Book Review: Welcome To Your Brain

Welcome To Your Brain by Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang seemed like the kind of book I would love. Unfortunately, I didn't.

The book is sort of a popular textbook on neuroscience and there are some interesting historic and scientific anecdotes in the book but overall the tone is really odd. On the one hand, there's a really poppy voice like a sidebar on marijuana studies ending with the point that more studies are necessary. "Volunteers?" they ask. On the other hand, there's serious science about neurotransmitters, etc. The transition between these two voices tended to make me zone out before I got back on track.

It's also a bit odd in that the chapters are really short. I mean like 5 pages is maybe the longest one, and that includes page long sidebars. Because of this, none of the ideas feels fully fleshed out and there isn't an argument that is carried through the book.

Okay, but those fascinating anecdotes! Here're my favorites:

p. 4: Although the left and right brain are usually divided as the logical/linguistic left side versus the artistic right side, that's not really a good distinction. The left side requires logic so badly that it will make up theories to fit the facts. The right side is more grounded in spatial perception, touch and visual-motor activities; it's the right side that prefers "Just the facts."

p. 18: Remember The Matrix? How the machines used human brains as a source of power? The brain uses only 12 watts of power, less than the light in your fridge.

p. 56: There really are people who sneeze when they see a bright light. (Also: certain men will sneeze during orgasm). This is because of crossed wires in the brainstem, a really mixed up region of the brain that seems to have been jury rigged into various functions over the course of evolution. The authors note, "the brainstem is about as good an argument against intelligent disign as one could ever hope to find in nature."

p. 52: How to better hear your cell phone in a loud room: Turns out your brain is good at distinguishing noises from left and right. So, instead of holding your phone to your right ear and sticking your finger in your left ear, what you should do is use your left hand to cover the mouthpiece of the phone. That way the phone will not pick up and retransmit the local room noise into the earpiece and your brain can sort out a clearer phone signal on the left from the room noise on the right.

First National Bank of Dad by David Owen

I think the first time I remembered David Owen's name was from an article from The Atlantic about M & Ms. I just searched their site, though, and couldn't find it so maybe it came from somewhere else. He also contributes a lot as a staff writer at The New Yorker.

He's a funny writer and explains things well, and I also read a book of his about buying a house, The Walls Around Us. I vividly remember how he found the longest lasting paint ever--this gray paint they use to paint nuclear reactors and which is basically one extra layer of protection against meltdown. He wanted to use this paint on his house but it cost hundreds of dollars a gallon or something.

His latest books have been about golf and I'm not that interested, although I do read the articles in the New Yorker about the game, and his most recent piece was about nicknames.

Okay, so I just finished reading his short book from 2003, First National Bank of Dad: The Best Way to Teach Kids About Money. Here's the review: the idea is interesting and worth trying, the book is not so great and maybe is a library check out.

The idea: Owen wanted to encourage his kids to save money but the traditional way: "Here's $10 allowance--let me just take $2 from it to put in your savings account (i.e. you'll never see it again)," makes "saving" seem like a tax that should be avoided. And a 3% per annum interest rate doesn't really thrill anyone either (maybe it will as the economy implodes. Anyway). So he set up a bank on his computer where his kids would earn 5% interest per month. Suddenly, the benefits from saving are clear.

A lot of the book is also about just giving financial responsibility to your kids. Rather than having emotional arguments about whether you're going to buy them a souvenir or a candy or cds or a video game, let them use their money however they like. The point of the bank is that they recognize that saving is a good way to "use" the money. Another good point he makes is that most of us learn about money by making mistakes. By giving kids a stake early, they can make those mistakes earlier and at less cost. There are lots of anecdotes about his kids's economic education told in Owen's usual clear and humorous manner.

So that's about 160 pages (wide margins). And then he tacks on an extra chapter all about reading to your kids. From the examples given, this book is directed at middle to upper middle class parents. Most of them appreciate the power of books. I certainly don't disagree. This chapter is totally unnecessary. I feel like he wrote a short book, realized he owed 200 pages, then realized he would never get a chance to write about parenting again and typed out some more pages about reading. Oh, also his wife writes books for kids. I don't know if that's related.

