Department of Book Reports: The Fall Classic

Stepping outside on a crisp autumn day, the sun shines, and you know that the World Series is right around the corner. And there is nothing sweeter to a baseball fan. (For those of you who hate baseball, your long national nightmare will soon be over.) And despite the sour season that this humble book reporter's team, the lowly Seattle Mariners had, (and the equally sour one that friend Dave von E had with his beloved Chicago Cubs) it is a time of year that excites the mind and passion.

And with a hat tip to an old friend and bookseller, Marilyn, who recently blogged about great baseball books, I wanted to point out a few of my favorites. And where else to start but with Jim Bouton's classic account of his season with the Seattle Pilots (a team that played only one season before moving to Milwaukee) Ball Four. At the time his story was controversial. The book named names; it was not a fiction. That was Mickey Mantle with his fellow Yankee teammates atop the Shoreham Hotel, attempting to glimpse through the windows of young, nubile guests! Or his manager, Joe Schultz exclaiming, "Shitfuck! Pound that Budweiser and we'll get 'em tomorrow"! Still the best parts of the book are Bouton's own descriptions of attempting to comeback, throwing a knuckleball to get out Major League batters with a modicum of success, and his relationship with his fellow Pilots, as well as trying to juggle his profession and raising a young family. And recently, I talked about Dirk Hayhurst's chronicle of his minor league career in this book report of The Bullpen Gospels.

Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer is also classic. In it, he describes his time covering the Brooklyn Dodgers team in the early '50's, followed by interviews with the players as they were in the early '70's. The Dodgers front office at the time hated the book, for reasons best known to themselves. Probably the best of the interview style books, though, is Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times. Ritter searched the country looking for ballplayers who had played in the early part of the 20th Century, and the interviews he had, which included Sam Crawford, Chief Myers (the Native American catcher and Dartmouth grad who caught Christy Mathewson), Lefty O'Doul among many others, and all of them fascinating. Not just about baseball, but about what life was like in America at that time. Another great inteview book, and broken down by season, is Danny Peary's They Played the Game, which features the baseball careers of 64 different players who played from 1946 to 1964. They played some tough baseball in the post-war era.

Books I haven't had a chance to read yet, but am looking forward to include Jane Leavy's The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood. If her previous book, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy (a biography framed around the perfect game Koufax threw against the Giants in 1965), is any indication, this book should be great. I've also heard wonderful things about Doug Glanville's The Game Where I Stand: A Ballplayers Inside View. Glanville was a good Major League outfielder and I've been told that his writing style is both elegant and poetic.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the finest of magazine reporter's, Roger Angell who's articles for the New Yorker were collected in The Summer Game and Five Seasons. In the latter book, in his discussion of one of the greatest World Series ever played, between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox, he leaves us with the following quote about why some of us take this game seriously:

It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift.

These baseball titles and many more are available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Exley

I've been in a Brock Clarke reading binge lately, and I really recommend this author for his sly, lit-obsessive novels. If you like your dark comedy with lovable characters, this is your writer. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England was chockablock with famous writers and odd factoids as we follow Sam Pulisfer in his quest to find out who is trying to burn down the writers' homes. Sure, he once burned down Emily Dickenson's house, but that was a teen-aged accident and he's sorry. Really, really sorry. Some one else begins burning writer's homes after he has re-built his life, is it the son of the couple burned alive while "in the saddle", or the Bond Traders he met in prison? He knows he isn't setting these fires, but he must figure out who is and convince the fire detective of his innocence. His search takes him through Book Clubs, Harry Potter appreciation classes for parents, and Oprah lit-land . Clarke has a way of looking at ordinary situations and putting in a dry, quirky slant that will have you snickering at each wry twist.

In his latest, Exley, he uses his love for the late novelist Frederick Exley to build his novel. Miller Le Ray overhead his father tell his mother "Maybe I should go to Iraq, too" eight months ago, and knows in his heart that is why he's only written one letter home in all that time. His mother is equally convinced that the Army would never have accepted her husband, and has taken Miller to a therapist, Dr Pahnee (who pompously corrects everyone, assuring them he is a mental health professional). Miller and the Dr. are our unreliable narrators here. Miller's dad has just arrived at the VA hospital and Miller is convinced he must find his fathers favorite author to help bring him out of the coma he's been in for two weeks.
Miller's dad has only read one book in the past 15 years. A Fan's Notes, a fictional memoir, Exley's cult novel from 1968. He's read it over and over, and has eight copies stashed in the window seat beside his desk. You don't have to have read a Fan's Notes to enjoy this book, but I'm sure you'll want to after you finish.

