Books & Reviews

December 1941 by Craig Shirley

While on the way to the cabin on Friday, I stopped by Indigo Books and picked up December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World by Craig Shirley. The book attempts to look at each day of December 1941 in the lead up and aftermath of the attack of Pearl Harbour though a variety of lens to give the month and attack some context. He examines historical records, news paper accounts and even pop culture as part of this effort to explain the almost instantaneous change in American culture and life because of it’s entry into Word War II.

Pearlharbor

It’s an entertaining read. I wandered through the almost 600 pages in two days. I leaned a lot, especially about the difference in American and British views of how to communicate the war (Churchill laid it all out while FDR chose to reveal as little as possible) but in the end it was a very unsatisfying read. The editing was awful. The book got countless historical facts wrong (like the tonnage of the Price of Wales or the suggestion that England had 500,000 pilots trained). The there are sentences like, “It was raking in millions each week, mostly for the top four studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.” The fourth studio was… Also Pittsburgh was misspelled. Things like that drove me crazy.

Pearl14

What was interesting to learn was the totalitarian powers that Congress almost immediately gave FDR to win the war. What was even more interesting is when you realize that once war was won, those powers were taken away from the President. It speaks to the ability the United States has to make and remake itself as the context determines it. It will be interesting to see if the U.S. ever returns to a pre-9/11 mindset.

Rita Hayworth

I think the other thing the book did well was explain the events leading up to Pearl Harbour from Japan’s perspective. While in no ways does it justify the attack, it does explain a little of what the Japanese were thinking through their militaristic cabinet. I am not sure that I would recommend the book, there are just simply too many mistakes in it but it wasn’t a bad way to spend the weekend.

Award winner coming through…

Nov 21st, 2011

by Jordon Cooper.

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It not me but F.S. Michaels, author of the book Monoculture which I have mentioned around here before. Here are the details.

FIRST-TIME CANADIAN AUTHOR WINS AMERICA’S GEORGE ORWELL AWARD
NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language

Canadian author F.S. Michaels has won America’s prestigious 2011 George Orwell Award for the non-fiction debut MONOCULTURE: HOW ONE STORY IS CHANGING EVERYTHING (Red Clover Press, May 2011). Published by Red Clover, a new Canadian independent press, MONOCULTURE has been described as “a provocative investigation of the dominant story of our time.”

ABOUT THE AWARD
The annual George Orwell Award, established in 1975 and given by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), recognizes authors who have made an outstanding contribution to the critical analysis of public discourse. Past recipients include author Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food), Amy Goodman (co-founder, executive producer, and host of the award-winning national daily news program Democracy Now!), Pulitzer Prize-winner Charlie Savage, television host Jon Stewart and the “Daily Show” cast, economist Juliet B. Schor, linguist Noam Chomsky, and cultural critic Neil Postman.

Congratulations! It is on my soon to be published list of my best reads of 2011. If you haven’t read it yet, you really need to. The book changed how I look at much of the world around me.

A DIY Book Journal

Jul 17th, 2011

by Jordon Cooper.

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Last year it took Mark forever to get started on his written assignments. He would just freeze and get all stressed and I would have to calm him down and get him focused on what to do. I thought we had made some progress but he wanted a book the other day and tried to access his line of credit at the Bank of Dad. I agreed but made him promise to write me a book report on what he learned. After a couple of days of Mark stressing all out about it, I wrote out a quick outline and things went much smoother and he gave me a pretty good book report without the stress and suffering that often comes with it. I typed up what I had put together, added a bit of formatting, stole some ideas from some other book journals and printed out 50 copies for him to keep in a binder. I also saved it to a PDF and uploaded it here in case any of you want to see what I did or make your own book journal for your kids. I think I am going to put together a weekend trip journal and a Adventure Around Town Journal as well.

30 of the harshest things one author has said to another

Jun 22nd, 2011

by Jordon Cooper.

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Of course the harshest remarks are probably left anonymously on Amazon.com

Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner: “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”

Mark Twain on Jane Austen: “I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

Other

Jan 16th, 2011

by Jordon Cooper.

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I am not sure where I first started following Kester Brewin’s writings. Probably I found some of his stuff on Vaux’s old site and I assume that I heard of his book from either Jonny Baker or Steve Collins’ blog but I ordered The Complex Christ when it came out in England, paid a fortune to have it shipped across the pond and then paid of 18% of Canada’s national debt in import fees. To this day, it is the most expensive book that I have ever purchased. It was worth every cent and I paid for it and lead to a fundamental rethinking of my theology and my understanding of the urban context (it was about that time that several of you started to hate what I posted here).

The other day on Twitter I was waiting for my Kindle to finally arrive when I asked what book I should order. Kester came up with and instead of ordering it, I went online to see if Other was available in Canada yet. It isn’t here in paper form yet but it is available on Kindle and it quickly earned the honour of being the first book I ordered for my Kindle (and hooray, no import fees).

