Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

John wrote: "Larry, I read the piece. It is actually rather alarming. Goodreads is getting no investment and gets more archaic day by day."

It's hard to understand. Amazon does seem to be sucking all the information that they can out of GoodReads with no effort made to improve the site ... which presumably could actually generate more and better information.

Thanks so much, Lance. I know I'll be checking on what you post. So ... any guesses on where Ohtani lands ... I'm betting the Giants or the Dodgers. I don't think that if the Angels just make the playoffs, it will be enough to keep him. If they managed to make the World Series, that would be something else.

John, I have to confess that the only Leonard Cohen album I listened to in its entirety was his last one. And my three favorite Canadian musicians are Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Gordon Lightfoot. Remnick is such a good writer that he makes this article incredibly interesting about someone that I don’t care about very much.

John, I agree with all those comments.

The Washington Post explores what’s wrong with GoodReads since Amazon bought it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/techno...

Great, Lance! With your broad and deep sports expertise, you bring something to this group that no one else really has.

A great beginning, Cynda. I'll check this regularly!

I love the interplay between Cohen and Dylan :

"He asked Cohen how long it took him to write [Hallelujah]. “Two years,” Cohen lied. Actually, “Hallelujah” had taken him five years. He drafted many dozens of verses and then it was years more before he settled on a final version. In several writing sessions, he found himself in his underwear, banging his head against a hotel room floor. Cohen told Dylan, “I really like ‘I and I,’ ” a song that appeared on Dylan’s album Infidels. “How long did it take you to write that?” “About fifteen minutes,” Dylan said.

Remnick, David. Holding the Note (pp. 23-24). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

And you can tell that Dylan deeply understands the music of Cohen: "

“His gift or genius is in his connection to the music of the spheres,” Dylan went on. “In the song ‘Sisters of Mercy,’ for instance, the verses are four elemental lines which change and move at predictable intervals…but the tune is anything but predictable. The song just comes in and states a fact. And after that anything can happen and it does, and Leonard allows it to happen."

Remnick, David. Holding the Note (p. 25). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. "

The one thing I would add is not to count on Dylan to tell the truth. As much as I admire him and his work, I often find that I don't believe him.

John wrote: "Interesting. I remember David Crosby having harsh words about record company executives, but he also went out of his way to praise Ahmet Ertegun.

Neil Young seemed to have an up and down relations..."

Columbia really mistreated the Byrds, and David Crosby was not the only member of that great group that felt like that. Roger McGuinn actually gave Senate testimony (before the Senate Finance Committee) and stated that the Byrds never were paid for albums beyond the advance that they were given for each album. The "creative accounting" that record companies and movie studios have used to keep most of the money is just about criminal. I do think that the best way for creative artists to keep what they earn is not to sign with a major label. It works well for the superstars and that's about it. But if you don't have the promotion that comes from a major label, traditionally it has been hard to get an audience. In the age of Tik-Tok that is changing.

Some random thoughts are waiting to be shared here.

NONFICTION READING - ONLY THE BEST

Newsletter -- JULY 2023

* BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE
* BOOK OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE
* BUDDY READS ... WITH COMMENTS ON VACLAV SMIL AND HENRY PETROSKI

***

JULY BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE

The July Book of the Month is David Quammen's Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus.

LINK TO THE DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Why are we reading David Quammen's Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus?

The Covid-19 pandemic is behind us and the Covid-19 pandemic is not behind us. Quammen examines the details of the spread of the disease and also why this coronavirus was so deadly. It is comprehensive and yet it mentions some of the mysteries that remain. And it is worth saying that it is very well written.

The NYT Book Review had this to say about this book: "Compelling and terrifying ... Breathless is so good that I was slow to realize that it lacks the vivid you-are-there details of Spillover. That’s because he wasn’t there ... A different species of tour de force ... These barriers didn’t prevent him from writing a luminous, passionate account of the defining crisis of our time — and the unprecedented international response to it ... Quammen marries an old-fashioned love of colorful language to his passion for detail — an odd coupling that results not just in a lucid book about an important topic, but also in a book that’s a pleasure to read."

***

JUNE BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE

The June Book of the Month is Elizabeth Kolbert’s Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.

LINK TO THE DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

***

JULY BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE

Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge by Thomas Fleming

LINK TO THE DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The blurb is from the publisher, but it starts with a comment from the great Gordon S. Wood:

"A superb retelling of the story of Valley Forge and its aftermath, demonstrating that reality is far more compelling than myth." - Gordon S. Wood The defining moments of the American Revolution did not occur on the battlefield or at the diplomatic table, writes New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, but at Valley Forge. Fleming transports us to December 1777. While the British army lives in luxury in conquered Philadelphia, Washington's troops huddle in the barracks of Valley Forge, fending off starvation and disease even as threats of mutiny swirl through the regiments."

***

UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE

August 2023 - Judith A. Green - The Normans: Power, Conquest and Culture in 11th Century Europe

September 2023 - Carl Zimmer - A Planet of Viruses

October 2023 - Elizabeth Pisani - Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation

November 2023 - Peter Zeihan - The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

December 2023 - Michael Ruhlman - Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America

January 2024 - Michael Herr - Dispatches

February 2024 - Michael J. Sandel - Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

March 2024 - Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration

***

UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE

This will be different than in most (maybe all) of the other GoodReads book groups. First of all, no automated polls.

More important is that you get to vote on the choice ONLY if you nominate a book. But to make this easy … if you can't think of a book you want to nominate, you can just nominate the same book that someone else has already nominated for that month. I’m really looking for participation and want to aid that. Discussion is encouraged throughout the nominations and voting. THINK OF THIS AS A CAUCUS.