Millers quest takes him through the Watertown, NY he currently lives in, and through the Watertown in a Fans Notes. His obsession begins to consume his every thought, and he begins speaking as Exley did, referring to people by initials, and using ___s in his speech. Conveniently ignoring the fact that Exley died in 1992, he searches the dives and haunts from the book. Dr. Pahnee has fallen hopelessly in love with M.'s mother which clouds his judgement. Which reality is true here? Clarke keeps things spinning around until the end, and brings about a very tender place to leave his characters.

These books are available at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports

It's a rainy Saturday in Hoquiam, and what better way to spend the afternoon than in a warm bookstore?
The big news on this block are the new bricks installed in front of the 7th Street Theatre and the bookstore. This fundraiser has financed the neon candlestick style sign that will be done sometime next year.

Here's a walk through the new shop for our internet friends:


Nobel prize winner, Mario Vargas Llosa.


The fiction shelves.



Non-fiction & History.



350 display for Bill McKibben, and a chance to remind you to find an event near you for international 10-10-10 Day.



Of course we have Pirates!



Arts and entertainment.


Northwest and Local interest.



Science!










Our new address is 315 7th Street, so our name is changing a bit, to (Jackson Street) Books on 7th. The new phone number is 360-533-3157. Drop by and see us if you're in Hoquiam, or you can order any of the featured books at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports

We're going to take a small break today, so please use the comments to recommend your recent literary finds. I'm finally getting around to reading Brock Clarke (Arsonist's Guide to New England Writer's Homes) in anticipation of his upcoming novel Exley. I loved Exley's novels and it's a delight to find this quirky obsessive novelist will be tackling this one.

It's been a busy week, We've gotten some shelves moved to the bookstore and discovered we'll need a truck to move the ones that couldn't fit into the van. Next week promises to be even busier as we count down to a rapidly approaching Saturday. Keep your finger crossed, as I may have big news soon about a special musical guest at the opening party.

(image from The Daily World)

Finally, here's a newspaper article you might get a kick out of. Subscription is required to view the pictures (of yours truly) and read the whole text, but it's free for the time being.

More pictures are on Facebook, please be sure to "Like" us while you're there.

You can always browse our books at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: American Taliban

American Taliban, How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right, by Markos Moulitsas (Polipoint Press $14.99)

I had planned on talking about American Taliban today, in order to let you know about Markos Moulitsas' upcoming appearance on Virtually Speaking Monday evening. Markos has agreed to sign some bookplates for us and you can get your very own signed book from us.
Jay Ackroyd will be discussing the book with Markos at the Virtually Speaking Studios in Second Life and it will be broadcast live on BlogTalk Radio. You can attend virtually or tune in to BTR and ask questions in the chat area. The Cafe Wellstone folks are happy to help you get Second Life figured out, how to download the best viewer, help you get the sound going, or even take you shopping for good hair. You can send me an email (info at jacksonst-books.com), or just send an Instant Message to BookemJackson Streeter or Michele Mrigesh inworld and we'll find someone to help you.

I don't need to actually report on this book, because our dear General wrote the bestest review of all time:
The problem is syllables, September 7, 2010

... How dare the author compare the American right to the Taliban. Sure, we both hate sex, reproductive choice, secularism, government regulation, homosexualism, and masturbation. We both want to establish godly governments that enforce scriptural law. And, we both justify our wars on the basis of religion. But the similarities end there...

If you missed it, go back and read it. And be sure to vote for it!

Markos at Netroots Nation in Second Life August 2010

Please check out the new look and news over at our blogspot. You can also "like" (Jackson Street) Books on 7th on FaceBook.

Copies of American Taliban with a signed bookplate and Markos' early books are available at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: The Long Goodbye

Revisiting The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler's penultimate Philip Marlowe novel (pay no attention to the last Marlowe novel, Playback, which isn't very good), is to be reminded of how great an American novelist Chandler was. He transcended genre in perhaps no other way, with perhaps he exceptions of Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick. I think The Long Goodbye is his greatest achievement, though there are Chandler enthusiasts who prefer The Big Sleep or Little Sister.

The plot is straight forward enough. PI Philip Marlowe has been aroused late at night by his friend, Terry Lennox, who asks Marlowe to drive him to Tiajuana, as he is in trouble. Marlowe has met and developed a friendship with Lennox over the course of several months, during which he has learned that Terry is alcoholic, war-scarred and prematurely white-haired, and married to a rich young woman. Or recently re-married to her. Marlowe take Lennox to Mexico, and upon his return, is taken into custody by the LAPD for criminal assistance. Marlowe refuses to divulge anything to the police and is only released after Lennox's confession to his wife's murder and subsequent suicide emerge. Marlowe resumes his life and is asked by a New York publisher to help one of their best-selling novelists escape from a self-inflicted and alcoholic-induced writers block. The writer is Roger Wade, and he, too, is married to a beautiful woman, Eileen. The two cases do not seem related at first, but, as these things go, they are.

