Another Book Report

Here is a brief summary of the last five books that I have read.

Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz Party by, Shawn Levy – Being a fan of the Rat Pack I’ve read a number of books about the group. I still consider Bill Zehme’s The Way You Wear Your Hat to be the best of the lot of them but this is also a very good and comprehensive look at the pack. Also, an HBO movie was based on this book so I owed it to myself to read this. If you want to read about a time and place that will never be duplicated then pick this one up.

Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich - I really enjoyed the author’s previous book Nickel and Dimed so when I saw this book sitting at Borders I was really looking forward to read it. It is about a subject that is near and dear to my heart and that is middle class white-collar labor that becomes overqualified to get hired for most jobs in corporate America. While the book does look at that subject there was a lot about this book that I did not like. There was a lot of time and detail spent on Barbara’s interactions with job coaches and career advisors as opposed to looking at the culture of corporate America and how they recycle you when you get to a certain point. All in all I was a little disappointed in this book.

Wired: The Short and Fast Times of John Belushi by Bob Woodward - When this book first came out a lot of friends of Belushi were quick to trash it and call it all lies. So I never read it nor saw the movie based on the book. Then one day I saw it in the Library and started reading it. John Belushi was a physical comedy genius that sadly like many others’s succumbed to drugs and it led to his untimely death. This book without a doubt paints Belushi as a drug addict with a severe case of an addictive personality. If you’ve never read it and are a fan of the mans work then it is an interesting enough read.

The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken – Not much I say is going to sway a right-winger to pick this one up. In this book Franken agonizes over the 2004 election and just went wrong. Also, he exposes more bullshit from the likes of Tom Delay and W with facts. Yes, he is preaching to the choir but it is still a lot of good information to use when arguing with the other side. If you are a lefty like myself it is a very good book and should further any distrust you have of the GOP.

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss – I am not sure where to begin with this book. When I started reading I was sure it was bullshit but since I found it in the non-fiction section of the bookstore I decided to investigate. From everything I can tell this book is genuine. It is basically about one man’s journey into becoming the world’s best pickup artist. This is great read from a sociological perspective. A lot of what I read are things I have always felt about how to attract women. I won’t go into details but even if you are a happily married guy like myself this book is very entertaing. I have to admit I really liked it and at the very end it finds it’s heart. Strauss is a good writer and maybe he was as he calls it sarging the reader, but he has a way of making himself come out above all of the non-sense that the pick-up community becomes. (And trust me there is a huge community out there if you look into it.) So, I would recommend this especially for any single woman, as it is a great look at how some men view them.