What good book have you read lately? (New or old)

[Tony_]

 As far as I can remember, it was Lyle who recommended What's the Matter with Kansas? (apologies, if wrong).  Am 1/3rd through it and it is a lot of what I had expected, and much that I hadn't.  Good grief - the Koch brothers are in there, and all kinds of strangeness.  Even though the author makes a thorough expedition into the emergence of political insanity, he does so as a liberal, which is probably the only way to get started, I suppose.  But am hoping to see, later, some practicality, something past liberal identification of a problem, and maybe see some suggestions.  Or maybe that would be better left to James Carville.

 Am on the waiting list, still, for Drift.  Frankly, am seriously afraid of what I will read, there.

[Dave Cullen]

FYI, I did my first review for NY Times. Online now, will be in the print edition this Sunday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/books/review/the-bully-society-by-jessie-klein.html?src=twr

The book is called "The Bully Society." I really wanted to like it. Someone needs to do a good book on this.

(BTW, if you go to the Times Books page, it's not there yet, but will be later today, I think. My editor sent me an early link.)

[garyd]

FYI, I did my first review for NY Times. Online now, will be in the print edition this Sunday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/books/review/the-bully-society-by-jessie-klein.html?src=twr

The book is called "The Bully Society." I really wanted to like it. Someone needs to do a good book on this.

(BTW, if you go to the Times Books page, it's not there yet, but will be later today, I think. My editor sent me an early link.)

Really an excellent review, Dave.  Interesting and well written as expected. 
Other than your superb work with "Columbine" it is difficult to find solid information regarding the actual motivation of the "bully".  Bullies have been around forever, of course, and while this is totally anecdotal, it has always seemed to me that they all share, to some degree, a sense of inferiority and lack of esteem which they mask with aggressive, socially inappropriate behavior. 
Anyway, congrats and well done.
g

[chapeaugris]

Kind of mind-boggling that the author based so much of her book on Columbine yet doesn't seem to have read the definitive work on it. 

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

Good review, Dave.

A really excellent opening paragraph.

From the article:

Bully. Such a poisonous word for those of us who endured one. “Tormentor” feels more appropriate. What drives a person to torture another? To make life intolerable, until the bullied, dreading the thought of one more vicious homeroom encounter, can only wonder: Why is he doing it? When will it end? Will I make it through high school alive?

Too bad the evidence cited in the book is out of context in some places.  Regarding Cho at Virginia Tech, I remember one of the instructors who had known him previously saying she thought of HIM as a bully.  Don't know if the author is saying all bullies are victims of prior bullying.

And there are definitely girls who pick victims and bully.  I think it's more to do with pecking order than hyper-masculinity.  Any perceived weakness can be exploited by a bully.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I read A NIGHT TO REMEMBER and the sequel THE NIGHT LIVES ON by Walter Lord this
week, as I had seen so many Titanic documentaries this month because of the 100th
Anniversary of the event and I wanted to read a story-style version of the events.  I had
read these 15 years ago when the Cameron film came out so I had them on my shelves.
I heard that A NIGHT TO REMEMBER made it to #1 on the NY TImes best seller list this
week!  Pretty remarkable.


 

[Dave Cullen]

thanks, gary, ellen, and cheap...

i'm glad you liked that opening, ellen. god knows i dithered over it for ages. i'm big on good openings. i spent WAY too long on that review--probably the equivalent of a full month full-time, spread over 2-3 months. (they approached me to do it before christmas, and when i said yes, they couriered it over the same afternoon. i was reading it the same night.) i spent a lot of time thinking about if i were the reader, picking up this review, what would be the single most burning question in my mind. (which is sort of the same question as what was my burning question as i flipped open the book.)

of course, not every book needs to answer all a reader's particular questions, so i thought about that, too, endlessly, but i finally concluded that any book on this topic sure as hell better deliver some compelling answers to that. that's the most basic requirement. when it failed, utterly . . . god. and then it went downhill from there.

i really hope someone DOES address this subject and deliver some solid answers. it may be that they already have. i've certainly not culled the field of all books on bullying. but this one sure didn't add to the discussion.

