The Persuaders

Really fantastic documentary program from Frontline.
This one really went at it from many angles, following marketers trying to launch a new branded airline (Song), clinical psychologists turned corporate spies, renegade writers for Advertising Age (one of the most interesting magazines out there, for my money!), and it included interviews with some of the best cultural critics out there.

This was so good I can only say one thing- if you have ever dismissed advertising as background noise, if you have ever wondered how a 30 second ad might cost more than a movie to produce, if you have ever looked around and thought "WTF, mate?", watch this to get a concise, wonderfully articulate and thought-provoking look at what makes the sea we swim in.

Whole program available for viewing online here, at PBS.

Advertising and the End of the World

Very interesting documentary. Professor Sut Jhally from the Media Education Foundation talks about how advertising has become the primary communication force for our culture, what essential stories it tells us about ourselves, and about how desperately necessary it is to change our very societal goals in order to avoid environmental doom.
He attacks the very nature of the consumer-driven society, and while yes, yes, yes, I didn't see him really offer an alternative.
It may be controversial to say 'capitalism is wrong', but it's also kind of useless as an argument unless you are able to point to a viable alternative. Still, some excellent use of advertising images and a coherent argument that we lack a common culture made it worth watching, for sure.

Wicked, by Sara Shepard

The 5th Pretty Little Liars book- these are so fun and totally addictive. Who is the new A? Well, as I've mentioned before, I never guess right about the killer/bad guy in mysteries, so I just kind of enjoy reading along and seeing what idiotic things these girls do to get even further into trouble, but it is such a fun ride.
Sara Shepard has written an adult novel, which I'm really excited about. As much as I enjoy these as fluff, the writing is good- something much better kind of floats along in these, so I'll be looking forward to reading The Visibles when it comes out in May.

Death At A Funeral

This was ridiculously funny- so wrong, but so so funny. Worst funeral ever. Classic British humour- absurdist, tongue-in-cheek, a little bit filthy.

Baby Mama

Well, I kind of hated this, which I guess didn't surprise me, but I am surprised that Tina Fey would have written anything this... cruel?
It seems like the last acceptable group to mock in public is... economically disadvantaged white people? Chavs? Trailer trash? Is there even an 'acceptable' word in America for who these people are who deserve no dignity ?
I'm not saying that parts weren't funny, or that there wasn't a fierce skewering of a culture in which a woman often has to choose between her career and having a child, but this *really* didn't seem like the best way to address it, and the ending was a total cop-out.

Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai, by Ben Mezrich

Ridiculously fun book for the topic!
The story of the start-up of the Dubai Merchantile exchange was as filled with fast cars, chases, hot girls and private planes as any James Bond, but also gave a lot of insight into the workings of NYMEX and the lofty goals of Dubai.

Misery Loves Maggody, by Joan Hess

Re-read, but fun! In this one, Ruby Bee and Estelle take an Elvis tour led by Miss Vetchling, but of course, it goes hideously and hillariously awry, and Arly has to head to Memphis to sort it all out.

Death of a Witch, by M.C. Beaton

Another fantastic Hamish MacBeth. Newcomer Catriona Beldame has been rumored to be selling the men of Lochdubh potions to increase their ... stamina, but when she is killed, Hamish has to look to the villagers to find the murderer.

I do love these, but I also wish Hamish would stop wavering between Elspeth and Priscilla.

Gimme Shelter, by Mary Elizabeth Williams

Gimme Shelter: Ugly Houses, Cruddy Neighborhoods, Fast-Talking Brokers and Toxic Mortgages: My Three Years Searching For The American Dream is the whole overblown title, which promises much more than is delivered in this surprisingly weightless book.

For 310 pages, Williams moans with the dreadfully self-conscious tone of the plagued priviliged, and it is not a pretty sound.

The book is not, as implied, a look at the greater collapse of the American housing industry or what have you- it is a great whine about how she (freelance writer for publications such as Salon) and her husband Jeff (on-and-off employed copy editor) couldn't afford to buy in Brooklyn's Carrol Gardens during the housing boom.

Considering that they had lived there for years before prices skyrocketed, it seems rather sour grapes of her how much she bitches and squeaks about those friends of theirs who did buy early and made mad money from their foresight, and what she has to say about those dreadful new rich people who priced her out of what she clearly felt was rightfully her cool neighborhood- well, you can practically see her stamping her little feet.

She did have the grace to realize, close to the end of the book, that what she and Jeff were doing by buying and tarting up a place in way way uptown Manhattan (Inwood) was the same thing the wealthy were doing in Carroll Gardens- gentrification, lady. The rock stars priced you out of your neighborhood, now you're doing it to the residents of Inwood Park, the immigrants and the elderly.

I grow weary of these- The House on First Street, about the terrible agonies of restoring one's mansion in post-Katrina New Orleans, Not Buying It, (incidentally also set in smug-as-hell Brooklyn) about the fearsome self-denial it took not to recreationally shop for a year, Bitter is the New Black, whose loathsome author memorably carried a Prada bag to the unemployment office...

It's all nauseating. Seriously, none of the reviews I read of Gimme Shelter hinted at the self-pitying, bobo smug revolting nonsense that it was.

The Big Dirt Nap, by Rosemary Harris

Follow up to Pushing Up Daisies, which I loved. This was definitely another fun mystery, but I didn't feel that it was as tightly plotted as the first- that might be me, though, as I didn't have time to read it steadily and kept having to leave it for days. I can't wait to find out Caroline Sturgis's plan in the third book, so I liked it enough to stay hooked to the series!

