice of life in such a respectful and honest way without thumping viewers over the head with melodrama. I highly recommend this film!
Check the BPL catalog for this title: The Cats of Mirikitani
GREAT LINES:
Any way you look at it, she’s dead, and you’re standing here a rich man on this glorious Southern California day. What I’m sayin’ is, buddy, as far as my client – and so far as I’m concerned – you’re already guilty.
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A wealthy woman hangs from a ceiling fixture, eyes wide, staring, dead. Her husband stands on the rug below while police detectives snap photographs and paramedics carry in a ladder. The suicide’s brother rushes into the room, shouting, “You! You did this to her!” Writer and artist David Lapham says he wrote his first graphic novel as an homage to classic film noir where “passions burn, shadows fall just right, and women are beautiful (and usually deadly).” And, I might add, even if the suspect isn’t guilty of the crime, he (or she) is no innocent. An old flame, blackmail, drugs, at least one murder with a big kitchen knife, and a reversal of fortune or two, Lapham made a page-turner of a noir.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: Murder Me Dead