The book hit home for me this week as the debate exploded over political rhetoric in the United States after the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords outside of a Safeway. Whether or not you agree that themes of violence in political rhetoric contributed to the murders or not, I think all of us agree there is something wrong with how we see people we don’t agree with in this world. Whether that divide is Christian-atheist, moderate-fundamentalist, liberal-conservative, Israeli-Palestinian, black-white, or whether or not we like Kenny G, we tend to dismiss and deride the opinions of those who we disagree with. I don’t know if has gotten worse but I suspect it has. Years ago I used to be a regular viewer of Capital Gang which had the Democrats and Republicans around a table disagreeing. Not only was the dialogue cordial but they actually seemed to enjoy being around each other. Now the Republicans are at Fox News and the Democrats are on MSNBC. Not only are they no longer sitting around the table but they are at competing networks. There isn’t even an attempt to engage or dialog with each other.

For a wide variety of reasons this has changed how we see and interact with each other and Other tries to address that by looking at the Great Commandment, to love the other. While that seems obvious, Brewin addresses the situations where Christianity and the church have largely failed to see God’s creation in other people. As he puts it, what kind of selves do we need to be in order to live in harmony with others?

For me, it’s the biggest question that I wrestle with every day at work and the hardest discussion that we have with staff. In a context of violence, drugs, and anger, how we deal with the other is a definition of how we see them but also ourselves. Once the U.S./Canadian edition hits the shelves, I plan to purchase a bunch for our staff because it’s something that we all need to wrestle with everyday… or at least it’s something that I need to do to remind myself to reset myself and look for God in other people every day.

In a time in my life when I am working hard at getting rid of over 1000 books from my library, I am glad I added this one to my Kindle and look forward to always having a paper version on my shelf.

Amazon Kindle version
Official Website for Kester Brewin (Twitter) & Other

The "Homicide Lexicon" and its rules

Oct 31st, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

3 comments

I am reading Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon and really enjoying it. Throughout the book, Simon frequently refers to a set of 10 informal rules that apply in the majority of homicide cases, as detectives soon learn. They are as follows:

Everyone lies. Murderers lie because they have to; witnesses and other participants lie because they think they have to; everyone else lies for the sheer joy of it, and to uphold a general principle that under no circumstances do you provide accurate information to a cop.

The victim is killed once, but a crime scene can be murdered a thousand times.

The initial 10 or 12 hours after a murder are the most critical to the success of an investigation.

An innocent man left alone in an interrogation room will remain fully awake, rubbing his eyes, staring at the cubicle walls and scratching himself in the dark, forbidden places. A guilty man left alone in an interrogation room goes to sleep.

It’s good to be good; it’s better to be lucky.

When a suspect is immediately identified in an assault case, the victim is sure to live. When no suspect has been identified, the victim will surely die.

First, they’re red. Then they’re green. Then they’re black. (Referring to the money that must be spent to investigate a case, and the colors in which open and solved murders are listed on the board)

In any case where there is no apparent suspect, the crime lab will produce no valuable evidence. In those cases where a suspect has already confessed and been identified by at least two eyewitnesses, the lab will give you print hits, fiber evidence, blood typings and a ballistic match.

To a jury, any doubt is reasonable; the better the case, the worse the jury; a good man is hard to find, but 12 of them, gathered together in one place, is a miracle. (Referring to jury trials)

There is no such a thing as a perfect murder.

The (literal) Order of Phoenix

Oct 20th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

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A spreadsheet plot written out by J.K. Rowling. Her approach to spreadsheet plotting is to divide the columns by chapter number, story timeline, chapter title, main plots and subplots. via

The Tipping Point?

Aug 29th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

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Seth Godin is done with publishing.

Traditional book publishers use techniques perfected a hundred years ago to help authors reach unknown readers, using a stable technology (books) and an antique and expensive distribution system.

The thing is–now I know who my readers are. Adding layers or faux scarcity doesn’t help me or you. As the medium changes, publishers are on the defensive…. I honestly can’t think of a single traditional book publisher who has led the development of a successful marketplace/marketing innovation in the last decade. The question asked by the corporate suits always seems to be, "how is this change in the marketplace going to hurt our core business?" To be succinct: I’m not sure that I serve my audience (you) by worrying about how a new approach is going to help or hurt Barnes & Noble.

You had me at Wifi

Jul 29th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

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This looks like the Kindle that will finally make me purchase a e-book reader.

There are a few new features as well, the most important of which is a new WebKit-based browser. WebKit is the open-source base for all of our favorite mobile web browsers, including those used by the iPhone, iPad, Palm Pre, and various Android devices. The Kindle’s web browser is, due to hardware limitations, not going to be replacing your iPad for web browsing anytime soon, but I was pretty surprised at how usable it is. For any kind of reading (news, blogs, comedy, Wikipedia, that kind of thing), it’s really not bad.