But more than a plot with twists and turns (I think of the famous story of William Faulkner trying to write the screenplay to The Big Sleep and calling Chandler in the middle of the night to find out who has killed a certain character, and Chandler not knowing; but they were boozehounds, so who knows?), Chandler was as good a prose stylist as there was in 20th Century America. To wit:

From now on I wouldn't tell you the time by the clock on your wall.

Next morning I got up late on account of the big fee I had earned the night before. I drank an extra cup of coffee, smoked an extra cigarette, ate an extra slice of Canadian bacon, and for the three hundredeth time I swore I would never again use an electric razor. That made the day normal.

I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between the stars.

Chandler is also critical of the Hollywood milieu, and the rich as well. There's no sneaking admiration as a F. Scott Fitzgerald might have fawned (the rich being different than you and me, but they have great, lavish parties). They are no different than the mobsters who dog Marlowe and warn him off the Lennox case. In fact, both the rich and the gangsters are quick to remind Marliowe of how much clout they can and do exercise. But more than this, The Long Goodbye is a mediation on friendship: how far does it extend, what can we be reasonably expected to do, and what can we do when that friendship is abused and betrayed. The Long Goodbye belongs on the same bookshelf as anything by Hemingway, Steinbeck or Faulkner. If you haven't read Chandler, do so.

Which brings me to the film adaptation of the book, released in 1973, and directed by Robert Altman from a screenplay by the science fiction writer Leigh Brackett, who also worked on the films of The Big Sleep and The Empire Strikes Back. Ask any Chandler enthusiast how they liked the movie and almost to a person, it is loathed. I'm not sure why. The movie deviates from the story in places, especially in the ending, but the main themes remain. And it is as well done as anything Altman ever directed. The social satire remains. Only it is a Philip Marlowe who has been transported to a 1970's LA, and lives in an apartment next to a commune of brownie-eating young women who do their Yoga exercises on the porch only partially clothed. Marlowe still drives a '48 Lincoln, but he tries to adapt. "It's all right by me", he keeps telling everyone he encounters. Only it isn't ok and his dislocation is such that, while he does try to help his friend, it seems the only one he can love is his cat. Who abandons him. Beautiful movie, with a great performance by Elliot Gould, Sterling Hayden as the author, Henry Gibson as a quack head-shrinker and ex-baseball pitcher, Jim Bouton as Terry Lennox. And, oh, it has one of the most shocking scenes in cinema history, featuring director Mark Rydell as a gangster dogging Marlowe.

The Long Goodbye is still in print from Vintage Books ($14.95) and available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Medium Raw

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain (Harper, $26.99) Ten years after Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain is back with another brutal culinary tell-all. The sub-title A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook sums it up well. Many of the chefs he talks about fare well, he admires those who work hard and are honest with their audience. Teevee personalities and celebrity chefs are dished and dissected.

In the chapter Go Ask Alice, Tony serves up the back story to Alice Water's now famous crusade to "revolutionize" the White House kitchen and garden and why her hypocrisy was so offensive. He takes her to task for not having voted in 40-some years, but having the nerve to dictate a kitchen & staff she had not bothered to consider. He asks if her ideal world were to be realized, who would be willing to get up at 5am to gather those delicate local vegetables that all might eat organic, regional food in season?
But even by the end of this rant, he concludes that the world is a better place for her bringing attention to the way our food is produced and consumed.

Perhaps the most scathing chapter is Alan Richman is a Douchebag, where he writes of their long standing feud, and how Richman came to write an ugly review of the restaurant Bourdain used to work at 10 years earlier. But that is not what makes Richman a douchebag in his eyes. It is the snarky review of the New Orleans food scene soon after Katrina which draws his hatred. The article isn't available online, but the responses to it sure are.

Bourdain is equally unflinching in self-examination. He realizes how lucky he has been, and that the path through his early addictions surely brought him to this place. He is giddily happy with life now, and the reason for that is his two year old daughter. Parenthood will change all perspectives. He revels in being un-cool while utterly, devotingly doting on this miracle in his life. I recommend his "Black Ops" chapter Lower Education to any parent wishing to counteract the insidious propaganda of McDonald's on young minds.

Anthony Bourdain also has a challenge for all you would be foodies. Answer this question on his website and you might just get picked by him to be published in the paperback edition of Medium Raw:
Medium Raw is available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: The Backlash

With Glenn Beck and his minions marauding around D.C. this weekend, I wanted to point out a new book by Will Bunch entitled The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama (Harper $26.00). The book will be released on Tuesday, August 31st, so I haven't had a chance to read it yet. However, I know and loved Bunch's previous book, Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy ( Free Press $16.00).

Bunch shows us in The Backlash that the these Right-Wingers : Think Obama Isn't an American Citizen. They think Obama wants to put Americans into Concentration Camps. They think Obama is the Anit-Christ.

