Review: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. This book was *extremely* well researched. It retained my interest throughout, despite the legal issues he had, and the ups and downs of his professional life. I found myself researching many of his old videos, as well as his animatronic Abraham Lincoln model (look it up). 

4.5 stars

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Review: Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author basically equates your brand message with a movie, and, using movie plots, shows you how to structure the message. It seems a bit of a stretch, to be honest, but it is very well structured and I took quite a few notes so I'm curious to see how it works. We'll see...

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Review: The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia: Corn Sugar and Blood

The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia: Corn Sugar and Blood by Rick Porrello
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been enjoying reading about the mob in peripheral cities (Milwaukee and Denver/Pueblo), and Cleveland was no exception. The author is a former policeman who is descended from one of the original Cleveland mafia families, so he seemed to have some good insight. 

I was amazed I hadn't heard more about the Cleveland Mafia, to tell the truth, seeing as how Capone, Luciano and others had dealings with it, and that Profaci, Mangano and others were arrested there for what seems like a precursor to the Appalachian conference. 

Regardless, if you're interested in reading about the Cleveland Mafia this will be a great book for precisely that. It could possibly do with an update, since Angelo Lonardo has died and presumably there have been further changes in the Cleveland Mafia. 

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Review: The Midnight Library

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very interesting premise. It slowed down a bit in the middle, but then picked up, and kept me thinking about the central idea for a few days after having finished it, although I did have a couple of issues with the ending. 

Let's say 4.25 stars

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Review: Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes

Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes by Philip Freeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is frankly too much to believe I'll remember the names and actions of even half of these myths. However, for the most part they were still entertaining, especially the Welsh myths. 

But so many problems could have been averted if the kings, warriors and rulers (all men) didn't have their misplaced machismo and didn't constantly want to prove how tough/manly they were. Then again, I guess this is true for myths of all cultures. 

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Review: Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter

Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter by 50 Cent
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This has some excellent advice with some incredible stories. 

As always, some of the advice can be found in other books, just packaged in a different way. But this book seems to be more self-aware than many. For example, 50 cent talks about how, after reading Robert Green's 48 laws of power, only one really stuck with him (never outshine your superiors), and it served him really well over the years. Likewise, he hopes we find at least one of his rules that resonates with us and we can carry along with us. 

Some of my notes:

“Fear dominates most people’s lives. Fear of loss. Fear of failure. Fear of the unknown. Fear of loneliness.”

The thing most people are comfortable with is fear. If you're afraid of flying, you don't fly. If you're scared of going for it, you don't go for it. This is very dangerous. 

“If you’ve put in the work, and know your shit, raise your damn hand!”

You can be really smart, but you need to speak up otherwise others won't know. 

You may out-rhyme me, and even out-smart me, but you'll never out-hustle me. 

The story about vitamin water is interesting

Very interesting how/why other rappers around him didn't make it

If he comes up with a good rhyme now, he'll give it to a young rapper with tight jeans and facial tattoos, because no one will want to hear it from him. 

His anecdote about Mike Pence's "won't eat with a woman without my wife present" is very interesting. 

He leaked his "album" to bootleggers to create buzz, which seems like a great strategy. 

He mentions how competition is good, and he seems to make use of it from the underdog point of view. He will shoot for something doing better (targeting GoT when he has his show Power). He knows he won't win that battle, but it will get him more viewers and more buzz. 

He also mentioned the tour in Switzerland where I saw him! (in passing but whatev)

And boy, what a life. 

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by 50 cent. 

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Review: Mycroft and Sherlock

Mycroft and Sherlock by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't at all sure what to expect, but I enjoyed this book throughout. I realize it isn't the first in the series, but I don't think it deterred from the story at all (I figured out pretty quickly Mycroft and Cyrus had had some adventure in Trinidad in the first one). 

This deals with Chinese immigrants in London, at a time when they first started appearing. 

4.5 stars

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Review: The Classical Music Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

The Classical Music Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by Katie Derham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I cannot for the life of me fathom why they would release an audiobook about classical music without any music. I understand this was originally a print book, but if they went through the trouble of professionally narrating it, and as far as I can tell pretty much every piece of music discussed is in the public domain, I don't understand why they wouldn't add the music. Especially given that there are certain lines like these: 

"The apparently unrelated chords of F, B, D# and G# form the basis for the work's harmonic instability." 

"...landing not merely in a key (E major) unrelated to the first chord (B flat), but a diminished 5th (a semitone less than a 5th) below it, resulting in a tri-tone, an interval in 3 tones"

"each chord is to be appreciated for the sensuality of its sound"

One can only really follow if they know the pieces by heart, or if they can listen to them. Granted, I can go online and find these (and I did for several), but I often cannot, like when I'm driving, etc. I can't help thinking it was just laziness. 

So, aside from this the book was very interesting, although much of it seemed to be over my head. 

Some of my notes:

Jacopo Peri apparently created the first opera (Dafne, and the first that still exists, Euripide). He worked for the De Medici family, which means the De Medici brought us the first opera, as well as, you know, the renaissance. 

Henry Purcell probably would have started opera in England had he not died early. In the end it was the german Handel (who performed for King George on a boat in the Thames). 

I want to read more about Stravinsky and the first performance of Le Sacre du printemps

"1912: Igor Stravinsky pastes a cord of a dominant 7th on E flat over a cord of F flat major and causes an outrage"

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Review: The Genesis Code

The Genesis Code by John Case
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you can get this at a decent price my recommendation is to read it without reading the blurb and without reading my review either. Not that I have any spoilers, but I think just diving into it is the best bet. 

