The Women - the movie

So in writing my review of The Women by T.C. Boyle, I came across what I thought to be a movie trailer. I was thrilled! This book would make an amazing movie - and the trailer, beautiful.

Sadly, when I did some IMDB searching, it turned up nothing. This trailer was not a MOVIE trailer but a BOOK trailer! Crazy.

I must say though, fabulous job folks.

Book 13 - The Women by T.C. Boyle

The latest book club book - T.C. Boyle's The Women is the story of the many loves of Frank Lloyd Wright - thought I must admit that it's not that many when we review the total with today's society in mind. However, any way you slice it, Frank Lloyd Wright was a bit of a cad. For those of you who haven't seen his architectural projects in person, he was also a bit of a genius; not that that's an excuse.



Though it was not my pick for book club, The Women, was a beautiful follow up to one of our last book club books - The Devil in the White City (sorry, no review - 2009). The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is, in addition to being a magnificent book, the story of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and though it is not actually historical fiction, it packs the plot punch and captivating nature of a great novel. The Women, on the other hand, is a piece of historical fiction - yes, Frank Lloyd Wright did have quite the open policy on monogamy but I'm guessing some of the actual conversations are embellished. The books are tied not only by their rivetting (yet at least semi historical) nature but FLW has a cameo in The Devil - he visited the Chicago World's Fair as a youngin. Intrigueing.

The Women itself is fairly melodramatic (which goes over better with me than it did with other readers). There are a lot of altercations and incidents - I kept waiting for someone to get the vapors or faint - but I liked the scandalous story telling nature of the book. And the ending... well I will leave it to you to figure that one out on your own.

Boyle tells the overarching story of FLW's "womanizing" but the book also seems to be the story of a fallout from his first mistress. You find out early on that she died and it seems that he's been a little broken ever since - and yes, of course all of the women in the book are drawn to his genius and his dark, broken, artistic nature (some cliches exist for a reason). To me, he seemes pretty selfish and worthless (at times) but that brings us to the whole bigger topic of art vs. artist and I'm not sure I want to go there.

I'll just say that I really enjoyed this book. It's dense and thick and old fashioned so don't expect to race through it, but it's worth the time. The style fits the subject matter - languishing in the heat, etc. I'll have to check out Boyle's other books while I'm at it.

See what some other folks thought:
Read a review of The Women on 2 Things at Once - I completely agree with the bit about how FLW was made a minor character in his own story!

Listen to Tom Ashbrook's interview with T.C. Boyle

Read the NY Times Review of The Women

Literary Roundup

For those of you who don't know me personally, I'm a relentless link hoarder. I'm trying my best to slim down my delicious tags (not an easy task) and found a good number of (variuously aged) book links. I include them here for your perusal and (hopefully) amusement!

Remember when I wrote about Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter (see my blog post!)? Well, the fun didn't stop there! Check out these additional resources for more information on the alt-lit phenomenon:

• The LA Times Review: 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' and 'Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter'
  

In honor of John Irving's 68th birthday (March 2nd - which I didn't recgonize as I should have!), here are some articles and interviews with my favorite author:

• August Interview with John Irving on Mike's Writing Workshop
  
• 2nd August Interview with John Irving on Mike's Writing Workshop
  
• Short Interview with John Irving from the Boston Phoenix (also includes an MP3 Download of his reading with Brookline Booksmith - that I attended)
  

March 2nd was also Theodore Geisel's birthday - you all might know him as Dr. Seuss.

• Read Bookstore People's Tribute Post
  
• Grab yourself a few Seuss Apps (for your iphone) to celebrate the big day
  
• Pepper your conversations with Seuss quotes
  

A random assortment, I admit. I hope you all enjoyed it!

Book 12 - The Kindness Revolution by Ed Horrell

I read this book a few weeks back and never posted my review but the book has continued to turn around and around in my brain.

The Kindness Revolution is, essentially, a business maxim on why it pays to be decent to your customers rather than treating them like disposable objects (I've drilled it down quite a bit but you get the point). Ed Horrell, the author, works in the capacity of a customer service consultant (from what I can tell) and helps businesses make meaningful changes in the way they run their customer service departments and how they treat their customers.

I picked this book up when I was acting as the customer service department for my last company but what's important to remember that "customer" is just another way of saying "person you come into contact with." The Kindness Revolution is ostensibly a business book but it's really about a personal approach to life. The people who "get it" - those chronicled in the book - don't see work as the only place for kindness. In the end, it's that trait that sets you apart - regardless of what industry you work in.

I know I've complained about business books before (see my review of Outliers) but I was pleasantly surprised at my reaction to The Kindness Revolution. This book actually did what I always hope business books will do - it invigorated me and reaffirmed what I already believed without making me feel like all the information was regurgitated.