I am very anxious to read this book. It will be available, of course, at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.


Five years ago, Hurricanes Katrina and Ike highlighted the importance of protecting the environment in order to protect communities. Louisiana’s natural lines of defense – barrier islands, swamps, and wetlands – disappear at the rate of one football field every 45 minutes, leaving communities more vulnerable to future storms. Now, BP’s crude is clearly making matters worse. Gulf Restoration Network is working with event organizers throughout the country to build a nationwide call for a commitment to restoring and protecting the Gulf.

We'll be screening the movie at Lacamas Hall in Second Life, Monday 5pm (PDT or SLT) one of nearly 200 similar events throughout the country, locals will come together in support of the Gulf of Mexico’s people, places, and wildlife to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Catastrophic wetlands loss leaves New Orleans and other coastal communities more vulnerable to hurricanes like Katrina, and now BP’s oil disaster continues to impact an already imperiled ecosystem.

Defend the Gulf Movie Screening and Discussion, featuring a compilation of short films designed to educate and inspire that includes the world premier of “Terrebonne,” a family drama set in Louisiana's swamps, a hilarious mockumentary by the creator of Mr. Bill, the compelling and award-winning home by Matt Faust, GRN's Gulf Tides series covering the BP oil disaster, and more.
For more info: www.healthygulf.org

Department of Book Reports: An Ocean Between Us

An Ocean Between Us, by Evelyn Iritani (Morrow, 1994)
We all know that saying about History repeating itself, and this book from 1994 shows several examples. Evelyn Iritani uses 4 stories to explain Washington states' fascination with all things Japan, and it has really had some resonance for me. She starts out with a story from 1834, when three sailors are ship wrecked off Neah Bay. I had never heard this story before! They were on a cargo ship, the Hojun-maru, limited to Japanese waters when a storm damaged their ship and carried them across the Pacific on the Kuroshio current. Taken as slaves by the Makah tribe, they were rescued by Dr. John McLoughlin, only to have his dreams of bartering them to open trade with Japan denied by the Tokugawa shogunate. They are given 30 coins and left to finally find lives outside Japan.

Next, looking at the early Yellow scares, leads us into the WWII internment of West Coast Japanese. It is here the Fear of the Other is closely echoed in today's treatment of the Mexicans in Arizona and elsewhere. Little was known of the actual attempted attacks by the Japan Army, their successful balloon campaign that killed a woman and 3 children in Blye,OR. Across the ocean, the Ohkuno Island Toxic Gas Factory employed school girls to build elaborate paper mache balloons that could drift across the Pacific with bombs as their payload. Following up with these students, Iritani tells us of the 50 year later reunions of these school girls and the families in Oregon.

In 1990, a Chinese tanker collides with a Japanese fishing boat, the Tenyo-maru and seventy thousand gallons of crude oil are spilled off the Olympic Peninsula. The local folks volunteer to rake up tar balls on the beach and send oiled birds to Seattle for re-hab. The fines in this case were leveled against the Chinese government, not the polluting fishing company company, leading the Makah to distrust the Japanese.

In the final story, we look at the take over of Port Angeles paper mill by the Daishowa company, and the conflicts that occur in a small town during the craze of Japanese Management circles and a time when it seemed their powerful economy was allowing them to buy any old American thing they wanted. The contrasting stories of union activist Dave Hoglund who tries to balance the new company's work styles and Yutaka Mochizuki, who tries to balance bringing his family to this strange new land. In this case, the new management was able to put money into long neglected facilities, that ultimately benefitted the workers and the town. Ironically, the mill was powered by cheap electricity from the salmon-decimating dam on the Elwha, now scheduled to be removed.

Throughout this book, I kept seeing much of the hysteria that is too prevalent now. I hope we will move past today's angst, and our better sides will prevail. In today's Washington state, kids adore Japan and all its trappings. I saw kids in Seattle studying Japanese and dutifully practicing their kanji . Our own son went to Tokyo with 2 other students for a field trip. I always found Chinatown & Japantown to be the most vibrant shopping districts, with the best Fruit & Veg stands, anywhere. Far from being a feared, reviled part of the populace, Japan has conquered the kids hearts and minds. And that is a good thing.

UPDATE: I was afraid I may have engaged in a bit of hyperbole in writing this book report. And then I saw this.

Here's something you all may be able to help us with. I'd like to rent this storefront, and have a tiny little bookstore. Thing is, I need some opening moneys. Rent is cheap, and I do think it can be recouped. But what's most exciting is a chance to have a bookstore in our local community. Much as I love the internets, there is nothing that replaces putting a book into someone's hands. I'd really like it if you bought a bunch of books, but if you're able to, and so inclined, a donation to our paypal will get you our undying loyalty.