All in all, worth knowing about, maybe not worth owning.

Scott Pilgrim

In other Canadiana news, I've recently read the first three volumes of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim comics from Oni Press. They feature slacker/bass player/moocher Scott Pilgrim and his friends in Toronto as they play in a band, meet new girl and boyfriends, break up, rollerblade through wormholes and have epic hand to hand battles to the death.

The plot involves videogame logic and manga inspired violence but overall, there's a sweet silliness to the characters that is very compelling. My favorite might be Kim the drummer who hates everyone and tries to gain sympathy from another character by telling her that she was "scrap booking" on a Saturday night (she wasn't, really). Scott's wry gay roommate Wallace also ranks highly (he and Scott's new girlfriend have a friendship based on a shared hatred of Scott's ex-).

And again, sounding like a lost Torontonian, I love the background touches of Canadian bands on t-shirts and posters, fight scenes set at Casa Loma or Honest Ed's, and late night discussions at Pizza Pizza or The Second Cup. They've even namechecked the Pacific Mall.

TV: The Pick-Up Artist

I'm ashamed to say, I read this book called The Game by Neil Strauss in the past year or so. The reason? Curiosity. I think I read a New York Times article by Strauss about a guy named Mystery who runs seminars on how to pick up women. And his course of study is based on sociological studies and millions of attempts. Yes, millions -- through the internet, apparently there is a whole subculture of guys who try to talk to women and then post about their success or failure, leading to dozens of other guys to try out the same line on women in a different city or club. (The sociology is all about proximity studies, coming off as non-threatening, etc.)

Oh, and just to make me seem less sick, I should point out that mostly these guys are super shy and just trying to figure out how to talk to a woman and maybe get a phone number. (Strauss' book has more about sex and drugs as he joins this subculture and the group gets crazed [mostly because their girlfriends dump them {duh}].)

The funny thing about all the stuff they teach is that they sound like how Julie and I socialize at weddings where we don't know anybody. Be nice, be different, don't linger.

Recently, one of my favorite TV critics (yes, I have them -- I also like the New Yorker's Tad Friend and Nancy Franklin [who seems really sweet in a special feature on the DVD of I Know Where I'm Going]), Heather Havrilesky of Salon wrote positively about a new show called The Pick-Up Artist, a reality competition featuring Mystery, aka Erik von Markovik.

It's pretty entertaining. The casting of the loser guys is great and they're problems are nicely diverse: "Needs to shed frat boy image" "talks too much" "too nervous around women" "way too energetic." There's also a guy who loves to breakdance at inappropriate times. But one thing that I really enjoy is the fact that Mystery is from Toronto, and I think some of the contestants are, too. The Canadian accent and the overall vibe reminds me of some friends from Toronto. The hidden camera scenes of the guys striking out in bars is also very amusing.

Anyway, there's a video highlight reel on the website (important for those of us without cable -- the show is on VH1).

Terry and Francis

An Update: did you hear Terry's anniversary broadcast? She mentioned that she married Fresh Air's former jazz critic! So Francis Davis WAS on Fresh Air before. Cool.

I also saw her book All I Did Was Ask and the introduction told a funny story about how someone told her mother-in-law that Terry is a lesbian. See? I can ruin any funny story I hear.

The Lady and the Panda

This is a great book by Vicki Constantine Croke about Ruth Harkness (and not the memoir by Harkness herself).

The Lady and the Panda tells the story of Ruth Harkness, a 1930s socialite and dress designer in New York who finally marries her boyfriend of ten years just before he goes off on an expedition. He dies in Shanghai and she decides to take up his cause: to capture or kill a giant panda.

Back then, no one knew if pandas were fierce killers or what they ate or where they lived (except kind of generally up around Chengdu). And the only pandas that had been captured died soon after from starvation.