Retail Anarchy, by Sam Pecker (mid-book update) (ARC)

I have NEVER done this before, but this book is so batshit insane, I have to. In the 52 pages I've read so far, he has ranted about everything from George Clinton's bands Parliament and Funkadelic to the "mentally handicapped" who bag groceries, but he's reached a soaring new height of madness here on page 53.

"The never ending shit-sprawl (I know it's crude, but really is there any other word?) of meaningless product, the movement of that product, and the ultimate disposal of the product for no good reason other than human failure is in itself what it means to live in a "consumer driven" economy.

Do people on antidepressants shop less?"

Wow, buddy! Do people on antipsychotics write less? This all gives me great hope for my own (fantasy) writing career. I really wonder what kind of edit job they're doing on this (I'm reading an ARC). If this is published as is, something is truly rotten in the state of Denmark.

(Up to page 58 and ) UNBELIEVABLY, this book has become even more WOW.

"While it's no secret that men's penises are responsible for lots of bad purchases, sometimes it's the need to avoid confrontation that feeds it as well."

Is that even a sentence? I would die if someone wanted me to diagram that. (Ps. It's about a local sandwich shop in his town, where the owner/operator is supposedly a hottie- although he disagrees- "she was not all that attractive, but she flirted with the factory workers".
I bet she didn't flirt with him, the jealous lout.

OMG. Page 61. I am going to make EVERYONE read this book. Dude is out of his mind.

"I don't have statistics on how many Cheesecake Factory hostesses end up working as prostitutes after their illustrious careers are cut short, but I have a feeling it's pretty high."

(page 68!!!) I might be obsessed, but this author certainly is. Damn, what did the hostess at the Cheesecake Factory do to him???

"Alcoholic drama-queen slut-in-dead-end-town hostess, please fetch the 17-year-old part-timer who spends al of his spare time fantasizing about you while masturbating instead of doing his homework so he may bring us an outrageously overpriced slice of your inest previously-frozen shipped-in-from and out-of state-factory namesake desert at once!...

Excuse me, did I call her a slut? I forgot this was a small town what with the big city restautant and all; I meant to say "popular"- thank you. ...

...I venture to say this is the first time that a book about economics has called anyone a slut and that may be the precise problem here with out economy."

Hot diggity damn, man. This guy is all fired up. If he can get published with this racist, able-ist, slut-ist bull, I should be able to get published.

Yee haw.

I cannot put this thing down. And I can't stop typing. His madness has infected me!

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

This was wildly inappropriate but ridiculously funny. Some biting social satire, and a lot of vulgar and almost breathtakingly tasteless moments. Funny as hell, though.

Garlic and Sapphires, by Ruth Reichl

I listened to this book, and it was wonderful, but one warning- when she describes food, it makes you crazy with hunger!

Interesting look at the life of a NYT food critic- the lengths she had to go to to preserve anonymity were insane!

Bonus- recipes that sounded delish and very do-able!

Hollywood Car Wash, by Lori Culwell

Fast, fun and juicy book. Midwestern theater student hits it big on a tv drama, and finds herself receiving the "Hollywood car wash"- becoming thinner, blonder, and more surgeried than she ever thought she would.

Rumor is that this is the Katie Holmes story- complete with awkward marriage contract and all. No idea, but I couldn't put it down!

Lucky Jim, by Kinglsley Amis

Well, this was supposed to be one of the 10 funniest books of all time, based on a list I rather trusted, but I didn't find it that fantastic. A couple of laugh out loud bits, but it was no Three Men in a Boat.

Plagued professor Jim Dixon juggles academic responsibilities, social life, and lady friends, and drops every ball.

Secret Asset, by Stella Rimington

Fast paced mystery set in post-9/11 England among MI5 and MI6.

A swirl of IRA, New York tabloids, and Pakistani terrorists made for a whirl of a read.

Liz Carlyle must find the mole in the service, and it's a race against time.

I thought this was great, and the writer was actually the first woman to head MI5, so she has authenticity in her details. The paranoia and surveilance seemed so right, and the Big Brother-ness of Britain's CCTV culture seemed almost understandable in the context of the book. The influx of Asians and mosques into the UK and how that has changed the fabric of the country, and I thought it was all very well done until the end, which rather whimpered out.

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost It's Luster, by Dana Thomas

This was a fantastic, fascinating read. Thomas really went into the history of many of the major luxury labels, and pinpointed how contemporary business models have changed their product lines to an amazing degree. From the history of Louis Vuitton's trunk making and packing business for the French aristocracy, to the point now where 44% of Japanese own at least one Vuitton item and it is the most counterfeited brand in the world, there has been a major shift in what the business was about.

From Prada using cheaper thread to the still artisan-quality work at Hermes, this book gave delicious tidbits while following a definite trend of diminishment of what it is that made these things the best.

Wonderful read, and fun to boot.

Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit, by Paula Danziger

This read rather older than I had thought. Amber is upset that her mother is dating, and is falling behind in school, and needs to make up some missed assignments and wow her teacher with her How-To project, making AMBER BROWNies.

It was sweet, but I really am surprised at how much more complicated it was than I had thought these were.

Community Helpers Picture Books

City of Ember

Nowhere near as good as the book, but not terrible, really.