Blog on Books - Book Reviews

Arianna Huffington on Book TV

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:57:03 +0000

Arianna Huffington, Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream

In her latest book, Huffington Post editor-in-chief argues that America is in decline as an economic and political leader and that the country’s middle class is rapidly disappearing. With little optimism, Ms. Huffington lays considerable blame at the feet of corporations and says the country may never recover the status lost over the last decade. She discusses the current state of the country with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo at BookTV.org here.

God Is Not One – Stephen Prothero (Video)

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:21:05 +0000

WIth all the (Ill-founded) controversy now swirling about Christianity vs. Muslum religion in the U.S., we thought it would be a good time to check in with author Stephen Prothero (Religious Literacy) as he explains the theories behind his new book “God is not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World – and Why Their Differences Matter” (HarperCollins).

Prothero says that to claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each attempts to solve a different human problem. For a look at his well-informed perspective, take a look here.

New Online Business Titles from Wiley

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:25:38 +0000

Over a decade into the emergence of the internet as a tool for commerce, there are still entrepreneurs that are making headlines by starting new and valuable companies. Groupon, Home Run and others are keeping the momentum going. Perhaps you have an idea that still has not been exploited on the web or just want to expand or set up a small business to fill an existing niche. Wiley, the leader in great D.I.Y. books, offer two new titles that address the online business space.

In “KaChing: How to Run an Online Business That Pays and Pays,” author Joel Comm (Twitter Power) explains how users can take what was once viewed as a largely free medium (the web) and turn it into a paid marketplace using e-commerce and more to his point, e-publishing tools to try to convert free information to paid content. As more and more organizations are experimenting with paid walled gardens (WSJ, New York Times, financial sites, etc.), Comm explains just what is needed to get your website to pay out like the big players. While admitting it is far from a sure thing, Comm highlights the channels that are most primed to produce results in the area of blogging, e-commerce, web publishing and downloadable e-books. While ‘KaChing’ makes no bones about the fact that sheer weight and traffic help a site convert to a paid (or as Chris Anderson calls it, the ‘fremium’) model, (and Comm is wise not to promise that the average person will get rich from these techniques) Comm at least points the reader in the direction of what can create traction for gaining sales or subscriptions and thus develop recurring and (somewhat) automated income.

More basic, of course, is the latest edition of Wiley’s “Starting an Online Business for Dummies” by Greg Holden. This book, in it’s 6th edition, provides a much broader view of the web-biz world, focusing on the tools to get started to build even the most basic e-commerce sites, with much less regard to specific niches and the degree to which they pay out. Traditional subjects like, third-party software, hosting solutions, SEO, payment systems, customer service, etc. are presented in a systematic order, allowing the business owner to understand each of the steps necessary to create a well-oiled online presence. This latest “Dummies” edition presents everything a new entrepreneur needs to get started with the basic of building a rudimentary e-commerce site (including an update on third-party tools from Google and other providers that have come on the market since the last edition) though to get beyond the basics essential to creating a true internet retail powerhouse, much more advanced information would still be required.

Joel Comm’s “KaChing” website.

Free Neil Young eBook at Wowio

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:05:24 +0000

Neil Young is known around the world as one of Canada’s greatest musical artists. His vast, diverse songbook and long, influential career have made him a unique figure in the history of rock.

In a deeply honest and revealing book, his half-sister, Astrid Young, gives us an intimate portrait of the private man behind the public performer. WOWIO’s Book of the Month version includes an exclusive video interview with the author and is free for the month of September.

Download the book for free here.

Beach Reads Finished, It’s Time for the Big Books

Bleasedus — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:06:51 +0000

WIth the summer reading season now officially over, it’s time to look ahead to the publishing industry’s fall schedule which includes new books by Bob Woodward, Keith Richards, George W. Bush, Jon Stewart and more according to the New York Times’ Julie Bosman. Take a look here.

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Beach Reads Finished, It’s Time for the Big Books

Bush Returns to Arena, Memoir in Hand (WSJ Video)

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 05:15:30 +0000

After remaining mostly out of view and silent on policy debates since leaving office, George W. Bush is about to promote his memoir, “Decision Points,” to be published a week after the Nov. 2 elections. Peter Wallsten of the Wall Street Journal has all the details.

Blair Heckled At Book Promotion

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:54:41 +0000

Protesters heckle former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, as he continues promoting his new book, The Journey, including a Friday TV appearance where he praised the Middle East peace talks. Blair has been the subject of much anti-war protest in the UK since the book arrived in stores earlier this week.

Three New Books on Climate Change

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:15:31 +0000

Despite some recent setbacks, the notion of climate change seems to have become a reasonably well accepted standard as we prepare ourselves for a future that may look decidedly different from our recent past. Interestingly, three new books have just been released which, when taken as a group, paint an interesting and multi-faceted perspective on how things got this way and what it means for future life on the planet.

