Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past week or so, you can’t have failed to notice the launch of Sarah Palin’s new book, “Going Rogue“.  I have read her much anticipated tome and recommend saving your money and borrowing someone else’s copy.  Books by politicians tend to fall into one of two categories—a statement of their political views and/or policies or a memoir of their life and a defense of their actions. “Going Rogue” is a mix of the two, performs badly on both counts, and is ultimately unsatisfying as a result.

That’s a shame because “Going Rogue” had the potential to be a very compelling book. Sarah Palin’s meteoric rise to fame, first as governor of Alaska and then as the first female Republican vice-presidential candidate, captured everyone’s interest and her behind-the-scenes account of the 2008 campaign could have been a rip-roaring good tale. Would a different ghost writer, someone less polemic than Lynn Vincent, been able to coax the story out of her? It’s hard to say.

Likewise, a straight forward account of her conservative principles and her take on politics of the day would have had a smaller, but equally interested audience. Unfortunately, “Going Rogue” mixes a generalized account of her life and career with political screeds and the end result ranges from clashing to completely unbelievable. Are we really supposed to buy, for example, that she urged her daughter Bristol to put off starting a small business until Obama was out of office? Sheesh.

The publication of “Going Rogue” has set off an avalanche of refutations and fact checking.  A list of links follows:

Poltifact factchecks Palin’s book  here

Shushannah Walshe, one of the authors of “Sarah from Alaska”, refutes some of Palin’s claims about the 2008 campaign here

Shannyn Moore offers three of the Alaskans (Anne Kilkenny, John Bitney, and Andrew Halcro) who were bad-mouthed in the book equal time on her show, video segments of which are posted on here on her blog, “Just a Girl from Homer”, and on YouTube. The panel discussion is very civilized. I must say that I’m happy to finally see a group of people who actually understand Alaskan issues and know Mrs. Palin personally talk about this book as opposed to the usual range of vacuous talking heads.

Geoffrey Dunn (Huffington Post columnist) talks here about Anchorage activist Andree McLeod and here about Palin’s former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, also bad-mouthed in the book. Dunn is a regular blogger on the lefty mega-site, the Huffington Post. He also has a book coming out called “The Lies of Sarah Palin” so he obviously has a bias, but the posts are interesting for the counterpoint they provide.

My ratings of other books on or about Sarah Palin:

Avoid “Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down” by Kaylene Johnson. It’s a puff piece.

“Sarah from Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar” by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, two reporters embedded with the McCain campaign, is an excellent book and an engaging read. The authors are sympathetic to their subject, but not blind to her faults and give an even-handed account of her career and the subsequent fall-out from the 2008 campaign.

To get the bigger picture, I highly recommend “The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election” by Haynes Johnson and Dan Balz. Johnson and Balz had behind the scenes access to all of the players in the 2008 election and give a clear rendering of the major problems with the Clinton and McCain campaigns as well the ups and downs of the Obama campaign. Another very readable and engaging book.

I always know when fall time is rolling round as I become more enamored of reading in the evenings. In much the same way that squirrels collect pine cones for the winter, I begin hauling in books that peak my interest.

Here are a few of my recent reads and reviews thereof:

This literary classic is much improved by the addition of some ultra-violent zombie mayhem.  Not only do I heartily approve the addition of brain-hungry hordes of the undead and sword-swinging Ninja action to this wheezy tome, but I can only hope that it will lead to other cross-over stories. Charles Dickens’ novels could badly do with an injection of killer robots, for example. Seriously, if you have never been able to get into Jane Austen before (like me), try this volume and see if you don’t enjoy the story that much more.  I am greatly looking forward to “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters” which should be out in September.

From zombies to politicians–some folks would say that’s not much of a stretch.  However, if you are looking for a good,non-fiction, political page turner, I can highly recommend “The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution”.  I’m not generally interested in election stories, but I was definitely intrigued by Chicago Tribune reporter, Naftali Bendavid’s, coverage of the 2006 election.  Bendavid’s portrait of the election process and the personalities behind it is both riveting and compelling. Literally, I couldn’t put this book down once I started even though I obviously knew the outcome.

One small nitpick: it would have been nice to have described the duties of a campaign manager in more detail. If you don’t have experience trying to coordinate a large event like a campaign, I’m not sure that you can really appreciate Rahm Emanuel’s position as he essentially manages not one, but fifty separate political races–at the same time.

So what were the ideas Rahm Emanuel and his posse of Democratic challengers campaigning on? “The Plan: Big Ideas for Change in America” by Emanuel and Bruce Reed outlines the three major points of the Democratic platform: 1) universal education, 2) universal healthcare, and 3) universal service.  A word of advice: the universal healthcare plan Emanuel and Reed advocate is not the same as the current plan under discussion.

Get the paperback version of this book with the new foreword written in 2008.  The authors make clear in the foreward that The Plan is about their ideas and doesn’t reflect the views of the staff and management (e.g. President Obama).

The book opens with an entertaining account of the difference between hacks (professional politicians) and wonks (policy experts) and the importance of keeping an even balance of power between the two. It then moves into a discussion of the authors’ proposals for education, health, and volunteer service.