Harkness had a) no experience in big game hunting, b) no knowledge of China or Chinese culture or language, c) limited amounts of money, d) some nice dresses in her trunk. She did have the help of Quentin Young, a young Chinese American adventurer out to make a name for himself and get out from the shadow of his older brother Jack. And she also had a women's touch, charming officials, playing dumb when ignoring regulations and most importantly, considering bringing powdered milk along in case she found a baby panda.

It's a classic adventure story that doesn't end with her success -- she goes back to China and rethinks the whole panda hunting business altogether.

Croke tells the story well and with the private cache of letters to Harkness' best friend, she's able to tell a lot of the story through Harkness' own words. There are also some nice photos reprinted -- if you think pandas are cute, you should see baby pandas.

For travelers to China, in particular, the book has great descriptions of Shanghai in the 1930s with the International Quarter in full swing, the racetrack still in existence (not yet People's Park and the Shanghai Museum) and all the hijinks that entailed. And then Harkness returns to Shanghai as the Japanese invade the city. Other than that, most of the book takes place to the west around Chengdu.

Quentin Young's biography is told in another book that he first cooperated with and then pulled out of, called Chasing the Panda. He helps fill in some of the romantic goings on that Harkness alluded to in her books.

China Index

Foreign Babes

We're going to China! (Sorry about not mentioning it earlier, Slushy.)

In fact, we're leaving home in a week and I'm kind of freaking out.

Meanwhile, I've been reading books about China and have book review for you:

Foreign Babes in Beijing

You really need to click on the link to see how embarrassed I was to be reading a book with this cover. But! It's actually quite good.

I first read about it in an alumni magazine -- Rachel Dewoskin was an English major who graduated three years after me and then went to Beijing to live the expat life from 1994-99. She's not totally naive, though. Her father is a Sinologist and she spent her youth traveling through China with her family, took two years of Mandarin in college and spent a summer in a Chinese language program. So she arrived relatively fluent, but not totally aware of colloquial phrases.

She hated her job in a P.R. firm but they were nice enough to be flexible with her when she is offered the part of Jiexi in a Chinese soap opera called "Foreign Babes in Beijing." One thing I loved about the book was her breakdowns of Chinese phrases. "Babes"? I thought. Is that really a word? But it turns out it is -- it's the standard sign for girl with some extra strokes to indicate ... well ... babeitude.

The soap opera becomes a metaphor for cross cultural learning and misunderstanding. Jiexi is a hussy who steals a Chinese man away from his wife and then takes him away to America (although she is redeemed by calling her father-in-law Baba). Dewoskin writes about how odd it was to find out what Chinese scriptwriters thought Americans thought about the Chinese. Yes, a double mirror. Both distorted.

The book is a good overview of China in the late 1990s, from a very particular perspective, but you get to know her voice and character well enough that as a reader you can decide how comprehensive it is. One nice feature is a series of chapters that profile Chinese or expat friends and how they are responding to the changes in China as artists, journalists, businesspeople, etc.

Some interesting things she mentioned: she went out with some Chinese men but a reversed relationship -- Chinese woman with Western man -- would often end up with the man punched out by strangers at a bar. (She doesn't mention that Bush went over to China when his dad was Ambassador expressly to pick up Chinese girls. Macho Chinese guys thirty years ago would have saved us all some trouble today.)

On language: I didn't realize that ma shang (immediately; "tout de suite") is made of the words horse and on/above. In other words, it's literally "on horseback." Also, luan chi ba zhao (chaotic, often used to describe my room while growing up) uses the numbers seven and eight in the middle of the phrase.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, I felt like I learned something. (Unfortunately, I looked her up on NPR after finishing and heard an interview with her and her speaking voice was off-putting. This bothers me.)

China Index

Coupling

Oy,

I'm shoving the last picture of the kids off the front page of my blog. I'll have to remedy that.

But first.

I have to admit I had ulterior motives for that post last week, the one about books about games.

This is the motive: B-list celebrity stalking.

