The collapse of Anglo, the Maple Ten, the rigging of annual reports to inflate a bank’s assets by 7.2 billion in order to look good to investors, regulators and the stock market – these are all events that I lived through, but can’t say I totally understood when they occurred. I’m not going to summarise the Irish banking crisis, but a short overview might be that when the global economic downturn hit, Ireland suffered badly due to the economy’s over-reliance on construction, complicated massively by […]
Scandal Magnet, Pioneering Aviatrix, and Maverick – Beryl Markham
A beryl is a precious stone. It is rough until cut and polished when its beauty turns it into an aquamarine, or an emerald or the flawless golden heliodor. A beryl is rare and coveted. Beryl Markham was a wild thing created by Africa. She walked like a leopard and lived life with no boundaries. She was a maverick. A pioneer. Which during the early part of the twentieth century was a rare and golden thing. The wikipedia entry on her is dry and lifeless but the historical fiction, […]
Do You Believe in Anecdotes?
Even if you don’t particularly like sports you’ve probably heard the voice of Al Michaels. He’s the only announcer in history to broadcast the major championships of all four major North American sports: the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup, the World Series and the Super Bowl. On top of that he’s also covered the Winter and Summer Olympics, horse racing’s Triple Crown, golf, and college football. He’s covered just about every sport imaginable, and thanks to his involvement with Wide World of Sports, a bunch […]
Not As Expected
How do you review books that are basically someone else’s life narrative? Fat Girl Walking is Brittany Gibbon’s story, and her owning her story. I respect that, and feel no desire to take it to task. In fact, the writing is crisp and the humor sarcastic. There is little I can point to as flawed other than a few instances of casual ableism. I just didn’t like it. And since I rate by the Goodreads system, that means this book gets a single star. Perhaps […]
To All the Men I’ve Loved Before
When my local paper reviewed “Dear Mr. You” by Mary-Louise Parker, the reviewer compared Parker’s writing to Anne Lamott. Since Lamott is possibly my favorite writer I thought “Dear Mr. You” would be a good place to start my Cannonball Read. From what I understand, a friend of Parker’s submitted the book to various publishers without disclosing Parker as the author so I would assume it was published on its own merits. And it is an interesting book. Written as a series of letters to 34 men […]
The hardest kind of book to review.
Ask Me Why I Hurt is the memoir of a pediatrician who operates a mobile medical van providing treatment to homeless teenagers. It covers his marriage to fellow pediatrician Amy, family life over a decade, the growth of his van endeavor to eventually provide more services, and a number of stories of the kids he sees on the van. How am I supposed to review a book like this? On its own merits, it simply isn’t a very good book. Dr. Christensen seems to be […]
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