I'm trying to figure out a bookstore membership format, that will get you a discount on orders. I'm fully aware that bookselling is a dinosaur in our current society and job force. I'm just crazy enough to love and want to continue doing it.

Please order your books from Jackson Street Books.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: A History of Western Philosophy

A History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell, 1945, Simon & Schuster, NY, New York
A book report by jcricket

A good many years ago, an essay entitled "Why I Am Not a Christian" immediately got my attention. That was my introduction to the expressed thoughts of Bertrand Russell.

The same mind has produced many great works, including our selection for today, A History of Western Philosophy. Russell, a twentieth century philosopher, logician and social critic, gives us one of the best one-volume tomes ever produced of our reverence for the human mind. It's one of the best perhaps, because Russell, of all people, understood that blathering on and on in multiple volumes about how much he knows would bore a thinking person to tears. Or, at least into closing the book in exasperation and then using it as a conspicuous prop to impress visitors.

Instead Russell, as he does in all his work, uses that famous British sense of understatement and his dry wit to give us human insight to the Western Philosophical Greats and the institutions whose foundations were built by them. That he knows when to shut up and move on makes this an unusually entertaining history of ancient, catholic, and modern philosophy.

At the time of publication the book was panned by many of his contemporaries as being biased towards philosophers with whom he had an affinity, as being vulgar, and of being not historical enough. Russell himself said "I did my best but am not sure at all if I succeeded. I was sometimes accused by reviewers of not writing a true history, but a biased account of the events that I arbitrarily chose to write about. But to my mind, a man without bias cannot write interesting history - if indeed, such a man exists."

And in the capable hands of Bertrand Russell, an interesting history it is:

Of Plato and Aristotle,
"Aristotle's metaphysics, roughly speaking, may be described as Plato diluted by common sense. He is difficult because Plato and common sense do not mix easily."

and of Gregory VII,
"After he became Pope, he believed himself to be the mouthpiece of St. Peter. This gave him a degree of self confidence which, on a mundane calculation, was not justified."

While it definitely qualifies as a scholarly work, A History of Western Philosophy cannot be accused of being "dry" reading. As a matter of fact, Russell's style is THE centerpiece of any of his works. If you can't lay your hands on a copy of AHoWP, then really anything written by Bertrand Russell would bring the same smile to your lips at the turn of a phrase or the candid humanity with which he interprets of the lives of history's Larger-Than-Life characters.

And of course, it is always recommended that you peruse your favorite Indie bookstore for your literary passions (in this case, the works of Bertrand Russell).

Order books from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: In which the nice book lady cusses

We've been living without a car since Rocky blew up our Cavalier last Thanksgiving. We had bought bikes for fun when we first moved out here, and those became our main mode of transportation for the last 10 months. Sure, it was unpleasant a few times this past winter, biking to the post office to ship out book packages. We were soaked to the bone and had to pedal against 45 mph winds. But we got home, dried off and had some soup to warm up. In more pleasant weather, biking has been a joy, you can stop at anytime to chat with folks walking their dog or stop by the river and watch herons and otters fish for their lunch. We would have missed all that in a car, even at our town's 30mph speed limit. And, I found it even easier and more urgent to talk to folks about getting out of their cars. Overwhelmingly, I'm told "but we have to drive here where I live! You can't get by without a car here!" Well, I'm calling Bullshit today. You can. Not only that, you must. I'm sorry that you're forced into a job that is 40 miles from your house. I'm sorry the nearest grocery is 5 miles away. We may not be able change that right away, but we can change how you get there.

When we hear of Greenland's ice floes breaking up, Russia's unrelenting wildfires, Mountain top removal "enhances the landscape" and that not even completely melted polar caps would convince the deniers, don't even try to tell me the ludicrous lie that the god-damned oil is all gone. 2015 is recognized as the tipping point, and that's less than 4 1/2 years away. Are we going to wait until then to do anything?

Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth (Macmillan, $24.00 ) is a hero of mine.

I wrote the first book for a general audience on global warming back in 1989, and I’ve spent the subsequent 21 years working on the issue. I’m a mild-mannered guy, a Methodist Sunday School teacher. Not quick to anger. So what I want to say is: this is fucked up. The time has come to get mad, and then to get busy.

And if he says it's fucked up, it is. But I find hope in the end there: Get Mad, then Get Busy. He has formed a global coalition, 350 (350 being the parts per million CO2 with which we can survive on this planet)

...Those demonstrations were just a start (one we should have made long ago). We’re following up in October -- on 10-10-10 -- with a Global Work Party. All around the country and the world people will be putting up solar panels and digging community gardens and laying out bike paths. Not because we can stop climate change one bike path at a time, but because we need to make a sharp political point to our leaders: we’re getting to work, what about you?