For me, the most impressive new feature is the screen. Amazon’s previous e-ink screen was fine, but some other readers (like Sony’s Pocket Reader and, arguably, Barnes & Noble’s Nook) packed clearer, sharper screens. Well, not anymore, because the new Kindle’s screen is, bar none, the best e-ink screen I’ve ever seen. It’s fantastically sharp, with excellent contrast (Amazon claims 50% better contrast than any other e-ink display on the market), and it refreshes noticeably faster (Amazon says 20% faster) than the previous generation, which was already pretty quick for e-ink. Amazon has also taken the time to work on the fonts, offering new, more precise font sizes as well as custom-made, very pretty fonts.

Amazon has also doubled the storage of the new Kindle, so it can store up to about 3,500 books, and has, more impressively, doubled the battery life. With wireless turned off, Amazon rates the Kindle’s battery life as up to one month (and a comparatively pitiful 10 days with it on). A month of battery life! That might get glossed over, but it’s insane that an electronic device (with a 6-inch screen, no less) could last for an entire month on a single charge.

Goodreads

Jul 17th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

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Three of the four of us are using Goodreads around the house. You can find me at www.goodreads.com/jordoncooper, Wendy at www.goodreads.com/wendycooper and Mark is now at www.goodreads.com/markcooper. If you want to follow what we are reading and what we think about it, you now can.

Refresh

Jul 9th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

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I don’t take a lot of vacation days. Part of it is the nature of work… about the time I want time off, we are often short staffed. The bigger issue is me. I don’t enjoy vacations very much and it’s something that I have worked on more as I have gotten older.

This week Mark and I are up at the lake for a couple of days of male bonding before Wendy comes up this weekend with Oliver. The weather has been hot but I don’t have a huge to do list. Well I had a big to do list but I was reminded this summer but a friend of ours that he spent so much time finishing their family cabin, he didn’t enjoy it as much has he should have. So Mark and I have cooked meals over an open fire, taken Maggi swimming a lot, and hung out reading.

So far this week I have read Samantha Power’s captivating book, Sergio: One Man’s Fight to Save the World about Sérgio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations diplomat who was described as being a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy. His resume took him from Bangladesh to East Timor to eventually Iraq (where he was killed) in his attempts to bring about peace, alleviate human suffering, and bring hope and security to those that have none.

What struck me as I read it is he was a flawed man (terrible womanizer), who made big compromises and mistakes (befriending more than one person accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in his attempt to bring about peace), yet consistently learned from them and adapted to new challenges. I was contrasting him to what I had been taught about leadership which says that it requires perfect character and looks down on compromise and has people scorning or ignoring their enemies. There is also the aspect of how contextual what we have learned really is. What works well in one situation won’t work well in another situation.

Finally, this is shown by Sergio Vleira de Mello’s life and Samantha Power’s worldview and writing but the world’s problems require nuance, understanding of complex factors, and a wider view of context than is often given (MacNamara’s description of the misunderstanding of the nature of the Vietnam War comes to mind as an overly narrow understanding of a conflict).

Now back to the vacation. Mark was engrossed by The Hardy Boys and is looking forward to a late night session of playing his PSP. We tried to go swimming today but the algae was so gross that Maggi is a bright green shade right now, despite having given her a shower (it was as bad as it sounds).

Other by Kester Brewin

Jun 10th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

1 comment

Kester Brewin released his latest book Other. It’s only available in the U.K. right now but if you want to pay the Canadian government a lot of fees, you can get it shipped here (I paid more in taxes and fees for The Complex Christ than I did for the book but it was worth it).

I am pretty excited about this book because The Complex Christ forced me to rethink much of how I saw the world, looked at history, and read the Scriptures. While Brewin writes theology, his writing extends my thinking beyond where it has gone before. I rate him up with Thomas Homer-Dixon, Jared Diamond, Malcolm Gladwell, and Steven Johnson as people that have helped constantly reinvent my world view. I can’t wait until my copy gets here (the fees alone should erase Canada’s deficit).

Jesus Manifesto

May 31st, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

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Thomas Nelson is releasing a new book called Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. This book will be on special discount from Amazon.com on June 1^st, the date of the release.

I got to know Frank Viola a little bit at Soularize in the Bahamas and I have long enjoyed and appreciated his writings since Spencer Burke started to go on and on about his writings almost a decade ago. Of course over the years Leonard Sweet has influenced and formed my spiritual praxis as much as any theologian.

Purchase at Amazon

E vs. ink

Apr 27th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

2 comments

My friend Karen posted some thoughts on Twitter about ebooks and readers.