That's what I did. I had had this book in my library forever (it had been on my Amazon wishlist since 2004), and had no idea what it was about (I thought it might be some biblical analysis). Anyway, it was worth it. 

Ok so, since this was written in 1997, the Davinci Code was definitely copied from this, right? 

I guess in many ways they're completely different, but still. 

Regardless, I'm pretty sure I enjoyed this much more. It did last a bit longer than I would have liked (how many countries did he have to travel to in Europe really?), but I really liked the denouement. 

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Review: Agostino

Agostino by Alberto Moravia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A decent novel, but not much more. I admit I expected more from it. 

It is the coming of age summer for a 13 year old on the beach in Tuscany. But this coming of age involves mainly sexual undertones, and odd ones at that (verging on oedipal and verging on pedophilia).

The backdrop reminded me very much of my summers in Versilia. Local kids hanging around the beach with nothing to do, etc. 

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Review: White Flamingo

White Flamingo by Andrés Felipe Solano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite a good short story. I'll be keeping an eye out for other books by this author. 

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Review: Myths, Lies and Half-Truths of Language Usage

Myths, Lies and Half-Truths of Language Usage by John McWhorter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another excellent book by John McWhorter. This one concentration on the English language, past, present and future. 

Here are some of my notes:

So apparently the Angles, Saxons and Jutes weren't the first Germanic people to cross over to England. At that time there were settlements of Frisians already living in the Southeast. I had no idea. Although now that I think about it it makes sense since English is in fact closer to Frisian than any of the other low German dialects. 

He mentions an Italian dialect called "Monese" which I cannot for the life of me find any trace of. If anyone knows where this could be from please let me know. The closest I could get would be Cremonese (maybe Creo-Monese and drop the Creo?) or possibly a dialect from Monno, although that would be the dialetto Camuno (a type of Lombard) I guess. 

You shouldn't say "Ain't I" if you're educated. But you shouldn't say "Amn't I", so what do you say? "Aren't I?". Except that is non-sensical (Are not I?)

I want to read more about Robert Lowthe and William Cobbett, and their prescriptive recommendations for English usage. 

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Review: Granta 127: Japan

Granta 127: Japan by Yuka Igarashi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interesting collection, although in some cases the connection to Japan was tenuous at best. In fact, now that I think about it, the story Final Fantasy III by Tao Lin may have been making fun of this collection, as the author is a Taiwanese-American who needs to write a short story about Japan. 

My favorite stories were:

A Clean Marriage, Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, Spider Lilies, Pig Skin, Scavengers, and possibly After the War, Before the War. 

Anyway, here are some of my notes for each story (PROBABLY CONTAINS SPOILERS):

A Clean Marriage, by Sayaka Murata: Interesting, odd, weird. I liked it. A man and woman decide to have a "clean marriage" (completely platonic). Things get complicated when they decide to have a child. 

Breakfast, by Toshiki Okada: Kind of odd. I didn't dislike it. A wife leaves her husband to work in Fukushima. The story takes place when she returns to break things off forever with the husband. The husband is understanding. The narration is a bit odd (on purpose).

Variations on a Theme by Mister Donut, by David Mitchell. This is by David Mitchell, whose name I always notice in bookstores because I think it's the comedian. Anyway, interesting premise, involving the same incidents through various points of view, all taking place inside a Mister Donut. Maybe it's just me, but many of the characters seemed stereotypical portrayals. 

Linked, by Ruth Ozeki: By a half Japanese half american, about her grandfather, including a photo of him. 

Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, by Kyoko Nakajima: Probably my favorite thus far. A man goes to visit his brother suffering from Alzheimer's in an old folks' home. Told through the present and flashbacks. 

Final Fantasy III, by Tao Lin: Meh. A Taiwanese-American asks his parents their thoughts on the Japanese

Primal Mountain: I mean, ok...

Blue Moon, by Hiromi Kawakami. I'm a fan of Kawakami's. This story seemed more autobiographical than anything. The narrator gets diagnosed with a tumor (90% chance it is malignant, 10% chance of survival if it is). She then heads to a literature conference in Russia. 

The Japanese Firefly Squid, by Kimiko Hahn: A poem

Spider Lilies, by Hiroko Oyamada: I liked this one. I'm curious to read more by the author. Oh, I just realized she's the author of The Factory!

The Beauty of the Package, by Pico Iyer. Interesting. More of an armchair anthropological study of a Japanese wedding. 

Pig Skin, by Andres Felipe Solano: I enjoyed this one. A creative premise and follow-through. I'm curious about this author's other work

Printable, by Toh Enjoe: This story wrinkled my brain. It was too meta and labyrinthine for me. 

After the War, Before the War, by David Peace: Interesting. Seems to be the beginning of a (possible fictionalized) biography about Ryunosuke Akutagawa. I might want to read it all when it is written. Also, turns out I had written another piece by the same author in The Book of Leeds.

Scavengers, by Adam Johnson. Having visited North Korea, it was interesting to read about someone else's experience. And I'm glad I was able to actually obtain something made there (I think), unlike the author. 

The Dogs, by Yukiko Motoya: I had already read this one in Motoya's short story collection. 

Arrival Gates, by Rebecca Solnit: This was obviously a very important experience for the author. I'm not sure I felt the same. Although I really want to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine now. 

Pink, by Tomuyuki Hoshino: That was weird. There was some symbolism there - I think for the evils of progress - which I didn't really get. It is ultra hot in Tokyo, so people start spinning clockwise to cool off. 

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