Another Doctorow paperback pickup, Eastern Standard Tribe thrilled me more than his earlier novel. With a simple yet imaginative idea, Doctorow makes corporate espionage seem like a new story. The concept — that allegiances and tastes run by time zone, not nation-state — is presented as fact, not explained…which is for the best. Just set…

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This business book was a freebie, and I got little more than what I paid for it. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing just isn’t new stuff after a decade-plus of different people (notably Seth Godin) telling us how marketing is changing. I suppose the lessons and anecdotes presented…

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Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom was Cory Doctorow’s first novel. More famous (to me) for being given away for free in many digital formats, Down and Out appeared to me in physical form, as a paperback I picked up off a neighborhood book table this fall. Imaginative story, more of a novella than…

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Until this summer, I never picked up any of the “50 million copies in print” of W.E.B. Griffin’s novels. In Danger’s Path is one of The Corps series, and the American military in World War II is able to get some people and radios into the deserts of China. There’s a lot along the way,…

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Sitting on the shelf at a quiet moment this summer, Assembling California by John McPhee beckoned once again. (My first read was before I started clock.) McPhee’s quiet, steady gaze at a topic feeds a similar curiosity in the reader, even about topics previously unconsidered. This story is how California arrived at its current physical…

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(Note: I’m six months late in starting to catch up with my reading this past summer. Every journey starts with a single step, and all that. I started this post in June.) Eighteen months after seeing the movie, I read Atonement with interest. The book drenched me in gloom, but in such a way that…

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Not planned, but found myself doing anything and everything but updating the blog this summer. More than a dozen books and a handful of movies await a capsule review, or at least an aside. School starts for the kids today, and the education from our adhesive customers is in the near future. Oh, and a…

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I spent a recent Tuesday evening watching Star Trek, the new movie with the old name. The Batman refresh opened doors for this movie. Adding in J.J. Abrams as director, at the height of his powers (and clout), gave Star Trek a great platform to go where we’ve all gone before, gladly. My immediate reaction?…

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My high school coaches impressed upon me very clearly the importance of getting a good night’s sleep the night before the night before a race or competition. The theory — which I subscribe to — is that nerves and anticipation may disrupt your sleep on the eve of the event. Accept that, and don’t worry…

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Rudo y Cursi was an unknown quantity when I entered the theater. A Mexican film (with subtitles) about two soccer-playing brothers, Rudo y Cursi mimics an earthier, adult Hoop Dreams. But it’s not a documentary: too raw and real to be anything but fiction. This simple film delights in the very human flaws of the…

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