Collected Miscellany

Pick this new piece of fiction up from Harvest House Publishers and you’ll likely find that The Cubicle Next Door (or TCND for short) is similar to drinking 7UP – light, crisp, clean, refreshing…you get it. With a premise most hourly employees in corporate America have experienced at one time or another – sharing a workspace *shudder* – TCND is bound to elicit at least one, if not more good laughs from those who open its pages.

The main character, Jackie Pert Harrison is down to earth, in your face and just plain likable. Life for Jackie is rolling along at a very comfortable pace. She suddenly finds half her workspace occupied by someone who will turn her world upside-down, challenge her conservative and calculated tendencies, and cause her to face every difficult thing she has ever stuffed away in the dark places of her heart. All in all, a very heart-warming story.

Continue reading →

Pick this new piece of fiction up from Harvest House Publishers and you’ll likely find that The Cubicle Next Door (or TCND for short) is similar to drinking 7UP – light, crisp, clean, refreshing…you get it. With a premise most hourly employees in corporate America have experienced at one time or another – sharing a workspace *shudder* – TCND is bound to elicit at least one, if not more good laughs from those who open its pages.

The main character, Jackie Pert Harrison is down to earth, in your face and just plain likable. Life for Jackie is rolling along at a very comfortable pace. She suddenly finds half her workspace occupied by someone who will turn her world upside-down, challenge her conservative and calculated tendencies, and cause her to face every difficult thing she has ever stuffed away in the dark places of her heart. All in all, a very heart-warming story.

Continue reading →

In preparation for The Game, I started reading The Ten Year War: Ten Classic Games Between Bo and Woody by Joel Pennington. Always good to get some historical perspective.

Here is a brief description (although the title is rather self-explanatory):

Relive the glorious victories and the crushing defeats through the memories of dozens of Michigan and Ohio State greats like Bo Schembechler, Archie Griffin, Rick Leach, Rex Kern, Rob Lytle, Earle Bruce, Gary Moeller, John Hicks, Thom Darden, Randy Gradishar, Dennis Franklin, Tom Cousineau, Reggie McKenzie, Jim Otis, and many others.

With nearly 50 photographs and countless detailed accounts of the inside stories of the games, you’ll almost be able to hear the pads colliding. Each chapter captures the plays, the calls, the controversies, and the story of each game.

This book also traces the unique relationship between Bo and Woody from player-coach to intense competitors and beyond. Youll see their fierce motivational techniques as well as the genuine care they had for their players.

Whether youre a fan of Ohio State or Michigan, you’ll want to own a copy of “The Ten Year War: Ten Classic Games Between Bo and Woody.”

If you haven’t already, go out and vote.

Waterloo by Andrew Roberts is a concise history of the battle that may have changed the world. Roberts is able to sum up the Waterloo campaign and the shortcomings of its participants in less than 200 pages.

The book generally covers the days leading up to the Battle of Waterloo (including brief explanations of the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras), the actual battle itself, and the major mistakes of Napoleon, Wellington, and their subordinate generals.

Roberts does an excellent job in summarizing the book in a short, easy to read format that gives even a novice of the battle the key points of the battle. As many analyses of the battle go, Roberts breaks the battle into five easy to follow parts. Although not chronological, these parts follow the major attacks (which occurred sometimes simultaneously on different areas of the battlefield) on that fateful day.

Don’t let the fact that this is another book covering a battle that has been analyzed to death fool you – Roberts is still able to bring in new research. He brings forth a letter, recently discovered, that explains how the fateful attack of the French cavalry led by Marshal Ney – one of the many French mistakes that contributed to their loss at Waterloo – began (a shifting of the cavalry line that started the eventual charge).

I think this book is essential for any reader who wants a brief overview of the battle and a brief analysis of why the British and their allies defeated the French.

Long time readers of this site will know that I lean heavily to the lazy side of life. I am easily distracted and lack focus; I have long bouts of melancholy combined with delusions of deep insight and eloquence. This blog is kept a float by an addiction to books and inertia. I mention this because I recently finished reading Not Enough Indians by Harry Shearer and am not sure exactly what to say about it.

Searching for inspiration, I thought it might be interested to compare the reviews and comments posted at Amazon. After all this is what a potential reader would see if they went to the worlds largest online bookseller contemplating purchasing said book. Why not compare and contrast the opinions there and then offer my take? The result is below.

Dueling book reviews – professional edition :
From Publishers Weekly

Shearer, probably best known for his work on The Simpsons and This Is Spinal Tap, sets his farcical first novel in the world of Native American–owned casinos. After being “savaged by downsizing, by outsourcing, by plant-closing,” the citizens of withering Gammage, N.Y., successfully petition Washington to be recognized as the Filaquonsett tribe so they can build a casino. Their gambling operation has a negative impact on the casino of a neighboring tribe, and that tribe settles the score by having a toxic waste dump built next to the Filaquonsett casino. It’s a silly setup, and Shearer uses it to beat home points about greed, materialism and ethnic identity. The book often becomes a morass of easy one-liners (“the process was proceeding at a pace that glaciers and snails would envy”). Stereotypes about Italian-Americans and Native Americans similarly fail to go over the top, instead occupying the queasy middle ground between funny and unfortunate. One bit of inspired nonsense involves a group of diaper-wearing grownups (they consider holding DiaperCon XII in the Filaquonsett reservation), but the scatological humor won’t be enough to pull readers through.

From Booklist

Prolific comic actor and writer Shearer, a Saturday Night Live alumnus and the voice of more than a dozen characters on The Simpsons, lodges tongue firmly in cheek for this wickedly funny debut novel. The fictional town of Gammage, New York, seems on the brink of financial ruin until one of its citizens proposes a fiendishly clever plan: petition for Indian tribal status, open a casino, and bask in the glow of cash flow. The “long-lost” Filaquonsett tribe is soon up and running, despite the fact that there’s not a Native American in the bunch. From mercurial casino magnates to buzz-cut government drones, Shearer pokes merciless fun at human foibles. There’s irony-deficient Gammage school superintendent Roger Gardner, who uses product placement to turn a profit at local schools; Jewish Indian casino owner Joseph Catspaw, obsessed with collecting bad TV figurines; and Indian Affairs bureaucrat Hap Matthews, who would “fade into the woodwork if only the woodwork weren’t so colorful.” Though Shearer’s ending falls a bit flat, readers can bet on lots of guffaws along the way.

Continue reading →

A month or so ago you may recall that I mentioned a contest surrounding the soon to be released The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. There was a bit of a kerfluffle surrounding the marketing of said contest and book (see here, here, and here). Given all of the hype and discussion, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to actually read the book.

What I found was an enjoyable Gothic suspense novel. As is so often the case, the expectations you bring will determine your reaction to a great degree. Those looking for entertainment and lively writing will enjoy The Thirteenth Tale. Those seeking something deeper might be disappointed.

Continue reading →