This one’s got it all: a prewar Nazi mission to Tibet, a daring aviatrix, a mysterious source of power, and present-day adventure. It’s got just enough character development to keep you interested and enough action to keep you turning the pages.
Bob Kealing
It seems that most Kerouac biographies that I’ve read gloss over his life in Florida. The conventional wisdom seems to be “went to Florida, lived with his domineering mother, drank himself to death”. ”Kerouac In Florida” shines a light on those years. It shows that Kerouac, who lived in Florida much of the time between 1956 (“On The Road” was published in ’57) and his death in 1969 and his mother needed each other. Kerouac had a life in Florida, and it was his Florida friends, not the Beats, that watched his sad decline.
Judging this book by its cover, I thought it was a local, superficial book, but was pleased to discover that Kealing did original research, based his story on extensive interviews, and visited and described various Kerouac residences in Orlando and St. Petersburg. Kealing has contributed new material to all that has been written about a much written-about subject.
The book includes an interesting – though poorly reproduced – photo section. It includes photos taken by “Time” photographer Fred DeWitt of Kerouac at work, hands blurred as he types as well as an interesting photo of Kerouac copying a scroll manuscript to letter-sized paper working from a scroll in a device propped next to hist typewriter that looks like a towel roller on a board .
( The house where “Dharma Bums” written is now a writers’ residence where writers can stay and work of for three month terms.
The goal: cross the US without patronizing any chain businesses: no chain restaurants, motels, or, even, gas stations. Dave Gorman’s a funny guy, but this book is a thoughtful consideration of the Coporatization of Everything as well as a humorous travelog.
Despite my sympathies with the anti-corporate stance, I was delighted to be able to get this book for next to nothing, all the way from England, thanks to a giant corporation that arguably has put many non-corporate booksellers out of business. But the actual seller seems to have been a small business. Oh, it’s a complicated world. (And used book stores in the Twin Cities, with the exception of the chain of Half Price stores, are overpriced and generally unfriendly, not like those charming mythical bookstores you always read about.)
This was originally published in 1958 as “The Last Nine Days of the Bismark” and was the basis for the 1960 movie. It reads more like a thin novelization of a movie, though. There’s little detail and some dialog and, presumably, some characters are made up. I expected better from creator of Hornblower.
Glen Guzzo
“Strat-O-Matic” is a cardboard baseball game based on real world stats. For its most avid players, its more than a just a game.
Even though I’m not a baseball fan I really enjoyed this book about the invention and life of the game and its players. It’s the story of game inventor Hal Richman and how the game helped him escape the malign influence of a domineering father. There’s some great stuff here about game players and ball players’ players relationships to the game, but it’s mostly the story of Richman.
Guzzo’s packed the book with more human interest here than I expected; it’s a great story that will appeal to baseball fans, gamers, and game designers
(One thing that struck me in the book: Richman’s stats and scouting-based analysis, which he used to create tables that allow simulated seasons that are accurate in the aggregate (i.e., statistically) preceeded Bill James’ stats and Sabremetrics.)
Dan Kennedy
Dan Kennedy found out the hard way that working in the music industry was more a corporate job than a creative one. His coming of age story for thirty somethings captures feeling of not fitting in at corporate job because you just don’t understand corporate culture. This is a funny book that will resonate with office workers.
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