Why are all the apples in the supermarket from New Zealand? I thought the US was a huge apple producer. I know we don't have many orchards here in Southern California, but surely it's cheaper to import from other states than from the Southern Hemisphere. Any clues?
The Redondo Beach Library Commission meeting is tomorrow at 7pm. Be there and be proudly square!
Booklist 2004: An occasional look at what I'm reading.
Fortress of Solitude, by Jonathan Lethem
This is probably a better book than I give it credit for. I've spoken before about how much I dislike passive protagonists and books that value a detached, nihilistic atmosphere over story, and this book is a good example of both. The basic outlines of Lethem's story are gripping; a young white boy grows up in a racially conflicted area of Brooklyn during the 1970s, and finds common ground with a young black schoolmate and their mutual admiration of tagging and comic books. I mention tagging first because many reviews of this book don't mention it, and give the impression that comic books are the main theme of the book. By far, the main obsession and gestalt of this book is graffiti. That's not a slight, but by not mentioning it the reviews and blurbs I've seen are guilty of a disservice. Graffiti was a ubiquitous sight in the New York of the 1970s, and perhaps also a large part of Lethem's young life. The scenes dealing with the mechanics and emotions surrounding this activity far outshine those dealing with comics, or the random cruelties of New York's public school system, or indeed anything else in the book. It's thus a shame that this book wasn't at least slightly illustrated; if it were it would be a fantastic fictionalized history of the phenomenon. As it is, it left me a bit cold and unfulfilled at the end.
Consumed, by Michelle Stacy
An interesting book-length essay on the politics of food science and culture in the United States. Stacy looks at the weird ways Americans are altering their diets in order to measure up to some imagined nutritional ideal. She interviews several scientists, chefs and food writers who claim that the result is a pathological and cultural fear of food that brings about the very problems that these altered diets were meant to avoid. Along the way, the book pauses to talk with the inventor of Olestra, the fat substitute that failed abysmally in the marketplace, and with the head of the nation's leading vegetarian advocacy group. This is a good companion volume to the last few chapters of Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, and a necessary waystation for anyone contemplating a radical change in diet.
Mosque, by David Macaulay
Macaulay has been writing thrillingly illustrated books about architecture for over 20 years. This latest volume seems to grow out of a desire to increase understanding of Islam in the West after the attacks on the US. In his preface he says, "I was convinced ... that the time had come to find out where these extraordinary buildings came from, who built them, and of course how." There follows a wonderful explanation of the planning and constructing of a fictional mosque. Along the way, you learn the meaning of minaret towers, qibla walls, and why much Islamic art is so closely tied with Arabic calligraphy. During the Dark Ages, Islam was the caretaker of geometry and architecture, and this book is a quick primer on how they did it.
Information War, by Nancy Snow
A VERY short, extremely partisan and ultimately focusless collection of essays by a veteran of the United States Information Agency, the propaganda arm of the government during the Cold War. The USIA is now defunct, subsumed into other departments during the federal restructuring that saw the birth of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Snow is strongest when she is explaining the role and history of propaganda in international affairs. There is also a moving portrait of Rep. Barbara Lee, the sole Representative to try to hold onto Congressional control of War Powers after the Sept. 11 attacks. Congressional War Powers have been a joke since before I was born, but it's nice to see one person stand up for them. There are many other issues addressed here, but it's like a bag of potato chips; three days later, you don't remember them.
Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson
Stephenson is one writer who remembers what most other genre authors have forgotten: you used to actually learn something new from every book, every short story, every novella in the Science Fiction universe. This book is historical fiction, not science fiction, but it conveys the same sense of discovery and wonder that I used to get from Larry Niven novels or Clarke stories. That's not surprising; to many Americans, the past is now as foreign and strange a place as the future seemed in the 1950s, and any author who plumbs history's depths as thoroughly and honestly as Stephenson does here is bound to create an engaging yarn. This book is set in the late 1600's, and is a sort of prequel to his book Cryptonomicon. Sharply, wittily drawn characters and expansive explorations of European science and society make this a welcome summer read. Almost as welcome as its sequel...
The Confusion, by Neal Stephenson
There's just no way around it; at its heart, this is a pirate story. A swashbuckling, bloody, oceans-girdling, man-o-war sinking, rum-drinking pirate story, complete with massive amounts of stolen Spanish gold and a captain with a hook for a hand. Along the way it explains the beginnings of the modern stock market in 1600s Europe, AND successfully marries these two plotlines to create a page-turner with a cliffhanger climax. Some have complained that this book is too long; if you're the kind of person to whom that's a concern, you know who you are. For anyone else, I recommend this sequel to Quicksilver wholeheartedly.
Bad Boy Brawly Brown, by Walter Mosely
This is the first book I've read in the "Easy Rawlins" series of detective novels. I heard Mosely speak once in a panel discussion of the legacy of Raymond Chandler, and since then I've been looking for an opportunity to read his stuff. Chandler wrote novels about corruption, about institutions that you expect to be stalwart and only gradually find out are corrupt to the core. In Mosely's books, the corruption is taken for granted up front. This is a book about relationships, about the ad-hoc institutions and problem-solving methods people put together by themselves when they KNOW the legitimate system is crooked. Easy Rawlins isn't a paid detective; he's a problem-solver doing a favor for a friend. This puts a fresh new face on the detective genre. I've never read the first Rawlins book, Devil in a Blue Dress, but I think that I'll be looking for a copy soon.
I started going to a personal trainer last month; sore is now my middle name.
Redondo Beach Public Library came to my rescue a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I'd share the story with you. The folks at work needed to know some detailed information about the business environment in various US cities. I tried finding the information on publicly accessible web pages, but couldn't get my hands on it. When even FirstGov, its affiliated sites, and the Dept. of Labor's library in Washington, D.C. all turned up nothing, I knew it was time for a trip down to PCH and Diamond.
Did you know that the RBPL offers access to several national commercial databases, from the library OR from home? It's true. You have to show up at the library to pick up a sheet with the various login/password pairs, but once you have that, you're free to call up the information from the comfort of your own home, or at the (significantly more spacious) library floor. I was able to quickly put together the information needed, and the speed with which I got it didn't hurt. Thanks, librarians!
I've just picked up the 9/11 Commission Report. So far it's very educational; I recommend everyone get hold of a copy and at least skim it. Myself, I'm going to read the entire thing. The one thing it lacks is an index; someone has tried to rectify that on the net.
The recent Democratic National Convention was the first time I've actually seen most of a party's convention. This was because I've recently discovered C-SPAN, and they broadcast the convention uninterrupted, without Chris Matthews or Bill O'Reilly or Tom Brokaw or any of those other stuffed shirts getting in the way. It was very interesting and Jessamyn West's commentary from the convention floor and from the Boston Public Library gave an interesting take on what it's like to be there. John Kerry's not my favorite Democratic candidate, but he hit all the right notes in his acceptance speech, so maybe there's hope that Bush will be soundly defeated in November. I'm very curious to see what the history books in 2020 say about the last four years.
I wish I'd heard more about the Green Party National Convention, but on the other hand, I think now might be the time to go back to our original plan of starting with the local and state elections and working our way up.