Everything Sucks by Hannah Friedman
July 25, 2009
Hannah speaks to every girl I know from the very first pages of her memoir titled ‘Everything Sucks.’ From beginning to end, the book speaks loudly to adolescent girls with a wit that only a Yale graduate (later to become a blogger extraordinaire) could achieve.
That Hannah’s writing is extremely catchy, funny and smart is an understatement. The book highlights familiar childhood and teen years that are equally applicable to today’s generation. She begins her story alluding to the fact that “You see, I am the firstborn human, but Amelia is the firstborn.” Meaning that Hannah is her mother’s firstborn child, but Amelia, her mother’s monkey, is the actual firstborn of her family.
Of course, competition started at home for Hannah. “No matter how many cute shenanigans I pull, I am forever outshined by a family member who garners wild applause simply by serving herself spaghetti with her own foot.”
Throughout the book Hannah describes the trials and tribulations she encountered. “The first diet failed, the second diet failed, the third diet failed, but this time I will be strong. I sit in math class and feel my stomach growl.” She goes on to speak candidly about being “a cutter”, experimenting with drugs in college, relations with her boyfriend Adam, her parents, and success in school. The path that Hannah takes is frightening from the beginning to end. At age 22, Hannah is a recent graduate of Yale University, an award- winning writer, blogger, and playwright.In the end, through sharing her story, Hannah has been able to give a gift to help young woman overcome many of the same “crazy obstacles” that she had. – Tara Benson
Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
July 21, 2009
In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.”
On Friday, it was “1984″ and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm,” that were dropped down the memory hole by Amazon.com.
An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an e-mail message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, using a self-service function. “When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers,” he said.
‘Notes on Sontag’
July 12, 2009
A lot of nonsense has been written about Susan Sontag lately – too highbrow, too Eurocentric; not radical enough, not gay enough – and Phillip Lopate addresses some of the criticisms in his new book.
See the article here:
‘Notes on Sontag’
‘How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘N’ Roll’ by Elijah Wald
July 11, 2009
This history of American popular music culminates with the splintering of music culture by the Fab Four. Elijah Wald doesn’t want you to believe the hype. His mission in “How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll” is to help you forget all that you’ve learned about popular music, to “strip away layers of past opinion” and view musical history through the framework of the mainstream of given eras rather than by focusing solely on the stars canonized after the fact
Go here to read the rest:
‘How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘N’ Roll’ by Elijah Wald
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything – Don Tapscott (Portfolio)
July 10, 2009
There’s been lots of talk about crowd-sourcing in recent years, spurred by both the widespread use of the internet as a collaboration tool as well as specific destination sites like the top-of-mind Wikipedia and others.
In Wikinomics, author and business consultant Don Tapscott (The Digital Economy) and Anthony Williams attempt to illustrate and define examples of companies and projects that have quickly risen or others that have re-energized their operations using the tools of group collaboration to expand their offerings beyond the shell of their staff or existing talent pool.
Numerous examples are citied – from the rise of open source programming of Linux and Apache to the use of collaborative initiatives in existing businesses like Proctor and Gamble and BMW, to the dynamic informational database of the aforementioned Wikipedia. Companies like Amazon, YouTube, myspace, SecondLife and tools like APIs and data mashups are cited as examples of platforms and applications that can help existing organizations penetrate the new connected and social online world.
The problem lies not in the examples or even the explanation of the principles, but in the POV of the writers themselves. It seems Tapscott is rather intent on showing off his personal authority status more than he is interested in providing an interesting narrative for the reader. His writing almost seems like he is talking down to companies that are not yet on the wiki-wagon or who, for various reason of their own, are willing to defend their way of doing business for the time being (Encyclopedia Britannica vs. Wikipedia, as an example).
While much of what Tapscott proffers is certainly true, much of it has already been written about (Lego, Lessig, DJ Danger Mouse, etc.) and his style is both repetitive and not nearly as inviting as authors like Chris Anderson (The Long Tail) or Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point) who elicit great personal enthusiasm from their reader base.
Sure, it’s important to have great ideas, but presentation counts for something, too.
Barbara Boxer on her novel Blind Trust (Chronicle)
July 5, 2009
This second novel by Senator Barbara Boxer is the story of dirty tricks and political survival, and the battle for integrity in the corridors of power. Now married (to a Republican!) and in her second term, United States Senator Ellen Fisher (Democrat) is about to chair explosive hearings on Homeland Security. Before she goes head to head with the Vice President, whose excessive zeal in enforcing national security has begun to infringe on individual liberties, Ellen and her staff become the subjects of a barrage of charges and attacks that threaten their safety, as well as her career and marriage.
Learn more at: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,7911/
Amos Elon (1926-2009)
July 2, 2009
By Tony Judt
I first met Amos Elon in Germany in the 1990s. We were participants in one of a series of meetings generously hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation, where Germans, Israelis, and Jews gathered to exchange platitudes. Most of those present sought either to proselytize and grandstand (in the case of Israelis and Jews) or else to avoid giving offense (in the case of the Germans).
See original here:
Amos Elon (1926-2009)
China’s Dictators at Work: The Secret Story
July 2, 2009
By Jonathan Mirsky Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang translated from the Chinese and edited by Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, and Adi Ignatius, with a foreword by Roderick MacFarquhar Prisoner of the State is the secretly recorded memoir of Zhao Ziyang, once holder of China’s two highest Party and state positions and the architect of the economic reforms that have brought the country to the edge of great-power status. The book has had much attention in the West
Here is the original post:
China’s Dictators at Work: The Secret Story
Divided Iran on the Eve
July 2, 2009
By Malise Ruthven Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi’ism by Abbas Amanat Sexual Politics in Modern Iran by Janet Afary Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs by Ray Takeyh During the past decade the Jamkaran mosque near Qom in Iran has become one of the most visited Shiite shrines, rivaling Karbala and Kufa in Iraq as pilgrim destinations. Here thousands of believers pray for intercessions to their messiah–the Mahdi or Twelfth Imam–whose return they believe to be imminent. Written petitions are placed in the ‘well of the Lord of the Age,’ from which many believe the imam will emerge to bring about universal justice and peace
Continued here:
Divided Iran on the Eve
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