WANT NOT

Want Not by Jonathan Miles - It's way to wordy.  This book is made up of sentences that make up entire paragraphs, and they don't even say anything important! For a minute, some of the characters are OK, but they get developed and then suddenly their stories end.  I think it's about the waste part of the phrase "waste not want not", and the title is trying to be something clever, since at some point in the story, the linguist starts getting rid of his stuff, and one of the story lines is about an off the grid couple who lives on what they find in dumpsters.  If you want to read if for book group and look for deep meanings here, knock yourself out, but don't say I didn't warn you.  Want Not didn't speak to me at all.

ONE MORE THING

One More Thing by B.J. Novak - I loved these essays, short stories and paragraphs that make up Stories and Other Stories.  The critics don't know what to call this great collection of writing about all kinds of different topics and situations, so they flail around and just generally recommend the book, which I do too! (B.J. would never use an exclamation point, but I use it so that you'll read the book.)  B.J. played Ryan on The Office, and if you think reading this book will help you to know him any better as a person, don't get your hopes up.  The book confirms that the guy is super smart, a super thinker, and super funny.  But he's still distant while trying to make you think that he isn't.  Which makes him all the more alluring.  So read and enjoy and thank me later for the laughs and the thinking that are inspired by these story chapters with titles and occasional discussion questions. 

CHAPATTI * TYPEWRITER GIRL

Chapatti - It's so nice to have a great local theater - and even nicer since I've discovered the secret of "Rush Seating".  With rush seating tickets, one goes to the box office on the day of the show or within an hour of showtime, and asks whether there are any "rush seats" available for the performance.  Makes sure to add the word discounted in there somewhere, and before you know it, you'll be holding a $10-$20 ticket in hand and walking into the theater.  The seats have been great, and the plays have been wonderful.  Last Sunday, Nancy L. and I saw Chapatti at the Northlight.  It was during Preview week, and after the performance there was a discussion with the playwright, Christian O'Reilly, for anyone who wanted to stay.  The play was charming, disturbing for a few minutes in the middle, and then uplifting.  John Mahoney and Penny Slusher were fabulous.  Not for everyone with the disturbing bit in the middle, and you'll have to ask me about that, but otherwise, delightful. 

Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee - It turned out to be a romance novel, but a nice one, without too much fake tension between the lead characters.  John has a charming welsh brogue and is somewhat innocent where women are concerned, and the typewriter girl, Betsey, is an english rose, less innocent due to circumstances, but nevertheless extremely lucky and quite plucky with the way she runs her life.  As with all romance novels, misunderstandings abound and bumps in the road are encountered, but all get resolved as the story and romance move forward.  If you like the genre, then this is a sweet read.   

SILVER SPARROW * THE GATEKEEPERS

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones - Silver Sparrow was so good that it made me forget all the good books that came before it.  I didn't want it to end, but because it was about young people and their decisions, eventually it had to end because otherwise we'd be reading a different story.  It's about family and secrets and double lives and the way it feels to be on either side of the same situation.  It tries to explore the motivation of the one who was mainly responsible for all that happened, but as is often the case, the explanation is wanting since good people do bad things and bad people do good things, and sometimes things happen that cause the person to be good or bad in the moments, and once the deed is done, everyone can only go forward one day at a time.  

The Gatekeepers Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College by Jacques Steinberg - I kind of wish I'd read this in the years before Peter applied to college, but am also glad that I didn't.  What a contrived and fixed process that hand picks a group of high school seniors to be part of a class at a "Premier College" - it has to be diverse, but everyone has to have a certain level of grade  and test scores.  Then everyone has to write an essay or two that will turn the heads of the admissions officers.  Then, everyone has to have talents and something "extra" that they'll bring to the school.  And finally, in this book we learn that Harvard turns down 1 out of 4 of the applicants with 800/800 which is a perfect score on the SAT.  I don't know what the better way is, but I do know that you get a  homogeneous majority with this system.  There is a system here and it's worked by the people at the colleges, by the people at the good high schools and by the people at the testing companies.  Like any lucrative business, money is fueling the process all over the place, and because so many students apply to so many schools, there is no way of knowing whether there would have been enough spots for everyone at their first choice if applied to fewer schools.  The early decision process begins to address this, but with early decision, only a small part of a class is formed.  So the people with the money get tutors, hire test prep help and apply to all the top schools on the US News list.  Then out of their ten or twenty applications, they choose to go to one school.  It's a confusing math question and it seems like they are all reacting to each other.  I wonder what the math would show if someone could figure out the problem.