I would hope that the person who nominates a book that is chosen will actively participate in the discussion. You don’t have to lead that discussion, but if you do, that’s great.

Beginning on July 1, I will call for nominations for the Monthly Reading - Members’ Choice for August. On July 11, I will call for votes among the books nominated from any and all who participated in the nomination process. On July 21, I will announce the winner. That book will be the August Members’ Choice Book of the Month. In case of ties, I will choose the winner.

Each month will follow a similar process.

LINK TO THE PROCESS FOR NOMINATIONS AND SELECTIONS: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

LINK TO THE NOMINATIONS FOR THE AUGUST MEMBERS' CHOICE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

***

BUDDY READS - If you want to read any (or almost any ... I have some limits) books with someone else here, I will set up folders for doing just that. Just propose a book that you would like to read as a Buddy Read along with any details, e.g. when you want to start and how long you want the discussion to continue.

I'll set up a topic/thread for a proposed buddy reads when someone proposes a book and someone else opts in for the shared reading experience ... or in some cases, even before someone accepts the invitation.

Here's a link to the Buddy Read folder, with a number of ongoing Buddy Reads:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

I would like to call attention to one Buddy Read especially, that is How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil. Jeffrey nominated this one for the Book of the Month -Members' Choice for July and graciously said that he would be happy to read it as a Buddy Read when we had a tie in the voting. There are not enough books like this one. Bill Gates has mentioned that he has read every one of Vaclav Smil's 36 books and that he looks forward to each new one "the way some people wait for the next Star Wars movie."

The Buddy Read folder for this book is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I find it odd that while many disciplines, e.g. the separate sciences and economics, have seen a virtual explosion in the number of books written for a popular audience, this is not true for engineering. We need our modern world, which is built on engineering and technology to be explained to us. The engineer who I think best did this was Henry Petroski, who died on June 14, 2023. His NYT Obituary said this: "His other books include “The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts — From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers — Came to Be as They Are” (1992); “Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design” (2003); and “To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure” (2012), which continues where “To Engineer Is Human” ended, with analyses of the loss of NASA’s two space shuttles, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and other epic engineering fails."

A few weeks ago, I picked up Petroski's The Book on the Bookshelf. It's a brilliant look at just what the title implies ... why are books constructed like they are and why are bookshelves built to hold them the way they are. It goes back in history to the beginning of books and the beginning bookshelves ... and it's even fun to read.

However, maybe the best writing we have to explain our modern world is still Vaclav Smil. His Ph.D. is in geography and not engineering, and so his works, as good as they are may be probably miss things that an engineer might see and explain. We need more engineers like Henry Petroski to explain our modern world to us!

Good Reading!

Larry, Founder and Moderator

Nominate here (in this thread) any book you wish to be chosen as the August BOTM - Members Choice. Only those members who nominate a book or second a nomination will be allowed to vote. (Consider this process to be a caucus.) Discussion is encouraged throughout the process.

Nominations open on July 1 and close on July 10.
Voting begins on July 11 and closes on July 20.

Carol, I will also read along with this book!

I went to Barnes & Noble about a week ago with my granddaughters and bought them some books. Previously I had taken them to an independent bookstore, but the new CEO of B&N is giving great authority to the managers of each B&N to operate with independence and using their judgment to order stock for they feel are the tastes of their locality.

This thread is for the discussion of Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge

From the publisher but it starts with a comment from the great Gordon S. Wood:

"A superb retelling of the story of Valley Forge and its aftermath, demonstrating that reality is far more compelling than myth." - Gordon S. Wood The defining moments of the American Revolution did not occur on the battlefield or at the diplomatic table, writes New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, but at Valley Forge. Fleming transports us to December 1777. While the British army lives in luxury in conquered Philadelphia, Washington's troops huddle in the barracks of Valley Forge, fending off starvation and disease even as threats of mutiny swirl through the regiments."

This folder is for the discussion of Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen.

From the NYT Book Review: "Compelling and terrifying ... Breathless is so good that I was slow to realize that it lacks the vivid you-are-there details of Spillover. That’s because he wasn’t there ... A different species of tour de force ... These barriers didn’t prevent him from writing a luminous, passionate account of the defining crisis of our time — and the unprecedented international response to it ... Quammen marries an old-fashioned love of colorful language to his passion for detail — an odd coupling that results not just in a lucid book about an important topic, but also in a book that’s a pleasure to read."

I will be getting back to this book tomorrow! A promise!

I've been reading about popular music for more than 50 years ... it's so easy to find articles and written pieces that tell you important things that are well know things, but it's not so easy to find ones that tell you important things about an artists that are not so well known. In the chapter on Leonard Cohen it's one thing after another that are both important and even revelatory.

That said, it's worth noting the one story that I had indeed heard before ... simply because it's so important.

"In the early eighties, when he presented his record company with Various Positions—a magnificent album that included “Hallelujah,” “Dance Me to the End of Love,” and “If It Be Your Will”—Walter Yetnikoff, the head of CBS Records, argued with him about the mix. “Look, Leonard,” he said, “we know you’re great, but we don’t know if you’re any good.” Eventually, Cohen learned that CBS had decided not to release the album in the U.S. Years later, accepting an award, he thanked his record company by saying, “I have always been touched by the modesty of their interest in my work.”

Remnick, David. Holding the Note (pp. 30-31). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. "

That story makes me think about what William Goldman said about the movie industry: "“Nobody knows anything...... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one.” " The same thing is true for most--although not all--music albums.

John, I read a few pages two days ago … I’ll read the first chapter (on Leonard Cohen) today.

This thread is for John and Larry (and any others) to discuss David Remnick's book, Holding the Note: Profiles in Popular Music.