I loved listening to Diane Keaton's Then Again

Diane Keaton's remarkable, insightful, stunningly written memoir about her mother and herself would be enough of a great read on its own. The audio version, narrated by Keaton, enhances and embellishes the story  with the 'voice' of the author - at times funny, sad, desperate, confused, hopeful and brimming with love. We meet Diane's mother through Dorothy's journals, kept over a lifetime.  We get a glimpse into the mother/daughter relationship, hear stories about the Keaton and Hall families and  begin to understand how tremendous creative energy can be passed on from one generation to the next. Keaton also shares her sentiments about her own career, boyfriends, phobias and illnesses.

-DB

Megan recommends: Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

This is a great novel about four women from an Boston Irish Catholic family and their relation to the family's summer home in Maine.  Alice, the matriarch, Kathleen, the daughter, Ann Marie, the daughter-in-law, and Maggie, the granddaughter are the four protagonists.  Each has a story to tell in alternating chapters and ethnicity, tribalism and religious identity have strong influences on all of their lives.  This book has lots of local color and reminded me of the novels of Alice McDermott. 

maf

Rob Recommends The Columnist

A novel in the form of a memoir of an extremely obnoxious a##h##e. I’m guessing it’s harder than we think:  to have the narrator prove his arrogance in almost every paragraph yet be oblivious to how his audience is judging him. And this is what makes The Columnist a fun read—catching every self-serving rationalization, every twist of a knife told as stroke of fortune and every conceited deceit disguised as innocent miscommunication. And the story itself? We follow the career of Brandon Sladder from novice (but self-inflated, nevertheless) reporter to influential (yes, and still self-inflated) columnist and opinion-maker. Along the way Sladder uses all who would befriend him—girlfriends, editors, secretaries, prostitutes and sources—dumping them when they were no longer needed. The author works real people into the plot, but never makes it explicit just which (if any) big shot columnist Sladder is modeled on. (The play based on the book does name Joseph Alsop as the satirical target.)  Those old enough to remember the heyday of the Lippmans, Alsops, Restons, Pearsons of the last century will especially enjoy this book.

Are We Alone?

The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet

     by Dimitar Sasselov 

Intended for general readers, this volume on the history and possibilities of astronomical and biochemical research examines the study of super-earths, distant planets similar to earth that allow scientists to study how earth may have been millennia ago. Sasselov (astronomy, Harvard U.) explores the implications of these discoveries for biological research in chapters which discuss both the study of extraterrestrial bodies and the search for the origins of life on earth.

Life of any kind has yet to be found anyplace except on the Earth.  However, within the last few years astronomers have found over 3000 exoplanet candidates.  In December the Kelper satalite teleoscope found two earth sized planets orbiting sun like stars.  The planets were not in the sun's habitable zone.  This book has the cutting edge information on the search for alien worlds.

Tyson

City of Fortune

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas
     by Roger Crowley

The rise and fall of the Venetian empire stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. City of Fortune is framed around two of the great collisions of world history: the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which culminated in the sacking of Constantinople and the carve-up of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, and the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503.   Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that came under their dominion.

Crowley's narrative is a quick page turner for history lovers. He does a great job explaining the how Venice controlled the spice trade between Europe and Asia.  A trade which put them at odds with the Mongols, Genoans, and Turks.

Tyson

Sue Recommends The Innocent by David Baldacci

David Baldacci is best known for his Camel Club Series featuring Oliver Stone, but fans should try out his newest book, The Innocent. This standalone thriller

highlights an unnamed government agency that employs snipers, such as Will Robie, to perform sanctioned assassinations usually overseas but occasionally in the U.S.

The problem with Will Robie is that he has a moral center, a conscience, and has the ability to think for himself.  Is his job assignment to kill a suspected terrorist (who turns out to be a mother with 2 small children AND an FBI agent) a political ploy that is connected with the murder of the parents of a 14 year old gifted student who has been in and out of foster homes? Can Will remain objective or will his sympathy for this new orphan threaten his and her lives and draw him further into a side of Washington that you and I do not even want to think exists?

 If this is your introduction to David Baldacci, you will enjoy a fully thought out plot with lots of twists and turns and then be looking up his other books to continue your enjoyment.  I, for one, hope that Will Robie will become the main character in more of the author's stories.  SH

Rob Recommends Listening to Richistan

My family listened to Richistan, by Robert Frank, on a recent car trip to New Jersey. Frank is a Wall Street Journal reporter who got himself assigned to cover the super-wealthy beat in America. He spent a year traveling the country, observing, studying and interviewing the very wealthiest Americans. The author came to believe that the best way to understand this group of millionaires is to see them as inhabiting a separate country. To help the rest of us understand this nation’s culture and people, Frank wrote this book, Richistan: a Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich. Richistan is a fascinating and funny glimpse into a world most of us could never imagine. It’s a world of $700,000 watches, 300 foot yachts, millionaire support groups, $25,000 a plate charity dinners and residents who don’t know how many cars they own. In one particularly interesting chapter, Frank takes us through butler training at Butler Boot Camp. The rigors of the training course say more about those doing the employing (“principals”) than about the trainees themselves. (FYI, the top graduates of elite butler schools earn $75-120,000 per year.) Throughout, Frank accomplishes the nearly impossible feat of neither fawning over nor disparaging the citizens of Richistan. See what you think…