Collected Miscellany

UPDATE: Vote for the first book here.
I have decided to try something different and see if it catches on: a blog book club. Here is how it will work:
– I will post three or four books from which to choose. Anyone who wants can then vote by email or comment. I will tally the votes and figure out which book got the most votes.
– I will then I will tally the votes and post the winning book and a time frame for reading it. Anyone who would like to discuss the book can then post comments and questions to that initial post as they are reading.
– After I have read the book and the time given is up, I will post my review of the book. Again, those who are interested can post comments, questions, etc. They can also link their review to the post via trackback or other link system (or at least post a comment with a link to their review).
– If possible I will try to convince some authors to participate in some Q&A, etc.
– In the end you would have an interesting thread of discussion and debate surrounding the book in two easily identifiable posts. Not only is this a chance to read interesting comments on the same book it is a chance to encounter new blogs and people as various readers post their thoughts and links. AS the subject changes so to will the readers – should be a chance for previously unconnected people to interact.

I think this could be a lot of fun. The Blogosphere, or at least a small section of it, can read the same book, debate and discuss the issues it raises, and share links to reviews, ideas, and comments. The possibilities are wide open really, people can make it whatever they want – I will simply facilitate the discussion and provide some ideas to get the process started.

I will post the first batch of book choices soon. So check back and vote! As always any comments, suggestions, and/or ideas are welcome.

I admit I am one the thousands (millions?) of people who will be running out tonight to pick up the brand new Harry Potter book. Does frantically running to the bookstore at midnight for a very large children’s novel make me a geek? If so, so be it. I am what I am. I only wish I would have thought ahead and reserved a copy!

By the way, if you still think Harry Potter is the devil’s handmaiden (if you will pardon the phrase) read this.

When someone first suggested I read Amanda Bright@Home I was a little unsure. I mean isn’t this a book about “women’s issues?” How would I be able to relate to a book about a stay at home mom wrestling with insecurity? I don’t even have kids. (Do I feel guilty about leaving my dogs alone all day? Sure, but that is another topic . . .) So I gave it to a friend who I thought might have more insight into the topic. She read it and enjoyed it and so I thought what the heck I might as well dive in and see what it is all about. I found the topic interesting enough that I wanted to interview the author. Amazingly she was gracious enough to answer some questions. Now that you have read the interview you must be thinking: so what did Kevin think of the book? To try and temper that insatiable thirst for my opinion I know you all have, here is my review.

Amanda Bright@Home is basically two stories woven together, one ?internal? the other ?external.? The internal story explores the insecurities and emotions of a highly educated “feminist,” Amanda Bright, who decides to leave the workplace, stay home, and raise her children. She must do this in the hothouse of Washington D.C.; where politics, power, and gossip make up the air she breathes. This story while influenced and impacted by outside events takes place inside Amanda?s head. It concerns her thoughts, emotions, doubts, and worries. The external story is the flip side. It is the story of how she inadvertently gets sucked up into, and chewed up by, the Washington power game with serious consequences for her husband?s career and even her marriage. This part of the story is driven by the events and people surrounding Amanda. The book alternates its focus between these two plot lines with each putting pressure on the other. The tension between the two holds the book together.

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In my never ending quest for interesting content for you dear reader, I decided to take a page out of John Hawkins? book and do some interviews. At the time I happened to be reading a very interesting book, Amanda Bright@home by Danielle Crittenden, and thought it would be interesting to interview the author. Thanks to the power of email and the graciousness of the author, I was able to arrange a Q & A.

In case you are unaware of who she is, let me give you some background on this impressive author. Besides writing Amanda Bright@Home, the first novel to be serialized by Opinion Journal, she is also the author of What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes The Modern Woman. A former columnist for The New York Post, she is also the founding editor of The Women’s Quarterly, published by the Washington- based Independent Women’s Forum. Miss Crittenden is married to David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush. They have two children and live in Washington.

I will post a review of this interesting book on Tuesday but to wet your appetites please find below a series of questions I posed to the author via email. The questions are in bold and her answers follow.

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I get a great many hits looking for the 100 greatest novels. Lately I have been feeling guilty that when you click through you find no real content just an out of date link. So I have decided to remedy that by listing the novels out and letting you know which I have read. The ones in Bold I have read and the ones in Italic I own (those in both I own and have read). I hope this helps those of you clicking through . . .

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

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After reading One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich I thought this would be a good time to read another slim volume in a similar vein: Richard Pipes’ Modern Library Chronicles’ Communism: A History. I have Brian Crozier’s epic The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire and I want to read Anne Applebaum’s recently released Gulag: A History but Pipes was on the shelf and comes in at less than 200 pages (Crosier is almost 850). Plus the Modern Library series is so cool and handy; short works by respected authors on important subjects all packaged in classy hardback volumes.

One thing to keep in mind, however, in a volume like this is that it is an overview not a complete analysis. Obviously a subject like communism cannot be covered in depth in a short work like this but Pipes packs a lot of wisdom into his pages. Starting from ancient Greek thoughts on a classless and egalitarian society and ending with the demise of the Soviet Union and the strange anachronisms like Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam Pipes traces the destructive and cruel history of the utopian scheme of communism. For the purposes of his discussion Pipes focuses on the core Marxist-Leninist version of communism and in particular the Soviet Union. This makes sense given the impact and centrality of the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union in the History of 20th Century communism. Within this history, however, Pipes discusses both the Western and Third World reaction to and involvement in communism’s history. Pipes explores communism as a global phenomenon.

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