johnpierce.us Blog

The Guest List: How Manhattan Defined American Sophistication–from the Algonquin Round Table to Truman Capote's Ball by Ethan Mordden has interesting moments but I did not find the book entirely satisfactory. If the word “when” were substituted for “how” in the title, the title would be less misleading. If the book tells how Manhattan defined American sophistication, I missed it, perhaps through careless reading, since there were many pages that I skimmed over quickly because I did not think I would find them interesting. The book covers the period from the 1920's to the 1960's in twelve chapters that tell about people such as Dorothy Parker, Charles Lindbergh, Fiorello La Guardia, Ethel Waters, Cole Porter, and Truman Capote. The book is not very much more than a series of more or less interesting anecdotes. The presentation is similar to that of Mr. Mordden’s books about various decades of the Broadway musical, but represents a movement away from the author's field of expertise. I have the impression that Mr. Mordden wrote the book for the sake of writing another book, since writing books is what he does, but it demonstrates more competence than inspiration. The book is worth borrowing from the public library for summer reading, but I would not recommend buying it.

“A 2010 book entitled DSK: Les secrets d’un présidentiable (DSK:Secrets of a presidential contender) by an anonymous French author who goes by the pseudonym ‘Cassandre’, alleges that IMF head and accused rapist Dominique Strauss-Kahn raped a maid in a hotel in Mexico while on a business trip.”–guanabee.com

Mexicana, entre víctimas de agresión sexual de Strauss-Kahn — eluniversal.com.mx

I finished skimming through the book Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter by Antonia Fraser. Famed biographer Lady Antonia Fraser has put together a book about her relationship with playwright Harold Pinter from 1975 (when they met) until 2008 (when Pinter died). Most of the book consists of diary entries.

Both were married to others when they met. After divorcing their spouses, they eventually married, in a civil ceremony. When several years later both ex-spouses had died, the couple solemnized their marriage in a Catholic ceremony. The book is not especially interesting, but it it is worth borrowing from a public library to read some of the pages and to skim over others. I would not recommend buying the book. Not much substance. Not much explanation. A certain amount of name-dropping. These people don’t have lunch or dinner with just anybody! But if the other diners are untitled, that’s OK. Lady Antonia will expect the best seat as an earl’s daughter.

Heresy: an Elizabethan Thriller by S. J. Parris is a mystery novel set in the reign of Elizabeth I. Giordano Bruno, a philosopher and former Catholic monk who has fled the Inquisition, is visiting Oxford University, secretly in the employ of Elizabeth I’s secretary of state Sir Francis Walsingham. Bruno is to spy on scholars who may secretly be Catholics who are plotting treason. Mysterious murders occur, and Bruno becomes involved in the investigation. I enjoyed reading the book, but would characterize it as OK and less than great.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know about Schools and Rediscover Education by Clark Aldrich

A pleasant brief read, this thought-provoking book provides fifty-five rules for unschooling. It will be of especial interest to those interested in the home schooling of children.

Product Description

While most schools continue to resist change, homeschooling families have abandoned the K-12 system and identified new, powerful, commonsense methods and goals for childhood education.

Education expert Clark Aldrich has explored the practices of homeschoolers and unschoolers (those who eschew the structure or curricula of schools) and distilled a list of 55 ”rules,” like the following, that are changing both the way children are taught and our vision for schools.

* Learn to be; learn to do; learn to know.
* Tests don’t work. Get over it. Move on.
* What a person learns in a classroom is how to be a person in a classroom.

* Animals are better than books about animals.
* Internships, apprenticeships, and interesting jobs beat term papers, textbooks, and tests.
* The only sustainable answer to the global education challenge is a diversity of approaches.

This accessible book provides you with a path forward, whether you’re a parent or teacher, a school administrator, or a national policy decision maker.

–amazon.com

About the Author

Clark Aldrich is a global education thought leader, labeled a guru by Fortune Magazine. He works with corporate, military, government, and academic organizations at both the board level and as a hands-on implementer. His projects have been patent winning and earned millions globally. He is the author of four earlier books and scores of articles; is the recipient of numerous industry awards; created dozens of educational simulations (including the most popular leadership simulation in the world); was the founder of Gartner’s eLearning coverage; and has a degree in Cognitive Science from Brown University. His work has been featured in hundreds of sources, including CBS, ABC, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, CNET, Business 2.0, BusinessWeek, and U.S. News and World Reports.

–amazon.com

Paperback, amazon.com

Kindle edition, amazon.com

I have read about a third of the book Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience by Sharon Salzberg. The author is described on the back cover as “a renowned meditation instructor who has been practicing and studying Buddhism for more than thirty years.” I would not normally write about a book before finishing it, but I suspect I may never finish this book even though it is not very long, 176 pages. The book is somewhat rambling, without any clear focus, at times autobiographical. The author’s main idea seems to be that meditation can make one’s life less uncomfortable. The idea may well be true, but the book does not present the idea or make the case for it in a way that I find interesting. To equate such an idea with “faith” somehow seems like a trivialization of the concept of faith.