I don't really care about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston and all those people. They don't seem like real people anyway (or rather, what I know about them is probably about as real as a silicon breast). Also they have doofy celebrity couple names like "Brangelina."

However, I'm fascinated by couples who are under the mass media radar. Like Bob Harris and Jane Espenson. Bob wrote Trebekistan and Jane writes for TV, and also a blog about writing for TV. One huge thread in Trebekistan is the love story of Bob trying to find someone like Jane. And now I know that the first day they met she was the first person to recognize his Jeopardy buzzer simulator (a ball point pen with click removed and covered in masking tape to get the weight right) for what it was and they spent the day drinking champagne and making up names for the thing. I also now know that Jane used to name things for a living and is responsible for "Zima" (Bob doesn't write that straight out in the book but how many other carbonated alcoholic beverages rhyme with "Squeema"?)

Celebrity couple name: "Bane" or "Job."

Okay, the thing is, I'm reading the book because Jane's blog recommended it. That's not quite so fascinating.

Much better is the secret thrill I get on Friday afternoons when Stefan Fatsis talks about sports and the business of sports on NPR's All Things Considered. The thrill being, he's married to Melissa Block! They never put them on together for that reason, I'm guessing. Fatsis writes in Word Freak about meeting local New York radio journalist Melissa Block and getting together. At that point Melissa was mostly just known to listeners of WNYC but then she got a kickass promotion and thereby giving me a secret thrill each week.

Celebrity couple name: "Stelissa" or "Mefan." Even better: "Blotsis." (Last option not suitable for family blogs.)

See that's better because I knew about them separately and then it turned out they got together. Also, because they work in different media. However, I have to admit, I probably paid attention to Fatsis' book because I knew him from the radio.

Similarly, and on the radio, Terry Gross is married to Francis Davis. Davis writes jazz reviews (and books, like this one on my shelf) and I started reading his work before I ever listened to NPR, I think. And I always wondered why he didn't appear on Fresh Air since Terry is such a jazz fan. And of course, now I realize one reason why she has such good taste in music and people to profile -- Davis must have some influence on her.

Celebrity couple name: "Tancis" or "Frerry" (both very awkward, unless he goes by "Frank" or "Fritz" in which case: "Tank" or another unsuitable option).

Here's a weird one: Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker [sorry, you have to click through to see how ugly this new cover is] and Moneyball, is married to Tabitha Soren (boy what a bad Wikipedia stub), of MTV news fame. I was probably reading his book and getting the news from her at the same time! I have no idea how they met, so this makes it even more odd. She's working as a photographer now, by the way.

Couple name: "Mabitha." There is no other choice.

Oh, and he wrote about the father's role in the birth of his children in Slate here and here and more. (Cliffs Notes version: shut up and get out of the way.)

Okay, now that my unhealthy obsession is revealed, look for more posts on this unhealthy topic.

Disneyfication

We're leaving for Orlando on Thursday (and by we, I mean me and the kids -- Julie's working and won't join us in Florida until next Tuesday). That means this week I've been going nuts buying anything I can think of to distract the children on the plane. I know, I could bring a portable DVD player, but considering I need to bring diapers, change of clothes and snacks, the machine won't fit in the backpack and I refuse to bring a huge bag (well, a big duffle to check in, but not a big carry on).

So here are some of the things I bought: comic books (Simpsons and Mickey Mouse), magic coloring books (those things where you use a marker that brings the color out of the paper), a Superman action figure, a little dog that laps at a baby bottle, a book of crossword puzzles for myself and three Little Golden Disney picture books and one modern one.

The reason for all this Disney hyping is that the kids haven't really been exposed to much Disney -- Pixar, yes, but not Disney proper. And they will need to know the iconography for our trip. So I quiz them to identify Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and we've been reading Peter Pan, Dumbo and Cinderella to them. Mari LOVES Cinderella. As soon as you finish reading it she says, "Again!" Austin loves Peter Pan and the pirates.