While not strictly a global warming book, “Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming” (Bloomsbury Press) examines the growth of ‘junk science’ from its creation to its implementation in a thoroughly detailed and fact-filled expose of the continuing pattern of industry to (often secretly) fund high-level, scientific studies to ‘disprove’ established research on the negative effects of harmful products. Their powerful re-assembly of the history of such programs over the last fifty years covers issues ranging from tobacco safety to DDT to Acid Rain and of course, global warming. The details of their reporting are far too vast to elucidate here, but suffice to say that many of the same players – some of the top ranked hawkish scientists of the 20th century – have been involved in many, if not all, of these campaigns. “Merchants of Doubt” explores everything from the motivation of such projects, the key players and funders, the methods of dissemination and media manipulation (“equal time”) and the ultimate refutation of such programs (SDI: Star Wars) over time. The vast detail and scope of Oreskes’ and Conway’s well written work makes “Merchants” one of the most important books of the year and a volume well worth reading.

Next up and new from MIT Press, comes “Economic Thought and U.S. Climate Change Policy,” edited by environmental policy writer and Syracuse University law professor, David Driesen. The book acts as a survey of articles chronicling events over recent decades that have sought to improve the climate situation or more often, restrict advances in climate control, mostly through patterns of corporate abuse and/or undue influence on governmental environmental guidelines and agencies. In a series of articles on overlapping subjects (i.e. Kyoto, cap and trade, the effect of the neo-liberals, Republican obstructionism), “Economic Thought” portrays a heavy-duty, multi-faceted attempt to limit restrictions on pollution controls and fossil fuel policies to achieve results that are often less than surface appearances would suggest. A prevailing theme throughout the book reveals how the public is constantly led to believe that laws representing one thing are in effect (cap and trade being a large culprit) when reality dictates a substantially different result (the examples of companies receiving trade credits when polluting factories are taken off line vs. employing actual restrictions on existing plants are but one example of this deception.) Filled with information that close observers may already know, the book nonetheless brings together a variety of sources to assemble an effective overview of the issue from the industrial revolution to the Obama administration (though much of its concern centers around the EPA, the Clean Air Act and the administrations of both Reagan and Bush, 43.)

Finally, for a look at what the world may look like in the event that we do little or nothing to combat carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, comes “The Weather of the Future” (Harper) by meteorologist/climatologist, Heidi Cullen. Cullen, a research scientist at the non-profit outfit, Climate Central, (and former host of the Weather Channel’s ‘Forecast Earth’) describes in detail what is likely to occur at seven different hot-spot locations around the planet in the wake of elevated temperatures and rising waters. Using predictive modeling from a variety of accredited sources, Cullen describes what effects can be expected in areas from New York City (major hurricanes, rampant flooding) to Bangladesh (becoming a massive refugee state) to the farm regions of Central California (massive drought) as well as the implications for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Greenland’s arctic ice cap and others. Using data models from NASA, the IPCC, MIT, the California Climate Change Center and others, Cullen predicts a seismic shift in global weather patterns, sea life, agriculture and terrain that, while may be off in some meaningful ways (as expected in a 50 year prediction) certainly cover the range of detailed possibilities awaiting our future. Her personal, yet readable account, is of course, speculative in nature, but with all the research and modeling referenced here and elsewhere, it’s hard not to believe that somewhere in these patterns lies our own inconvenient truth.

Just Released: Tony Blair’s ‘Journey’ (Video)

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:18:00 +0000

Tony Blair’s autobiography, “The Journey,” goes on sale today amid protests over his participation in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. See a preview of the former Prime Minister’s latest work here. (courtesy webcastr.com)

Thierry Mugler “Galaxy Glamour” – Daniele Bott (Thames & Hudson)

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:44:01 +0000

To view Thierry Mugler as a mere fashion designer is missing the point. Not since Jean-Paul Gauthier, has anyone approached the world of design with the grand theatrical spectacle of France’s outrageous Mugler. This is one designer who knows that the show does not end at the wardrobe, but that the clothing is just one piece of the potential presentation.

In this new work, author Bott describes Mugler as a superhero; one whose work is “untouched by economic upheavals and everyday banality, it is constantly explosive, a continuous fireworks display.” Mugler’s complete history is revealed; from his early education as a student of classical ballet, to the influence of comic books, to the eventual move to fashion design and the tableau of the runway. Through it all, we gain a new understanding of just how the designer became perhaps the most theatrical and over-the-top couturier of our era.

The book is the perfect showcase for the designer’s extreme fashion sense as well as a work that captures all the provocative and mind bending energy of his most famous runway shows. Mugler’s highly stylized, mostly futuristic designs – sometimes known as ‘fashion architecture’ – are shown from their sketchpad inceptions, to their actual assemblage on through their final appearances on a fitting set of models such as Jerry Hall, Eva Herzigova and Linda Evangelista. Beyond design, the seemingly indefatigable Mugler made a name for himself by using materials heretofore unheard of in the world of couture; from chrome to plexiglass, feathers to motorcycle parts(!) in various constructions and de-constructions creating the fashion equivalents of fiery jewelry settings, lush peacocks and even a few robotic, female C-3POs. All are aptly showcased here.

In this edition, Bott, a french fashion journalist (Vogue) who also profiled the House of Chanel, has done a magnificent job of capturing the truly other-worldly and proto-futuristic products that emanate from the mind of Thierry Mugler (including his parfum ‘Angel.’) The pictures (done by the man himself as well as Helmut Newton, Jean-Paul Goude and others) representing each phase of the designers oeuvre, are undeniably amazing (and if the cover doesn’t convince you, nothing will.) To see just what is possible at the outer edges of fashion, spectacle and design, this is a good place to begin – or end.