The healthcare policy changes they propose are much more conservative than anything currently being discussed in Congress (or at least that was my read of Emanuel and Reed’s ideas).  I didn’t care for their idea of a volunteer service corps either. I’ve heard similar proposals before and I dispute the idea that my fellow Americans are somehow falling down in their citizenship duties.  It’s the government that should do more, not the citizens who are going all out just to keep their heads above water.  I did like President Obama’s plan–which is just a footnote in the universal service section–that high school and junior high students could earn money for college by doing community service.

The idea that held the most promise for me was universal education. In this section, the authors talk about making a college education free for everyone which I rather like.  In Arnor, we have a similar program where high school seniors at the top of their class get a four year, full tuition scholarship to the state university.

One of the outcomes of The Thumpin’ was that Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House. “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters” is the book she co-wrote with Amy Hill Heath. If you are looking for a definitive autobiography, however, you will be disappointed. The book is really the text of a long, inspirational speech in hardback. If, on the other hand, you are just looking for the highlights of Nancy’s life, then you will enjoy this book.

During my recent sojourn to far Numenor, I had a long layover in the Gondor airport and, as a result, came up with two new books which I’d like to recommend to you.

The first is Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book”. This book just won the Newbury Award for Young Adult fiction and, may I say, it richly deserves it. Although I knew of the author, I hadn’t read any of his work before and I was blown away by his poetic, lyrical story-telling.

Briefly, “The Graveyard Book” is the story of Nobody Owens, a young boy who escapes the murder of his family as a toddler, and is watched over and brought up by a graveyard full of ghosts.  But why was he targeted for death and why is the man Jack still hunting him? A dark, but not scary story in which vampires and werewolves are the heroes.

The second involves cats and libraries so you know that it’s just irresistable to librarians. “Dewey: the Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World” by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter is, on one level, a biography of the title feline, Dewey, who was found as a kitten in a book return in Spencer, Iowa in 1988. Myron, the director, and the library staff adopt Dewey who becomes the mascot of the library. On another level, however, it is also the story of how a library (and its librarians) can rally a town and serve as its community center.  The struggles of Vicki to keep Dewey, the library, her community, and herself going despite hard economic times, personal loss, and petty-minded, small-town politics will ring true to librarians everywhere.  A word to the wise: don’t read this book on the plane as you will find yourself sobbing at the end.

The summer sun was busy broiling the asphalt from Chicago’s streets, the agony in my head had kept me horizontal for half a day, and some idiot was pounding on my apartment door.

I answered it and Morgan, half his face covered in blood, gasped, “The Wardens are coming. Hide me. Please.”

His eyes rolled back into his skull and he collapsed.

Oh.

Super.

Up until that moment, I had been laboring under the misapprehension that the splitting pain in my skull would be the worse thing to happen to me today.

Harry can believe just about anything about Warden Donald Morgan, the White Council’s chief executioner, field commander, and all around pain in the ..uh.. neck, but he can’t believe that Morgan is a traitor so when a desperate Morgan comes to him for help, he agrees to find the real turn coat in the Council. In 48 hours. Before Morgan’s concealment spells give out. So no pressure.

But when some of the toughest, most high-level magic slingers on the planet are involved,  the spy vs. spy game can get deadly quick. Faster than you can say “Blackstone Copperfield Dresden”, Harry’s brother is missing, the House of Raith is on the prowl, the White Council is sharpening their swords, Harry himself is being stalked by a powerful, semi-divine skinwalker, and, worst of all, he can’t seem to leave his dog, his apprentice, and his bad-tempered house guest alone for five minutes.

Harry will need all his skills as a private investigator as well as all his magic to get himself out of this one –with his head attached. Highlights for fans of the series include a visit to White Council HQ and a major magical throwdown featuring Injun Joe (Listens to the Wind).

Another well-written addition to the Dresden File series. We are roughly half-way through Butcher’s proposed twenty book cycle and it’s interesting to see the Black Council starting to break cover after acting largely behind the scenes throughout the earlier stories.  While “Turn Coat” does reveal the identities of 1-2 members of the Black Council, are they really the only double-crossers among the senior wizards?

Write the next book, Jim, and quickly!

“Faeries, why did it have to be faeries?”–Harry Dresden, Small Favor

Chicago wizard and private investigator, Harry Dresden, still owes two favors to Queen Mab and she’s back to collect in this 10th installment in Jim Butcher’s Dresden series. On the surface Harry’s mission seems straight forward enough–find out who kidnapped crime boss Gentleman Johnny Marcone and get him back–but nothing is ever as it seems with the Sidhe. It’s up to Harry to dodge increasingly powerful hit squads of gruffs (as in Billy Goats Gruff), the minions of the Winter Court, the demonic Knights of the Blackened Denarius, and some major bad winter weather to save his city and the world once again.

If you’re a Dresden fan as I am, this book will leave you yelling “write faster, Jim, and give us more Dresden adventures!” Incidentally, author Jim Butcher is as witty in person as he is on the page as you can see from the below video. This is part of 2007 talk he gave at a bookstore in Seattle.

