Here's an interesting book-related blog post I saw on Twitter today [via @chrisbrogan]: It relates to an unscientific poll conducted by J. C. Hutchins and posted to his site "The Official Webspace of Thriller Novelist J.C. Hutchins." The author conducted a poll on Twitter today (8.25.09) asking the following question: "When you buy books, are you mostly a "clicker" (meaning shop on-line) or a "bricker" (meaning shop in a brick and mortar store)?" Check this out: Clickers vs. Brickers [Posted using ShareThis].
My answer: I'm a "bricker". I love local bookstores!! Browsing is my favorite way to buy books; however, if I hear about a specific title/author, and I decide I need/want that specific book late at night or early some morning, I have been known to take the convenient route and purchase books on-line.
So, how about you? Are you a "clicker" or a "bricker" when it comes to buying books?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee
[Photo Credit: Barnes and Noble]
World War II is once again the setting for another excellent book - this time Hong Kong is the war ravaged city, but like Leningrad, in City of Thieves (earlier blog post), this story is really more about the people than the place. As one reviewer of the book noted, "In desperate times, when survival is the only goal, an individual's true character is revealed."
The author, Janice Y. K. Lee, the daughter of Korean parents, was born in Hong Kong and lived there until she was 15 years old. She is too young to have been impacted by the actual war herself, but she clearly can relate to the East/West themes in the book. At 15, she left Hong Kong to attend a prep school in New Hampshire and then went on to Harvard for college. Writing a book has been a dream of Lee's since elementary school. The Piano Teacher is her debut novel.
This book is first and foremost a love story and an historical fiction account of World War II, and the clashing of cultures in World War II, told in two time periods - beginning post war 1952-53 and alternating chapters with years during the war 1941 - 43 - set, not in Europe, but in Asia - Hong Kong to be exact. The war version details how the idyllic, gilded, Hong Kong changes dramatically the day the Japanese invaded.
The book is filled with a rich cast of characters: Will Truesdale, the handsome Brit who arrived in Hong Kong in 1941 - lover of Trudy and Claire; Trudy Liang, a Portugese/Chinese beauty, daughter of a Shanghai millionaire - strong, fearless and provocative; Claire Pendleton, the "piano teacher" and naive wife of a British civil servant arriving in Hong Kong post war; and Victor, Melody and Locket Chen, the wealthy family both Claire and Will end up working for, who have a host of hidden secrets and past lives of their own. There are lots of other characters in the book as well; some the author introduces and then drops or never really ties up the loose ends on, but this doesn't really help or hurt the story. [Note: My book club determined these loose ends might be attributed to the fact that it took Lee 6 years to write the book and finally when she is pregnant with twins - her 3rd and 4th children - she becomes determined to finish the book before they are born. ] Overall, the key characters are well developed and make for a most interesting read (and book club discussion).
The Piano Teacher is a mystery, an epic tale of war and a twisted, complicated love(s) story. The author does an excellent job of describing the people, place and times - she picks you up and drops you right into the lives and events of the two different time periods. The novel illuminates a time and place, during and after World War II, not normally depicted. The different characters' reactions to the invasion, and the survival techniques they resort to as they live with the effects of their time and place, are ripe for discussion.
World War II is once again the setting for another excellent book - this time Hong Kong is the war ravaged city, but like Leningrad, in City of Thieves (earlier blog post), this story is really more about the people than the place. As one reviewer of the book noted, "In desperate times, when survival is the only goal, an individual's true character is revealed."The author, Janice Y. K. Lee, the daughter of Korean parents, was born in Hong Kong and lived there until she was 15 years old. She is too young to have been impacted by the actual war herself, but she clearly can relate to the East/West themes in the book. At 15, she left Hong Kong to attend a prep school in New Hampshire and then went on to Harvard for college. Writing a book has been a dream of Lee's since elementary school. The Piano Teacher is her debut novel.
This book is first and foremost a love story and an historical fiction account of World War II, and the clashing of cultures in World War II, told in two time periods - beginning post war 1952-53 and alternating chapters with years during the war 1941 - 43 - set, not in Europe, but in Asia - Hong Kong to be exact. The war version details how the idyllic, gilded, Hong Kong changes dramatically the day the Japanese invaded.