BTW, the Little Golden books have stiff covers and the artwork is really beautiful, painted with lots of beautiful details like Tinkerbell flying around the margins. The Cinderella, in contrast, is a modern Random House edition, with a paper cover and drawings that look like cels drawn in South Korea by 12 year olds. Talented 12 year olds, but they can't compare. Oh, and the Little Goldens were half the price of the crappier Random House ($2 to $4 at the New England Mobile Book Fair).

Books about games

I'm now reading Prisoner of Trebekistan by Bob Harris and quite enjoying it. He writes about his wins (and losses) on Jeopardy and mixes in personal memoir and exercises for memory retention! It's an easy read and, although I'm not crazy about the hyperbole-humor, a lot of it is funny and strangely useful (the memory stuff). And a lot is quite affecting. He writes about how he did well in school to prove himself because he was a scholarship kid among privileged prep school jerks who took their position in life for granted and then a page later he's completely ashamed when he realizes his older sister never watches Jeopardy with him and his parents because she never had the education her brother had -- he's also a jerk taking his gifts for granted. Good stuff, the game descriptions are surprisingly tense and he does some interesting things skipping through time to pull out emotional material in the middle of the telling of a trivia game. Works to slow the reader down and think about what's going on, reminding us that, after all, it's only a game.

Trebekistan is much, much better than Crossworld by Mark Romano. Clearly going for a Word Freak vibe, Romano explores the world of competitive crosswords. The reason I finished the book is that the characters and subject matter is so compelling. The book has a lot of good details about tournaments and people, but the film Wordplay is a lot better. The introduction of John Delfin, a piano accompanist and crossword champion and constructor gives so much insight into his mind, his life and his personality in under three minutes. He seemed like a fascinating guy in Crossworld, but Romano never gets this deep. The other thing about this book is that Romano's voice really bugged me. He's constantly complaining about how smart he is (yes, that's what I wrote) with the point being that a) there are smarter people out there and b) book smarts isn't what always wins crossword puzzles. He also has a need to be one of the cool kids smoking in the back of the room. Not Stefan Fatsis.

Fatsis' Word Freak is about Scrabble, specifically competitive Scrabble. And Fatsis dives into being a geek. He's NOT as smart as these other people and they're weird but he wants to be like them (unlike Romano who is always trying to keep a cool distance, except when he's kissing Will Shortz' butt). I saw Fatsis at Wordsworth Bookstore (RIP) when the book came out and he was very engaging and a good reader. The book has lots of great characters and makes you want to play Scrabble. Also, now when I heard Fatsis on NPR I feel like I have some insight into his weirdest habits.

Oh, and another thing that bugged me about Romano's book is a totally nonsensical interpretation of the Disk of Phaistos.

Book Review: Smart Moves for the Liberal Arts Grad

So as part of our fun packed Memorial Day weekend (yes, I'm still behind), we went to a party for Suzanne Greenwald, one of the authors of Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads. I haven't read the book through, but flipping around I find it extremely readable (they're mini-biographies, after all), and with lots of tips highlighted in the margins and at the end of each bio.

I also love the fact that there's a separate forward for parents that basically says, "Don't Panic!"

Good gift for recent grads, parents of recent grads, or people in college now. Probably not freshman, but maybe a junior who's decided to major in philosophy but doesn't know what that means for her future.

Oh, here's their website with profiles of the authors.

Reading

Recently Austin has done something really cute: he reads to Mari. He'll sit and read Brown Bear Brown Bear to her, or even a Chinese book we have about balloons. I especially like when he reads The Monster at the End of This Book because he doesn't know the words but just tells the story.

Some recent favorite books: Traction Man is Here! by Mini Grey; The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordecai Gerstein; and comic books (Justice League Unlimited and Bongo Comics [Simpsons characters] that we got for free on Free Comic Book Day {Saturday})

Mari still likes Each Peach Pear Pie and Dr Seuss' ABC.

Reading; Greek myths

Here's a Slate article about the difference in what boys and girls like to read -- and why. Boys like to read about how things work -- for information -- and girls like to read about relationships -- for the story.