I’ve been reading a lot of detective fiction of one sort or another lately and thought I would share some of my favorite authors with you:

Robert Crais–Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels. Best one: The Last Detective. Summary: Crais’ Elvis Cole novels are set in L.A. Cole is an ex-Army Ranger who has set up a detective agency in partnership with his friend, Joe Pike, a taciturn ex-cop/ex-mercenary. Crais is one of those rare authors who simply keep getter better the longer they write. My favorite is “The Last Detective”, a multi-viewpoint kidnapping novel where Cole searches for his girlfriend’s 10-year-old son. Although it sounds formulaic (buddy tough guy detectives solve mysteries), Crais injects both of his male viewpoint characters with humanity, vulnerability, and intelligence.

Jim Butcher–Harry Dresden series. Best one so far: Toss-up between “Blood Rites” and “Dead Beat”. Summary: Harry Dresden is wizard/private detective living in a modern day Chicago where the supernatural world exists alongside (and is religiously ignored) by our mundane one. Dresden’s mysteries usually have a knotty, magic-related problems at their core. Butcher is another one of those authors who keep getting better as time goes on. Harry grows and changes and the characters keep getting deeper and more multi-layered.

Terry Pratchett–Guards series starring Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. Best one to date: “Feet of Clay”. Summary: Commander Sam Vimes and the colorful cast of the Watch (dwarves, werewolves, trolls, zombies, and humans) strive to keep law and order in the sprawling city of Ankh-Morpork, Citie of a Thousand Surprises (many of them armed and dangerous). I like “Feet of Clay” because it gives a good picture of the day to day running of the Watch and as well as being a solid, stand-on-its-own mystery. Briefly, two old men have been murdered and the golems, magical clay statues that do the undesirable jobs in the city, are suspected. The Patrician, Lord Vetinari, has been poisoned and everyone is suspected. And Constable Nobbes is revealed to have a here-to-fore unsuspected noble lineage. It’s up to Vimes, Capt. Carrot, and Constables Angua, Littlebottom, and Detritus to solve the crimes, save the city, and see that justice is done.

John strove with the numbers, brow furrowed/Raged he against the Cain-curst company …..

You ever get the feeling that everyone was reading the same book you were? Not something obvious like Harry Potter #7, but some obscure text that you and many other people have been drawn to like moths to a bug-zapper? I had dinner with a friend of mine a couple of nights ago and both she and her sister were reading the same “Beowulf” translation I was (the Seamus Heaney version below). I mentioned this coincidence to my assistant, Curtis, and we promptly had an in-depth discussion about the text. His review: “Beowulf rocks!”

Then, of course, Beowulf items started popping up all over. Here’s an image of the first page of the original manuscript:

This is Seamus Heaney’s translation of the first few lines:

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings that ruled them had courage and greatness. We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.

There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes, a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes. This terror of the hall-troopers had come far. A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on as his powers waxed and his worth was proved. In the end each clan on the outlying coasts beyond the whale-road had to yield to him and pay tribute. That was one good king.

Click here to see Benjamin Bagby’s version of the opening (choose the “Opening Lines” clip). Bagby recites the poem in the original Anglo-Saxon (with English subtitles) as he accompanies himself on the harp.

And here’s my rendition translated into authentic Mid-Western English (with apologies to my German-speaking kinsmen):

What about those Spear-Danes, huh? Yeah, they had plenty of good kings back then, you betcha. That Shield Sheafson, he smashed up other peoples’ furniture. Oh, he was anti-social, ya. Everybody was afraid of him and had to pay him off not to come around. Ya, politics–it hasn’t changed that much.

Naturally, it’s the latest movie version of this Norse epic that is bringing this riveting story to the public’s attention once more. Below is the poster for the motion capture version currently in theaters:

I hadn’t planned on going to see it (I found the motion capture animation off-putting), but since I’ve re-read the original, I’ve changed my mind.

Lost in the hype is the earlier, more realistic version of the tale entitled “Beowulf and Grendel” (see below) that was shot entirely in Iceland. I saw the DVD and while I liked the concept, I didn’t feel that the filmmakers managed to fully execute their idea. The pacing is slow and some of the dialogue is lost. The actors appear to be mumbling in places and the information they’re trying to convey doesn’t come across.

The making of the movie featurette on “Beowulf and Grendel” is worth watching. Apparently, the film production was as accursed as Heorot itself. Although if the director insists on building his main set onto the side of a mountain in Iceland and then filming in high winds that are literally blowing rocks through the air, I’m not sure what else you can expect.

Last, but not least, here are some fun, Beowulf-related links I found:

Illustrated Beowulf (with Bill Clinton as Beowulf and the Cookie Monster as Grendel)

Beowulf and Godsylla (a parody in Anglo-Saxonish English)

Here’s an excerpt:

Me,” Godsylla sæd, “mac ðe minsemete.”
Heoro cwyc geten heold wiþ fæmed half-nelson
Ond flyng him lic frisbe bac to fen

Now there’s an epic I’d like to see made into a movie.