Books

So, it has been a while since I commented on the books that have passed through me in the recent weeks/months. Here they are:

Nothing is Impossible by Christopher Reeve: This basically talks about his life as a quadriplegic. One startling revelation from this book is how liberal "superman" is, and also how much of a New England, rich, play-a-round-of-cricket-then-bake-clams type of life he led before his accident. His liberalism and lack of support for his liberalism made the book almost insufferable, but, it had its redeeming qualities. A month after finishing it, I cant remember what they were, but there were some.

President and Prophets by Michael Winder: This was actually a very good book, that essentially went through every president and talked about their relationship with the Church. There were many fascinating stories, and things I did not know. Very, very interesting. Also, since each president has his own chapter, it makes for a book that you don't have to have a very long attention span for, which is good for me, since sometimes I struggle to focus on things for very long.

First into Nagasaki by George Weller: The author is a famous WWII war correspondent's son, who edited and published a lot of stuff his dad wrote that was censored by the military during WWII. The title story is the story of how he snuck into Nagasaki before any other American had gone there right after the bomb. He also did a lot of other things the military did not like, and a lot of his articles were censored. There was nothing wrong with them, but apparently, General MacArthur was very selective and strategic about what he wanted released to the public. It was very interesting. The most interesting parts were the stories from the Japanese POWs about their stay in Japan. Stacey picked it out for me.

Use What You've Got, and Other Business Lessons I Learned from My Mom by Barbara Corcoran: This was actually a very good book by a lady that was the founder of a fairly successful real estate company in New York. She talks about things she learned from her mom as she grew up in poverty with 10 brothers and sisters, and goes from her moms tips to how that fit into running her business. It was actually very well written, and I enjoyed it. For example, the alternative title to the chapter about "Use what you've got" was "If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails". It tells the story of how the author was a waitress in a small town café, but no one ever wanted to be served by her, because the other waitress was more "well-endowed," and the men preferred the other waitresses. She was really upset that she couldn't get any tables to wait, and her mom told her she might not have two friends to help her acquire customers, but she could put ribbons in her ponytails, look cute, and schmooze her customers, which she did, and she ended up doing very well as a waitress. What was interesting about this book is that while the stories were good, it did convince me of the inherently dishonest nature of sales. While telling her stories about business, she would talk about things she did or said to sell something, and while most people would pass it off as business puffery, it was lying. Anyways. A great book. Stacey picked it out for me.

Reflections: Life after the White House by Barbara Bush: A very interesting and good book. In the end, Barbara Bush is just a very funny, old lady, who is very rich, and has a lot of power. As a result, the book was very interesting. It was interesting to see the direct contrasts her book had with what other politicians think about things (specifically some of the comments from Bill Clinton when I listened to My Life, and what he had to say about Ken Starr). Anyways, it was a very enjoyable book that any older lady would enjoy very much. Things she does and says really remind me of someone I know who recently went to a masseuse for a massage (her first one), who when told to remove any clothing she felt comfortable removing said, "I will take off my shoes."