And, in case you don't yet believe in the power of kindness, my very own AWESOME customer service experience:
A few weeks back I had my phone stolen out of my hand by a handful of hoodlums in my neighborhood. I was pushed down and incredibly started but unhurt - except that I had lost my 5 months old, very expensive HTC Eris (which I love). We all know cell phone companies dwell in an extra special, dank cave of disgust so I expected to call Verizon and fight for a discounted new phone (full retail is at a ridiculous $500). I was extremely pleased when the customer service rep showed actual concern over my predicament and not only helped me to get a replacement phone (for an extremely reasonable fee) but helped to get it in my hand immediately as I was travelling the next day. Steve made this frustrating, sort of humiliating experience so much the better because I didn't have to feel guilty about "losing" my phone. I've always had fairly okay interactions with Verizon but trust me, nothing to write home about. This one experience has put Verizon in a small group of companies that I will remain loyal to, regardless of what fancy new options are presented to me by other companies. Who else has had this type of interaction with their cell phone company?! Amazing.

Interested in what you've heard?
Check out The Kindness Revolution's Corporate Site
Follow Ed Horrell on Twitter or visit his personal website
Read the DailyGood's 5 Ways to Start a Kindness Revolution at Work

Reaffirming Conferences?

I haven't posted since 3/2!? That is absurd. But, I assure you there has been no resting on my laurels. Things have been pretty intense lately. The pile of books I have read - and not written about yet - is growing; the Dr. Mario world record seems... well... far off. And GMAT? Oh right, I put that down as a goal. Yikes.

Before I dig back in though, I had to write about a conference I went to last week. Through the not-so-new-anymore new job, I was shuttled off to Austin for SXSH - an unconference focused on healthcare and social media. Now I know that "unconference" is the hip, new way to have a conference but this was structured enough not to give me an aneurism but allowed for some great impromptu conversations. P.S. I even spoke at the conference! But that's not my focus for today.

The conference itself was little unnerving for me at first - all those people I didn't know, talking about something that is new to me, etc. But that one day did more to invigorate me and reaffirm my choices than something has in quite awhile. I've always known that I am the type of person that thrives in these types of environments - I always leave with roughly a million ideas to implement - but this was a bit different for a personal, rather than job-specific, reason.

I've been struggling a bit lately with what I see as my "life plan." Don't get me wrong, I love what I am doing and where I am but I'm always looking forward, thinking about my next steps and where I want to be. Goals - you know I love them. And honestly, I've felt a bit lost lately. What do I want to do? What are my major goals? I think about school a lot but I'm not entirely sure what to study and I don't want to go back to school just to have a step.

SXSH was, ironically, a great place for me to be with this state of mind. It's great to be in a room full of passionate, like minded people but more than that, a life path was unveiled to me that... well, I guess I hadn't let myself linger on in the past. It's easy for me to get caught up in definites - "I want to be a VP of marketing," "I want to own my own company." But, I have been known to choose goals based more on notoriety and "success" than my own true callings.

What did I learn? Something that I probably already knew and that might be obvious to those of you who already know me. I do not really want to be a traditional VP of Marketing (though owning my own company still appeals to me!). The things that I do that speak to me, that get me going are the types of consumer/patient advocacy that I have been lucky enough to implement in the last couple of positions. I want to build communities but even more than that, I want to activate people. I want to change the way a person feels or thinks or acts by my interaction with them. I don't have to start a movement or anything but I have to be honest - I'm not all that excited about writing creative briefs.

Is it weird to say that customer service and interaction might be what I want to do for real!? Customer Service + Community Building + Ownership of Consumers.

Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter?

Some of you folks out there might have read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last year. If you're me - you loved it. There was talk that it would be made into a movie but alas, it has not yet come to fruition (slated for 2011 according to IMDB).

That said, I was pretty intrigued when my Google Reader lined up a post by The Daily What outlining a second book by Seth Grahame-Smith - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Whaaaa? Oh dear.

The Daily What supplied a video which I would encourage you to view, though I am not posting it here - I don't want to offend any one's sensibilities (must... avoid... Austen... pun). For those of you who want to watch, here's the link: The Daily What's Book Trailer of the Day. With such a ridiculous trailer, I was confused - is this a movie? a book? What's going on!?

It is indeed a book - as I mentioned, second from Seth Grahame-Smith who landed himself his very own book deal thanks to the hilarious farce he made of Jane Austen's original masterpiece (I mean this in the best way possible) - though there are rumors that this alt-history fiction piece will be made into a movie as well. Quell surprise right?

For those of you who are interested, the book is coming out today (March 2nd!) and you can get it in hardcover from Amazon. Additionally, between you and me, I was shocked at the number of literary mash-ups that are on Amazon these days (Android Karenina? I know I shouldn't find this funny - as an English Major and all - but oh boy, do I!).

Just for fun, here are some reviews to tide you over until the priority shipping comes through:

Hollywood Raw and CNN Entertainment don't seem to share my delight at these literary monstrosities but there's hope for Geek Dad yet.

Super Mario Galaxy #2 - Continued

And just so you didn't think I was cheating you... here's Trailer #2, found on arstechnica and Infendo.

Super Mario Galaxy #2

I know that most of my video game posting has to do with Dr. Mario and a certain record but... I had to share these trailers for Super Mario Galaxy 2 with all of you. I'm a big fan of Super Mario Galaxy (1) which is extremely fun and surprisingly difficult - I'm never good at 3d games... The trailers for the second installment look pretty amazing.

Wii Games - E3 2010 - Super Mario Galaxy 2

Thanks to Twin Galaxies for this one!