This explains Austin's obsessions with Richard Scarry's Postman Pig (apparently out of print -- there's a used copy on Amazon for $120!) and You Can Name 100 Trucks. As Emily Bazelon in her article whines, "But there's no story there!"

To be fair to him, Austin has recently really gotten into stories, especially stories about Greek myths and monsters, nursery tales and folk tales like Baba Yaga. What does this mean? Well, I should point out that he doesn't listen to the stories of the monsters so much as listen for information. He is memorizing what a Basilisk is, or who Medusa is. And he'll quiz me later. "Daddy, who killed Medusa?" Me: "Hercules?" Him: "No! It was Perseus!"

We're also kind of squeamish about reading him stories about beheadings and too much monster stuff because it freaks him out, but a few books tell the story vaguely enough that it's not that horrifying. Here are some suggestions of Greek stories appropriate for the 3 and under set:

Greece! Rome! Monsters! by John Harris has excellent pictures by Calef Brown. The text describes each creature and maybe a story about them in a breathless, supermarket tabloid way:

"every time Phineus started to eat, the Harpies would swoop down and, well, make a mess in his food. Result: a very skinny Phineus."

The back of the book has a pronounciation guide. There's a puzzle based on the artwork, too -- that's the one Austin is obsessed with and got us on this Greek kick. This is kind of encyclopedia style -- Austin looks up the monsters on his puzzle in the book. Bibliographic research! Iconography!

Greek Myths by Geraldine McCaughrean has very clear illustrations by Emma Chichester Clark. These are retellings of stories and Austin likes them as background, I think. He likes to hear more about the cyclops and Odysseus, for example.

And I just checked The One-Eyed Giant and Other Monsters from the Greek Myths out from the library. It looks to be similar to Greece! Rome! Monsters! with one or two pages on each creature with some story. The pictures are more representational and less fanciful and colorful than Calef Brown's.

Go Bananas!

Here and Now, an NPR program originating from WBUR in Boston just aired an interview with John Soluri. It's here in Real Audio (scroll down, last item on today's program).

John is my brother-in-law, but more importantly, his book is all about bananas! Here are some random banana facts I find worth dropping into conversation:

- Bananas are the most consumed fresh fruit in the USA

- Bananas are the most eated imported food in America

- Virtually no one ate bananas in the US before the 20th century

- the average American eats 5 bananas a week

John's book, Banana Cultures, also looks at the environmental issues that came up when countries like Honduras shifted their agricultural resources to a single cash crop and how they were basically screwed by United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita).

Listen to the interview!

Buy the book!

(I want to also point out that I suggested this media outlet for John. If you have an academic book coming out [hey, Liz], let me know and I will brainstorm up some publicity for you, too. But then you have to send me a copy of your book.)

Book Review: Carry On, Jeeves

by P.G. Wodehouse
A few years ago, looking for something both substantial and light to read on a dig, I found a used copy of a P.G. Wodehouse collection at Avenue Victor Hugo bookstore (R.I.P. AVH). It was big, but after reading an appreciation of Wodehouse by Anthony Lane in the New Yorker, I gambled on it.

I loved it. Also, it was a big hit on the dig and got passed around quite a bit -- the book of the season, I might venture.

I had seen the BBC series Jeeves and Wooster with Fry and Laurie and particularly liked those stories so I recently bought Carry On, Jeeves. I understood this to be the first Jeeves collection (originally published 1925) but for the anally compiled chronological list, go Wiki.

In any case, the stories are substantially the same: a friend of Bertie Wooster's is in trouble, often involving impending matrimony and they come to him for help. As always, it is Jeeves who arranges a solution, often through a deus ex machina of a cousin in teh employ of the intended or some other lucky break. But the plot doesn't matter, the language is delicious. Individual sentences are hilarious. Phrases make you laugh out loud. They need to be read.

I intend to read all of them and as I do, I'll post little descriptions of them here with significant notes. For example, this collection includes the first meeting of Jeeves and Wooster "Jeeves Takes Charge" as well as a tale narrated by Jeeves (! not sure I liked it) "Bertie Changes His Mind."

