Michael J Fox

In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, Michael draws on his own life experiences to make a case that real learning happens when “life goes skidding sideways.” He writes of coming to Los Angeles from Canada at age eighteen and attempting to make his way as an actor. Fox offers up a comically skewed take on how, in his own way, he fulfilled the requirements of a college syllabus. He learned Economics as a starving artist; an unexpected turn as a neophyte activist schooled him in Political Science; and his approach to Comparative Literature involved stacking books up against their movie versions.

It only has a 3.4 rating on Goodreads, but I really love him.

Coming Soon To A Theater Near You

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
by Michael Lewis

Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Lewis mines all these possibilities - his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are alone worth the price of admission - but the real jackpot is a cache of numbers - numbers! - collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers, and physics professors." "What these geek numbers show - no, prove - is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base on balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics." Billy paid attention to those numbers - with the second-lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to - and this book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. Moneyball is a roller coaster ride : before the 2002 season opens, Oakland must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players, is written off by just about everyone, and comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.

The book is recommended by Dominic and Tony.

The movie is starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.

Food Drive at the Library

The St. Louis Public Library is sponsoring a food drive from July 1 through the 31. It's called Food for Fines. For each item brought in, $1 will be subtracted from overdue fines. There is a $25 limit. They are accepting donations even if you don't have a fine. Remember, no perishables or glass. Let's all pitch in!

ERMA BOMBECK

This past Saturday was The Susan G Komen Race For The Cure. I thought I would highlight an author who battled breast cancer.

Erma was a stay at home mom who, in the early 60's started writing a humorous column for a local newspaper, for a whopping $3 a column. It quickly became popular and was syndicated nationwide. She soon began writing for the popular magazines of the 70's, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Family Circle, Mccall's and Readers Digest. She also lectured across the country.

I remember reading her column in the Post. I also enjoyed reading her books The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank and If Life Is A Bowl of Cherries, Why Am I In The Pits? She wrote several others.

Here's a word of advice from Erma. Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. She was a funny lady. Check her out.

The Lady and The Panda

Here is the astonishing true story of Ruth Harkness, the Manhattan bohemian socialite who, against all but impossible odds, trekked to Tibet in 1936 to capture the most mysterious animal of the day: a bear that had for countless centuries lived in secret in the labyrinth of lonely cold mountains. In The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke gives us the remarkable account of Ruth Harkness and her extraordinary journey, and restores Harkness to her rightful place along with Sacajawea, Nellie Bly, and Amelia Earhart as one of the great woman adventurers of all time.

Ruth was the toast of 1930s New York, a dress designer newly married to a wealthy adventurer, Bill Harkness. Just weeks after their wedding, however, Bill decamped for China in hopes of becoming the first Westerner to capture a giant panda–an expedition on which many had embarked and failed miserably. Bill was also to fail in his quest, dying horribly alone in China and leaving his widow heartbroken and adrift. And so Ruth made the fateful decision to adopt her husband’s dream as her own and set off on the adventure of a lifetime.

This book by Vicki Croke is on my 100 list. I saw that it was being discussed at The Buder Branch Library on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at
1:00 PM.

Take Action

I'm reading "Seth Godin: Unboxed", offered by Daily Lit. These are exerpts from his new book, just released in March, called Poke The Box. It definitely gives you something to think about!

Poke the Box is a manifesto by bestselling author Seth Godin that just might make you uncomfortable. It’s a call to action about the initiative you’re taking-– in your job or in your life. Godin knows that one of our scarcest resources is the spark of initiative in most organizations (and most careers)-– the person with the guts to say, “I want to start stuff.”

Poke the Box just may be the kick in the pants you need to shake up your life.

THE MAN, THE CAN

Unlike the friendly but fictional food faces of Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, Chef Boyardee - that jovial, mustachioed Italian Chef - is real. Ettore "Hector" Bioardi(that's how the family really spells it) founded the company with his brothers in 1928, after the family immigrated to America from Italy.

Though Ameria came to know him as Chef Boyardee - in the apron and trademark tall hat - Anna Boiardi knew hom simply as Uncle Hector. Anna carried on her family's culinary tradition; her new book, Delicious Memories, is part cookbook, part family history and part homage to her ancestors - immigrants who made their way in a new country.