(and yes, i was astounded that she would use columbine so much and know so little about it.)

[garyd]

So, we are at a gathering last night.  A friend is on local school board.  Apparently our local schools have implemented a bullying program based upon the research and theories of Dan Olweus who wrote back in 1993 what I am told is a very respected book on the topic.

Here is some information.  His book might be worth a read.

http://www.clemson.edu/olweus/history.htm

The following is also interesting in that it demonstrates that it is important not to attempt to lump all bullies and victims into one defined group.
http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=3913

Little information, however, on research into what causes a bully to turn into a killer. 

[gattaca]

i really hope someone DOES address this subject and deliver some solid answers. it may be that they already have. i've certainly not culled the field of all books on bullying. but this one sure didn't add to the discussion.

(and yes, i was astounded that she would use columbine so much and know so little about it.)

Nice article.  The media so "theorized" on the event and then never really returned to set the record straight for many reasons - old news and re-opening old wounds and a name / event in history most people would rather not dwell upon.   But how she could mess up some of the points you made so bad and get it published, cited etc.. is a interesting in itself.   Later Vincent

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I have seen the film of L.A. CONFIDENTIAL many times and I have wanted to
read the James Ellroy novel it's based on for years, but have never gotten in
the mood to do so for some reason, until now. I have read James Ellroy before
and I find I need to read alot of it to start to get into his style and rhythms of
writing.  So far, I am finding it remarkable they actually made a great film from
this book.  Unlike BBM where the screenwriters had to augment the story, it
seems with L.A. Confidential they had to delete most of it!  Heh!  Makes for
interesting reading so far.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I finished reading L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and the book makes the film seem like
a Disney cartoon! (And i'm not saying anything bad about the film, I love it.)
James Ellroy's novel is so jammed with things that if not for the film I believe
I'd have had a really hard time keeping the characters in mind.  Ellroy is into
the seamy side and the underbelly of what's really going on in the world and
this novel has it in spades. I felt like I needed to take a shower after reading it.

None of the three lead characters in the novel are very likable, but what makes
it satisfying is that they all have to accept their animosities with one another to
accomplish doing the right thing (perhaps Congress should read it). There's tons
of subplots and locations and characters deleted from the film.  Lots more kinky
sex stuff of all persuasions.

I've never been quite sure of James Ellroy's real attitude toward blacks, Jews, gays
and the like because in his novels it's all tinged with seediness and politically incorrect
slang and the like in period settings and even in person he's liable to use the cringe
worthy slang words--kikes, fags, dikes, niggers and worse.  I am willing to give him the
benefit of the doubt, though, as he had a rough childhood-his mother murdered and
never solved, so at least he turned his traumas into some literature instead of becoming
a dope fiend or something worse.

He's a real character, like one right out of his novels.

I wish the makers of the L.A. CONFIDENTIAL film had been the ones to do his
other novel, Black Dahlia, which was a really good (and scary) read, in fact I liked
it better than L.A. Confidential, but it was an atrocious film.  Oh, well!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Nothing Daunted, by Dorothy Wickenden. It's the story of Wickenden's grandmother, an upper class young woman from Auburn, New York, who, with a friend, went out to northwestern Colorado in 1916 to teach school for a year. She wrote copious letters to her family back home in New York state, and these letters formed the basis of the story. I found it fascinating.

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

My book club read "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving.

I hadn't read John Irving before.  Very impressed, what a wonderful book.

[janjo]

What a coincidence; I bought a copy of that in a book sale yesterday, part of my cache of reading matter for when I have my knee replacement operation at the end of the month. With a reccommendation from you Ellen, I shall look forward to reading it even more.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I have heard this is a good book and that the film Simon Birch is
based on it, by I hear tell it's really quite different, which is why he
requested the same title not be used.