The book is filled with a rich cast of characters: Will Truesdale, the handsome Brit who arrived in Hong Kong in 1941 - lover of Trudy and Claire; Trudy Liang, a Portugese/Chinese beauty, daughter of a Shanghai millionaire - strong, fearless and provocative; Claire Pendleton, the "piano teacher" and naive wife of a British civil servant arriving in Hong Kong post war; and Victor, Melody and Locket Chen, the wealthy family both Claire and Will end up working for, who have a host of hidden secrets and past lives of their own. There are lots of other characters in the book as well; some the author introduces and then drops or never really ties up the loose ends on, but this doesn't really help or hurt the story. [Note: My book club determined these loose ends might be attributed to the fact that it took Lee 6 years to write the book and finally when she is pregnant with twins - her 3rd and 4th children - she becomes determined to finish the book before they are born. ] Overall, the key characters are well developed and make for a most interesting read (and book club discussion).
The Piano Teacher is a mystery, an epic tale of war and a twisted, complicated love(s) story. The author does an excellent job of describing the people, place and times - she picks you up and drops you right into the lives and events of the two different time periods. The novel illuminates a time and place, during and after World War II, not normally depicted. The different characters' reactions to the invasion, and the survival techniques they resort to as they live with the effects of their time and place, are ripe for discussion.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
City of Thieves by David Benioff
[Photo Credit: Barnes & Noble]
City of Thieves is a great book. I strongly recommend it for you and your book clubs!
I was fortunate to catch a reading, by David Benioff, of his newest book City of Thieves at a local book store. Benioff is an accomplished writer. His first novel, The 25th Hour became a film directed by Spike Lee. Additionally, he has written many screenplays including: The Kite Runner, and the forthcoming films "Brothers" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". He was born and raised in New York City and currently lives with his wife, actress Amanda Peet, and their daughter, in Los Angeles. [Note: Amanda Peet and their young daughter also attended the book reading. It was a fun sidelight to watch his family, watch him, as he spoke.]
Set in Leningrad, during the siege by the Nazis in World War II, City of Thieves gives a microscopic, insightful, historical look into the people, and culture, of this time. Though the premise of the story is a rather frightening and dark adventure for the two main characters Lev Beniov and Koyla Vlasov. The young men were thrown together after being captured on the streets after curfew, and without proper identification. Their ticket to freedom involved a dangerous challenge in search of a dozen fresh eggs for one of the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. The search leads them through the countryside where along the way the reader is given glimpses into how a culture survives in the most difficult of times by retaining its humor, theater, music, and literature.
In the spirit of how new media is being used to communicate in a variety of ways, I am going to let you hear more about this story directly from the author himself through the attached You Tube videos:
City of Thieves is a great book. I strongly recommend it for you and your book clubs!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Facebook Founders' College Antics!
[Note: An update has been added below on 8.10.09]
Facebook is a topic of discussion in our new media marketing class this week and coincidentally the author of The Accidental Billionaires, Ben Mezrich, and I are following each other on Twitter. (I think he, or his publicist, found me through my link to the Harvard Book Store on this site.)
The Accidental Billionaires is Mezrich's eleventh book. Impressive since he looks about 25 years old in his interview with Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show. Mezrich has created his own unique style of non-fiction by recounting stories about young geniuses and their creative shenanigans; sometimes leading to the creation of greatness as is the case with this pre-Facebook tale. One of his earlier bestseller books, Bringing Down the House, was recently turned into the movie "21" about the expert card counting MIT students who beat the system in Las Vegas.
Just released, The Accidental Billionaires is currently ranking #6 on the New York Times bestseller list and #1 on the Boston Globe bestseller list. The cover looks a bit chic lit, don't you think? I initially missed the fact that it was about Facebook's, Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard College roommate, Eduardo Saverin. These two math geniuses were a bit awkward with women, and in their frustration hacked into the Harvard computer system; they managed to create a database, capable of rating all of the female students, which ultimately crashed the servers and almost got them expelled.
The excerpt Craig Ferguson reads on the Late Late Show also indicates this is a bit chic lit in nature, but it is on my must-read list for sure. Sounds like a fascinating tale. Sony pictures has purchased the film rights with Kevin Spacey producing.