Oct 10, 2010. Will you join up? Sign in and add your name? Write letters? If you need help with crafting a letter, may I introduce you to Warren Senders, who has vowed to write an environmental letter every day, and asks you to steal his stuff and then reword it personally so you can contact your congress critters and senators. Warren reviewed Eaarth far better than I could:
While McKibben is constitutionally optimistic, he gives us some pretty strong medicine:

...no use underestimating the depth of change we'll need to deal with, especially since there's no end point in sight. As we lose the climatic stability that's marked all of human civilization, it's not as if we're going to land on some other firm plateau. The changes to our lives will be ongoing and large and will require uncommon nimbleness, physically and psychologically. Our focus will have to shift. As a culture and an economy, we've had the margin to afford a lot of abstractions. Abstractions in the supermarket aisle: Lunchables, and Cheetos, and the four thousand other incarnations of high fructose corn syrup. Abstractions in our relations with the rest of the planet : "the free world." Abstraction will grow harder; increasingly, we're going to have to focus on essentials: on actual food and on energy that comes from the wind and sun in our neck of the woods, not from that abstraction called "The Middle East."

"eaarth," p. 147-148

I've been inspired by the on-going series eKos over on dailykos.com

Get the eKos widget embed code!

One stop shopping for information and links in one handy place.

Last week, my cousin Larry gave us a car. A nice little '97 Saturn that will be fairly thrifty. Hoooo-ray!! right? Not really. I find myself kinda guilty and torn about being a car owner again. We have decided we will not become daily car drivers ever again. We are staying on the bikes. But, we will be able to drive to Oly or Seattle to join in the political things we've had to skip this past year. We'll be able to attend local events and meetings that run until after dark. And just maybe, the weather will be bad enough that we'll drive to the post office. But I can gaurantee it won't be very often.

I'll leave you with someone who always gives me hope: Pete Seeger.


Eaarth is available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Books on the Nightstand

So what do I do when I'm between books? Why, I pick up a couple of hefty tomes that will take me a month or so to read.

First up, H.L. Humes' 755 page opus, The Underground City (Random House $15.00). Originally published in 1958, this book was one of two novels that Humes wrote, the other being Men Die (Random House $13.95), which was came out a year later. The plot involves a cast of characters in post WW-2 France. An American, John Stone, is a former secret agent who's life intersects with the American Ambassador, and a mysterious man, Dujardin who has been sentenced to death for treason, among others. Alan Cheuse, the NPR book reviewer, provides the introduction,at describing his own encounters with Humes and his work. Cheuse implies Humes' style was sort-or Proto-Pynchonesque, with story threads of intrigue and paranoia.

Humes himself was an interesting man. He was, along with Peter Matthiessen, a founder of the literary journal, Paris Review, to which they soon invited George Plimpton to edit. He was also an early advocate of LSD, which apparently a large dose completely altered his mind. He also invented a "cure" for heroin addiction, that used medical marijuana.

The other book is Robin D.G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press $30.00). It is long, critical look at that great Jazz master. Fortunately, although scholarly sound with notes and index, Kelley is a good writer and from what little of I've read, the text is fluent and without jargon. I'm an unabashed Monk fan; when I DJ in Second Life, you can pretty much be assured of there being a tune or two. Here's a tune for you:

What book is on your nightstand now?

These books and many more are available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Blood's a Rover

I haven't quite finished the one massive book I'm reading, Blood's A Rover, by James Ellroy (Knopf $28.95) This is prime Ellroy, violent, twisted and so dazzlingly written. It's difficult to say I'm enjoying it, but it's certainly gripping and compelling. This is the third and final volume in Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy which began with American Tabloid, then The Cold Six Thousand and the election of JFK, and now we are in the Cold-War years just up to Watergate. There's plenty of hate crimes, racism, conspiracy plots, mafia, drugs and Haitian voodoo. The novel follows the three main characters Wayne Tedrow Jr the ex-Vegas cop from Cold Six Thousand who has gone on a murderous spree (which includes the MLK assasination) after his wife was killed by a black thug and is trying to redeem himself.
Dwight Holly, FBI agent and son of a KKK member whose dirty laundry has obligated him do "Gay Edgar" Hoover's top jobs. Donald Crutchfield is a low life working for Howard Hughes' interests in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Woven throughout these three exploits are their love interests and a mysterious woman with a gray streak in her hair.

I don't recommend this one for the faint of heart, but if you're an Ellroy fan this is a great read. Not as fast paced as the previous, it still has his trademark style using journal excepts, redacted FBI files and secret notes.

This weekend the dailykos convention, now known as Netroots Nation 2010, is taking place in Las Vegas this weekend. We'll be streaming some of the Keynote speeches into Second Life at Virtually Speaking Studios. If you can't run SL on your computer, you can still catch some of the streams via the intertubes. Montana's governor Swcheitzer's speech last night was great, Van Jones today was funny and wise. Hope we see you there!