I heard Anna on NPR radio the other day. Her book sounds like it would be a two for one - nostalgia and recipes!

David Thorne's Hair Tour

Did you know that a lock of Justin Bieber's hair is currently on tour? Said tour inspired the hilarious David Thorne, author of the way too funny new book The Internet Is a Playground, to launch a tour of his own locks. (check out www.HelpMeSellMoreBooksThanJustinBieber.com)

His hair is visiting Subterranean Books in the Loop, but only til tonight at 8pm. For $1, you can take a picture with The Hair, and that money will go to the National Children's Cancer Society, as will $200 from Tarcher, Thorne's publisher, for every participating bookstore.

 
David Thorne is a humorist, satirist, Internet personality and author. His website, 27bslash6.com, typically receives several thousand hits a day, he has more than 60,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook, and his work has been featured on the BBC, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He now lives in the United States.

Coming Soon

The Story of Charlotte's Web by Michael Sims will be released on June 7. I will definitely be reading this, since that was my favorite children's book of all.

As he was composing what was to become his most enduring and popular book, E. B. White was obeying that oft-repeated maxim: "Write what you know." Helpless pigs, silly geese, clever spiders, greedy rats-White knew all of these characters in the barns and stables where he spent his favorite hours. Painfully shy his entire life, "this boy," White once wrote of himself, "felt for animals a kinship he never felt for people." It's all the more impressive, therefore, how many people have felt a kinship with E. B. White. With Charlotte's Web, which has gone on to sell more than 45 million copies, the man William Shawn called "the most companionable of writers" lodged his own character, the avuncular author, into the hearts of generations of readers.

In The Story of Charlotte's Web, Michael Sims shows how White solved what critic Clifton Fadiman once called "the standing problem of the juvenile-fantasy writer: how to find, not another Alice, but another rabbit hole" by mining the raw ore of his childhood friendship with animals in Mount Vernon, New York. translating his own passions and contradictions, delights and fears, into an al-time classic. Blending White's correspondence with the likes of Ursula Nordstrom, James Thurber, and Harold Ross, the E. B. White papers at Cornell, and the archives of HarperCollins and the New Yorker into his own elegant narrative, Sims brings to life the shy boy whose animal stories--real and imaginery--made him famous around the world.

Lost In Shangri-La

This is a true story of survival, adventure and the most incredible rescue mission of WWll by Mitchell Zuckoff.

Near the end of World War II, a plane carrying 24 members of the United States military, including nine Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members, crashed into the New Guinea jungle during a sightseeing excursion. 21 men and women were killed. The three survivors--a beautiful WAC, a young lieutenant who lost his twin brother in the crash, and a severely injured sergeant--were stranded deep in a jungle valley notorious for its cannibalistic tribes. They had no food, little water, and no way to contact their military base. The story of their survival and the stunning efforts undertaken to save them are the crux of Lost in Shangri-La, Mitchell Zuckoff’s remarkable and inspiring narrative. Faced with the potential brutality of the Dani tribe, known throughout the valley for its violence, the trio’s lives were dependent on an unprecedented rescue mission--a dedicated group of paratroopers jumped into the jungle to provide aid and medical care, consequently leaving the survivors and paratroopers alike trapped on the jungle floor. A perilous rescue by plane became their only possible route to freedom. A riveting story of deliverance under the most unlikely circumstances, Lost in Shangri-La deserves its place among the great survival stories of World War II. --Lynette Mong

I haven't read many war stories, other than ones about the holocaust, but I read an exerpt on Amazon and I think I would like it.

New Movie

Eyes of a Dreamer is a new movie that is in the production phase with Brad Wyman serving as the director. It is set in 1969 and based on the cult leader, Charles Manson. The 24-year old actress Lindsay Lohan is considering the role as Sharon Tate in the film.

If you want to read a good book on this subject, read Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi. It was written in 1974 and is the #1 best selling true crime book ever because of three things: It is the story of one of the highest profile murder cases in the world's history, even 30+ years after the fact, it is still an amazing and unique story, and finally, Vincent Bugliosi is a fabulous writer. Most books written by non-writers might tell a good story but not in a dramatic way that a true author otherwise might. Bugliosi has no problem doing that with his books.