So the book is about new media; the marketing is about new media; the movie is traditional media, but you can bet it will be combined with new media. The whole phenomenon is incredible to immersed in.
Blogger's Note: If you get a chance follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mgnetworks or find my Facebook Page under MGNetworks (I need some fans there ... just started a business fan page this week - so far, not many fans!) Oh, and thanks, Mark Zuckerberg, and Eduardo Saverin, for being creative, mischievous nerds! You've given Ben Mezrich a story to tell and jumped some of us up a rung or two on Groundswell's Social Technographics ladder.
Blogger's UPDATE 8.10.09: I finished reading The Accidental Billionaires this past weekend. It is a quick, easy, fun read. The insight into how Facebook got its start, in a college dorm room, just 6 short years ago is really amazing. Filled with intriguing characters, and ethical dilemmas, the book serves as a teaser for more information about all of it. I can't wait to see the movie. I will also be much more interested in reading about Mark Zuckerberg, and all of the real-life characters mentioned in this book (Eduardo Saverin, Sean Parker, Peter Thiel, Tyler & Cameron Winklevoss, Larry Summers, and more), in the future, as a result of this glimpse into the founding of Facebook. I realize the author, Ben Mezrich, took creative license with the dialogue and some of the events in the book (as mentioned in his note at the beginning of the book) but it's clear he did his best to piece together the real story using the sources he had available to him-minus any input from the key character, Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook is a topic of discussion in our new media marketing class this week and coincidentally the author of The Accidental Billionaires, Ben Mezrich, and I are following each other on Twitter. (I think he, or his publicist, found me through my link to the Harvard Book Store on this site.)The Accidental Billionaires is Mezrich's eleventh book. Impressive since he looks about 25 years old in his interview with Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show. Mezrich has created his own unique style of non-fiction by recounting stories about young geniuses and their creative shenanigans; sometimes leading to the creation of greatness as is the case with this pre-Facebook tale. One of his earlier bestseller books, Bringing Down the House, was recently turned into the movie "21" about the expert card counting MIT students who beat the system in Las Vegas.
Just released, The Accidental Billionaires is currently ranking #6 on the New York Times bestseller list and #1 on the Boston Globe bestseller list. The cover looks a bit chic lit, don't you think? I initially missed the fact that it was about Facebook's, Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard College roommate, Eduardo Saverin. These two math geniuses were a bit awkward with women, and in their frustration hacked into the Harvard computer system; they managed to create a database, capable of rating all of the female students, which ultimately crashed the servers and almost got them expelled.
The excerpt Craig Ferguson reads on the Late Late Show also indicates this is a bit chic lit in nature, but it is on my must-read list for sure. Sounds like a fascinating tale. Sony pictures has purchased the film rights with Kevin Spacey producing.
So the book is about new media; the marketing is about new media; the movie is traditional media, but you can bet it will be combined with new media. The whole phenomenon is incredible to immersed in.
Blogger's Note: If you get a chance follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mgnetworks or find my Facebook Page under MGNetworks (I need some fans there ... just started a business fan page this week - so far, not many fans!) Oh, and thanks, Mark Zuckerberg, and Eduardo Saverin, for being creative, mischievous nerds! You've given Ben Mezrich a story to tell and jumped some of us up a rung or two on Groundswell's Social Technographics ladder.
Blogger's UPDATE 8.10.09: I finished reading The Accidental Billionaires this past weekend. It is a quick, easy, fun read. The insight into how Facebook got its start, in a college dorm room, just 6 short years ago is really amazing. Filled with intriguing characters, and ethical dilemmas, the book serves as a teaser for more information about all of it. I can't wait to see the movie. I will also be much more interested in reading about Mark Zuckerberg, and all of the real-life characters mentioned in this book (Eduardo Saverin, Sean Parker, Peter Thiel, Tyler & Cameron Winklevoss, Larry Summers, and more), in the future, as a result of this glimpse into the founding of Facebook. I realize the author, Ben Mezrich, took creative license with the dialogue and some of the events in the book (as mentioned in his note at the beginning of the book) but it's clear he did his best to piece together the real story using the sources he had available to him-minus any input from the key character, Mark Zuckerberg.
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