Next up: The Inimitable Jeeves

Some Wodehouse links:

Hugh Laurie on Wodehouse


Which Wooster character are you?


Searchable Online texts of Wodehouse

Pretty complete site on Wodehouse and a good place to start or end

David Sedaris

I just finished reading James McManus' Positively Fifth Street, an account of his amazing run at the World Series of Poker (having entered using his advance for a magazine article on the event). McManus is clearly a smart guy and the book goes off in a hundred directions with literary figures and random facts thrown in. (Here's my review.)

One such fact is that one great poker player is Melissa Hayden, a book designer (and from here on I'm referencing pages 175-7). One of her works is Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. And McManus describes Sedaris as one of his former students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Apparently Sedaris originally enrolled to be a painter.

For a bookmaking class, Sedaris had to put together some text. Here's McManus:

The first book he worked on with me was Do You Know What Time It Is?, a wicked send-up of Raymond Carver... "Two miles outside of Selma, North Carolina," it began, "a ballpoint pen broke in Ted's mouth." Later, Ted dials 411 from his motel room to find out the time; his lover has been gone for a while.

"Sir," the woman said, "this is information. If you want the time I'll be happy to give you the number."
"I'm blind," Ted said.
"Pardon?"
"I said I'm blind and tired so could you please just tell me the time, I'd like to get this taken care of all in one call." He heard the woman ask someone the time. Ted had no idea what brought him to tell such a boldfaced lie. It was sort of exciting. The woman came back on the line and told him in a sympathetic way that it was 12:30.
"Is that at night or in the day?" Ted asked.
"AM. It's half past midnight, dear. It's dark outside."

Other Sedaris note: how weird is it that people are giving bad Amazon reviews to the French translation of "Me Talk Pretty" (Je Parler Francais) primarily because they didn't know it was in French? I believe this is the situation for which the word "doy" was invented. (Is there a french equivalent of "doy"? Perhaps "d'oy"?)

Book review on other blog

Hey, I posted a book review on my "professional" blog, you know, the one I direct potential employers to so they don't have to read this drivel.

Book review: Truth and Beauty

I just finished reading Truth and Beauty, Ann Patchett's memoir of her friendship with Lucy Grealy, the poet and memoirist who had cancer as a child and who's chemo melted her jaw and disfigured her face. It's pretty great, for the most part. The writing is beautiful and the "characters" and relationships are portrayed well. What I wasn't too thrilled about is the end.

If you have no idea who Lucy Grealy was, here's a major spoiler: she's dead. And she died with heroin in her body. Given that, you can imagine what the last few chapters are like--addict promises to quit, friend is happy but not sure how to help, addict relapses.

The decline feels so inevitable that it's almost cliche. But the rest of the book has by this time been so full of life--the joy of friendships, the randomness of conversation, the thrill of two emerging careers--that you are left overall with a feeling of richness, of having known two people.

This is ironic because a) Patchett makes clear that memoirs are creations (especially memoirs by poets and novelists), and b) one of the themes of the book has to do with fame, from the local fame on a college campus to television and bookstore appearances. Basically, she points out that it's very easy to feel like you know someone because you've heard about their life (or read their memoir) but it's such an unbalanced relationship between writer and reader that any real-life encounters tend to ring false.

Ann Patchett wrote one of my favorite recent novels, Bel Canto, and has her own website here. One connection I hadn't made was that her mother wrote the book Julie and Romeo; I think I briefly heard Terry Gross talking to someone about how she encouraged her mother to write a book and was slightly chagrined that her mother's book outsold her by a lot. I may be misremembering the details, but clearly it was Ann Patchett.

One of the weird, gossip-y pleasures of Truth and Beauty involves the encounters with other writers at various retreats or jobs (Elizabeth McCracken, Alan Gurganus) or Ann hearing Lucy on Fresh Air described as "repulsive"--it ties together a weird network of minorly famous intelligensia.