For Dog Lovers

A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog
by Dean Koontz

DEAN KOONTZ thought he had everything he needed. A successful novelist with more than twenty #1 New York Times bestsellers to his credit, Dean had forged a career out of industry and imagination. He had been married to his high school sweetheart, Gerda, since the age of twenty, and together they had made a happy life for themselves in their Southern California home. It was the picture of peace and contentment. Then along came Trixie.

Dean had always wanted a dog--had even written several books in which dogs were featured. But not until Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful creature could bring about in him. Trixie had intelligence, a lack of vanity, and an uncanny knack for living in the present. And because she was joyful and direct as all dogs are, she put her heart into everything--from chasing tennis balls, to playing practical jokes, to protecting those she loved.

A retired service dog with Canine Companions for Independence, Trixie became an assistance dog of another kind. She taught Dean to trust his instincts, persuaded him to cut down to a fifty-hour work week, and, perhaps most important, renewed in him a sense of wonder that will remain with him for the rest of his life. She mended him in many ways.

Some dog books are tear jerkers, but this one sounds happy!

Hurricane Katrina

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is a New York Times Notable Book, The Oprah Magazine Terrific Read of the Year, A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year, A New Yorker Favorite Book of the Year, A Chicago Tribune Favorite Nonfiction Book of the Year, A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year, A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year and An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Decade.

The true story of one family, caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina.
 
Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun run a house-painting business in New Orleans. In August of 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy evacuates with their four young children, leaving Zeitoun to watch over the business. In the days following the storm he travels the city by canoe, feeding abandoned animals and helping elderly neighbors. Then, on September 6th, police officers armed with M-16s arrest Zeitoun in his home. Told with eloquence and compassion, Zeitoun is a riveting account of one family’s unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water.

Eggers, compiling his account from interviews, sensibly resists rhetorical grandstanding, letting injustices speak for themselves. His skill is most evident in how closely he involves the reader in Zeitoun’s thoughts. He allows the story to tell itself while imbuing Zeitoun's tragedy with deep sympathy and emotion. Although Eggers didn't witness Hurricane Katrina's devastation firsthand, he captures the experience through Zeitoun's eyes and approaches his subject very intimately.

This book sounds like a must-read!

Comedy

Tina Fey has a new book called Bossypants.

It is short, messy, and impossibly funny (an apt description of the comedian herself). From her humble roots growing up in Pennsylvania to her days doing amateur improv in Chicago to her early sketches on Saturday Night Live, Fey gives us a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of modern comedy with equal doses of wit, candor and self-deprecation. Bossypants gets to the heart of why Tina Fey remains universally adored: she embodies the hectic, too-many-things-to-juggle lifestyle we all have, but instead of complaining about it, she can just laugh it off.

I think this is a great time for her to release a new book. She was hugely popular with her impersonation of Sarah Palin.

New Release

And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road by Margaret Roach

Have you ever thought about leading a simpler life? This book is about someone who did just that!

Margaret Roach worked at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for 15 years, serving as Editorial Director for the last 6. She first made her name in gardening, writing a classic gardening book among other things. She now has a hugely popular gardening blog, "A Way to Garden." But despite the financial and professional rewards of her job, Margaret felt unfulfilled. So she moved to her weekend house upstate in an effort to lead a more authentic life by connecting with her garden and with nature. The memoir she wrote about this journey is funny, quirky, humble—and uplifting—an Eat, Pray, Love without the travel-and allows readers to live out the fantasy of quitting the rat race and getting away from it all.

Book reviews called it A Beautiful Book, A Great Read, Inspirational and Irresistible.

She also has a gardening blog.

Biography, Memoir and Nonfiction

Monday, April 18, 2011
Authors @ Your Library Presents: Wendy McClure
(Schlafly)

7:00PM - 8:30PM Wendy McClure will discuss and sign her new book, "The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie."

For anyone who has ever wanted to step into the world of a favorite book, here is a pioneer pilgrimage, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a hilarious account of butter-churning obsession. McClure is always in pursuit of "the Laura experience." Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder's life and work have shaped our ideas about girlhood and the American West. "The Wilder Life" is a loving, irreverent, spirited tribute to a series of books that have inspired generations of American women. It is also an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones-and find that our old love has only deepened.

For all of those who loved Little House, this sounds like a worthwhile evening. The Schlafly location is in the central west end.

Check out her website too. It's http://www.wendymcclure.net/.