Gang Leader For a Day - Sudhir Venkatesh
I wrote a bit about Venkatesh last year when I read "The Underground Economy" a sociological/athropological book about economic networks in American Ghettoes. This was essentially a more accessable version of that written for a broader audience, and framed basically as a memoir of his experiences doing field work in the projects of Chicago. I was reading this during the time that a few more fake-memoir scandals erupted, so read it with a skeptical eye, though no complaints have been lodged against Venkatesh. Anyway, this book was enjoyable and quite informative about the people and culture of our forgotten and oppressed housing project dwellers, though I would be reluctant to generalize from his observations which were about a particular housing project in a particular city. Still, some great observations, and quite entertaining and thought provoking. Sort of a real-life drier version of The Wire for you nerds interested in that kind of thing.
Vox- Nicholoson Baker
Yeah, I feel a bit like I should have read this back in college, maybe because that is when my friend bill recommended it to me. All the same, I enjoyed it quite a bit. For those who don't know, its a simple phone conversation between two strangers that grows increasingly interesting, unexpected and erotic as the conversation becomes more intimate and the book progresses. It was a great deal of fun, yet feels very of its time as the internet has since come to shape our interactions in such a different way, especially our erotic and anonymous ones.
Legacy of Ashes - Tim Weiner
This history of the CIA by the NY Times intelligence reporter should quickly put to rest anyone's notions about elaborate CIA conspiracies. At least according to this book, the history of the CIA is one of mismanagement and bumbling incompetence, with classified screw-up after screw up that have only recently come to light. The successes we have heard about are depicted as the result of happenstance, rather than good planning. Overall I greatly enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It was strangely exhaustive and yet felt incomplete, I suppose because it covered so many events so superficially, without going into much depth on any. I came away with a much better understanding of the culture, the endemic problems in our style of intelligence collecting, and the inherent conflicts between intelligence and politics in a democracy. Recommended for anyone with an interest in spy and cold war stuff.
Roots of Buddhist Psychology - Jack Kornfield
Your Buddha Nature - Jack Kornfield
Anyone with the slightest interest in Buddhism, should definitely check out (though is probably already aware) of Jack Kornfield's work. After a stint in the Peace Corps Thailand in the late 60's, he bummed around Southeast Asia as a Buddhist monk, seeking wisdom that he later brought back to the US with other early teachers. His book A Path With Heart (reviewed last year) details some of this. I generally find his teaching better in person or in recorded audio programs than in written form, and listened to these as extended audio programs, which I would strongly recommend. He teaches basic Buddhist Dharma (wisdom) for everyday life, brilliantly incorporating wisdom from a variety of traditions, anecdotes from his own life, and allegorical stories from all religious traditions. Roots of Buddhist Psychology is the better of these programs, Your Buddha Nature felt a bit recycled, but maybe because I listened to it immediately after "Roots." Highly recommended for beginners to Buddhism, or those curious.
Charlie Huston:
Okay, so its not exactly as classy as the shitty nonfiction I tend to read, but I've been greatly enjoying some pulpy books in recent months as well, particularly useful as escapist from the drudgery of writing and work. My highest recommendation for guilty pleasures go to Charlie Huston, author of the "Already Dead" and "Been Caught Stealing" serieses. (sp?) The first is a great trilogy about a man on the run, who never has the intention of killing people, but ends up finding that he's just so good at it, and keeps getting away with so much, hardly even intending to. The trilogy criss-crosses America, Mexico and some great US cities as he runs from the Russian mafia, who's millions of daolalrs he accidentally stole. The second of these, Six Bad Things, is really the best. The other series, beginning with Already Dead, imagine a world of vampyres (his spelling, not mine) existing in parallel to ours. Not too original, I know. But rather than being purely the horror genre, they are written from the perspective of a Marlowe-esque private detective with a vampyre heart of gold, making the genre more of a pulp noir set in a very well imagined and detailed world. Great plane reads, all of them- though not for the faint of hearted when it comes to blood and guts.