Blood's a Rover is available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Eight Million Ways to Die

Ok, so I am late to this party. I love mysteries, of course. Among my favorite authors ever are Hammett, Chandler and MacDonald. But I've never read Lawrence Block. I don't know why, and I'm very sorry I've waited this long. So the other day, I was working on listing our books when I idly picked up Eight Million Ways to Die (Avon $7.50), and thought to myself, well, SeattleDan, you've never read Block, why not try this one. So I did. And I am very impressed.

Eight Million Ways to Die is the fifth in Block's Matthew Scudder series. Originally published in 1982, the plot revolves around Scudder, an ex-NYPD and now a unlicensed PI who is struggling with alcoholism, who is approached by a call-girl, Kim, who wants to get out of the life and leave her pimp, Chance. Reluctantly, Scudder takes the assignment. He tracks down the elusive pimp and succeeds. In fact, Chance tells him Kim could have saved herself the money and asked him herself. But several days later, Kim is found savagely murdered. Scudder immediately suspects Chance, but as it happens, Chance comes to Scudder and hires him to find the real killer.

Block writes vividly, unsentimentally but with sympathy towards his characters. Even Scudder, who acts as our narrator, is shown as a deeply flawed man, yet with a hidden reservoir of compassion. His struggles with drink and temptation are stark and frightening. The other characters seem as real as well, and not mere templates. Perhaps his best character is New York City itself. We see it through Scudder's eyes as he crossed Manhattan in subways and cabs, while he visits the bars and the apartments of other hookers.

In one scene, Scudder is talking to the police officer working on Kim's case. The cop is drunk and venting about life in the City.

"There are eight million stories in the naked city," he intoned. "You remember that program? Used to be on television some years back."
"I remember."
"They had that line at the end of every show. 'There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.'"
"I remember it."
"Eight million stories," he said. "You know what you got in this city, this fucked-up toilet of a naked city? You know what you got? You got eight million ways to die."

The book was adapted into a movie in 1986 and it bears little resemblance to the novel. Which is a shame, really. It was directed by Hal Ashby (his last film) with a screenplay by Oliver Stone, and it seems both were fired during the production. It also featured Jeff Bridges as Scudder, Roseanne Arquette and Andy Garcia. But as Block noted, it seemed that the movie was made up as it went along. For whatever reason, the movie was moved to Los Angeles, which is huge city, but there aren't eight million people there and never registers as a character itself. In any event, if you want to take a gander at it, the movie is on Youtubes.

Eight Million Ways to Die and other Lawrence Block titles are available at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Odds & Ends for the long weekend

This week we wish a (slightly belated) Happy Birthday to Shelf Awareness with thanks for keeping us informed for the past five years. This faithful email arrives daily, brimming with news of the book industry. I'll share a few below for your long weekend perusal.

The Picture a Book Changing Lives project from Penguin's Riverhead Press:

Inspired by readers around the world who have embraced and shared Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Riverhead Books is asking for your help in an effort to picture a book changing lives.
Starting June 15th and continuing through August 31st 2010 (11:59:59 PM Eastern Time) when you visit this campaign page and join the “Hosseini” group you can upload photos of yourself reading or holding a copy of either The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns. For each eligible photo (limit two still photographs per Penguin Community account) that is uploaded to the group, Riverhead Books will donate $2.00 (up to a maximum $25,000 donation) to the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a charity dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

This year's Bulwer-Lytton's Award was announced! You can find many more category & runner-ups here.

For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss--a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil.

Molly Ringle
Seattle, WA

Huffingtonpost has a slideshow you can vote on your favorite Indie Bookstore.

Jeffrey Kaye's podcast from the Virtually Speaking in Second Life Moving Millions discussion is now available for your listening pleasure.

Happy Fourth of July from Jackson Street Books! Have a safe one and let's come back with all our fingers next week, m'kay?As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Moving Millions

Jeffrey Kaye has written an important, and exhaustive study in Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration (John Wiley and Sons $27.95). Kaye, the son of English immigrants himself, is a well-regarded independent journalist and Special Correspondent for the PBS News Hour. And for this examination, he has traveled extensively, including the Philippines, Senegal and Europe.

What he has found explodes many of the myths that surround immigration and its attendant mythologies. It is not so much that immigrants fuel immigration. It is the practice of businesses and government to import labor. Kaye looks at how the machinery of immigration interlocks into a greater global economy that answers the needs of those businesses and governments.