Been thinking about how e-books/Ipad exclude poorer readers. Continued…. Folks with literacy/soc. justice concerns should keep zines/broadsheet etc. in mind. If medium is message, cost of readers excludes many.

It would easy to dismiss Karen’s thoughts because of her history with paper but she has a good point. A Sony Reader ranges in price from $240 in Futureshop ($179 online) to $149 at Wal-Mart. Chapters is promoting a new reader for $149.00 which isn’t that bad except you realize that a) that is all you can do with it and b) I am buying it so I can buy new books. I am paying $199 (or $259 if I am looking for a Kindle) so I can spend even more money to use it.

Most of our gadgets are like that.

In our household right now, we have:

2 Sony PSPs and games are anywhere from $15 to $40
3 iPods and songs are $.99 to $1.29 but we can use our own CDs to rip music. Apps range from free to $4.
1 PS2 and games are $10 and $25
1 Nintendo Wii and games are from $20 to $60 (yet all have come from Lee).

So what’s the difference. Well I don’t think you can compare Backyard Football or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to books and education. My quality of life is not reduced because I don’t have a PS3 at all but my quality of life is greatly reduced by lack of access to books and news media. Low cost news media serves several important functions in our families life outside of the obvious.

While driving to the cabin a couple of weeks ago, I stopped in Watrous (at Pip’s Esso) for a snack and grabbed a copy of Popular Mechanics and tossed it the backseat for Mark to read on the way up there. It opened up his mind to several things as he poured over both the articles and the ads. How many times has all of our lives been enriched by someone doing something similar. A lot of my spring reading was done by people wandering in to my office and tossing a book on my desk and saying, “you will like this”. With publishers and their DRM restrictions, you can’t do that. Even if Wendy and I both get Sony Readers, we can’t share a book.

Everyone is touting Google Books as the answer. Even Sony has a link to Google Books on the front of their Reader Store. I have spent hours going through there looking for books to download. Most of the books you can download in ePub format for free are in the public domain and therefore really cheap to get at Indigo/Chapters/used book store in paper. Sadly even many of them are not available because of the edition they scanned it from has restrictions on use and you are left with a snippet of what is available.

So even if I do purchase it and really like it, how do I make sure Mark can read it other than giving him my reader. Even if we bought a reader for him, I can’t transfer it to him there. Everyone has been fawning over the new iPad app from Marvel and it is very cool but Cory Doctorow makes this point about the iPad but he could be talking about any ebook reader.

I mean, look at that Marvel app (just look at it). I was a comic-book kid, and I’m a comic-book grownup, and the thing that made comics for me was sharing them. If there was ever a medium that relied on kids swapping their purchases around to build an audience, it was comics. And the used market for comics! It was — and is — huge, and vital. I can’t even count how many times I’ve gone spelunking in the used comic-bins at a great and musty store to find back issues that I’d missed, or sample new titles on the cheap. (It’s part of a multigenerational tradition in my family — my mom’s father used to take her and her sibs down to Dragon Lady Comics on Queen Street in Toronto every weekend to swap their old comics for credit and get new ones).

So what does Marvel do to "enhance" its comics? They take away the right to give, sell or loan your comics. What an improvement. Way to take the joyous, marvellous sharing and bonding experience of comic reading and turn it into a passive, lonely undertaking that isolates, rather than unites. Nice one, Misney.

That’s what I am realizing that we are losing. Books, comics, and papers are part of the social ties that bind people together in communities. Around work, the Star Phoenix is a communal paper. It is read together, digested together, shared, it’s flyers are passed around and deals discussed. Also, it gets treated as exactly as what Karen is talking about.

Well, we aren’t going to turn back time and to be honest, many publishers are banking everything on the iPad to save them (anyone else find it an odd coincidence that the financially struggling New York Times is features so prominently in Apple advertising) As I was thinking seriously about buying a ebook reader this week, I took a step back from the side of the cliff and asked myself if what I am losing more than what I was getting and I had to admit it was. From a design and an engineering point of view, the iPad/Kindle is a great piece of technology and a lot of fun (and yes I know the iPad comparison isn’t fair as it isn’t really designed as a book reader but rather a tablet computer). Is it good enough to stop supporting a local bookstore (although Indigo/Chapters made those pretty rare in Canada) or lose the social element of reading and learning as an entire community.

So in the end, I continue to support print magazines. For the record, those include National Geographic, Explore Magazine, Mountain Bike Action, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic Monthly and The Walrus via subscription or purchasing one monthly at McNally Robinson. While I only read The Star Phoenix online, we do subscribe at home (where Mark reads it with me every evening) and at work.

A three word review of The Gamble

Apr 15th, 2010

by Jordon Cooper.

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As emailed to me earlier today. If you haven’t read it yet, you are missing out with an incredibly brilliant book that offers an important look at what went wrong in Iraq and how some worked hard to fix it.