More midterm

Instead of giving a ranking for the "midterm", I'm going to talk about some books that I haven't had a chance to before, in certain categories.

Book I never thought I'd like but ended up loving:  The Virgin Suicides 

Never judge a book by it's trailer.  Or what you remember about a trailer.  Or just what you might mistakenly think the movie, or book, is about....you know, someone aught to come up with a catchy way to say this.

Anyways, this was not a novel that I thought would stick with me, figuring that the "teenage girls finding their way through life" would pass over my head. ( I didn't take the title seriously.  That might have been a mistake). "Suicides", though, is not a typical coming-of-age story. Well, it sort of is, albeit through a dark, melancholic symphony.  It's also, for all it's focus on the shut-in Lisbon sisters, really about the boys gathering across the street,  who watch, worship, and mourn.  Those boys grow up with no other desire than to set the record straight on what happened to their true first loves. The story is written as if the boys are making a case on the girls, less in a legal matter and more a mythical testimonial.  The dream-state that pervades the book testifies on how I remember my high school years now: flowing from moment to moment, some memories with perfect clarity while others are like looking out a frosted window in January.

Book I was excited for that disappointed horribly: Scorecasting

This was supposed to be the sports version of Freakonomics,  a great book that took a different look at certain phenomena. Which, for all I realize, maybe it was.  I confess to know nothing about the intricacies of standard educational testing or the long term social effects of Abortion, so ideas like proving how teachers cheat standard testing or numbers that suggest legalized abortion reduces crime are interesting. (NOTE: interesting does not mean right or wrong. No political flame wars please.) But, I do watch a LOT of sports, and things like "Referees tend to favor the home team"  and "just because a player hits 5 shots in a row does not mean he will be anymore likely to hit the 6th" do not exactly leave me mind-blown.  Maybe it's how I came into the book:  Maybe there's an educational administrator who read Freakonomics and said "psst, of course teachers are cheating. Duh." Not saying I was too smart for Scorecasting, but maybe too sports-savvy.  Although I'm really freaking smart, so let's not toss that overboard hastily.

Shameless plug for somebody I've worked with: Doorknob Five Two

I met Frederic Arnold through work, as he's put through a handful of sculpture in our foundry.  He is one of those older men, pleasant-in-demeanour and sharp-in-mind, that people tend to enjoy being around.  I heard a couple of his stories about flying a P-38 at the foundry, but didn't know he had written a book about his experience in WWII until a co-worker handed me his book.  It is a terrific story, written with a sad sense of emotion.  A great look at how one man made it through war, with his family dealing with illness at home and with the inevitable rivalries (Mr Arnold is jewish) that pop up in the front.  I recommend it for anybody who wants a good non-fiction war story without having to worry about the specific particulars of war.

Books that would have been great if they could have cut about 100 pages :

1.  Dracula
2. Those Guys Have All The Fun
3. The Girl Who Played With Fire

Books made me wish I was reading the romance novels again:

1. Water For Elephants (sorry book club)
2. The Black Hole War (sorry physicists)
3. Metamorphosis and other short stories (sorry germans)

3 authors I want to read more of

1. Jeffery Eugenides
2. Charles Yu
3. Robert Heinlein

A friendly reminder about Michael Chabon

1. He's really, really awesome