A coyote in this context is a human smuggler. The smuggler trades in a needed commodity without regard to the wants and desires of that commodity. And, in so doing, Kaye reminds us: “Global and local businesses rely on human mobility and on ready, vulnerable pools of labor often available at bargain basement prices. The migrant-dependent industries are the same across the globe. Many of the world’s farm fields, hospitals, nursing homes, and construction sites would be losing enterprises if not for the work of foreign laborers. Ditto for hotels and restaurants, labor-intensive manufacturing, and low-skilled services.” Often these are the same people who tell us that illegal immigrants are the scourge of our nation. Their hatred is palpably hypocritical. (And in my humble opinion, when you hear these folks talk about English only, or English first, they ignore the fact that in the history of American immigration, unless the immigrants came from an English-speaking nation, the first generation always retained their native language and learned enough English to get along. My great-grandparents spoke German around the house and with their neighbors. It is the next generation that learns English; my grandfather was bi-lingual. I see it where I live where the Latino children speak English to each other and Spanish to their parents. English-first is code for Latino bashing.)

Kaye calls into question our current policies regarding immigration, quite rightly observing that if you build a 50 foot wall, someone will bring a 51 foot ladder. And he explains the connections between globalization, growth and the overarching and on-going debate on immigration in a clear, lucid style, with anecdotes, interviews and keen observation. For now, this book is the one to go to if one wants to understand the complexities of our times.

In full disclosure, the author is an old friend of mine. And the publisher was kind enough to send me a review copy gratis. For those of you in Second Life, Jeffrey will be the guest at the Virtually Speaking forum on Thursday, July 1st at 6:00 PDT. If you can't join us in Second Life, tune in here to listen live or catch the podcast later. As always, Moving Millions is availabe at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores. And, as always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: From Puritan to Yankee

We have a guest book reporter this week! Please give a warm welcome to our own jcricket, who blogs occasionally at the eponymous JCricket.

From Puritan to Yankee, by Richard Bushman (Harvard University Press 1967, $32.00)

The body politic exists for the glory of God.
Elections are a device for implementing God’s will. Elected officials are obligated to God, not to the electorate.
Religious liberty implies freedom to worship not as one wants, but only as The Bible interpreted by the dictates of the congregational ministry.
Sound eerily familiar? While we could very well be describing today’s Right-Winger Christian(ist), we are reading the description of the Connecticut Puritan of the 1690’s as described in From Puritan To Yankee by Richard Bushman (1967). Connecticut was particularly chosen by Bushman as his archetype Puritan society as there were no imperial governors and few British officials acting as outside political influences. Even so, the societal confluences described herein were universal in the colonies.
It’s hard to believe that a society of people happily living under the yoke of religious authoritarianism would a scant 75(ish) years later, produce the same mindset that called for rebellion against the governing establishment and insist on a separation of Church and State. Indeed, even Deism was arguably the spiritual refuge of some of our most prominent revolutionary leaders, replacing a compliant Trinity based reliance. So…aside from the “taxation without representation” impetus, what happened to New England society overall , that not only allowed for a rebellion, but demanded a revolution?
Bushman takes us through the evolution of townspeople to “outlivers”, who moved past the outskirts of the known safety of the immediate community. He tells us of how these risk takers used the rationalization of the need to worship to get the towns to assist in building roads, and then, churches in the outskirts. Churches became part of further infrastructure, further from town centers. He tells us of how merchants, currency, and competitive deviousness changed the economy from frugality, to greed driven capitalism where ‘Brothers In Christ’ undercut each other financially, depending on which church one attended, of course.
By about 1765, only civil authority could act as a binding force in Connecticut (and New England) society. As is documented from a member of the Laity, “Nothing sinks the reputation of the ministry more than for them to revile and reproach each other. No wonder in that case, if we of the Laity have a low opinion of you, when you seem to have a very low opinion of yourselves”.
The New Lights of politics were born. The citizenry had become habitually defiant toward the old religious political regime; “hence for them, defiance against a King and Parliament was neither an innovation nor a shock”. Yes, after permanently casting off the suppressive religious constraints in community government, the New Lights (Yankees) had learned to say “Fuck You” to George III.
Bushman, as a proper historian, authoritatively and knowledgably takes the reader through the evolution of our beloved Yankee character. From Puritan to Yankee is recommended reading for a basic American History foundation. (If only today’s Right-Wingers would pick up a history book. They would find that their constant harping about The Founding Fathers is really a yearning to return the days of the early oppressive Puritan system.)

~Thanks jcricket!

I have some updates from recent authors you've met here: GottaLaff of ThePoliticalCarnival brings an update of Lt Col Barry Wingard & Lt Com Kevin Bogucki's recent trip to Kuwait. Keith Thompson (Once a Spy) wrote a very good report of burning off the Gulf Oil Spill (huffpo) Joshilyn Jackson hit the NYT Best Seller list the first week of Backseat Saints release. Daniel Woodrell was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air this week about the making of the movie version of Winter's Bone. Oh, and I won a movie poster on twitter! Little Brown has a new imprint for mysteries; Mulholland Books, and they will be re-printing his first three books as the Bayou Trilogy.

From Puritan to Yankee is available from Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.